Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Equality at the Top of the Corporation : Assessing Possible Worlds of Mandated Quotas

A firm is conventionally defined as an economic entity, but it is also a social community that is often subject to broader debates regarding social justice and its ethical commitments to possible and, for some, preferable worlds. A challenge to social science is how to analyze strategies to achieve possible worlds that do not exist. We propose a methodology to assess polices to address a stunning property of the governance of corporations, namely, the paucity of female directors to corporate boards. Using estimates from the social experiment of imposing quotas on Norwegian boards of directors, we apply an agent-based model to American board data to show that modest numerical quotas quickly generate well-connected networks of women directors who attain equality in their centrality and influence.
Stability and PID control of NCS with time-varying delay and packet dropout based on bi-feedback

For networked control system (NCS) with time-varying delay and packet dropout, new control methods, which are dynamical bi-feedback control and dynamical bi-feedback proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control, are proposed. The NCS with time-varying delay and data packet dropout based on four kinds of controller structures are modeled as four asynchronous dynamical systems (ADSs) constrained by event rates. According to the theory of ADS, Lyapunov stability theory and linear matrix inequality method, the semi-negative definite matrix conditions of exponential stability and design methods of dynamical bi-feedback controller and dynamical bi-feedback PID controller for the NCS with time-varying delay and packet dropout are presented. Furthermore, numerical examples are given to illustrate the feasibility of the semi-negative definite matrix conditions of exponential stability and controller design method.
Health technology assessment to inform allocation of healthcare resources

Rising healthcare costs are increasingly associated with multiple factors, such as continuous innovation, rapid generation and incremental improvement of medical technologies, changes in societal values and increases in public expectations, leading to a difficult decision-making environment for investment in technologies. Formal assessment of health technologies could aid decisions about health resource allocation for the management of health technology (such as drugs and devices). Additionally, multiple criteria, such as societal values and patient preferences, should be included in the decision-making process of policy-makers. One way to include these criteria is to use multi-criteria decision analysis to support the assessment of health technologies, as it is deemed an efficient and effective methodology that has a sustainable impact on population health.
Lifestyles in Amazon: Evidence from online reviews enhanced recommender system

Online lifestyles have been shown to reflect and affect consumers’ preferences across a wide range of online scenarios. In the context of e-commerce, it still remains unclear whether online lifestyles are practically influential in predicting consumers’ purchasing preferences across different product categories, especially considering its potential influence over the widely used personality traits. In this study, we provide the first, to the best of our knowledge, quantitative demonstration of online lifestyles in predicting consumers’ online purchasing preferences in e-commerce by using a data-driven approach. We first construct an online lifestyles lexicon including seven distinct dimensions using text mining approaches based on consumers’ language use behaviors. We then incorporate the lexicon in a typical e-commerce recommender system to predict consumers’ purchasing preferences. Experimental results on Amazon Review Dataset show that online lifestyles and all its subdimensions significantly improve preference predicting performance and outperform the widely used Big Five personality traits as a whole. In addition, product types significantly moderate the influence of online lifestyle on consumer preference. The strong empirical evidence indicates that the big e-commerce consumer data facilitates more specialized market psychographic segmentation, which advances data-driven marketing decision-making.
T ´ ECNICAS DE SEGMENTAC ¸ ˜ AO BASEADAS EM SUBTRAC ¸ ˜ AO DE FUNDO E MODELOS DE CORES: UM ESTUDO COMPARATIVO

Resumo. Neste trabalho foram comparados dois grupos de tecnicas de segmentacao de imagens, o primeiro baseado em subtracao de fundo e o segundo em aprendizagem supervisionada de modelos de cores. Entre as tecnicas de subtracao de fundo, foram testadas tanto tecnicas adaptativas, quanto nao-adaptativas. Na abordagem por aprendizagem supervisionada, foram realizados experimentos com modelos Gaussianos, arvores de decisao inferidas pelo algoritmo C4.5, redes neurais artificiais e maquinas de vetores de suporte. As comparacoes foram realizadas com base em imagens reais, segmentadas manualmente, referentes a dois importantes problemas que vem sendo estudados por diversos grupos de pesquisa em visao computacional: a interpretacao de ĺingua gestual de sinais e a analise de comportamentos de camundongos em experimentos na area da saude. No caso da interpretacao de ĺingua de sinais, foram utilizadas imagens com diferentes sinalizadores, com diferentes tons de pele, em ambientes de fundo estatico, em laboratorio, com iluminacao artificial, e em ambientes externos, com iluminacao natural e fundo complexo. Para esse problema, testou-se a capacidade dos segmentadores de extrair da imagem regioes contendo a face e as maos de um ser humano. O experimento com camundongos baseou-se no teste do campo aberto, um teste bastante utilizado na area da saude, em que os animais sao colocados em uma arena e seu comportamento e analisado para que se possa identificar mudancas significativas apos a utilizacao de alguma droga ou modificacao genetica. Nesse caso, o problema para os segmentadores consistia em extrair da imagem as regioes contendo camundongos. Para cada tecnica foi escolhida a melhor configuracao de parâmetros seguindo as mesmas metricas utilizadas na comparacao entre as tecnicas. As metricas utilizadas foram baseadas no trabalho de M. Sezgin e B. SanKur, e que consideram, alem da taxa de acerto na classificacao de cada pixel, informacoes relacionadas com as bordas e a forma geral do objeto segmentado em comparacao com a imagem segmentada manualmente (ground truth).
Combined 17β‐Oestradiol and Progesterone Treatment Prevents Neuronal Cell Injury in Cortical but not Midbrain Neurones or Neuroblastoma Cells

Oestrogens are powerful endogenous and exogenous neuroprotective hormones in animal models of brain injury, including focal cerebral ischaemia. This protective effect has been demonstrated under a variety of different treatments and injury paradigms, such as in vivo and in vitro stroke conditions. Neuroprotection in the central nervous system by progesterone is less defined. In the present study, cultured cortical and midbrain mouse neurones and human neuroblastoma cells (SH‐SY5Y) were exposed to combined glucose‐serum deprivation (CGSD), which is regarded as a reliable model mimicking the effects of ischaemia in vitro. Cell viability was assayed using lactate dehydrogenase release and metabolic activity. Conditions for CGSD treatment were chosen to yield half‐maximal cell death rates. The validity of CGSD in vitro was compared with permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in vivo. CGSD for 4 h induced half‐maximal neuronal cell death. MCAO in vivo for the same period resulted in significant neuronal loss, also suggesting the validity of CGSD as a suitable stroke‐like in vitro model. Combined steroid treatment (17β‐oestradiol and progesterone) but not the application of single steroids abolished CGSD‐induced cell death of cortical neurones in vitro. By contrast, no cell protection was found in midbrain neurones or neuroblastoma cells. The co‐application of oestrogen (ICI 182,780) or progesterone (RU‐486) receptor antagonists did not obviously counteract the protective steroid effects. This suggests the operation of nonclassical steroid mechanisms and their implication in mediation of hormonal effects. The surplus of combined protective hormonal effects might be a result of the observed influence of progesterone application on neuronal oestradiol synthesis. The data obtained in the present study clearly highlight the potential of a combined steroid treatment under toxic degenerative brain pathologies.
Measurement setup for non-destructive complex permittivity determination of solid materials using two coupled coaxial probes

A non-destructive microwave measurement setup for broadband complex permittivity determination of solid materials over a frequency band from 0.05 GHz to 6 GHz is presented. The setup design was optimized for measurements of glass materials with planar and convex surfaces, but works with other dielectric materials as well. The measurement method is based on the near field coupling of two open-ended coaxial probes through the material under test (MUT). A theoretical modeling of this measurement configuration was performed, using a 3D full-wave electromagnetic field simulator. Two identical coaxial probes and an equivalent calibration kit, in order to perform a TRL calibration of the proposed setup, were designed. The calibration procedure of the measurement setup is explained and experimental results are presented.
Myometrium of the pregnant guinea pig: the probable importance of relaxin.

Intrauterine pressure was recorded from nonpregnant guinea pigs linked to pregnant guinea pigs by cross circulation. A frequency-modulating effect was observed which could not be demonstrated when the pregnant partner was replaced by either another nonpregnant or a male animal. The effect was rapid in onset and was short lasting when cross circulation was discontinued. It was postulated that a myometrial inhibitory factor was present in the blood of the pregnant animal which for reasons discussed could not be progesterone. Infusions of porcine-relaxin (1 mg/h) simulated the changes observed in the cross-circulation expenments and the suggestion is made that relaxin or a relaxin-like substance or substances is a major myometrial regulating factor in the guinea pig.
Beyond Hadoop MapReduce Apache Tez and Apache Spark

Hadoop MapReduce has become the de facto standard for processing voluminous data on large cluster of machines, however this requires any problem to be formulated into strict three-stage process composed of Map, Shuffle/Sort and Reduce. Lack of choice in inter-stage process communication facilities makes Hadoop MapReduce unfit for iterative (Graph Processing, Machine Learning) and interactive workloads (Streaming data processing, Interactive Data mining and Analysis). This paper delves into Hadoop and MapReduce architecture and its shortcomings and examines alternatives such as Apache Tez and Apache Spark for their suitability in iterative and interactive workloads.
Mitochondria are morphologically and functionally heterogeneous within cells

We investigated whether mitochondria represent morphologically continuous and functionally homogenous entities within single intact cells. Physical continuity of mitochondria was determined by three‐dimensional reconstruction of fluorescence from mitochondrially targeted DsRed1 or calcein. The mitochondria of HeLa, PAEC, COS‐7, HUVEC, hepatocytes, cortical astrocytes and neuronal cells all displayed heterogeneous distributions and were of varying sizes. There was a denser aggregation of mitochondria in perinuclear positions than in the cell periphery, where individual isolated mitochondria could be seen clearly. Using fluorescence‐recovery after photobleaching, we observed that DsRed1 and calcein were highly mobile within the matrix of individual mitochondria, and that mitochondria within a cell were not lumenally continuous. Mitochondria were not electrically coupled, since only individual mitochondria were observed to depolarize following irradiation of TMRE‐loaded cells. Functional heterogeneity of mitochondria in single cells was observed with respect to membrane potential, sequestration of hormonally evoked cytosolic calcium signals and timing of permeability transition pore opening in response to tert‐butyl hydroperoxide. Our data indicate that mitochondria within individual cells are morphologically heterogeneous and unconnected, allowing them to have distinct functional properties.
Wearable and automotive systems for affect recognition from physiology

Novel systems and algorithms have been designed and built to recognize affective patterns in physiological signals. Experiments were conducted for evaluation of the new systems and algorithms in three types of settings: a highly constrained laboratory setting, a largely unconstrained ambulatory environment, and a less unconstrained automotive environment. The laboratory experiment was designed to test for the presence of unique physiological patterns given a relatively motionless seated subject, intentionally expressing one of eight different emotions. This experiment generated a large dataset of physiological signals containing many day-today variations, and the proposed features contributed to a success rate of 81% for discriminating all eight emotions and up to 100% for subsets of emotion based on similar emotion qualities. For experiments in a largely unconstrained ambulatory setting, new wearable computer systems and sensors were developed and tested on subjects who walked, jogged, talked, and otherwise went about daily activities. Although physical motion often overwhelmed affective signals in this context, the systems developed in this thesis are currently useful as activity monitors, providing an image diary correlated with physiological signals. A third experiment was conducted in the natural but physically constrained environment of an automobile, generating a large database of physiological signals covering over 40 hours of driving data. This experiment was designed to induce varying amounts of stress in three conditions: rest, city diving and highway driving. Algorithms for detecting driver stress achieved a recognition rates of 96% for stress ratings based on task conditions and 89% accuracy using ratings of perceived stress from driver questionnaires. The results of second by second video coding of stressors by independent coders showed highly significant correlations with physiological features (up to r = .77 for over 4000 samples). Together, these three experiments show a range of success in recognizing affect from physiology, highlighting the need for more automatic context sensing in unconstrained conditions, and showing high recognition rates given somewhat constrained conditions. The recognition rates obtained thus far lend support to the hypothesis that many emotional differences can be automatically discriminated in patterns of physiological changes. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
Research on Recommendation Model of Technology Literature Based on User Preference

How to describe the features of users 'literature searching behavior has much more influences upon the efficiency of literature recommendation. Based on analyzing three key literature searching behavior, we assign several weight for those behavior so as to evaluate users' preferences. And then propose a user preference based recommendation model. Through simulation experiment, it is proved that our model had good performance and could improve the literature service quality effectively.
Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy

This book is an introduction in the very best sense of the word. It provides the beginner with an accurate, sophisticated, yet accessible account, and offers new insights and challenging perspectives to those who have more specialized knowledge. Focusing on the period in Chinese philosophy that is surely most easily approachable and perhaps is most important, it ranges over of rich set of competing options. It also, with admirable self-consciousness, presents a number of daring attempts to relate those options to philosophical figures and movements from the West. I recommend it very highly. --Lee H. Yearley, Walter Y. Evans-Wentz Professor, Religious Studies, Stanford University
Research on Stress Sensitivity of Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs Based on CT Technology

Fracture aperture change under stress has long been considered as one of primary causes of stress sensitivity of fractured gas reservoirs. However, little is known about the evolution of the morphology of fracture apertures on flow property in loading and unloading cycles. This paper reports a stress sensitivity experiment on carbonate core plugs in which Computed Tomography (CT) technology is applied to visualize and quantitatively evaluate morphological changes to the fracture aperture with respect to confining pressure. Fracture models were obtained at selected confining pressures on which pore-scale flow simulations were performed to estimate the equivalent absolute permeability. The results showed that with the increase of confining pressure from 0 to 0.6 MPa, the fracture aperture and equivalent permeability decreased at a greater gradient than their counterparts after 0.6 MPa. This meant that the rock sample is more stress-sensitive at low effective stress than at high effective stress. On the loading path, an exponential fitting was found to fit well between the effective confining pressure and the calculated permeability. On the unloading path, the relationship is found partially reversible, which can evidently be attributed to plastic deformation of the fracture as observed in CT images.
Four New Exoplanets and Hints of Additional Substellar Companions to Exoplanet Host Stars

We present four new exoplanets: HIP 14810b and HIP 14810c, HD 154345b, and HD 187123c. The two planets orbiting HIP 14810, from the N2K project, have masses of 3.9 and 0.76 MJ. We have searched the radial velocity time series of 90 known exoplanet systems and found new residual trends due to additional, long period companions. Two stars known to host one exoplanet have sufficient curvature in the residuals to a one planet fit to constrain the minimum mass of the outer companion to be substellar: HD 68988c with 8 MJ < m sin i < 20 MJ and HD 187123c with 3 MJ < m sin i < 7 MJ, both with P > 8 yr. We have also searched the velocity residuals of known exoplanet systems for prospective low-amplitude exoplanets and present some candidates. We discuss techniques for constraining the mass and period of exoplanets in such cases, and for quantifying the significance of weak RV signals. We also present two substellar companions with incomplete orbits and periods longer than 8 yr: HD 24040b and HD 154345b with m sin i < 20 MJ and m sin i < 10 MJ, respectively.
Sequentially derived mutants of the constant region of the heavy chain of murine immunoglobulins.

In an effort to define the mechanism of the γ2b → γ2a subclass switch observed in cultured cells, a series of constant region mutants has been isolated in the cell line (45.6) derived from the MPC-11 tumor. The investigation was begun with 10-1, a spontaneous variant of 45.6 which synthesizes a 47,000 dalton heavy chain with a deletion in CH1. From 10-1, two types of secondary variant was synthesizing a 55,000 dalton heavy chain that was γ2a serologically. Five independent variants synthesizing 55,000 dalton γ2a heavy chain were isolated from 10-1. All five were of the same apparent m.w. and four, but not the fifth, had identical isoelectric focusing patterns. The second type of secondary variant isolated from 10-1 was synthesizing a heavy chain even smaller than the heavy chain of 10-1. Two different variants of this type, I17 and G251, synthesized heavy chains of approximately 35,000 and 40,000 daltons, respectively, which did not react with any subclass-specific antiserum. From I17 and G251 it was possible to isolate tertiary variants that synthesized γ2a heavy chains of either 47,000 daltons or 55,000 daltons m.w. The 55,000 dalton γ2a heavy chains exhibited many different isoelectric focusing patterns. Peptide map analysis of two 47,000 dalton and two 55,000 dalton γ2a tertiary variants showed no differences from the Fc of MOPC-173, a naturally occurring γ2a myeloma. However, a third 55,000 dalton γ2a variant synthesized a heavy chain with a Fc that was apparently not identical to that of MOPC-173. These experiments show that it is possible to isolate γ2b → γ2a subclass switch mutants from variants synthesizing short heavy chains. It is not possible to define unequivocally the mechanism of the subclass switch. However, it clearly does not result from the translocation of an intact V region to an intact constant region. The resulting data are, however, compatible with the γ2b → γ2a switch resulting from a recombination event between tandem genes on homologous chromosomes or chromatids.
Employee Empowerment And Organizational Commitment In Yemen Islamic Banking Sector

This is a conceptual paper to describe the relationship between employee empowerment, and organizational commitment (OC) through the tribalism as a mediating factor in Yemen Islamic banking sector. In particular, it explains employee empowerment in different context where tribalism penetrates deeply in organizational culture, work ethics and HR practices. The study also reviews literature on the impact of employee empowerment on OC and to what extent is tribalism plays a mediator role in the relationship between employee empowerment and OC in the Yemen Islamic banks. The factors outlined in the paper are analysed using the theoretical framework of social exchange theory. The analysis of interrelationships between these variables assists to develop strategy that increases commitment and organizational performance in banking sector, particularly within Yemen tribal society. Overall, this study contributes to the existing literature on empowerment, which is done mostly in western settings. The study findings may assist organization and policy makers in crafting a better strategy to enhance employee commitment.
Mammaglobin a: a promising marker for breast cancer.

Most tumor markers in routine clinical practice lack organ specificity (1). For example, CA 15-3, BR 27.29, and carcinoembryonic antigen, which are widely used serum markers for breast cancer, can be increased in patients with most types of adenocarcinoma, especially if distant metastases are present [for a review, see Ref. (2)]. Using a modified differential display technique, Watson and Fleming (3)(4) identified a novel gene that appeared to be expressed only in breast tissue. This gene, which was designated mammaglobin ( MG ), was found to encode a 93-amino acid protein with a predicted molecular mass of 10.5 kDa (4). MG mRNA expression was reported to be increased at least 10-fold relative to nonmalignant breast tissue in 8 of 35 (23%) breast carcinomas (4), and MG protein was detected by immunohistochemistry in 81 of 100 breast cancers (5). MG was detected by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR in 31 of 42 (74%) primary breast cancers (6) and was either undetectable or present at low concentrations in small numbers of nonbreast tissues (4)(5)(6). In 1998, Becker et al. (7) identified a new gene with marked sequence identities to MG . This new gene was named mammaglobin B ( MGB ) (7), and the original MG was redesignated mammaglobin A ( MGA ). Both MGA and MGB and several related genes [e.g., Clara cell 10-kDa protein, lipophilin A, and lipophilin B ( LPB )] are localized in a dense cluster on chromosome 11q12.2 …