Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shapeways and the 3D Printing Revolution

The technology of additive manufacturing – also known as ‘3D printing’ – holds the potential for revolutionising industrial production at all levels. Although the underlying techniques to build up physical items layer by layer from digital 3D design models have been in use since as early as 1986, only big companies could afford the necessary knowledge and equipment. Since 2008, things have changed dramatically, when Shapeways arrived on the scene and provided an affordable additive manufacturing service for consumers. This teaching case, based on the contents and services provided by Shapeways’ 3D printing online community and marketplace, is designed to challenge students to cope with additive manufacturing and its impact. In particular, the teaching case may be used to (i) give a basic introduction into the technology of additive manufacturing and its historical development, (ii) illustrate the business model of Shapeways and (iii) develop a deeper understanding of the corresponding strategic challenges.
Between‐Group Adverse Selection: Evidence from Group Critical Illness Insurance

This paper demonstrates the presence of adverse selection in the group insurance market for policies that allow no individual choice. As a “conventional wisdom,” group insurance mitigates adverse selection, since individual choice is minimized and group losses have less variability than individual losses. We complement this “conventional wisdom” by analyzing a group insurance scenario in which individual choice is excluded, and find that there is still adverse selection at the level of group, i.e. between-group adverse selection. Between-group adverse selection, however, disappears over time if the group renews with the same insurer for certain periods. Our results thus indicate that addressing adverse selection via group insurance is not necessarily effective enough to mitigate adverse selection, but that experience rating and underwriting based on the information that insurers learn over time are important.
Karaerik (Vitis vinifera L. cv. “Karaerik”) Klonlarının Kalite ve Fitokimyasal Özellikleri

Bu calismada, Erzincan sartlarinda yetistirilen Karaerik (Cimin) uzum cesidine ait klonlarin fiziksel ve kimyasal ozelliklerinin yani sira, fitokimyasal ozelliklerinin incelenmesi ve bu ozellikler bakimindan klonlar arasi farkliligin belirlenmesi amaclanmistir. Bu amacla, alti adet klonda (Klon 13, Klon 15, Klon 18, Klon 19, Klon 23 ve Klon 30) renk (L*, a*, b*, C, h˚), salkim agirligi (g), tane eni (mm), tane boyu (mm), tane agirligi (g) gibi fiziksel, pH, Titre edilebilir asitlik (%TA), Suda cozunur kuru madde (%SCKM), olgunluk indisi (OI), seker, organik asit, C vitamini ve makro-mikro besin elementleri gibi kimyasal ozellikler ile fenolik bilesikler gibi fitokimyasal ozellikler ele alinmistir. Renk ozellikleri bakimindan Klon 23, salkim agirligi bakimindan Klon 30, tane eni ve tane boyu bakimindan Klon 15 ve Klon 13, tane agirligi bakimindan yine Klon 15, SCKM icerigi bakimindan Klon 19, makro-mikro besin element icerigi bakimindan yine Klon 15, organik asit icerigi bakimindan ise Klon 13 one cikan klonlar olmustur. Benzer sekilde, seker icerigi bakimindan 30 no’lu klon ve vitamin C icerigi bakimindan ise 13 no’lu klon on plana cikmistir. Fenolik bilesik icerigi bakimindan katesin haric, klonlar arasindaki farkin onemsiz oldugu belirlenmistir.
Exploring the link between market orientation and innovation in the European and US insurance markets

Despite the increasing research importance of market orientation in the marketing literature, few comparative studies between the European Union and the USA have been conducted. This limits the understanding of marketing orientation strategy in global markets. Investigates the influence of competitive environments on the uses of market orientation in insurance firms in the EU and the USA and the effects of market orientation on innovations. Using Lambin’s conceptualization of market orientation, our results indicate that, although EU and US insurance firms analyze and react to their environment differently, which in turn is reflected in a differential impact on their degree of innovation, this, however, does not translate into overall market orientation differences across markets, differential relations across markets between overall market orientation and innovation degree and innovation performance. Furthermore, there is a positive impact of overall market orientation on insurance firms’ innovation degree and innovation performance in both the US and EU markets. The managerial implications of these findings seem clear: the magnitude and the effectiveness of the innovation activities of a firm can be enhanced through the adoption of market orientation principles.
Automated Planning and Acting

Autonomous AI systems need complex computational techniques for planning and performing actions. Planning and acting require significant deliberation because an intelligent system must coordinate and integrate these activities in order to act effectively in the real world. This book presents a comprehensive paradigm of planning and acting using the most recent and advanced automated-planning techniques. It explains the computational deliberation capabilities that allow an actor, whether physical or virtual, to reason about its actions, choose them, organize them purposefully, and act deliberately to achieve an objective. Useful for students, practitioners, and researchers, this book covers state-of-the-art planning techniques, acting techniques, and their integration which will allow readers to design intelligent systems that are able to act effectively in the real world.
The Double-Channeled Effects of Experience on Individual Investment Decisions: Experimental Evidence

Abstract: Investors in the financial markets typically have access to both descriptive information of assets, from brochures, financial analysts, reports, etc., and own experience.However, little is known about the role of experience in investment decisions. This paper investigates this issue by experimentally testing the effects of experience in aninvestment task with choice feedback and varying levels of descriptive information. We document the double-channeled effects of experience: when elicited beliefs were controlledfor, participants significantly relied on experience regardless of the descriptions, behaving consistently with the law of effect; additionally, beliefs were also distorted by experience, in that participants were more optimistic about assets from which they gained, and pessimistic about previously unowned assets. In a calibration exercise, reinforcement learning significantly added predictive power to expected utility models.
Conditional Patterns of Unemployment Dynamics in Germany

This paper studies the conditional patterns of unemployment dynamics in Germany. We employ a structural VAR model and identify a technology shock and two policy shocks by using standard restrictions. Interestingly, the worker reallocation process varies substantially with the identified shocks. The job finding rate plays a larger role after a technology shock and a monetary policy shock, while the separation rate appears as the dominant margin after a fiscal policy shock. Technology shocks are relatively important for variations in the transition rates, though they do not seem to trigger the high volatilities on the German labor market. Considering policy shocks, our results point towards fiscal innovations as a promising tool, but with several limitations.
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Placental Growth Factor Release in Cultured Trophoblast Cells Under Different Oxygen Tensions

The oxygen status of the placenta during pregnancy is unclear although it has been hypothesised that in pre-eclampsia large regions of the placenta are hypoxic. Circulating levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are increased in women with pre-eclampsia, while circulating placental growth factor (PlGF) levels are decreased. We hypothesise that secreted levels of VEGF are increased in cultures of trophoblast cells under lowered oxygen conditions while secreted levels of PlGF are alternatively regulated. Primary isolates of first trimester and term cytotrophoblasts cells were cultured in 20 and 5% oxygen for 24 h. There was a significant increase in the levels of VEGF secreted from first trimester and term cytotrophoblast cells cultured under lowered oxygen conditions compared to the controls while there was a significant decrease in the secreted levels of PlGF in the same cell populations (as measured by ELISA). In first trimester and term trophoblast cells the presence of VEGF (121, 165 and 189) and PlGF (132 and 152) mRNA were demonstrated in both groups by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). These altered levels of secreted VEGF and PlGF may be released as compensatory molecules in the pathogenesis of diseases such as pre-eclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction.
RNA based vaccines.

The recognition that CD8(+) T-cell mediated Th1 immune responses were necessary to produce immunity to intracellular and transformed self pathogens led to intense interest in the delivery of nucleic acids, DNA, or RNA encoding candidate antigens, as vaccines. Antigen presenting cells (APC) encounter most protein and vaccine immunogens as extracellular proteins and, thus, present them on major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules leading to the activation of CD4(+) T cells. Protein antigens encoded by nucleic acids delivered to dendritic cell (DC) are produced inside the cell and, thus, can stimulate MHC class I mediated activation of CD8(+) T-cell immune responses. Unfortunately, DCs are not readily transfected with DNA (Akbari et al., 1999) resulting in the requirement for high concentrations of DNA and repeated immunizations to achieved immune responses. RNA, on the other hand, is readily taken up and expressed by DC, making it an alternative vaccine candidate. In this article, we will discuss immune responses developed, interactions between APC and RNA that activate and dictate DC activation, and preliminary studies using RNA in vivo and in vitro to develop protective immunity.
A Simplified Approach to Investigate the Seismic Ductility Demand of Shear-Critical Reinforced Concrete Columns Based on Experimental Calibration

ABSTRACT A simplified approach is proposed to investigate the seismic ductility demand of shear-critical reinforced concrete (RC) columns based on experimental calibration. Incorporating with the Bouc–Wen–Baber–Noori (BWBN) model, the governing equation of the equivalent single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system is first presented to describe the typical hysteresis characteristics, where the relationship between the inelastic restoring force and translational displacement is calibrated by comparing with the experimental data of shear-critical RC columns under quasi-static cyclic testing. Based on the developed governing equation, the strength reduction approach is further implemented to estimate the seismic ductility demand of shear-critical RC columns by establishing the constant strength-ductility demand spectral (CSDDS) method. Finally, an empirical expression is regressed to predict the mean and standard deviation of seismic ductility demand of shear-critical RC columns. This study verifies the feasibility of the proposed approach to assess the seismic ductility demand of shear-critical RC columns. The presented idealized SDOF system can simplify the establishment of CSDDS method. The lognormal assumption cannot well describe the probabilistic characteristics of seismic ductility demand if all the uncertainties in model parameters and earthquakes are considered. The developed empirical expression is applicable to investigate the probabilistic seismic risk of shear-critical RC columns under different earthquake excitations.
Soft decision PAPR reduction in OFDM

This work deals with problem of improving the peak-to-mean average power ratio (PAPR) of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals. Clipping is simple and efficient way to overcome the large PAPR in OFDM systems; however this technique results in bit error rate (BER) increasing in the receiver. In this paper we propose improvement of the iterative algorithm that is usual approach for PAPR reduction. Proposed scheme is based on soft estimation of the samples that are estimated as clipped. The performance of the proposed technique is evaluated for additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). Simulation results shows improvement in comparison with known method without increasing complexity.
Visualization of the pH‐dependent dynamic distribution of G2A in living cells

G2A (from G2 accumulation) receptor is a member of the proton‐sensing G‐protein coupled receptor (GPCR) family and induces signal transduction events that regulate the cell cycle, proliferation, oncogenesis, and immunity. The mechanism by which G2A‐mediated signal transduction is regulated by the extracellular pH remains unresolved. Here, we first visualize the pH‐dependent G2A distribution change in living cells by a sortase A‐mediated pulse labeling technology: the short‐peptide tag‐fused human G2A on human embryo kidney HEK293T cell surfaces was labeled with a small fluorescent dye in the presence of lysophosphatidylcholine, and the labeled G2A was chased at acidic and neutral pHs in real time by microscope time course observations. G2A internalization from cell surfaces into intracellular compartments was observed to be inhibited under acidic pH conditions, and this inhibition was relieved at neutral pH. Additionally, the internalized G2A was redistributed onto cell surfaces by jumping from a neutral to an acidic pH. From quantitative image analysis data, we conclude the amount of G2A on the cell surface was controlled by suppressing the G2A internalization rate by one‐tenth in response to the extracellular acidic pH, and this acidic pH‐induced G2A accumulation on cell surfaces may be explained by proton‐induced dissociation of G2A from endocytic machinery. —Lan, W. , Yamaguchi, S. , Yamamoto, T. , Yamahira, S. , Tan, M. , Murakami, N. , Zhang, J., Nakamura, M. , Nagamune, T. Visualization of the pH‐dependent dynamic distribution of G2A in living cells. FASEB J. 28, 3965‐3974 (2014). www.fasebj. org
Stated and Actual Willingness to Pay for Spectacles in Timor-Leste

ABSTRACT Purpose: To conduct a survey of willingness to pay for ready-made spectacles in the low-resource country of Timor-Leste, and, uniquely, subsequent validation with actual payment information. Methods: A systematic random sampling strategy was used to apply a binary with follow-up stated willingness to pay methodology. Findings were validated by comparing the amount declared willing to pay with the actual price paid at a subsequent visit. Results: Of the 152 participants (96.2%; mean age 50.9 ± 13.2 years; 50.0% female) agreeable to wearing spectacles if required, 84.9% were willing to pay for them, with 82.9% of these willing to pay at least United States dollars (USD) 0.10. By multivariate analysis, increasing age and owning fewer animals were significantly and independently associated with unwillingness to pay at least USD 0.10. Of the survey participants agreeable to wearing spectacles who attended a later visit (113/152; 74.3%; 53.1% female), the 80.5% who would benefit were offered spectacles, first for USD 1.00. If declined, this was revised to USD 0.10. If this was declined, the spectacles were dispensed, unknown to subsequent attendees, at no charge. The predictive value of stated willingness to pay at least USD 0.10 was 96.3%. Conclusions: Binary with follow-up stated willingness to pay with validation against actual payment was successfully applied to spectacles in Timor-Leste.
Robust estimation of fetal heart rate variability using Doppler ultrasound

Heart rate variability (HRV) provides important information about the development of the cardiovascular system in fetuses. The paper presents a new measure of fetal HRV that can be estimated using Doppler ultrasound techniques. This measure employs the multiple signal characterization (MUSIC) algorithm which is a high-resolution method for estimating the frequencies of sinusoidal signals embedded in white noise from short-duration measurements. We show that the product of the square-root of the estimated signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the variance of the frequency estimates is independent of the noise level in the signal. Since variations in the angle of incidence of the Doppler ultrasound beam effectively changes the input SNR, this measure of HRV is robust to the input noise as well as the angle of incidence. Presented analysis results validate the robustness properties and the usefulness of the HRV measure.
Tinnitus reaction questionnaire: psychometric properties of a measure of distress associated with tinnitus.

The development of the Tinnitus Reaction Questionnaire (TRQ), a scale designed to assess the psychological distress associated with tinnitus, is described. Psychometric analyses of the TRQ are examined with a total of 156 subjects in three separate samples. The results indicate very good test-retest reliability (r = .88) and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .96). Factor analysis yielded four factors that were interpreted as General Distress, Interference, Severity, and Avoidance. Moderate to high correlations were found between the TRQ and clinician ratings (r = .67) and self-report measures of anxiety and depression (r = .58-.87), but a low correlation was found with neuroticism (r = .27). It is concluded that the TRQ provides a useful index of distress related to tinnitus for subject selection and clinical assessment and has potential as a measure of change in coping ability.
Measured GFR: not a gold, but a gold‐plated standard: Clinical Epidemiology in Nephrology

Because of the circadian rhythm in kidney function the true glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is historically considered to be the average GFR measured by urinary inulin clearance over a 24-h period [1]. In clinical practice, it is impossible to measure GFR during such a prolonged period. Therefore, three methods have been developed to estimate GFR. First, GFR can be assessed by measuring during a shorter period of time the clearance of an exogenous filtration marker such as iohexol, iothalamate, Cr-EDTA or DTPA. This is generally regarded to be the gold standard for measuring kidney function, and therefore is often referred to as measured GFR (mGFR). However, it should be kept in mind that this is a misunderstanding and that measuring the clearance of these filtration markers is actually also just an estimation of true GFR. Second, the GFR can be estimated by measuring the 24-h urinary clearance of an endogenous marker, such as creatinine or urea. It is well known that creatinine clearance overestimates true GFR due to tubular creatinine secretion, whereas urea clearance underestimates GFR due to tubular urea reabsorption. For these reasons taking the average of urea and creatinine clearance could provide an acceptable estimation of the true GFR, as the bias induced by creatinine excretion and urea reabsorption are expected to cancel each other out [2]. Although this is an attractive option to estimate true GFR, it is not often used. Third, GFR can be estimated using an equation that incorporates serum creatinine, age, gender and race, such as the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation [3]. In clinical practice this is the reference method. Since these three aforementioned methods all yield an estimation of GFR, which method has the best correlation with true GFR is the question. This issue could be investigated in a crosssectional study that compares true GFR measured as inulin clearance over a 24-h period with GFR estimated with each of these three methods. Given that kidney function is causally associated with incidence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and mortality, another option is to investigate which of the three GFR estimates has the strongest association with incidence of these hard end points. In this issue of NDT, Methven et al. published the results of an observational study that addressed this question using data from the Swedish CKD registry [4].
Time-Varying Window Length for Correlation Forecasts

Forecasting correlations between stocks and commodities is important for diversification across asset classes and other risk management decisions. Correlation forecasts are affected by model uncertainty, the sources of which can include uncertainty about changing fundamentals and associated parameters (model instability), structural breaks and nonlinearities due, for example, to regime switching. We use approaches that weight historical data according to their predictive content. Specifically, we estimate two alternative models, ‘time-varying weights’ and ‘time-varying window’, in order to maximize the value of past data for forecasting. Our empirical analyses reveal that these approaches provide superior forecasts to several benchmark models for forecasting correlations. Keywords: model uncertainty; variance and correlation forecasts; time-varying window length
The 10-year follow-up data of the Euro-Lupus Nephritis Trial comparing low-dose and high-dose intravenous cyclophosphamide

Objective: To update the follow-up of the Euro-Lupus Nephritis Trial (ELNT), a randomised prospective trial comparing low-dose (LD) and high-dose (HD) intravenous (IV) cyclophosphamide (CY) followed by azathioprine (AZA) as treatment for proliferative lupus nephritis. Patients and methods: Data for survival and kidney function were prospectively collected during a 10-year period for the 90 patients randomised in the ELNT, except in 6 lost to follow-up. Results: Death, sustained doubling of serum creatinine and end-stage renal disease rates did not differ between the LD and HD group (5/44 (11%) vs 2/46 (4%), 6/44 (14%) vs 5/46 (11%) and 2/44 (5%) vs 4/46 (9%), respectively) nor did mean serum creatinine, 24 h proteinuria and damage score at last follow-up. Most patients in both groups were still treated with glucocorticoids, other immunosuppressant agents and blood pressure lowering drugs. After 10 years of follow-up, the positive predictive value for a good outcome of an early drop in proteinuria in response to initial immunosuppressive therapy was confirmed. Conclusion: The data confirm that a LD IVCY regimen followed by AZA—the “Euro-Lupus regimen”—achieves good clinical results in the very long term.
CDMA downlink channel estimation with aperiodic spreading

Synchronous code-division multiple-access (CDMA) techniques possess intrinsic protection against co-channel interference due to the orthogonal spreading codes used. However, in the presence of multipath the signals lose their orthogonality properly leading to increased cross correlation. In these cases channel estimation may be needed in order to improve the detection of the desired symbols. We propose and compare several algorithms for channel estimation of a synchronous CDMA point to multipoint link (downlink) which uses aperiodic spreading waveforms. We compare by simulation and analysis a subspace approach, a pilot-aided approach, and a decision feedback approach.