Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Video moire cancellation filter for high-resolution CRTs

The appearance of moire limits the performance of high-resolution cathode ray tubes (CRTs). Until now, cancellation circuits have used a small alternating image shift (wobble) to disguise moire, but these circuits introduce other artefacts like flicker. We present a novel solution for suppressing video moire with a specific non-linear filter. Advantages include simple digital video signal processing and negligible degradation of the image quality, even in graphics with very fine detail.
MEMS-based pressure and shear stress sensors for turbulent flows

From a fluid dynamics perspective, the introduction of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) has considerably broadened the spectrum of workable experiments. A typical MEMS sensor is at least one order of magnitude smaller than traditional sensors used to measure instantaneous flow quantities such as pressure and velocity. The microsensors can resolve all relevant scales even in high-Reynolds-number turbulent flows, and arrays of microsensors make it feasible, for the first time, to achieve complete information on the effective small-scale coherent structures in turbulent wall-bounded flows. In this paper we focus on the use of MEMS for the diagnosis of turbulent shear flows and survey the status and outlook of microsensors as used for measurements of fluctuating wall pressure and wall shear stress, two quantities which we deem particularly difficult to measure with conventional probes. For both wall pressure and wall shear stress sensors, we give general background, design criteria and calibration procedure. Examples of measurements conducted with MEMS-based sensors are provided and the minute devices are compared to their larger cousins.
Are Internet Prices Sticky?

This paper studies the behaviour of Internet prices. It compares price rigidities on the Internet and in traditional brick-and-mortar stores and provides a cross-country perspective. The data set covers a broad range of items typically sold over the Internet. It includes more than 5 million daily price quotes downloaded from price comparison web sites in France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US. The following results emerge from our analysis. First, and contrary to the recent findings for common CPI data, Internet prices in the EU countries do not change less often than online prices in the US. Second, prices on the Internet are not necessarily more flexible than prices in traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Third, there is substantial heterogeneity in the frequency of price change across shop types and product categories. Fourth, the average price change on the Internet is relatively large, but smaller than the respective values reported for CPI data. Finally, panel logit estimates suggest that the likelihood of observing a price change is a function of both state- and time-dependent factors.
A note on momentum and contrarian strategies across price limit regimes: Evidence from China's A-share market

This paper applies stochastic dominance with and without risk-free assets to examine the profi tability of momentum strategies in the wake of the regime transition after the implementation of price limits in China's A-share market. According to our evidence, winner portfolios stochastically dominate loser portfolios at the second-order stochastic dominance over the horizon of 6 to 12 months with price limits. In contrast, higher returns appear on loser portfolios that dominate the returns on winner portfolios without price limits. This evidence, which agrees with the delayed price discovery hypothesis, gives rise to a positive autocorrelation of stock returns and provides the rationale for the stock prices of winner portfolios that exhibit signifi cant price continuation phenomenon.
A CMOS-MEMS arrayed RGFET

To greatly enhance the performance of our previously developed CMOS-MEMS resonant gate field effect transistor (RGFET) [1], a novel CMOS-MEMS RGFET array which combines a metal/oxide composite resonant-gate arrayed structure and a FET arrayed transducer has been proposed for the first time utilizing the TSMC 0.35 μm CMOS technology together with a series of maskless wet etching processes. To resemble the function of a normal transistor, a “floating gate operation” was adopted to activate the transistor working at its saturation region. With proper drive and bias conditions, the measured transmission shows a resonance with Q around 1,000 and the signal-to-feedthrough ratio greater than 30 dB under a direct two-port measurement setup. As compared to the purely capacitive readout, the arrayed RGFET exhibits a 19-dB enhancement in terms of the insertion loss. With such a decent result, we do believe the CMOS-MEMS arrayed RGFET would bring simplicity and performance enhancement due to one transistor configuration for the future MEMS oscillator applications.
Ertapenem versus ceftriaxone for the treatment of complicated infections: a meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials

Background Ertapenem has been demonstrated to be highly effective for the treatment of complicated infections. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of ertapenem with ceftriaxone. Methods We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library for published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared the efficacy and safety of ertapenem with ceftriaxone for the treatment of complicated infections including community‐acquired pneumonia (CAP), complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs), and complicated intraabdominal infections (cIAIs). Meta‐analysis was performed by RevMan 5.0. Results Eight RCTs, involving 2 883 patients, were included in our meta‐analysis. Ertapenem was associated with similar clinical treatment success with ceftriaxone for complicated infections (1 326 patients, fixed‐effect model, OR: 1.13, 95% CI: 0.75–1.71). There was no difference between the compared treatment groups with regard to the microbiological treatment success, and no difference was found with regard to the incidence of clinical and laboratory drug‐related adverse events between ertapenem and ceftriaxone groups. As to local tolerability, overall, there was no difference between the compared groups; however, in the subgroup analysis, local reaction was significantly less in the ertapenem subgroup than the ceftriaxone plus ceftriaxone subgroup. Conclusions Ertapenem can be used as effectively and safely as ceftriaxone for the treatment of complicated infections. It is an appealing option for the treatment of these complicated infections.
Economies of Scale and Local Government Expenditure

Controversy surrounds structural reform in local government, especially efforts aimed at involuntarily reducing the number of local authorities to secure scale economies. We examined whether scale economies exist in local government outlays by analyzing the expenditure of 152 New South Wales councils. Initially, council expenditure is characterized by scale economies. However, given the correlation between population and population density, it is important to determine whether the influence of population on expenditure is due to variations in population density. When areas are decomposed into subgroups on the basis of density, the evidence of scale economies largely disappears.
Proteomic Identification of a Large Complement of Rat Urinary Proteins

The characterization of urinary proteins is an important tool to identify disease-related biomarkers and to better understand renal physiology. Expression of urinary proteins has been previously studied by Western blotting and other immunological methods. The scope of such studies, however, is limited to previously identified proteins for which specific antibodies are existed. We used proteomic analysis to identify proteins and to construct a proteome map for Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat urine isolated by ultracentrifugation. Urinary proteins were separated by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE) and visualized by silver staining. Proteins were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), followed by peptide mass fingerprinting using the NCBI protein database. A total of 350 protein spots were visualized. From 250 excised spots, 111 protein components were identified including transporters, transport regulators, chaperones, enzymes, signaling proteins, cytoskeletal proteins, pheromone-binding proteins, receptors, and novel gene products. The presence of a number of these identified proteins was unexpected and had not previously been identified in the urine. 2-D Western blot analyses for randomly selected proteins (ezrin, HSP70, β- and γ-actin, Rho-GDI, and l-myc) clearly confirmed the proteomic identification. Several potential posttranslational modifications were predicted by bioinformatic analyses. These data indicate that a large complement of expected and unexpected urinary proteins can be simultaneously studied by proteomic analysis. This approach may lead to better understanding of renal physiology and pathophysiology, and to biomarker discovery.
ZMPSTE24 defends against influenza and other pathogenic viruses

Zinc metallopeptidase STE24 (ZMPSTE24) is a transmembrane metalloprotease whose catalytic activity is critical for processing lamin A on the inner nuclear membrane and clearing clogged translocons on the endoplasmic reticulum. We now report ZMPSTE24 is a virus-specific effector that restricts enveloped RNA and DNA viruses, including influenza A, Zika, Ebola, Sindbis, vesicular stomatitis, cowpox, and vaccinia, but not murine leukemia or adenovirus. ZMPSTE24-mediated antiviral action is independent of protease activity. Coimmunoprecipitation studies indicate ZMPSTE24 can complex with proteins of the interferon-induced transmembrane protein (IFITM) family. IFITM proteins impede viral entry, and ZMPSTE24 expression is necessary for IFITM antiviral activity. In vivo studies demonstrate ZMPSTE24-deficient mice display higher viral burdens, enhanced cytokine production, and increased mortality after influenza infection. Collectively, these findings identify ZMPSTE24 as an intrinsic broad-spectrum antiviral protein and provide insights into antiviral defense mechanisms.
Validation of the Frenchay Activities Index in a general population aged 16 years and older.

OBJECTIVES To assess the validity and reliability of the Frenchay Activities Index (FAI) and to establish age and sex norms in people at or over the age of 16 years. DESIGN AND SETTING Postal questionnaire survey to 1280 people randomly selected from 8 Health Authority patient registers in England. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES FAI scores, subscale scores by age and sex, health status, perceived level of activity, and subjects' opinions on how well the FAI reflected their activities. Test-retest reliability was measured in 1 Health Authority. RESULTS The response rate was 49%. Men scored lower than women overall and on the domestic activities subscale. Respondents between the ages of 16 and 24 years and those over 85 years had the lowest FAI scores. FAI scores were related to self-reported health status, self-reported levels of activity, and presence of long-standing illness/disability. The FAI has high test-retest reliability. Qualitative data suggested that items such as sport, physical exercise, and caring for children should be included to make the FAI suitable for a wider age range. CONCLUSION The FAI has good construct validity, particularly in middle-aged and elderly people, and is reliable. For the FAI to be valid in nonstroke populations, items specific to younger people must be incorporated into it. We have established preliminary age and sex norms that should be interpreted with caution, given the low response rate.
PRAS40: Target or modulator of mTORC1 signalling and insulin action?

Alterations in signalling via protein kinase B (PKB/Akt) and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) frequently occur in type 2 diabetes and various human malignancies. Proline-rich Akt substrate of 40-kDa (PRAS40) has a regulatory function at the intersection of these pathways. The interaction of PRAS40 with the mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) inhibits the activity of mTORC1. Phosphorylation of PRAS40 by PKB/Akt and mTORC1 disrupts the binding between mTORC1 and PRAS40, and relieves the inhibitory constraint of PRAS40 on mTORC1 activity. This review summarizes the signalling pathways regulating PRAS40 phosphorylation, as well as the dual function of PRAS40 as substrate and inhibitor of mTORC1 in the physiological situation, and under pathological conditions, such as insulin resistance and cancer.
A Demand-Theoretic Analysis of Public Consumption Priorities in the United Kingdom

In the tradition of empirical studies of demand for public expenditure, this article examines the allocation of public consumption expenditures in the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1996. In addition to obtaining estimates of the effects of relative prices, total expenditure, and demographic variables, the results reveal that the constraints of homogeneity and symmetry cannot be rejected. However, the results reject the assumption of exogeneity of total expenditure employed by previous authors, so that it is important to augment the standard empirical specification by an auxiliary equation describing the evolution of the total expenditure conditioning variable. Finally, there is also evidence that some of the relationships studied have not been stable during the sample period.
Labour Market Flexibility, Human Resource Management and Corporate Performance

Labour market flexibility is often portrayed as a key to the competitive success of the UK and US economies. We surveyed several hundred firms in the UK, and using the resulting data (on over 200 manufacturing firms) this paper investigates the relationships between firms' use of flexible work practices, human resource systems and industrial relations on the one hand, and corporate performance on the other hand. The results suggest that 'low-road' practices – short-term contracts, a lack of employer commitment to job security, low levels of training and low levels of human resource sophistication – are negatively correlated with corporate performance. In contrast, it is found that 'high-road' work practices –'high commitment' organizations or 'transformed' workplaces – are positively correlated with good corporate performance. It is also found that human resource management practices are more likely to contribute to competitive success where they are introduced as a comprehensive package, or 'bundle' of practices. Significant interaction effects between human resource systems, trade unions and flexible work practices add further support to the bundling hypothesis.
Iterative data-driven coronary vessel labeling

This paper describes an iterative data-driven algorithm for automatically labeling coronary vessel segments in MDCT images. Such techniques are useful for effective presentation and communication of findings on coronary vessel pathology by physicians and computer-assisted diagnosis systems. The experiments are done on the 18 sets of coronary vessel data in the Rotterdam Coronary Artery Algorithm Evaluation Framework that contain segment labeling by medical experts. The performance of our algorithm show both good accuracy and efficiency compared to previous works on this task.
Decomposing the Sales Promotion Bump with Store Data

Sales promotions generate substantial short-term sales increases. To determine whether the sales promotion bump is truly beneficial from a managerial perspective, we propose a system of store-level regression models that decomposes the sales promotion bump into three parts: cross-brand effects (secondary demand), cross-period effects (primary demand borrowed from other time periods), and category-expansion effects (remaining primary demand). Across four store-level scanner datasets, we find that each of these three parts contribute about one third on average. One extension we propose is the separation of the category-expansion effect into cross-store and market-expansion effects. Another one is to split the cross-item effect (total across all other items) into cannibalization and between-brand effects. We also allow for a flexible decomposition by allowing all effects to depend on the feature/display support condition and on the magnitude of the price discount. The latter dependence is achieved by local polynomial regression. We find that feature-supported price discounts are strongly associated with cross-period effects while display-only supported price discounts have especially strong category-expansion effects. While the role of the category-expansion effect tends to increase with higher price discounts, the roles of cross-brand and cross-period effects both tend to decrease.
Royalty Rate Determination

Abstract Courts require royalty rate calculations based on rigorous economic foundations. The licensing literature provides limited guidance for royalty rate determination, leaving appraisal report readers wanting a more tangible and objective lens through which to judge the credibility of royalty rate analyses. This article develops the standard, core model for calculating market royalty rates for intangible asset licenses where royalty rates are determined ex ante in the actual market, or ex post in a hypothetical market under a Market Value Standard. The model forms a consistent basis for performing and evaluating licensing royalty appraisals. Not being distracted with the question of how to combine the input values when calculating a royalty rate, the court can focus on understanding and verifying an appraiser’s calculations of the input variable values.
Practical set invariance for decentralized discrete time systems

This paper discusses set invariance notions for decentralized discrete time systems which are physically inter-connected. We employ independent set-dynamics induced by the underlying subsystems subject to the available information in the decentralized setting. The main novelty of the approach lies within the fact that the concept of set invariance for independent set-dynamics is formalized by employing appropriate families of sets. The complexity of the exact notion is alleviated by introducing a practical set invariance notion which is then complemented with the corresponding relaxed stability analysis. Under mild assumptions, the introduced notion allows for safe, stable and independent operation of the subsystems forming the overall decentralized system.
Variable Admittance Control for Climbing Stairs in Human-Powered Exoskeleton Systems

Online gait control in human-powered exoskeleton systems is still rich research field and represents a step towards fully autonomous, safe and intelligent navigation. Admittance Controller performs well on flat terrain walking in human-powered exoskeleton systems for acceleration and slowdown. We are the first who proposed Variable Admittance Controller (VAC) for smooth stair climbing control in Human-Powered Exoskeleton Systems. Trajectory correction technique transforms the interaction forces exerted on the exoskeleton from the pilot to appropriate intended joint flexion angles through dynamic viscoelastic models. We demonstrate the proposed control strategy on one degree-of-freedom (1-DOF) platform first, and then extend to the Human power Augmentation Lower Exoskeleton (HUALEX). The experimental results show that the proposed gait transition control strategy can minimize the interaction dynamics with less interaction force between the pilot and the exoskeleton compared to the traditional admittance controller. Compared to Ordinary Admittance Controller, the proposed VAC significantly improve the normalized Mean Squared Error (nMSE) of trajectory tracking from 2.751° to1.105°.
A Directional Change Based Trading Strategy with Dynamic Thresholds

Traders always seek a trading strategy that can increase and maximize their profits. However, given the current challenges in financial time-series streams – data elements (tick prices) arrive in real-time or almost real-time and at high velocity (at finer time scales) – it is difficult to identify and spot the best time and the most profitable price for trading. The Directional Change (DC) is an event-based approach for summarizing price movements based on a fixed given threshold value. An event in the DC approach is detected if the price change between two points satisfies the given threshold value. In this research, we aim to present a trading strategy based on the DC approach and a dynamic threshold to replace the fixed given one. We call this strategy, the Dynamic Threshold Trading Strategy (DT-TS). Thus, once a DC event is detected (a price change is identified) using the defined dynamic threshold, a trading action is triggered as prices continue to increase or decrease depending on the detected DC event. The trading action to be taken (buy or sell) depends on the previous day price transitions. An experiment was conducted on the FTSE 100 minute-by-minute prices stream to evaluate the DT-TS against different fixed threshold values and different trading strategies. Results showed that the DT-TS was the most profitable strategy among different fixed thresholds and all other examined trading strategies.
Planarity and Segmentation in Stereoscopic Matching

The matching of stereograms which contain periodic patterns suggests ways in which the stereo correspondence problem may be solved in human vision. The stereograms seem to be segmented by coarse-scale features. Within each segment a set of matches approximating a plane is chosen. In regions with periodic patterns there may be many such planar sets, and the disparity of coarse-scale features seems to guide the choice of a particular set. This emphasis on planarity may reflect the occurrence of correlation-like operations in cortical neurons. An attractive possibility is that segmentation effectively delimits areas of the visual field within which disparities are likely to be slow changing (eg local tangent planes to surfaces) so that the correlation sums evaluated in a segment can give the best estimate of depth. A mechanism of this kind cannot account for all of stereo matching, since not all visual objects are well described by ensembles of planes. But it is likely to be a component of the matching system which is particularly important where images are ‘noisy’ and averaging is needed to extract reliable disparities.
Do Supplementary Sales Forecasts Increase the Credibility of Financial Analysts’ Earnings Forecasts?

ABSTRACT: This study examines whether the market reacts more strongly to earnings forecast revisions when financial analysts supplement their earnings forecasts with sales forecasts. I find that earnings forecast revisions supplemented with sales forecast revisions have a greater impact on security prices than do stand-alone earnings forecast revisions, controlling for the incremental information content in sales forecasts. Supplemented earnings forecasts are more accurate ex post, controlling for other individual analyst characteristics. Results are robust to controlling for earnings persistence and time effects. Taken as a whole, financial analysts are more likely to supplement their earnings forecasts with sales forecasts when they have better information. Supplementary sales forecasts appear to lend credibility to earnings forecasts because financial analysts provide sales forecasts when they are more informed.