Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structural reforms in Europe and the (in)coherence of institutions

The aim of this paper is to analyse the consequences of some structural reforms on the institutional coherence of OECD countries, particularly in Continental Europe, and on their economic performance, particularly as regards employment. Because institutions in developed political economies are interrelated through a complex network of complementarities, institutional change has consequences beyond the area concerned in a reform. This also implies that there are complementarity effects in reforms themselves. A challenge of reform programmes is therefore to achieve a new type of complementarity between reformed institutions. The paper presents empirical evidence questioning the compatibility of the ongoing structural reforms in product and labour markets with the existing institutional structures in some OECD countries. The coherence of the flexicurity strategy, i.e. a combination of labour-market flexibility and a generous welfare state, is also questioned, from the point of view of both economic efficiency and political economy.
Correlation of radio- and histomorphological pattern of pulmonary adenocarcinoma

Recently, a novel classification system based on tumour architecture and with high prognostic impact has been proposed for pulmonary adenocarcinomas (ADCs). For imaging-based prediction of histological ADC subtypes and, thus, prognosis, it is of paramount importance to investigate the correlations of radio- and histomorphological parameters. Associations between histomorphological ADC growth patterns (lepidic, acinar, papillary, micropapillary and solid) and data from pre-operative assessment by computed tomography (CT) imaging of 174 resected pulmonary ADCs were analysed. Margin configuration as well as solidity/ground glass opacity of an ADC was associated with distinct histomorphological ADC growth patterns. Solid-predominant ADCs usually had smooth margins and were also solid in CT scans, while lepidic-predominant ADCs had no predominant margin pattern, were located in the periphery, showed a positive bronchogram and were frequently associated with solidity/ground glass opacity. In addition, nonspherical tumour growth was a negative predictor of overall and disease-specific patient survival. We defined CT morphological parameters that were associated with histomorphological growth patterns of pulmonary ADCs. These data may form the basis for the development of future prognostic algorithms in the palliative setting, which include an integrated evaluation of biopsy histomorphology and CT scan morphology of nonresectable pulmonary ADC.
tempo2, a new pulsar timing package ¿ II. The timing model and precision estimates

Tempo2 is a new software package for the analysis of pulsar pulse times of arrival. In this paper we describe in detail the timing model used by tempo2, and discuss limitations on the attainable precision. In addition to the intrinsic slow-down behaviour of the pulsar, tempo2 accounts for the effects of a binary orbital motion, the secular motion of the pulsar or binary system, interstellar, Solar system and ionospheric dispersion, observatory motion (including Earth rotation, precession, nutation, polar motion and orbital motion), tropospheric propagation delay, and gravitational time dilation due to binary companions and Solar system bodies. We believe the timing model is accurate in its description of predictable systematic timing effects to better than one nanosecond, except in the case of relativistic binary systems where further theoretical development is needed. The largest remaining sources of potential error are measurement error, interstellar scattering, Solar system ephemeris errors, atomic clock instability and gravitational waves.
Knockout mouse production assisted by Blm knockdown

Production of knockout mice using targeted embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is a powerful approach for investigating the function of specific genes in vivo. Although the protocol for gene targeting via homologous recombination (HR) in ESCs is already well established, the targeting efficiency varies at different target loci and is sometimes too low. It is known that knockdown of the Bloom syndrome gene, BLM, enhances HR-mediated gene targeting efficiencies in various cell lines. However, it has not yet been investigated whether this approach in ESCs is applicable for successful knockout mouse production. Therefore, we attempted to answer this question. Consistent with previous reports, Blm knockdown enhanced gene targeting efficiencies for three gene loci that we examined by 2.3–4.1-fold. Furthermore, the targeted ESC clones generated good chimeras and were successful in germline transmission. These data suggest that Blm knockdown provides a general benefit for efficient ESC-based and HR-mediated knockout mouse production.
Feature Extraction and Selection for Handwriting Identification : A review

Handwriting is a skill that is personal to individual [28]. The relation of character, shape and the style of writing are visually different from one to another. Handwriting identification is a process to identify or verify the authorship of a handwriting document. Asserting authorship identity based on handwritten text requires three steps: Data acquisition and preprocessing, Feature extraction, and Classification. In the first step, the handwriting images is preprocessed and normalized to perform handwriting identification correctly. The second step involves extracting relevant and informative features. The third step implements the classification decision. Handwriting features are writer’s characteristics to individuality. There are two different approaches to obtaining features: feature extraction and feature selection. In feature extraction the features that may have discriminating power were extracted, while in feature selection, a subset of the original set of features is selected. This paper concentrated on the state of art of feature extraction and selection approaches based on character, word, text line, and paragraph. Despite continuous effort, handwriting identification remains a challenging issue, due to different approaches use different varieties of features, having different. Therefore, our study will focus on handwriting identification based on feature selection to simplify features extracting task, optimize classification system complexity, reduce running time and improve the classification accuracy.
Efficient (In-)Consistency Management for Heterogeneous Repositories

When a group of authors collaboratively edits interrelated documents, consistency problems occur almost immediately. Current document management systems (DMS) often lack adequate facilities for consistency management. We extend traditional DMS by explicit formal consistency rules. In contrast to many other approaches, we permit inconsistencies and present the consequences to the user, which is vital for flexible document management and information management. Based on a novel semantics our tools pinpoint inconsistent document parts and tell precisely when, where, and why a repository is inconsistent. In this paper we focus on a key issue: efficient techniques for consistency rule evaluation. Our strategy is known from databases: (1) static analysis characterizes and simplifies consistency rules and (2) at run-time rules are evaluated incrementally. The major differences to databases are that we consider informal documents and explicitly allow inconsistencies. Consequently, we lack formal update descriptions and cannot rely on consistency prior to updates. The contribution of this paper is to incrementally evaluate consistency rules in the presence of previous inconsistencies. We have implemented our techniques in a revision control system. Our experiments show that efficient incremental evaluation is the key to make our approach viable.
Statistical Phrase Alignment Model Using Dependency Relation Probability

When aligning very different language pairs, the most important needs are the use of structural information and the capability of generating one-to-many or many-to-many correspondences. In this paper, we propose a novel phrase alignment method which models word or phrase dependency relations in dependency tree structures of source and target languages. The dependency relation model is a kind of tree-based reordering model, and can handle non-local reorderings which sequential word-based models often cannot handle properly. The model is also capable of estimating phrase correspondences automatically without any heuristic rules. Experimental results of alignment show that our model could achieve F-measure 1.7 points higher than the conventional word alignment model with symmetrization algorithms
Spatial Interactions in the Superior Colliculus Predict Saccade Behavior in a Neural Field Model

During natural vision, eye movements are dynamically controlled by the combinations of goal-related top–down (TD) and stimulus-related bottom–up (BU) neural signals that map onto objects or locations of interest in the visual world. In primates, both BU and TD signals converge in many areas of the brain, including the intermediate layers of the superior colliculus (SCi), a midbrain structure that contains a retinotopically coded map for saccades. How TD and BU signals combine or interact within the SCi map to influence saccades remains poorly understood and actively debated. It has been proposed that winner-take-all competition between these signals occurs dynamically within this map to determine the next location for gaze. Here, we examine how TD and BU signals interact spatially within an artificial two-dimensional dynamic winner-take-all neural field model of the SCi to influence saccadic RT (SRT). We measured point images (spatially organized population activity on the SC map) physiologically to inform the TD and BU model parameters. In this model, TD and BU signals interacted nonlinearly within the SCi map to influence SRT via changes to the (1) spatial size or extent of individual signals, (2) peak magnitude of individual signals, (3) total number of competing signals, and (4) the total spatial separation between signals in the visual field. This model reproduced previous behavioral studies of TD and BU influences on SRT and accounted for multiple inconsistencies between them. This is achieved by demonstrating how, under different experimental conditions, the spatial interactions of TD and BU signals can lead to either increases or decreases in SRT. Our results suggest that dynamic winner-take-all modeling with local excitation and distal inhibition in two dimensions accurately reflects both the physiological activity within the SCi map and the behavioral changes in SRT that result from BU and TD manipulations.
ROBUST EMBEDDING OF VISUAL WATERMARKS USING DWT-SVD

Protection of digital multimedia content has become an increasingly important issue for content owners and service providers. As watermarking is identified as a major technology to achieve copyright protection, the relevant literature includes several distinct approaches for embedding data into a multimedia element. Because of its growing popularity, the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) is commonly used in recent watermarking schemes. In a DWT-based scheme, the DWT coefficients are modified with the data that represents the watermark. In this paper, we present a hybrid non-blind scheme based on DWT and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). After decomposing the cover image into four bands (LL, HL, LH, and HH), we apply the SVD to each band, and modify the singular values of the cover image with the singular values of the visual watermark. Modification in all frequencies allows the development of a watermarking scheme that is robust to a wide range of attacks. We compare our hybrid algorithm with a pure SVD-based scheme, and show that it is considerably more robust and reliable.
Robust receding - horizon control of nonlinear systems with state dependent uncertainties: An input-to-state stability approach

This paper is concerned with the robust receding horizon control of constrained discrete-time nonlinear systems affected by model uncertainty. A class of uncertainties entailing norm-bounded additive state dependent and non-state-dependent uncertainties is considered. In order to robustly enforce the constraints, a technique based on constraints tightening is formulated. Moreover, it is shown that the closed-loop system, obtained with the developed RH controller, is regionally input-to-state stable with respect to the considered class of uncertainties. A simulation example shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
The Role of Accelerator Designs in Mitigating Bounded Rationality in New Ventures

Using a nested multiple-case study of participating ventures, directors, and mentors of eight of the original U.S. accelerators, we explore how accelerators’ program designs influence new ventures’ ability to access, interpret, and process the external information needed to survive and grow. Through our inductive process, we illuminate the bounded-rationality challenges that may plague all ventures and entrepreneurs—not just those in accelerators—and identify the particular organizational designs that accelerators use to help address these challenges, which left unabated can result in suboptimal performance or even venture failure. Our analysis revealed three key design choices made by accelerators—(1) whether to space out or concentrate consultations with mentors and customers, (2) whether to foster privacy or transparency between peer ventures participating in the same program, and (3) whether to tailor or standardize the program for each venture—and suggests a particular set of choices is associated with improved venture development. Collectively, our findings provide evidence that bounded rationality challenges new ventures differently than it does established firms. We find that entrepreneurs appear to systematically satisfice prematurely across many decisions and thus broadly benefit from increasing the amount of external information searched, often by reigniting search for problems that they already view as solved. Our study also contributes to research on organizational sponsors by revealing practices that help or hinder new venture development and to emerging research on the lean start-up methodology by suggesting that startups benefit from engaging in deep consultative learning prior to experimentation.
Abundant Intergenic TAACTGA Direct Repeats and Putative Alternate RNA Polymerase β′ Subunits in Marine Beggiatoaceae Genomes: Possible Regulatory Roles and Origins

The genome sequences of several giant marine sulfur-oxidizing bacteria present evidence of a possible post-transcriptional regulatory network that may have been transmitted to or from two distantly related bacteria lineages. The draft genome of a Cand. “Maribeggiatoa” filament from the Guaymas Basin (Gulf of California, Mexico) seafloor contains 169 sets of TAACTGA direct repeats and one indirect repeat, with two to six copies per set. Related heptamers are rarely or never found as direct repeats. TAACTGA direct repeats are also found in some other Beggiatoaceae, Thiocystis violascens, a range of Cyanobacteria, and five Bacteroidetes. This phylogenetic distribution suggests they may have been transmitted horizontally, but no mechanism is evident. There is no correlation between total TAACTGA occurrences and repeats per genome. In most species the repeat units are relatively short, but longer arrays of up to 43 copies are found in several Bacteroidetes and Cyanobacteria. The majority of TAACTGA repeats in the Cand. “Maribeggiatoa” Orange Guaymas (BOGUAY) genome are within several nucleotides upstream of a putative start codon, suggesting they may be binding sites for a post-transcriptional regulator. Candidates include members of the ribosomal protein S1, Csp (cold shock protein), and Csr (carbon storage regulator) families. No pattern was evident in the predicted functions of the open reading frames (ORFs) downstream of repeats, but some encode presumably essential products such as ribosomal proteins. Among these is an ORF encoding a possible alternate or modified RNA polymerase beta prime subunit, predicted to have the expected subunit interaction domains but lacking most catalytic residues. A similar ORF was found in the Thioploca ingrica draft genome, but in no others. In both species they are immediately upstream of putative sensor kinase genes with nearly identical domain structures. In the marine Beggiatoaceae, a role for the TAACTGA repeats in translational regulation is suggested. More speculatively, the putative alternate RNA polymerase subunit could be a negative transcriptional regulator.
A three-phase approach for R&D project scheduling

During project execution unforeseen events which disrupt plans and budgets arise and yield higher costs due to missed due dates and deadlines, resource idleness, higher work-in-process inventory and increased system nervousness due to frequent rescheduling. In this study, we consider the resource constrained multi-project scheduling problem with multi-skilled resources in a stochastic and dynamic environment for modeling the scheduling of the R&D projects of a leading home appliances company in Turkey. For this purpose a three-phase model is developed. Phase I, which is referred to as the risk and deviation analysis phase, aims at predicting the resource usage deviation level of projects and the resource usage deviation level of the activities of the projects. Phase II and Phase III are the proactive and reactive scheduling modules, respectively.
Seriolina nigrofasciata (Ruppel, 1829), its fishery and biological aspects off south-west coast of India

A comprehensive study on fishery, length-weight relationship, trophodynamics and reproductive aspects of the blackbanded trevally Seriolina nigrofasciata (Ruppel, 1829), collected during January 2013 to December 2017 from fishing vessels operating along eastern Arabian Sea off south-west coast of India was conducted. Among the maritime states of the country, Karnataka was the major contributor (53.9%) followed by Kerala (24.1%), Maharashtra (16%) and Tamil Nadu (4.3%). In Karnataka, 99.5% of the blackbanded trevally catch was exploited by trawl net and rest by outboard gillnets (0.5%). The total length ranged from 16.3 to 57.5 cm with fishes in the size range of 24 to 36 cm forming 80.8% of the catch. The length-weight relationship estimated showed a negative allometric growth for both sexes with b values of 2.595 for females and 2.504 for males. The estimated ‘a’ values for females and males were 0.00013 and 0.00021 respectively. In all, fifteen prey items under three major groups (teleosts, cephalopods and crustaceans) comprised the diet, with teleosts (73.23%) being the predominant food item followed by cephalopods (26.53%) and crustaceans (0.24%) in terms of index of relative importance (IRI). Overall sex ratio (male: female) of 1:1.15 indicated a slight dominance of females over males. The length at first maturity was estimated at 25.0 cm for male and 27.0 cm for female. The availability of mature and spent specimens all through the year implied that the species has prolonged spawning period with a peak during the summer season (March-May) and a minor secondary peak in post-monsoon season (October to December).
Centralized fusion for fast people detection in dense environment

Human beings do not have well defined shapes neither well defined behaviors. In dense outdoor environments, they are as a consequence hard to detect and algorithms based on a single sensor tend to produce lot of wrong detections. Moreover, many applications require algorithms that work very fast on CPU limited mobile architectures while remaining able to detect, track and classify objects as people with a very high precision. We present an algorithm based on the contribution of a range finder and a vision based algorithm that addresses these three constraints: efficiency, velocity and robustness and that we believe is scalable to a large variety of applications.
Moving Least-Squares Reconstruction of Large Models with GPUs.

Modern laser range scanning campaigns produce extremely large point clouds, and reconstructing a triangulated surface thus requires both out-of-core techniques and significant computational power. We present a GPU-accelerated implementation of the Moving Least Squares (MLS) surface reconstruction technique. While several previous out-of-core approaches use a sweep-plane approach, we subdivide the space into cubic regions that are processed independently. This independence allows the algorithm to be parallelized using multiple GPUs, either in a single machine or a cluster. It also allows data sets with billions of point samples to be processed on a standard desktop PC. We show that our implementation is an order of magnitude faster than a CPU-based implementation when using a single GPU, and scales well to 8 GPUs.
Multi-object and long-slit spectroscopy of very low mass brown dwarfs in the Orion Nebular Cluster

We present the results of a H− and K−band multi-object and long-slit spectroscopic survey of substellar mass candidates in the outer regions of the Orion Nebula Cluster. The spectra were obtained using MOIRCS on the 8.2-m Subaru telescope and ISLE on the 1.88-m telescope of Okayama Astronomical Observatory. Eight out of twelve spectra show strong water absorptions and we confirm that their effective temperatures are ≤ 3000 K (spectral type ≥ M6) from a chi-square fit to synthetic spectra. We plot our sources on an HR diagram overlaid with theoretical isochrones of low-mass objects and identify three new young brown dwarf candidates. One of the three new candidates is a cool object near the brown dwarf and planetary mass boundary. Based on our observations and those of previous studies, we determine the stellar (0.08< M/M⊙ < 1) to substellar (0.03< M/M⊙ < 0.08) mass number ratio in the outer regions of the Orion nebular cluster to be 3.5± 0.8. In combination with the number ratio reported for the central region (3.3+0.8 −0.7), this result suggests the number ratio does not simply change with the distance from the center of the Orion nebular cluster.
Musculoskeletal disorders in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Musculoskeletal disorders in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were reviewed in the article. Main risk factors of osteoporosis and peripheral musculoskeletal dysfunction in those patients are smoking, low physical activity, chronic systemic inflammation, and treatment with glucocorticoids. Low levels of vitamin D could contribute to development and progression of musculoskeletal disorders in COPD patients. The authors described main diagnostic and differentiation criteria of sarcopenia and cachexia-frailty overlap syndrome. Recently, a new term "osteosarcopenia" is used and can also be applied to COPD patients.
THE ANYBODY PROJECT – COMPUTER ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN BODY

The AnyBody project is an initiative to enhance our understanding of the mechanics of the human body. This is accomplished by development of a software system for detailed multibody biomechanics modelling, the so-called AnyBody system. The special features of this system enable analysis of body models that are very complex in terms of number of muscles and degrees of freedom. The system handles body models with several hundred muscles, and realistic models of the entire human body are expected within a few years. This paper introduces the basic concepts of the AnyBody system with special focus on the problems of muscle recruitment and shortest-path muscle wrapping.
3d Parallel Unstructured Mesh Generation

A strategy for the parallel generation of 3D tetrahedral unstruc-tured meshes is proposed based on the extension of the 2D algorithms presented by Okusanya et al 1]. These are based on a sequence of point insertion and load balancing cycles. Points are inserted concurrently within each subdomain and dynamic load-balancing is incorporated to ensure an even work distribution during the generation process. The inter-processor boundaries are allowed to move to acco-modate element migration between subdomains.