Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed Optimization for Coordinated Beamforming in Multicell Multigroup Multicast Systems: Power Minimization and SINR Balancing

This paper considers coordinated multicast beamforming in a multicell multigroup multiple-input single-output system. Each base station (BS) serves multiple groups of users by forming a single beam with common information per group. We propose centralized and distributed beamforming algorithms for two different optimization targets. The first objective is to minimize the total transmission power of all the BSs while guaranteeing the user-specific minimum quality-of-service targets. The semidefinite relaxation (SDR) method is used to approximate the nonconvex multicast problem as a semidefinite program (SDP), which is solvable via centralized processing. Subsequently, two alternative distributed methods are proposed. The first approach turns the SDP into a two-level optimization via primal decomposition. At the higher level, intercell interference powers are optimized for fixed beamformers, whereas the lower level locally optimizes the beamformers by minimizing BS-specific transmit powers for the given intercell interference constraints. The second distributed solution is enabled via an alternating direction method of multipliers, where the intercell interference optimization is divided into a local and a global optimization by forcing the equality via consistency constraints. We further propose a centralized and a simple distributed beamforming design for the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) balancing problem in which the minimum SINR among the users is maximized with given per-BS power constraints. This problem is solved via the bisection method as a series of SDP feasibility problems. The simulation results show the superiority of the proposed coordinated beamforming algorithms over traditional noncoordinated transmission schemes, and illustrate the fast convergence of the distributed methods.
Exertion Does Not Affect the Optic Nerve Sheath Diameter in Healthy Participants

The purpose of this study was to determine if exertion influences the ONSD in healthy individuals. Healthy adults were eligible for inclusion. Activities were performed by each participant for 60 seconds and were as follows: sprinting, holding a 10-pound weight with both arms outstretched parallel to the floor, a Valsalva maneuver, a plank position, and positioning the head down thirty degrees with the participant in the supine position. Two-dimensional ultrasound images visualizing the optic nerve sheath (ONS) were recorded in three orientations and averaged to determine the mean ONSD 3 millimeters posterior to the retina. Baseline measurements ranged from 3.57 to 4.90 millimeters. Post-exertion measurements ranged from 3.60 to 4.93 millimeters. Based on a one sample paired t-test the difference between baseline and post-activity measurements were not significant. This study demonstrates that ONSD measurements by ultrasound do not change in healthy individuals in response to exertion.
Finite Control Set-Model Predictive Control of a Flying Capacitor Multilevel Chopper Using Petri Nets

This paper presents a control scheme based on the predictive control theory and Petri nets (PNs) formalism to control a flying capacitor multilevel converter. The proposed scheme takes advantage of the benefits offered by the finite control set-model predictive control (FCS-MPC) methodology and the versatility of PNs to regulate the capacitor voltages and output current, simultaneously. The inclusion of PNs allows us to simplify the control scheme. A first PN is used to select, from a subset of switching states, the switching state that accomplishes both control objectives. This approach reduces the computational burden if compared with a typical predictive control scheme. Furthermore, a PN-based prediction scheme is used to predict the capacitor voltages. This prediction scheme uses only measurements of output voltage and current, which reduces the number of required sensors. This approach allows us to implement the internal capacitor voltages control independently if a multileg configuration is needed. The scheme is experimentally validated in a five-level flying capacitor multilevel converter.
Renal Elasticity Quantification by Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Applied to the Evaluation of Kidney Diseases

For centuries, clinicians have used palpation to evaluate abdominal organs. After exploring almost all the different methods of interaction between x-rays, ultrasound, and magnetic fields on tissues, recent interest has focused on the evaluation of their mechanical properties. Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) is a recent, established ultrasound-based diagnostic technique that allows physicians to obtain a measure of the elastic properties of an organ. Shear wave velocity, obtained by the ARFI technique, depends on the elasticity of tissues. To date, there are studies on the ARFI technique applied to normal kidneys, chronic kidney diseases, and kidney transplants. Mechanical properties of the kidney, such as stiffness and deformity, depend on various conditions that alter its histology, in particular the amount of fibrosis in the renal parenchyma; urinary pressure and renal blood perfusion may be other important contributing factors. Unfortunately, the ARFI technique applied to native renal pathologies is still limited, and not all studies are comparable because they used different methods. Therefore, the results reported in recent literature encourage further improvement of this method and the drawing up of standardized guidelines of investigation.
ALGORITHMS FOR CASH-FLOW MATCHING

Shifts in the term structure of interest rates are the major sources of risk to fixed-income portfolios. Two important portfolio investment strategies in asset/liability management are cash-flow matching and immunization. The cash-flow matching strategy can be enhanced by allowing cash carry-forward and borrowing from future surpluses. Although the mathematical program thus formulated is nonlinear, we show that it can be linearized and solved by standard techniques. The algorithms can easily be implemented on a computer.
Governance and management in the São Paulo Public Telecenter Network

The search for effective governance and management of telecenter initiatives is an important concern for policy makers. However, so far this topic has been underresearched. This article aims to fill the gap by studying the interplay between the actors involved in the governance and management of the São Paulo Public Telecenter Network in Brazil. The article draws on the actor-network theory's translation process to study the relationship among public and private agents involved in the implementation of the telecenters. The findings indicate the importance of individual agents' goals, organizational learning, and political dimensions, and the way in which these factors are influential for user training, participation, and citizenship development. The results provide useful insights for the management of digital inclusion programs in a developing-country setting. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Rationales for Outsourcing Domestic Services to Off-the-Books Workers

Purpose - This paper aims to evaluate critically the assumption that the main reason for acquiring domestic services from the off-the-books economy is to save money. Design/methodology/approach - Data are reported from an internet survey of 5,500 people living in households with one or more members in employment in the city of Sheffield in the UK, which resulted in 418 responses (a 7.6 per cent response rate). Findings - In just 13 per cent of cases where domestic tasks were outsourced to the off-the-books economy the main reason was to save money or cost. Instead, off-the-books workers were used principally due to the problems customers confronted regarding the availability and quality of formal service providers. Research limitations/implications - This survey covers only households with one or more members in employment, a population group previously shown to be more likely to outsource domestic services and use off-the-books workers. It does not cover no-earner households and is not a nationally representative sample. Practical implications - The implication is that using penalties to change the cost/benefit ratio confronting those acquiring domestic services from the off-the-books economy is unlikely to be successful since cost is in most cases not their major rationale. Instead, attention needs to be paid to improving the availability and quality of formal service provision so as to negate the need for customers to outsource to off-the-books workers. Originality/value - The paper refutes the assumption that goods and services are acquired from the off-the-books economy in order to save money.
Localized double‐quantum filter and correlation spectroscopy experiments

Problems with in vivo proton spectroscopy include strong water and lipid signals, and the very complicated structures of the spectra. Multiple‐quantum experiments can be designed to overcome these difficulties. Using a volume selective refocusing technique, one can demonstrate how multiple‐quantum experiments can be performed in a spatially localized manner. Rather than trying to integrate a localization procedure into a particular spectroscopy experiment itself, the approach here is to leave the basic experiment intact and to add a volume selective “block” to the end of the sequence. This “block” must, of course, preserve the integrity of the particular experiment. The volume selective refocusing method, presented here, does just this for a wide variety of proton NMR experiments. The advantage of this approach is that the analysis of the particular experiment is not changed. This is very important considering the complexity involved. Using this procedure, two very elementary multiple‐quantum experiments have been performed on a 1.5‐T whole‐body scanner. These experiments are a localized double‐quantum filter experiment (for water suppression) and a localized two‐dimensional correlation spectroscopy experiment. © 1988 Academic Press, Inc.
Beyond demography: A psychographic profile of the workforce

This article examines the life and work attitudes of a national sample of the US workforce surveyed in 1990. It presents a model of work- and nonwork-related factors impinging on attitudes and the impact of these factors on high levels of cynicism found in the workforce today. The survey results show a strong correspondence between people's general perceptions of society, leadership, and the motives of other people and more specific views of their own organization, managers, and co-workers. Analyses detail the spread of cynicism among demographic segments of the workforce, considering age, race, social class, gender, occupation, and organization type. Concluding sections highlight strategies that companies such as Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Caterpillar Tractor, and others have followed to counter cynicism in their workforce.
Stable incorporation of α‐smooth muscle actin into stress fibers is dependent on specific tropomyosin isoforms

α‐Smooth Muscle Actin (α‐SMA), a widely characterized cytoskeletal protein, represents the hallmark of myofibroblast differentiation. Transforming growth factorβ1 (TGFβ1) stimulates α‐SMA expression and incorporation into stress fibers, thus providing an increased myofibroblast contractile force that participates in tissue remodeling. We have addressed the molecular mechanism by which α‐SMA is stably incorporated into stress fibers in human myofibroblasts following exposure to TGFβ1. The unique N‐terminal sequence AcEEED, which is critical for α‐SMA incorporation into stress fibers, was used to screen for AcEEED binding proteins. Tropomyosins were identified as candidate binding proteins. We find that after TGFβ1 treatment elevated levels of the Tpm1.6/7 isoforms, and to a lesser extent Tpm2.1, precede the increase in α‐SMA. RNA interference experiments demonstrate that α‐SMA fails to stably incorporate into stress fibers of TGFβ1 treated fibroblasts depleted of Tpm1.6/7, but not other tropomyosins. This does not appear to be due to exclusive interactions between α‐SMA and just the Tpm1.6/7 isoforms. We propose that an additional AcEEED binding factor may be required to generate α‐SMA filaments containing just Tpm1.6/7 which result in stable incorporation of the resulting filaments into stress fibers. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
WILMA - automated annotation of protein sequences

Large-scale annotation of sets of proteins is a frequently occurring task in association with genome sequencing projects. Here, we present an automated platform for the functional annotation of large sets of protein sequences. Various bioinformatics tools are used to achieve a comprehensive description of protein sequences and to link these results to standard Gene Ontology descriptors for molecular function, biological processes and cellular components. Access to the annotation is provided via a web-interface and database queries. These interfaces allow to formulate proteome wide queries as well as the investigation of details of individual results. WILMA annotations of the proteomes of Homo sapiens, Mus musculus, Arabidopsis thaliana and Caenorhabditis elegans are accessible at http://www.came. sbg.ac. at/wilma/
Foreign Acquisition and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Slovenia

This paper investigates the impact of foreign acquisition on the productivity of Slovenian manufacturing firms subject to takeover in 1997. It finds evidence that foreign investors acquire those enterprises with higher productivity, that are more inclined to export and that operate in more concentrated industries. It then controls for the estimation bias induced by this non-random selection process by applying the combined propensity score matching and difference-in-differences estimation technique. The results of the empirical analysis show no robust statistical evidence of a positive causal effect of foreign acquisition up to two years following takeover. This finding suggests that a transfer of intangible assets from foreign firms to their Slovenian affiliates does not take place over this time period.
Serum Hepcidin Concentrations Decline during Pregnancy and May Identify Iron Deficiency: Analysis of a Longitudinal Pregnancy Cohort in The Gambia123

Background: Antenatal anemia is a risk factor for adverse maternal and fetal outcomes and is prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. Less than half of antenatal anemia is considered responsive to iron; identifying women in need of iron may help target interventions. Iron absorption is governed by the iron-regulatory hormone hepcidin. Objective: We sought to characterize changes in hepcidin and its associations with indexes of iron stores, erythropoiesis, and inflammation at weeks 14, 20, and 30 of gestation and to assess hepcidin’s diagnostic potential as an index of iron deficiency. Methods: We measured hemoglobin and serum hepcidin, ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), and C-reactive protein (CRP) at 14, 20, and 30 wk of gestation in a cohort of 395 Gambian women recruited to a randomized controlled trial. Associations with hepcidin were measured by using linear regression, and hepcidin’s diagnostic test accuracy [area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUCROC), sensitivity, specificity, cutoffs] for iron deficiency at each time point was analyzed. Results: The prevalence of anemia increased from 34.6% at 14 wk of gestation to 50.0% at 20 wk. Hepcidin concentrations declined between study enrollment and 20 wk, whereas ferritin declined between 20 and 30 wk of gestation. The variations in hepcidin explained by ferritin, sTfR, and CRP declined over pregnancy. The AUCROC values for hepcidin to detect iron deficiency (defined as ferritin <15 μg/L) were 0.86, 0.83, and 0.84 at 14, 20, and 30 wk, respectively. Hepcidin was superior to hemoglobin and sTfR as an indicator of iron deficiency. Conclusions: In Gambian pregnant women, hepcidin appears to be a useful diagnostic test for iron deficiency and may enable the identification of cases for whom iron would be beneficial. Hepcidin suppression in the second trimester suggests a window for optimal timing for antenatal iron interventions. Hemoglobin does not effectively identify iron deficiency in pregnancy. This trial was registered at www.isrctn. com as ISRCTN49285450.
Message communication system using unmanned aerial vehicles under large-scale disaster environments

A distributed and expansible architecture for providing message communication service to nodes, which are typically shelters, in a wide disaster-affected area is presented. The large disaster-affected area is divided into a number of sub-areas, to each of which a pair of electric and unmanned aerial vehicles (EVs and UAVs) is assigned. Message files are sent and received through a wireless link between each node and the UAV flying over the node. They are also carried by this UAV (end-to-end-transfer) or carried/relayed by multiple UAVs (relay transfer) from/to the center station in the area. For simple square area modeling, sub-area formation methods such as time-uniform, space-uniform, and hybrid-uniform divisions are established for end-to-end transfer. The relay can be performed synchronously or asynchronously in relay transfer. Several observations are made through numerical examples.
The effect of electrical stimulation of the corticospinal tract on motor units of the human biceps brachii

In healthy human subjects, descending motor pathways including the corticospinal tract were stimulated electrically at the level of the cervicomedullary junction to determine the effects on the discharge of motoneurones innervating the biceps brachii. Post‐stimulus time histograms (PSTHs) were constructed for 15 single motor units following electrical stimulation of the corticospinal tract and for 11 units following electrical stimulation of large diameter afferents at the brachial plexus. Responses were assessed during weak voluntary contraction. Both types of stimulation produced a single peak at short latency in the PSTH (mean 8.5 and 8.7 ms, respectively) and of short duration (< 1.4 ms). In separate studies, we compared the latency of the responses to electrical stimulation of the corticospinal tract in the relaxed muscle with that in the contracting muscle. The latency was the same in the two conditions when the intensity of the stimulation was adjusted so that responses of the same size could be compared. Estimates of the descending conduction velocity and measurements of presumed peripheral conduction time suggest that there is less than 0.5 ms for spinal events (including synaptic delays). We propose that in response to electrical stimulation of the descending tract fibres, biceps motoneurones receive a large excitatory input with minimal dispersion and it presumably contains a dominant monosynaptic component.
Entrepreneurship in Economic Development

What is the role of entrepreneurship in economic development? At a minimum the answer should be able to explain the role of entrepreneurs in the structural transformation of countries from low income, primary-sector based societies into high-income service and technology based societies. More broadly though, it should also be able to explain the role of entrepreneurs in the opposite pole of stagnating development (including conflict) and in high innovation-driven growth. Although economic development lacks a ? general theory? of entrepreneurship, which could encompass a variety of development experiences, much progress has been made in extending the understanding of entrepreneurship in the process of development. This paper surveys the progress with the purpose of distilling the outlines for a more general theory of entrepreneurship in economic development. Entrepreneurship in developing countries remains a relatively under-researched phenomenon, so by surveying the current state of research, and by discussing the role of entrepreneurship in dual economy models of structural transformation and growth, a secondary objective of this paper is to identify avenues for further research. Finally, the policy implications from the economic literature suggest that a case for government support exists, and that this should focus on the quantity, the quality, and the allocation of entrepreneurial ability. Many routinely adopted policies for entrepreneurship, such as provision of credit and education, are shown to have more subtle effects, not all of which are conducive to growth-enhancing entrepreneurship.
Breast dose reduction options during thoracic CT: influence of breast thickness.

OBJECTIVE Little is known about the effectiveness of dose reduction options according to breast thickness. The purpose of this phantom study was to compare the effects on dose and noise of bismuth shielding versus a low kilovoltage for different breast thicknesses. MATERIALS AND METHODS CT acquisitions were performed first at 120 kVp (reference acquisition), then at 120 kVp with shielding and at 100 kVp without shielding on a phantom with three different prosthetic breast thicknesses, corresponding to the minimum, median, and maximum values first measured in a sample of 30 female thoracic CT examinations, which were randomly selected. Breast doses were measured with optically stimulated luminescence dosimeters placed on and beneath the prosthetic breast. For noise evaluation, the CT number SDs were measured within six ROIs at increasing depths. RESULTS Taking into account all breast thicknesses, the average breast dose was reduced by 42.1% with shielding and by 33.0% at 100 kVp (p=0.009). In-depth noise increased less with shielding (19.0% vs 32.1%, p<0.0001). For 1-cm breast thickness, the breast dose fell by 46.5% and 29.7% with shielding and 100 kVp, respectively (p=0.01), and in-depth noise increased by 19.5% and 33.9% (p=0.01). The corresponding values for 2-cm breast thickness were -38.5% and -30.1%, (p=0.02) and 16.5% and 33.5% (p=0.001), whereas those for 4-cm thickness were -40.6% and -40.5% (p=0.95) and 20.7 and 29.2% (p=0.02). CONCLUSION Greater breast dose reduction is achieved by shielding for breast thicknesses less than 4 cm. Regardless of breast thickness, shielding leads to a smaller increase in in-depth noise.
Evaluating Conservation Auctions with Unknown Bidder Costs: The Scottish Fishing Vessel Decommissioning Program

As an alternative to the more traditional fixed-price schemes, governments can run auctions to purchase environmental services from private agents. Governments have so far chosen the discriminatory price (DP) over the uniform price (UP) format. Theoretical and experimental studies have concluded that the DP usually performs better than the UP in terms of cost-effectiveness. Using field data from two fishing vessel decommissioning auctions in Scotland, we find ambiguous results regarding relative DP and UP performances. A novel approach for estimating the underlying bidder costs shows that bid shading and cost heterogeneity can each determine relative auction performance. (JEL Q22, Q28)