Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Conformal FDTD Method With Accurate Waveport Excitation and S-Parameter Extraction

We demonstrate a conformal finite-difference time domain (CFDTD) technique with accurate waveport excitation and S-parameter extraction. We discuss, under the CFDTD framework, object modeling with effective subcell material, impedance calibration for the conformal modeled coaxial feed, waveport mode calculation with a newly developed conformal 2-D finite-difference frequency domain solver, waveport excitation with a modified total field scattered field method, and a modified S-parameter extraction scheme that is compatible with the CFDTD method. Lastly, we present two specific validation cases intended asWe demonstrate a conformal finite-difference time domain (CFDTD) technique with accurate waveport excitation and S-parameter extraction. We discuss, under the CFDTD framework, object modeling with effective subcell material, impedance calibration for the conformal modeled coaxial feed, waveport mode calculation with a newly developed conformal 2-D finite-difference frequency domain solver, waveport excitation with a modified total field scattered field method, and a modified S-parameter extraction scheme that is compatible with the CFDTD method. Lastly, we present two specific validation cases intended as relevant precursors to the inverse scattering application: modeling of the reflection coefficient of a tapered patch antenna and modeling of the transmission coefficient in a probe-fed rectangular waveguide. relevant precursors to the inverse scattering application: modeling of the reflection coefficient of a tapered patch antenna and modeling of the transmission coefficient in a probe-fed rectangular waveguide.
A Threshold Multivariate Model to Explain Fiscal Multipliers with Government Debt

This paper shows fiscal multipliers, considering levels of public debt with multivariate threshold models. Non-linear behavior in sovereign debt-to-GDP ratio time series determine the relationship between output and government expenditure. The debt-to-GDP ratio has been selected optimally as an endogenous threshold variable to evaluate non-linearities; it has been useful for identifying estimators in a multivariate threshold autoregressive model; and it has been an important tool to observe how the multiplier changes during good times and bad. Expansionary fiscal policies seem to be counterproductive in this framework. This result highlights the link between real and financial variables.
A Cross-Cultural Three-Step Process Model for Assessing Motivational Interviewing Treatment Fidelity in Thailand

The provision of culturally relevant yet evidence-based interventions has become crucial to global HIV prevention and treatment efforts. In Thailand, where treatment for HIV has become widely available, medication adherence and risk behaviors remain an issue for Thai youth living with HIV. Previous research on motivational interviewing (MI) has proven effective in promoting medication adherence and HIV risk reduction in the United States. However, to test the efficacy of MI in the Thai context a feasible method for monitoring treatment fidelity must be implemented. This article describes a collaborative three-step process model for implementing the MI Treatment Integrity (MITI) across cultures while identifying linguistic issues that the English-originated MITI was not designed to detect as part of a larger intervention for Thai youth living with HIV. Step 1 describes the training of the Thai MITI coder, Step 2 describes identifying cultural and linguistic issues unique to the Thai context, and Step 3 describes an MITI booster training and incorporation of the MITI feedback into supervision and team discussion. Throughout the process the research team collaborated to implement the MITI while creating additional ways to evaluate in-session processes that the MITI is not designed to detect. The feasibility of using the MITI as a measure of treatment fidelity for MI delivered in the Thai linguistic and cultural context is discussed.
Testing Derivatives Pricing Models under Higher-Order Moment Swaps

Purpose This paper aims to test three parametric models in pricing and hedging higher-order moment swaps. Using vanilla option prices from the volatility surface of the Euro Stoxx 50 Index, the paper shows that the pricing accuracy of these models is very satisfactory under four different pricing error functions. The result is that taking a position in a third moment swap considerably improves the performance of the standard hedge of a variance swap based on a static position in the log-contract and a dynamic trading strategy. The position in the third moment swap is taken by running a Monte Carlo simulation. Design/methodology/approach This paper undertook empirical tests of three parametric models. The aim of the paper is twofold: assess the pricing accuracy of these models and show how the classical hedge of the variance swap in terms of a position in a log-contract and a dynamic trading strategy can be significantly enhanced by using third-order moment swaps. The pricing accuracy was measured under four different pricing error functions. A Monte Carlo simulation was run to take a position in the third moment swap. Findings The results of the paper are twofold: the pricing accuracy of the Heston (1993) model and that of two Levy models with stochastic time and stochastic volatility are satisfactory; taking a position in third-order moment swaps can significantly improve the performance of the standard hedge of a variance swap. Research limitations/implications The limitation is that these empirical tests are conducted on existing three parametric models. Maybe more critical insights could have been revealed had these tests been conducted in a brand new derivatives pricing model. Originality/value This work is 100 per cent original, and it undertook empirical tests of the pricing and hedging accuracy of existing three parametric models.
Oxidation of Plasma Cysteine/Cystine and GSH/GSSG Redox Potentials by Acetaminophen and Sulfur Amino Acid Insufficiency in Humans

Variations in plasma sulfur amino acid (SAA) pools are associated with disease risks, but little information is available about the factors affecting plasma SAA pools. Drug metabolism by glutathione (GSH) and sulfate conjugation can, in principle, represent a quantitatively important burden on SAA supply. The present study was designed to determine whether therapeutic doses of acetaminophen (APAP) alter SAA metabolism in healthy human adults. A double-blind, crossover design incorporating four treatment periods with diets providing 100% of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for SAA without or with APAP (15 mg/kg) and 0% RDA for SAA without or with APAP, in randomized order. After a 3-day equilibration period, chemically defined diets with 100 or 0% RDA for SAA were given for 2 complete days. On day 3, APAP or placebo was given in two successive doses (6-h interval), and timed plasma samples were collected. With SAA intake at 100% RDA, APAP administration oxidized the plasma cysteine/cystine redox potential (EhCySS) but not the plasma GSH/GSSG redox potential (EhGSSG). The extent of oxidation caused by APAP was similar to that seen with 0% SAA and no APAP. However, APAP administration with 0% SAA did not cause further oxidation beyond APAP or 0% SAA alone. In contrast, an oxidation of the plasma EhGSSG was apparent for SAA insufficiency only with APAP. The results suggest a need to evaluate possible effects of APAP in association with SAA insufficiency as a contributing factor in disease risk.
Further developments in the use of semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) as passive air samplers for persistent organic pollutants: field application in a spatial survey of PCDD/Fs and PAHs.

Semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) were deployed at 19 sites in northwest England to test their efficacy as passive atmospheric samplers for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and -furans (PCDD/Fs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). SPMDs were found to be efficient samplers for vapor phase species in the atmosphere, with good reproducibility between samplers. Species which are partially or completely particle associated under ambient U.K. conditions were also sampled by the SPMDs but with poorer reproducibility. It is suggested that SPMDs could be used to indicate "hotspots" of particulate associated species, however. Differences in absolute and relative concentrations of all PCDD/Fs and PAHs sequestered bythe SPMDs were observed between sites. High amounts were sequestered in SPMDs at sites where previous active monitoring has indicated relatively high atmospheric concentrations, confirming the potential of SPMDs as a tool for semiquantitative spatial monitoring of atmospheric species. SPMDs also respond to differences in the mixture of compounds present in the atmosphere, thereby aiding source apportionment studies.
Evidence that periweaning failure-to-thrive syndrome (PFTS) has a genetic predisposition

Genetic susceptibility or resistance to diseases is currently drawing increasing attention. This work describes two different breeding herds showing signs of periweaning failure-to-thrive syndrome (PFTS), an emergent swine disease. The disease was diagnosed based on clinical picture and confirmed by histopathology. The possibility of main infectious pathogens was ruled out by immunohistochemistry and PCR. In a simple approach, sires of the affected piglets have been determined using microsatellite paternity analysis, including a healthy group in each case. In each of the two farms, a single boar was found to have sired 45–50 per cent sick animals. Removal of this sire from two farms resulted in a significant decrease in the prevalence of the disease among the offspring, in accordance with other two cases diagnosed, although without including a control group. Since the analysed animals belonged to three different genetic lines, these findings point to the existence of individual genetic susceptibility to this syndrome.
Risk factors for HIV-1 seropositivity in drug users under 30 years old in Haiphong, Vietnam.

AIMS To assess the prevalence of HIV infection among young drug users in Haiphong and, secondarily, to document the current patterns of drug use and sexual behavior in them. Design, setting and participants. A cross-sectional survey of drug users 15-30 years old, identified from police lists and by the snowballing method between March 15 and May 30, 1999, was conducted in Haiphong City. MEASUREMENTS Subjects (n = 520: 514 males and six females) were interviewed and donated blood specimens for HIV-1 antibody testing. FINDINGS Mean age of the subjects was 25 years (range 15-30 years). The prevalence of HIV among injecting drug users (IDUs) was 74% and among drug users not reporting injecting was 46% (92/201). Sixty-one per cent (319) reported injecting drugs. Among injectors, 72% used heroin, and 68% had shared needles. Factors related to the presence of HIV antibody among IDUs were sharing needles (OR: 4.12) and injecting more than 31 times per month (OR: 2.37). Extramarital sex within the last 6 months was reported by 44% of single and 24% of married IDUs. CONCLUSION The high HIV-1 prevalence in drug users and their frequent sexual mixing with the non-drug-using population suggests that preventive interventions for reduction of high-risk drug taking and sexual activities are urgently needed in these populations. Interventions through public sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinics are unlikely to have much impact, as only 16% of IDUs with an STI attended a public STI clinic.
[The "standard drink unit" as a simplified record of alcoholic drink consumption and its measurement in Spain].

BACKGROUND The use of a drink units' system is recommended in order to facilitate the registration and monitoring of alcohol consumption and to provide comparable data. A unit would be the alcohol content in defined volumes of different beverages with a standard strength. The value attributed to this drink unit varies from country to country and is questionable from a scientific viewpoint. This study provides research for defining the standard drink unit (SDU) for Spain. MATERIAL AND METHODS Two studies were designed for ascertaining the pure alcohol content of bulk drinking at home and in public places, taking into account available information on production, distribution of consumption and beverages strength. Eight Spanish regions, each one with 3 cities of respectively < 10,000, 10,000-100,000 and > 100,000 inhabitants, participated in the study. 10,751 observations were carried out and alcohol content was calculated for a standard drink of beer, wine and spirits. RESULTS Because of the great dispersion of volumes within each type of consumed beverages, none of the consumption curves presented a normal distribution. This feature level is to calculate its pure alcohol equivalence by means of the recorded median volume. Thus, SDU was found to be 10.09 g for wine, 9.1 g for beer and 19.82 g for spirits. CONCLUSIONS Global SDU would contain about 10 g of pure alcohol (= 1 beer o 1 glass of wine or a half measure of spirits). The calculation of alcohol consumption in drink units facilitates clinical records, epidemiological surveys and preventive messages.
A Model Predictive Control Approach to Microgrid Operation Optimization

Microgrids are subsystems of the distribution grid, which comprises generation capacities, storage devices, and controllable loads, operating as a single controllable system either connected or isolated from the utility grid. In this paper, we present a study on applying a model predictive control approach to the problem of efficiently optimizing microgrid operations while satisfying a time-varying request and operation constraints. The overall problem is formulated using mixed-integer linear programming (MILP), which can be solved in an efficient way by using commercial solvers without resorting to complex heuristics or decompositions techniques. Then, the MILP formulation leads to significant improvements in solution quality and computational burden. A case study of a microgrid is employed to assess the performance of the online optimization-based control strategy and the simulation results are discussed. The method is applied to an experimental microgrid located in Athens, Greece. The experimental results show the feasibility and the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
The Coronavirus Transmissible Gastroenteritis Virus Causes Infection after Receptor-Mediated Endocytosis and Acid-Dependent Fusion with an Intracellular Compartment

ABSTRACT Aminopeptidase N is a species-specific receptor for transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), which infects piglets, and for the 229E virus, which infects humans. It is not known whether these coronaviruses are endocytosed before fusion with a membrane of the target cell, causing a productive infection, or whether they fuse directly with the plasma membrane. We have studied the interaction between TGEV and a cell line (MDCK) stably expressing recombinant pig aminopeptidase N (pAPN). By electron microscopy and flow cytometry, TGEV was found to be associated with the plasma membrane after adsorption to the pAPN-MDCK cells. TGEV was also observed in endocytic pits and apical vesicles after 3 to 10 min of incubation at 38°C. The number of pits and apical vesicles was increased by the TGEV incubation, indicating an increase in endocytosis. After 10 min of incubation, a distinct TGEV-pAPN-containing population of large intracellular vesicles, morphologically compatible with endosomes, was found. A higher density of pAPN receptors was observed in the pits beneath the virus particles than in the surrounding plasma membrane, indicating that TGEV recruits pAPN receptors before endocytosis. Ammonium chloride and bafilomycin A1 markedly inhibited the TGEV infection as judged from virus production and protein biosynthesis analyses but did so only when added early in the course of the infection, i.e., about 1 h after the start of endocytosis. Together our results point to an acid intracellular compartment as the site of fusion for TGEV.
Carotid endarterectomy in nonagenarians.

HYPOTHESIS The North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial and the European Carotid Surgery Trial demonstrated that a greater benefit from carotid endarterectomy (CEA) was seen in elderly compared with younger patients. However, no patients older than 89 years were included in either study. We hypothesized that CEA is safe and effective in patients 89 years and older. DESIGN AND SETTING This is a retrospective review of 3 neurosurgeons' CEA experience with nonagenarian patients. PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS Of our 1800 patients who underwent CEA, 26 were 89 years or older. Twenty-three patients had had cerebral ischemic symptoms (unilateral hemispheric symptoms in 21 and 2 dizzy spells associated with bilateral high-grade stenosis). Cerebral angiography was performed in 3 patients. Twenty-three patients underwent noninvasive imaging. Four patients had bilateral high-grade stenosis and underwent staged bilateral CEA. All procedures were performed after the induction of general anesthesia with electroencephalographic (and, more recently, transcranial Doppler) monitoring and etomidate-induced burst suppression for cerebral protection during cross-clamping. RESULTS Unusual technical difficulties were frequently noted, including high bifurcations, looping rotated internal carotid arteries, and marked adherence of surrounding soft tissues. In 3 of the 30 procedures, a shunt was used. There were no perioperative cerebral ischemic or cardiac events. The mean hospital stay was 2 days. One patient had a transient vocal cord paresis. Twenty-two patients were alive and well 24 months following the procedure. Four patients died of non-stroke-related causes. CONCLUSIONS Carotid endarterectomy was successfully performed without perioperative cerebral or cardiac complications in our series of 26 patients 89 years and older undergoing 30 CEAs. Extrapolating from reported results from the North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial and the European Carotid Surgery Trial, we believe CEA should be considered in nonagenarian patients with high-grade symptomatic carotid stenosis who are otherwise well medically. Our recommendations are less certain in the case of asymptomatic disease.
The Role of Individual- and Contextual-Level Social Capital in Product Boycotting: A Multilevel Analysis

Product boycotts represent an important form of sustainable consumption, as withholding purchasing can restrain firms from damaging the natural environment or breaking social rules. However, our understanding of consumer participation in these protests is limited. Most previous studies have focused on the psychological and economic determinants of product boycotting. Drawing on social capital literature, this study builds a framework that explains how individual- and contextual-level social capital affects consumer participation in boycotts of products. A multilevel logistic regression analysis of 29 country representative samples derived from the European Social Survey (N = 54221) shows that at the individual level product boycotting is associated with a person’s social ties, whereas at the country level, generalized trust and social networks positively affect consumer decisions to take part in these protests. These results suggest that to better understand differences among countries in consumer activism, it is necessary to consider the role of social capital as an important predictor of product boycotting.
Abnormal Pap Smears in Teenage Mothers and the Association with Domestic Violence, Homelessness, and Chlamydia

Objective. To assess the incidence of Pap smear abnormalities and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) on cervical biopsy results in teenage mothers and to establish if there are associations with social disruption. Patients and Methods. A prospective study of 498 pregnant teenagers was performed at three Australian hospitals. Enrolled patients had a Pap smear performed. Women with abnormal Pap smear results underwent colposcopy with directed biopsy of the cervix. Independently, women were interviewed to identify demographic and social variables. Variables associated with an abnormal Pap smear result were analyzed using a mixed model of analysis. Results. Four hundred fifty-seven patients participated in the study (response rate, 92%). The prevalences of low- and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions on Pap smear were 37 in 1,000 and 13 in 1,000, respectively. The prevalence of CIN 1 was 35 in 1,000 and of CIN 2,3 was 15 in 1,000. In univariate analysis, teenagers with abnormal Pap smear results were significantly more likely to have a history of exposure to domestic violence (odds ration [OR], 7.10; 95% CI, 2.76–18.53), be homeless (OR, 6.82; 95% CI, 2.59–17.83), to have coexisting Chlamydia infection (OR, 5.44; 95% CI, 1.59–17.64), or be current users of illegal drugs or have a history of illegal drug use (current: OR, 3.06; 95% CI, 1.22–7.69; history: OR, 2.75; 95% CI, 1.04–7.53). Exposure to domestic violence, homelessness, and Chlamydia infection remained significant on multivariate analysis (p < .05). Conclusions. The incidence of CIN in pregnant teenagers is high and is associated with domestic violence, homelessness, and Chlamydia infection.
Nice and smart: creating a smarter festival – the study of EXIT (Novi Sad, Serbia)

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to explore a tourist preference towards information-communication technologies (ICTs) use at large-scale events, as well as disadvantages of insufficient ICTs implementation. In addition, we highlighted the importance of ICT usage on large-scale events for achieving smart tourism agenda. The importance and performance analysis of 38 attributes related to usage of ICTs at EXIT, a well-known European music festival held annually in Novi Sad (Serbia), was conducted. By employing an exploratory factor analysis, seven factors were extracted. The results show that the “level of smartness” of EXIT festival is relatively low. Furthermore, some advanced smart applications do not necessarily match tourists’ needs and interests, while festival organizers should focus on more basic online information access. Festival should make an optimal use of smart tourism facilities by offering the right smart tourism devices and services, enabling tourists to meet smart technologies on time.
Similar patch search in RS images using different metrics

An often used operation in many remote sensing (RS) applications is searching for similar patches in a given image or a set of images. For example, this operation is exploited in modern non-local denoising techniques [1] and in UAV navigation and imaging sensors [2]. However, there are quite many factors that make similar patch search a complicated task. Among them, one of the most important factors is noise present in all RS images. If noise is not intensive, many methods of similar patch search perform well enough. However, they start to fail if noise intensity increases and/or noise is not additive white Gaussian.
Design of multi-standard (IEEE 802.11a/b/g and WCDMA) RF front-end using reconfigurable mixer

We review the design method for a multi-standard RF front-end and propose a multi-standard RF front-end that uses a reconfigurable mixer with a flexible input matching network to cover the 2-6 GHz frequency band. System level design and simulation for IEEE 802.11a/b/g and WCDMA are performed using the proposed RF front-end.