Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust finite-time containment control for high-order multi-agent systems with matched uncertainties under directed communication graphs

ABSTRACT In this paper, we study the robust finite-time containment control problem for a class of high-order uncertain nonlinear multi-agent systems modelled as high-order integrator systems with bounded matched uncertainties. When relative state information between neighbouring agents is available, an observer-based distributed controller is proposed for each follower using the sliding mode control technique which solves the finite-time containment control problem under general directed communication graphs. When only relative output information is available, robust exact differentiators and high-order sliding-mode controllers are employed together with the distributed finite-time observers. It is shown that robust finite-time containment control can still be achieved in this situation. An application in the coordination of multiple non-holonomic mobile robots is used as an example to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategies.
The impact of front end innovation in new product development in Japanese manufacturing companies

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore fuzzy front end (FFE) of new product development (NPD) in Japanese manufacturing companies and report on the key factors for success with regard to the front end activities of NPD. Design/methodology/approach - On the basis of the literature review, the authors lay out an analytical framework and hypothesis and develop and test a causal model of relationships among key variables relating to the front end factors and success. The causal model is tested with AMOS using information from 513 completed NPD projects from Japanese manufacturing companies. Findings - The results of this study are summarized as follows: first, the more both market and technical uncertainties are reduced during the front end, the higher is the effectiveness of NPD projects. Second, the more intensively new projects are planned prior to the start of development, the more both market and technical uncertainties are reduced. Finally, in the industry goods firms, it is easy for managers to develop the initial planning, and it has a greater impact on reduction of market uncertainty compared to the consumer goods firms. Research limitations/implications - First, it is the scope and size of the sample. Our research mainly focuses on the precision apparatus, chemical and material products, electronic products, food processing and pharmaceutical industry in Japan. Second, the research concentrates less on the interaction between initial planning, planning changes and process management style. Practical implications - The paper provides several insights that will help managers to improve the success of their NPD activities. Originality/value - The paper provides additional evidence regarding the strong positive effect of FFE activities on NPD success. The model presented enhances understanding of the dynamics of the FFE.
Optical properties of MgO thin films on quartz substrate prepared by sol-gel method

In this paper the results of measurements of the optical properties of MgO thin films prepared by a sol-gel method on quartz substrates are presented. Measurements of the transmission (at the room temperature) and photoluminescence (in the range from 10 K to 325 K) were carried out. Three samples annealed at the different temperatures: 773 K, 1023 K and 1273 K have been examined.
Edinburgh Research Explorer Recognising emotions in spoken dialogue with hierarchically fused acoustic and lexical features

Automatic emotion recognition is vital for building natural and engaging human-computer interaction systems. Combining information from multiple modalities typically improves emotion recognition performance. In previous work, features from different modalities have generally been fused at the same level with two types of fusion strategies: Feature-Level fusion, which concatenates feature sets before recognition; and Decision-Level fusion, which makes the ﬁnal decision based on outputs of the unimodal models. However, different features may describe data at different time scales or have different levels of abstraction. Cognitive Science research also indicates that when perceiving emotions, humans use information from different modalities at different cognitive levels and time steps. Therefore, we propose a Hierarchical fusion strategy for multimodal emotion recognition, which incorporates global or more abstract features at higher levels of its knowledge-inspired structure. We build multimodal emotion recognition models combining state-of-the-art acoustic and lexical features to study the performance of the proposed Hierarchical fusion. Experiments on two emotion databases of spoken dialogue show that this fusion strategy consistently outperforms both Feature-Level and Decision-Level fusion. The multimodal emotion recognition models using the Hierarchical fusion strategy achieved state-of-the-art performance on recognizing emotions in both spontaneous and acted dialogue.
Creating Meaningful Environments for Leadership Education

As leadership educators we aim to provide students with opportunities necessary to gain knowledge and appropriate leadership skills. Valuable opportunities developed through Student Affairs and Academic Affairs collaborations which enhance learning through co-curricular and curricular experiences in leadership education will be explored. Present in these intentional environments are opportunities for students to have meaningful leadership learning when comprised of education, experience, and reflection. Specific examples from two institutions will be highlighted.
Gene structure and expression study of the SEDL gene for spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda.

Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda (SEDL) is an X-linked recessive disorder of endochondral bone formation caused by mutations in the SEDL gene. Here we present the structural analysis and subcellular localization of human SEDL. The SEDL gene is composed of six exons and spans a genomic region of approximately 20 kb in Xp22. It contains four Alu sequences in its 3' UTR and an alternatively spliced MER20 sequence in its 5' UTR (exon 2). Complex alternative splicing was detected for exon 4. Altogether seven SEDL pseudogenes were detected in the human genome: SEDLP1, a transcribed retropseudogene (or retro-xaptonuon) on chromosome 19q13.4 with potential to encode a protein identical to that of the SEDL gene; SEDLP2, another retropseudogene (not transcribed) on chromosome 8; and five truncated pseudogenes, SEDLP3-SEDLP7, on chromosome Yq11.23. Based on the knowledge of the yeast SEDL ortholog we speculated that the SEDL protein may participate along the ER-to-Golgi transport compartments. To test this hypothesis we performed transient transfection studies with tagged recombinant mammalian SEDL proteins in Cos-7 cells. The tagged SEDL proteins localized to perinuclear structures that partly overlapped with the intermediate ER-Golgi compartment (ERGIC; or vesicular tubular complex, VTC). Two human SEDL mutations (157-158delAT and C271T(STOP)) introduced into SEDL FLAG and GFP constructs led to the misplacement of the SEDL protein primarily to the cell nucleus and partially to the cytoplasm. Based on these experiments we suggest that the COOH end of the SEDL protein might be responsible for proper targeting of SEDL along the ER-Golgi membrane compartments (including Golgi and ERGIC/VTC).
Informative Conversion Ratios: A Signalling Approach

Abstract The paper uses a signalling equilibrium to explain the market's reaction to the announcement of a firm's financing decision. In our model, a firm can issue one of the following securities: convertible debt with a different conversion ratio, straight debt, and stock. We identify conditions under which the conversion ratio of a convertible debt issue serves as a credible signal of a firm's private information, given the continuous distribution of attributes (information) across firms. In this signalling equilibrium, we find that the lower the expected future earnings, the higher the conversion ratio of a convertible debt issue. At the limit, firms that expect the highest earnings will use straight debt financing, and firms that expect the lowest earnings will use equity financing. Based on the signalling equilibrium, we predict that at announcement of a convertible debt issue, negative abnormal common stock return increases in absolute value with the conversion ratio.
Consensus of Multi-Agent Systems With Diverse Input and Communication Delays

The consensus problem for multi-agent systems with input and communication delays is studied based on the frequency-domain analysis. Two decentralized consensus conditions are obtained, one of which is given for the systems based on undirected graphs with diverse input delays and the other is for the systems based on directed graphs with diverse communication delays and input delays. For the systems with both communication delays and input delays, the consensus condition is dependent on input delays but independent of communication delays.
Who Participates in Web-Assisted Tobacco Interventions? The Quit-Primo and National Dental Practice-Based Research Network Hi-Quit Studies

Introduction Smoking is the most preventable cause of death. Although effective, Web-assisted tobacco interventions are underutilized and recruitment is challenging. Understanding who participates in Web-assisted tobacco interventions may help in improving recruitment. Objectives To understand characteristics of smokers participating in a Web-assisted tobacco intervention (Decide2Quit.org). Methods In addition to the typical Google advertisements, we expanded Decide2Quit.org recruitment to include referrals from medical and dental providers. We assessed how the expanded recruitment of smokers changed the users’ characteristics, including comparison with a population-based sample of smokers from the national Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). Using a negative binomial regression, we compared demographic and smoking characteristics by recruitment source, in particular readiness to quit and association with subsequent Decide2Quit.org use. Results The Decide2Quit.org cohort included 605 smokers; the 2010 BRFSS dataset included 69,992. Compared to BRFSS smokers, a higher proportion of Decide2Quit.org smokers were female (65.2% vs 45.7%, P=.001), over age 35 (80.8% vs 67.0%, P=.001), and had some college or were college graduates (65.7% vs 45.9%, P=.001). Demographic and smoking characteristics varied by recruitment; for example, a lower proportion of medical- (22.1%) and dental-referred (18.9%) smokers had set a quit date or had already quit than Google smokers (40.1%, P<.001). Medical- and dental-referred smokers were less likely to use Decide2Quit.org functions; in adjusted analysis, Google smokers (predicted count 17.04, 95% CI 14.97-19.11) had higher predicted counts of Web page visits than medical-referred (predicted count 12.73, 95% CI 11.42-14.04) and dental-referred (predicted count 11.97, 95% CI 10.13-13.82) smokers, and were more likely to contact tobacco treatment specialists. Conclusions Recruitment from clinical practices complimented Google recruitment attracting smokers less motivated to quit and less experienced with Web-assisted tobacco interventions. Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00797628; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00797628 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6F3tqz0b3)
Cold Tolerance of Bed Bugs and Practical Recommendations for Control

ABSTRACT Bed bugs were exposed to freezing temperatures for various exposure times to determine cold tolerance and mortality estimates for multiple life stages. The mean supercooling point for all bed bug life stages ranged from -21.3°C to -30.3°C, with the egg stage reporting the lowest value. A probit analysis provided a lower lethal temperature (LLT99) of -31.2°C when estimates from all life stages were combined, demonstrating that all stages of bed bugs are not capable of surviving temperatures below body freezing and are therefore freeze intolerant. At conditions above the LLT99, bed bug mortality depended on temperature and exposure time at temperatures above LLT99. Based on our model estimates, survival was estimated for temperatures above -12°C even after 1 wk of continuous exposure. However, exposure to temperatures below -13°C will result in 100% mortality in d to ensure mortality of all life stages. Unfortunately, sublethal exposure to lower temperatures did not prevent subsequent feeding behavior in surviving stages. Practical recommendations for management of potentially infested items are discussed.
How and why dynamic selection regimes affect the firm’s innovative search activities

Summary The purposes of this article are: 1) To state the overall theoretical conceptualization of how and why dynamic selection regimes affect the firm’s innovative search activities; 2) To specift concepts and factors which can be used in further research, both theoretically and primarily empirical work. The article focuses on innovation processes as intrinsically economic phenomena - e.g. in an evolutionary economics and/or Schumpeterian economics perception of such dynamics being created internally to the economy. It develops a theoretical conceptualization of how and why dynamic selection regimes affect the firm’s innovative search activities. The overall theoretical perspective developed is condensed into nine propositions which link a set of concepts and relationship between actors, which together help explain the phenomena of interest. The nine theoretical propositions can help structure empirical and qualitative investigations into specific issues about innovations as economic phenomena.
Employee's perception of the effect of Six Sigma projects on customer satisfaction

The paper investigates employee’s perception on the effect of Six Sigma process improvement projects on customer satisfaction. Five constructs have been developed to measure customer satisfaction: reliability, availability, completeness, responsiveness, and professionalism. This research attempts to examine the relationship between customer satisfaction and the five constructs as well as the perceptions of the organisations which employed Six Sigma and how Six Sigma implementation affects customer satisfaction. The results show that all constructs are significantly related to customer satisfaction. In addition, it is shown that implementation of Six Sigma projects improves customer satisfaction.
Number 272 – January 2016 THE EFFECTS OF THE CEECS ’ ACCESSION ON SECTORAL TRADE : A VALUE ADDED PERSPECTIVE

International fragmentation of production and economic integration change the structure of international trade. Novel datasets reveal how production processes are unbundled across borders and connected internationally through Global Value Chains (GVCs). Yet, the impact of Economic Integration Agreements (EIAs) on GVCs is still poorly understood. This paper investigates how the accession of 10 Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) to the European Union (EU) affected trade in value added in Europe. Using a gravity model of international trade for a sample of 40 countries over the period 1995-2009, we find that EU accession mainly fostered Eastern entrants’ integration in other CEECs’ value chains. Smaller integration benefits arise for East-West trade in services stemming from low-skill value adding activities.
Forecasting variance using stochastic volatility and GARCH

This paper estimates the conditional variance of daily Swedish OMX-index returns with stochastic volatility (SV) models and GARCH models and evaluates the in-sample performance as well as the out-of-sample forecasting ability of the models. Asymmetric as well as weekend/holiday effects are allowed for in the variance, and the assumption that errors are Gaussian is released. Evidence is found of a leverage effect and of higher variance during weekends. In both in-sample and out-of-sample comparisons SV models outperform GARCH models. However, while asymmetry, weekend/holiday effects and non-Gaussian errors are important for the in-sample fit, it is found that these factors do not contribute to enhancing the forecasting ability of the SV models.
An algorithm for the decentralized market coupling problem

In this communication a conceptual algorithm is proposed for the market coupling process in the presence of block orders. The basic idea is to use the Lagrangian relaxation to get a decomposition of the problem that emulates the necessary decentralization process. The feasibility of this procedure is analysed using a simplified model of the problem. In particular, the solution obtained in this decentralized way is contrasted with the numerically exact solution of the problem by evaluating the duality gap. The examples presented suggest that in this way reasonably approximate solutions can be obtained, to improve those obtained through empirical procedures used by the market operators.
The Effects of Environmental Regulation on Business Location in the United States

This article empirically examines whether variations in state environmental regulations have affected the location of manufacturing branch plants by the Fortune 500 companies. Using several measures of environmental regulation, no statistically significant effects of environmental regulation on business location are found. For most manufacturing industries, the estimates are precise enough to rule out the possibility of large effects of environmental regulation on business location. For highly polluting industries, however, the variance in the estimates is quite large. We cannot rule out the possibility of effects of environmental regulation on the location of highly polluting industries that are large enough to be important to policymakers.
Clinical consequences of untreated dental caries evaluated using PUFA index in orphanage children from India.

BACKGROUND To determine the prevalence and severity of oral condition related to untreated dental caries with PUFA index and to relate period of institutional stay, oral hygiene practice and diet of orphan children to caries experience ratio. MATERIALS & METHODS A cross sectional survey conducted among 488 children of 12-14 years living in 5 different orphanages of Mysore district, India. Data regarding oral hygiene practices and oral health status (PUFA, DMFT, OH I-S and GI) were collected through structured questionnaire and by type III clinical oral examinations. The collected data were processed statistically. RESULTS The PUFA ratio indicates 21% of decayed component had progressed to pulp involvement and abscess formation. The overall prevalence of PUFA was 37.7%. 31.1% children showed one or more pulpally involved tooth in their oral cavity. Correlation between periods for being the child in the institute to DMFT showed negative value indicting decrease in DMFT as the duration of stay in orphanage increases. CONCLUSION The result show oral health condition in orphan children was neglected. Children from this disadvantaged background have shown a high prevalence of dental caries with low dental care utilization. PUFA index is an effective index in evaluating clinical consequences of un-treated caries. How to cite this article: Shanbhog R, Godhi BS, Nandlal B, Kumar SS, Raju V, Rashmi S. Clinical consequences of untreated dental caries evaluated using PUFA index in orphanage children from India. J Int Oral Health 2013; 5(5):1-9.
Transfer Pricing in European Union VAT Law

The aim of the thesis is to analyse the transfer pricing rules in the VAT system, namely Articles 72 and 80 of the Recast VAT directive. The thesis specifically aims to investigate the application of the open market value to improperly valued transactions between related parties, what the open market value in the VAT system is and how it is determined. The second chapter of the thesis presents an analysis of transfer pricing in European Union law and international tax law. In line with the aim of the thesis, the chapters main focus is on the transfer pricing provision of Article 80. It presents an analysis of the provision and puts it into the context of the common system of VAT, specifically by looking at how it relates to the general principles of the taxable amount being based on a subjective valuation based on the actual consideration paid for a transaction, and especially how it relates to the general principle of fiscal neutrality inherent in the VAT system. The chapter then briefly looks at transfer pricing rules in, on the one hand European Union customs law, and on the other hand international corporate income tax law. The third chapter presents an analysis of the concept of open market value as it is provided in Article 72 of the Recast VAT Directive. The concept is compared to the rules on re-valuation of the customs value in transactions between related parties in customs law. The concept of open market value is then compared to that of the arm‘s length principle used in international corporate income tax law. Lastly, the chapter asks the question whether customs valuation methods would be accepted as a basis for calculating the open market value in VAT before the European Court of Justice, and attempts to answer it. Finally, in the fourth chapter, the main conclusions of the thesis are summed up. The main findings of the thesis are that the transfer pricing provisions may be too far reaching, and possibly go against the principle of proportionality, harming the neutrality of the VAT system unnecessarily when a re-valuation to the cost or purchase price would similarly prevent tax evasion and avoidance. The provisions the thesis set out to examine are both lacking in clarity due to definitions of key concepts being to general. The corresponding concepts in the Community Customs Code don‘t suffer from this lack of clarity and it could be worthwhile looking in that direction for clarification of the VAT transfer pricing rules.
InAlN Barrier Scaled Devices for Very High  $f_{T}$ and for Low-Voltage RF Applications

We report excellent low-voltage (5 to ~ 10 V drain bias) microwave and millimeter-wave performance of deeply scaled InAn/AlN/GaN devices with field-plate gate of ~ 50-nm length, MBE regrown ohmic contacts, and sub-500-nm S-D spacing on four different wafers. These four wafers include also T-gate (no field-plate) devices with very thin passivation and smaller gate (~ 30 nm), which had (for reference) high fT/fmax of ~270/230 GHz, respectively, both for D- and E-mode devices. Their counterparts with field-plate gates (same gate geometry but with underlying dielectric) and 50-nm gates had lower fT/fmax but excellent performances at 10 GHz with up to 67%-69% power-added efficiency (PAE) at 6 V bias and 30 GHz with up to 14.4 dB associated gain and 2.6 W/mm and 39.6% PAE at 8 V bias. The noise figure of these devices at 10 GHz was ~ 0.25 dB with 3 V drain bias. We have measured the linearity [third-order intercept (TOI)] of 300- μm devices on another wafer with 90-nm field-plate gates: at 5 GHz and 5 V bias the devices had 31-dBm TOI with 0.31 W/mm, 18.5-dB gain, and 27.1% PAE.
Ant colony optimization algorithm based on space division for container loading problem

This paper studies container loading optimization problem. This problem is a subset of rectangular boxes loaded into a rectangular container with fixed dimensions such that maximize container's utilization ratio. A mathemati- cal model is given. Some principles which include space division, space merger, residual subspace omitted and loading rule are presented. A hybrid algorithm which integrate ant colony optimization algorithm with above principles is used to solve the container loading problem. The simulation results show that the model and the algorithm are effective.