Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Environmental Amenities as Sources for Product Differentiation and Market Power

This paper evaluates the importance of site-specific environmental amenities as a source of product differentiating market power. Using estimates from hedonic price equations and residual demand models, the analysis recovers firm-specific estimates of price markup and estimates of the marginal willingness to pay for access to coastal beaches. The application used in the analysis involves rental price and occupancy data for several thousand beach properties along a portion of the North Carolina coastline during the 1987 to 1992 rental seasons.
Preliminary Result of Unknown Object Manipulation Based on Reactive Control

In this paper, the authors proposed a novel reactive strategy to solve a unknown object local manipulation problem with an multifingered robot hand. In this method, the micro manipulation assumption is proposed and the object can be manipulated within the robot hand workspace without the active and explicit controlling about the rolling and sliding of the fingertips on the object. A 6 D.O. F reactive controller based on the hybrid of the contact force and the contact position feedback is developed. A three layer hierarchical control structure is employed to implement this manipulation strategy. The simulation experiment is run based on the physics engine-Vortex, to show the feasibility of this method. Keyword: Multifingered Hand, General Object Manipulation,Autonomous Exploration of Manual Interaction Space, Micro Manipulation
Discrete-Time Sliding Mode Tracking Control for NMP Systems Using Reduced Order Switching Function

Abstract In this paper design of reduced order switching function for a discrete-time uncertain nonminimum phase system in special coordinate basis form is proposed. The sliding mode control with this method guarantees the asymptotic stability of all states of system in presence matched disturbance. This problem is further extended to the tracking problem of discrete time uncertain nonminimum phase systems. The results obtained with reduced order sliding surface design are compared with the results of full order sliding surface.
Distributed Extremum Seeking Control of networked large-scale systems under constraints

We consider the distributed optimization problem of networked large-scale systems under specified constraints. In particular, we aim to optimize the steady-state performance of the system by making it (in a distributed manner) working at the optimal operation point. To solve the problem, a primal-dual method is employed to seek the optimal setpoint in conjunction with Extremum Seeking Control (ESC) which is utilized as a tool for efficient gradient estimation without knowing the specific form of the cost functions as well as the constraints of the system. The proposed overall scheme is termed as Distributed Extremum Seeking Control (D-ESC) as it is designed based on the ESC scheme and implemented in a distributed way. It will be shown, by resorting to singular perturbation and averaging theory as well as duality theory, that the overall networked large-scale system equipped with D-ESC is Semi-globally Practically Asymptotically Stable (SPAS) and thus will eventually converge to the neighborhood of the Pareto-optimal solution of the primal problem.
Nonlinear realization of pure N=4,D=5 supergravity

We perform the nonlinear realization or the coset formulation of the pure N=4, D=5 supergravity. We derive the Lie superalgebra which parameterizes a coset map whose induced Cartan-Maurer form produces the bosonic field equations of the pure N=4, D=5 supergravity by canonically satisfying the Cartan-Maurer equation. We also obtain the first-order field equations of the theory as a twisted self-duality condition for the Cartan-Maurer form within the geometrical framework of the coset construction.
CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION : PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE Concurrency Computat

A Resource Space Grid is a virtual Grid that aims at effectively sharing, using and managing versatile resources across the Internet. The kernel of the Resource Space Grid includes a Resource Space Model (RSM) and a uniform Resource Using Mechanism (RUM). This paper presents the Resource Space Grid’s core scientific issues and methodology, architecture, model and theory, design criteria and method, and practice. A normal form theory is proposed to normalize the resource space—a coordinate system for uniformly specifying and organizing resources. The RUM provides not only the end-users with an operable resource browser to operate resources using the built-in Resource Operation Language (ROL), but also the application developers with the ROL-based programming environment. The prototype platform based on the proposed model and method has been implemented and used for sharing and managing resources in distributed research teams. Operations on Resource Spaces can constitute the virtual communities of Resource Space Grids—a platform independent resource sharing environment. Copyright c © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Discussion: “The Ohlson Model: Contribution to Valuation Theory, Limitations, and Empirical Applications”

Writing a paper that reviews the academic literature in a particular area is difficult and potentially offensive to the reviewed authors. Writing a discussion of such a paper is even more difficult, especially if the discussant’s own work is being reviewed as well. With this full-disclosure statement, I find the paper of Lo and Lys (LL) a good starting point for thinking about the Ohlson (1995) model (OM), its contributions, and its implications for accounting research. I also find it to have several fundamental errors. LL do a good job differentiating between the residual income valuation (RIV) and the OM. Their analysis about the lack of potential interest in testing the RIV is very intuitive. Refuting the RIV is more likely to be seen by the academic community as the result of shortcomings in the testing methodology than violations of the fundamental valuation equation or of the no-arbitrage condition. Indeed, LL point out that deviations from RIV are likely to occur because (1) the clean surplus relationship (CSR) is violated in practice, (2) empirical tests necessarily truncate the infinite series of abnormal earnings, or both. LL examine in Table 1 of their paper the extent to which CSR is violated in practice. Based on the evidence in that table, they conclude that dirty surplus items are economically significant, and suggest a way to deal with them by a slight modification of the OM. However, their measure of comprehensive income and the resulting dirty surplus measure that they use are theoretically and empirically incorrect. Comprehensive income should be based on the change in book value of equity over the period plus net dividends. LL estimate comprehensive income from the change in retained earnings (Compustat item 36) plus dividends (Compustat items 21 and 19). Note that capital infusions or withdrawals by owners should not affect comprehensive income. However, Compustat’s definition of retained earnings includes reacquired stock! Thus, retained earnings can decrease simply because of a stock repurchase that should theoretically be added to dividends. Of course, there are other reasons why retained earnings can change, although total book value of equity does not, one of which (stock dividends) is mentioned by LL in a footnote. Ignoring these reasons can substantially inflate their estimated dirty surplus. Furthermore, due to acquisitions, divestitures, and accounting errors or some accounting changes, LL should have used the restated book value at the beginning
Management of Softwrare Product Development, Innovation and Adaptability

This inductive study develops a model of innovation and adaptability in software product development. It is based on a case study of a company that is transitioning from a custom development approach to a product-based solution. The emergent model represents a synthesis of the case study findings and the enfolding literature from traditional product development and software development. The goal of the emergent software product development model is to guide organizations in their selection of development processes.
Stabilization of LTV systems over uncertain channels

In this paper, we study the problem of control of discrete-time linear time varying systems over uncertain channels. The uncertainty in the channels is modeled as a stochastic random variable. We use exponential mean square stability of the closed-loop system as a stability criterion. We show that fundamental limitations arise for the mean square exponential stabilization for the closed-loop system expressed in terms of statistics of channel uncertainty and the positive Lyapunov exponent of the open-loop uncontrolled system. Our results generalize the existing results known in the case of linear time invariant systems, where Lyapunov exponents are shown to emerge as the generalization of eigenvalues from linear time invariant systems to linear time varying systems. Simulation results are presented to verify the main results of this paper.
LEACH-HPR: An energy efficient routing algorithm for Heterogeneous WSN

In wireless sensor network, there are many hurdles takes place in providing quality of service routing to a desired level. The majority of routing protocols in wireless sensor networks concentrates on energy efficiency as a prime factor. Developing an energy-efficient routing protocol has a significant impact on the overall lifetime and stability of the sensor network. In this paper, we have considered three types of sensor nodes. Some fraction of the sensor nodes are equipped with the additional energy resources than the other nodes. We have assumed that all the sensor nodes are uniformly distributed. In the Heterogeneous WSN, we proposed an energy efficient cluster head election protocol (LEACH-HPR) and using the minimum spanning tree algorithm to construct an inter-cluster routing. Simulation results show out method is more efficient to reduce and balance energy consumption and hence prolong the lifetime of WSN.
Analytical performance comparison of deterministic, partially- and fully-adaptive routing algorithms in binary n-cubes

In this paper, we study the effect of adaptivity of routing algorithm on the overall performance in a hypercube multicomputer using wormhole switching. To this end, we use three accurate analytical models proposed for deterministic, fully-adaptive, and partially-adaptive routing algorithms in hypercube. Surprisingly, our analysis shows that under uniform traffic load, the partially-adaptive routing exhibits a lower performance compared to the deterministic routing with less adaptivity
Channel assignment and scheduling in multichannel wireless sensor networks

We develop a novel collision-free channel assignment and scheduling mechanism (CFCS) for multichannel wireless sensor networks. Firstly, each node is assigned with a quiescent channel to reduce hidden terminal beforehand and then it makes channel adjustment according to dynamic traffic. Secondly, a scalable multichannel scheduling is designed to make a tradeoff between overhead and fairness. We have implemented simulation to evaluate the performance of CFCS by comparing with other relevant protocols. The results show that our protocol exhibits more prominent ability, which utilizes multichannel to make parallel transmission and reduce hidden terminal problems effectively in resource-constrained wireless sensor networks.
Proposal of Medical KDD Support User Interface Utilizing Rule Interestingness Measures

This paper discusses the utilization of rule interestingness measures in medical KDD. The authors selected various interestingness measures and conducted experiments using clinical datasets to examine how they can estimate real human interest. The results indicate that some of them have a stable, reasonable estimation performance and the combinational use of interestingness measures will contribute to medical KDD. We then developed a prototype of medical KDD support user interface based on the experimental outcomes. We conducted a case study in which a medical expert tried to discover medical knowledge with the prototype. Some interesting rules were actually obtained and that indicates the potential of the user interface
Structured modeling based on generalized variable parameter HMMs and speaker adaptation

It is a challenging task that to handle ambient variable acoustic factors in automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. The ambient variable noise and the distinct acoustic factors among speakers are two key issues for recognition task. To solve these problems, we present a new framework for robust speech recognition based on structured modeling, using generalized variable parameter HMMs (GVP-HMMs) and unsupervised speaker adaptation (SA) to compensate the mismatch from environment and speaker variability. GVP-HMMs can explicitly approximate the continuous trajectory of Gaussian component mean, variance and linear transformation parameter with a polynomial function against the varying noise level. In recognition stage, MLLR transform captures general relationship between the original model set and the current speaker, which could help in removing the effects of unwanted speaker factors. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is confirmed by evaluation experiment on a medium vocabulary Mandarin recognition task.
A systematic analytical method for PKM stiffness matrix calculation

The purpose of this work is to propose a new approach for the calculation of PKM stiffness matrix by using an analytical method based on matrix structural analysis. This method has as the main advantage to be systematic and it also can be applied to hyper-static PKM stiffness analysis. The implementation of the proposed method is fast and convenient and it can easily be involved during PKM design optimization. Moreover, as the stiffness matrix is obtained in a close form, it can be implemented directly on the robot controller. In other words, the proposed method could be used to reduce the gap existing between actual PKM and those that have to meet the high accuracy specifications required for machining applications. At first this paper presents the proposed analytical method that is applied to calculate the stiffness matrix of a delta parallel structure. Then the experimental results that have been done to evaluate and validate its efficiency are presented
Optimizing the transmit power for slow fading channels

We consider the design of power-adaptive systems for minimizing the average bit-error rate over flat fading channels. Channel state information, obtained through estimation at the receiver, is sent to the transmitter over a feedback channel, where it is used to optimally adapt the transmit power. We consider finite-state optimal policies to reflect the limitations of the feedback channel. We develop an iterative algorithm that determines the optimal finite-state power control policy given the probability density function (PDF) of the fading. Next, we present a discretized formulation of the problem and obtain a suboptimal solution via standard dynamic programming techniques. The discretization of the problem enables us to obtain a suboptimal policy for arbitrary fading channels for which the analytic expression of the fading probability density function is not available. Simulation results are used to draw conclusions regarding the effects of limited feedback channel capacity, delay and number of states on the bit-error rate performance of the proposed policies under slow and moderate fading conditions.
Title: Fdi Entry Modes and Host Country Differences Title: Fdi Entry Modes and the Relevance of Host Country Differences

Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows have contributed to the productive and technological upgrading of many host economies, whereas the discussion about the entry modes of multinational companies (MNC) and developmental effects is far from being concluded. Our aim is to exam the relative importance of host country differences in the understanding of FDI configuration and their modes of entry, considering crossborder merger and acquisitions (M&A) explicitly. The paper explores the interplay between the effects of FDI in locations and to what extent the structural transformations in host countries could raise their capacities for the attraction of FDI via M&A. We hypothesise that, adopting a dynamic perspective, the behaviour of inward FDI and a country’s level of development would describe a co-evolutionary process in which institutional stability and the consolidation of absorptive capacities become key driver mechanisms. The empirical analysis is built upon a sample of countries with dissimilar level of development using longitudinal data for the period 1998-2004. The findings confirm that the relative weigh of host countries characteristics may differ for crossborder M&A, being noticeable the diversity of the developing world and the potential of emerging economies, supporting the need to investigate new drivers for the attraction of
Cardiovascular Risk During the Menopause

Although initial experimental data and results of observational studies suggest that hormone replacement ther- apy (HRT) is associated with a reduction in the risk of heart disease, the results for events such as stroke or thromboem- bolism are less clear. Randomized secondary and primary prevention studies have found that HRT is not protective against the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke or progression of atherosclerosis. Therefore, HRT therapy should not be initiated to prevent vascular disease among postmenopausal women. There are numerous explanations for the divergent findings of observational and randomized clinical trials of HRT. For example, study design and differing biological effects of HRT on vascular risk factors. The use of HRT for young postmenopausal women with moderate to severe menopausal vasomotor symptoms appears to be safe. The absolute risk of vascular event associated with HRT is low and varies depending on factors like age or years since the menopause. The presence or absence of cardiovascular risk factors determines the differences in vascular risk linked to HRT. Further studies should identify the mechanisms involved and determine whether and how different regimens of HRT in- fluence vascular risk as well as the influence of individual patient characteristics.
Leveling the Field: Talking Levels in Cognitive Science

This thesis aims to advance the study of cognitive science by examining the “levels metaphor. ” The levels metaphor is defined as the application of levels talk to various aspects of scientific investigation. The thesis examines several applications of the levels metaphor within cognitive science and provides a conceptual framework for analyzing discussion. The thesis argues for a pluralistic approach to levels. The main claim is that different applications of the levels metaphor are justified insofar as attention is paid to how and why the metaphor is deployed. To show that my approach has practical applications, I discuss the role of levels within computational cognitive modeling.
Draft Genome Sequence of Ralstonia sp. Strain GA3-3, Isolated from Australian Suburban Soil

ABSTRACT Ralstonia sp. strain GA3-3 is a hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH)-degrading bacterial strain isolated from suburban soil in Canberra, Australia. The genome of strain GA3-3 was sequenced to investigate its ability to degrade α-HCH. Here, we report the annotated genome sequence of this strain.
Algorithms for Multi-Aircraft Re-Routing Under Uncertainties

A major portion of the delay in the Air Traffic Management Systems (ATMS) in US and Europe arises from the convective weather. In the current practice of managing air traffic, the predicted storm zones are considered as deterministic obstacles and hence they are completely avoided. As a result, the current strategy is too conservative and incurs a high delay. In reality, the dynamics of the convective weather is stochastic in nature. Hence, the capacity of the airspace is probabilistic, which reduces drastically with the convective weather. Our research objective is to deal with the dynamic and stochastic nature of the storms and add recourse in the routing and the flow management problem. We address the multi-aircraft flow management problem using a stochastic dynamic programming algorithm, where the evolution of the weather is modelled as a stationary Markov chain. Our solution provides a dynamic routing strategy for ”N-aircraft” that minimizes the expected delay of the overall system while taking into consideration the constraints obtained by the sector capacities, as well as avoidance of conflicts among the aircraft. Our simulation suggests that a significant improvement in delay can be obtained by using our methods over the existing methods. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley. Internet: nilim@eecs.berkeley. edu Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley. Internet: elghaoui@eecs.berkeley. edu Euro Control Experimental Centre, BP 15 91222 Brtigny-sur-Orge, Cedex, France. Internet: vu.duong@eurocontrol.fr
Local-universality: designing EMR to support localized informal documentation practices

In this paper, we describe a practice that is common across multiple heterogeneous contexts but enacted differently depending on the unique constellation of resources and demands present in each local context. Using the case of informal documentation practices in two departments of a single hospital, Emergency and Labor & Delivery, we describe how clinicians in each department develop contextualized informal documentation practices after deployment of a new EMR system. We describe three underlying functions of informal documentation that are inherent to the practice of medical personnel: "memory work," abstraction work," and "future work. " We then find that the newly deployed EMR technology does not support these kinds of work. We argue that hospital documentation work systems should be designed with an eye to such universal work practices, while keeping in mind that the effectiveness of informal documentation practices is rooted in its adaptive and flexible deployment in heterogeneous work settings.
Development of a “ one step Real Time PCR ” method for animal meat detection in feedstuffs

Restrictions in the use of meat and bone meal (MBM) as ruminant feedstuffs were introduced by the European Commission as a response to the BSE spreading. The present paper describes an innovative protocol based on molecular techniques for the detection of animal contaminants using the Real-time PCR approach in “one step”. Two sets of primers and probes were designed in a highly conserved region of vegetables and Vertebrate mitochondrial DNA and were used to amplify DNA extracted from laboratory made samples prepared mixing pure vegetal feedstuffs with different concentration of commercial meals of animal origin. This approach revealed to be effective for the detection of up to 0.5 % of different animal meals (bovine, porcine, ovine, rabbit, chicken, turkey, fish) in a mixture with pure vegetal feedstuff. This method may represent a valid alternative to current diagnostic methods for monitoring the quality of animal feedstuffs.