Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MIMO-OTFS in High-Doppler Fading Channels: Signal Detection and Channel Estimation

Orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation is a recently introduced multiplexing technique designed in the 2-dimensional (2D) delay-Doppler domain suited for high-Doppler fading channels. OTFS converts a doubly-dispersive channel into an almost non-fading channel in the delay-Doppler domain through a series of 2D transformations. In this paper, we focus on MIMO-OTFS which brings in the high spectral and energy efficiency benefits of MIMO and the robustness of OTFS in high-Doppler fading channels. The OTFS channel-symbol coupling and the sparse delay-Doppler channel impulse response enable efficient MIMO channel estimation in high Doppler environments. We present an iterative algorithm for signal detection based on message passing and a channel estimation scheme in the delay-Doppler domain suited for MIMO-OTFS. The proposed channel estimation scheme uses impulses in the delay-Doppler domain as pilots for estimation. We also compare the performance of MIMO-OTFS with that of MIMO-OFDM under high Doppler scenarios.
Adipose-Derived Stem Cells, their Secretome, and Wound Healing

Adipose tissue is an abundant source of progenitor cells with multidifferentiation potential and these cells, termed adipose-derived stem cells (ASC), have become an important proposed treatment for use in wound healing. The ability of these cells to increase angiogenesis (vessels arise from other vessels) and vasculogenesis (vessels arise from progenitor cells), produce growth factors and cytokines, produce cell matrix proteins, and increase cell proliferation place them in a unique position to improve wound healing.
Tax Evasion, Tax Rates, and Reference Dependence

Using cumulative prospect theory as a notable example of reference-dependent preference, we revisit the basic portfolio model of tax evasion. We show that some controversial implications of the standard expected-utility theory, including that of a negative relationship between tax rates and evaded income, can be corrected in a direction more consistent with intuition and empirical evidence.
A robust forced dynamic sliding mode minimum energy position controller for permanent magnet synchronous motor drives

As a contribution towards improving the environment, a new position controller for vector controlled electric drives employing permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) is presented that achieves approximately 27% less frictional energy loss than a conventional controller adjusted to give the same manoeuvre time for the same initial and final positions. The frictional energy loss minimisation is carried out within the constraint of a velocity-time profile of fixed form to achieve prescribed manoeuvre times for relatively large step reference position changes. Optimal settings of the parameters of the velocity-time profile are made to minimise the energy loss. The control system robustness is achieved through the use of two control techniques, forced dynamic control (FDC) and sliding mode control (SMC), which maintain the velocity-time profile regardless of the mechanical load presented to the motor. The closed loop system automatically enters a linear operational mode with prescribed dynamics as the demanded position is approached, enabling derivative feed forward pre-compensation techniques to eliminate dynamic lag if needed. Vector control is achieved by an FDC direct axis current control loop with zero reference input, assuming a non-salient PMSM. The only information required from the user is the reference position and the required manoeuvre time. For commissioning, no time consuming adjustment of PI controllers is needed in contrast to conventional vector controlled drives. Only the following parametric entries are needed: a) the motor power and voltage ratings, the permanent magnet flux, the number of pole pairs and an estimate of the total moment of inertia presented to the rotor, to calculate the maximum rotor angular acceleration magnitude for which no motor control torque saturation can occur and b) the settling time for the FDC direct axis current control. Since a specified manoeuvre time may be realised, the method is especially suited to applications in which more than one position control loop has to be coordinated. The performance of the new controller and its advantages over a conventional controller adjusted to yield the same settling time are demonstrated by simulations.
World Heritage Sites: The Purposes and Politics of Destination Branding

ABSTRACT Stakeholder management and politics have been described as key component of destination branding (Balakrishnan, 2009). This article investigates the impact of political influences on destination branding by examining a sample of 94 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites (WHS) in 54 countries to determine whether democracy and political instability have a significant influence on the decisions of national tourism offices (NTOs) to promote their WHS as tourist destinations. It also examines the relative importance of political instability and democracy on the promotion of WHS by NTOs in comparison to other influences such as stewardship, economic development, and tourism. One of the key contributions of this article is that it applies a multivariate analysis to a field dominated by case study methodologies and suggests the potential complementarities between the two approaches. Democracy, it is hypothesized, facilitates the give and take inherent in reaching a common consensus among stakeholders on the nature and special meaning of a destination. It increases a society or country's civic capacity for collective action. Political instability, by contrast, is assumed to complicate the building of a consensus that enables nations to invest in and promote their heritage sites. The findings of this study suggest that the degree of democracy in a society has a significant role in encouraging the promotion of WHS as destinations. Political instability, by contrast, does not appear to have a significant impact in that regard. Democracy also appears to have a greater influence on the promotion of WHS by NTOs than influences such as economic development, quality of stewardship, and tourism.
Ethical Decision Making in School Mental Health

Ethical predicaments are endemic for mental health professionals working in a host setting like schools. New interventions, evolving technologies, and a patchwork of ethical guidelines and legal codes create a constant stream of new ethical dilemmas. Quick answers and simple solutions are rare, but with the seven-stage model presented here, readers will learn to apply an ethical decision-making process that minimizes their liability while better protecting their students. Beginning with an introduction to the moral, legal, and clinical foundations that undergird ethical practice, the authors outline an ethical decision-making process to handle conundrums that includes seven major steps: know yourself, analyze the dilemma, seek consultation, identify courses of action, manage the clinical concerns, enact the decision, and reflect on the process. Each chapter describes these steps in detail, provides case examples to illustrate their application, and presents exercises that encourage readers to integrate them into their everyday practice. This handy guide is written for the school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, and school counselors who are responsible for acting in their students' best interests, as well as post-secondary students studying to enter one of these professions. It will be a trusted resource for school services professionals seeking clear but nuanced guidance in resolving thorny ethical issues.
The Relations among Organizational and Distribution Forms and Capital and Asset Risk Structures in the Life Insurance Industry

This article is the first step toward integrating in a single framework two previously separate lines of research on major structural decisions of life insurers. The literature has previously studied the relation between capital structure and asset risk on the one hand, and the relation between organizational form and distribution system on the other hand, without integrating them. Using life insurer data for 1993-1999, we model the four key insurer decisions of capital structure, asset risk, organizational form, and distribution system as endogenous choices in a single interrelated set of simultaneous equations. The model assesses the nature of the interactions among these decisions. The model also assesses the impact of insurers' fundamental business strategy (treated as predetermined) on these choices. The "business-strategy hypothesis" views other key decisions as jointly determined and driven by the fundamental business strategy, once the latter is set in motion. Confirming previous studies, we find a positive relation between capital ratios and asset risk. We also find an association in the simultaneous context between stock ownership and brokerage distribution, which was not found in prior studies. Stock ownership is related to greater financial and asset risk taking, whereas brokerage distribution is associated with lower risk taking. These and other results are interpreted in light of several theories, including transaction-cost economics (TCE), agency theory, and regulatory and bankruptcy cost avoidance. Deriving from these theories, the finite risk paradigm emerges as the most comprehensive interpretation of the results, as opposed to the risk-subsidy hypothesis of the impact of guarantee funds. We also find support for the notion that the business strategy drives the capital and distribution decisions, as predicted by TCE. Copyright The Journal of Risk and Insurance.
Reform of the tax on reversions of excess pension assets

Abstract This study quantifies the possible consequences to stakeholders of reforms to the excise tax on reversions of excess pension assets. Under the US Pension Protection Act (PPA) of 2006, funding in defined benefit (DB) plans is likely to improve significantly. Many plans may become overfunded over time, owing to the shortfall amortizations mandated by the PPA, as well as to precautionary contributions by sponsors and to plan investment returns. This analysis shows that a more moderate excise tax rate together with a reasonable funding threshold for asset reversions would not only enable sponsors to spend the excess funds on other corporate needs, thereby lowering the cost of sponsorship of DB plans, but also would open a considerable revenue source for the government, with only a small increase in bankruptcy cost for the PBGC. Plan participants could also gain in an alternative reform, which would require a partial transfer of excess assets to them along with a still-lower reversion tax rate. These findings also hold for plan sponsors with various degrees of risk tolerance or only making the PPA-required minimum contributions.
Frederikshavn indtager "the global catwalk"

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Probabilistic commercial load profiles at different climate zones

This paper presents a numerical representation for commercial load profiles based on different climate zones. The load profiles of 16 commercial buildings located in 935 cities representing 50 States in the United States (U.S.) are clustered using k-means considering the geographic coordinates and the time zones. The geographic coordinate works as a local criterion to assign a climate zone for cities within the state, the time zone acts as a regional criterion to group cities with the same climate zone in different states based on their time zones. The clusters are evaluated using both external and internal validity indices. A total of 16 annual load profiles are used as representative for 16 different climate zones for each commercial building in this paper. Unlike the prevalent illustration for the commercial load profiles in the literature using graph representation, the obtained profiles in this study are numerically presented. This paper contributes to the literature by proposing a numerical representation for commercial load profiles at 16 climate zones, which are in turn can be used widely in smart grid application.
Zipf's Law for Firms: Relevance of Birth and Death Processes

Zipf's law states that, for most countries, the number of firms with size greater than S is inversely proportional to S. Most explanations start with Gibrat's rule of proportional growth but need to incorporate additional constraints and ingredients introducing deviations from it. We show that combining Gibrat's rule at all firm levels with random processes of firms' births and deaths yield Zipf's law under a "balance" condition between firm growth and their death rate. We predict deviations from Zipf's law under a variety of circumstances, which provides a framework for identifying the possible origin(s) of the many reports of deviations from the pure Zipf's law. Reciprocally, deviations from Zipf's law in a given economy provides a diagnostic, suggesting possible policy corrections.
Notes for a Panel on Entrepreneurship in Business History

I want to begin with a question. Why did the historical study of entrepreneurship take such a decidedly “organizational turn” during the 1950s? One might have thought that a Research Center in Entrepreneurial History would have stimulated work on the individual entrepreneur; that it might have encouraged a focus on such questions as exactly why and how individual entrepreneurs created and sustained new businesses.
Implementing Competency-Based Medical Education in a Postgraduate Family Medicine Residency Training Program: A Stepwise Approach, Facilitating Factors, and Processes or Steps That Would Have Been Helpful.

PROBLEM In 2009-2010, the postgraduate residency training program at the Department of Family Medicine, Queen's University, wrestled with the practicalities of competency-based medical education (CBME) implementation when its accrediting body, the College of Family Physicians of Canada, introduced the competency-based Triple C curriculum. APPROACH The authors used a stepwise approach to implement CMBE; the steps were to (1) identify objectives, (2) identify competencies, (3) map objectives and competencies to learning experiences and assessment processes, (4) plan learning experiences, (5) develop an assessment system, (6) collect and interpret data, (7) adjust individual residents' training programs, and (8) distribute decisions to stakeholders. The authors also note overarching processes, costs, and facil itating factors and processes or steps that would have been helpful for CBME implementation. OUTCOMES Early outcomes are encouraging. Residents are being directly observed more often with increased documented feedback about performance based on explicit competency standards (24,000 data points for 150 residents from 2013 to 2015). These multiple observations are being collated in a way that is allowing the identification of patterns of performance, red flags, and competency development trajectory. Outliers are being identified earlier, resulting in earlier individualized modification of their residency training program. NEXT STEPS The authors will continue to provide and refine faculty development, are developing an entrustable professional activity field note app for handheld devices, and are undertaking research to explore what facilitates learners' competency development, what increases assessors' confidence in making competence decisions, and whether residents are better trained as a result of CBME implementation.
Recombinant tissue plasminogen activators (rtPA): A review

INTRODUCTION Acute ischemic stroke (AIS), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and pulmonary embolism (PE) represent main causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. These clinical conditions result from an imbalance of the hemostatic system, leading to thrombosis. Recombinant tissue plasminogen activators (rtPAs) are used in patients with AIS, AMI, and PE to treat thrombus. This review focuses on the pharmacology and clinical applications of rtPAs, and therapeutic strategies to improve thrombolytic therapy.
The Search for Muon Neutrinos from Northern Hemisphere Gamma-Ray Bursts with AMANDA

We present the results of the analysis of neutrino observations by the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) correlated with photon observations of more than 400 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in the northern hemisphere from 1997 to 2003. During this time period, AMANDA’s effective collection area for muon neutrinos was larger than that of any other existing detector. After the application of various selection criteria to our data, we expect ~1 neutrino event and <2 background events. Based on our observations of zero events during and immediately prior to the GRBs in the data set, we set the most stringent upper limit on muon neutrino emission correlated with GRBs. Assuming a Waxman-Bahcall spectrum and incorporating all systematic uncertainties, our flux upper limit has a normalization at 1 PeV of E2Φν ⩽ 6.3 × 10−9 GeV cm−2 s−1 sr−1, with 90% of the events expected within the energy range of ~10 TeV to ~3 PeV. The impact of this limit on several theoretical models of GRBs is discussed, as well as the future potential for detection of GRBs by next-generation neutrino telescopes. Finally, we briefly describe several modifications to this analysis in order to apply it to other types of transient point sources.
On the difficulty of recognizing distinct Symbiodinium species in mixed communities of algal symbionts

A clear understanding of species diversity among reef organisms, particularly among reef corals and their symbionts, is imperative for accurately understanding the ecology of these environments and assesses changes caused by natural and anthropogenic disturbance (Mouillot et al. 2016). In their paper, Wham & LaJeunesse (in press) reinterpret the microsatellite data set we collected (Wirshing et al. 2013) from the algal symbionts (Symbiodinium B1 sensu LaJeunesse 2001) that associate with the gorgonian octocoral Eunicea flexuosa Lamouroux, 1821. They suggest that the data set contains two separate species of Symbiodinium Freudenthal, 1962, and caution against the commonly used approach of using ITS-2 based DGGE to identify Symbiodinium at the species level (LaJeunesse 2001; LaJeunesse et al. 2010). This new method of identifying cryptic species is noteworthy and can potentially advance our knowledge of species boundaries among previously defined Symbiodinium ‘types’ that associate with corals and other invertebrate and protist hosts. However, while we agree that the application of higher resolution methods to the study of Symbiodinium can result in greater insight at the species level (LaJeunesse & Thornhill 2011), we suggest an alternate hypothesis for our data that the deepand shallowwater ‘species’ proposed by Wham & LaJeunesse (in press) in fact represent two divergent populations that have become isolated over time by virtue of having been commonly, but not specifically, segregated within particular host lineages (in this case the ‘deep’ and ‘shallow’ water lineages of E. flexuosa described by Prada & Hellberg 2013; Prada et al. 2014). Such symbionts would have very few opportunities to interbreed, but if they did, and these interbred symbionts were then acquired by a coral host, they might be relatively rare to find in sampled coral populations. This alternate hypothesis, which is not addressed by Wham & LaJeunesse (in press), highlights the difficulty of identifying and describing new species of Symbiodinium (particularly when they occur in mixed communities) and suggests we should remain cautious so that new species are not described inaccurately (Carstens et al. 2013). We outline three issues that are not resolved in Wham & LaJeunesse’s re-analysis that exemplify our concerns:
Estimating Time Series Models Using the Relevant Cost Function

In many forecasting problems, the forecast cost function is used only in evaluating the forecasts; a second cost function is used in estimating the parameters in the model. In this paper, I explore some of the ways in which the forecast cost function can be used in estimating the parameters and, more generally, in producing the forecasts. I define the optimal forecast and note that it may depend on the entire conditional distribution of the data, which is typically unknown. I then consider three of the steps involved in forming the forecast: approximating the optimal forecast, selecting the model, and estimating any unknown parameters. The forecast cost function forms the basis of the approximation, selection, and estimation. The methods are illustrated using time series models applied to 15 US macroeconomic series and in a small Monte Carlo experiment. Copyright 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Polity Size and Local Political Trust: A Quasi-experiment Using Municipal Mergers in Denmark

This article examines the relationship between polity size and political trust in local government for which two schools of thought offer opposing expectations. The theoretical disagreement has received considerable attention and this article contributes with a dynamic perspective of how changes in polity size affect changes in citizens' political trust on the input-side of local government. The case examined is the recent municipal mergers in Denmark which were implemented on 1 January 2007. The article reports an analysis of a panel based on a repeated survey of Danish citizens using an untreated control group design with pre-test and post-test. A quasi-experimental difference-in-difference identification strategy is used to obtain the effect of municipal size on local political trust. The results show that changes in municipal size negatively affect local political trust, which is consistent with the expectation from the political economy theory that political trust tends to decrease with the size of the polity.
How Exports Matter: Trade Patterns Over Development Stages

In this paper we first propose a proxy for the maturity of a countrys export bundle based on product life cycle theory. Employing a conditional latent class model, we then examine the effect of maturity of countries exports on their economic growth for 98 countries over the period 1988 to 2005. We find that this effect is different across three endogenously determined growth regimes and that real GDP per capita predicts the regime membership. We show that the richest countries grow faster when they specialize in less mature products in an advanced country regime. The effect of maturity turns insignificant for the least advanced countries in our developing country regime. And at intermediate levels of GDP per capita, in an emerging country regime, countries grow faster and exhibit strong convergence by exporting more mature products. Our results confirm earlier evidence that what you export matters for growth. But more importantly, our analysis shows that when you export matters too. Countries in early stages of development should focus on acquiring market share in mature markets with routine technologies whereas emerging economies face the challenge of at some point switching from mature to new products as they approach the technology frontier. At that frontier they must join the advanced economies who continuously switch into (increasingly) less mature innovative products to stay ahead of increasing competition from abroad.