Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term aging of oscillators

The authors report aging results for more than 40 oscillators, from a variety of sources, for periods ranging from 1 yr to more than 10 yr. The aging data were accumulated with an automated aging facility. The oscillators that have been tested include temperature-compensated crystal oscillators (TCXOs) and oven-controlled crystal oscillators (OCXOs). The TCXOs were maintained in a controlled temperature environment. Several of the TCXOs were built for a gun-launched sensor application and have been shown to be capable of surviving more than 30000-g shock levels of 12-ms duration. The aging results for these ruggedized TXCOs are surprisingly good (<2*10/sup -10//d). The better OCXOs exhibit long term aging of a few parts in 10/sup 12//d. <<ETX>>
Do you speak to a human or a virtual agent? automatic analysis of user’s social cues during mediated communication

While several research works have shown that virtual agents are able to generate natural and social behaviors from users, few of them have compared these social reactions to those expressed dur- ing a human-human mediated communication. In this paper, we propose to explore the social cues expressed by a user during a mediated communication either with an embodied conversational agent or with another human. For this purpose, we have exploited a machine learning method to identify the facial and head social cues characteristics in each interaction type and to construct a model to automatically determine if the user is interacting with a virtual agent or another human. e results show that, in fact, the users do not express the same facial and head movements during a communication with a virtual agent or another user. Based on these results, we propose to use such a machine learning model to automatically measure the social capability of a virtual agent to generate a social behavior in the user comparable to a human- human interaction. e resulting model can detect automatically if the user is communicating with a virtual or real interlocutor, looking only at the user’s face and head during one second.
Talent management decision making

Purpose – The paper sets out to understand the key issues that emerge in the context of decision making.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a literature review.Findings – First, the authors review debates around talent management decision making. Second, they examine some of the main factors currently influencing decision making in talent management. Third, they seek to identify some future research areas that will inform future decision making in talent management.Practical implications – The paper will be of interest to practitioners in designing and developing talent management decision systems.Originality/value – The paper presents a state of the art review of talent management decision marking.
Public and Private Partnerships for Sustainable Development in Africa: A Process Framework

This study examines the dynamic process through which public/private partnerships result in innovative business models and strategies associated with sustainable development. Using inductive theory building on twelve longitudinal case studies of companies operating in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Egypt, I trace a comprehensive and cyclical three-phase, multilevel process by which private and public actors develop, leverage, and manage strategic partnerships through the cognitive adjustment of mental models, the development of close relationships, and the collaborative crafting of alternative approaches to operating that result in simultaneous social, ecological, and economic value creation.
The development of an instructional design model as a strategic enabler for sustainable competitive advantage

In a business environment of continuous change and in light of a defined need to fast track skills improvement and development in South Africa and Africa, training strategies and practices are under increasing pressure to develop a more productive and skilled workforce. Demands on training and the practices it employs increasingly focus on the alignment with strategic imperatives of organisations and the country. This research presented an instructional design (ID) model positioned in intersection between the positioning-based and resource-based theories and used a multi-disciplinary approach to extend the literature on ID models with the aim to offer measurable improvements in job-specific knowledge and productive behaviour as proxies for sustainable competitive advantage. The research confirmed the contribution of the ID model in this regard and described and substantiated the pivotal link between training and ID models and the application thereof in practice to aid organisations and, by extension, countries, in the achievement and sustainability of competitive advantage. This, the first of two articles, presents not only the theoretical and practical context of the research, but also the development of a revised and advanced ID model. In the second article the ID model will be subjected to empirical investigation and evaluated through the application thereof in a case organisation and a grounded conclusion provided. This is the first in a series of two articles.
The Battle for Open - a perspective

In this article the author argues that openness in education has been successful in establishing itself as an approach. However, this initial victory should be viewed as part of a larger battle around the nature of openness. Drawing lessons from history and the green movement, a number of challenges for the open education movement are identified as it enters this new stage. The value of openness to education is stressed in that it relates to opportunities for development and the role of the higher education in society.
Phosphatidic Acid Phosphatase, a Key Enzyme in the Regulation of Lipid Synthesis*

PA2 phosphatase (PAP3; 3-sn-phosphatidate phosphohydrolase, EC 3.1.3.4) catalyzes the Mg2+-dependent dephosphorylation of PA, yielding DAG and Pi (Fig. 1) (1–3). In de novo lipid synthesis, the DAG generated from the PAP reaction is utilized for the synthesis of the phospholipids PE and PC via the Kennedy pathway and for the synthesis of TAG (Fig. 1) (3). The enzyme substrate PA is also used for phospholipid synthesis via CDP-DAG (Fig. 1) (1–3). In lipid signaling, PAP generates a pool of DAG used for protein kinase C activation, and by the nature of its reaction, it attenuates the signaling functions of PA (Fig. 1) (4–8). Thus, the regulation of PAP activity may govern the pathways by which phospholipids are synthesized and control the cellular contents of important signaling lipids. Recent genetic and biochemical studies in yeast and mammalian cells have revealed key roles that PAP plays in lipid metabolism and cell physiology. FIGURE 1. Roles of PAP in lipid synthesis and signaling in yeast. The reaction catalyzed by PAH1-encoded PAP (highlighted in yellow) is shown. Regulation of PAP activity plays a role in governing whether cells synthesize membrane phospholipids via CDP-DAG or .
EXPLODING THE MYTH: DO ALL QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES CONTRIBUTE TO SUPERIOR QUALITY PERFORMANCE?

In his landmark article on total quality management, Powell (1995) lamented the lack of large scale studies investigating quality management practices and performance. This study begins to fill that void using a large, random sample of manufacturing sites. The results show that quality practices can be categorized into nine dimensions. However, not all of them contribute to superior quality outcomes. “Employee commitment,” “shared vision,” and “customer focus” combine to yield a positive correlation with quality outcomes. Conversely, other “hard” quality practices, such as “benchmarking,” “cellular work teams,” “advanced manufacturing technologies,” and “close supplier relations” do not contribute to superior quality outcomes.
A Monte Carlo Study for Pooling Time Series of Cross-Section Data in the Simultaneous Equations Model

Empirical studies utilizing time-series of cross-section data are constantly appearing in virtually every field of economics. This has been made easier by the increasing availability of panel data, and the increasing capability of computers in handling large data sets. Some of the earlier studies include Mundlak [1961, 1963] and Hoch [1962] in the production function literature, Kuh [1959] in the investment function literature, and Balestra and Nerlove [1966] in the energy literature. More recent studies include Chamberlin and Griliches [1975], Hausman and Wise [1979], Lillard and Weiss [1979] in the labor literature, and Griffin [1979] and Pindyck [1980] in the energy literature, to mention only a few. Efforts to develop the econometric theory for pooling time-series of cross-section data have concentrated largely on the single equation error components model.2 More recently, Avery [1977] and Baltagi [1981b] extended this error components literature to the seemingly unrelated regressions and the simultaneous equations model, respectively. Asymptotic as well as small sample properties of various pooling estimators received adequate investigation in the single equation model.3 However, the same cannot be said about pooling estimators in the simultaneous equations case. This paper is an attempt to remedy this situation. The small sample performance of various pooling estimators in a two-equation simultaneous model are studied by means of Monte Carlo experiments. The main purpose is to provide the applied researcher with some guidelines on how to pool time-series of crosssection data in the simultaneous model. Monte Carlo studies for the classical simultaneous model are plentiful,4 as are
A new approach to modeling the system reliability: dynamic reliability block diagrams

Nowadays, also as consequence of recent chronicles, aspects like security, availability, reliability and other features of a generic system summarized under the concept of dependability are receiving increasing attention. This fact is translated into specific requirements as well as explicit and tighter constraints the system must satisfy. But sometimes, with particular reference to the reliability, there is lack of suitable tools to properly model, analyze and study in depth these aspects. To fill this gap, a new modeling tool is proposed, extending and enhancing the existing reliability block diagram (RBD) formalism: the dynamic RBD (DRBD). The DRBD permits to model the dynamic reliability behavior of a system through the proposed various dependencies models as well as redundancy and load sharing policies models. The flexible DRBD dependencies management is based on an articulated dynamic model composed by states and events. The capabilities, flexibility, and other features of the proposed new modeling approach are illustrated using the modeling of an example computer system. Different possible solution techniques are also discussed for a DRBD model: Markov chain, Petri nets, analytic, Monte Carlo simulation, and a modular approach which combines the classical analytic RBD solution and the dynamic solutions
Motion-invariant Coding Using a Programmable Aperture Camera

A moving object or camera causes motion blur in a conventional photograph, which is a fundamental problem of a camera. In this research, we propose to code a motion-invariant blur using a programmable aperture camera. The camera can realizes virtual camera motion by translating the opening, and as a result, we obtain a coded image in which motion blur is invariant with the object velocity. Thereby, we recover motion blurs without estimation of the motion blur kernels or knowledge of the object speeds. We model the projection of the programmable aperture camera, and also demonstrate that our proposed coding works for a prototype camera.
Applications of novel affinity cassette methods: use of peptide fusion handles for the purification of recombinant proteins

In this article, recent progress related to the use of different types of polypeptide fusion handles or ‘tags’ for the purification of recombinant proteins are critically discussed. In addition, novel aspects of the molecular cassette concept are elaborated, together with areas of potential application of these fundamental principles in molecular recognition. As evident from this review, the use of these concepts provides a powerful strategy for the high throughput isolation and purification of recombinant proteins and their derived domains, generated from functional genomic or zeomic studies, as part of the bioprocess technology leading to their commercial development, and in the study of molecular recognition phenomena per se. In addition, similar concepts can be exploited for high sensitivity analysis and detection, for the characterisation of protein bait/prey interactions at the molecular level, and for the immobilisation and directed orientation of proteins for use as biocatalysts/biosensors. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Adaptive mirror descent for constrained optimization

This paper seeks to address how to solve non-smooth convex and strongly convex optimization problems with functional constraints. The introduced Mirror Descent (MD) method with adaptive stepsizes is shown to have a better convergence rate than MD with fixed stepsizes due to the improved constant. For certain types of constraints, the method is proved to generate dual solution. For the strongly convex case, the ‘restart’ technique is applied.
Accurate contiguous sections without breath-holding on chest CT: value of respiratory gating and ultrafast CT.

OBJECTIVE To image truly contiguous CT sections without breath-holding, we developed a respiratory-gating device combined with ultrafast CT. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of this system, especially focusing on the contiguity of the images. SUBJECTS AND METHODS In 37 patients, we obtained respiratory-gated scans and breath-hold scans with 6-mm collimation and 6-mm incrementation (19 patients) and with 3-mm collimation and 3-mm incrementation (18 patients). We compared these two sets of images with respect to quality and contiguity. In nine patients who could not hold their breath because of dyspnea or infancy, we obtained only respiratory-gated scans with 3-mm collimation and 3-mm incrementation. Our respiratory-gating device was composed of a commercial ECG and respiratory monitor, a triggering device, an original amplifier, and an original switching unit. It was designed to control the scan timing of an ultrafast CT scanner at a user-selected level of the respiratory curve obtained with transthoracic impedance plethysmography. RESULTS The respiratory-gated images were equal in quality to the breath-hold images in 31 of the 37 patients who had both sets of images. In 15 of 19 patients who had 6-mm-thick sections and in 11 of 18 patients who had 3-mm-thick sections, satisfactory contiguous images of bronchi and pulmonary vessels were obtained. Additionally, in seven of the nine patients who could not hold their breath, satisfactory contiguous sections were obtained. CONCLUSION The respiratory gating system combined with ultrafast CT can provide contiguous CT scans without breath-holding or patients' cooperation. The procedure could improve the diagnostic accuracy of CT, especially in severely ill patients, infants, and senile patients.
Optimizing Au and In micro-bumping for 3D chip stacking

3D chip stacking technology requires repeated stacking of additional layers without remelting the bumps at lower levels of the stack. This can be achieved by transient liquid phase (TLP) bonding during which all solder is transformed into intermetallic compounds that have higher melting points than the solder itself. In this paper, we study Au/In reaction at different temperatures in order to develop a robust low temperature Au/In TLP bonding process. It is shown that the kinetics of intermetallic compound formation is diffusion-controlled, and the activation energy of Au/In reaction is temperature-dependent: 0.46 and 0.23 eV for temperatures above and below 150degC, respectively. Moreover, a thin Ti layer between Au and In is found to be an effective diffusion barrier at low temperature, while it does not inhibit intermetallic joint formation at elevated temperatures during flip-chip bonding. This allows us to control the intermetallic formation during the distinct stages of TLP bonding process. In addition, a minimal In thickness of 0.5 mum is required in order to enable TLP bonding. Finally, Au/In TLP joints of phi40 to phi60 mum are successfully fabricated at 180degC and with very small solder volume (1 mum thick). The shear strength of our phi40-60 mum joints is in the range of 6-20 MPa, and the electrical connection yield is 100% for the daisy chain containing 1380 bumps with a diameter of 60 mum.
Small Independent Merchants and Transnational Retail Encounters on Main Street: Some Insights from Bangkok

The aggressive expansion of retail transnational corporations is changing the face of much of emerging Asia's urban environment and prompting policy-makers to consider responses. Using cross-sectional survey data from 30 districts in Bangkok, this paper explores two issues: the impact of transnational, large-format retail on small, independent merchants; and, the ways in which the latter are attempting to cope with the stress associated with the arrival of the former, based on self-reported subjective measures of immediate marketing responses, sustained marketing efforts and organisational performance. The findings suggest that surviving incumbent merchants compete in different and mostly unfavourable environments compared with the status quo ante, with the overwhelming majority of these incumbents reporting negative impacts. In addition, the various responses of many of the incumbent independent merchants suggest that the latter may be unable to reverse the impact of the large retailers' arrival.
Growth, Induced Changes in Final Demand, Educational Requirements, and Wage Differentials

More specifically, section I develops a model for the analysis of the effect of changes in consumer demand on average educational requirements under rather restrictive assumptions. Some quantitative conclusions, based on income elasticities, input-output coefficients and capital-output ratios in the Israeli economy, are presented. Section II deals with the effect of changes in the composition of consumption on the demand for different levels of education, and their effect, in turn, on wage differentials. The discussion is based on the analysis and calculations of section I.
Compromised Structure and Function of HDAC8 Mutants Identified in Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Spectrum Disorders

Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (CdLS) is a multiple congenital anomaly disorder resulting from mutations in genes that encode the core components of the cohesin complex, SMC1A, SMC3, and RAD21, or two of its regulatory proteins, NIPBL and HDAC8. HDAC8 is the human SMC3 lysine deacetylase required for cohesin recycling in the cell cycle. To date, 16 different missense mutations in HDAC8 have recently been identified in children diagnosed with CdLS. To understand the molecular effects of these mutations in causing CdLS and overlapping phenotypes, we have fully characterized the structure and function of five HDAC8 mutants: C153F, A188T, I243N, T311M, and H334R. X-ray crystal structures reveal that each mutation causes local structural changes that compromise catalysis and/or thermostability. For example, the C153F mutation triggers conformational changes that block acetate product release channels, resulting in only 2% residual catalytic activity. In contrast, the H334R mutation causes structural changes in a polypeptide loop distant from the active site and results in 91% residual activity, but the thermostability of this mutant is significantly compromised. Strikingly, the catalytic activity of these mutants can be partially or fully rescued in vitro by the HDAC8 activator N-(phenylcarbamothioyl)benzamide. These results suggest that HDAC8 activators might be useful leads in the search for new therapeutic strategies in managing CdLS.
Leaving Teaching in the French-Speaking Community of Belgium: A Duration Analysis

This paper aims toward a better understanding of the factors influencing the decision of young graduates who entered teaching to stay in that profession. The field of research covers secondary education teachers in the French-speaking community of Belgium. The data analyzed comes from an administrative database containing historical records of 50 000 individuals who started teaching between 1973 and 1996. The analysis is carried out assuming a proportional hazard model and using the discrete-time method initiated by Prentice and Gloeckler ( Biometrics , 1978, 34, pp. 57-67). One of the main results is that the risk of exit is dramatically more important during the first periods of employment. The fact that this risk tends also to increase over time suggests that the dropout rate among young recruits is higher now than it was in the past. Location and labour market conditions seem to be of little impact.The risk of exit is the same in rural and urban areas and across provinces wherein unemployment rates vary dramatically. Finally, the significant deterioration of pay conditions (in relative terms) since the mid-1980s has had no significant impact on the risk of exit. Of greater importance are supply-side (organizational) elements such as the level of centralization of recruitment decisions or the level of asymmetry between tenure and non-tenure personnel regarding job protection, access to full-time position, etc.
Towards an automatic synthesis system for real-time software

An automatic synthesis system for real-time software is described. It is argued that the presence of strict operation requirements, such as task-level timing constraints and compiler and target platform constraints, guides synthesis. An automatic software synthesis system, RT-SYN, integrates platform characteristics to synthesize real-time software which meets hard deadline design requirements. The RT-SYN system has four key features. First, a visual graphical user interface captures application algorithms without implementation specifications. Second, RT-SYN analyzes the task-level data and control flows to produce worst-case timing and space predictions. Third, RT-SYN uses these predictions to choose abstract representations of data structure and algorithm implementations to meet required timing and space constraints. Fourth, RT-SYN synthesizes C code from the selected implementations. Experimental results are given to illustrate these four features. <<ETX>>
The role of non-tariff measures in EU dairy trade with Russia

This article investigates Russian non-tariff measures (NTMs) on dairy products and their implications for EU dairy exports. Based on survey results, numerous and detailed Russian standards on imported dairy products are considered by respondents as redundant and unnecessary from a food safety perspective. Conformity assessment procedures are identified as a major problem when exporting to Russia. They are non-transparent, time-consuming and expose exporters to significant risk that their products may be refused entry at the Russian border. Audits by Russian inspectors seem to be subject to arbitrary rules and exporting companies face great uncertainty because of unclear and often changing rules. Both fixed and variable costs may increase due to Russian non-tariff measures, adding an estimated 5–10% of export value to costs. The gravity model estimates indicate that, after controlling for other variables, non-tariff measures are more restrictive on US exports to Russia than on EU exports to Russia, while New Zealand's exports to Russia are least affected by NTMs. Overall, the estimates do not confirm that Russia's NTMs are significantly more restrictive than is the case with other countries' NTMs. Although Russian standards for dairy imports are inhibiting trade they are not more restrictive than those implemented by other countries.