Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Shift-Share Regression: An Application to Regional Employ-ment Development

This paper presents an outline of the so-called Shift-Share Regression and an application of this method to the analysis of employment development. The method used is not a deterministic decomposition such as the classical Shift-Share-Analysis, but a powerful, yet simple and flexible econometric tool to test theory-related hypotheses, which can be applied as a 'work-horse' in studies of many kinds. Classical deterministic Shift-Share-Analysis has often been criticised, since it does not permit a model-based analysis. The detection of causal effects is at least problematic and the inclusion of additional explanatory variables is possible only in special cases. A major problem is the nature of the method as a deterministic procedure which excludes significance tests. Shift-Share Regression is able to overcome all these critical points. In a basic version it was introduced by Patterson (1991) as a method for analysing and testing regional industrial developments. In contrary to the deterministic Shift-Share-Analysis employment development was examined in a linear model. In Patterson's analysis the industrial sector structure was used as the sole determining factor alongside the location effects and the national trend. We extend this basic structure further: In our case, the effects of sectoral structures, establishment size, qualification structures and locational determinants on employment growth are studied. The regional units used are districts of Western Germany ('Landkreise' and 'kreisfreie StA¤dte'), especially in the present context the districts of the federal State of Bavaria. The analysis is motivated by theoretical considerations of different sources. The most important one refers to theoretical analyses of structural change. According to a specific theorem, the employment effect of technological progress depends on the elasticity of product demand. If demand is inelastic the direct labour saving effect of technological progress is dominating and the effect is negative. Then it is profitable for a firm to reduce its labour force. If, however, demand is elastic a compensating effect dominates. In this case price decreases following higher productivity lead to an extension of product demand which (over-)comÂ¬pensates the direct labour saving effect. Then, it is profitable for a firm to increase the size of its labour force. It can be assumed that in different industries of an economy different demand elasticities are dominating. Therefore, an empirical analysis of employment effects should focus on the industries of an economy. In the paper the sources of different regional employment development in Bavaria are presented, analysed by Shift-Share Regression.
The Effectiveness of a proposed system Based on desktop virtual reality to promote the basic concepts of Computer security

Teaching information security faces a lot of problems because, it has many abstract concepts which are difficult to understand and imagine in the traditional methods of teaching. In this paper, we have designed a proposed system based on desktop virtual reality to promote the basic concepts of computer security using animated visualization 3D objects. That helps students to understand and simulate. The study was conducted to observe the effectiveness of the proposed system. The students were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Computer security concepts were taught via the proposed system in the experimental, and via the traditional lecture method in the control group. The statistical analysis of the students’ results showed that the experimental group had a significantly greater increase in academic’s achievement than the control group. It was conducted that the system had been significantly beneficial on student’s learning.
ITS for Sustainable Mobility: A Survey on Applications and Impact Assessment Tools

Road transportation is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions, which lead to global warming and climate change. Promoting the decarbonization of this sector through more efficient and greener mobility is a challenging task that can be achieved by intelligent transportation systems (ITS) enabled by vehicular communications. In this paper, we briefly present how mobility players and enablers (driver, vehicle, and road network) influence energy consumption and pollutant emissions. Furthermore, this survey paper details how different ITS, ranging from eco-routing to intelligent intersection management, can lead to sustainable mobility by promoting a more efficient vehicle usage and enhanced efficiency on road network utilization. Results shown that ITS has the potential to considerably reduce fuel consumption and pollutant emissions, namely, by smoothing the traffic flow, reducing the number of start-stops, and reducing the total travel distance. In addition, we present and analyze two main methods for evaluating green transportation systems: 1) field operational tests; and 2) simulation-based evaluations. We give special emphasis to simulation-based assessment of Green ITS measures by detailing the necessary models and their interactions. Finally, we propose a number of recommendations and future research directions in the area of Green ITS.
A DETERMINATION OF THE ENERGETIC EQUIVALENCE OF THE RISK OF PREDATION

The influence of predation risk on patch choice was measured by examining the spatial distribution of 10 guppies (Poecilia reticulata) between two feeders, at one of which there was a risk of predation. The distribution was assumed to be ideal free. Nine unique situations were examined using all possible combinations of three risk levels and three diet levels, for each sex of guppy separately. Both sex and diet level influenced the effect of predation risk on patch choice. For the females the effect of risk was highest at the intermediate diet level. However, the males exhibited the opposite response: the effect of risk of predation was lowest at the intermediate diet level. A simple equation was then used to predict how much extra food (representing the energetic equivalent of risk) must be added to the risky patch for the guppies to become indifferent to the risk differences between the two types of patches. This manipulation caused a similar number of guppies to use both the risky and safe feeders, reducing or offsetting the influence of risk of predation. However, the male guppies were less influenced by this manipulation than were the females. The different results for the two sexes are consistent with known differences in their life histories, indicating that a knowledge of an animal's life history will often be necessary to
Model-driven vision for in-door navigation

Abstract For navigation in a partially known environment it is possible to provide a model that may be used for guidance in the navigation and as a basis for selective sensing. In this paper a navigation system for an autonomous mobile robot is presented. Both navigation and sensing is built around a graphics model, which enables prediction of the expected scene content. The model is used directly for prediction of line segments which, through matching, allow estimation of position and orientation. In addition, the model is used as a basis for a hierarchical stereo matching that enables dynamic updating of the model with unmodelled objects in the environment. For short-term path planning a set of reactive behaviours is used. The reactive behaviours include use of inverse perspective mapping for generation of occupancy grids, a sonar system and simple gaze holding for monitoring of dynamic obstacles. The full system and its component processes are described and initial experiments with the system are briefly outlined.
A Novel Melanocortin-4 Receptor Mutation MC4R-P272L Associated with Severe Obesity Has Increased Propensity To Be Ubiquitinated in the ER in the Face of Correct Folding

Heterozygous mutations in the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) gene represent the most frequent cause of monogenic obesity in humans. MC4R mutation analysis in a cohort of 77 children with morbid obesity identified previously unreported heterozygous mutations (P272L, N74I) in two patients inherited from their obese mothers. A rare polymorphism (I251L, allelic frequency: 1/100) reported to protect against obesity was found in another obese patient. When expressed in neuronal cells, the cell surface abundance of wild-type MC4R and of the N74I and I251L variants and the cAMP generated by these receptors in response to exposure to the agonist, α-MSH, were not different. Conversely, MC4R P272L was retained in the endoplasmic reticulum and had reduced cell surface expression and signaling (by ≈3-fold). The chemical chaperone PBA, which promotes protein folding of wild-type MC4R, had minimal effects on the distribution and signaling of the P272L variant. In contrast, incubation with UBE-41, a specific inhibitor of ubiquitin activating enzyme E1, inhibited ubiquitination of MC4R P272L and increased its cell surface expression and signaling to similar levels as wild-type MC4R. UBE41 had much less profound effects on MC4R I316S, another obesity-linked MC4R variant trapped in the ER. These data suggest that P272L is retained in the ER by a propensity to be ubiquitinated in the face of correct folding, which is only minimally shared by MC4R I316S. Thus, studies that combine clinical screening of obese patients and investigation of the functional defects of the obesity-linked MC4R variants can identify specific ways to correct these defects and are the first steps towards personalized medicine.
Topic Block: Mining User Inner Interests for Text and Link Analysis in Social Networks

Text corpus and link network are interrelated data in social networks. Discovering the inner relationship between these two kinds of data can help better understand the evolution mechanism underneath social networks. Moreover, social networks exhibit unique characteristics such as sparse and noisy in both text and link data. Thus, it is imperative to combine both text and link data to complement and correct mining results. However, previous work did not explore a uniform generative model that can unveil their inner relationship probably because of the difficulty to harness the heterogenous data in social networks. To address this issue, in this paper we present a generative model Topic Block that clearly pinpoints the latent concept underlying the text corpus and link network, i.e., User inner interests. In our generative model, user inner interests guide the generation of the topic and community distributions underlying the text corpus and link data. We can infer the topic and community distributions based on the user inner interests through both content and topology information. Compared to existing popular models, our method experimentally outperforms on three real world social network data sets.
: A Potential Mechanism for Immune Evasion Mycobacterium tuberculosis Lipoprotein from Transactivator Expression by a 19-kDa -Induced Class II g Inhibition of IFN-Henry

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) persists inside macrophages despite vigorous immune responses. MTB and MTB 19-kDa lipoprotein inhibit class II MHC (MHC-II) expression and Ag processing by a Toll-like receptor 2-dependent mechanism that is shown in this study to involve a defect in IFN- (cid:1) induction of class II transactivator (CIITA). Exposure of macrophages to MTB or MTB 19-kDa lipoprotein inhibited IFN- (cid:1) -induced MHC-II expression, but not IL-4-induced MHC-II expression, by preventing induction of mRNA for CIITA (total, type I, and type IV), IFN regulatory factor-1, and MHC-II. MTB 19-kDa lipoprotein induced mRNA for suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS)1 but did not inhibit IFN- (cid:1) -induced Stat1 phosphorylation. Furthermore, the lipoprotein inhibited MHC-II Ag processing in SOCS1 (cid:2) / (cid:2) macrophages. MTB 19-kDa lipoprotein did not inhibit translocation of phosphorylated Stat1 to the nucleus or Stat1 binding to and transactivation of IFN- (cid:1) -sensitive promoter constructs. Thus, MTB 19-kDa lipoprotein inhibited IFN- (cid:1) signaling independent of SOCS1 and without interfering with the activation of Stat1. Inhibition of IFN- (cid:1) -induced CIITA by MTB 19-kDa lipoprotein may allow MTB to evade detection by CD4 (cid:3) T cells. The Journal of Immunology, 2003, 171: 175–184.
Effects of Laptop Touchpad Texturing on User Performance

This research assessed user performance with different laptop touchpad textures. In specific, the study measured discrete movement task time and accuracy. It was hypothesized that texturing would increase task times but improve accuracy by providing users with tactile references. A variable representing the frictional potential of pads was introduced into an established model of discrete movement performance (Fitts’ Law) in an attempt to accurately model user performance under experimental task conditions. Results revealed touchpad texturing to degrade task performance. However, accuracy in pointing tasks was not significantly affected. Results also revealed that the expanded form of Fitts’ Law, including a parameter for representing the frictional potential of pad texturing, was more predictive of actual movement times than the original form of the Law. Results from the study increase understanding of the effects of touchpad texture on human motor control behavior and provide some guidance for future pad design.
The Low-Mass Populations in OB Associations

Low-mass stars (0.1 . M . 1 M ) in OB associations are key to addressing some of the most fundamental problems in star formation. The low-mass stellar populations of OB associations provide a snapshot of the fossil star-formation record of giant molecular cloud complexes. Large scale surveys have identified hundreds of members of nearby OB associations, and revealed that low-mass stars exist wherever high-mass stars have recently formed. The spatial distribution of low-mass members of OB associations demonstrate the existence of significant substructure (”subgroups”). This ”discretized” sequence of stellar groups is consistent with an origin in short-lived parent molecular clouds within a Giant Molecular Cloud Complex. The low-mass population in each subgroup within an OB association exhibits little evidence for significant age spreads on time scales of ∼ 10 Myr or greater, in agreement with a scenario of rapid star formation and cloud dissipation. The Initial Mass Function (IMF) of the stellar populations in OB associations in the mass range 0.1 . M . 1 M is largely consistent with the field IMF, and most low-mass pre-main sequence stars in the solar vicinity are in OB associations. These findings agree with early suggestions that the majority of stars in the Galaxy were born in OB associations. The most recent work further suggests that a significant fraction of the stellar population may have their origin in the more spread out regions of OB associations, instead of all being born in dense clusters. Ground-based and space-based (Spitzer Space Telescope) infrared studies have provided robust evidence that primordial accretion disks around low-mass stars dissipate on timescales of a few Myr. However, on close inspection there appears to be great variance in the disk dissipation timescales for stars of a given mass in OB associations. While some stars appear to lack disks at ∼1 Myr, a few appear to retain accretion disks up to ages of ∼10-20 Myr.
Notice of RetractionFestival tourists' emotion, perceived service quality and behavioral intentions

Festival tourism has experienced rapid growth in the past decades, while tourists' behavior is nonetheless neglected. The purpose of this study is to investigate drivers of festival tourists' behavioral intentions and specifically examine the interrelationship among festival tourists' emotion, perceived service quality and behavioral intentions. A survey is conducted in 2009 Shanghai International Tea Culture Festival and the model is tested by structural equation modeling. The results show that tourists' emotion is positively related to perceived service quality and behavioral intentions, and perceived service quality is positively related to behavioral intentions in the context of the festival tourism in China. This study contributes to the theoretical advancement in the field of festival marketing and also provides further insight for festival managers into better understanding of tourists' behavioral intentions.
Identification of gene clusters with phenotype-dependent expression with application to normal and premature ageing

Background: Hutchinson Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) is a rare genetic disease with symptoms of aging manifested at a very early age. Molecular basis of HGPS is not entirely clear, although there are some known and other presumed overlaps with normal aging process. Comparative investigation of biological processes associated with HGPS and normal aging may reveal common and distinctive pathways underlying these two conditions. Results: To investigate transcriptome changes through aging we have performed RNA-seq profiling in fibroblast cell cultures at three different cellular ages as measured by number of passages through culture growth, both from HGPS patients and matched normal samples. We then developed a novel iterative multiple regression approach that leverages co-expressed gene clusters to identify gene clusters whose expression changes significantly with age and/or disease state. We establish the robustness of our approach. Finally, we perform a comparative investigation of biological processes underlying normal aging and HGPS. Conclusion: Based on an iterative multiple regression approach applied to novel RNA-seq data in HGPS and aging our results recapitulate the previously known processes underlying aging while at the same time suggests numerous unique processes underlying aging and HGPS.
A Robust Zero-Watermarking Algorithm for Audio

In traditional watermarking algorithms, the insertion of watermark into the host signal inevitably introduces some perceptible quality degradation. Another problem is the inherent conflict between imperceptibility and robustness. Zero-watermarking technique can solve these problems successfully. Instead of embedding watermark, the zero-watermarking technique extracts some essential characteristics from the host signal and uses them for watermark detection. However, most of the available zero-watermarking schemes are designed for still image and their robustness is not satisfactory. In this paper, an efficient and robust zero-watermarking technique for audio signal is presented. The multiresolution characteristic of discrete wavelet transform (DWT), the energy compression characteristic of discrete cosine transform (DCT), and the Gaussian noise suppression property of higher-order cumulant are combined to extract essential features from the host audio signal and they are then used for watermark recovery. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our scheme in terms of inaudibility, detection reliability, and robustness.
Vehicle speed estimation based on the image motion blur using RADON transform

In this paper we propose a novel approach for vehicle speed estimation based on the motion blur occurring in the image taken by still camera. when the camera shutter remains open for an extended period of time, because of existence relative motion between camera and object, Motion blur is occurred. Blurred image has two different parameters. One of them is direction of motion and the other is length of motion. For extracting blurred image parameter, first, the Fourier transform is taken from image and then Radon transform is used for extracting direction of motion. For extracting length of motion, we used our purposed method. There is a relation between motion parameters and vehicle speed. Finally Speed estimation is performed by imaging geometry, extracted blur parameters and the camera parameters. Proposed method improved accuracy of measurement motion blur parameters and then accuracy of speed estimation than the others purposed methods.
A Composition Compensation Mechanism Based Paired Net and Verification

With regard to the failure and cancellation of business logic of Web services composition, we present a composition compensation mechanism based on paired net to implement partial or full compensation of the committed activities. The introduction of this method can accurately construct SCPN and establish agile compensation-triggered mechanism which can satisfy prospective compensation requirements, meaning either successfully committed, or effects of completed activities eliminated. We also verify the significant properties of the compensation paired net system, such as the reachability, liveness and deadlock- freeness, and thus ensure that the composition compensation method based on paired net is feasible.
Location-Aware and Personalized Recommendation

Collaborative Filtering (CF) is widely employed for making Web service recommendation. CF-based Web service recommendation aims to predict missing QoS (Quality-of-Service) values of Web services. Although several CF-based Web service QoS prediction methods have been proposed in recent years, the performance still needs significant improvement. Firstly, existing QoS prediction methods seldom consider personalized influence of users and services when measuring the similarity between users and between services. Secondly, Web service QoS factors, such as response time and throughput, usually depends on the locations of Web services and users. However, existing Web service QoS prediction methods seldom took this observation into consideration. In this paper, we propose a location-aware personalized CF method for Web service recommendation. The proposed method leverages both locations of users and Web services when selecting similar neighbors for the target user or service. The method also includes an enhanced similarity measurement for users and Web services, by taking into account the personalized influence of them. To evaluate the performance of our proposed method, we conduct a set of comprehensive experiments using a real-world Web service dataset. The experimental results indicate that our approach improves the QoS prediction accuracy and computational efficiency significantly, compared to previous CF-based methods.
The novel influenza A virus protein PA-X and its naturally deleted variant show different enzymatic properties in comparison to the viral endonuclease PA

The PA protein of Influenza A virus (IAV) encoded by segment 3 acts as a specialized RNA endonuclease in the transcription of the viral genome. The same genomic segment encodes for a second shorter protein, termed PA-X, with the first 191 N-terminal aminoacids (aa) identical to PA, but with a completely different C-ter domain of 61 aa, due to a ribosomal frameshifting. In addition, it has been shown that several IAV isolates encode for a naturally truncated PA-X variant, PAXΔC20, missing the last 20 aa. The biochemical properties of PA-X and PAXΔC20 have been poorly investigated so far. Here, we have carried out an enzymatic characterization of PA-X and its naturally deleted form, in comparison with PA from the human IAV strain A/WSN/33 (H1N1). Our results showed, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, that PA-X possesses an endonucleolytic activity. Both PA and PA-X preferentially cut single stranded RNA regions, but with some differences. In addition, we showed that PAXΔC20 has severely reduced nuclease activity. These results point to a previously undetected role of the last C-ter 20 aa for the catalytic activity of PA-X and support distinct roles for these proteins in the viral life cycle.