Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-Antenna Techniques for Wireless Mesh Networks in an Outdoor Environment

This paper investigates the behavior of a wireless mesh network in which the nodes are equipped with a multiple antenna system. The objective of this study is the comparison of the low-cost switched-beam antennas with the more expensive fully adaptive smart antennas. The analysis and the simulations are performed together with some considerations regarding the advantages and the practical possibilities of employing multi-antenna systems on mesh routers. The analytical and the numerical results are derived employing realistic antenna radiation patterns and a proper spatial channel model.
The Transnational Media Corporation: Global Messages and Free Market Competition

Contents: Preface. Part I: The Transnational Media Corporation: Business and Economic Considerations. The Transnational Media Corporation and Foreign Direct Investment. Deregulation, Privatization and the Changing Global Media Environment. The Globalization of Television Trade and Distribution. The Transnational Advertising Agency: Global Messages and Free Market Competition. Telecommunications and Intelligent Networks: Managing the Transnational Corporation. Expanded Cable and Open Video Systems: Establishing a Blueprint for Broadband Residential Services. The Transnational Media Corporation: Cultural Trespass and Challenges to National Sovereignty. Part II: Transnational Media: The Players. Time Warner, Inc. The Sony Corporation. Bertelsmann A.G. The Walt Disney Company. News Corporation Ltd.
On the correlation of acoustic vowel and coda duration in modern Welsh C(C)VC monosyllables

This project investigates the relationship of vowel duration and coda duration in modern Welsh monosyllabic words ending in a simplex consonant. Acoustic data from 16 native speakers from the two major dialectal varieties of Welsh were analysed. We found vowel duration highly predictive by coda duration, taking into account possible influences of phrase prosody, speaker and variety specific deviations. Also, prosodic prominence primarily appears to effect coda duration in Welsh.
The Micro Financial Sector (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2007: Legislative Brief

While the Bill promotes the activities of MFOs, there are differing opinions on the cost efficiency of the MFO model. 􀂐 NABARD is designated as the regulator of the micro financial sector. However, its dual role as a key participant in the sector and the regulator could lead to conflict of interest. 􀂐 Banks and deposit taking Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) have to comply with Reserve Bank of Indiaâ€™s (RBI) prudential norms designed to safeguard depositorsâ€™ funds. While the Bill enables NABARD to prescribe norms for MFOs, it specifies some norms which are less stringent than for banks and NBFCs. 􀂐 Unlike banks regulated by RBI, the Bill does not exempt registered MFOs from the Usurious Loans Act, 1918 or state laws which cap interest rates. 􀂐 The Bill defines â€œmicro financial servicesâ€ to include insurance and pension services without specifying to whom such services are to be provided. This implies that every insurance and pension company would be regulated by NABARD.
The response of a helium white dwarf to an exploding Type Ia supernova

We conduct numerical simulations of the interacting ejecta from an exploding CO white dwarf (WD) with a He WD donor in the double-detonation scenario for Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), and study the possibility of exploding the companion WD. We also study the long time imprint of the collision on the supernova remnant. When the donor He WD has a low mass, MWD = 0.2M⊙, it is at a distance of ∼ 0.08R⊙ from the explosion, and helium is not ignited. The low mass He WD casts an ‘ejecta shadow’ behind it. By evolving the ejecta for longer times, we find that the outer parts of the shadowed side are fainter and its boundary with the ambient gas is somewhat flat. More massive He WD donors, MWD ≃ 0.4M⊙, must be closer to the CO WD to transfer mass. At a distance of a . 0.045R⊙ helium is detonated and the He WD explodes, leading to a triple detonation scenario. In the explosion of the donor WD approximately 0.15M⊙ of unburned helium is ejected. This might be observed as a peculiar type Ib supernova.
The Associations of Hyperglycaemia and Insulin Usage with the Risk of Cancer in Type 2 Diabetes – the Hong Kong Diabetes Registry Running title : Insulin and cancer in diabetes

This is an uncopyedited electronic version of an article accepted for publication in Diabetes. The American Diabetes Association, publisher of Diabetes, is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it by third parties. The definitive publisher-authenticated version will be available in a future issue of Diabetes in print and online at http://diabetes.diabetesjournals. org. Diabetes Publish Ahead of Print, published online February 25, 2010
Safety of a new, single, integrated, closed photopheresis system in patients with cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma

Background Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is an approved palliative treatment for cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma (CTCL). The THERAKOS™ CELLEX™ (continuous flow separation) system (Therakos, Exton, PA, U.S.A.) has been developed from the current THERAKOS™ UVAR® XTS™ system. It is designed to reduce treatment times and extracorporeal volumes, and allows the use of either a single‐ or a dual‐needle configuration.
Associations between diet, lifestyle factors, and telomere length in women.

BACKGROUND Leukocyte telomere length is associated with diseases of aging, but there is limited knowledge of diet and lifestyle determinants. OBJECTIVE The objective was to examine cross-sectionally the association between diet, body composition, and lifestyle factors on leukocyte telomere length in women. DESIGN Leukocyte telomere length was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction in 2284 female participants from the Nurses' Health Study, who were selected as controls for an investigation of biological predictors of cancer. Diet, lifestyle, and anthropometric data were assessed by questionnaire. RESULTS After multivariate adjustment, dietary fiber intake was positively associated with telomere length (z score), specifically cereal fiber, with an increase of 0.19 units between the lowest and highest quintiles (P = 0.007, P for trend = 0.03). Although total fat intake was not associated with telomere length, polyunsaturated fatty acid intake (-0.26 units, quintile 5 compared with quintile 1: P = 0.002, P for trend = 0.02), specifically linoleic acid intake, was inversely associated with telomere length after multivariate adjustment (-0.32 units; P = 0.001, P for trend = 0.05). Waist circumference was inversely associated with telomere length [0.15-unit difference in z score in a comparison of the highest (> or = 32 in, 81.28 cm) with the lowest (< or = 28 in, 71.12 cm) category (P = 0.01, P for trend = 0.02) in the multivariate model]. We found no association between telomere length and smoking, physical activity, or postmenopausal hormone use. CONCLUSION Although the strength of the associations was modest in this population of middle- and older-age women, our results support the hypothesis that body composition and dietary factors are related to leukocyte telomere length, which is a potential biomarker of chronic disease risk.
FRS: Fast Range Search by Pruning Unnecessary Distance Computations Based on K-D Tree

We present a fast range search algorithm, which greatly reduces unnecessary distance computations, based on a technique to prune redundant distance computations. Theoretical and experimental analysis have shown that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the original k-D tree based algorithm, which runs in O(log(n)) time either in low dimension or the searching range is small. In the case where the searching range is large enough or it doesn't intersect with the data space, the proposed algorithm runs in O(1) time. The tradeoffs is that it costs extra distance computations for finding the maximum or minimum distance from a point to a hyper rectangle.
THE TOP 400 CONTRACTORS

This issue focuses on the top 400 contractors in the U.S. The transportation sector saw the largest gain in revenue from 2002, , posting revenues at 29,374.7 million dollars and occupying 15.2 percent of total revenues. Bechtel was the number one firm on the Top 400 list, with its contracting revenue increasing by 36% from the previous year. The article notes that the heavy and highway construction market had some of the fastest-growing Top 400 firms. The Top 20 firms are listed for the following industries: hazardous waste, industrial process/petroleum, power, telecommunications, and transportation. Additional charts include: Top 100 contractors by new contracts, Top 50 in domestic general building revenue, Top 50 domestic heavy contractors, and Top 50 contractors working abroad.
Solubilization and Characterization of an Acyl-Coenzyme A : O-LYSOPHOSPHOLIPID ACYLTRANSFERASE FROM THE MICROSOMES OF DEVELOPING SAFFLOWER SEEDS.

Acyl-CoA:O-lysophospholipid acyltransferase activity was measured in extracts of developing safflower (Carthamus tinctorius var. UC-1) seeds. Acyltransferase activity was present in all subcellular fractions. The microsomal acyltransferase activity was solubilized with either 30 mm-n-octylglucoside, 1% deoxycholate, or 100 mum lysophosphatidylcholine. The pH optimum of the lysophosphatidylcholine-dependent acyltransferase activity was at 9.0. Among the various acyl-CoA's tested, oleoyl-CoA was the best substrate and with it the enzyme had a K(m) of 9.5 mum. Among the various acyl acceptors tested, lysophosphatidylcholine (oleoyl) gave the highest activity and the optimal concentration was 30 mum. Acyltransferase activity was stimulated by ethanol and inhibited by bovine serum albumin and divalent cations.
Urinary biomarkers of oxidative/nitrosative stress in healthy smokers

Objective: To evaluate the effect of cigarette smoking on oxidative and nitrosative stress, we assessed urinary levels of 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), isoprostane 15-F2t-IsoP, thiobarbituric acid-reacting substances (TBARS), advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), dityrosine (diTyr), hydrogen peroxide, total nitrite and nitrate and trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) in healthy smokers. Methods: Fluorimetric and spectrophotometric assays were performed in urine samples of 33 healthy smokers and 58 age-matched controls. Results: Levels of 8-OHdG, 15-F2t-IsoP and AGES were found significantly higher in smokers than in controls (10.7 ng/mg Cr vs. 8.3 ng/mg Cr, 1.41 ng/mg Cr vs. 1.01 ng/mg Cr and 189 AFU/mg Cr vs. 143 AFU/mg Cr, respectively; P < 0.05 for all). Positive correlations were found between age and levels of AGEs and diTyr in smokers (r = 0.380, P < 0.035 and r = 0.418, P < 0.019, respectively) and also between age and AGEs, diTyr and TEAC in controls (r = 0.474, P < 0.001, r = 0.463, P < 0.001 and r = 0.576, P < 0.001, respectively), being this correlation negative for 8-OHdG in controls (r = −0.295, P = 0.041). Positive correlation between the number of cigarettes smoked per day and AGEs was also found (r = 0.355, P = 0.044). Conclusion: Urinary 8-OHdG, 15-F2t-IsoP and AGEs may represent a non-invasive quantitative index of oxidant stress in healthy smokers, being AGEs a possible indicator of tobacco toxin exposure. The increased oxidative stress in healthy smokers observed may be generated because of an excessive production of reactive oxygen species and not by exhaustion of antioxidant defenses.
Transesterification of vegetable oils: a review

The transesterification of vegetable oils with methanol as well as the main uses of the fatty acid methyl esters are reviewed. The general aspects of this process and the applicability of different types of catalysts (acids, alkaline metal hydroxides, alkoxides and carbonates, enzymes and non-ionic bases, such as amines, amidines, guanidines and triamino(imino)phosphoranes) are described. Special attention is given to guanidines, which can be easily heterogenized on organic polymers. However, the anchored catalysts show leaching problems. New strategies to obtain non-leaching guanidine-containing catalysts are proposed. Finally, several applications of fatty acid esters, obtained by transesterification of vegetable oils, are described.
Native STIM2 and ORAI1 proteins form a calcium‐sensitive and thapsigargin‐insensitive complex in cortical neurons

In non‐excitatory cells, stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) and STIM2 mediate store‐operated calcium entry via an interaction with ORAI1 calcium channels. However, in neurons, STIM2 over‐expression appears to play a role in calcium homeostasis that is different from STIM1 over‐expression. The aim of this study was to establish the role and localization of native STIM2 in the neuronal cell. Co‐immunoprecipitation experiments revealed that the interaction between endogenous STIM2 and ORAI1 was greater in a low‐calcium medium than in a high‐calcium medium. Using a Proximity Ligation Assay (PLA), the number of apparent complexes of endogenous STIM2 with ORAI1 was quantified. No change in the number of PLA signals was observed in the presence of thapsigargin, which depletes calcium from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). However, the number of apparent STIM2‐ORAI1 complexes increased when intracellular and subsequently ER calcium concentrations were decreased by BAPTA‐AM or a low‐calcium medium. Both Fura‐2 acetoxymethyl ester calcium imaging and PLA in the same neuronal cell indicated that the calcium responses correlated strongly with the number of endogenous STIM2‐ORAI1 complexes. The small drop in calcium levels in the ER caused by decreased intracellular calcium levels appeared to initiate the calcium‐sensitive and thapsigargin‐insensitive interaction between STIM2 and ORAI1.
Supervised SOM Based ATR Method with Circular Polarization Basis of Full Polarimetric Data

Satellite-borne or aircraft-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is useful for high resolution imaging analysis for terrain surface monitoring or surveillance, particularly in optically harsh environments. For surveillance application, there are various approaches for automatic target recognition (ATR) of SAR images aiming at monitoring unidentified ships or aircraft. In addition, various types of analyses for full polarimetric data have been developed recently because it can provide significant information to identify structure of targets, such as vegetation, urban, sea surface areas. ATR generally consists of two processes, one is target feature extraction including target area determination, and the other is classification. In this paper, we propose novel methods for these two processes that suit full polarimetric exploitation. As the target area extraction method, we introduce a peak signal-to noise ratio (PSNR) based synthesis with full polarimetric SAR images. As the classification method, the circular polarization basis conversion is adopted to improve the robustness especially to variation of target rotation angles. Experiments on a 1/100 scale model of X-band SAR, demonstrate that our proposed method significantly improves the accuracy of target area extraction and classification, even in noisy or target rotating situations. key words: synthetic aperture radar (SAR), polarimetric SAR, automatic target recognition (ATR), target area extraction, circular polarization basis
Testing the Effects of Short-Selling Restrictions on Asset Prices

Testing the effects of short-selling restrictions on asset prices is challenging: shifts in stock lending supply usually are not observed directly. This paper takes advantage of a unique dataset that contains actual shifts in the lending supply curve for several stocks on the Brazilian market. The dataset comprises daily information from January 2009 to July 2011 from the whole stock lending market in Brazil. We find that short-selling restrictions generate overpricing and that this effect increases with greater dispersion of investor opinion, consistent with a number of theoretical studies.
An Empirical Analysis of the Consumer Information in the Restaurant Industry in Sweden

A reputation good is a good that you have to consume before you can assess its quality. Therefore, there is asymmetric information in favor of the seller. This good is also characterized by the fact that people often turn to friends and family for recommendations. On the contrary to standard economic theory of competition, an increased number of sellers on a market for reputation goods may lead to an increase in the market equilibrium price. The motive is that it is more difficult for consumers to keep themselves informed of potential sellers when the market grows, making information more asymmetric. The quality of a restaurant visit is often difficult to assess in advance and it is also common to consult previous visitors about their experience. There is thus reason to believe that restaurant visits may be classified as reputation goods. The purpose of this thesis is to study whether there is any evidence of asymmetric information in general and to test whether the pricing follows the same patterns as that of a reputation good in particular. Cross-sectional data for 71 Swedish municipalities is used to empirically test the theoretical predictions. Both ordered logistic regression and multiple regression are used as methods to analyze if there exists any relationship between both price and quality level and the amount of consumer information available on the market. The theory is tested using three different consumer information variables to test whether any of them is better at explaining a possible relationship. When the number of inhabitants and the number of sellers were used as proxies for consumer information, no significant effect was found on neither quality level nor price. However, a significant positive relationship was found between a seller density variable and price. The number of sellers per capita was high in those municipalities known to be visited by many tourists. Since the possibility to inform oneself by making inquiries to acquaintances is heavily reduced when you only visit a market as a tourist, it is reasonable to assume that the consumer information is particularly low on these markets.
A survey on using side information in recommendation systems

Acknowledgments I take pleasure in thanking everyone who have been instrumental in the successful completion of this report. I sincerely thank my supervisor, Prof. Joydeep Ghosh for his inspiration and valuable guidance at all stages of work. He has been extremely encouraging and gave insightful inputs towards the culmination of the report. I am also grateful to Dr. Sujay Sanghavi for consenting to be the committee member for the report. I thank my colleagues, Sindhu Vijaya Raghavan and Neeraj Gaur who have worked with me on projects described in the report. I thank the administrators and members of Intelligent Data Exploration and Analysis (IDEA) Laboratory at UT Austin for providing me with necessary resources for experimentation. I thank Sreangsu Acharyya and Sanmi Koyejo for their help and suggestions. Finally, I thank the administrative staff of Electrical and Computer Engineering department at UT Austin for their support. Supervisor: Joydeep Ghosh This report presents a survey of the state-of-the-art methods for building recommendation systems. The report mainly concentrates on systems that use the available side information in addition to a fraction of known affinity values such as ratings. Such data is referred to as Dyadic Data with Covariates (DyadC). The sources of side information being considered includes user/item entity attributes, temporal information and social network attributes. Further, two new models for recommendation systems that make use of the available side information within the collaborative filtering (CF) framework, are proposed. Review Quality Aware Collaborative Filtering, uses external side information, especially review text to evaluate the quality of available ratings. These quality scores are then incorporated into probabilistic matrix factorization (PMF) to develop a weighted PMF model for recommendation. The second model, Mixed Membership Bayesian Affinity Estimation (MMBAE), is based on the paradigm of Simultaneous Decomposition and Prediction (SDaP). This model simultaneously learns mixed membership cluster assignments for users and items along with a predictive model for rating prediction within each co-cluster. Experimental evaluation on benchmark datasets are provided for these two models.
Valuation of Hedge Funds Portfolios in a Downside Risk Framework

The purpose of this paper is to extend the capital asset pricing models in the downside risk framework to hedge funds universe in order to take into account the asymmetry of returns of these funds and the risk perception of investors. The empirical evidence based on Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund database shows that the capital asset pricing models in a downside risk framework, especially the D-CAPM, describe better the valuation of hedge funds portfolios.
Genetic polymorphism of pharmacogenomic VIP variants in the Deng people from the Himalayas in Southeast Tibet

Abstract Little is known about polymorphic distribution of pharmacogenes among ethnicities, including the Deng people. In this study, we recruited 100 unrelated, healthy Deng people and genotyped them with respect to 76 different single-nucleotide polymorphisms by the PharmGKB database. Our results first indicated that the polymorphic distribution of pharmacogenes of the Deng people is most similar to CHD, suggesting that Deng people have a closest genetic relationship with CHD. Our data will enrich the database of pharmacogenomics and provide a theoretical basis for safer drug administration and individualized treatment plans, promoting the development of personalized medicine.
Stability Analysis of Two Closed-Loop Systems for Suppressing Transient Gain Excursions in an Erbium-Doped Fibre Amplifier

Stability analysis of two closed-loop systems for suppressing transient gain excursions in an erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) is presented. A model applicable to both closed-loop systems is presented in the form of a nonlinear continuous switched system. The key objective of the stability analysis is to prove that the region of attraction of the asymptotically stable equilibrium point contains all the initial conditions encountered in practical realisations of the two closed-loop systems. This objective is accomplished by application of the Poincare-Bendixson theorem for planar systems. To apply the theorem, the existence of periodic state vector trajectories is ruled out by application of an extension of the traditional Bendixson theorem. Simulation results, which support the conclusions of the stability analysis, are also presented
Managing the Risks of Mobile Money: The Banking Agent Reform in Kenya - A Scenario-Based Policy Analysis

Kenya is about to embark on an important reform to expand banking to millions of poor households by enabling third-party retail agents as a low-cost distribution alternative to branches. However, this initiative risks being undermined by the mobile network operator (MNO) Safaricom, which dominates the agent market. Safaricom may opt to foreclose competition to defend its entrenched position in the critical downstream mobile money transfer market.This study uses econometric market segmentation models to demonstrate the merits of the planned reform. It then describes the strategic motivation of key players in the banking and MNO markets, and uses stylized scenarios to illustrate the channels and potential impact of anti-competitive behavior. To prevent these adverse outcomes, it proposes to refine the reform design, and complement the current policy with measures that change the incentives to exercise market power.