Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Essays on Economic Policies over the Business Cycle

It is often claimed that the presence of hand-to-mouth consumers enhances the need for and the effects of fiscal stabilization policies. This paper studies this in a model of a small open economy with hand-to-mouth consumers, i.e., some households are liquidity constrained in the sense that they can neither save nor borrow. It is shown that the consequences of liquidity constraints are more complex than previously thought: The optimal stabilization policy in case of productivity shocks is independent of the fraction of hand-to-mouth consumers. Furthermore, the presence of these agents actually reduces the need for an active policy stabilizing productivity shocks. JEL Classification: E32, E63, F41
Cardiac output is not related to the slowed O2 uptake kinetics in type 2 diabetes.

PURPOSE This study aimed to investigate whether cardiac output (CO) responses were related to VO2 kinetics during cycling in type 2 diabetes. METHODS A total of 9 middle-aged women with uncomplicated type 2 diabetes, 9 nondiabetic overweight women, and 11 nondiabetic lean women were recruited. Initially, the ventilatory threshold (VT) and peak VO2 were determined during a maximal graded test. Then, on two separate days, subjects completed three 7-min bouts of constant-load cycling at each of three intensities: 50% VT, 80% VT, and midpoint between VT and peak VO2 (50% Δ). CO (inert gas rebreathing) was recorded at 30 and 240 s of an additional bout at each intensity. VO2 kinetic parameters were determined by fitting a biexponential (50% VT and 80% VT) or triexponential (50% Δ) function to the VO2 data. RESULTS Peak VO2 was significantly lower in type 2 diabetes compared with the two nondiabetic groups (P < 0.05). The time constant of phase 2 was significantly greater (P < 0.05) in type 2 diabetes compared with the nondiabetic heavy and lean groups at 50% VT (34.2 ± 15.7 vs 15.4 ± 7.3 and 20.2 ± 9.7 s) and 80% VT (39.1 ± 9.0 vs 24.8 ± 8.8 and 36.8 ± 7.9 s), but none of the VO2 kinetic parameters were different at 50% Δ. CO responses during exercise were not different among the three groups, and at 80% VT, the change in CO from 30 to 240 s was significantly larger in type 2 diabetes compared with the two nondiabetic groups. CONCLUSIONS The results confirm that type 2 diabetes slows the dynamic response of VO2 during light and moderate relative intensity exercise in females but that this occurs in the absence of any slowing of the CO response during the initial period of exercise.
Importance of user perception in evaluating level of service for bus transit for a developing country like India: a review

Assessment of service quality in bus transit planning has received due attention in recent years from the viewpoint of optimal service allocation. The concept of level of service (LOS) has emerged as an effective tool to measure quality of services. Service-quality assessment provides operators with knowledge on users' satisfaction with existing services and their expected LOSs. The importance of user perception towards assessment of LOS has been acknowledged by researchers. While LOS standards for public transportation have been established by the Transportation Research Board in the USA, researchers have questioned the applicability of these standards in the context of different geographic regions. Since the service delivery environment differs between developed and developing nations, the user perception of service quality varies between these economic regions. Substantial research has been carried out in the context of both developed and developing nations, to identify the bus transit service parameters that affect users' perceived service quality; however, little research exists that establishes LOS thresholds for bus transit, based on user perception. This paper reviews the concept of LOS, describes the importance of user perception in assessment of service quality and identifies the need to establish LOS thresholds for bus transit from user perception for developing countries.
Characterization of human retinal vessel arborisation in normal and amblyopic eyes using multifractal analysis.

AIM To characterize the human retinal vessel arborisation in normal and amblyopic eyes using multifractal geometry and lacunarity parameters. METHODS Multifractal analysis using a box counting algorithm was carried out for a set of 12 segmented and skeletonized human retinal images, corresponding to both normal (6 images) and amblyopia states of the retina (6 images). RESULTS It was found that the microvascular geometry of the human retina network represents geometrical multifractals, characterized through subsets of regions having different scaling properties that are not evident in the fractal analysis. Multifractal analysis of the amblyopia images (segmented and skeletonized versions) show a higher average of the generalized dimensions (Dq ) for q=0, 1, 2 indicating a higher degree of the tree-dimensional complexity associated with the human retinal microvasculature network whereas images of healthy subjects show a lower value of generalized dimensions indicating normal complexity of biostructure. On the other hand, the lacunarity analysis of the amblyopia images (segmented and skeletonized versions) show a lower average of the lacunarity parameter Λ than the corresponding values for normal images (segmented and skeletonized versions). CONCLUSION The multifractal and lacunarity analysis may be used as a non-invasive predictive complementary tool to distinguish amblyopic subjects from healthy subjects and hence this technique could be used for an early diagnosis of patients with amblyopia.
Knowledge flow from the top: the importance of teamwork structure in team sports

Research questions: Downward managerial knowledge flow is essential for teamwork to function, yet the capabilities that coaches utilize to transmit knowledge to their players remain understudied. Drawing on contingency theory and the tacit–explicit knowledge distinction, the paper explores how and why managerial capabilities are used for knowledge flow in two different sport teams, organized with tall and flat teamwork structures. Research methods: Case studies are presented of two Division I (National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA) sport teams in a major university located in the northeastern USA, representing tall and flat teamwork structures (American football and ice hockey). Data include a total of 30 in-depth interviews of coaches and players, along with observations of team meetings, games and practices collected during 11 months. Results and findings: Findings reveal different knowledge flow patterns in the two cases. In a tall teamwork structure, capabilities focused on turning tacit managerial knowledge into explicit, subordinate knowledge. In a flat teamwork structure, capabilities emphasized transmitting tacit knowledge to players. Management implications: The findings apply to team sports, franchises, sport leagues and, more broadly, to organizations that are concerned with understanding how knowledge flow is contingent upon the nature of the work. Specifically, the findings suggest that different knowledge flow capabilities can serve two functions: either to standardize work and maximize efficiency or to foster creativity and empowered learning.
Work experience and the generation of new business ideas among entrepreneurs: An integrated learning framework

Purpose – This paper seeks to develop an integrated framework to examine how entrepreneurs' work experience is associated with the generation of new business ideas. The framework combines human capital theory with theory and research on entrepreneurial learning.Design/methodology/approach – A statistical analysis on a sample of 291 Swedish entrepreneurs is conducted.Findings – The paper finds that a learning mind‐set that favors exploration is the strongest predictor of the generation of new business ideas. It also finds that breadth in functional work experience seems to favor the generation of new business ideas while deep industry work experience is negatively related to new business idea generation. In addition, the paper finds indications that a learning mind‐set that favors exploration is required to more fully benefit from investments in human capital.Research limitations/implications – The study's findings add to knowledge of how investments in human capital via work experience, and the employment.
Influence of network size and load on the performance of reconfiguration protocols

Switched point-to-point interconnection networks provide the high bandwidth and low latency required by current distributed applications. When the topology changes, a reconfiguration of the routing tables is performed to maintain network connectivity. In order to prevent deadlock, traditional reconfiguration schemes discard application traffic during the reconfiguration process. The consequence is that the network cannot provide the bandwidth demanded by user applications. In order to solve this problem, we proposed two deadlock-free schemes that allow traffic through the network while the reconfiguration is being performed By using these schemes, the network is able to fulfill the applications requirements. In this paper, we evaluate these traditional and novel reconfiguration schemes. In particular, we analyze the impact of network size and load on their behavior. Application traffic has been modeled by means of a self-similar pattern. Simulation results clearly show the large performance degradation associated with the traditional approach and the significant benefits that can be obtained by using dynamic reconfiguration techniques.
Kinship in Entrepreneur Networks: Performance Effects of Resource Assembly in Africa

We examine the relationship among structural social capital, resource assembly, and firm performance of entrepreneurs in Africa. We posit that social capital primarily composed of kinship or family ties helps the entrepreneur to raise resources, but it does so at a cost. Using data drawn from small firms in Kampala, Uganda, we explore how shared identity among the entrepreneur's social network moderates the relationship between social capital and outcomes. A large network contributed a higher quantity of resources raised, but at a higher cost when shared identity was high. We discuss the implications of these findings for the role of family ties and social capital in resource assembly, with an emphasis on developing economies.
Classification of Ortho-mode transducers

This paper presents a classification of ortho-mode transducers (OMTs). The OMTs are classified into five main groups. The first four contain OMTs based on waveguide-to-waveguide transitions. The basis for this classification is symmetrical properties which affect both the isolation and the matching capacities. A systematic analysis of the generation of symmetrical and odd symmetrical higher-order modes including their influence on the isolation and matching conditions is also included. The last group of OMTs consists of devices with waveguide-to-coax transitions. These are denoted hybrid OMTs.
Industrial Collaboration and the European Internal Market

This chapter is an update and further development of an earlier paper by Kay (1991b) (Chapter 10 here) concerning the likely effects of European market integration on co-operative or collaborative activity by European firms. Each of us has separately monitored subsequent trends in collaborative activity — e.g., see Ramsay (1995) — and in this chapter we pool our efforts and comment on recent developments using the concept of aversion ratios introduced in the earlier chapter. Changes in the sources and nature of the databases used by the Commission add a further reason for this exercise, since it will be argued that the changes made will greatly inhibit the ability of researchers to comment on patterns of activity and Commission policy in this area in the future.
In Poor Health: An Assessment of Privacy Policies at Direct-to-Consumer Web Sites

Overall, consumers are concerned about the privacy of their personal health information. However, they are also active seekers of health care information online. Many of these information searches lead consumers to Web sites sponsored by pharmaceutical companies that provide information about drugs that are available only through prescription. Many of these Web sites collect personalized information about site visitors to facilitate information exchanges between visitors and site sponsors. This study examines the types of information collected at Web sites that promote product-claim drugs and studies the privacy notices that such sites provide. The author evaluates the degree to which such notices comply with Federal Trade Commission Fair Information Practices. Drug Web sites collect a range of information through a variety of interactive methods. The Web sites have relatively high compliance with two of the Fair Information Practices, notice and choice, but they have poor compliance with the access and security Fair Information Practices. In addition, readability of the policies is low. The author discusses implications for the industry and public policy.
POS-based reordering models for statistical machine translation

We present a novel word reordering model for phrase-based statistical machine translation suited to cope with long-span word movements. In particular, reordering of nouns, verbs and adjectives is modeled by taking into account target-to-source word alignments and the distances between source as well as target words. The proposed model was applied as a set of additional feature functions to re-score N-best translation candidates generated by a statistical machine translation system featuring state-of-the-art lexicalized reordering models. Experiments showed relative BLEU score improvement up to 7.3% on the BTEC Japanese-to-English task, and up to 1.1% on the Europarl German-to-English task.
Screening of charged impurities with multielectron singlet-triplet spin qubits in quantum dots

Charged impurities in semiconductor quantum dots comprise one of the main obstacles to achieving scalable fabrication and manipulation of singlet-triplet spin qubits. We theoretically show that using dots that contain several electrons each can help to overcome this problem through the screening of the rough and noisy impurity potential by the excess electrons. We demonstrate how the desired screening properties turn on as the number of electrons is increased, and we characterize the properties of a double quantum dot singlet-triplet qubit for small odd numbers of electrons per dot. We show that the sensitivity of the multi-electron qubit to charge noise may be an order of magnitude smaller than that of the two-electron qubit.
RandMap: Wear Level for Phase Change Memory Based on Layer-Based Random Mapping

Phase change memory (PCM) is a new kind of non-volatile storage. Compared to traditional memory, it has many advantages, such like lower-energy use, higher density and better scalability. PCM is supposed to replace DRAM and become the next generation of memory in embedded systems. However, PCM still has some disadvantages, such as the limitation of writing times. Although some approaches have been proposed to relieve these disadvantages, they can not well resist the malicious wear attacks. In this paper, we propose a practical approach named RandMap to achieve wear level in PCM. RandMap separates PCM into layers, and each layer uses its own random mapping table to achieve wear level when converting the logic address to physical address. When the writing time of a layer reaches the threshold, its random mapping table will be updated immediately. RandMap can implement wear level and enhance the ability of resisting malicious wear attacks, and it is available for large-size PCM. Our evaluation on SPEC2000 and SPEC2006 benchmarks shows that RandMap can improve the wear-level effect to 77.2% compared to previous approaches, and it can support the PCM size up to 16GB.
Urban health in developing countries: a review

The last major review of urban health in developing countries was published in 1992. At that time, knowledge was largely limited to crude rural-urban comparisons and some ad hoc studies of low-income urban communities. Most research was done on communicable (infectious) diseases and little was known about the relationship between urban life in developing countries and chronic illness such as mental ill-health, heart disease and cancer. This paper updates knowledge by reviewing recent research on intra-urban health inequalities, urban health-seeking behaviour and the importance of urban-rural links for health. It also presents a new model of urban health that incorporates changes in urban health research and practice.
The Behaviors of Direct-Written Nanofibers on Patterned Substrate

The Direct-Write (DW) technology based on Near-Field Electrospinning (NFES) is utilized to study the deposition behaviors of nanofibers on silicon substrate patterned with thin film of silicon dioxide (SiO2). The deposition behaviors of nanofibers on patterned substrate, such as width of distribution area and deposition morphology of direct-written nanofibers on patterned substrate are investigated in this article to accelerate the industrial application of DW technology based on NFES. Due to the repulsion force of charges on nanofibers and the elastic force of nanofibers stem from surface tension force and viscous force, the width of nanofibers distribution area on is bigger than that on Si surface. There is more spacing among nanofibers that deposited on SiO2 surface, while nanofibers prefer to aggregate together on Si surface. Nanofibers may aggregate to form cluster like twisted structure periodically on the Si surface and two adjacent nanofiber clusters are connected by one single nanofiber. Under the repulsion force and elastic force of charged nanofibers, denser nanofibers would be collected at the junction of Si and SiO2 surface or on the middle Si area between SiO2 teeth in comb structure. The effect of CMS on deposition morphology of nanofibers was also investigated. When CMS ranges from 8 to 20 cm/s, wave-shaped nanofibers would be direct-written on both Si and SiO2 surface. When CMS is in the range of 20~35 cm/s, straight-line nanofibers would be drawn on Si layer but nanofibers on SiO2 surface of wave-shape. Straight nanofibers can be direct-written on both Si and SiO2 surface, when CMS is higher than 35 cm/s. These results show that higher CMS is needed to direct-write straight nanofibers on SiO2 surface than that needed on Si surface.
Developmental screening in South Africa: comparing the national developmental checklist to a standardized tool.

BACKGROUND Worldwide, more than 200 million children in low- and middle-income countries have developmental delays and/or disabilities. In South Africa the only nationally implemented developmental 'screening' tool is integrated as part of 'The Road to Health Booklet (RTHB). METHOD The study employed a comparative cross-sectional within-subject design to evaluate the accuracy of the RTHB developmental checklist against a standardized international tool i.e. the PEDS tools, consisting of the PEDS and PEDS:DM. A total of 201 participants were included through convenience sampling at primary health care facilities in Tshwane, South Africa. RESULTS Sensitivity of the RTHB developmental checklist is low, but specificity is high. The RTHB developmental checklist failed to identify more than half the infants at risk of delays or disorders. The nationally implemented developmental checklist is ineffective to identify at-risk infants. It should be adapted and validated or replaced in order to improve identification of at-risk infants.
The co-incidence of storm surges and extreme discharges within the Rhine–Meuse Delta

The Netherlands is a low-lying coastal area and therefore threatened by both extreme river discharges from the Meuse and Rhine rivers and storm surges along the North Sea coastline. To date, in most flood risk analyses these two hazardous phenomena are considered independent. However, if there were a dependence between high sea water levels and extreme discharges this might result in higher design water levels, which might consequently have implications for flood protection policy in the Netherlands. In this study we explore the relation between high sea water levels at Hoek van Holland and high river discharges at Lobith. Different from previous studies, we use physical models forced by the same atmospheric forcing leading to concomitant and consistent time series of storm surge conditions and river discharge. These time series were generated for present day conditions as well as future climate projections and analysed for dependence within the upper tails of their distribution. In this study, dependence between the discharge at Lobith and storm surge at Hoek van Holland was found, and the dependence was highest for a lag of six days between the two processes. As no significant dependence of the threats was found for cases without time lag, there is no need for considering dependence in flood protection and policy making. Although future climate change is expected to lead to more extreme conditions in river discharges, we cannot conclude from this study that it will change the magnitude of the dependence for extreme conditions.
Standardization as Institutional Work: The Regulatory Power of a Responsible Investment Standard

This paper conceptualizes standardization as institutional work to study the emergence of a standard and the deployment of its regulatory power. We rely on unique access to longitudinal archival data for exploring how the FTSE4Good index, a responsible investment index, emerged as a standard for socially responsible corporate behavior. Our results show how three types of standardization work – calculative framing, engaging and valorizing – support the design, legitimation and monitoring processes whereby a standard acquires its regulatory power. Our findings reveal new facets in the dynamics of standardization by approaching standardization as a product of institutional work and in showing how unintended consequences of that work can be recaptured to strengthen the regulatory power of the standard.
Acute subcortical stroke and early serotonergic modification: a IDAP study

The intensity dependence of the auditory‐evoked potentials (IDAP) is inversely related to serotonergic tone. Depression is frequently observed after stroke, associated with cognitive impairment and increased mortality. Aim of this study was to investigate the serotonergic tone in acute stroke patients by IDAP. Consecutive patients with an acute stroke admitted in our stroke unit were evaluated using clinical and instrumental examinations and compared with healthy controls. The IDAP was calculated as the linear amplitude/stimulus intensity function (ASF) slope, by measuring the peak‐to‐peak amplitude of Nl‐P2 on four blocks of different stimulus intensities. Twenty patients were enrolled; 11 had a right brain infarction; nine had depressive symptoms (DS). The ASF slope of the auditory‐evoked potentials was markedly increased in stroke patients compared with controls (P = 0.021). Stroke patients with DS had a significant steeper ASF slope than controls (P = 0.017). There was no statistical difference in ASF slope between stroke patients without DS and controls. Post‐stroke depression pathophysiology is still debated. Our study suggests that in acute stroke patients with DS, there is a direct involvement of the serotonergic system, regardless the degree of disability and the site of the lesion.
Locational advantage and US foreign direct investment in UK manufacturing

The relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade is examined with specific reference to US FDI in the UK. Four complementary hypotheses are tested on a cross-section of UK industries. There is evidence of US FDI being located in UK industries which have a revealed comparative advantage and that large market size effects are important. On the other hand, little evidence was found for the protection jumping and industrial concentration hypotheses.