Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards a Pragmatic Perspective on Business Innovation in Western Balkan Countries: The Case of Albania

Recent reports and articles on innovation and innovation management in the Western Balkan countries conclude that innovation is quite limited. It is suggested that the development of a national innovation system is needed to increase innovation capacity and innovation outcomes. However, this is a conventional perspective which has so far not worked. In this article we explore Albania as a Western Balkan case. The aim of the article is to learn from a better contextualization of innovation, by taking into account the specific conditions of the Western Balkan countries and Albania in particular. Results of empirical research confirm that the innovation capacity of Albanian firms is rather minimal indeed. They also provide insights that lead to an alternative perspective of fostering business innovation in Albania; not a focus on building a national innovation system but on a pragmatic ‘everyday innovation’ approach. This perspective should be relevant for other Western Balkan countries too.
Localization of Cholecystokinin Receptor Subtypes in the Endocine Pancreas

This study was undertaken to clarify the controversy in the literature about pancreatic localization of the cholecystokinin (CCK) CCKA and CCKB receptors. With antibodies used by other investigators, we first established their specificity by Western blotting, indirect immunofluorescence, and confocal microscopy with each antibody's peptide antigen. Co-localization assays between the CCK receptors and the pancreatic hormones insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin revealed that the CCKA RAbs 1122 and R1-2 recognized insulin and glucagon cells in rat, pig, and human pancreas but not in the somatostatin cells. Conversely, the three CCKB RAbs tested, 9262, 9491, and GR4, identified the somatostatin cells. Abs 9491 and GR4 occasionally co-localized with glucagon, a feature that never occurred with Ab 9262. Finally, the specificity of Ab 9262 for the pancreatic CCKB R was confirmed in six different species. It co-localized with somatostatin but never with glucagon in these species. Our data suggest the use of Abs 1122 and 9262 to specifically identify and localize pancreatic CCKA and CCKB receptors, respectively. Confusion in the literature may result from the lack of specificity of most antibodies used, as established in this study.
Stone Tools, Politics, and the Eighteenth-Century Chickasaw in Northeast Mississippi

The technological analysis of a collection of cores, flakes, unifaces, and bifaces from a Chickasaw site in northeast Mississippi makes it clear that the lithic industry was substantially reorganized to meet the functional demands of the early eighteenth-century colonial economy. The focus of this industry was a distinctive, well-made end scraper. Similar tools occur throughout the Midwest during late prehistoric times and extend into the middle Mississippi River valley during the protohistoric. Although the Midwest scrapers are likely a response to the spread of bison into that region, a study of the distribution of the Chickasaw tool kit in time and space suggests that it was used to process deer skins, the primary focus of the trade with the French and English in the Southeast. However, stone scrapers are not found on all early eighteenth-century Chickasaw sites. The historical documents suggest that some villages were more successful in their trade relations with the Europeans and were therefore able to replace stone tools with metal at an earlier date. An examination of the occurrence of stone tools throughout the Southeast during the early historic period indicates that relative distance to ports of trade was the primary determinant of the rate at which stone-tool technology was abandoned.
Reliable eyes pose measurement for robotic bionic eyes with MEMS gyroscope and AKF filter

In order to obtain the precise pose information of the robotic bionic eyes, the MEMS gyroscope is used for the measurement. Considering that the output of the MEMS gyroscope contains random noise, it is necessary to reduce the measurement error by noise reduction. According to the mathematical characteristics of the original output signal, the autoregressive (AR) model is established, and an adaptive Kalman filter(AKF) is designed to process the data. The results show that this method effectively reduces the random drift of the MEMS gyroscope.
Aspirin and NS‐398 inhibit hepatocyte growth factor–induced invasiveness of human hepatoma cells

Nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) inhibit cyclooxygenase (COX) activity and are considered to exert antitumor actions in a variety of cancer cells, although the effects are unlikely entirely due to COX inhibition. Because clinical observations suggest that hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) can promote metastasis of hepatoma cells while stimulating tumor invasiveness, we investigated the effect of aspirin and NS‐398, a selective COX‐2 inhibitor, on HGF‐mediated invasiveness of HepG2 human hepatoma cells. HGF stimulated the invasiveness of HepG2 cells in Matrigel cell invasion assay, together with increased expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 9. Addition of aspirin or NS‐398, similar to PD98059, which acts as a specific inhibitor of mitogen‐activated protein kinase/extracellular signal–regulated kinase (MEK), an upstream kinase regulating extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK)1/2, abrogated such actions of HGF without affecting cell viability. Aspirin and NS‐398, in contrast to PD98059, did not suppress ERK1/2 phosphorylation induced by HGF. However, both agents inhibited the kinase activity of ERK1/2 induced by HGF and repressed HGF‐induced phosphorylation of 90‐kd ribosomal S6 kinase (RSK) and Elk‐1, key downstream substrates of ERK1/2, resulting in the suppression of transcriptional activity of Elk‐1 as well as nuclear factor κB (NF‐κB) and AP‐1, which are involved in MMP‐9 gene regulation. In conclusion, our results suggest that aspirin and NS‐398 inhibit HGF‐induced invasiveness of HepG2 human hepatoma cells through ERK1/2.
RAPID COMMUNICATION Characterization of Insulin Secretion and Resistance in Type 2 Diabetes of Adolescents

Context: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) in obese children is an emerging problem, including in Europe. Its presentation at diagnosis very often differs from that in adults. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the relative contributions of the two components of T2D, insulin resistance and insulin secretion, early in the history of the disease in adolescents. Patients and Methods: Six obese adolescents with T2D were included 2 months to 4.3 yr after diagnosis (five girls and one boy; median age, 15.4 yr; median body mass index, 4.4 SD). Peripheral and hepatic insulin sensitivity was evaluated with euglycemic hyperinsulinemic (40 mU/m 2 min) clamp. First-phase insulin release was evaluated after iv glucose stimulation. A graded iv glucose infusion and an arginine test were performed to measure insulin secretion. Results: All patients showed decreased peripheral glucose uptake to the same extent. Five patients showed hepatic insulin resistance. First-phase insulin release was very low in two patients. Three patients showed an exaggerated insulin response under graded glucose infusion and preserved secretion under arginine stimulation. Three other patients, with elevated fasting plasma glucose levels, demonstrated a very low insulin response under glucose stimulation and a low insulin response under arginine stimulation. Conclusions: These data emphasize that together with marked insulin resistance, the failure of -cell function is a major component in the course of T2D in childhood. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 91: 401–404, 2006)
Development of an Open Software Platform for Robotics Services

We provide an overall description of our large-scale project on a robot software, called Open Platform for Robotic Services (OPRoS). Component-oriented design for robot software is employed to accommodate the open architecture of software. Basic structure and interfaces of the component are given and as real examples, several components for robotics applications are introduced. We also suggest a framework that supports communications among components and manages timers, events, faults and so on. The framework is designed so that it can be helpful for those who are not familiar with hardware. It is shown through an integrated developed environment(IDE) that all design procedure can be simplified and thus we can save much time and efforts developing a robot software. To make more stable SW, this project includes the scheme for evaluating and testing of the developed programs. The robot SW server with the global component repository is used for computation of some tasks requiring more computing power than that of the robot and the convenient discovery service of components.
Optical absorption enhancement of thin-film amorphous silicon induced by femtosecond laser pulses for solar cell fabrication

In this paper, we present a new method for direct-write laser fabrication of thin-film amorphous silicon (a-Si) on crystalline silicon substrate induced by femtosecond laser irradiation. Using megahertz frequency femtosecond laser pulses makes it possible to control laser fluence in the amorphization range of silicon under ambient condition. Finally, a thin-film of amorphous silicon is generated on the silicon substrate. It was observed a significant drop in light reflectance of the irradiated area (a-Si) in the visible range. This method can lead to promising solutions for solar cell fabrication techniques based on amorphorized silicon. In comparison with previous methods, our approach is singlestep and both processing time and cost of fabrication are reduced. A Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), a Micro-Raman, Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy and an optical spectrometer were used to investigate the properties of the amorphorized thin layer on Si-substrate.
Enhancing FPGA Architecture for Efficient Deep Learning Inference

Enhancing FPGA Architecture for Efficient Deep Learning Inference Andrew Maher Mansour Boutros Master of Applied Science The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Toronto 2018 Deep Learning (DL) has become best-in-class for numerous applications but at a high computational cost that necessitates high-performance energy-efficient acceleration. FPGAs offer an appealing DL inference acceleration platform due to their flexibility and energy-efficiency. This thesis explores FPGA architectural changes to enhance the efficiency of a class of DL models, convolutional neural networks (CNNs), on FPGAs. We first build three state-of-the-art CNN computing architectures (CAs) as benchmarks representative of the DL domain and quantify the FPGA vs. ASIC efficiency gaps for these CAs to highlight the bottlenecks of current FPGA architectures. Then, we enhance the flexibility of digital signal processing (DSP) blocks on current FPGAs for low-precision DL. Our DSP block increases the performance of 8-bit and 4-bit CNN inference by 1.3x and 1.6x respectively with minimal block area overhead. Finally, we present a preliminary evaluation of logic block architectural changes, leaving their detailed evaluation for future work.
Influenza vaccine effectiveness in preventing hospitalizations with laboratory‐confirmed influenza in Greece during the 2014–2015 season: A test‐negative study

The 2014–2015 influenza season was marked by circulation of antigenically drifted A/H3N2 strains, raising the possibility of low seasonal influenza Vaccine Effectiveness (VE). We assessed VE against hospitalization with laboratory‐confirmed influenza for the 2014–2015 season, using routine surveillance data. Non‐sentinel swab samples from Greek hospital inpatients were tested for influenza by RT‐PCR in three laboratories, covering the entire country. We estimated VE using a test‐negative design. Out of 883 patients with known vaccination status, 161 (18.2%) were vaccinated, and 392/883 patients (44.4%) tested positive for influenza, of whom 162 (41.3%) had type B and 151 (38.5%) had A/H3N2. Adjusted VE was 31.6% (95%CI: 2.9–51.8%) against any influenza, 46.8%, 95%CI: 12.5–67.6%) against type B and −1.9%, 95%CI: −69.5 to 38.7%) against A/H3N2. VE against non‐ICU hospitalization appeared to be higher, but the difference did not reach statistical significance. Circulating A/H3N2 viruses showed substantial antigenic drift, while about half of the type B strains were similar to the vaccine strain. Despite the antigenic drift of the A/H3N2 strains, the vaccine still offered substantial protection against hospitalization with laboratory‐confirmed influenza, mostly due to a surge in type B influenza late in the season. Vaccine coverage was low, even among groups targeted for vaccination, and considerable effort should be made to improve it. J. Med. Virol. 88:1896–1904, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Political Manipulation of U.S. State Rainy Day Funds Under Rules Versus Discretion

Anecdotal evidence suggests that U.S. state politicians manipulate rainy day funds for political purposes, but such claims remain untested in the literature. This article finds that lawmakers withdraw nearly three times more funds in response to a deficit shock of a given size if it occurs in an election year rather than in a non-election year; this occurs despite the fact that the magnitude of shocks does not vary over the electoral cycle. This effect is stronger when incumbents are eligible for re-election than when they are term-limited. When it comes to preventing political manipulation of funds, rainy day fund rules that increase the number of veto players who must approve of withdrawals seem to be more effective than rules that specify the economic conditions under which funds may be withdrawn.
Hybrid approaches to clinical trial monitoring: Practical alternatives to 100% source data verification

For years, a vast majority of clinical trial industry has followed the tenet of 100% source data verification (SDV). This has been driven partly by the overcautious approach to linking quality of data to the extent of monitoring and SDV and partly by being on the safer side of regulations. The regulations however, do not state any upper or lower limits of SDV. What it expects from researchers and the sponsors is methodologies which ensure data quality. How the industry does it is open to innovation and application of statistical methods, targeted and remote monitoring, real time reporting, adaptive monitoring schedules, etc. In short, hybrid approaches to monitoring. Coupled with concepts of optimum monitoring and SDV at site and off-site monitoring techniques, it should be possible to save time required to conduct SDV leading to more available time for other productive activities. Organizations stand to gain directly or indirectly from such savings, whether by diverting the funds back to the R&D pipeline; investing more in technology infrastructure to support large trials; or simply increasing sample size of trials. Whether it also affects the work-life balance of monitors who may then need to travel with a less hectic schedule for the same level of quality and productivity can be predicted only when there is more evidence from field.
Province-Managing-County Reform and Public Education Spending: A Quasi-Natural Experiment of Fiscal Decentralization in China

Since the 1990s, China has pushed forward the province-managing-county (PMC) reform in some provinces as an experiment of fiscal decentralization. The reform provides a good opportunity to examine the impact of fiscal decentralization on fiscal behaviors of local governments in China. Using a dataset of 108 counties in Henan Province during 1999-2008, we use a difference-in-differences approach to investigate how the PMC reform affects local public education spending. The results show that counties given additional fiscal autonomy tend to spend a lower share of their annual expenditures on public education than other counties do. The findings suggest that fiscal decentralization makes local governments more responsive to their performance incentives but not necessarily to the long-term benefits of local residents.
The Economic Value of Knowledge: Embodied in Goods or Embedded in Cultures?

Crevoisier O. The economic value of knowledge: embodied in goods or embedded in cultures? , Regional Studies. ‘Tacit’ knowledge is a fuzzy concept – a kind of never opened black box – that has not allowed understanding about how knowledge gives birth to monetary income, or to regional development. This paper proposes a distinction between substantial and significant knowledge. While the former refers to knowledge being sold and bought like a good or embodied in goods on the basis of ownership, the latter claims that knowledge workers, firms or communities are remunerated following the institution of authorship, i.e. their capacity to create meaning. This would be a central institution in an increasingly culture-based economy. A typology of regional knowledge-anchoring milieus is then built on this distinction. This paper is a qualitative meta-synthesis of 23 case studies realized in the EURODITE project.
Models of Investor Forecasting Behavior - Experimental Evidence

Different forecasting behaviors affect investors’ trading decisions and lead to qualitatively different asset price trajectories. It has been shown in the literature that the weights that investors place on observed asset price changes when forecasting future price changes, and the nature of their confidence when price changes are forecast, determine whether price bubbles, price crashes, and unpredictable price cycles occur. In this paper, we report the results of behavioral experiments involving multiple investors who participated in a market for a virtual asset. Our goal is to study investors’ forecast formation. We conducted three experimental sessions with different participants in each session. We fit different models of forecast formation to the observed data. There is strong evidence that the investors forecast future prices by extrapolating past price changes, even when they know the fundamental value of the asset exactly and the extrapolated forecasts differ significantly from the fundamental value. The rational expectations hypothesis seems inconsistent with the observed forecasts. The forecasting models of all participants that best fit the observed forecasting data were of the type that cause price bubbles and cycles in dynamical systems models, and price bubbles and cycles ended up occurring in all three sessions.
Comparison of effective doses for low-dose MDCT and radiographic examination of sinuses in children.

OBJECTIVE Our objective was to show that in low-dose MDCT of the sinuses in children the effective dose can be lowered to a level comparable to that used for standard radiographic images, with resultant CT scans that are still of diagnostic image quality. MATERIALS AND METHODS In standard radiographic examinations of sinuses (anteroposterior and lateral views) with 75 kV, 20 mAs, and 3-mm aluminum filtration in 69 children (mean age, 4.2 years), the dose-area-product (DAP; mGy x cm2) was measured and converted to effective dose (mSv) according to coefficients published by the British National Radiological Protection Board. Another group of 125 children (mean age, 6.8 years) underwent low-dose MDCT of the sinuses with 6- or 16-MDCT in two phases and with different scanning protocols. An effective dose for MDCT was calculated from conversion of the dose-length-product (DLP, mGy xm) according to age. RESULTS The mean effective dose (E) for standard radiography was 0.0528 mSv. The mean E value for low-dose MDCT was 0.096 mSv in the first phase of the study but could be lowered in the second phase to 0.0531 mSv by a combination of higher pitch and faster scan rotation time in our scan protocols, which results in diagnostic image quality at a very low dose. Statistical analysis showed no significant differences in effective dose between radiography and MDCT of the second phase. CONCLUSION With modern MDCT technology, low-dose CT of the sinuses in children can yield diagnostic image quality using an effective dose comparable to that used for standard radiography.
Assessment of inter-observer reliability of two five-level triage and acuity scales: a randomized controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION The Emergency Severity Index (ESI) is an initial measure of patient assessment in the emergency department (ED). It rates patients based on acuity and predicted resource intensity from Level 1 (most ill) to Level 5 (least resource intensive). Already implemented and evaluated in several US hospitals, ESI has yet to be evaluated in a Canadian setting or compared with the five-level Canadian Emergency Department Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS). OBJECTIVE To compare the inter-observer reliability of 2 five-level triage and acuity scales. METHODS Ten triage nurses, who had all been trained in the use of CTAS, from 4 urban, academic Canadian EDs were randomly assigned either to training in ESI version 3 (ESI v.3) or to refresher training in CTAS. They independently assigned triage scores to 200 emergency cases, unaware of the rating by the other nurses. RESULTS Number of years of nursing practice was the only significant demographic difference found between the 2 groups (p = 0.014). A quadratically weighted kappa to measure the inter-observer reliability of the CTAS group was 0.91 (0.90, 0.99) and not significantly different from that of the ESI group 0.89 (0.88, 0.99). An inter-test generalizability (G) study performed on the variance components derived from an analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed G(5) = 0.90 (0.82, 0.99). CONCLUSIONS After 3 hours of training, experienced triage nurses were able to perform triage assessments using ESI v.3 with the same inter-observer reliability as those with experience and refresher training in using the CTAS.
Optimal dynamic pricing for fresh products under the cap-and-trade scheme

This paper focuses on an emission dependent supply chain consisting of one emission-dependent manufacturer and one emission-permit supplier under the carbon-and-trade scheme, where emission permission becomes requisite for production. We consider the emission cap of fresh products manufacturer allocated by the government and investigate its influence on decision-makings. An optimal control model is also established to maximize the total profit for manufacturer and supplier, where the demand not only depends on the current price, but also is sensitive to the historical price. The dynamic optimal pricing strategy is obtained through solving the optimal control model. In addition, numerical simulations and sensitivity analysis are carried out and some suggestions are proposed to formulate their pricing policies.