Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Financial Sector Policies, Poverty and Inequality

While finance has been shown to influence the distribution of income, little research has been devoted to the potential impact of financial sector policies on inequality. This study analyzes the relationship between financial repression and inequality across countries and across China's provinces. Using several alternative estimation procedures including fixed effect, dynamic panel and instrumental variable regressions, we find that financial repression is positively associated with inequality across countries. Moreover, we find that this relationship is stronger in less developed economies and that interest rate controls, capital account controls, poor banking supervision and a concentrated banking sector are the most important financial policies influencing inequality. Furthermore, financial repression is associated with a higher fraction of the population living in poverty. Focusing on China, financial repression again acts as a driver for inequality and its effect is stronger in less developed provinces. These results have important policy implications, not the least so for China, where rising inequality poses a significant problem for the government.
Modelling of Time-harmonic Seismic Data With the Helmholtz Equation And Scattering Series

Abstract. We study the modelling of time-harmonic seismic data with the Helmholtz equation in R, d ≥ 2. We follow a two-step approach. First we discuss conditions on the regularity of the underlying wavespeed model for the direct solution of the Helmholtz equation. Secondly, we extend these conditions while considering the scattering or distorted Born series supplemented with a frequency bound. This series arises upon decomposing the medium in which the (time-harmonic) waves scatter into a heterogeneous background (with the regularity required in the first step) and a contrast. We obtain a condition, that is, frequency bound for convergence of the series in the Morrey-Campanato norm for relative contrasts in L.
TXNIP in Agrp Neurons Regulates Adiposity, Energy Expenditure, and Central Leptin Sensitivity

Thioredoxin interacting protein (TXNIP) has recently been described as a key regulator of energy metabolism through pleiotropic actions that include nutrient sensing in the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH). However, the role of TXNIP in neurochemically specific hypothalamic subpopulations and the circuits downstream from MBH TXNIP engaged to regulate energy homeostasis remain unexplored. To evaluate the metabolic role of TXNIP activity specifically within arcuate Agrp neurons, we generated Agrp-specific TXNIP gain-of-function and loss-of-function mouse models using Agrp-Ires-cre mice, TXNIP flox/flox mice, and a lentivector expressing the human TXNIP isoform conditionally in the presence of Cre recombinase. Overexpression of TXNIP in Agrp neurons predisposed to diet-induced obesity and adipose tissue storage by decreasing energy expenditure and spontaneous locomotion, without affecting food intake. Conversely, Agrp neuronal TXNIP deletion protected against diet-induced obesity and adipose tissue storage by increasing energy expenditure and spontaneous locomotion, also without affecting food intake. TXNIP overexpression in Agrp neurons did not primarily affect glycemic control, whereas deletion of TXNIP in Agrp neurons improved fasting glucose levels and glucose tolerance independently of its effects on body weight and adiposity. Bidirectional manipulation of TXNIP expression induced reciprocal changes in central leptin sensitivity and the neural regulation of lipolysis. Together, these results identify a critical role for TXNIP in Agrp neurons in mediating diet-induced obesity through the regulation of energy expenditure and adipose tissue metabolism, independently of food intake. They also reveal a previously unidentified role for Agrp neurons in the brain-adipose axis.
Position control of an industrial hydraulic system with a pressure compensator

A problem of position control of a forestry crane is studied. Several features of industrial hydraulic systems are pointed out, namely a nonlinearity of a valve and a pressure compensator. A novel model of a hydraulic system with the pressure compensator is presented and analyzed, a static nonlinearity inversion and a velocity feedforward control term are introduced. Real-time experiments with controllers which use only position measurements illustrate utility of these terms.
The implication of protein malnutrition on cardiovascular control systems in rats

The malnutrition in early life is associated with metabolic changes and cardiovascular impairment in adulthood. Deficient protein intake-mediated hypertension has been observed in clinical and experimental studies. In rats, protein malnutrition also increases the blood pressure and enhances heart rate and sympathetic activity. In this review, we discuss the effects of post-weaning protein malnutrition on the resting mean arterial pressure and heart rate and their variabilities, cardiovascular reflexes sensitivity, cardiac autonomic balance, sympathetic and renin-angiotensin activities and neural plasticity during adult life. These insights reveal an interesting prospect on the autonomic modulation underlying the cardiovascular imbalance and provide relevant information on preventing cardiovascular diseases.
Preparation of Low Molecular Weight Chondroitin Sulfates, Screening of a High Anti-Complement Capacity of Low Molecular Weight Chondroitin Sulfate and Its Biological Activity Studies in Attenuating Osteoarthritis

Chondroitin sulfate (CS) plays important roles in the complement system. However, the CS structure is complicated due to different sources and the number and positions of sulfate groups. The objective of this study was to prepare different low molecular weight chondroitin sulfates (LMWCSs) and to investigate the biological activity in anti-complement capacity. A series of LMWCSs was prepared from different sources and characterized by ultraviolet-visible (UV) spectroscopy, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), size exclusion chromatography-multiangle laser light scattering (SEC-MALLS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Hemolytic, anti-complement 3 deposition capacity and cell viability assays were carried out to investigate the biological activities in vitro. The results showed that LMWCS prepared from shark cartilage with the oxidative degradation method (LMWCS-S-O) had the best anti-complement capacity. LMWCS-S-O could inhibit the alternative pathway of the complement system and protect chondrocytes from cell death. The attenuating effect of LMWCS-S-O on Osteoarthritis (OA) was investigated by destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM) model in vivo. Functional wind-up, histological and C5b-9 analyses were used to evaluate the treatment effect on the OA model. In vivo results showed that LMWCS-S-O could attenuate OA. LMWCS-S-O with a high content of ΔDi-2,6diS and ΔDi-6S could be used for attenuating OA through regulating the complement system.
A PSO-based MPPT re-initialised by incremental conductance method for a standalone PV system

This paper presents a modified maximum power point tracker (MPPT) for a standalone PV system. In this research a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-based method is re-initialised by a variable step size (VSS) incremental conductance (IncCond) MPPT. The main motivation in this research is to eliminate the output ripple, and also to shorten the tracking time in rapidly changing insolation condition (RCIC). Used in this study, PSO-based method, precisely designed based on the dynamic behaviors of introduced system. The functionality of proposed method is evaluated by MATLAB/SIMULINK. Compared to IncCond method, the advantage of proposed one is that the PV outputs are more accurate and much less ripple-plotted. In comparison with standard PSO-based MPPT method, the tracking time in this method is much shorter, notably under RCIC.
Biomimetic Techniques for Improving Sperm Quality in Animal Breeding: A Review

Sperm quality in insemination doses is known to affect pregnancy rates following artificial insemination (AI) in a number of animal species. Furthermore, biotechnologies such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) require the spermatozoa to be removed from seminal plasma, which contains inhibitory substances, cellu- lar debris and even pathogens. Several methods have been advocated to separate sperm cells from the rest of the ejaculate, and even to select the subpopulation of better quality spermatozoa by providing a physical barrier to the passage of ab- normal, dead or dying spermatozoa. In this article, these methods are critically reviewed in the light of their suitability for use in the animal breeding industry, where requirements for efficiency, practicality and, above all, economy of the selec- tion method are paramount. Colloid centrifugation, particularly the new "Single Layer Centrifugation" (SLC) technique, appears to be the most effective method both for separating spermatozoa from seminal plasma and for selecting the most robust spermatozoa. Furthermore, SLC can be scaled-up to enable large ejaculates to be processed easily.
Sliding mode control of the simplest walking model

This paper presents an application of a robust control method, the sliding mode control, to an irreducibly simple model of passive dynamic walking known as the simplest walking model. Although, the simplest walking model is well studied with indirect actuation methods, such as gravity power or toe off impulse, its capability to begin to walk from different initial conditions, walking under disturbance and on uneven terrain is limited. When the model has direct actuation such that it has a stance and a swing torque, we showed that using sliding mode control, the model was able to start walking from different initial conditions; it was able to handle disturbances and walk on uneven terrain.
A traffic-blanced adaptive routing in 2D torus based on odd-even turn model

A new traffic-balanced adaptive routing algorithm is proposed for 2-dimensional torus with only four virtual channels, the deadlock avoidance technique is presented based on two levels odd-even turn model scheme. Unlike the previous virtual network routing schemes, virtual channel resource are not equally distributed to the packets, the new method allows all packets have the equal chances to share the virtual network resource according to the new odd-even turn model. The routing scheme which not only improves the routing adaptability, increases the virtual channel utilization, but also achieves load balancing and greatly raises the system throughput. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by comparing with several important previous methods.
Telerehabilitation in Poststroke Anomia

Anomia, a word-finding difficulty, is a frequent consequence of poststroke linguistic disturbance, associated with fluent and nonfluent aphasia that needs long-term specific and intensive speech rehabilitation. The present study explored the feasibility of telerehabilitation as compared to a conventional face-to-face treatment of naming, in patients with poststroke anomia. Five aphasic chronic patients participated in this study characterized by: strictly controlled crossover design; well-balanced lists of words in picture-naming tasks where progressive phonological cues were provided; same kind of the treatment in the two ways of administration. ANOVA was used to compare naming accuracy in the two types of treatment, at three time points: baseline, after treatment, and followup. The results revealed no main effect of treatment type (P = 0.844) indicating that face-to-face and tele-treatment yielded comparable results. Moreover, there was a significant main effect of time (P = 0.0004) due to a better performance immediately after treatment and in the followup when comparing them to baseline. These preliminary results show the feasibility of teletreatment applied to lexical deficits in chronic stroke patients, extending previous work on telerehabilitation and opening new vistas for future studies on teletreatment of language functions.
Safe Contrast Volumes for Preventing Contrast-Induced Nephropathy in Elderly Patients With Relatively Normal Renal Function During Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

AbstractThe aim of this study was to evaluate contrast media volume to creatinine clearance (V/CrCl) ratio for predicting contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) and to determine a safe V/CrCl cut off value to avoid CIN in elderly patients with relatively normal renal function during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We prospectively enrolled 1020 consecutive elderly patients (age ≥65 years) with relative normal renal function (baseline serum creatinine <1.5 mg/dL) undergoing PCI. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to identify the optimal cut off value of V/CrCl for detecting CIN. The predictive value of V/CrCl for CIN was assessed with a multivariate logistic regression.Thirty-nine patients (3.8%) developed CIN. There was a significant association between a higher V/CrCl ratio and CIN risk (P < 0.001). ROC curve analysis indicated that a V/CrCl ratio of 2.74 was a fair discriminator for CIN (C statistic = 0.68). After adjusting for other known CIN risk factors, V/CrCl ratios >2.74 remained significantly associated with CIN (odds ratio = 3.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.45–7.09, P = 0.004) and worse long-term mortality (hazard ratio = 1.96, 95% CI 1.14–3.38, P = 0.016). A V/CrCl ratio >2.74 was a significant independent predictor of CIN and was independently associated with long-term mortality in elderly patients with relatively normal renal function.
Investigation of the Relationships Between Paranormal Beliefs, Parental Bonding, and Adult Attachment of University Students

Paranormal beliefs are of interest for the college students especially studying psychology and philosophy. In addition, attitudes such as parental bonding and adult attachment affect levels of paranormal beliefs. Exploring the relationships among these principal themes is of great importance in illuminating possible effects of students’ attachments and bonding toward the development of paranormal beliefs. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among students’ parental attachment, relationship attitude, and paranormal beliefs; 239 university students responded to the items in three separate questionnaires, the Paranormal Belief Scale, parental bonding, and adult attachment survey. The research findings showed that a significant relationship exists between paranormal beliefs and attachment attitudes in the favor of females. In terms of the relationship between paranormal beliefs and adult attachment, the results also revealed that they have akin relationships between adult attachment and parental bonding. Although adult relationships affect paranormal beliefs, no significant correlation was found among three areas possible because the effect of parental bonding is limited in the long term.
Fast Routing in Road Networks with Transit Nodes

When you drive to somewhere far away, you will leave your current location via one of only a few important traffic junctions. Starting from this informal observation, we developed an algorithmic approach, transit node routing, that allows us to reduce quickest path queries in road networks to a small number of table lookups. For road maps of Western Europe and the United States, our best query times improved over the best previously published figures by two orders of magnitude. This is also more than one million times faster than the best known algorithm for general networks.
Required and Optional Viewpoints - What Is Included in Software Architecture?

Software architecture is conventionally concerned with the structures in a high abstraction level describing the main constituents of a software system. However, there seems to be no common agreement of what these structures exactly are. This paper acts as an attempt to define the viewpoints from which we see the structures. The rationale of having different viewpoints is reflected and a framework of the relationship between software architecture design and information systems development (ISD) methods is presented. The framework is based on the ideas found from method engineering and metamodelling. It is noted that the selection of viewpoints is contingent and based on the prevalent architectural practices in an organization and on the requirements from the project at hand. The paper includes a brief case study on the experiences from three different telecom-area software organizations that end up using different sets of viewpoints in their software process.
Performance Analysis of Cloud Service Considering Reliability

Cloud computing is one technology developed for large-scale resource sharing and service-oriented computing. Since, cloud computing is a service-oriented computing, performance analysis of cloud service becomes an important issue. Due to the complexity of the cloud computing system, it is difficult to analyze the service performance. Although there exist some researches on cloud service, very few of them addressed the issues of reliability and its impact on service performance in the virtual resources pool constructed by heterogeneous physical resources. In order to analyze performance considering reliability, this paper presents a reliability-performance correlation model. By using the Markov model, the universal generating function and the Markov reward model, the correlation model first analyzes performance with considering physical machine failures and VM failures simultaneously in a heterogeneous environment. In addition, compared with traditional models, our model is realistic model that can support dividing a job into many subtasks (e.g., MapReduce). And the performance index of efficient service rate can be obtained. Numerical examples are presented to verify the validity of our model.
What a Smile Means: Contextual Beliefs and Facial Emotion Expressions in a Non-verbal Zero-Sum Game

Research into the authenticity of facial emotion expressions often focuses on the physical properties of the face while paying little attention to the role of beliefs in emotion perception. Further, the literature most often investigates how people express a pre-determined emotion rather than what facial emotion expressions people strategically choose to express. To fill these gaps, this paper proposes a non-verbal zero-sum game – the Face X Game – to assess the role of contextual beliefs and strategic displays of facial emotion expression in interpersonal interactions. This new research paradigm was used in a series of three studies, where two participants are asked to play the role of the sender (individual expressing emotional information on his/her face) or the observer (individual interpreting the meaning of that expression). Study 1 examines the outcome of the game with reference to the sex of the pair, where senders won more frequently when the pair was comprised of at least one female. Study 2 examines the strategic display of facial emotion expressions. The outcome of the game was again contingent upon the sex of the pair. Among female pairs, senders won the game more frequently, replicating the pattern of results from study 1. We also demonstrate that senders who strategically express an emotion incongruent with the valence of the event (e.g., smile after seeing a negative event) are able to mislead observers, who tend to hold a congruent belief about the meaning of the emotion expression. If sending an incongruent signal helps to explain why female senders win more frequently, it logically follows that female observers were more prone to hold a congruent, and therefore inaccurate, belief. This prospect implies that while female senders are willing and/or capable of displaying fake smiles, paired-female observers are not taking this into account. Study 3 investigates the role of contextual factors by manipulating female observers’ beliefs. When prompted to think in an incongruent manner, these observers significantly improve their performance in the game. These findings emphasize the role that contextual factors play in emotion perception—observers’ beliefs do indeed affect their judgments of facial emotion expressions.
A New Biometric Modality Based on Conjunctival Vasculature

A new biometric indicator based on the patterns of conjunctival vasculature is proposed. Conjunctival vessels can be observed on the visible part of the sclera that is exposed to the outside world. These vessels demonstrate rich and specific details in visible light, and can be easily photographed using a regular digital camera. In this paper we discuss methods for conjunctival imaging, preprocessing, and feature extraction in order to derive a suitable conjunctival vascular template for biometric authentication. Commensurate classification methods along with the observed accuracy are discussed. Experimental results suggest the potential of using conjunctival vasculature as a biometric measure.
Modeling and simulation of joint time-frequency properties of spectrum usage in cognitive radio

The development of the Dynamic Spectrum Access/Cognitive Radio (DSA/CR) technology can significantly benefit from the availability of realistic models able to accurately capture and reproduce the statistical properties of spectrum usage in real wireless communication systems. Relying on field measurements of real systems, this paper analyzes the joint time-frequency statistical properties of spectrum usage and develops adequate models describing the observed characteristics. Based on such models, a sophisticated method is also proposed to generate artificial spectrum data for simulation or other purposes. The proposed method is able to accurately reproduce the statistical time-frequency characteristics of spectrum usage in real systems.
MET nucleotide variations and amplification in advanced ovarian cancer: characteristics and outcomes with c-Met inhibitors

Purpose MET alterations including amplifications and nucleotide variations have been associated with resistance to therapy and aggressive clinical behavior. Experimental Design The medical records of patients presenting to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Phase I Clinic with relapsed or metastatic ovarian cancers and known MET nucleotide variation or amplification status were reviewed retrospectively (n=178). Categorical and continuous clinical and molecular characteristics were compared using Fisher's exact and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, respectively. Univariate and multivariate survival were assessed via Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis, respectively. Results MET amplification occurred in 4 (3.5%) of 113 patients, whereas nonsynonomous nucleotide variations were present in 9 (7.4%) of 122 patients. No patients exhibited concomitant amplification and variation. MET variations were observed only in white women with high-grade ovarian tumors, whereas amplifications were observed in both black and white women with high-grade serous ovarian primary tumors. No patients (n=4) exhibiting a MET alteration achieved an objective response when treated on a c-Met inhibitor phase I trial. In addition, ovarian cancer patients treated with a c-Met inhibitor with multikinase activity trended towards a longer time-to-failure compared with those treated with a c-Met-specific inhibitor (median: 1.5 vs. 4.5 months, p=0.07). Conclusions MET alterations occur in a minority of patients with ovarian cancer. c-Met inhibitors with multikinase activity may exhibit less activity in ovarian cancer than c-Met specific drugs. These findings warrant further investigation.