Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance evaluation of OFDM-CDMA with multiple antennas for broadband wireless access networks

An orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)-code-division multiple-access (CDMA) system employing various diversity schemes is considered as a possible candidate for broadband wireless access network applications. With an emphasis on a preamble design for multichannel separation, we address a channel estimation based on the time-domain windowing and its imperfectness in the space-time block-coded (STBC) OFDM-CDMA systems, respectively. Also, for a simple construction of the OFDM-CDMA system with the low peak-to-average power ratio (PAR) and reduced transmitter complexity, we investigate a simple PAR reduction scheme and its combination with both decimated selective mapping (SLM) and partial transmit sequence (PTS) methods. Taking into account the false side information introduced by the PAR reduction scheme, the effects of diversity techniques and PAR on the performance of the STBC OFDM-CDMA system are investigated and the maximum achievable diversity gain for a two-path Rayleigh-fading environment is evaluated. From the presented results, we find that the OFDM-CDMA signal with the low PAR is easily constructed by a simple phase transform and its combination version with the SLM and PTS approaches can be implemented to be less complex by decimating the OFDM samples. At the same time, the OFDM-CDMA system applying a space-time-frequency diversity with two and four transmit antennas can give the diversity of D=4 and D=8 for the multiuser case with half user capacity, respectively, even if encountered with the false side information.
Structure of the lipid-containing bacteriophage PRD1: disruption of wild-type and nonsense mutant phage particles with guanidine hydrochloride

The lipid-containing bacteriophage PRD1 was disrupted, and the subviral particles were studied. Guanidine treatment released two phage proteins (P3 and P5). These proteins form the polyhedral capsid. The remaining phage proteins were associated with the phage membrane vesicle. The vesicle was capable of forming a tubular structure. The isolated phage membrane vesicles aggregated readily. We found that aggregation and tube formation were associated with specific phage proteins (P11 and P18, respectively) by using protease treatment and an analysis of nonsense mutant phage particles. In addition, the possibility that free vesicles might be precursors to empty virions was studied.
Designing feed-back control for electrical GEN-SET with VSCF technology and boost converter

In this paper, a power supply unit based on the Engine-Generator Set (EGS) will be discussed. The recent clear trends lead to use of more economical power sources that are able to yield maximum of fuel energy. EGS units can be considered as comparatively sophisticated mechatronic systems consisting of mechanical part, electromechanical energy conversion part, power electronics and control (feed-back) part. This paper is aimed to highlight that mobile EGS needs a speedy power buffer with back-up power supply and bi-directional dc-dc converter, to show the PID regulator design and results of EGS experimental identification and verification.
Supplementation of diets containing pea meal with exogenous enzymes: Effects on weight gain, feed conversion, nutrient digestibility and gross morphology of the gastrointestinal tract of growing broiler chicks

1. The potential for the nutritional improvement of pea-based diets by supplementation with a cocktail of exogenous carbohydrases was investigated using growing broiler chicks. 2. Pea meals (grown in the UK) were included in wheat-based diets at 300 g/kg as a partial replacement for an approximately isonitrogenous mixture of wheat and soybean meal. A wheat/soybean meal diet served as a control and each diet was supplemented with a cocktail of α-amylase, pectinase and cellulase. The diets were fed to 1-d-old broiler chicks for a period of 21 d. Weight gain and feed conversion were monitored weekly and excreta were collected during the final week in order to determine nutrient digestibility coefficients and metabolisable energy. On d 21, the gastrointestinal (GI) tract was excised and gross morphology measured. 3. Inclusion of pea meal reduced weight gain, feed conversion, nutrient digestibility and also increased the relative sizes of the distal sections of the GI tract. 4. Enzyme addition partially ameliorated the detrimental effects of pea meal inclusion although similar improvements were also noted for birds fed on the control diet. 5. It is concluded that the nutritive value of pea-meal-based diets can be improved by the addition of carbohydrases, and that some pea cultivars show considerable potential as vegetable protein sources for broiler chicks.
Are health care providers who work with cancer drugs at an increased risk for toxic events? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature

Objective. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to test the hypothesis that oncology health care workers are at an increased risk of cancer, reproductive complications and acute toxic events. Design. A structured literature search of Index Medicus/MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Healthstar was performed from 1966 to December 2004 for human epidemiological studies evaluating the risk of toxic events in health care workers exposed to cytotoxic drugs. Raw data and adjusted odds ratios (OR) reported in eligible studies were combined using a random effects model to calculate point estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for each potential risk outcome. Main outcome measures. Adjusted OR for congenital malformations, stillbirths and spontaneous abortions among health care workers exposure to cytotoxic agents compared to a non-exposed control group. Results. The systematic review identified 14 studies evaluating the outcomes of interest, seven of which were suitable for statistical pooling. Due to lack of evidence, we were unable to estimate a pooled OR for the risk of cancer and acute toxic events. However, no significant association was detected between exposure to cytotoxic drugs and; congenital malformations (OR=1.64; 95% CI: 0.91-2.94) and stillbirths (OR=1.16; 95% CI: 0.73-1.82). In contrast, an association was identified between exposure to chemotherapy and spontaneous abortions (OR=1.46; 95% CI: 1.11-1.92). Conclusions. The results of this systematic review identified a small incremental risk for spontaneous abortions in female staff working with cytotoxic agents. Health policy decision makers should effectively communicate the magnitude of this risk to their staff and implement cost effective interventions for its reduction or elimination.
Partial discharge detection as a tool to infer pollution severity of polymeric insulators

This paper deals with the analysis of partial discharge characteristics of silicone rubber insulators, with the aim to develop a better diagnostic tool to identify the pollution severity of outdoor insulators. In this work, laboratory-based pollution performance tests are carried out on silicone rubber insulators under ac voltage at different pollution levels and relative humidity conditions, using sodium chloride as a contaminant. Partial discharge (PD) is acquired through an innovative PD detection system which is able to collect PD waveforms beside PD patterns. Time domain and frequency domain characteristics of PD pulses at different surface pollution conditions are studied. Statistical parameters of PD patterns are also evaluated in order to achieve a quantitative assessment of pollution severity of polymeric insulators. The results on silicone rubber insulators show that the pollution severity of outdoor polymeric insulators could be identified from the partial discharge pattern analysis.
Municipal isomorphism: testing the effects of vertical and horizontal collaboration

ABSTRACT This study tests whether vertical and horizontal collaborative arrangements generate organizational isomorphic pressures. Using neo-institutional theory, we explore whether local governments emulate their peers when they are (1) bound through collaborative agreements/associations (mimetic pressures), and/or (2) scrutinized by central government through a vertical agreement (coercive pressures). Municipal isomorphism is measured by municipality-dyad convergence across time based on: (1) the number of central-government grant applications submitted by municipalities and (2) use of information technologies. We test for changes in divergence between dyads on these measures using data from all possible dyads generated from 207 Chilean municipalities over 10 years (2005–2014). After controlling for potential confounding factors, findings show mimetic and coercive pressures, from horizontal and vertical forms of governance, reduce a municipal dyad’s divergence in terms of grant applications and use of information technologies. However, collaboration effects on municipal isomorphism are contingent on the type of collaboration. While formal municipal agreements increase a municipal dyad’s convergence, municipal associations unexpectedly seem to decrease it.
An Enhanced Random Access Scheme With Spatial Group Based Reusable Preamble Allocation in Cellular M2M Networks

In the near future, cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) communications are expected to play an important role to realize the Internet of Things (IoT). Due to the exponentially growing number of machine nodes, however, one of challenging issues is to accommodate their random access (RA) requests without severely degrading the performance of human-to-human (H2H) communications. In this letter, we propose an enhanced RA scheme with spatial group based reusable preamble allocation (ERA-SGRPA), which reuses the preamble resources based on a spatial grouping during the RA procedure. By allocating the identical preamble set to the groups which are far apart from each other, the ERA-SGRPA scheme enables the given preamble set to be efficiently reused. The performance evaluation shows that the ERA-SGRPA scheme significantly lowers the collision probability and reduces the access delay and can accommodate a significantly larger number of machine nodes without degrading the performance of H2H communications.
The Ambivalent Potentials of Social Media Use by Unaccompanied Minor Refugees

In 2015, an unprecedented number of unaccompanied minor refugees came to Europe. To verify reports in mass media as well as professionals’ and volunteers’ impressions regarding the importance of digital media, this empirical study was conducted in the summer of 2015 in cooperation with the “Children’s Charity of Germany” (Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk e.V.). The study focused on the question of how unaccompanied minor refugees use digital (social and mobile) media in the context of their forced migration to Germany. It explored how they use these media to stay in contact with family and friends in their country of origin and beyond, to establish new relationships, to orientate themselves in the receiving country, and to search for (professional) support. Thus, the role of digital media in maintaining transnational social networks and enabling participation in a receiving society is investigated. This article presents key findings and their theoretical implications as well as a methodological and ethical reflection on this research.
User preferences profiling based on user behaviors on Facebook page categories

User preference profiling is important in both social networking mining and recommender systems. Facebook provides information of page category over two hundred relating to user preferences, but the predefined categories may not fit application well. Explicitly mapping those categories to a desirable set of user preferences is a tedious task. This paper proposes an effective user profiling technique using features constructed from user behaviours on Facebook page in different categories. The models created from three well known classification algorithms: Naïve Bayes (NB), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) turn the raw data of user behaviours into a set of user preferences defined by application. The experiments performed on Facebook dataset show that the constructed features are implicitly reflecting user preferences and can be used to tailor the preferences as needed. Among the three algorithms SVM leverages classification performance the most with accuracy over seventy-two percent.
International Accounting Standards in Africa: Selective Recursivity for the ‘Happy Few’?

This study explores recursivity in international accounting standard-setting, focusing on participation of actors from African countries. While the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation bases its legitimacy claims as a global standard-setter on a combination of expertise and a formally transparent set of recursive procedures for consultation of stakeholders, empirical results show that participation in the latter is geographically very uneven. The article argues that conceptual mismatch between the standard-setter's objectives on the one hand and the socio-economic, cultural and political conditions in many African countries on the other leads to selective recursivity that is problematic for the former's legitimacy and effectiveness. These findings are of wider relevance for debates on global standard-setting and development.
Declines in Mortality Rates and Changes in Causes of Death in HIV-1-Infected Children During the HAART Era

Context:Introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy has significantly decreased mortality in HIV-1-infected adults and children. Although an increase in non-HIV-related mortality has been noted in adults, data in children are limited. Objectives:To evaluate changes in causes and risk factors for death among HIV-1-infected children in Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group 219/219C. Design, Setting, and Participants:Multicenter, prospective cohort study designed to evaluate long-term outcomes in HIV-1-exposed and infected US children. There were 3553 HIV-1-infected children enrolled and followed up between April 1993 and December 2006, with primary cause of mortality identified in the 298 observed deaths. Main Outcome Measures:Mortality rates per 100 child-years overall and by demographic factors; survival estimates by birth cohort; and hazard ratios for mortality by various demographic, health, and antiretroviral treatment factors were determined. Results:Among 3553 HIV-1-infected children followed up for a median of 5.3 years, 298 deaths occurred. Death rates significantly decreased between 1994 and 2000, from 7.2 to 0.8 per 100 person-years, and remained relatively stable through 2006. After adjustment for other covariates, increased risk of death was identified for those with low CD4 and AIDS-defining illness at entry. Decreased risks of mortality were identified for later birth cohorts, and for time-dependent initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (hazard ratio 0.54, P < 0.001). The most common causes of death were “End-stage AIDS” (N = 48, 16%) and pneumonia (N = 41, 14%). The proportion of deaths due to opportunistic infections (OIs) declined from 37% in 1994-1996 to 24% after 2000. All OI mortality declined during the study period. However, a greater decline was noted for deaths due to Mycobacterium avium complex and cryptosporidium. Deaths from “End-stage AIDS,” sepsis and renal failure increased. Conclusions:Overall death rates declined from 1993 to 2000 but have since stabilized at rates about 30 times higher than for the general US pediatric population. Deaths due to OIs have declined, but non-AIDS-defining infections and multiorgan failure remain major causes of mortality in HIV-1-infected children.
THE IMPACT OF FISCAL FUNDAMENTAL ON UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA (1981-2015)

Nigerian government over the years had reliably set out on different macroeconomic policy options in order to straight the economy on the way of growth and development. One of the policy options the government frequently utilized is the fiscal policy. Fiscal policy alludes to a deliberate effort by the government to operate its expenditure, taxes and public debts to complete macroeconomic goals of the governments among which are economic growth. Several factors have militated against the development and growth of the economy which include high rate of unemployment, inflation, poor infrastructures and a host of other issues which required the regular government mediation in the management of the economy through its fiscal policies. Fiscal policy is indisputably one of the profoundly admired policies utilized by the government to monitor and accomplish 'macroeconomic stability of the economy of most developing nations (Siyan and Debayo, 2005)
Coexisting medical comorbidity and depression: Multiplicative effects on health outcomes in older adults

ABSTRACT Background: Depression in the elderly is often associated with coexisting medical illnesses. We investigated the individual and combined impacts of depression and medical illnesses on disability and quality of life among community-living older persons. Methods: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of data from 1,844 participants aged 55 and above of the Singapore Longitudinal Aging Study (SLAS-1). Baseline depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depressive Scale, GDS≥5) and chronic medical comorbidity (≥2) from self-reports were related to baseline and 2-year follow up instrumental and basic activities of daily living (IADL-BADL), and quality of life (Medical Outcomes Study 12-item Short Form (SF-12) physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) scores. Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 11.4%. In main effect analyses of cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships, depression and medical comorbidity were individually associated with higher risk of IADL-BADL disability and lower PCS and MCS scores of quality of life, and only medical comorbidity was associated with increased risk of hospitalization. Significant interactive effects of depression and medical comorbidity were observed in longitudinal relationships with IADL-BADL disability (p = 0.03), PCS (p < 0.01), and MCS (p < 0.01) scores at follow up. The associations of medical comorbidity with increased odds of IADL-BADL disability and decreased SF-12 PCS and MCS scores were at least threefolds stronger among depressed than nondepressed individuals. Conclusion: Medical comorbidities and depression exert additive and multiplicative effects on functional disability and quality of life. The adverse impact and potential treatment benefits of coexisting mental and physical conditions should be seriously considered in clinical practice.
Economic Integration in the Six Middle Eastern Gulf Countries: A Look from the Perspective of Money Demand

The six Middle Eastern Gulf countries, comprising Bahrain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are contemplating, and experimenting with, many varieties of economic integration. The question arises whether they form an optimum currency area. The traditional approach deals with the real side of the economy, such as factor mobility, wage and price flexibility, the size and concentration of intraregional trade, the presence of different inflation/unemployment trade-offs, the elimination of transaction costs and better informational content of prices. The approach in this article is different and dwells upon the financial and monetary sides. The article studies whether there are long-run empirical, stable and parsimonious money demand functions (MDF) within each of these six countries. In addition, a panel long-run MDF is estimated. The results will determine whether the loss of an important tool of economic stabilisation in a monetary union, which is monetary policy, is compensated by a more effective fiscal policy. The article concludes that a monetary union is not commendable, unless fiscal restraints are applied thoroughly on all the six countries involved.
Strain relief and disorder in commensurate water layers formed on Pd(111)

Water adsorbs and desorbs intact on Pd(111), forming a hydrogen-bonded wetting layer whose structure we examine by low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and He atom scattering (HAS). LEED shows that water forms commensurate (√3 × √3)R30° clusters that aggregate into a partially ordered, approximately (7 × 7) superstructure as the layer completes. HAS indicates that the water layer remains disordered on a local (approximately 10 Å) scale. Based on workfunction measurements and density functional theory simulations we propose that water forms small, flat domains of a commensurate (√3 × √3)R30° water network, separated by disordered domain boundaries containing largely H-down water. This arrangement allows the water layer to adapt its density and relieve the lateral strain associated with adsorbing water in the optimum flat atop adsorption site. We discuss different possibilities for the structure of these domain walls and compare this strain relief mechanism to the highly ordered, large unit cell structures formed on surfaces such as Pt(111).
Crystal structure of amylomaltase from thermus aquaticus, a glycosyltransferase catalysing the production of large cyclic glucans.

Amylomaltase is involved in the metabolism of starch, one of the most important polysaccharides in nature. A unique feature of amylomaltase is its ability to catalyze the formation of cyclic amylose. In contrast to the well studied cyclodextrin glucanotransferases (CGTases), which synthesize cycloamylose with a ring size (degree of polymerization or DP) of 6-8, the amylomaltase from Thermus aquaticus produces cycloamyloses with a DP of 22 and higher. The crystal structure of amylomaltase from Thermus aquaticus was determined to 2.0 A resolution. It is a member of the alpha-amylase superfamily of enzymes, whose core structure consists of a (beta, alpha)(8) barrel. In amylomaltase, the 8-fold symmetry of this barrel is disrupted by several insertions between the barrel strands. The largest insertions are between the third and fifth barrel strands, where two insertions form subdomain B1, as well as between the second and third barrel strands, forming the alpha-helical subdomain B2. Whereas part of subdomain B1 is also present in other enzyme structures of the alpha-amylase superfamily, subdomain B2 is unique to amylomaltase. Remarkably, the C-terminal domain C, which is present in all related enzymes of the alpha-amylase family, is missing in amylomaltase. Amylomaltase shows a similar arrangement of the catalytic side-chains (two Asp residues and one Glu residue) as in previously characterized members of the alpha-amylase superfamily, indicating similar mechanisms of the glycosyl transfer reaction. In amylomaltase, a conserved loop of around eight amino acid residues is partially shielding the active center. This loop, which is well conserved among other amylomaltases, may sterically hinder the formation of small cyclic products.
The Legal Violence in the 2017 Executive Orders: The Expansion of Immigrant Criminalization in Kansas

In the past two decades, the trend toward immigrant criminalization has increased dramatically. Drawing on analysis of recent immigration-related Executive Orders as well as interviews with Latino immigrants in Kansas, we argue that these expanded forms of immigrant criminalization amount to legal violence, with an unprecedented reach. Our focus on Kansas, a state that has not been at the forefront of anti-immigration laws like other states have, demonstrates this new reach. Our research demonstrates that the hypercriminalized immigration regime has direct implications for the everyday lives of immigrants.