Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LA ROUTE AUTOMATISEE

Ce rapport se veut un document de reflexion sur le domaine de la route automatisee. Il eclaire le lecteur sur les concepts de route automatisee, mais pose aussi un certain nombre de questions . Il decrit les objectifs et les enjeux de la route automatisee. Au vue de l'etat sur le domaine dans le monde, il presente les differents concepts envisages et ceux qui semblent particulierement interessants dans le cadre francais. Finalement, il decrit toutes les composantes et "peripheriques" necessaires pour la realisation d'un tel systeme. Il presente pour chacun d'eux l'etat d'avancement et les problemes qui se posent actuellement.
Integrated balun bandpass filter design with an optimal common mode rejection ratio

This paper describes a compact transformer-coupled balun bandpass filter design based on integrated passive device technology. Using a planar transformer with high-density fully symmetrical wiring not only greatly reduces the component size but also provides a superior balance at the differential output ports. In addition, applying the tapped feed-line structure to the balun bandpass filter is accomplished by carefully studying the impedance-matching method. Interestingly, the proposed balun bandpass filter can guarantee an optimal common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) level in a specific operating frequency range by precisely controlling the fractional bandwidth of the filter passband.
Barriers and Facilitators to Retaining and Reengaging HIV Clients in Care

Retention in HIV care is critical to decrease disease-related mortality and morbidity and achieve national benchmarks. However, a myriad of barriers and facilitators impact retention in care; these can be understood within the social–ecological model. To elucidate the unique factors that impact consistent HIV care engagement, a qualitative case study was conducted in North Carolina to examine the barriers and facilitators to retain and reengage HIV clients in care. HIV professionals (n = 21) from a variety of health care settings across the state participated in interviews that were transcribed and analyzed for emergent themes. Respondents described barriers to care at all levels within the HIV prevention and care system including intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, community, and public policy. Participants also described recent statewide initiatives with the potential to improve care engagement. Results from this study may assist other states with similar challenges to identify needed programs and priorities to optimize client retention in HIV care.
Parkinson's Disease: Follow‐up After “Drug Holiday”

Long‐term management of patients with Parkinson's disease includes close monitoring and frequent dose adjustment. In a small selected group of patients, complete withdrawal of l‐dopa (drug holiday) and slow reintroduction of lower doses of this drug assured continued benefit for six to 24 months. We studied 45 drug holidays in 45 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Average preholiday l‐dopa dose was 2,970 mg/d; at 24 months, it was 263 mg/d. The drug holiday resulted in reduced adverse drug effects (dyskinesias, “on‐off” phenomenon, hallucinations, and confusion), and improved functional ratings at one, six, 12, and 24 months after the drug holiday.
Numerical study of induced electric field in a microfluidic system for cell electroporation

Electroporation represents one of the techniques used for cell research. By membrane permeabilization, biological samples can be introduced into the cells or intercellular content is released for further analysis providing information for diagnosis and treatment. This techniques is achieved in microfluidic systems with microelectrodes that induce a high electric field in the vicinity of cells to generate nanopores in cell membrane. In this paper, a micro-electro-fluidic system with channels and various configurations of electrodes is studied by electrostatic simulation in order to find the electric field distribution that ensures electroporation.
The Effect of the Quality of Governance on Tax Revenue in East Africa

The East African (EA) countries have run budget deficits for over a decade, implying that the amount of tax is low compared to what is required for the smooth-running of their economies. Although several studies have attempted to explore factors behind low tax revenues, these have overly concentrated on the supply side factors (sectoral contributions to GDP, GDP per capita, and inflation). Moreover, these studies have had conflicting results on the determinants of tax revenue. This study, therefore, seeksto investigate the effect of the quality of governance on the amount of tax revenue in the EA countries (1996 to 2016). The study employs the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag model as developed by Pesaran et al. (1999). Empirical evidence from the pooled mean group shows a positive long-run relationship among the variables, implying that an improvement in the quality of governance leads to a long-run increase in tax revenue. Therefore, long-run efforts to increase tax revenue in EA should focus on improvements in the quality of governance. However, the study finds a negative short-run relationship.
A Novel Affine Invariant Feature Extraction for Optical Recognition

In this paper, we propose a novel method for extracting the affine invariant features of images, named the new polar normalized histogram (NPNH). The feature of an image is extracted from a polar histogram bins originating from centroid of the mass to all other points in it with 5 bins for r and 24 bins for Theta.However, the traditional normalization is rotation variant since it normalizes the image only on two directions: vertical and horizontal. Thus the normalization of the image with different divergences on two directions is different from the normalization of its rotation. The most intuitive way to overcome the difficulty is normalizing the images on all directions. After new normalization, the number in each bin of polar histogram is counted and it is lined row by row to form a vector. Then, the Fourier spectrum of the vector, called Fourier descriptor, is computed. Finally, experimental results of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) are presented and show that the NPNH is a simple, affine invariant and powerful distance in object recognition.
Protein kinase A does not alter economy of force maintenance in skinned rat cardiac trabeculae.

Recent mechanical, biochemical, and energetic experiments have suggested that catecholamines may increase the cycling rate of cross-bridges independent of changes inn intracellular calcium. An increased rate of cross-bridge cycling is expected to result in decreased economy of force maintenance. The present study tested this hypothesis directly by measuring the rate of ATP consumption in skinned cardiac trabeculae as a function of steady state force. Rat cardiac trabeculae were skinned with Triton X-100. Resting sarcomere length was measured by laser diffraction, and ATP consumption was assessed by an enzyme-coupled optical technique. Force-[Ca2+] relations were fit to a modified Hill equation. Force dependency of the rate of ATP consumption was analyzed by multiple linear regression analysis. beta-Adrenergic stimulation was mimicked by incubation of the skinned muscle preparation with the catalytic subunit of protein kinase A (PKA). Treatment with PKA (3 micrograms/mL, 40 minutes) induced a significant (65 +/- 23%, P = .01) increase in [Ca2+] required for half-maximal steady state force, whereas the steepness of the force-[Ca2+] relation was not affected. The rate of ATP consumption was linearly correlated with steady state force, regardless of PKA treatment status (P < .001). However, neither the slope nor the intercept was affected by PKA treatment. Hence, PKA treatment did not affect either the maximum rate of ATP consumption or the economy of force maintenance. These results suggest that beta-adrenergic stimulation does not alter the rate-limiting step of cross-bridge cycling during isometric contraction in myocardium.
Middle management involvement in resource allocation: The evolution of automated teller machines and bank branches in India

Research Summary Managers at multiple levels of a firm influence resource allocation but most research focuses on senior rather than middle managers. We study involvement of middle managers in decision making, focusing on how rewards and controls shape resource allocation. We argue that higher income growth uncertainty (rewards) and lower monitoring (controls) increase resource allocation most strongly when middle managers are more involved in decisions. We test the arguments for ATM and bank branch allocations in Indian banks from 2011 to 2014. We assess causal mechanisms by comparing more and less favorable conditions for allocation, as well as considering a poststudy exogenous shock. The results suggest that the rewards and controls have different associations with resource allocation depending on the involvement of senior and middle managers. Managerial Summary The study examines how rewards and controls shape resource allocation decisions by middle managers, focusing on rewards arising from uncertainty about employee income and controls based on monitoring. The work suggests that rewards and controls that influence resource allocation by one level of managers may have less effect for another level. Hence, a firm's plans for resource deployment need to include rewards and controls that are relevant for both senior and middle managers.
RSM-DE-ANN method for sensitivity analysis of active material cost in PM motors

In this paper, a numerical technique is developed for sensitivity analysis of active material cost (AMC) in PM motors with distributed and fractional slot concentrated windings. A comprehensive analysis is carried out to identify how the optimal design rules and proportions of IPM motors with sintered NdFeB magnets vary with respect to the changes in the commodity prices of permanent magnet material, copper, and steel. The sensitivities of the correlations between the design parameters and the AMC with respect to the commodity price ranges are investigated based on response surface methodology (RSM) and large-scale design optimization practice using differential evolution (DE) optimizer. An innovative application of artificial neural network (ANN)-based design optimization is introduced. Multi-objective minimization of cost and losses is pursued for an overall of 200,000 design candidates in 30 different optimization instances subjected to different cost scenarios according to a systematic design of experiments (DOE) procedure. An interesting finding is that, despite common expectations, the average mass of steel in the optimized designs is more sensitive to changes in the commodity prices than the masses of copper and rotor PMs.
How Challenging is Sarcasm versus Irony Classification?: A Study With a Dataset from English Literature

Sarcasm and irony, although similar, differ in that sarcasm has an impact on sentiment (because it is used to ridicule a target) while irony does not. Past work treats the two interchange-ably. In this paper, we wish to validate if sarcasm versus irony classiﬁcation is indeed a challenging task. To this end, we use a dataset of quotes from English literature, and conduct experiments from two perspectives: the human perspective and the computational perspective. For the former, we show that three human annotators have lower agreement for sarcasm versus irony as compared to sarcasm versus philosophy. Similarly, sarcasm versus irony classiﬁcation performs with a lower F-score as compared to another classiﬁcation task where labels are not related: sarcasm versus philosophy classiﬁcation. Another key point that our paper makes is that features designed for sar-casm versus non-sarcasm classiﬁcation do not work well for sarcasm versus irony classiﬁcation.
Effects of dietary supplementation with carnosine on meat quality and antioxidant capacity in broiler chickens

ABSTRACT 1. This study aimed to investigate the effects of carnosine supplementation on meat quality, antioxidant capacity and lipid peroxidation status in broiler chickens. 2. A total of 256 1-d-old male Arbor Acres broilers were randomly assigned to 4 treatments consisting of 8 replicates of 8 chickens each. The birds were supplied with 4 different diets: a basal diet or a basal diet supplemented with 100, 200 or 400 mg/kg carnosine, respectively. The whole experiment lasted 42 d. 3. The results showed that dietary supplementation with carnosine linearly increased the values of pH45 min and redness and reduced drip loss of breast meat. Dietary carnosine increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes in liver, serum and breast meat and decreased the contents of lipid peroxides at 21 and 42 d of age. 4. These findings indicated that dietary supplementation with carnosine was beneficial to enhance meat quality, antioxidant capacity and decrease lipid peroxidation status of breast meat.
Offset-free tracking MPC: A tutorial review and comparison of different formulations

Offset-free Model Predictive Control formulations refer to a class of algorithms that are able to achieve output tracking of reference signals despite the presence of plant/model mismatch or unmeasured nonzero mean disturbances. The general approach is to augment the nominal system with disturbances, i.e. to build a disturbance model, and to estimate the state and disturbance from output measurements. Some alternatives are available, which are based on a non augmented system with state disturbance observer, or on velocity form representations of the system to be controlled. In this paper, we review the disturbance model approach and two different approaches in a coherent framework. Then, differently from what is reported in the literature, we show that the two alternative formulations are indeed particular cases of the general disturbance model approach.
Decarbonising tourism: mission impossible?

ABSTRACT The tourism industry collectively seeks to portray itself as being proactive in embracing climate action, but is the sector doing enough to decarbonise to the extent agreed on in the Paris Agreement? This paper presents a constructive critique of the key mechanisms that presently define the global travel and tourism industry’s attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Six challenges are identified and each constitutes a major hurdle to rapid and substantial progress. These are: tourism’s embeddedness in the prevailing growth paradigm, the institutionalisation of interests, the nature of policy making, the inadequacy of incremental improvements, the focus on technological efficiency instead of (behavioural) conservation, and the global distribution of tourism. The paper concludes by suggesting that only systemic changes at a large scale will be sufficient to break or disrupt existing arrangements and routines. Tourism academics should contribute to identifying and helping to implement solutions, but this will require much greater collaboration with the industry and government, as well as with researchers from a broad range of disciplines.
A Comparison of Financial Performance of Listed Great Place to Work Organizations against Industry Average

Is HR merely a bundle of abstract thoughts that makes sense in theory but in practice there are few takers for it? The bottom line of any business is profit and a positive impact on the financial performance of the organization. Thus, for HR to be relevant in present times it has to show concrete evidence in terms of positive impact on financial performance of organizations. The present study has explored the impact of industry best HR practices (in terms of top 100 Great Place to Work organizations) on their financial performance. It was found that great place to work for companies average outperform the industry average by 29% in case of PBITDM, 119% in case of ATPM & 73% in case of RONW. The statistical significance of difference was measured through independent sample t-test & it was found that except in the case of PBITDM, all other differences were statistically significant at 5% level of significance. It is expected that the present study will shed new light on the relevance of strategic HRM & HR analytics in organizations.
Essential oil diversity and molecular characterization of Ephedra species using RAPD analysis

Background and objectives: The genus Ephedra (Ephedraceae) consists of about 40 species of mostly shrubs and rarely small trees around the world. In the present study, the essential oil (EO) diversity and genetic relationships were investigated in six Ephedra species from Iran using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Methods: Theplants were collected from two different provinces; Azarbayjan (north-west) and Khorasan (north-east) of Iran. The EOs were obtained by hydro-distillation and analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The DNA was extracted from the aerial parts of the plants using a Qiagen Dneasy Plant Mini Kit. Amplification was performed using decamer RAPD primers. Results: A total of 187 bands were scored and used for the analysis of genetic distances. Genetic distance values ranged from 0.25 to 0.95. The analysis showed the highest genetic diversity (25%) between E. foliata with other species. Ephedra foliata formed a distinct group. Ephedra strobilacea was found to be the most similar to E. sarcocarpa (male). Conclusion: High genetic and EO diversity was demonstrated in this genus which should be further studied in order to make more efficient use of the species and considering relevant conservation programs.
Chronic restlessness with antipsychotics.

Mr. B is a 34-year-old man with a 13-year history of schizophrenia. His early treatment consisted of brief trials of first-generation antipsychotics, which he refused to take for any significant period of time. He was then started on risperidone at an average of 5 mg/day. Within a few months, he and his mother noticed that he had upper and lower extremity tremor and profound motor restlessness, especially of the legs. These symptoms worsened until Mr. B was taken off risperidone and started on olanzapine, after which the tremor resolved, but the restlessness persisted. Mr. B’s discomfort was so severe that he was unable to sit through a 15-minute medication management appointment without getting up and pacing the room. His mother noted that the restlessness lasted throughout the day, relenting only when he slept. Mr. B stated that he could not stay still for more than a few minutes at a time and that he had an irresistible urge to move, which led him to pace the house and neighborhood until the soles of his feet were bleeding. Mr. B’s mother also reported that when the restlessness was at its worst, he was extremely irritable, easily agitated, and sometimes violent.
Testicular sperm extraction (TESE) and ICSI in patients with permanent azoospermia after chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND Patients persistently azoospermic after chemotherapy have been considered traditionally as sterile unless sperm was frozen before therapy. Recent advances during the last decade combining testicular sperm extraction (TESE) and ICSI in patients with non-obstructive azoospermia allow these males to father their own genetic offspring. METHODS A retrospective study was conducted of 12 patients with non-obstructive azoospermia after chemotherapy undergoing TESE between 1995 and 2002. Cancer type and anti-neoplastic treatments were recorded, together with maximum testicular volume, serum FSH levels and testicular histopathology. When TESE was successful, spermatozoa were cryopreserved for performing ICSI later. RESULTS In five patients (41.6%) motile spermatozoa for cryopreservation and ICSI were retrieved. Four of them had received chemotherapy for testicular cancer, and one had been treated by chemotherapy/radiotherapy for Hodgkin's disease. Clinical and histological parameters were unable to predict with certainty TESE outcome in an individual patient. Eight ICSI cycles were performed on five couples and one pregnancy was obtained which resulted in the delivery of a healthy girl. CONCLUSION Some patients with permanent azoospermia after chemotherapy can be successfully treated by TESE-ICSI. This procedure, however, may have potential genetic risks. Therefore, freezing semen before starting gonadotoxic therapy is the strategy of choice, and patients should be counselled accordingly.
Effects of channel hot carrier stress on III–V bulk planar MOSFETs

We performed channel hot carrier stress on enhancement-mode, inversion-type III-V MOSFETs with Al2O3 gate dielectric. The stress induces subthreshold swing degradation, increase on the threshold voltage and reduction of drain saturation current. Nonetheless, no appreciable transconductance degradation can be observed at least with a stress time as long as 105 s.
On-wafer time-dependent high reproducibility nano-force tensile testing

Time-dependent mechanical investigations of on-wafer specimens are of interest for improving the reliability of thin metal film microdevices. This paper presents a novel methodology, addressing key challenges in creep and anelasticity investigations through on-wafer tensile tests, achieving highly reproducible force and specimen deformation measurements and loading states. The methodology consists of a novel approach for precise loading using a pin-in-hole gripper and a high-precision specimen alignment system based on three-dimensional image tracking and optical profilometry resulting in angular alignment of <0.1 mrad and near-perfect co-linearity. A compact test system enables in situ tensile tests of on-wafer specimens under light and electron microscopy. Precision force measurement over a range of 0.07 µN to 250 mN is realized based on a simple drift-compensated elastically-hinged load cell with high-precision deflection measurement. The specimen deformation measurement, compensated for drift through image tracking, yields displacement reproducibility of <6 nm. Proof of principle tensile experiments are performed on 5 µm-thick aluminum-alloy thin film specimens, demonstrating reproducible Young’s modulus measurement of 72.6 ± 3.7 GPa. Room temperature creep experiments show excellent stability of the force measurement and underline the methodology’s high reproducibility and suitability for time-dependent nano-force tensile testing of on-wafer specimens.
Determination and study of lead times of metallic components in the aerospace industry through a Cox-type hazard model

The aim of this paper is the analysis of the factors that have influence on the lead time of batches of metallic components of aerospace engines. The approach used in this article employs Cox-type hazard models, which are a well-recognized statistical technique for exploring the relationship between a time variable, in this case the lead time, usually called survival variable, and several explanatory variables (covariates). A model that estimates the lead time of different components has been developed using some sample batches, and its validity is checked with a different sample of similar components.