Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Handling Spontaneous Traffic Variations in 5G+ via Offloading Onto mmWave-Capable UAV “Bridges”

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly employed for numerous public and civil applications, such as goods delivery, medicine, surveillance, and telecommunications. For the latter, UAVs with onboard communication equipment may help temporarily offload traffic onto the neighboring cells in fifth-generation networks and beyond (5G+). In this paper, we propose and evaluate the use of UAVs traveling over the area of interest to relieve congestion in 5G+ systems under spontaneous traffic fluctuations. To this end, we assess two inherently different offloading schemes, named routed and controlled UAV ‘bridging’. Using the tools of renewal theory and stochastic geometry, we analytically characterize these schemes in terms of the fraction of traffic demand that can be offloaded onto the UAV ‘bridge’ as our parameter of interest. This framework accounts for the unique features of millimeter-wave (mmWave) radio propagation and city deployment types with potential line-of-sight (LoS) link blockage by buildings. We also introduce enhancements to the proposed schemes that significantly improve the offloading gains. Our findings offer evidence that the UAV ‘bridges’ may be used for efficient traffic offloading in various urban scenarios.
Hyperparameter Ensembles for Robustness and Uncertainty Quantification

Ensembles over neural network weights trained from different random initialization, known as deep ensembles, achieve state-of-the-art accuracy and calibration. The recently introduced batch ensembles provide a drop-in replacement that is more parameter efficient. In this paper, we design ensembles not only over weights, but over hyperparameters to improve the state of the art in both settings. For best performance independent of budget, we propose hyper-deep ensembles, a simple procedure that involves a random search over different hyperparameters, themselves stratified across multiple random initializations. Its strong performance highlights the benefit of combining models with both weight and hyperparameter diversity. We further propose a parameter efficient version, hyper-batch ensembles, which builds on the layer structure of batch ensembles and self-tuning networks. The computational and memory costs of our method are notably lower than typical ensembles. On image classification tasks, with MLP, LeNet, and Wide ResNet 28-10 architectures, our methodology improves upon both deep and batch ensembles.
Franchising choice in retail networks: a multi-level institutional framework

Franchising is one of the most dynamic forms of organization for retail networks. Conceptualized as a hybrid form by transaction cost theory, franchising outlets are supposed, in the long run, to be bought by franchisors in order to capture residual rents. However, franchising persists a long time and still represents one of the favorite means to cover territories. This article suggests that this persistence of franchising in the organization of retail networks can be explained by institutional theory. The article also argues that institutional forces exert their influence at multiple levels. Based on this, a set of seven research propositions are developed, setting out a research agenda in this area.
Incubation of NAD(P)H2: glutathione oxidoreductase (EC 1.6.4.2) with flavin adenine dinucleotide for maximal stimulation in the measurement of riboflavin status

1. Some modifications to the erythrocyte glutathione reductase assay for riboflavin status are described. 2. Cusum analysis of results collected on a quality-control (QC) haemolysate, analysedseparately at the beginning and end of each batch of samples over a period of 20 weeks, suggested that the activation coefficient (AC) was higher at the end of a batch than at the beginning. 3. The higher AC was due to higher FAD-stimulated enzyme activities of the QC samples measured at the end of the day, by comparison with the beginning, and this suggested that the conditions of assay were not optimal. 4. The conditions required to achieve maximal coupling of FAD to glutathione reductase(NAD(P)H2: glutathione oxidoreductase; EC 1.6. 4.2) were therefore examined and found to be 15 min at 35° by comparison with the 5–7 min incubation used by most workers. 5. Alternatively, where samples are prepared in batches, the enzyme and FAD should be pre-incubated in the reaction mixture for 2 h at 4° or 1 h at 25° before the standard incubation of 5 min at 35°. 6. Additionally, the use of cummulative sum (cusum) analysis on the QC results suggested that there was a slight deterioration of QC sample after 4-weeks storage. However, theQC results obtained, remained within 2 standard deviations of initial results over a 20-week period, suggesting that the deterioration was very slight.
ATSO: Asynchronous Teacher-Student Optimizationfor Semi-Supervised Medical Image Segmentation

In medical image analysis, semi-supervised learning is an effective method to extract knowledge from a small amount of labeled data and a large amount of unlabeled data. This paper focuses on a popular pipeline known as self learning, and points out a weakness named lazy learning that refers to the difficulty for a model to learn from the pseudo labels generated by itself. To alleviate this issue, we propose ATSO, an asynchronous version of teacher-student optimization. ATSO partitions the unlabeled data into two subsets and alternately uses one subset to fine-tune the model and updates the label on the other subset. We evaluate ATSO on two popular medical image segmentation datasets and show its superior performance in various semi-supervised settings. With slight modification, ATSO transfers well to natural image segmentation for autonomous driving data.
Relation of CIO Roles, IT and Business Alignment, and Organizational Performance

The ability to achieve business goals through IT is an important factor for the performance of organizations. One factor which affects the return of investment (ROI) in IT is strategic alignment of business and IT. Purpose of this study is to identify factors that affect the alignment of IT and business in the Iranian organizations. In this study the role and responsibilities of chief information officers (CIO) and their performance relationships with IT and business alignment and improvement of organizational performance are evaluated in the Iranian organizations. 80 IT professionals and managers from different Iranian organizations, who are identified by the State Scientific Research and Policy Center, responded to questions of this research through a website. Obtained results indicated that direct report to the chief executive by CIO and CIO membership in the executive committee improves IT services of the business. Findings show that the CIO has a key role in the alignment of business and IT. Limitations and problems of IT are properly understood by the CIO, therefore they can help to prepare appropriate IT and business strategies and consequently improve the performance of organizations.
Corporate Strategy: Useful Perspective for the Study of Capital Structure?

The idea of joining strategy literature and financial literature to address the capital structure question arose in two ways. Financial scholars, unable to agree on a desirable mix of debt and equity, have called for managerial inputs. Likewise, strategy scholars have called for inputs from functional areas such as finance. The product of this joint review is a set of propositions suggesting that a strategy perspective might help to explain the capital structure decision.
Upregulation of Plasmid Genes during Stationary Phase in Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6803, a Cyanobacterium

ABSTRACT We analyzed DNA microarrays to identify highly expressed genes during stationary-phase growth of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Many identified genes are on endogenous plasmids, with copy numbers between 0.4 and 7 per chromosome. The promoters of such genes will be useful for synthetic biology applications with this phototrophic host.
Stepping down inhaled corticosteroids from scheduled to as needed in stable asthma: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Many patients with asthma are potentially overtreated, which results in unnecessary cost and unnecessary exposure to drugs that may result in adverse events. Step down helps reduce overtreatment, may mitigate these harms, and is advocated by major guidelines. Unfortunately, data that support step down are sparse. OBJECTIVES This systematic review aimed to examine the effect of stepping down from scheduled inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) to as-needed ICS in patients with stable asthma. METHODS Several electronic databases were systematically searched in April 2014. Articles were screened independently in duplicate. Studies were required to have at least a 12-week follow-up duration and to have compared stepping down from scheduled ICS to as-needed ICS and maintenance of scheduled ICS. Patients were required to have stable asthma as evidenced by at least 4 weeks without asthma exacerbation before intervention. RESULTS A total of 3025 abstracts were retrieved initially, 77 of which were retrieved for full-text screening. Of these, only two articles were found to be eligible for inclusion, both were randomized controlled trials. By using random effects meta-analysis, it was determined that, after a follow-up of 6-10 months, the relative risk of exacerbation of stepping down from scheduled to as-needed ICS was 1.32 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.81-2.16; p = 0.27, I(2) = 0%). Those who did not step down had more symptom-free days (standard mean difference 0.26 [95% CI, 0.02-0.49; p = 0.03; I(2) = 22%]). CONCLUSION There is currently insufficient evidence to associate stepping down from scheduled to as-needed ICS with a change in exacerbations, although it may lead to fewer symptom-free days.
TAG-SENSITIVE FEATURES FOR LARGE-SCALE SCENE CLASSIFICATION

Scene classification is a fundamental research problem in computer vision. However, performances of state-of-theart systems are still far from acceptable. This motivates the search for improved descriptors and features to represent the scene. Multimodal learning approaches provide a way of building meaningful dictionaries that can take into account not only the visual structure, but also the tags associated to example scenes. In this work, we experiment with a ‘Yshaped network’, and get encouraging preliminary results, comparable to very complex hand-crafted descriptors. Future work will explore promising new architectures, taking into account the full content of images.
Physiological, motivational, and cognitive effects of aircraft noise on children: moving from the laboratory to the field.

: A combination of laboratory and field methodologies is suggested as a strategy to increase the influence of psychological research in the formation of public policy, A naturalistic study of the effects of aircraft noise on elementary school children is presented as evidence for the effects of community noise on behavior and as an example of a study that examines the generality of laboratory effects in a naturalistic setting. The study is concerned with the impact of noise on attentional strategies, feelings of personal control, and physiological processes related to health. In general, the results are consistent with laboratory •work on physiological response to noise and on uncontrollable noise as a factor in helplessness. Thus children from noisy schools have higher blood pressure than those from matched control (quiet) schools. Noise-school children are also more likely to fail on a cognitive task and are more likely to give tip before the time to complete the task has elapsed. The development of attentional strategies predicted from laboratory and previous field research was, on the whole, not found. The implications of the study both for the understanding of the relationship between noise and behavior and for the influencing of public policy are discussed,
Reducing Opaqueness in Over-the-Counter Markets

This paper evaluates if having a centralized market can reduce opaqueness in an over-the-counter market. I show that a competitive centralized market incentivizes dealers in the over-the-counter market to reduce opaquenes s, whereas a noncompetitive centralized market does not. The competition between the competitive centralized market and the overthe-counter market forces dealers in the latter to reduce opaqueness. With the noncompetitive centrali zed market, opportunities for collusion incentivize dealers to increase opaqueness. Specifically, the natural mono poly market maker arising in the noncompetitive centralized market co ordinates his spread according to dealers’ spreads. The coordination implies that opaqueness benefits both the dealers a nd the monopoly market maker. To demonstrate these arguments, I extend Rust and Hall (2003) by characterizing opaqu eness with Knightian uncertainty. Based on the model, I show that with the competitive centralized market, opaqueness decreases dealers’ profits; whereas with the nonco mpetitive centralized market, I find the inverse relation.
An eBook Adoption Model Based on Smart Devices

Submitted:August 19, 2014 1 Revision:December 20, 2014 Accepted:December 25, 2014 * 국민대학교 비즈니스IT전문대학원 석사과정 ** 메가MD 웹서비스팀 *** 국민대학교 경영대학 경영정보학부 교수, 교신저자 The widespread use of smart phones and smart pads has given rise to the use of eBook services based on these smart devices. Consequently, the size of eBook services has exploded both in the domestic as well as overseas market. However, the growth curve becomes flatter than before, and the adoption rate is still not high in Korea. Hence, this study explores the factors affecting the intention to use eBook services based on smart devices, and their relationships. Finally, we propose an eBook adoption model, which extends the Technology Adoption Model. An online survey was conducted to validate the research model. By applying Partial Least Squares, we found that there are strong relationships among perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived playfulness, social influence, and intention to use. In addition, we found that smart devices enjoyment positively affects the perceived playfulness of eBooks, and that personal innovativeness positively affects perceived ease of use. Our findings shed some light on how to design eBook services based on smart devices. Keyword:eBook, Smart Devices, Technology Acceptance Model, Perceived Enjoyment, Personal innovativeness, Social Influence 韓國IT서비스學會誌 第13卷 第4號 2014年 12月, pp.255-273 256 Byeong Kug Jeon.Mi Sun Yoon.Seung Ryeol Kim
Synovial chondromatosis presenting as painless soft tissue mass—a report of 19 cases

Primary synovial chondromatosis is a disorder of joints, tendon sheaths and bursae characterized by the formation and growth of cartilaginous nodules. It usually presents clinically with joint symptoms and is frequently associated with intra‐articular loose bodies. A large soft tissue mass is an unusual presentation which, both clinically and radiologically, raises the suspicion of malignancy. Nineteen cases of synovial chondromatosis presenting as soft tissue tumours were reviewed. They were all adjacent to joints but with no joint symptoms. Histology showed the typical features of benign synovial chondromatosis, including foci of cartilage cells showing cytological atypia. This is well recognized and does not indicate malignancy. Clinical follow up confirmed this with local recurrence only in three patients. It is important to be aware of this unusual presentation as the alternative diagnosis of a chondrosarcoma, as initially diagnosed in some of these cases, has major implications regarding the treatment of these patients.
China's Pilot Free Trade Zone: Shanghai Free Trade Zone and the Potential Future of Free Trade Zones in Mainland China

China is the world’s largest exporter and second largest importer. It is the only developing country other than Russia on the list of the world’s top ten exporters. The value of its imports is only about 300 billion USD less than the US’s imports, and over 700 billion USD from the next largest importing country. Despite its tremendous amount of trade, the slowing domestic economy encourages the national government to test new methods of promoting international trade and foreign investment. In 2013, China created the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone to test relaxed trading practices. This article provides an overview of special economic zones and the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. It then analyzes this new free trade zone and its political and economic effects, and offers several suggestions for the future of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and other potential free trade zones in Mainland China.
Comparative analysis of neural crest cell death, migration, and function during vertebrate embryogenesis

Cranial neural crest cells are a multipotent, migratory population that generates most of the cartilage, bone, connective tissue and peripheral nervous system in the vertebrate head. Proper neural crest cell patterning is essential for normal craniofacial morphogenesis and is highly conserved among vertebrates. Neural crest cell patterning is intimately connected to the early segmentation of the neural tube, such that neural crest cells migrate in discrete segregated streams. Recent advances in live embryo imaging have begun to reveal the complex behaviour of neural crest cells which involve intricate cell‐cell and cell‐environment interactions. Despite the overall similarity in neural crest cell migration between distinct vertebrates species there are important mechanistic differences. Apoptosis for example, is important for neural crest cell patterning in chick embryos but not in mouse, frog or fish embryos. In this paper we highlight the potential evolutionary significance of such interspecies differences in jaw development and evolution. Developmental Dynamics 229:14–29, 2004. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Pōniuā‘ena: A Luminous z = 7.5 Quasar Hosting a 1.5 Billion Solar Mass Black Hole

We report the discovery of a luminous quasar, J1007+2115 at z = 7.515 (“Pōniuā‘ena”), from our wide-field reionization-era quasar survey. J1007+2115 is the second quasar now known at z > 7.5, deep into the reionization epoch. The quasar is powered by a (1.5 ± 0.2) × 109 M⊙ supermassive black hole (SMBH), based on its broad Mg ii emission-line profile from Gemini and Keck near-IR spectroscopy. The SMBH in J1007+2115 is twice as massive as that in quasar J1342+0928 at z = 7.54, the current quasar redshift record holder. The existence of such a massive SMBH just 700 million years after the Big Bang significantly challenges models of the earliest SMBH growth. Model assumptions of Eddington-limited accretion and a radiative efficiency of 0.1 require a seed black hole of ≳104 M⊙ at z = 30. This requirement suggests either a massive black hole seed as a result of direct collapse or earlier periods of rapid black hole growth with hyper-Eddington accretion and/or a low radiative efficiency. We measure the damping wing signature imprinted by neutral hydrogen absorption in the intergalactic medium (IGM) on J1007+2115's Lyα line profile, and find that it is weaker than that of J1342+0928 and two other z ≳ 7 quasars. We estimate an IGM volume-averaged neutral fraction . This range of values suggests a patchy reionization history toward different IGM sightlines. We detect the 158 μm [C ii] emission line in J1007+2115 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array; this line centroid yields a systemic redshift of z = 7.5149 ± 0.0004 and indicates a star formation rate of ∼210 M☉ yr−1 in its host galaxy.
Flexible Image Denoising with Multi-layer Conditional Feature Modulation

For flexible non-blind image denoising, existing deep networks usually take both noisy image and noise level map as the input to handle various noise levels with a single model. However, in this kind of solution, the noise variance (i.e., noise level) is only deployed to modulate the first layer of convolution feature with channel-wise shifting, which is limited in balancing noise removal and detail preservation. In this paper, we present a novel flexible image enoising network (CFMNet) by equipping an U-Net backbone with multi-layer conditional feature modulation (CFM) modules. In comparison to channel-wise shifting only in the first layer, CFMNet can make better use of noise level information by deploying multiple layers of CFM. Moreover, each CFM module takes onvolutional features from both noisy image and noise level map as input for better trade-off between noise removal and detail preservation. Experimental results show that our CFMNet is effective in exploiting noise level information for flexible non-blind denoising, and performs favorably against the existing deep image denoising methods in terms of both quantitative metrics and visual quality.
Intramuscular interferon beta-1a therapy initiated during a first demyelinating event in multiple sclerosis. CHAMPS Study Group.

BACKGROUND Treatment with interferon beta has been shown to help patients with established multiple sclerosis, but it is not known whether initiating treatment at the time of a first clinical demyelinating event is of value. METHODS We conducted a randomized, double-blind trial of 383 patients who had a first acute clinical demyelinating event (optic neuritis, incomplete transverse myelitis, or brain-stem or cerebellar syndrome) and evidence of prior subclinical demyelination on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. After initial treatment with corticosteroids, 193 patients were randomly assigned to receive weekly intramuscular injections of 30 microg of interferon beta-1a and 190 were assigned to receive weekly injections of placebo. The study end points were the development of clinically definite multiple sclerosis and changes in findings on MRI of the brain. The trial was stopped after a preplanned interim efficacy analysis. RESULTS During three years of follow-up, the cumulative probability of the development of clinically definite multiple sclerosis was significantly lower in the interferon beta-1a group than in the placebo group (rate ratio, 0.56; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.38 to 0.81; P=0.002). As compared with the patients in the placebo group, patients in the interferon beta-1a group had a relative reduction in the volume of brain lesions (P<0.001), fewer new or enlarging lesions (P<0.001), and fewer gadolinium-enhancing lesions (P<0.001) at 18 months. CONCLUSIONS Initiating treatment with interferon beta-1a at the time of a first demyelinating event is beneficial for patients with brain lesions on MRI that indicate a high risk of clinically definite multiple sclerosis.