Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Collaborative Platforms for Decision Support

A method and apparatus for providing lateral support to a post includes a cage-like structure comprised of one or more modular cage units which are installed about the post. A plurality of guy wires are attached to the cage-like structure and anchored to the floor, ground, or the like, for providing lateral support to the post. Each cage unit includes a pair of main components with each main component including a pair of elongate generally parallel bar members. A lower connection bracket is attached to the bottom of each main component and includes a bolt hole for connecting the main component to a loading fame or other cage units. An upper connection bracket is attached to the top of each main component, and includes a bolt hole for connecting one main component to another main component placed on top thereof. The upper bracket also includes a pair of rod holes located near the free ends of the upper bracket for attaching a pivotable guy wire attachment fixture between two main components. The guy wires are attached to the attachment fixture and anchored to the ground for providing lateral support to the cage-like structure, and thereby to the post. A number of cage units may be stacked, one-upon-the-other to construct a cage-like structure of any desired height to provide lateral support to posts of various heights. In addition, the cage-like structure does not inhibit the upward extension of the post.
Household level correlates of children’s physical activity levels in and across twelve countries

Objective: Household factors (electronic media equipment, play equipment, physical activity in the home and social support) have been associated with childhood MVPA but little is known about how these factors differ across diverse countries. The objective was to explore household correlates of objective MVPA in children from 12 countries. Methods: Overall, 5,859 9-11 year old children from 12 countries representing a range of human and socioeconomic development indicators wore an accelerometer for 7 days and parents reported on household factors. Multilevel general linear models explored associations among household factors and MVPA variables controlling for age, sex and parental education. Results: Across sites, children with at least one piece of bedroom electronic media had lower MVPA (~4 minutes/day; p<0.001) than those who did not. More frequent physical activity in the home and yard, ownership of more frequently used play equipment and higher social support for physical activity were associated with more MVPA (all p<0.001). The association between play equipment ownership and MVPA was inconsistent across countries (interaction p<0.01). Conclusions: With the exception of play equipment ownership, modifiable household factors showed largely consistent and important associations with MVPA across high, mid, and low-income countries. ClinicalTrials
Institutional and Strategic Barriers to Public—Private Partnership: An Analysis of Dutch Cases

Public—Private Partnerships (PPPs) are becoming popular in Europe, but does the reality match the idea of co-operating actors who achieve added value together and share risks? An analysis of three PPPs in the Netherlands suggests that, in practice, PPPs are less ideal than the idea. Partners have difficulty with joint decision-making and organization and tend to revert to traditional forms—by contracting out and by separating responsibilities.
On a discrete version of the antipodal theorem

The classical theorem of Borsuk and Ulam [2] says that for any continuous mapping f : S → R there exists a point x ∈ S such that f(−x) = f(x). In this note a discrete version of the antipodal theorem is proved in which S is replaced by the set of vertices of a high-dimensional cube equipped with Hamming’s metric. In place of equality we obtain some optimal estimates of infx ‖f(x) − f(−x)‖ which were previously known (as far as the author knows) only for f linear (cf. [1]). We introduce standard notation: k and n will denote positive integers, C n = {x ∈ [−1, 1] : #{i : |xi| = 1} ≥ n − k} will stand for the k-dimensional skeleton of the cube C = [−1, 1] equipped with the standard CW-structure. Let Cn = C0 n = {−1, 1}n. We consider Hamming’s metric d on Cn defined as d(x, y) = #{i : xi 6= yi}. (Xk, ‖ · ‖) will stand for a normed k-dimensional linear space. By S (resp. Bk+1) we denote the unit Euclidean sphere (resp. ball) with centre at zero in Rk+1. This is the main result of the paper: Theorem 1. Let f : Cn → Xk satisfy the following two conditions: f(−x) = −f(x) and ‖f(x)− f(y)‖ ≤ d(x, y) for any x, y ∈ Cn. Then (i) there exists x ∈ Cn such that ‖f(x)‖ ≤ 2 min(k, n), (ii) if the norm is Euclidean then there exists x ∈ Cn such that ‖f(x)‖ ≤ 2 √ min(k, n). The examples of Xk = l 1 and Xk = l k 2 with f(x1, . . . , xn) = 2 (x1, . . . , xmin(k,n), 0, 0, . , 0) indicate that the constants cannot be improved. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: 54H25, 46B09, 05B25. Supported in part by the Foundation for Polish Science and KBN Grant 2 P301 022 07.
Job Changes and Wage Changes : Estimation with Measurement Error in a Binary Variable *

Many studies of labour market dynamics use survey data so it is valuable to know about the quality of the data collected. This paper investigates job transitions in Ireland over the period 1995 to 2001, using the Living in Ireland Survey, the Irish component of the European Community Household Panel. In applied work on job mobility, researchers often have to rely on self-reported accounts of tenure to determine whether or not a job change has taken place. There may be measurement error in these responses and consequently observations may be misclassified. The paper finds that there are substantial inconsistencies or measurement error in the responses used to determine job changes so there is a risk of misclassifying cases as being job changes when truly they are job stays and vice versa. The paper explores the impact of misclassification in a model of job change using an estimator developed by Hausman, Abrevaya and Scott-Morton (1998). It finds that ignoring misclassification may substantially underestimate the true number of job changes and it can lead to diminished covariate effects. The paper then investigates the relationship between job mobility and wage growth. Misclassification in a binary explanatory variable causes attenuation in OLS estimates. A two-step approach to controlling for misclassification in job changes is adopted to estimate the wage effects of job mobility. The paper finds that controlling for misclassification has a substantial impact on the estimated effect of changing jobs on wage growth. JEL Classification: J62, C25
Linear regression using both temporally aggregated and temporally disaggregated data: Revisited

This paper discusses regression models with aggregated covariate data. Reparameterized likelihood function is found to be separable when one endogenous variable corresponds to one instrument. In that case, the full-information maximum likelihood estimator has an analytic form, and thus outperforms the conventional imputed value two-step estimator in terms of both efficiency and computability. We also propose a competing Bayesian approach implemented by the Gibbs sampler, which is advantageous in more flexible settings where the likelihood does not have the separability property.
Adaptive Robust Motion Control of Direct-Drive DC Motors with Continuous Friction Compensation

Uncertainties including the structured and unstructured, especially the nonlinear frictions, always exist in physical servo systems and degrade their tracking accuracy. In this paper, a practical method named adaptive robust controller (ARC) is synthesized with a continuous differentiable friction model for high accuracy motion control of a direct-drive dc motor, which results in a continuous control input and thus is more suitable for application. To further reduce the noise sensitivity and improve the tracking accuracy, a desired compensation version of the proposed adaptive robust controller is also developed and its stability is guaranteed by a proper robust law. The proposed controllers not only account for the structured uncertainties (e.g., parametric uncertainties) but also for the unstructured uncertainties (e.g., unconsidered nonlinear frictions). Furthermore, the controllers theoretically guarantee a prescribed output tracking transient performance and final tracking accuracy in both structured and unstructured uncertainties while achieving asymptotic output tracking in the absence of unstructured uncertainties, which is very important for high accuracy control of motion systems. Extensive comparative experimental results are obtained to verify the high-performance nature of the proposed control strategies.
Revisiting Sovereign Ratings, Capital Flows and Financial Contagion in Emerging Markets

This study revisits sovereign credit ratings, contagion and capital flows to Emerging Markets (EMs), and clarify the relationship between them. Specifically, this study analyzes how the changes in sovereign rating influence different types of capital flows to EMs and whether the changes in the different kinds of capital flows in one country be explained by a sovereign ratings’ change in another country. Using Arellano-Bover/Blundell-Bond Dynamic Panel System GMM for 23 EMs over the period 1990-2012 the results of the study suggest that sovereign ratings is a crucial factor for EMs’ access to international capital markets and that capital flows is a major source of financing for Ems. In addition, the results show that financial contagion may continue to be a threat to capital flowing into EMs and that financial crisis increases the impact of sovereign rating on foreign direct investment but is not the case with portfolio investment.
Multiple Ranks Weighting Score for Microscopic Image Retrieval System

Content based medical images have become a major necessity with the growing retrieving Advancements. CBIR access to medical images for supporting clinical decision making has been proposed that would be ease to manage large number of image in the database system. (4) In real time case only few systems has been developed and used in clinical environment. Content-Based Image Retrieval refers to image retrieval system that is based on visual properties of image objects other than textual annotation. Query image features compare with the database image features which is not exactly matching so image feature can be compare with the two tier approach in the database image in order to improve the accuracy of the retrieval system. Every day, large volume of different types of medical images such as MRI, CT images ultrasound, x- ray, radiology, etc are produced in different medical centre's . microscopic image classification and discrimination (sub-type) (12) is the most difficult problem in medical image retrieval system. In this paper, the survey provides the suitable algorithm for retrieval and classification of medical image to improve the overall accuracy of the MIMS.
Peer Response in ESL Writing

This article explores the value of peer response groups in English as a second language (ESL) writing classes. It reports on some of the findings of a study (Tithecott, 1997) conducted in a small university college in Western Canada with 12 international students from Asia to investigate: (a) what the perceptions of students were with regard to peer response and whether their perceptions changed over time; (b) what kind of activities students engaged in during peer response sessions; and (c) whether and how students changed their writing as a result of participating in response sessions. Research methodology included examining and analyzing student journal entries, audiotapes of peer response sessions, and the drafts and final versions of student writing. Results show that Asian ESL students tended to be positive about peer response and that they became somewhat more positive as the semester progressed. Although they appreciated the benefits of peer response, they had some concerns about peer feedback. Some students revised their writing using peer comments. During the peer response sessions students engaged in a variety of social, cognitive, and linguistic activities as they worked to accomplish the assigned task.
Tooth Loss and Atherosclerosis : The Nagahama Study cLiNicAL iNVESTiGATiONS

Several epidemiologic studies have suggested that oral disease is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, whether a clinically significant association exists between the 2 disorders remains controversial. Here, we investigated the association between tooth loss, as an indicator of oral disease, and arterial stiffness, as a marker of atherosclerosis, in Japanese adults. Cross-sectional data were collected for 8,124 persons aged 30 to 75 y with no history of tooth loss for noninflammatory reasons, such as orthodontic treatment, malposition, and trauma. Participants received a comprehensive dental examination and extensive in-person measurements of CVD risk factors, and arterial stiffness was evaluated using the cardioankle vascular index (CAVI). We examined the association between CAVI and tooth loss using general linear models with adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, hemoglobin A1c, and a history of insulin or hypoglycemic medication depending on the model. In addition, we performed an analysis that included interaction terms of the centered variables tooth loss, sex, and age. The results of the multiple regression analysis that included the interaction terms detected that the relationship between CAVI and tooth loss was dependent on sex, with only men showing a positive correlation (β for interaction = 0.04; 95% confidence interval, 0.02–0.06). The findings from this study suggest that a linear relationship exists between tooth loss and degree of arterial stiffness and that the association differed depending on sex.
Use of rapid test for the diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in parturients.

O diagnostico da infeccao pelo virus da imunodeficiencia humana (VIH) em parturientes e utilizado para prevenir ou alterar o curso da transmissao perinatal do VIH, por meio da administracao profilatica do antirretroviral zidovudina. Os objetivos do presente estudo foram determinar a prevalencia da infeccao pelo VIH em parturientes com a utilizacao do teste rapido, avaliar a aceitacao do teste rapido para o diagnostico da infeccao pelo VIH e determinar os fatores de risco da infeccao pelo VIH em parturientes. Foram realizados o teste rapido para o VIH e entrevista em 4.341 parturientes atendidas nas duas principais maternidades publicas (Maternidade do Hospital Universitario e Maternidade Municipal “Lucilla Ballalai”), na cidade de Londrina (Parana, Brasil), no periodo de maio de 2000 a setembro de 2001. O teste rapido foi positivo em 23 (0,52%) parturientes avaliadas. Dessas, os testes sorologicos convencionais (de triagem e confirmatorios) foram positivos em 19 (0,44%; 95% IC: 0,27-0,70). A taxa de aceitacao do teste rapido foi de 99,7%. Entre as parturientes infectadas pelo VIH, observou-se maior frequencia (52,6%) de parceiro sexual usuario de droga injetavel (Odds ratio 51,63; 95% IC: 18,67-143,51; p
Relationships between body composition, body size and alternative reproductive tactics in a lekking sandpiper, the Ruff (Philomachus pugnax)

1. The Ruff is a lekking sandpiper in which males have two genetically determined alternative mating strategies: ‘satellite’ or ‘independent’. Satellite males are non-territorial, following groups of females on and off leks. Independent males attempt to establish territories on leks and can be either ‘resident’ territory holders, or non-territorial ‘marginals’. The time budgets of the three behavioural tactics (resident, marginal and satellite) differ notably in time allocated to foraging, aggression and display activity. These differences have led to the suggestion that the benefits of size and energy stores may vary with mating tactic. 2. In this paper in vivo estimates of body composition (fat, fat-free mass) for breeding male Ruffs using total body electrical conductivity (TOBEC) are presented. 3. Satellite males have significantly shorter tarsi and wings than independent males. 4. After correcting for size, independent males are significantly heavier and fatter than satellites, and marginals in particular are heavier and fatter than both residents and satellites. 5. Estimates of energy expenditure during flight suggest that satellites may maintain reduced energy reserves to minimize flight costs, while the larger fat stores of independent males are consistent with the benefits of endurance as a territory holder.
A Guaranteed Global Convergence Social Cognitive Optimizer

From the analysis of the traditional social cognitive optimization (SCO) in theory, we see that traditional SCO is not guaranteed to converge to the global optimization solution with probability one. So an improved social cognitive optimizer is proposed, which is guaranteed to converge to the global optimization solution. The global convergence of the improved SCO algorithm is guaranteed by the strategy of periodic restart in use under the conditions of participating in comparison, which helps to avoid the premature convergence. Then we give the convergence proof for the improved SCO based on Solis and Wets’ research results. Finally, simulation results on a set of benchmark problems show that the proposed algorithm has higher optimization efficiency, better global performance, and better stable optimization outcomes than the traditional SCO for nonlinear programming problems (NLPs).
Improved Direct Torque Control for Sensorless Matrix Converter Drives with Constant Switching Frequency and Torque Ripple Reduction

In this paper, an improved direct torque control CDTC) method for sensorless matrix converter drives is proposed which enables to minimize torque ripple, to obtain unity input power factor, and to achieve good sensorless speed-control performance in the low speed operation, while maintaining constant switching frequency and fast torque dynamics. It is possible to combine the advantages of matrix converters with the advantages of the DTC strategy using space vector modulation and a flux deadbeat controller. To overcome the phase current distortion by the non-linearity of a matrix converter drive, the simple non-linearity compensation method using PQR power theory are presented in the proposed scheme. Experimental results are shown to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed strategy.
Social isolation increased ADAR1 expressions leading to cognitive deficits of mice

A lot of literature show that social isolation stress could be a key reason that leads to cognitive deficits for both humans and rodent models; however, the detailed mechanisms are still not clear completely. ADAR1 (Adenosine deaminase acting on RNA) is an enzyme involved in RNA editing that has a close relation to cognitive function. We hypothesize that social isolation stress may impact the expression of ADAR1, leading to cognitive deficits. To prove our hypothesis, we evaluated the cognition ability of the mice isolated for different durations (2, 4, and 8 weeks) using object recognition and object location tests; we also measured ADAR1 expressions in hippocampus and cortex using immunohistochemistry and western blot. Our study showed that social isolation stress significantly induced spatial and non-spatial cognition deficits. In addition, social isolation significantly increased both the immuno reactivity and protein expressions of ADAR1 in the hippocampus and frontal cortex. Furthermore, we found that adolescent re-socialization recovered not only the cognition deficits but also the increased ADAR1 protein expression in hippocampus and the increased number of ADAR1 positive cells in frontal cortex of the isolated mice. In conclusion, social isolation stress significantly increased ADAR1 expressions in the hippocampus and cortex, leading to cognitive deficits.
Marine current energy converter tank testing practices

The marine current resource is potentially large and could generate a significant part of the European Union's electricity requirements. Before the installation of marine prototypes, specific trials are necessary to evaluate the behaviour of each system and the ability to exploit tidal or marine currents. This paper presents a feed back of Ifremer tank testing practices but not only, for marine current turbine energy converter characterization. The main objective is to investigate the potentiality of the common experimental facilities to reproduce in-situ conditions, accepting that their use will continue to reduce the financial risk to the developper.
Cognitive Abilities and Labour Market Outcomes

We contribute to the literature on the relationship between cognitive abilities and labour market outcomes providing first evidence for Germany. In particular, cross-sectional data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) are used, which include two measures of cognitive ability, one test of fluid mechanics (speed test) and another test of crystallised pragmatics (word fluency test). We find a positive relationship between cognitive abilities and economic activity, as workers with high ability test scores are less likely to be unemployed. In addition, results from Mincer-type OLS and 2SLS regressions suggest that mechanics abilities are correlated with wages in a significantly positive way for West German workers, even when educational attainment is controlled for, whereas pragmatics of cognition do not affect earnings significantly. However, we also find that ability and education are inseparable determinants of earnings, which confirms findings of recent studies for other countries.
Possibility of Applying Regional Diversification in Capital Markets of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republic of Serbia

Generally, risk is an uncertainty associated with future outcomes or events. In economic terms, risk is an expected deviation from the planned return of real, financial and intangible assets, of loss or cash flows associated with the uncertain event. The most famous way of reducing the overall risk is diversification of assets. Thus, diversification is a process of investment in a number of unrelated or partially related assets or activities in order to achieve stable business operation, and it shows that portfolios are poor to the extent that they should be avoided in order to increase yields and reduce risk. The portfolio diversification works because prices of different shares do not move in the entirely same direction. Statisticians generally mean the same thing when they say that share price changes are nothing less than perfectly correlated. The main objective of this paper is to discuss the impact of the global financial crisis on the movement tendency of the stock exchange index in the Western Balkans, developed countries and individual EU member states, and determine the feasibility of implementing regional diversification in order to further reduce risk and establish the portfolio of share with the lowest coefficients of correlation.
How Space Channels Wage Convergence: The Case of Russian Cities

Existing empirical work on the growth of Russian regions mostly covers a short time period and considers only regional-level data, while citylevel spatial data of the postreform era remain largely ignored. Using citylevel geocoded data covering 997 cities and towns from 1996 until 2013, I nd sigma- and betaconvergence across Russian cities in wages. City wages during the period under consideration display signicant and positive spatial autocorrelation. Spatial Durbin models of the Barro regression are estimated using Markov chain Monte Carlo methodology. Estimates of the spatial models for dierent weight matrices indicate that the city wage growth is signicantly aected by wage growth rates in neighboring cities, after conditioning on initial wages.