Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of a device for whole body stimulation of the otoliths

DEVELOPMENT OF A DEVICE FOR WHOLE BODY STIMULATION OF THE OTOLITHS by Jon Edward Weimer Over the past few decades, research has been conducted to explore the effects of microgravity on human musculature, As seen in astronauts upon their return to Earth after prolonged spaceflight, extensive muscle atrophy due to adaptation to conditions of microgravity many times decreases a person's ability to walk or even stand, With an understanding of the anatomical mechanisms that provide postural control, the proper stimulation, resulting in a reduction in spasticity, could be provided by simulating these conditions of microgravity, In order to simulate microgravity, a device has been developed that is capable of providing whole body stimulation of the otoliths, The design of this device is presented in detail in this thesis along with its performance characteristics. When subjected to the vestibular stimulation that this device will provide, persons will theoretically experience a reduction in spasticity, Therefore, this device allows spasticity to be explored further in the future, DEVELOPMENT OF A DEVICE FOR WHOLE BODY STIMULATION OF THE OTOLITHS by Jon Edward Weimer A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of New Jersey Institute of Technology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering Department of Biomedical Engineering
TWO FACES OF BUSY OUTSIDE DIRECTORS

In this study, we examine how multiple directorships held by outside directors (busy outside directors) influence shareholder wealth in diversifying acquisitions. With a sample of 893 diversifying acquisitions from 1998 to 2004, we find a negative (positive) busy-director effect for diversifying acquisitions of public-targets (private-targets). Busy directors are negatively (positively) associated with the five-day cumulative abnormal returns in acquisitions involving public (private) targets, where merger-related agency problems are more likely. Our evidence support the notion that, in the case of diversifying acquisitions, increased managerial monitoring plays a more important role versus enhanced advising and business connection from busy directors.
The Welfare States in a United Europe

Despite the creation in Europe of a common economic and monetary union, the convergence towards a unique European Welfare State (EWS) model is not yet in evidence. By applying a §-Convergence panel data approach on real per-capita welfare expenditure, the paper analyses how the different types of welfare states and country-specific factors are conditioning the convergence of EU member states social policies. Our results suggest that a unique European model toward which the different countries are converging does not exist. Instead, we find evidence of strong heterogeneity among welfare states. While accounting for the sensitivity to national specificity of the earlier literature (Esping-Andersen, 1990), this methodology allows us to understand whether there exists a prospect for constructing a new OTransnational European Social Model' (Hay et al., 1999).
The worked bone industry and intrusive fauna associated with the prehistoric cave burials of Abri des Autours (Belgium)

ABSTRACT The excavation of the Abri des Autours, a rock-shelter located in southern Belgium, enabled the discovery of three human burials, two dated to the Early Mesolithic and a third dated to the Middle Neolithic. In addition to the human bones, more than 200 faunal remains were uncovered. A taphonomic analysis was undertaken to determine whether their presence resulted from anthropogenic activities and whether they are linked to the burials. Two assemblages were distinguished. The majority of the fauna corresponds to remains of animals found scattered throughout the cave, including in the Mesolithic levels. These are mainly portions of carcasses brought in to the rockshelter by scavengers or predators. Therefore, their deposition did not result from human activity. Thus far, no animal bone had been found in direct association with Mesolithic burials in Belgium, and this site conforms to that pattern. Moreover, this interpretation corroborates the archaeological study, which did not uncover any traces of domestic activity in the cave, during either the Mesolithic or the Neolithic. On the other hand, several bone artefacts, including various tools and a pendant, were also identified. With the exception of an isolated artefact, all of these were clearly associated with the Middle Neolithic burial (Michelsberg culture). This is only the fourth Neolithic cave burial to have yielded animal bone artefacts in Belgium. A preliminary micro-wear analysis has confirmed that these objects had been used before being deposited and has allowed us to propose several hypotheses concerning their original use.
Wind speed distributions in the Italian coasts

For offshore wind energy assessment it is necessary to appropriately model and describe wind climate. In this connection, the Rayleigh and Weibull distributions are widely suggested for offshore wind speed modelling. Although the use of these distributions is theoretically consistent, in practice, they are often proved to be inadequate. In two recently published papers some, less known, multi-parameter distributions (Johnson SB, Kappa and Wakeby) were introduced and proved to describe more accurately the stochastic behaviour of wind speed measurements obtained from buoys located in entirely different sea areas of the world. In order to evaluate their fitting performance with reference to coastal wind speed data, in this paper we assessed long-term time series obtained from ten meteorological land-based stations across the Italian coasts. The obtained results confirmed that the Johnson SB, Kappa and Wakeby distributions are of general validity for any wind data set analysed, since they performed fairly well for the modelling of coastal wind speeds as well. These distributions adapted better than the Weibull and are suggested as reliable and prominent candidates for the modelling of offshore and coastal wind speed in any sea area.
Determinants of Trade in Recyclable Wastes between Developing and Developed Countries

This paper examines the trade volume of recyclable wastes. In particular, we analyze the trade from developed countries to developing countries. The reason is that, when a recycling process is separated from the production process of final goods or/and the consumption process, it would be located in the labor-abundant (i.e., less developed developing) countries. Then, the environmental and health problems might become serious in developing countries. The relationship between the wages and the volume of imports is our focus. We demonstrate that, the higher the wage/per capita income of a developing country, the more recyclable wastes it imports. This implies that there is no evidence for a pollution haven in the sense that the dirty recycling sectors expand in the less developed developing countries more rapidly than the more developed developing countries. Furthermore, we discuss the possibility that the trade restriction for reducing environmental damage is accompanied by a significant loss in efficiency.
Restructuring and Barriers: Cross-Country Evidence on the Competitiveness of Exporters in Transition

The behaviour of exporters attracts the attention of researchers and policy makers interested in the competitiveness of their economies. Through participation on the international market, domestic firms can generate foreign exchange needed to pay for imports and learn about new technologies which can be used at home to improve the overall competitiveness of their industries. The paper develops a model in which the ability of firms from transition economies to compete on the international market is defined as a function of their activities, characteristics and features of their environment. The results of our research indicate that sunk costs of entry, technology transfer, innovations and competition play an important role for the decision of firms to export, while once they are on the international market cost advantages become more important.
Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure among Large Korean Companies

There are various definitions and schools of thoughts regarding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). With regards to CSR, cases for diverse stakeholders, not limited to primary traditional stakeholders such as shareholders or employees, should be made. Much progress has been made in response to CSR in Korea in the last decade after the Asian Financial Crisis. Also, the CSR practices in Korea somewhat resonate with those of Americans or Japanese due to Korea’s history. In this article, website disclosure about CSR and reference to various stakeholders alluded to in GRI index at UN has been analyzed – in other words, content analysis of disclosure on the websites of large Korean companies have been made. Also, simple empirical analysis has been carried out with regards to the firm’s performance and CSR degree and although the influence proved to be insignificant.
Acquisition, insolvency and managers in UK small companies

This paper investigates the determinants of involuntary insolvency and acquisition in UK small and medium-sized companies. Using a competing risks model and data from the survey database of the ESRC CBR at the University of Cambridge, we draw specific attention to the impact of managerial characteristics. The explanatory power of financial variables, firm size, and firm age, highlighted by previous studies, is confirmed. In addition, the results indicate that . rms run by entrepreneurial managers with higher human capital and intentions to pursue a strategy of growth have greater survival prospects and are less likely to be forced into insolvency or become acquired.
Chakia (cyanobacteria), a new heterocytous genus from Belizean marshes identified on the basis of the 16S rRNA gene.

A new genus Chakia has been described on the basis of 16S rRNA sequences of four strains isolated from two localities in alkaline marshes in Belize (Central America). Characteristic morphological features of thalli both from natural environment and from cultivated strains were documented to complete the description of this new genus. The type strain has been named Ch.ciliosa sp. nov. Previous findings and up to now performed samplings and studies of relative material have indicated that the occurrence of the genus in all Belizean alkaline marshes, Everglades (USA), Cuban and other tropical Caribbean alkaline marshes is evident or highly probable.
Helicobacter pylori Infection is Associated with an Increased Risk ofDeveloping Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Oesophagus. A CrossSectional Case Control Prospective Study

Helicobacter pylori is an important causative factor in gastric carcinogenesis, its role in extra-gastric gastrointestinal malignancies such as oesophageal cancer, is controversial. H. pylori is thought to be associated with an increased risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus. We conducted a case control study to determine the prevalence of H. pylori infection in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus and control group with no cancer. Method: We collected biopsies from the antrum and corpus of 59 patients with confirmed squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus, two from each area and 215 control groups with no cancer. These were then examined by an experienced histo-pathologist using Giemsa staining for the presence of H. pylori. CLO was added to those with bleeding ulcers. Results: H. pylori was found in 30 (51%) of the patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus and 46 (21%) of the control group. The prevalence was found to be more than double of the control group in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus. A relative risk of 2.4 p<0.001 CI OF 95%. Conclusion: H. pylori infection is associated with an increased risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus with a relative risk of 2.4. This is in keeping with several studies done previously.
Coherent sources separation based on sparsity: an application to SSR signals

Systems based on secondary surveillance radar (SSR) downlink signals, both with directional and with omni-directional antennae (such as in multilateration), are operational today and more and more installations are being planned. In this frame, high-density traffic leads to the reception of a mixture of several overlapping SSR replies. By nature, SSR sources are sparse, i.e. with amplitude equal to zero with significantly high probability. While in the literature several algorithms performing sources separation with an m-element antenna have been proposed, none has satisfactorily employed the full potential of sparsity for SSR signals. Most sparsity algorithms can separate only real-valued sources, although we present in this study two algorithms to separate the complex-valued SSR sources. Recorded signals in a live environment are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.
Phenology of the beech forests in the Western Carpathians from MODIS for 2000-2015

Abstract: The present paper introduces a satellite-based approach to the detection of phenology events in beech forests across Slovakia (the Western Carpathians) using the MOD/MYD09 products. Normalized vegetation index (NDVI) was used for determining the onset of the phenophases in spring and autumn. Double logistic sigmoid function was applied in order to fit the NDVI profile during the year. The satellite-derived phenological metrics was based on calculating the extreme values of the sigmoid function and its derivatives. Between 2000 and 2015, a time-series analysis using the linear regressions models revealed that the onset of leaf unfolding shifted at a rate of 0.8 day per decade, the onset of leaf fall was delayed at a rate of 1.9 day per decade, and the growing season (GS) extended at a rate of 1.1 day per decade. However, at a regional level, the trends were not found to be statistically significant in either case. Leaf unfolding/fall was significantly non-linearly delayed/advanced with the increase of altitude (p<0.01). GS duration varied extensively within the region. Theil-Sen estimation of GS trend revealed the median shift of 1.8 days, the range of shift being from -7.0 to +12.1 days at the 5-95 % quantile for 2000-2015. A significant inverse correlation between GS shift and GS length (p<0.01) was observed. The GS shift was positive in the sites with shorter GS and negative in the sites with longer GS.
A new green treefrog, genus Boophis Tschudi 1838 (Anura Mantellidae), from arid western Madagascar: phylogenetic relationships and biogeographic implications

A new species of treefrog of the Boophis luteus (Boulenger 1882) species group is described from the Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, central-western Madagascar. It differs from all other members of the group mainly by colouration in life and advertisement call. A phylogenetic analysis based on comparison of a sequence fragment of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene clearly placed the new species as the sister taxon of B. luteus from eastern Madagascar. However, the pairwise total 16S sequence divergence between the species is high (5.7%). The presence of a pair of sibling species with an allopatric east-west distribution pattern is a unique case in the B. luteus group, with the new species being the only one in the group endemic in a seasonally arid environment.
An Estimation of a Hybrid Log-Poisson Regression Using a Quadratic Optimization Program for Optimal Loss Reserving in Insurance

In this article, we are interested in developing an alternative estimation method of the parameters of the hybrid log-Poisson regression model. In our previous paper, we have proposed a hybrid log-Poisson regression model where we have derived the analytical expression of the fuzzy parameters. We found that the hybrid model provide better results than the classical log-Poisson regression model according to the mean square error prediction and the goodness of fit index. However, nowhere we have taken into account the optimal value of h(α-cut) which is of greatest importance in fuzzy regressions literature. In this paper, we provide an alternative estimation method of our hybrid model using a quadratic optimization program and the optimized h-value (α-cut). The expected value of fuzzy number is used as a defuzzification procedure to move from fuzzy values to crisp values. We perform the hybrid model with the alternative estimation we are suggesting on two different numerical data to predict incremental payments in loss reserving. From the mean square error prediction, we prove that the alternative estimation of the new hybrid model with an optimized h-value predicts incremental payments better than the classical log-Poisson regression model as well as the same hybrid model with analytical estimation of parameters. Hence we have optimized the outstanding loss reserves.
Non-linear Volatility and Dynamics of the Tunisian Stock Market

Measuring and controlling risk is one of the most attractive issues in finance. With the persistence of uncontrolled and erratic stocks movements, volatility is perceived as a barometer of daily fluctuations. An objective measure of this variable seems then needed to control risks and cover those that are considered the most important. Non-linear autoregressive modeling is our first evaluation approach. In particular, we test the presence of “persistence” of conditional variance and the presence of a degree of a leverage effect. In order to resolve for the problem of “asymmetry” in volatility, the retained specifications point to the importance of stocks reactions in response to news. Effects of shocks on volatility highlight also the need to study the “long term” behavior of conditional variance of stocks returns and articulate the presence of long memory and dependence of time series in the long run. We note that the integrated fractional autoregressive model allows for representing time series that show long-term conditional variance thanks to fractional integration parameters. In order to stop at the dynamics that manage time series, a comparative study of the results of the different models will allow for better understanding volatility structure over the Tunisia stock market, with the aim of accurately predicting fluctuation risks.
Identical constituent compounds in German 1

The status of identical constituent compounds (ICCs) (e.g. Künstler-Künstler, ‘artist-artist’) is discussed controversially in the morphological literature on German. In this paper, it is claimed that ICC formation is a productive word formation pattern in German. In the first part of the paper, I investigate the formal, semantic and pragmatic properties of ICCs in German. Based on this description, I discuss in more detail two conflicting claims about their meaning constitution: the ‘prototype reading claim’ and the ‘context-dependency claim’. I argue that ICCs do not behave differently, in principle, from canonical N+N compounds with respect to contextdependency. Based on a discussion of selected theoretical models of nominal compounds, an approach is sketched that takes into account not only semantic and contextual, but also stored conceptual and experiential knowledge as main sources of knowledge in ICC interpretation. In the second part of the paper, the results of a pilot experimental study are presented in which 40 native speakers were asked to paraphrase a set of context-free German ICCs. The findings clearly indicate that ICCs are systematically interpretable in isolation, with a significant preference for ‘prototype’ (e.g. Winter-Winter: ‘very cold winter’) and ‘real’ readings (e.g. Holz-Holz: ‘real wood, not artificial wood’).
Efficient Clustering of Text Document Using spherical K-means algorithm

The problem of text clustering arises in many application domains such as the web applications, network applications, and other digital collections. Enormously increasing amounts of text data in the substance of these large collections has led to a fascination in creating scalable and effective mining algorithms. Clustering is especially useful for organizing documents to enhance retrieval and support browsing. Many text documents has text data along with other auxiliary attributes, that are also known as side information or Meta information. That side information may be useful for clustering purpose or may be harmful as it has noisy attributes. The spherical k-means algorithm, i.e., the k-means algorithm with cosine similarity, is a popular method for clustering high-dimensional text data. In this algorithm, each document as well as each cluster mean is represented as a high-dimensional unit-length vector.
Noise characterization of multiport amplifiers

This paper addresses the issue of the definition and measurement of the noise figure and parameters to characterize multiport devices, particularly differential amplifiers. A parametrization in terms of the noise matrix appears to be the most practical. The noise figure for a given output port is defined and related to the noise matrix and scattering parameters of the device, as well as the correlations between different input noise waves. The degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio is obtained from a special choice of the input correlation function. Two examples are considered in detail: a three-port differential amplifier and a four-port mixed-mode amplifier, both with reflectionless terminations. The noise figures, effective input temperatures, and gains are related to the results of a series of hot-cold measurements, as in the familiar two-port case.
THE ROLE ENVIRONMENT AND BOARDS OF DIRECTORS’ CHARACTERISTICS ON INNOVATION: AN EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE OF GREEK LISTED FIRMS

Research on the determinants of innovation practices and their effects on organisational performance have received an enormous attention among academics and business practitioners over the last few decades. Using evidence from a sample of 101 companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange, the study examines the role of managerial and environmental characteristics on innovation strategies and how they contribute to Greek firms’ performance. The findings from linear regression analysis reveal that the functional background of executives and the complexity of the external environment are the key determinants of the innovation practices and thus, on organisational performance. The implications of the findings from the perspective theory and managerial practice are discussed, along with possible directions for future research.
Weather forecast in north-western Greece: RISKMED warnings and verification of MM5 model

Abstract. The meteorological model MM5 is applied operationally for the area of north-western Greece for one-year period (1 June 2007–31 May 2008). The model output is used for daily weather forecasting over the area. An early warning system is developed, by dividing the study area in 16 sub-regions and defining specific thresholds for issuing alerts for adverse weather phenomena. The verification of the model is carried out by comparing the model results with observations from three automatic meteorological stations. For air temperature and wind speed, correlation coefficients and biases are calculated, revealing that there is a significant overestimation of the early morning air temperature. For precipitation amount, yes/no contingency tables are constructed for 4 specific thresholds and some categorical statistics are applied, showing that the prediction of precipitation in the area under study is generally satisfactory. Finally, the thunderstorm warnings issued by the system are verified against the observed lightning activity.