Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Forecast Performance in the ECB SPF: Ability or Chance?

In this paper, we consider whether differences in the forecast performance of ECB SPF respondents reflect ability or chance. Although differences in performance metrics sometimes appear substantial, it is challenging to determine whether they reflect ex ante skill or other factors impacting ex post sampling variation such as the nature of economic shocks that materialised or simply which rounds participants responded in. We apply and adapt an approach developed by D’Agostino et al. (2012) who used US SPF data. They developed a test of a null hypothesis that all forecasters have equal ability. Their statistic reflects both the absolute and relative performance of each forecaster and they used bootstrap techniques to compare the empirical results with the equivalents obtained under the null hypothesis of equal forecaster ability. Our results, at a first pass, suggest that there would appear to be evidence of good/bad forecasters. However once we control for the autocorrelation that is caused by the overlapping rolling horizons, we find, like D’Agostino et al. (2012), that the best forecasters are not statistically significantly better than others. Unlike D’Agostino et al. (2012), however, we do not find evidence of forecasters that perform very significantly worse than others. Controlling for autocorrelation is a key feature of this paper relative to previous work. Our results hold considering the whole sample period of the ECB SPF (1999-2018) as well as the pre- and post-global financial crisis samples. We also find that when assessed across all variables and horizons, the aggregate (consensus) SPF forecast performs best. JEL Classification: C53, E27, E37
The association between the quality of life and depression of elderly in a nursing home institutional setting

Introduction: The quality of life is perceived individually and subjectively. The quality of life of elderly people in nursing home nursing homes depends on the degree to which their needs are fulfilled. The need to adapt to a new environment in an older age is a risky situation and may result in depression. The aim of the study was to analyze the change of quality of life and level of depression, as well as possible association of quality of life and level of depression, in elderly people admitted for the first time to nursing home.Methods: The research included 38 participants (10 men and 28 women). The data were obtained using the Geriatric Depression Rating Scale Short Form (GDS-SF) and a short form of the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q-SF). Results: The average age was 79.2 (SD = 6.9) with a variation span of 30 years, minimum age was 62 (n = 1) and maximum age was 92 years (n = 1). The participants experienced a clinically significant reduction in depression symptoms, moving from a mild depression zone (8-12 points) to the zone of clinical standard (7 points or less). An essential finding was a strong negative correlation between the quality of life and depression.Conclusions: Obtaining information on depression and the quality of life of elderly in nursing home settings should be introduced as a standard part of nursing activities in order to improve the quality of customer care in the nursing homes.
Employer silencing in a context of voice regulations: Case studies of non‐compliance

This article, drawing on the latest insights into organisational silence, considers how employers seek to withhold information and circumvent meaningful workplace voice when confronted with regulatory requirements. It offers novel theoretical insights by redefining employer silencing as characterised by the withholding of information and the restriction of workplace dialogue. In outlining three principal routes of non-com-pliance — avoidance, suppression, and neglect — we empirically illustrate the path to silence in the regulatory context of the European Union Directive establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees. Rather than considering how employers utilised the regulations, as existing research considers, we look at how employers circumvented the regulatory space in three case studies in the United Kingdom and Ireland and the significant role of employer silencing as a tool for explaining this dynamic.
The Effects of Varying Penetration Rates of L4-L5 Autonomous Vehicles on Fuel Efficiency and Mobility of Traffic Networks

Microscopic traffic simulators that simulate realistic traffic flow are crucial in studying, understanding and evaluating the fuel usage and mobility effects of having a higher number of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in traffic under realistic mixed traffic conditions including both autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles. In this paper, L4-L5 AVs with varying penetration rates in total traffic flow were simulated using the microscopic traffic simulator Vissim on urban, mixed and freeway roadways. The roadways used in these simulations were replicas of real roadways in and around Columbus, Ohio, including an AV shuttle routes in operation. The road-specific information regarding each roadway, such as the number of traffic lights and positions, number of STOP signs and positions, and speed limits, were gathered using OpenStreetMap with SUMO. In simulating L4-L5 AVs, the All-Knowing CoEXist AV and a vehicle with Wiedemann 74 driver were taken to represent AV and non-AV driving, respectively. Then, the driving behaviors, such as headway time and car following, desired acceleration and deceleration profiles of AV, and non-AV car following and lane change models were modified. The effect of having varying penetration rates of L4-L5 AVs were then evaluated using criteria such as average fuel consumption, existence of queues and their average/maximum length, total number of vehicles in the simulation, average delay experience by all vehicles, total number of stops experienced by all vehicles, and total emission of CO, NOx and volatile organic compounds (VOC) from the vehicles in the simulation. The results show that while increasing penetration rates of L4-L5 AVs generally improve overall fuel efficiency and mobility of the traffic network, there were also cases when the opposite trend was observed.
Développer les compétences argumentatives de lycéens par des débats numériques sur des Questions Socio-Scientifiques Vers une didactique de l'argumentation et de l'esprit critique

De nombreuses questions aujourd'hui cruciales pour le devenir de notre societe mettent en jeu les sciences et les technologies. Dans la perspective d'une education a la citoyennete, former les eleves, futurs citoyens, a debattre de facon reflexive et eclairee sur ces Questions Socio-Scientifiques (QSS) est devenu un enjeu educatif majeur. En particulier, il s'agit pour les eleves de developper leurs competences argumentatives, leur esprit critique, et d'apprehender la complexite et l'ouverture des QSS. A cet egard, les divers outils numeriques offrent de nouvelles possibilites pour mener des debats en classe. Mais quels sont precisement leurs apports ? En particulier, quels peuvent etre les apports d'une plateforme numerique de debat pour developper les competences argumentatives et l'esprit critique des eleves ? Quels peuvent etre les apports pour aider les eleves a apprehender la complexite et l'ouverture des QSS ? Dans ce travail de these, je presente l'experimentation d'une sequence d'enseignement centree sur un debat numerique, et menee dans neuf classes de lycee. Celle-ci integre l’usage d’une plateforme de debat dont l’une des specificites est d’utiliser un texte, et non une question, comme point de depart du debat. La qualite argumentative et la structure des debats ont ete etudiees avec une grille d'analyse originale, prenant en compte les aspects produit et processus de l'argumentation, ainsi que ses dimensions inter- et intrapersonnelles. Les analyses effectuees ne permettent pas de mettre en evidence des evolutions significatives des competences argumentatives des eleves, notamment au regard de la forte dependance au contexte de la qualite de l’argumentation deployee par les eleves. Cela m’amene a proposer des developpements au niveau du dispositif didactique et de la methodologie d’evaluation. Neanmoins, les analyses montrent qu’un debat numerique base sur un texte permet aux eleves de saisir ou faire emerger des questions qui font sens pour eux. Celui-ci leur permet egalement d'apprehender la complexite de la QSS en en explorant collectivement et en parallele les differentes dimensions.
La vivencia de los pacientes con cáncer y el cuidado de enfermería

Introduccion: En la actualidad, un gran numero de personas conviven con cancer en cualquier etapa de la enfermedad, con todas las repercusiones fisicas, emocionales y socio-culturales que esta patologia implica. Este estudio explora las experiencias de los pacientes con diagnostico de cancer, y la vivencia de los cuidados de enfermeria, de tal manera que permita comprender la integralidad del proceso de la enfermedad. Materiales y Metodos: Meta-estudio cualitativo de tipo de analisis principalmente de meta-datos y meta-sintesis, con 12 articulos seleccionados previa revision exhaustiva de criterios de rigor metodologico en credibilidad, auditabilidad y transferibilidad. Las bases de datos empleadas fueron ISI Web of Knowledge, Pudmed y Scielo. Resultados: Vivir con cancer significa 1) Capacidad de adaptacion, 2) Redescubrir emociones, 3) Ser consecuencia del tratamiento, y 4) Disociar mente y cuerpo. Discusion: La vivencia del cancer es un fenomeno social y humano complejo, que desafia el derecho individual de salud de las personas en el ambito sanitario, marcada por la alta mortalidad e incapacidad asociada y establecida por determinantes sociales de la salud. Conclusiones: La vivencia del paciente con cancer, sin duda es una compleja dinamica que siempre se vera beneficiada con la exploracion cualitativa de su existencia, donde los analisis de los hallazgos proporcionados en su conjunto contribuyen sin duda a transcender y comprender mejor el fenomeno del cancer. Con ello presentando desafios importantes para la enfermeria en materia de perfeccionar sus competencias para entregar un cuidado humano, comprensivo y particular.
Toward the Capacity of Private Information Retrieval From Coded and Colluding Servers

In this work, two practical concepts related to private information retrieval (PIR) are introduced and coined full support-rank PIR and strongly linear PIR. Being of full support-rank is a technical, yet natural condition required to prove a converse result for a capacity expression and satisfied by almost all currently known capacity-achieving schemes, while strong linearity is a practical requirement enabling implementation over small finite fields with low subpacketization degree. Then, the capacity of MDS-coded, linear, full support-rank PIR in the presence of colluding servers is derived, as well as the capacity of symmetric, linear PIR with colluding, adversarial, and nonresponsive servers for the recently introduced concept of matched randomness. This positively settles the capacity conjectures stated by Freij-Hollanti et al. and Tajeddine et al. in the presented cases. It is also shown that, further restricting to strongly-linear PIR schemes with deterministic linear interference cancellation, the so-called star product scheme proposed by Freij-Hollanti et al. is essentially optimal and induces no capacity loss.
MLL4 is required for the first embryonic collective cell migration whereas MLL3 is not required until birth

Methylation of histone 3 lysine 4 (H3K4) is a major epigenetic system associated with gene expression. In mammals there are six H3K4 methyltransferases related to yeast Set1 and fly Trithorax, including two orthologs of fly Trithorax-related: MLL3 and MLL4. Exome sequencing has documented high frequencies of Mll3 and Mll4 mutations in many types of human cancer. Despite this emerging importance, the requirements of these sister genes in mammalian development have only been incompletely reported. Here we examined the null phenotypes to establish that MLL3 is first required for lung maturation whereas MLL4 is first required for migration of the anterior visceral endoderm (AVE) that initiates gastrulation and is the first collective cell migration in development. This migration is preceded by a columnar to squamous transition in visceral endoderm cells that depends on MLL4. Furthermore, Mll4 mutants display incompletely penetrant, sex distorted, embryonic haploinsufficiency and adult heterozygous mutants show aspects of Kabuki syndrome, indicating that MLL4 action, unlike MLL3, is dosage dependent. The highly specific and discordant functions of these sister genes argues against their action as general enhancer factors. Summary statement The H3K4 methyltransferases MLL3 and MLL4 have strikingly different null phenotypes during mouse development; MLL3 is required for lung maturation whereas MLL4 is required for anterior visceral endoderm migration.
Ischemic Stroke in Type II Diabetic Mice: Deregulation of SDF-1a/CXCR4 Axis

Das Avik. M.S., Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, Wright State University, 2009. Ischemic Stroke in Type 2 Diabetic Mice: Deregulation of SDF-1a/CXCR4 axis. Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a major risk factor for ischemic stroke. Also diabetes is associated with poor outcome after stroke. Underlying mechanisms are however not fully understood. Alteration in the expression of the SDF-1a/CXCR4 axis, which is important for ischemic tissue repair, can be a probable cause. In this study, we have determined the expression of SDF-1a/CXCR4 in the brains of type II diabetic mice at basal and in response to ischemic stroke and have investigated a method for overexpression of SDF1a in the brains of the diabetic mice. Adult male C57BLKS/J mice (db/db) of age 8 weeks were used as the murine model for type II diabetes and their age matched lean littermates served as controls (db/+). Microvascular density was first determined in the cerebral cortex of db/db diabetic mice by immunohistochemical analysis. Focal cerebral ischemia was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion surgery (MCAO) in type 2 diabetic db/db mice and their controls. 48 hours after surgery, volume of ischemic damage was determined by TTC staining. The expression of SDF-1a and CXCR4 in the ischemic and non ischemic sides of brains of both the groups were determined using western blot and real time RT PCR. The db/db diabetic mice were injected with the
Obstacles for Carrier Transport in Organic Semiconductors: Study of Dynamic Disorder and Morphological Degradation.

JAFARIPAZOKI SARA. Obstacles for Carrier Transport in Organic Semiconductors: Study of Dynamic Disorder and Morphological Degradation. (Under the direction of Dr. Daniel Dougherty.) Organic semiconductor devices have been an exciting technology due to their fantastic features such as mechanical flexibility and biocompatibility. However, organic devices are still limited in their performance. In order to improve the performance of organic devices, we need to better understand factors limit charge transport in these devices. This dissertation focuses on obstacles for obtaining a high carrier transport in organic semiconductors. Dynamical disorder which an important factor in determining charge transport was considered from a molecule in a highly order film to a fluctuating boundaries. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) has been a highly beneficial tool for measuring disorders impact a system. Morphology of organic films in devices was investigated in detail. The amount of disorder in an organic semiconductor film is one of the crucial factors in determining the carrier mobility of organic devices. Therefore, it’s very important to be able to quantify disorder in organic films. In the initial research, the effect of dynamic and static disorder in fullerene system at metal-organic interface was studied using STM. We observed a reduced dynamic disorder due to the constraint of organic molecules at metal-organic interface. To continue research on obstacles for obtaining a high carrier density in organic devices, organic field effect transistors (OFETs) were made with a promising organic molecule of 2,7dioctyl[1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene (C8-BTBT). The morphology of devices was investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). Transistors’ characterization was performed through the output characteristics and transfer curves using a probe station and kiethley 4200. We observed a thickness dependence of mobility due to degradation of organic film during contact deposition. As the final research in this dissertation, dynamical disorder in the domain boundaries of C8-BTBT organic molecules was considered. The fluctuations of C8-BTBT domain boundaries were monitored by STM and analyzed using power spectral density and interface scaling concept. The analysis indicates trapping and releasing the molecules in the domain boundaries. Obstacles for Carrier Transport in Organic Semiconductors: Study of Dynamic Disorder and Morphological Degradation by Sara Jafaripazoki A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Towards the development of detection methods for helicobacter pylori within the human body

s in international refereed journals Fontenete S. , Guimarães N. , Leite M. , Figueiredo C. , Wengel J., Azevedo N.F. FISH-based method for in vivo detection of H. pylori in gastric mucosa using advanced LNA probes. Helicobacter, Special Issue: The Year in Helicobacter 2013. Guest Editors: Francis Mégraud and Peter Malfertheiner, September 2013, Volume 18, Issue Supplement s1, Pages 1–162.
A Bayesian Algorithm for Detecting CDC Category A Outbreak Diseases from Emergency Department Chief Complaints

OBJECTIVE This paper describes a Bayesian algorithm for diagnosing the CDC Category A diseases, namely, anthrax, smallpox, tularemia, botulism and hemorrhagic fever, using emergency department chief complaints. The algorithm was evaluated on real data and on semi-synthetic data, and this paper summarizes the results of that evaluation. BACKGROUND A number of outbreak detection algorithms have been developed using syndromic data as input [1]. To our knowledge, no algorithm, including Bayesian algorithms, has been reported to diagnose all of the CDC Category A diseases [2]. This paper describes such an algorithm. METHODS We extended the PANDA Bayesian network system in [3], which only monitored for windborne anthrax outbreaks, to model the CDC Category A diseases. This augmented system, which we call PANDA+, takes as input a time series of emergency department (ED) chief complaints, and each hour it outputs the posterior probability of (1) each CDC Category A disease and (2) several additional diseases, namely, influenza, crytosporidiosis, hepatitis A and asthma.
Multifunctional Phosphorus‐Containing Lewis Acid and Base Passivation Enabling Efficient and Moisture‐Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

Multiple‐cation lead mixed‐halide perovskites (MLMPs) have been recognized as ideal candidates in perovskite solar cells in terms of high efficiency and stability due to decreased open‐circuit voltage loss and suppressed yellow phase formation. However, they still suffer from an unsatisfactory long‐term moisture stability. In this study, phosphorus‐containing Lewis acid and base molecules are employed to improve device efficiency and stability based on their multifunction including recombination reduction, phase segregation suppression, and moisture resistance. The strong fluorine‐containing Lewis acid treatment can achieve a champion PCE of 22.02%. Unencapsulated and encapsulated devices retain 63% and 80% of the initial efficiency after 14 days of aging under 75% and 85% relative humidity, respectively. The better passivation of Lewis acid implies more halide defects than Pb defects at the MLMP surface. This unbalanced defect type results from phase segregation that is the synergistic effect of Cs and halide ion migrations. Identifying defect type based on different passivation effects is beneficial to not only choose suitable passivators to boost the efficiency and slow down the moisture degradation of MLMP solar cells, but also to understand the mechanism of defect‐assisted moisture degradation.
A single arm, open-label, phase II study to assess the efficacy of lucitanib in patients with FGFR1-amplified squamous NSCLC (sqNSCLC).

TPS8119^ Background: Lucitanib, a potent, oral inhibitor of the tyrosine kinase activity of Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptors 1/2 (FGFR1/2), Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptors 1-3 (VEGFR1-3) and Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Receptors A/B (PDGFRA/B), is being developed for the treatment of lung cancer and breast cancer. FGFR1-amplification is a hallmark genomic alteration in sqNSCLC, observed at a frequency of 10-20%. As such, inhibition of the FGF-axis represents a promising potential target for therapy of sqNSCLC. Methods: The current study evaluates daily oral lucitanib monotherapy in patients (pts) with FGFR1-amplified sqNSCLC. This is an international, multicenter, open-label, single-arm study. The primary endpoint is objective response rate (ORR; RECIST1.1) with secondary endpoints of response duration, clinical benefit rate, progression-free survival, and safety evaluation. Exploratory objectives include volumetric assessment of tumor growth kinetics, serial circulating tumor DNA measur.
Commercial microwave link data for rainfall monitoring

Dataset of commercial microwave link (CML) data, which can be used to estimate path-average rainfall between telephone towers. Contains microwave frequency, end date & time of reading, minimum & maximum received power, path length, coordinates, and link identifier. For a network of on average ~2500 links covering the Netherlands having a temporal resolution of 15 min. The dataset, which consists of two files, can be used with the open-source R package RAINLINK (https://github.com/overeem11/RAINLINK) to estimate path-averaged rainfall and to make rainfall maps. Data have been used in the mentioned papers under "link to publication", but these use either a subset of the dataset or also other data. A manuscript which will describe the exact characteristics of this dataset is in preparation
Broadcast Coding and Successive Refinement for Layered UE Cooperation in Multi-User Downlink

A multi-user downlink system is considered, in which a base station (BS) serves multiple user equipments (UEs). It is assumed that, to improve the downlink performance, the UEs can exchange compressed versions of the downlink received signals on out-of-band device-to-device (D2D) communication links. Since the D2D links from a UE to the other UEs may have different channel qualities across the receiving UEs, this letter proposes a layered cooperation strategy which combines broadcast coding and successive refinement quantization techniques. With this approach, a UE can have a better reconstruction of the downlink signal of the transmitting UE than another UE with worse D2D channel quality. The problem of jointly optimizing the downlink precoding and layered UE cooperation strategies is tackled, and numerical results show the performance gains of the proposed layered scheme as compared to baseline schemes with no or single-layer cooperation.