Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial Modulation Using Dual-Polarized Antennas: Signal Mapping, Channel Estimation and Data Detection

Spatial modulation (SM) technique has received intensive interest recently for its capability to improve the spectral efficiency and lower the transceiver complexity. This is because SM induces zero inter-channel interference and requires a single RF chain only. To detect or encode SM signals, channel state information (CSI), which is to be obtained by a channel estimator at either the transmit or the receive side, is needed for spatial identification. The first SM-related issue investigated in this thesis concerns channel estimation in a correlated time-varying channel. We propose superimposedpilot-assisted and decision-directed spatial channel estimation schemes. These schemes improve the system throughput by either removing or reducing the pilot overhead. Since the use of co-located dual-polarized antennas offers a spaceand cost-effective alternative for multiple antenna systems, we then review the feasibility of using such antenna arrays and present a new SM scheme which takes advantage of the channel decorrelation inherited in a dual-polarized antenna array. A suboptimal detector which needs only half of the ML detector complexity is proposed. This suboptimal detector performs much better than the MF-based method. For a dual-polarized antenna array ii based SM system, we suggest a general channel model which takes into account the spatial correlation and introduce a model-based spatial channel estimator. Finally, to avoid the CSI requirement, we propose an Alamouti coding based differential space time block coded SM (DSTBC-SM) scheme. For each proposed scheme, we provide computer simulation results to demonstrate and verify its superiority against the existing solutions.
Temperature control of two interacting rooms with decoupled PI Control

Using a simulated model of a house consisting of two adjacent rooms, the temperature of the two rooms is controlled with a PI controller and a decoupled PI controller. This is compared to MPC control. In the simulation example here, both the MPC controller and the decoupled PI controller decreased the interaction between the temperature dynamics of the two rooms, as compared to an independent PI controller in each room. For the example in this paper, the control performance of the decoupled PI controller is comparable to that of MPC, regarding the interactions between the two rooms.
Aerosol Optical Properties over Mount Song, a Rural Site in Central China

Seasonal variations of aerosol optical depth (AOD), Angstrom exponent (α), single scattering albedo (SSA), water vapor content (WVC), aerosol size distribution and refractive index at Mount Song, a rural site in Central China are analyzed using ground-based sunphotometer data for the period April 2012 to May 2014 for the first time. The results show that the area is highly polluted even the major anthropogenic emission sources are far away. Seasonal mean AOD is high (0.72 ± 0.52) during summer (June–August) season and low (0.51 ± 0.38) during autumn (September–November) season. The monthly mean α is very low (0.81 ± 0.30) in the month of April and very high (1.32 ± 0.23) in the month of September with annual average value 1.1. Analysis of the frequency distributions of AOD and α in each season indicates presence of fine-mode particles. Strong seasonal variations in SSA is likely due to local biomass burning and regional transport of anthropogenic aerosol particles, Seasonal mean SSA at 440 nm wavelength are 0.89 ± 0.04, 0.91 ± 0.06, 0.89 ± 0.07 and 0.92 ± 0.05, respectively during spring, summer, autumn and winter seasons. It is also shown that the scattering capacity of the fine-mode particles is relatively higher during summer compared to other seasons. The aerosol volume size distributions show pronounced seasonal variations in volume concentration, peak radius and the fine-mode particles are evidently dominant during summer season due to the hygroscopic growth. A distinct seasonal variations in aerosol parameters confirm the transport of polluted air mass at Mount Song.
Comparing Attentional Bias for Money in Different Money Profiles Using a Cueing Paradigm

Four money profiles—achieving money worshiper, careless money admirer, apathetic money manager, and money-repellent individual—have been identified successfully in several studies in different countries. In the present study, attentive processing of money-related information was investigated in four groups of participants (total number = 88). In an exogenous cueing paradigm, spatial attention was cued by money-related or neutral pictures that correctly or incorrectly predicted the location of a followed target. Results showed an interaction effect of picture properties and individual differences on attentional cueing. Money-related pictures were more attractive than neutral pictures to only apathetic money managers, and once they detected the money-related pictures, the attention was difficult to disengage from. This attentional bias for money-related pictures was not found in the other three money profiles.
A Note on Unintentional Adulterations in Ayurvedic Herbs

Medicinal plants constitute an effective source of traditional and modern medicine. Adulterations and substitutions are common in raw material trade of medicinal plants. In general, adulteration is considered as an intentional malpractice. However, in raw material trade unintentional adulteration also exists. This article explains some of the reasons for unintentional adulterations with examples and key characters to distinguish them.
On the non-incremental processing of negation: A pragmatically licensed sentence-picture verification study with Italian (dyslexic) adults

This paper reports the results of two ERP studies that have been conducted with the following aims: (i) the aim of assessing the evidence for non-incremental models of negation processing (Kaup et al. (2006), (2007)), particularly in the version based on the Two Step Simulation Hypothesis (Ludtke et al. (2008)), and (ii) the aim of assessing possible differences in the processing of negation between normally-developed and dyslexic adults. The results that emerge from the behavioral data and from the statistical elaboration of the collected EEG data concerning normallydeveloped adults provide substantial confirmation for the existence of a first stage of processing in which negation is still not integrated (thus for a non-incremental model of negation processing), though they also suggest that the mental representations created at the different stages of processing are dynamically compared in the course of the whole process rather than being sequentially produced and suppressed. Though no wellknown ERP effect emerges with adult dyslexics, the EEG data strongly suggest that negation processing by adult dyslexics follow a completely independent route with respect to normally-developed adults, which dispenses with sentence-picture priming effects but finally results in a functionally less effective processing strategy, as also confirmed by the behavioral data (i.e. higher reaction times and lower accuracy rates)
Detecting Fraud in Chinese Listed Company Balance Sheets

This study investigates the links between accounting values in Chinese listed companies’ balance sheets and the exposure of their fraudulent activities. Every balance sheet account is proposed to be a potential vehicle to manipulate financial statements. Other receivables, inventories, prepaid expenses, employee benefits payables and long-term payables are important indicators of fraudulent financial statements. These results confirm that asset account manipulation is frequently carried out and cast doubt on earlier conclusions by researchers that inflation of liabilities is the most common source of financial statement manipulation. Prior practices of solely scaling balance sheet values by assets are revealed to produce spurious relationships, while scaling by both assets and sales effectively detects fraudulent financial statements and provides a useful fraud prediction tool for Chinese auditors, regulators and investors.
PSS and SVC Controller Design using Chaos, PSO and SFL Algorithms to Enhancing the Power System Stability

In this paper, the Authors present the designing of power system stabilizer (PSS) and static var compensator (SVC) based on chaos, particle swarm optimization (PSO) and shuffled frog leaping (SFL) Algorithms has been presented to improve the power system stability. Single machine infinite bus (SMIB) system with SVC located at the terminal of generator has been considered to evaluate the proposed SVC and PSS controllers. The coefficients of PSS and SVC controller have been optimized by Chaos, PSO and SFL algorithms. Fi-nally the system with proposed controllers is simulated for the special disturbance in input power of genera-tor, and then the dynamic responses of generator have been presented. The simulation results show that the system composed with recommended controller has outstanding operation in fast damping of oscillations of power system and describes an application of Chaos, PSO and SFL algorithms to the problem of designing a Lead-Lag controller used in PSS and SVC in power system.
Psychometric Evaluation of the Dutch Brief Resilience Scale (BRS-NL): A Correlational Survey Design

Background: Resilience has a great influence on all people’s lives and also plays an important role for the working environment. Permanent work absenteeism can be avoided by intervening as early as possible. For this purpose a practical efficient screening instrument which measures resilience is needed. There is a special demand for a validated screening instrument in the Netherlands, since such an instrument does not exist yet. Therefore the aim of this study was to carry out a psychometric evaluation of the BRS-NL, the Dutch version of the Brief Resilience Scale. Methods: A correlational survey design was used. Employees from a Dutch concern (N = 107; 10% female and 90% male) voluntarily participated in this study. To investigate the psychometric properties of the BRS-NL, the factor structure, reliability, concurrent validity and construct validity of the BRS-NL were explored. For estimating the validity of the scale, correlations between potentially related constructs and resilience were analyzed with the aid of Pearson Correlation analyses. Results: The BRS-NL is a screening instrument with an acceptable reliability, especially concerning the internal consistency of the scale (Cronbach’s α .74). However, the current results of the study rather question the validity of the scale. Both, the concurrent validity and the construct validity could not fully be established within this study. Conclusion: Altogether, the analysis of the psychometric properties of the BRS-NL is not finished yet. Before this scale can be used in practice, some adaptations should be done and the psychometric characteristics must be analyzed more extensively.
Enterprise Resource Planning II – A review of Critical Success Factors

Delivering benefits from enterprise resource planning (ERP) II is challenging and the current research investigates the allocation of resources contributing towards benefits realisation. A literature review has been undertaken based on critical success factor (CSF) analysis. This research has revealed that ERP CSF change over time and that only some traditional ERP CSF are used in ERP II, as some are unnecessary whilst others are detrimental. In addition, ERP II specific CSF are also required to address extended enterprise opportunities. The use of ranked CSF is proving to be ineffective and ERP II CSF must be phased- in during the implementation process, as addressing CSF retrospectively is detrimental.
Financial Liberalization and Remittances: Recent Longitudinal Evidence

This paper investigates the impact of financial liberalization on remittances to 84 countries over five-year intervals from 1990-2005 based on the difference-GMM method of Arellano and Bond (1991). We find that various dimensions of financial reform impact remittances differently. Increased economic freedom in the financial sector, captured by absence of direct government control over the allocation of credit, has a positive and immediate impact. Improved robustness of financial markets, captured by the effective and apolitical regulations and other policies that enhance financial markets, has a negative, lagged effect. The net combined impact of these effects suggests that the long-run effect of an across-the-board reform on remittances is slightly negative. Our results suggest that countries using liberalization to cope with external imbalances will find that granting greater financial freedom will help by attracting higher levels of remittances. However, countries using liberalization to reduce their exposure to external risks will find that policies that enhance the robustness of domestic financial markets to be more effective.
Sensing heavy metals using mesoporous-based optical chemical sensors

Heavymetal pollution is one of the more serious environmental problems; therefore, there is a constant demand for the development of new analytical tools for its monitoring. An optical chemical sensor represents a good alternative to classical instrumental methods. The mesoporous materials used in optical chemical sensors' fabrications have properties such as high porosity, exceptional adsorption capacity, tuneable 3D shape, geometry, and morphology, which enable improved limit of detection, response time, and selectivity properties of optical sensors. In this review, we firstly present the properties of mesoporous materials, provide a brief description of sensing mechanisms, and briefly discuss the importance of continuous monitoring. Recent advances in those mesoporous silica-based optical sensors used for heavy metal detection have been reported and their advantages and limitations also discussed. This review covers publications that have appeared since 2008.
Unequal Treatment and Program Satisfaction among Students of European and Chinese Origin.

A four year panel study at an ethnically diverse commuter university examines the relationships among assessments of professor performance, GPA, academic program satisfaction, and perceptions of equal treatment of students of varying ethno-racial origins. Repeated analyses of variance indicate that although the fi rst three of these variables do not clearly divide on the basis of ethno-racial origin, non-European origin students are more likely than those of European origin to perceive that not all students are treated equally. Analyses of relationships among variables within and between years indicates that the factors explaining the program satisfaction of students of European origin are different than those explaining satisfaction of Chinese origin students. For the former, it is likely that certain personality characteristics play a key role; for the latter, perceptions of equal treatment of students are more important. Un panel d’une duree de quatre ans, constitue dans une universite non-residentielle frequentee par des etudiantes et etudiants d’origines ethniques diverses, nous a permis d’examiner les relations entre les variables suivantes : la perception de la performance des enseignants,la moyenne generale, la satisfaction a l’egard du programme d’etudes et la perception d’un traitement egal de tous (peu importe l’origine ethnique). Des analyses de variance repetees indiquent que les trois premieres de ces variables ne creent pas de distinctions claires sur la base de l’origine ethnique. Par contre, les etudiantes et etudiants d’origine autre qu’europeenne sont plus susceptibles que ceux d’origine europeenne de percevoir que tous ne sont pas traites egalement. De plus, l’analyse des relations entre variables au cours d’une meme annee et entre differentes annees indique que les facteurs expliquant la satisfaction des etudiantes et etudiants d’origine europeenne sont differents de ceux qui expliquent la satisfaction de ceux d’origine chinoise. Pour les premiers, il semble que certaines caracteristiques associees a la personnalite jouent un role; pour les seconds, il est plus important de percevoir que tous les etudiantes et etudiants sont traites egalement.
NOVEL SCHEME FOR DETECTING IP SPOOFERS USING PASSIVE IP TRACEBACK

IP spoofing is a attack in which attacker launch the attack by using forged source IP address. It is long known attackers may use forged source IP address to conceal their real locations. To capture the spoofers, a number of IP traceback mechanisms have been proposed. However, due to the challenges of deployment, there has been not a widely adopted IP traceback solution, at least at the Internet level. As a result, the mist on the locations of spoofers has never been dissipated till now. Here it proposes passive IP traceback (PIT) that bypasses the deployment difficulties of IP traceback techniques. PIT investigates Internet Control Message Protocol error messages (named path backscatter) triggered by spoofing traffic, and tracks the spoofers based on public available information (e.g., topology). In this way, PIT can find the spoofers without any deployment requirement. Here it illustrates the causes, collection, and the statistical results on path backscatter, demonstrates the processes and effectiveness of PIT, and shows the captured locations of spoofers through applying PIT on the path backscatter data set. These results can help further reveal IP spoofing, which has been studied for long but never well understood.
Spectral study of options based on CEV model with multidimensional volatility

This article studies the derivatives pricing using a method of spectral analysis, a theory of singular and regular perturbations. Using a risk-neutral assessment, the authors obtain the Cauchy problem, which allows to calculate the approximate price of derivative assets and their volatility based on the diffusion equation with fast and slow variables of nonlocal volatility, and they obtain a model with multidimensional stochastic volatility. Applying a spectral theory of self-adjoint operators in Hilbert space and a theory of singular and regular perturbations, an analytic formula for approximate asset prices is established, which is described by the CEV model with stochastic volatility dependent on -fast l variables and -slowly r variables, and a local variable. Applying the Sturm-Liouville theory, Fredholm’s alternatives, as well as the analysis of singular and regular perturbations at different time scales, the authors obtained explicit formulas for derivatives price approximations. To obtain explicit formulae, it is necessary to solve 2l Poisson equations.
Novel approach based on topological simplification algorithm optimized with Particle Swarm Optimization

The movement of people can be considered as the flow of liquid, so we can use the methods employed for the flow of liquid to understand the motion of a crowd. Based on this, we present a novel framework for abnormal behavior detection in crowded scenes. We extract a topological structure from the crowd with the topology simplification algorithm. However, a conventional topology simplification algorithm can not work well if we apply it to the crowd directly because there is too much noises produced by the random motion of the people in the original image. To overcome this, we make a step forward by optimizing this model using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to perform the advection of particle population spread randomly over the image frames. Then we propose two new methods for analyzing the boundary point structure and extraction of a critical point from the particle motion field; both methods can be used to describe the global topological structure of the crowd motion. The advantage of our approach is that each kind of abnormal event can be described as a specific change in the topological structure, so we do not need construct a complex classifier, but can classify the crowd anomalies dynamically and directly. Moreover, the approach monitors the crowd motion macroscopically, making it insensitive to the motion of an individual, disregarding the global movement. The result of an experiment conducted on a common data set shows that our method is both precise and stable.
Mesure du champ de déformation d'un objet plan par la méthode stéréophotogrammétrique de faux relief

The false relied stereophotogrammetric method is a powerful method allowing one to obtain incremental displacements for any point of a plane object subjected to a transformation. In the paper we describe a numerical procedure which gives the associated strain field. This is of great interest in the domain of experimental investigation of the localization of plastic deformation, as can be seen from the examples given La methode stereophotogrammetrique de faux relief permet de mesurer, avec une precision remarquable, les deplacements incrementaux d'un nombre quelconque de points d'un objet plan soumis a une transformation. Les developpements decrits dans l'article permettent, par un traitement numerique approprie de definir le champ de deformation associe. L'interet dans l'etude experimentale de la localisation de la deformation plastique est mis en evidence par des exemples d'application
ClassifiCation of the 5 p 5 nln ' l ' LSJ energy levels of Cs exCited by 30 ev eleCtrons g

Theoretical investigation of the 5pnl(L1S1)n'l' LSJ autoionizing states of Cs was performed by using large scale configuration interaction calculations of energy levels, autoionization probabilities and excitation cross sections obtained in the Dirac–Fock– Slater approximation. Classification of calculated energy levels in the LSJ coupling scheme of angular momenta and simulation of the intensities of ejected Auger electron spectrum were performed. The classified energy levels in the region from the excitation threshold up to 17.365 eV and simulated intensity spectrum were used for identification of the experimental ejected-electron spectrum of Cs excited by 30 eV electrons.
Influence of the magnetostatic coupling in magnetization switching driven by spin-polarized current

The influence of the magnetostatic coupling (MC) on magnetization reversal processes driven by spin-polarized current has been studied by means of a micromagnetic model. The spin transfer torque is included as an additional term in the Gilbert equation, following previous theoretical calculations by Slonczewski. The MC plays a crucial role and it speeds the magnetization switching process. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
DETERMINANTS OF BUSINESS LOAN DEFAULT IN GHANA 1

The initiation, funding, servicing and monitoring of loans by financial intermediaries has been done without regard to some critical factors which could have averted the likelihood of default. The study aimed at measuring the extent that owner-specific, borrower-specific, loan and lender-specific characteristics could determine the probability of loan default. The study used logistic regression for 224 business customers of a bank in Ghana from its nation-wide branches. The study found that owner’s extra income (ownership characteristics), multiple borrowing, diversion of loan purpose (borrower characteristics), loan price, loan purpose, loan age, repayment plan (loan characteristics) and underfunding (lender characteristics) significantly determined the probability of business loan default. The overall model predicted up to 78.5% of variations in the likelihood of default. The hierarchy of strong determinants given by their odd ratios were loan purpose (47.9 times), underfunding (19.2 times), diversion of loan purpose (11.7 times) multiple borrowing (9.4 times) and owner’s extra income (8.2 times). The study can conclude that financial intermediaries should be wary of the credit granting process taking cognisance of ownership, borrower, loan and lender characteristics especially the significant predictors. Combining quantitative and qualitative variables as determinants of default could be considered in future.