Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Board Involvement , Director Expertise and Executive Incentives 1

Boards of directors have become more involved in monitoring and advising top management. We investigate how board involvement affects executive incentives in a project investment setting. To increase the probability of project success, the CEO engages in a sequence of tasks: first acquiring information to evaluate a potential project, then reporting his assessment of the project to the board, and finally implementing the project if invested. We show that board active involvement, on one hand, weakens the positive incentive spillover effect among the tasks, but on the other hand, provides incremental project-related information, which is also useful to provide incentives. As a consequence of the weakening of spillover effect, investment occurs less frequently than the first-best benchmark. Even in those cases investment efficiency is increased by board involvement, the firm value can still be lowered because board involvement may exacerbate the incentive problems. We find that the level of director expertise determines whether board involvement is beneficial for the firm but director expertise does not always improve executive incentives.
D ec 2 00 0 1 N EW ALGEBRAIC-NUMERIC METHODS FOR LOOP INTEGRALS . S OME 1-LOOP EXPERIENCE

This project combined the experience of the ZFITTER team [1] with the experience of designing algorithms for multiloop calcu lations [4], [5] in order to explore the potential of the “algebraic” scenario of loop calculations suggested in [6]. The scenario generalizes the idea of [4], which is to exploit the rich algebraic structure of integrands in order to reduce them to a maximally simple form, depending on the specific application. The original algorithm of [4] was about reduction of massless self-energies to recur sively one-loop integrals easily calcu lable analytically; it demonstrated that such a reduction may be an extre mely power ful calculational tool. The scenario of [6] is about reduction of integrands to a form maxi mally suitable for subsequent numerical integration. It is based on a subtle algebraic fact (a genera liz tion of the socalled Bernstein theorem [7]) and is applicable to arbi trary loop integrals (arbitrary topologies and patterns of masses and external momenta). This is in theory. In practice, the complexity of the problem of finding the differential identities required by the scenario of [6] for integrands with 2 or more loops now appears to be so great (and the resulting identities so hugely cumbersome) that the feasibility of the scenario of [6] beyond one loop level is rather doubtful. However, for one-loop integrals, all algebraic difficul ties reduce to an iterative appli cation of a simple dif ferential identity:
On the distribution of error in convolutional codes

This paper applies error exponent analysis the derivation of the distribution of error events in a convolutional code at the output of a Viterbi decoder. Even if the mean error behaviour of convolutional codes is a well known topic, however a precise analysis of the error events at the output of Viterbi decder is still lacking. The classical approach to derivation of the error events distribution after decoding of a convolutional code is by using the weight distribution of the code. However this approach is specific to each code and the complexity involved can be quickly tremendous when the memory of the code goes larger. In this paper we apply the error exponent theory to derive bound on the distribution of error events and we show that these bound are sufficiently tight to be used in practice.
Economic News and the Yield Curve: Evidence from the U.S. Treasury Market

This paper examines newly-available intra-day data from the inter-dealer government bond market to investigate the effects of economic-news announcements on prices, trading volume, and bid-ask spreads. The use of intra-day price data together with data on market expectations allows us to obtain new and different results relative to previous studies. We find a total of seventeen economic announcements to have a significant impact on the price of at least on
MiRNA-323-5p Promotes U373 Cell Apoptosis by Reducing IGF-1R

Background MicroRNA regulates mammalian cell growth in terms of its proliferation and apoptosis by controlling the expression of target genes. MiRNA-323-5p plays an important role in regulating cell growth and death within various types of cells. The function of miRNA-323-5p and its possible molecular mechanism in human cerebral glioma U373 cells remains to be further confirmed. The aim of this study was to investigate the regulation function of miRNA-323-5p in human glioma U373 cell growth, proliferation, and apoptosis. Material/Methods We used human cerebral glioma U373 cells as the cell model; utilized liposome technology (transfected by Lipofectamine2000) in human cerebral glioma U373 cells to over-express miRNA-323-5p (microRNA used as control group); and selected MTT assay and flow cytometry to detect cell growth, proliferation, and apoptosis. We used RT-PCR and Western blotting techniques to study the expression levels of target insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) receptor protein in U373 cells transfected with miRNA-323-5p. We used liposome transfection techniques in human cerebral glioma U373 cells to over-express or processed knockdown of IGF-1R by siRNA, and then transferred with miRNA-323-5p, thereby investigating the treated human cerebral glioma U373 cells apoptosis situations. Results The over-expression of miRNA-323-5p inhibited the growth and proliferation of human cerebral glioma U373 cells and promoted its apoptosis. The over-expression of miRNA-323-5p also reduced the IGF-1R level. After processing the knockdown of IGF-1R and then transfection with miRNA-323-5p, U373 cells had enhanced apoptosis. The over-expression of IGF-1R inhibited the cells apoptosis induced by miRNA-323-5p. Conclusions MiRNA-323-5p inhibited human cerebral glioma U373 cell proliferation and promoted its apoptosis by reducing IGF-1R.
An Efficient Adaptive Filtering for CFA Demosaicking

Most digital still cameras acquire imagery with a color filter array (CFA), sampling only one color value for each pixel and interpolating the other two color values afterwards. The interpolation process is commonly known as demosaicking. In general, a good demosaicking method should preserve the highfrequency information of imagery as much as possible, since such information is essential for image visual quality. We discuss in this paper two key observations for preserving high-frequency information in CFA demosaicking: 1) the high frequencies are similar across three color components, and 2) the high frequencies along the horizontal and vertical axes are essential for image quality. Our frequency analysis of CFA samples indicates that filtering a CFA image can better preserve high frequencies than filtering each color component separately. This motivates us to design an efficient filter for estimating the luminance at green pixels of the CFA image and devise an adaptive filtering approach to estimate the luminance at red and blue pixels. Experimental results on simulated images, as well as raw data, verify that the proposed method outperforms the existing methods both visually and in terms of peak signal-tonoise ratio, at a notably lower computational cost.
The Necessity of Advancing Our Knowledge On Assistive Technologies To Better Support Students With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Individuals with ADHD may benefit from assistive technologies (ATs). ATs include FM systems, MontivAIDR, Time Aids, iSelfControl and Kurzweil. Eligibility for acquiring these ATs is discussed first. The importance of eligibility is highlighted because the review of the literature suggests that these ATs may promote academic success among students with ADHD. Unfortunately, most of the research on the efficacy of ATs is directed at learning disabilities. Consequently, a review of ATs that support students with learning disabilities is provided with the overarching goal to encourage researchers to determine how ATs that support students with learning disabilities may also support students with ADHD. Finally, we discuss the ways in which ATs can maintain their efficacy over time for students with ADHD through the implementation of a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. Concluding remarks will follow. DOI : coming soon Corresponding Author : Genevieve Mackenzie, ADHD and Literacy Lab, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 252 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON M5S 1V6, (647)787-8763, Email: Genevieve.mackenzie@utoronto.ca
Comparison of the Laryngeal View during Tracheal Intubation Using Airtraq and Macintosh Laryngoscopes by Unskillful Anesthesiology Residents: A Clinical Study

Background and Objective. The Airtraq laryngoscope (Prodol Meditec, Vizcaya, Spain) is a novel tracheal intubation device. Studies, performed until now, have compared the Airtraq with the Macintosh laryngoscope, concluding that it reduces the intubation times and increase the success rate at first intubation attempt, decreasing the Cormack-Lehane score. The aim of the study was to evaluate if, in unskillful anesthesiology residents during the laryngoscopy, the Airtraq compared with the Macintosh laryngoscope improves the laryngeal view, decreasing the Cormack-Lehane score. Methods. A prospective, randomized, crossed-over trial was carried out on 60 patients. Each one of the patients were intubated using both devices by unskillful (less than two hundred intubations with the Macintosh laryngoscope and 10 intubations using the Airtraq) anesthesiology residents. The Cormack-Lehane score, the success rate at first intubation attempt, and the laryngoscopy and intubation times were compared. Results. The Airtraq significantly decreased the Cormack-Lehane score (P = 0.04). On the other hand, there were no differences in times of laryngoscopy (P = 0.645; IC 95% 3.1, +4.8) and intubation (P = 0.62; C95% −6.1, +10.0) between the two devices. No relevant complications were found during the maneuvers of intubation using both devices. Conclusions. The Airtraq is a useful laryngoscope in unskillful anesthesiology residents improving the laryngeal view and, therefore, facilitating the tracheal intubation.
Automatic Characterization of Music Complexity: a multi-faceted approach

A sync signal generator of a television receiver for use in a vehicle has a phase reset detector for gradually absorbing a phase fluctuation of an input sync signal which occurs due to a ghost phenomenon or a fading phenomenon and reducing a phase fluctuation. The sync signal generator provides a sync signal synchronized with an output signal of the phase reset signal detector. Thus, a stable sync signal without a sudden change in phase can be obtained although it is synchronized with the input sync signal.
Executive Functions : Theory , Assessment , and Treatment

Speech-language pathologists in health care settings are responsible for the evaluation and treatment of patients with a wide variety of cognitive-communication disorders. Consider the following referrals: a 37-year-old policeman involved in a car accident who no longer can stay on topic and answer questions during a public safety demonstration; a 56year-old self-employed salesman who suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and now cannot schedule appointments efficiently nor adequately describe his products to a customer; a 69-year-old retired man who has had several small strokes and his wife now complains he never talks to her nor follows through on activities. All three patients had a goal in mind—demonstrate public safety techniques, sell a product, complete a “to-do” list—yet none were able to reach their goal. Although each presented with different symptoms, all three patients exhibited a deficit in executive functioning. Executive functions typically are described as:
Breaking the Power-Delay Tradeoff: Design of Low-Power High-Speed MOS Current-Mode Logic Circuits Operating with Reduced Supply Voltage

In this paper, the authors study the operation of MOS current-mode logic (MCML) gates at lower-than-nominal supply voltages. The authors show that power can be traded for speed by reducing the supply voltage below the nominal value, while the power-delay product stays nearly constant. The authors propose a negative bias strategy that enables the gates to operate at maximum speed with a reduced supply voltage, thus achieving a power saving of up to 35% at no cost for speed. Comparison with CMOS logic style are presented for three different technology nodes (0.25mum, 0.18mum and 0.13mum CMOS).
Occluded face recognition using parts-based representation methods

Occluded face recognition performances of four different parts-based representation approaches are presented. The methods under investigation are: a) nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF); b) local NMF (LNMF); c) independent components analysis (ICA); d) neural autoassociators (NA). A systematic comparative analysis is conducted in terms of distance metric used and number of selected features on AR and Olivetti databases. Simulation results indicate superior performances of specific design solutions over classical holistic approaches based on principal components analysis (PCA).
Sensor fusion and use of reconfigurable neural networks in condition monitoring

High-speed and precise industrial machinery demand continuous real-time monitoring to alert an unset of faults. This paper presents an adaptive Modular Neural Networks System (MNN) for condition monitoring and fault diagnosis. In designing the system, steady state values of sensitive parameters of current, voltage and pressure transducers are continuously monitored. Deviation of two out of three sensors causes an alarm for a possible malfunction. To detect the cause of malfunction a rapid non- destructive test, which generates a transient signal is carried. This signal is tested by the knowledge base of the MNN which is trained with ensemble of transient patterns of the known failure modes of the system under test. The MNN design is capable of detecting faulty/unfaulty conditions, and if faulty it detects the degree of deterioration of the system. MNN is trained with separate input (transient patterns of faults)-target (causes and levels of faults). Initially, MNN detects cause of malfunction and an interprocess communication up-loads the appropriate trained weight vector to test and detect the level of deterioration. Test result on over 350 cases indicated a fault detection accuracy of more than 99%.
Games and learning come together to maximise effectiveness: The challenge of bridging the gap

The authors are designing and carrying out some training sessions based on serious games with customers from different business environments and with some university student groups, both in northern Italy. Some business case studies are described in this article specifying the context, the training goal, the adopted training solution and the main characteristics of the designed game. Some screenshots are also shown. Furthermore, the authors are carrying out a survey both in the business and the university environment to analyse how the learners perceive these kinds of games in terms of effectiveness, engagement, pleasure, usability and freedom of behaviour while playing. Some results are reported in this paper, and the comparison between students' and employees' perception is shown. The questionnaire used can be found in the Appendix.
Grappling archaea: ultrastructural analyses of an uncultivated, cold-loving archaeon, and its biofilm

Similarly to Bacteria, Archaea are microorganisms that interact with their surrounding environment in a versatile manner. To date, interactions based on cellular structure and surface appendages have mainly been documented using model systems of cultivable archaea under laboratory conditions. Here, we report on the microbial interactions and ultrastructural features of the uncultivated SM1 Euryarchaeon, which is highly dominant in its biotope. Therefore, biofilm samples taken from the Sippenauer Moor, Germany, were investigated via transmission electron microscopy (TEM; negative staining, thin-sectioning) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in order to elucidate the fine structures of the microbial cells and the biofilm itself. The biofilm consisted of small archaeal cocci (0.6 μm diameter), arranged in a regular pattern (1.0–2.0 μm distance from cell to cell), whereas each archaeon was connected to 6 other archaea on average. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) were limited to the close vicinity of the archaeal cells, and specific cell surface appendages (hami, Moissl et al., 2005) protruded beyond the EPS matrix enabling microbial interaction by cell-cell contacts among the archaea and between archaea and bacteria. All analyzed hami revealed their previously described architecture of nano-grappling hooks and barb-wire basal structures. Considering the archaeal cell walls, the SM1 Euryarchaea exhibited a double-membrane, which has rarely been reported for members of this phylogenetic domain. Based on these findings, the current generalized picture on archaeal cell walls needs to be revisited, as archaeal cell structures are more complex and sophisticated than previously assumed, particularly when looking into the uncultivated majority.
Thread-Based Obfuscation through Control-Flow Mangling

AbstractThe increasing use of cloud computing and remote execution have made program security especially important.Code obfuscation has been proposed to make the understanding of programs more complicated to attackers. In thispaper, we exploit multi-core processing to substantially increase the complexity of programs, making reverse engi-neering more complicated. We propose a novel method that automatically partitions any serial thread into an arbitrarynumber of parallel threads, at the basic-block level. The method generates new control-ﬂow graphs, preserving theblocks’ serial successor relations and guaranteeing that one basic-block is active at a time using guards. The methodgenerates m n different combinations for m threads and n basic-blocks, signiﬁcantly complicating the execution state.We provide a correctness proof for the algorithm and implement the algorithm in the LLVM compilation framework.Keywords: Security, Obfuscation, Multi-threading.1. IntroductionWith the advent of cloud computing, software se-curity becomes especially important [1]. In particu-lar, software security researchers have been concernedto evaluate the methods that protect software systemsagainst reverse engineering threats. Those can be ex-ploitedbysoftwarehackersto discoverthe softwarevul-nerabilities and inject malicious code.One practical security approach is to use softwareobfuscation; it is a software security mechanism thattransforms the original program into a functionally-equivalent counterpart [2, 3]; the obfuscated programhas the same semantics as the original, but it is muchmore complex to understand by reverse engineers [4]. Parallelism and multi-threading have been proposedto increase performance. Parallel programs are notori-ously difﬁcult to debug and reason about, and for thatreason parallelism is a nice ingredient for obfuscation.
Design of personalised search system based on user interest and query structuring

The World Wide Web contains vast amount of interlinked web documents. Retrieving information from such a huge collection is easy using various search engines, but retrieving relevant information is still a challenging task. Since the traditional search engines are based upon keyword matching, therefore semantics of the query is not considered while retrieving the data from web. It is observed that relevant information can be obtained by providing the assistance to the user in constructing the appropriate queries. In this paper, Design of personalized search system is being proposed where alternate query generator is used to capture all the senses of the main query and assist the user with alternate queries, Further, Personalization based upon user profile, click history and last action performed by user is used to improve the ranking of search results. Since the proposed method incorporates the semantics of the query with user behavior, therefore retrieved results are ranked higher in the result list.
Experiences that Make Consumers Think: Cognitive Experiences

Consumer experiences, as they relate to the function or purpose of a product or service links to the thinking and meta-thinking of prospects and customers iV thus the name, cognitive customer experiences (CCX). The cases in the section on cognitive CX, clearly demonstrate how experiences connected with mental processes can alter the entire brand experience for consumers.
People tracking and segmentation using spatiotemporal shape constraints

We present an efficient people tracking and segmentation algorithm for gait recognition. Even though most existing gait recognition algorithms assume that people have been tracked and that silhouettes are available for gait classification, tracking and segmentation are very difficult especially for articulated objects such as human beings. We improve the performance of tracking and segmentation based on spatiotemporal shape constraints. First of all, we track people using an adaptive mean-shift tracker which produces initial results consisting of bounding boxes and foreground likelihood images. The initial results, generally speaking, are not accurate enough to be applied in gait recognition directly. We refine the results by matching with silhouette templates sequences in a batch mode to find the optimal silhouette-based gait paths corresponding to the input. Since the process is computationally expensive, we propose a novel efficient distance computation method to accelerate the spatiotemporal silhouette matching. The spatiotemporal shape priors are embedded into the Min-Cut algorithm to segment people out. Experiments on indoor and outdoor sequences demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
MAC Protocol Design for Underwater Networks: Challenges and New Directions

In this chapter, we focus on acoustic underwater networks, which utilize acoustic communication links to communicate between the nodes. It is wellknown that RF signals do not propagate well underwater, and the optical signals [1] are useful for short distances and under clear water propagation conditions. For long distances, the Navy has utilized acoustic communication. More recently, there has been a growing emphasis in the research community on underwater ad hoc and sensor networks [2]–[6], which utilize acoustic communication over relatively short distances of about 100 meters. The advantages of such short distance communication are numerous: First, the strong multipath profile [7] that exists in the traditional applications over much longer distances is significantly reduced, thereby increasing the data rate at which the communication can take place. Second, the propagation delays are reduced. This has important consequences for the design of MAC protocols because achieving a rough synchronization between the nodes becomes possible. Third, short distances save battery energy [8], which is especially important for underwater sensor networks. For example, in scientific data collection applications [9] in which the batteries are expected to last for months under difficult conditions, the battery energy becomes the most important constraint. In contrast with terrestrial communications, underwater acoustic communications is affected by both distance-dependent path loss, as well as frequency-dependent absorp-