Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Competition Improve Public Hospitals' Efficiency? Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment in the English National Health Service

This paper uses a difference-in-difference style estimation strategy to test separately the impact of competition from public sector and private sector hospitals on the efficiency of public hospitals. Our identification strategy takes advantage of the phased introduction of a recent set of substantive reforms introduced in the English NHS from 2006 onwards. These reforms forced public sector health care providers to compete with other public hospitals and eventually to face competition from existing private sector providers for care delivered to publicly funded patients. In this study, we measure efficiency using hospitals’ average length of stay (LOS) for patients undergoing elective surgery. For a more nuanced assessment of efficiency, we break LOS down into its two key components: the time from patients’ admission to the hospital until their surgery and the time from their surgery until their discharge. Here, pre-surgery LOS serves as a proxy for hospitals’ lean efficiency. Our results suggest that competition between public providers prompted public hospitals to improve their productivity by decreasing their pre-surgery, overall and post-surgery length of stay. In contrast, competition from private hospitals did not spur public providers to improve their performance and instead left incumbent public providers with a more costly case mix of patients and led to increases in postsurgical LOS.
A Novel Subunit for Shal K+ Channels Radically Alters Activation and Inactivation

Shal (Kv4) potassium channel genes encode classical subthreshold A-currents, and their regulation may be a key factor in determining neuronal firing frequency. The inactivation rate of Shal channels is increased by a presently unidentified class of proteins in bothDrosophila and mammals. We have cloned a novel Shal channel subunit (jShalγ1) from the jellyfish Polyorchis penicillatus that alters Shal currents from both invertebrates and vertebrates. When co-expressed with the conserved jellyfish Shal homolog jShal1, jShalγ1 dramatically changes both the rate of inactivation and voltage range of activation and steady-state inactivation. jShalγ1 provides fast inactivation by a classic N-type mechanism, which is independent of its effects on voltage dependence. jShalγ1 forms functional channels only as a heteromultimer, and jShalγ1 + jShal1 heteromultimers are functional only in a 2:2 subunit stoichiometry.
Duals in Spectral Fault Localization

Numerous set similarity metrics have been used for ranking "suspiciousness" of code in spectral fault localization, which uses execution profiles of passed and failed test cases to help locate bugs. Research in data mining has identified several forms of possibly desirable symmetry in similarity metrics. Here we define several forms of "duals" of metrics, based on these forms of symmetries. Use of these duals, plus some other slight modifications, leads to several new similarity metrics. We show that versions of several previously proposed metrics are optimal, or nearly optimal, for locating single bugs. We also show that a form of duality exists between locating single bugs and locating "deterministic" bugs (execution of which always results in test case failure). Duals of the various single bug optimal metrics are optimal for locating such bugs. This more theoretical work leads to a conjecture about how different metrics could be chosen for different stages of software development.
Asian Economic and Social Society Short Term Relationships between European Electricity Markets

This paper investigates the short term relationship between the three major European electricity markets: France, Germany and Italy. Using a multivariate analysis, we study the impact of each electricity price changes in one country on the electricity price of the others two countries. Empirical results show that there is a positive impact of common reforms in Europe. Indeed, there is an interdependence of electricity prices especially between Germany and Italy.
On the Connection between Gaussian Q-Functions and a Class of Hypergeometric Functions: Application to LCR of Lognormal Processes

In this letter, we derive a closed-form expression for the two-dimensional joint Gaussian Q-function in terms of a class of hypergeometric functions. Particularly, we show that the 2-D Gaussian Q-function can be expressed in terms of the bivariate confluent hypergeometric function Φ1, which is well studied in classical books of integrals, special functions and Laplace transforms. As a direct application, we derive a new closed-form expression for the level crossing rate (LCR) and the average fade duration (AFD) of sampled lognormal processes with arbitrary correlation profile.
Intersection Free Simplification

Triangle mesh decimation and multi-resolution techniques are widely used in visualization applications for huge scenes. A large collection of different simplification algorithms exists in order to build a multi-resolution model from a given triangle mesh. All of the existing approaches focus on the creation of a geometrically close approximation of the original model. In order to produce a simplified version of a model with close layers – such as dressed humans – self-intersections result in intolerable results. Even methods that allow the sewing of close surface parts lead to unpleasant self-intersections. Only the simplification envelops4 allow to completely prevent them. In this work we focus on the prevention and avoidance of self-intersection during simplication with vertex pair contractions. We examine the geomorph9 of the parametrized vertex pair contraction and detect collisions of the affected simplices. If no collision arises the operation cannot cause any new self-intersection. Otherwise we can simply discard the operation to prevent self-intersections as is done in the approach of simplification envelops. Our approach goes even further and tries to avoid the self-intersection by testing different target locations. This leads to better approximations as exhibited by a lower RMS and Hausdorff-distance. Furthermore our approach allows for arbitrary changes in the topology and garantees that geomorphs during progressive reception cannot cause self-intersections.
An efficient method for relating various human impressions to physical features

One of the main topics of Kansei engineering is to associate human's impressions with physical features characterizing certain objects. Recently, such relationships have been applied to impression-based information systems that aim to retrieve/recommend objects suitable for user's impressions. However, such systems restrict use of a variety of expressions concerning each individual's image because the selectable impression words are fixed. To achieve information systems based on individuals' Kansei, it is important to provide a flexible human interface to deal with greater diversity of impression words. The aim of this study is to provide a new method for associating a large variety of impression words with physical features. In this paper, a new class of impression words called “meta-impression” is introduced to associate various impression words with physical features. A meta-impression is defined as an impression whose relationship to physical features has been revealed in past studies. In this paper, the adequacy of our method is presented by the experiment.
The effect of austempering time on mechanical properties of a ductile iron

In this study, the effects of austempering treatment on hardness, tensile properties and wear resistance of a ductile iron were examined. Austempering at 300 °C after austenitising at 900 °C for 100 min improved the mechanical properties of the investigated ductile iron with respect to as-cast condition. Increase of austempering time from 45 min to 180 min did not cause further improvement in hardness and strength, but increased the ductility and wear resistance, progressively.
Status of the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Development at Topsoe Fuel Cell A/S and DTU Energy Conversion

Conversion DTU Orbit (27/10/2019) Status of the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Development at Topsoe Fuel Cell A/S and DTU Energy Conversion Many years of close collaboration between Topsoe Fuel Cell A/S (TOFC) and Risø (to day DTU Energy Conversion) on SOFC development have ensured an efficient transfer of SOFC basic know how to industrial technology. The SOFC development in the consortium includes material development and manufacturing of materials, cells and stacks based on state of the art as well as innovative strategies. Today TOFC provides the SOFC technology platform: Cells, stacks, integrated multi stack module and PowerCore units that integrate stack modules with hot fuel processing units for high electrical efficiency. TOFC collaborates with integrator partners to develop, test and demonstrate possibilities and challenges in case of CHP, distributed generation, transportation application and electrolysis. Aiming at improved reliability, robustness and low material cost, TOFC has in the collaboration with DTU increased the efforts on development of next generation cells with metallic support including novel infiltrated nano-structured electrodes for operation in the temperature range 600-700 oC. Recently, record-breaking results have been obtained on cell level as well as on stack level.
A Misbehavior Detection System for Vehicular Delay Tolerant Networks

In vehicular networks, many vehicles participate in the network and transfer messages for each other. At least for the next years, i.e., until a high rate of vehicles equipped with according network technology has been reached, we believe that delay-tolerant methods are useful in such networks, leading to Vehicular Delay Tolerant Networks. However, in such a cooperative system malicious or selfish nodes may exist which can have a devastating effect on network performance. Traditional security protocols cannot completely address such problems in Vehicular Delay Tolerant Networks. Hence we propose a misbehavior detection system to defend against these attacks. By collecting and securely exchanging data of previous encounters, vehicles can assess the trustworthiness of other vehicles in order to detect malicious nodes. We present preliminary simulation results showing that our misbehavior detection system performs effectively.
Optimal Power Control for Transmitting Correlated Sources With Energy Harvesting Constraints

We investigate the weighted-sum distortion minimization problem in transmitting two correlated Gaussian sources over Gaussian channels using two energy harvesting nodes. To this end, we develop off-line and online power control policies to optimize the transmit power of the two nodes. In the off-line case, we cast the problem as a convex optimization and investigate the structure of the optimal solution. We also develop a generalized waterfilling-based power allocation algorithm to obtain the optimal solution efficiently. For the online case, we quantify the distortion of the system using a cost function and show that the expected cost equals the expected weighted-sum distortion. Based on Banach’s fixed point theorem, we further propose a geometrically converging algorithm to find the minimum cost via simple iterations. Simulation results show that our online power control outperforms the greedy power control where each node uses all the available energy in each slot and also performs close to that of the proposed off-line power control. Moreover, the performance of our off-line power control almost coincides with the performance limit of the system.
Relationship of TMJ Articular Soft Tissue to Underlying Bone in Young Adult Condyles

This investigation used a histological model to study the relationship of articular soft-tissue thickness and contour to the underlying bone in the TMJ condyle of young adults. The usefulness of selected dental and demographic factors in the prediction of the articular soft-tissue thickness and contour was also tested. One sagittal histological section was studied from the lateral, central, and medial thirds of 53 left mandibular condyles. Outline tracings of the articular and compact bone surface were divided into anterior, superior, and posterior sectors for the study of curvature measured by the overlaying of a template of a harmonic series of arcs. The thickness and composition of the articular tissues were measured in each sector by light microscopy. The fibrous connective tissue layer always maintained the articular surface, even in the absence of a cartilage layer. The histological character, including the presence or absence of cartilage, rather than the overall tissue thickness, was considered to be a more useful marker of functionally stimulated changes in the joint. Articular soft-tissue thickness was not related to surface deviation in form and was not correlated with age in this young adult sample. Reduced soft-tissue thickness in the anterior part of the condyle was more common in cases with lack of molar support. Dental attrition was not a useful predictor of soft-tissue thickness. Compact bone contour correlated with soft-tissue contour in the superior (r = 0.816) and posterior (r = 0.808) sectors, explaining only 64% of the variance, but not in the anterior sector (r = 0.265). Thicker or thinner articular soft tissue was not predictable by the underlying compact bone contour or thickness. Therefore, the clinician should not automatically assume that the radiographic osseous image represents the actual articular surface.
Output feedback control of cluster synchronization for Lur'e networks with packet dropouts

This paper studies the issue of cluster synchronization for a kind of time-varying delay coupled Lur'e networks with data packet dropouts and stochastic disturbances. By imposing output feedback controllers to the networks, the nodes in each cluster which directly connected with the nodes in other clusters are controlled. Besides, Bernoulli stochastic processes are used to model the packet dropouts phenomena during the data transmission. Several criteria are obtained to ensure the achievement of the cluster synchronization by using S-procedure and Lyapunov stability theorem. In addition, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the validity of theoretical analysis.
All gestures you can: A memory game against a humanoid robot

We address the problem of real-time gesture recognition, and we prove that our system can be used in real scenarios presenting an original memory game; the object of the game is to perform the longest sequence of gestures that it is possible to remember. We explore the human-robot interaction field, letting the player confront a humanoid robot, iCub. Our main contribution is two-fold: on one hand, we present a robust and real-time gesture recognition system; on the other hand, we place the presented system in a real scenario, where its reliability and its effectiveness are remarkably stressed. This game has ranked 2nd at ChaLearn Kinect Demonstration Competition1.
Performance and Design of an SRM with Amorphous Stator

The performance of the switched reluctance motor (SRM) greatly depends on magnetic properties of core material since it consists of only laminated-core and windings. This paper analyses the performance of an SRM with amorphous stator, which has very low iron losses. Copper loss, iron loss and efficiency of the SRM are estimated by finite element method. Furthermore, a suitable structure for the SRM with amorphous stator is examined on the optimization design.
Understanding the p-type defect chemistry of CuCrO2

CuCrO2 is the most promising Cu-based delafossite for p-type optoelectronic devices. Despite this, little is known about the p-type conduction mechanism of this material, with both CuI/CuII and CrIII/CrIV hole mechanisms being proposed. In this article we examine the electronic structure, thermodynamic stability and the p-type defect chemistry of this ternary compound using density functional theory with three different approaches to the exchange and correlation; the generalized-gradient-approximation of Perdew, Burke and Ernzerhof (PBE), PBE with an additional correction for on-site Coulombic interactions (PBE + U) and the nonlocal, screened-exchange hybrid functional HSE06. The fundamental band gap of CuCrO2 is demonstrated to be indirect in nature. Under all growth conditions, the dominant intrinsic p-type defect will be the Cu vacancy, with hole formation centered solely on the Cu sublattice. Mg doping is found to be significantly lower in energy than intrinsic defect formation, explaining the large increases in conductivity seen experimentally. Cu-rich/Cr-poor growth conditions are found to be optimal for both intrinsic and extrinsic (Mg doping) defect formation, and should be adopted to maximize performance.
Long-term leptin-replacement therapy for lipoatrophic diabetes.

To the Editor: Oral et al. reported in 2002 that leptin treatment for a period of four months improved hyperglycemia and hypertriglyceridemia in nine female patients with lipodystrophy.1 We report the efficacy of leptin-replacement therapy given for 12 months with the use of the same protocol in two Japanese patients. Patient 1 was an 11-year-old girl with acquired generalized lipodystrophy. She was normal at birth and in her growth. At nine years of age, cervical lymphangitis and panniculitis developed. After that, she had systematic fat loss, her body weight decreased from 38.5 kg to 26.0 kg, and diabetes emerged within .
On Goals , Planning and Performance : New Perspectives in the Field of Project Management Autoria :

In spite of not being theoretically approached for so long, the field of project management has been attracting an increasing interest. Much literature has been published in the area, normally presenting a prescriptive/normative view, in which projects are developed through a linear process involving, with a few exceptions or variations, the phases of definition, planning, execution and termination. Nevertheless, experience shows that in practice things are not so simple as they seem to be. The purpose of this paper is to consider ‘goals’ and ‘planning’ in relation to performance and the final results of projects as a whole. The study analyses traditional approaches in project management literature in comparison with recent advancements in the field, especially the ones resulting from investigations conducted by the Scandinavian School of Projects Studies. According to their view, project execution is a journey of knowledge creation and seldom a process of implementation. Goals and planning are part of this journey, and the way these aspects are perceived and dealt with impacts tremendously the final outcomes in the project context. The study considers the implications involved in these issues.
Název Práce: Typed Functional Genetic Programming Title: Typed Functional Genetic Programming

In this thesis is presented design and implementation of a system performing genetic programming in simply typed lambda calculus. Population initialization method based on term generating technique producing typed lambda terms in long normal form is introduced. This method is parameterized by simple search strategy. Several search strategies are presented, such as strategy for systematic generation or strategy corresponding to standard ramped halfand-half method. Another such a strategies called geometric strategy is further examined in experiments and shown to have various desirable effects such as improved success rate, lesser time consumption and smaller average term size in comparison with standard ramped halfand-half generating method. Other performance enhancements are proposed and supported by experiments such as η-normalization of generated individuals and @-tree representation of individuals. Abstraction elimination is utilized to enable use of simple tree-swapping crossover.
Experimental study on mechanical properties of different lightweight aggregate concretes

Article history: Received January 20, 2014 Received in Revised form April, 10, 2014 Accepted 15 April 2014 Available online 17 April 2014 Lightweight concrete is a suitable constructional material, which can decrease the weight of buildings and the hazards of earthquake loads. Hence, a large number of research studies have been focused on designing and manufacturing high strength lightweight concretes. In this research using the natural and industrial lightweight aggregates frequently found in the south-east region of Iran (Kerman province), high strength and low cost light weight concretes were manufactured. The effects of aggregate type, aggregate size, and concrete mixture were studied experimentally on the compressive strength of concretes and the density and cost of manufactured samples. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Corneal epithelial wound healing.

The corneal surface is, without question, the most specialised 123 mm2* of the body's surface. It forms an integral part of the ocular surface with which it shares several anatomical and physiological attributes. Like the rest ofthe body surface, it is in a state of constant 'healing'. Squamous epithelial cells are continually shed into the tear pool and simultaneously replenished by cells moving centrally from the limbus and anteriorly from the basal layers of the epithelium. This concept was propounded by Thoft' in his X, Y, Z hypothesis and is substantiated by several observations and experiments. X represents the proliferation of basal epithelial cells, Y is the proliferation and centripetal migration ofthe limbal cells, and Z the epithelial cell loss from the surface. For a state of equilibrium to be maintained X+Y must equal Z. It is estimated that the corneal epithelium is constantly renewed every 7 to 10 days.2 When this equilibrium is disturbed, as occurs dramatically after an abrasion, the corneal epithelial wound healing response sets in. This is essentially an exaggeration of the normal physiological process involving cellular and subcellular events occurring under the influence of extracellular matrix proteins and growth factors.
The effect of stimulus number on the stability of responses for an extensive heat pain test

Background. The use of relatively lower stimulus presentation numbers in quantitative sensory testing may influence the computation accuracy of participants’ discriminability. The minimum trial number for obtaining a stabilized participant discrimination ability was determined. Materials and methods. Twelve participants’ ability to discriminate between noxious heat stimuli pairs (45°C/46°C, 46°C/47°C, and 47°C/48°C) was assessed using a six-category confidence rating scale. Heat stimuli were administered to the forearm. Two conditions with presentation numbers of 17 trials per stimulus (representing the median number of trials in previous studies) and 40 trials per stimulus (used in a previous study with a similar protocol) were used. Results and discussion. Participants’ discriminability stabilized at approximately the 20th trial based on the lowest frequency of indeterminate and non-model conforming results under both conditions. A simple linear regression model showed a statistically significant positive relationship between discriminability for the two conditions (slope = 0.65, p < 0.001; constant = 0.33, p = 0.02; r2 = 0.51). As a rule of thumb, approximately 20 trials per stimulus intensity could be used to obtain a stabilized discriminability outcome.