Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
First sea trials of a laser aided three dimensional underwater image mosaicing technique

Georeferenced optical surveys of the seabed are obtained by composing mosaics of underwater images to allow scientists to study marine habitats, classify their features, quantify the population and measure the evolution over time. These are sought after tools but extremely complex to produce given the extent of the surfaces to map and the limited swath and range obtainable with standard diver or ROV operated image surveys. In this article we describe the development of an original technique based on the integration of laser light projection and digital image processing for the synthesis of georeferenced 3D optical maps of underwater scenes. For testing purposes a full scale payload prototype has been designed and integrated to IFREMER's experimental AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) Vortex. Promising results are shown using data collected during dedicated sea trials performed in the Mediterranean Sea.
The 1989-92 credit crunch for real estate

This study surveys a broad range of information to establish the degree to which real estate lending and construction activity decreased in the 1989-92 period owing to a "credit crunch. " It reviews the conditions that led up to the contraction in mortgage lending and construction and then documents the extent to which the evidence is consistent with a credit crunch in lending for residential and nonresidential construction, permanent financing of income properties, and residential mortgage lending. Also, this study weighs the relative importance of the credit crunch and other factors that contributed to the falloff in real estate lending and contrasts the recent period with earlier credit crunch episodes. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.
Clock speed optimization of runtime reconfigurable systems by signal latency measurement

Partial runtime reconfiguration is a feature of modern Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). It allows the reconfiguration of some parts of the FPGA, while other parts are still running and doing computations. The design flow to create a partially run-time reconfigurable system includes the partitioning of a FPGA into multiple collaborating Reconfigurable Modules (RMs), as part of the floor-planning design stage, and the development of an interconnection network. The latency of the chosen interconnection network determines the maximum clock speed the components inside the RMs can run at. The customary way of choosing design constraints to achieve the highest possible speed can lead to very long placement and routing times or even to an un-routable design. Eventually, the the Time To Market (TTM) of a product can be inreased. This paper proposes measuring the latencies of the interconnection network after a relaxed configuration phase. This is achieved by configuring two different kinds of components into the RMs and measure the round trip time of the network between them. Thus, the best placement of reconfigurable components, as well as the maximum clock rate of a given configuration can be calculated, and set without the need to rebuild the system. This enables the developer to place components into the RMs according to their clock speed requirements, without the need to reconfigure or rebuild the full system. This paper also presents some example measurements and an example placement of a small microcontroller.
Is the Court of Justice of the European Union a mere instrument in the hands of member states

The thesis is an attempt to present the Court of Justice of the European Union as a rational actor performing in a strategic manner in accordance to its institutional preferences. The Court has been found to follow a self-perpetuating pattern of decision making that allows it to define a political agenda that the institution is aiming to achieve. This model is in line with the New Institutionalism theoretical assumptions and expectations and most especially to its rational choice and historical sub-branches. The findings in the dissertation are mostly in the quantitative analysis of an extensive dataset collected by the author for the research purposes of the project. The qualitative methodology is also used through the case study instrument of examining the doctrinal rulings from the Court‟s case-law and their relation to the „National versus communitarian‟ legal and political conflict and its often opposing interests. The key argument in the thesis is the finding that the Judges in their rulings at the Court of Justice seem to discriminate between the bigger countries and the rest of the less powerful EU member states. This enables the Court to balance between its institutional interests and those of the EU national governments which are a potential threat to the Court's pursuit of extended powers and competences, which is in agreement with all neoinstitutional arguments.
Decentralized mixed H 2/H ∞ filtering for discrete time fuzzy large-scale systems

This paper is concerned with decentralized mixed filter design for discrete time fuzzy large-scale systems. Each of them consists of N sub-systems which are represented by Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy models. The main objective is to design stable filters that minimize a guaranteed cost index and to achieve a prescribed H ∞ performance. Based on Lyapunov theory, it is shown that the sufficient conditions guaranteeing stability and achieving prescribed performance are established by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities. A simulation example is also given to show the effectiveness of the present approach.
A multi-port, isolated PV microinverter with low decoupling capacitance & integrated battery charger

This paper proposes a dual-active bridge (DAB)-based isolated microinverter topology with integrated energy storage capability. A control strategy involving dynamic variation of the phase-shift allows twice line frequency energy buffering to be handled on the high-voltage secondary side, resulting in considerable reduction in decoupling capacitance requirement. Being a DAB-derived structure, most of the devices have the possibility of undergoing zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) turn-on. The topology has further advantages of the battery and PV port currents having very less high frequency ripple on account of them being inductively interfaced. Working principle of the circuit is first described followed by an explanation of the control scheme. Circuit operation is verified through simulations and open-loop experimental tests on a 250 W hardware prototype.
A Survey on Security and Privacy Issues in Internet-of-Things

Internet-of-Things (IoT) are everywhere in our daily life. They are used in our homes, in hospitals, deployed outside to control and report the changes in environment, prevent fires, and many more beneficial functionality. However, all those benefits can come of huge risks of privacy loss and security issues. To secure the IoT devices, many research works have been conducted to countermeasure those problems and find a better way to eliminate those risks, or at least minimize their effects on the user’s privacy and security requirements. The survey consists of four segments. The first segment will explore the most relevant limitations of IoT devices and their solutions. The second one will present the classification of IoT attacks. The next segment will focus on the mechanisms and architectures for authentication and access control. The last segment will analyze the security issues in different layers.
Measuring protection in the early twentieth century

Trade policy constitutes one of the most important chapters in any economic history account of the early years of this century. To assess its impact on the economic development of individual countries we need comparative measures of protection at the sectoral level. This paper offers what appears to be the first attempt to construct such measures for 1913 based on the Heckscher-Ohlin trade model. It uses a newly constructed data set on net trade flows and factor endowments covering fourteen â€˜old worldâ€™ and four â€˜new worldâ€™ economies. In contrast to previous studies, the measures suggested here are, first, objective in the sense of not attempting to classify a priori the trade regime of some country based only on its tariff legislation. Second, they reflect all types of trade interventions. Third, they are constructed as continuous measures. Finally, and most importantly, they are comparable across countries and sectors.
Monetary Policy Regimes in CIS Economies and Their Ability to Provide Price and Financial Stability

Achieving price stability has been a serious challenge for CIS countries. In the first half of the 1990s, they experienced very high inflation or hyperinflation, which had originated in the perestroika period and following the dissolution of the ruble area. After the introduction of new currencies and stabilization programs in the mid-1990s, inflation moderated to two-digit levels. However, for lack of sufficient fiscal policy support, this partial progress did not succeed in preventing the financial crisis of 1998/99. The economic boom of the 2000s allowed for a return to macroeconomic stability with stronger fiscal fundamentals, but nevertheless proved insufficient to withstand the shock from the global financial crisis of 2008/09. The paper analyses the evolution monetary policy regimes of in the CIS countries over the decade of the 2000s and early 2010s and is based on the publicly available cross-country statistics and other information provided by the IMF. The paper compares financial openness in these economies both de jure and de facto. These findings will be tested against the empirical data on exchange rate movements and changes in central banks’ international reserves. The paper concludes with a discussion on practical choices which CIS countries have in respect of their future monetary policy regimes.
Time Series Analysis of Indian External Debt, Total Reserves and Economic Growth Rates

This paper assesses the impact of total external debt, short term external debt, long term external debt and total reserve on economic growth by using time series data from 1980 to 2012 in case of India. According to ordinary least square method there is positive and significant impact of total external debt, short term external debt, long term external debt and total reserve on economic growth in India. of all for etc. These developing countries are facing the problems of deficit, high current account deficit, higher level of ex ternal debt, higher rate of inflation etc. researcher have to focus to explain the way through which external debt, and total reserve can possibly effect the economic growth. There are two competing hypothesis first debt overhang theory and second liquidity constrain hypothesis. Various studies try to explain the validity of these two hypotheses with different data and different analytical tools. This paper is also exploring that weather there any direct impact of external debt and total reserve on economic growth in India is a developing country. India posi- tion was fourth in terms of absolute external debt stock after China, Russian federation and Brazil in 2011. The ratio of India’s external debt stock to gross national income is 18.3 percent. The external debt to GDP ratio was 17.3 percent at the end of 2011. The maturity pattern of debt indicates dominance of long term borrowings. At end September 2013India’s total external debt was 400.3 US$ billion. The share of short term debt to total external debt decreased to 23.7 percent end September 2013. the ratio of short term external debt to foreign exchange reserve was 34.2 percent at end september2013 as against 33.1 percent at end march 2013.
What Makes for an Effective Hotel Manager

The nature of the hospitality industry makes particular demands upon its managers. Studies of personality characteristics provide little help in their education and development. It is more constructive to place emphasis on the balance of general attributes required of the successful manager. People are both a major resource and part of the finished product that the customer is paying for. This emphasises the importance of the social and human skills as a central focus of education and development of hotel managers.
Role of Land-Surface Changes in Arctic Summer Warming

A major challenge in predicting Earth's future climate state is to understand feedbacks that alter greenhouse-gas forcing. Here we synthesize field data from arctic Alaska, showing that terrestrial changes in summer albedo contribute substantially to recent high-latitude warming trends. Pronounced terrestrial summer warming in arctic Alaska correlates with a lengthening of the snow-free season that has increased atmospheric heating locally by about 3 watts per square meter per decade (similar in magnitude to the regional heating expected over multiple decades from a doubling of atmospheric CO2). The continuation of current trends in shrub and tree expansion could further amplify this atmospheric heating by two to seven times.
Credit channel and credit shocks in Canadian macrodynamics - a structural VAR approach

The idea that financial structure and output determination may be interrelated has gone through several cycles over the past half a century since its inception at the time of the Great Depression. In its latest reincarnation as the theory of financial acceleration, it considers financial factors as propagation mechanisms for the disturbances originating in the real economy. The agency costs of credit allocation by the financial intermediaries play a central role in this theory. Financial factors have rarely been studied as potential sources of variation in the economy. This article, however, investigates the origination of disturbances from bank credit and allows for the propagation of disturbances within a relatively simple macro-dynamic system that utilizes the Structural Vector Autoregression approach The findings for the Canadian economy provide support for the ‘credit view’ of the monetary policy transmission mechanism. They also show that bank credit to persons affects real output in the short run, whereas bank credit to businesses does not. In other words, consumers but not the business firms appear to be credit constrained.
Factor complements and substitution for the translog knowledge production function considering ownership structure and firm financial condition

This paper uses stochastic frontier analysis to evaluate R&D efficiency and investigate factor substitutability for the translog knowledge production function. We find that most substitution elasticities are positive and support substitute relationships between the four R&D inputs. Ownership structure plays an important role in R&D activity and efficiency. Our findings suggest that higher foreign and manager shareholding will promote R&D efficiency. The little protection hypothesis and unproductive R&D hypothesis are supported by means of negative relationships for return on equity (ROE)–R&D efficiency and cash flow (CF)–R&D efficiency. R&D experience and past R&D quality appears to improve R&D efficiency. Finally, small firms have higher R&D efficiency.
Long Telomeric C-rich 5′-Tails in Human Replicating Cells*

Telomeres protect the ends of linear chromosomes from abnormal recombination events and buffer them against terminal DNA loss. Models of telomere replication predict that two daughter molecules have one end that is blunt, the product of leading-strand synthesis, and one end with a short G-rich 3′-overhang. However, experimental data from proliferating cells are not completely consistent with this model. For example, telomeres of human chromosomes have long G-rich 3′-overhangs, and the persistence of blunt ends is uncertain. Here we show that the product of leading-strand synthesis is not always blunt but can contain a long C-rich 5′-tail, the incompletely replicated template of the leading strand. We examined the presence of G-rich and C-rich single-strand DNA in fibroblasts and HeLa cells. Although there were no significant changes in the length distribution of the 3′-overhang, the 5′-overhangs were mostly present in S phase. Similar results were obtained using telomerase-negative fibroblasts. The amount and the length distribution of the 5′ C-rich tails strongly correlate with the proliferative rate of the cell cultures. Our results suggest that, contrary to what has commonly been supposed, completion of leading-strand synthesis is inefficient and could well drive telomere shortening.
Otitis media: an update on current pharmacotherapy and future perspectives

Introduction: Acute otitis media (AOM) is the most common childhood bacterial infection and also the leading cause of conductive hearing loss in children. Currently, there is an urgent need for developing novel therapeutic agents for treating AOM. Areas covered: Structured search of current literature. PubMed was searched for published literature in areas of pharmacotherapeutics, preventive therapies and complementary treatments for OM. The intent of this review is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of therapeutics for AOM, including preventive modalities and complementary medicine. Expert opinion: the management of AOM in young children is still evolving and depends on patterns of bacterial colonization and antimicrobial resistance in the community. The introduction of vaccinations against potential respiratory tract pathogens has altered the frequency of recovery of pathogens causing ear infections in children. Even though not all patients require antimicrobial therapy to overcome their infection, these agents improve symptoms faster and lead to fewer treatment failures. Further studies are warranted to evaluate which patients would best benefit from antimicrobial therapy.
Evidence for the risk of calcium channel blockers in hypertension was selective

EDITOR,—We have five comments on the Fortnightly review by D G Beevers and P Sleight.1 Firstly, Beevers and Sleight say that results from a Chinese study may not be readily applicable to a Western population and that a longer acting formulation of nifedipine was used.2 It could be argued that if a beneficial effect was demonstrable in a population with low incidence of an event then it would be similar, if not more beneficial, in a population …
Activity pattern and energy expenditure due to physical activity before and during pregnancy in healthy Swedish women

Human pregnancy is associated with increased requirements for dietary energy and this increase may be partly offset by reductions in physical activity during gestation. Studies in well-nourished women have shown that the physical activity level (PAL), obtained as the total energy expenditure (TEE) divided by the BMR, decreases in late pregnancy. However, it is not known if this decrease is really caused by reductions in physical activity or if it is the result of decreases in energy expenditure/BMR (the so-called metabolic equivalent, MET) for many activities in late pregnancy. In the present study activity pattern, TEE and BMR were assessed in twenty-three healthy Swedish women before pregnancy as well as in gestational weeks 14 and 32. Activity pattern was assessed using a questionnaire and heart rate recording. TEE was assessed using the doubly labelled water method and BMR was measured by means of indirect calorimetry. When compared to the pre-pregnant value, there was little change in the PAL in gestational week 14 but it was significantly reduced in gestational week 32. Results obtained by means of the questionnaire and by heart rate recording showed that the activity pattern was largely unaffected by pregnancy. The findings support the following conclusion: in a population of well-nourished women where the activity pattern is maintained during pregnancy, the increase in BMR represents approximately the main part of the pregnancy-induced increase in TEE, at least until gestational week 32.
E-service innovation: combining directed and practice-based approaches

This paper aims to contribute to the service innovation literature by analyzing the different phases of e-service innovation in relation to the dichotomic model of practice-based versus directed innovation. In detail, using the case study method, the study investigates the innovation process of an e-service initiative developed by one of the largest universities in Italy and a banking group during the idea generation, design and implementation steps. The study advances service theory by detailing the integration of existing perspectives on service innovation and revealing the coexistence of directed innovation and practice-based changes. Finally, based on the results of this exploratory study, the paper concludes with research propositions.
Homeowner-made Housing Price Bubbles - East Germany's Example -

This paper argues that homeowners, if suffciently infuential, may attempt to manipulate housing prices. The paper presents an instance of, and sets out the political economy behind, one particular homeowner-made housing price bubble (in East Germany). Yet ultimately the paper suggests that homeowners may be responsible for housing price bubbles elsewhere, too. Namely, US homeowners may be the single driving force behind the latest US housing price boom that preceded the current real estate, and financial, crisis.
Risk reduction when transporting dangerous goods: road or rail?

The opportunity of switching from road to rail or to a combination of road and rail (intermodal) transport is being considered in many countries with the objective of risk reduction in the transport of dangerous goods. This work presents a quantitative approach based on risk analysis for comparing the hazards of road, rail, and intermodal transport, aimed at defining criteria for selecting the safest transport modality. When comparing road and rail transport, the risk mainly depends on the hazardous characteristics of the product. The size of the containers is generally larger for rail transport than for road transport, and consequently the amount of product potentially released, giving rise to impact areas slightly or significantly larger for rail than for road transport. When comparing road and intermodal transport, route length plays the most significant role: the longer the distance, the safer the intermodal transport.
The change in quality practices in logistics: 1995 versus 1991

Abstract The research reported on in this article examines the status of quality management practices in logistics today in large US firms. The research also provides a comparison with quality practices in logistics in 1991. Data were collected in 1995 through use of a survey instrument. This instrument was similar to a questionnaire employed in 1991, thereby allowing for a meaningful comparison to be made. Based on the results, it is evident that a number of changes have occurred over the five years. For example, the primary obstacles encountered today are a lack of human and financial resources versus the lack of pressure to initiate such programmes in 1991. At the same time, a number of similarities across the two time periods is also evident. Both groups of managers reported being relatively satisfied with the results achieved to date, for example. In total, the results indicate that many firms are continuing to improve as their customers become more demanding.