Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Imperfect competition in certi ... cation markets

This paper o¤ers a theoretical analysis of imperfect competition in certi.cation markets. Firms that intend to engage in a regulated activity must produce third-party certi.cation of compliance with prescribed regulations and standards. The certi.cation service is provided by independent certi.ers competing à la Cournot. We show that the interaction between certi.ers and . rms results in a market equilibrium that can be illuminated by the techniques of standard oligopoly theory. When certi.ers’ liability is not too low, the certi.cation fee is determined by the degree of concentration of the certi.cation market. Due to the peculiarity of this market, a lower concentration is not always socially desirable.
Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport Lecture Statewide Physical Fitness Testing

Statewide physical fitness testing is gaining popularity in the United States because of increased childhood obesity levels, the relations between physical fitness and academic performance, and the hypothesized relations between adult characteristics and childhood physical activity, physical fitness, and health behaviors. Large-scale physical fitness testing can be fraught with problems unless properly planned and conducted. Legislators, administrators, teachers, and parents should consider the following 10 essential issues when conducting large-scale physical fitness testing: purpose of testing, proper planning, training, quality of the data, reporting, support, costs, interpretation, programmatic matters, and policies and politics.
Empowered or marginalized? Rural women and credit in later thirteenth- and fourteenth-century England

Recent research on both contemporary and historical societies argues for the importance of women's independent access to credit as a positive force for empowerment of the women concerned and for wider economic development. This article investigates this issue for rural England between c.1290 and c.1380 using debt litigation records from two well-documented manor courts. The article concludes that involvement in credit networks brought little female empowerment in medieval English villages because relatively few women acted as independent lenders and borrowers. However, local credit networks featured women more prominently in some places than others, and reasons for this are advanced.
Recovery of Stored Aerobic Granular Sludge and Its Contaminants Removal Efficiency under Different Operation Conditions

The quick recovery process of contaminants removal of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) is complex, and the influencing factors are still not clear. The effects of dissolved oxygen (DO, air intensive aeration rate), organic loading rate (OLR), and C/N on contaminants removal characteristics of AGS and subsequently long-term operation of AGS bioreactor were investigated in this study. DO had a major impact on the recovery of AGS. The granules reactivated at air intensive aeration rate of 100 L/h achieved better settling property and contaminants removal efficiency. Moreover, protein content in extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) was almost unchanged, which demonstrated that an aeration rate of 100 L/h was more suitable for maintaining the biomass and the structure of AGS. Higher OLR caused polysaccharides content increase in EPS, and unstable C/N resulted in the overgrowth of filamentous bacteria, which presented worse NH4 +-N and PO4 3−-P removal. Correspondingly, quick recovery of contaminants removal was accomplished in 12 days at the optimized operation conditions of aeration rate 100 L/h, OLR 4 g/L·d, and C/N 100 : 10, with COD, NH4 +-N, and PO4 3−-P removal efficiencies of 87.2%, 86.9%, and 86.5%, respectively. The renovation of AGS could be successfully utilized as the seed sludge for the rapid start-up of AGS bioreactor.
The Rule of Law and the Separation of Powers

This brief introctory editorial discussion on the Macquarie Law Journal's theme explores the meaning of the rule of law as well as the extent to which the separation of powers - the principles of dividing and balancing power − can be used to advance rule of law values. The way in which each of the articles provided in the volume contribute to the discussion are detailed.
Does Successful Social Media Marketing Affect Brand Value?: An Empirical Investigation

Brand management has been moving towards making use of multiple channels in order to engage customers, especially through social media, and sustain a more intense experience around the brand instead of depending merely on advertising. This paper will investigate the effectiveness of social media marketing activities on brand value through comparison of brand value rankings with brand engagement scores, determined by social media marketing activities. Data from a list of companies was collected and evaluated, and the authors found evidence for a relationship in some cases, especially for social networks in the form of Facebook, and for Twitter on global level. They found clear differences between Global and Turkish brands, in that Facebook is relatively and absolutely more important for brands in that country. In addition, clear differences showed up between some industries in importance of different channels for brand value.
Mutation in the type IB bone morphogenetic protein receptor alk6b impairs germ-cell differentiation and causes germ-cell tumors in zebrafish

Germ-cell tumors (GCTs), which arise from pluripotent embryonic germ cells, exhibit a wide range of histologic differentiation states with varying clinical behaviors. Although testicular GCT is the most common cancer of young men, the genes controlling the development and differentiation of GCTs remain largely unknown. Through a forward genetic screen, we previously identified a zebrafish mutant line, tgct, which develops spontaneous GCTs consisting of undifferentiated germ cells [Neumann JC, et al. (2009) Zebrafish 6:319–327]. Using positional cloning we have identified an inactivating mutation in alk6b, a type IB bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) receptor, as the cause of the zebrafish GCT phenotype. Alk6b is expressed in spermatogonia and early oocytes, and alk6b mutant gonads display impaired BMP signal transduction, altered expression of BMP target genes, and abnormal germ-cell differentiation. We find a similar absence of BMP signaling in undifferentiated human GCTs, such as seminomas and embryonal carcinoma, but not in normal testis or in differentiated GCTs. These results indicate a germ-cell–autonomous role for BMP signal transduction in germ-cell differentiation, and highlight the importance of the BMP pathway in human GCTs.
Using Design-Based Latent Growth Curve Modeling With Cluster-Level Predictor to Address Dependency

The authors compared the effects of using the true Multilevel Latent Growth Curve Model (MLGCM) with single-level regular and design-based Latent Growth Curve Models (LGCM) with or without the higher-level predictor on various criterion variables for multilevel longitudinal data. They found that random effect estimates were biased when the higher-level predictor was not included and that standard errors of the regression coefficients from the higher-level were underestimated when a regular LGCM was used. Nevertheless, random effect estimates, regression coefficients, and standard error estimates were consistent with those from the true MLGCM when the design-based LGCM included the higher-level predictor. They discussed implication for the study with empirical data illustration.
The Dynamics of TAT Process

After many years of clinical practice, research and the teaching of projective tests, Shentoub and her colleagues (Debray, Brelet, Chabert & al.) put forward an original and rigorous method of analysis and interpretation of the TAT protocols in terms of psychoanalysis and clinical psychopathology. They developed the TAT process theory in order to understand how the subject builds a narrative. Our article will emphasize the source of the analytical approach developed by V. Shentoub in the 1950s to current research; the necessity of marking the boundary between the manifest and latent content in the cards; the procedure for analyzing the narrative, supported by an analysis sheet for understanding the stories' structure and identifying the defense mechanisms; and how developing hypotheses about how the mental functions are organized, as well as their potential psychopathological characteristics; and the formulation of a diagnosis in psychodynamic terms. In conjunction with the analysis and interpretation of .
Is Gene Flow Promoting the Reversal of Pleistocene Divergence in the Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli)?

The Pleistocene glacial cycles left a genetic legacy on taxa throughout the world; however, the persistence of genetic lineages that diverged during these cycles is dependent upon levels of gene flow and introgression. The consequences of secondary contact among taxa may reveal new insights into the history of the Pleistocene’s genetic legacy. Here, we use phylogeographic methods, using 20 nuclear loci from regional populations, to infer the consequences of secondary contact following divergence in the Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli). Analysis of nuclear data identified two geographically-structured genetic groups, largely concordant with results from a previous mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) study. Additionally, the estimated multilocus divergence times indicate a Pleistocene divergence, and are highly concordant with mtDNA. The previous mtDNA study showed a paucity of sympatry between clades, while nuclear patterns of gene flow show highly varied patterns between populations. The observed pattern of gene flow, from coalescent-based analyses, indicates southern populations in both clades exhibit little gene flow within or between clades, while northern populations are experiencing higher gene flow within and between clades. If this pattern were to persist, it is possible the historical legacy of Pleistocene divergence may be preserved in the southern populations only, and the northern populations would become a genetically diverse hybrid species.
From Big Data to Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing Data Routinely Collected in the Process of Care.

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Direct treatment cost of atrial fibrillation in the elderly American population: a Medicare perspective

Abstract Objective: Although atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most commonly sustained arrhythmia in adults, few studies have examined the direct treatment cost of AF. Methods: A Medicare database of a 5% random national sample of all beneficiaries was used to identify patients diagnosed with AF in 2003 and to follow them for 1 year after diagnosis. These patients were matched on a 1:1 basis by age, gender and race. The incremental cost of treating AF was calculated with multivariate regression models adjusting for covariates. Results: In total, 55,260 subjects developed new AF, of which 69% were ≥75 years old, 54% were female and 91% were White. The adjusted mean incremental treatment cost of AF was $14,199 (95% confidence interval $13,201–15,001; p<0.01). Some of this cost was attributable to the incidence of stroke and heart failure at the 1-year post-AF diagnosis. A significantly higher proportion of AF patients experienced stroke (23.1 vs. 13.3%; p<0.01) and heart failure (36.7 vs. 10.4%; p<0.01) compared with Medicare beneficiaries without AF. Conclusions: Mean incremental direct treatment costs for Medicare beneficiaries with AF were higher than previously reported. Interventions that can reduce the incidence of AF and its complications may also reduce the national economic impact of AF.
Equalization and FEC techniques for optical transceivers

In this tutorial paper, we present the application of well-known DSP techniques used in lower speed wireline and wireless applications, to high-speed optical communications. After an introduction on today's optical network architecture and typical optical channel impairments, we study techniques such as fiber equalization, maximum likelihood detection, and current and next generations Forward Error Correction (FEC), with special emphasis on VLSI implementation.
Nonlinear Adaptive Output Feedback Control of Flexible-Joint Space Manipulators with Joint Stiffness Uncertainties

Growing research interest in space robotic systems capable of accurately performing autonomous manipulation tasks within an acceptable execution time has led to an increased demand for lightweight materials and mechanisms. As a result, joint flexibility effects become important and represent the main limitation to achieving satisfactory trajectory-tracking performance. This paper addresses the nonlinear adaptive output feedback control problem for flexible-joint space manipulators. Composite control schemes in which decentralized simple adaptive control-based adaptation mechanisms to control the quasi-steady-state robot model are added to a linear correction term to stabilize the boundary-layer model are proposed. An almost strictly passivity-based approach is adopted to guarantee closed-loop stability of the quasi-steady-state model. Simulation results are included to highlight the performance and robustness of the proposed adaptive composite control methodologies to parametric and dynamics modeling unce.
Modeling and Optimization of Energy Consumption in Cooperative Multi-Robot Systems

Reduction of energy consumption is important for reaching a sustainable future. This paper presents a novel method for optimizing the energy consumption of robotic manufacturing systems. The method embeds detailed evaluations of robots' energy consumptions into a scheduling model of the overall system. The energy consumption for each operation is modeled and parameterized as function of the operation execution time, and the energy-optimal schedule is derived by solving a mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem. The objective function for the optimization problem is then the total energy consumption for the overall system. A case study of a sample robotic manufacturing system and an experiment on an industrial robot are presented. They show that there exists a real possibility for a significant reduction of the energy consumption in comparison to state-of-the-art scheduling approaches.
Searching For Better Prospects: Endogenizing Falling Job Tenure and Private Pension Coverage

Abstract Recent declines in job tenure have coincided with a shift away from traditional defined benefit (DB) pensions, which reward long tenure. New evidence also points to an increase in job-to-job movements by workers, and we document gains in relative wages of job-to-job movers over a similar period. We develop a search model in which firms may offer tenure-based contracts like DB pensions to reduce the incidence of costly on-the-job search by workers. Either reduced search costs or an increase in the probability of job matches can, under fairly general conditions, lower the value of deterring search and the use of DB pensions.
A New Genetics-Aided Message Passing Decoding Algorithm for LDPC Codes

The popular LDPC decoding algorithms based on the message passing (MP) algorithm have high decoding performances. However, they are noticeably inferior to the maximum likelihood (ML) decoding algorithm. This work proposes a genetics-aided message passing (GA-MP) algorithm by applying a new genetic algorithm to MP algorithm. As a result, significantly performance improvement over MP algorithm can be achieved. Besides, compared with other genetic-aided decoding algorithms, the proposed algorithm has much better performances and much lower computational complexity. Simulations show that the decoding performance of GA-MP algorithm can achieve performances very close to the algorithm, while outperform MP algorithm. Besides, its performance will grow proportionally with the generation number without leveling off as observed in conventional MP algorithms, under high SNR condition.
Extraction of relations between behaviors by lecturer and students in lectures

In this paper, we discuss the extraction of relations between lecturer and students in lectures by using multi-layered neural networks. Here, the relations among a few features concerning on the behaviors of the lecturer and students can be represented by multi-layered neural networks with the time-delay. Furthermore, we introduce a structural learning algorithm with forgetting for neural networks for the extraction of rules in the interaction. The above time-series models are analyzed focusing on weights in multi-layered neural networks. Concretely, we analyze which lecturer's behaviors (face and hand movements and loudness of speech) give great influences on behaviors by students (face movements). On the contrary, we analyze which student's behavior (face movement) give great influences on behaviors by lecturer.
BISC : a Binary Itemset Support Counting Approach towards Efficient Frequent Itemset Mining 1

the performance of a depth-first Frequent Itemset Miming (FIM) algorithm is closely related to the total number of recursions which can be modeled as O(n), where k is the maximal recursion depth and n is the branching factor. Many existing approaches focus more on improving support counting rather than on decreasing n and k, which may lead to unsatisfactory performance as they grow. In this paper a novel approach, Binary Itemset Support Counting (BISC), is presented to address these two factors. Let the direct support of an itemset I be the number of transactions with the same itemset as I, BISC can derive the supports of all the itemsets in a database by iteratively updating their direct supports, thus eliminating the need for further recursion. BISC converts a database into its binary representation and combines one-stage BISC and two-stage BISC to minimize the cost of support updating and memory consumption by eliminating redundant updating operations. By applying BISC with the basic projection technique, our approach can significantly decrease the maximum depth and branching factor of database projection, thus improving both the time and space efficiency for FIM. In terms of time efficiency, experiments show that BISC outperforms all the other algorithms (in many cases by almost an order of magnitude or more) in the datasets tested. Even though this does not guarantee that BISC will always perform the best, the result is impressive given the fact that most existing algorithms are only efficient in some types of datasets. The memory usage of BISC is comparable to (in most cases smaller than) those of the other algorithms. In summary, the concepts of direct support, binary representation, multi-stage BISC, and the optimization strategies applied in BISC represent a promising approach to related areas. 1 The software for this algorithm is available at http://alpha.cs. qc.edu/research.html
Factors mediating HIV risk among female sex workers in Europe: a systematic review and ecological analysis

Objectives We reviewed the epidemiology of HIV and selected sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among female sex workers (FSWs) in WHO-defined Europe. There were three objectives: (1) to assess the prevalence of HIV and STIs (chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhoea); (2) to describe structural and individual-level risk factors associated with prevalence and (3) to examine the relationship between structural-level factors and national estimates of HIV prevalence among FSWs. Design A systematic search of published and unpublished literature measuring HIV/STIs and risk factors among FSWs, identified through electronic databases published since 2005. ‘Best’ estimates of HIV prevalence were calculated from the systematic review to provide national level estimates of HIV. Associations between HIV prevalence and selected structural-level indicators were assessed using linear regression models. Studies reviewed Of the 1993 papers identified in the search, 73 peer-reviewed and grey literature documents were identified as meeting our criteria of which 63 papers provided unique estimates of HIV and STI prevalence and nine reported multivariate risk factors for HIV/STI among FSWs. Results HIV in Europe remains low among FSWs who do not inject drugs (<1%), but STIs are high, particularly syphilis in the East and gonorrhoea. FSWs experience high levels of violence and structural risk factors associated with HIV, including lack of access to services and working on the street. Linear regression models showed HIV among FSWs to link with injecting drug use and imprisonment. Conclusions Findings show that HIV prevention interventions should be nested inside strategies that address the social welfare of sex workers, highlighting in turn the need to target the social determinants of health and inequality, including regarding access to services, experience of violence and migration. Future epidemiological and intervention studies of HIV among vulnerable populations need to better systematically delineate how microenvironmental and macroenvironmental factors combine to increase or reduce HIV/STI risk.
Integrating the Supply Chain with RFID: A Technical and Business Analysis

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the technical and business implications of adopting Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in organizational settings. The year 2004 marked a significant shift toward adopting RFID because of mandates by large retailers and government organizations. The use of RFID technology is expected to increase rapidly in the next few years. At present, however, initial barriers against widespread adoption include standards, interoperability, costs, forward compatibility, and lack of familiarity. This paper describes basic components of an RFID system including tags, readers, and antennas and how they work together using an integrated supply chain model. Our analysis suggests that business needs to overcome human resource scarcity, security, legal and financial challenges and make informed decision regarding standards and process reengineering. The technology is not fully mature and suffers from issues of attenuation and interference. A laboratory experiment conducted by the authors shows that the middleware is not yet at a “plug-and-play” stage, which means that initial adopters need to spend considerable effort to integrate RFID into their existing business processes. Appendices contain a glossary of common RFID terms, a list of RFID vendors and detailed findings of the laboratory experiment.