Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
IT Governance Patterns in the Portuguese Financial Industry

Information Technology (IT) has been used in large organizations since the 1950s for internal and external purposes. The pervasive use of technology in organizations has created a critical dependency on IT that calls for a specific focus on IT Governance (ITG). However, determining the right ITG mechanisms remains a complex endeavor. In this paper we propose to perform an exploratory research and analyze several ITG case studies to elicit possible ITG mechanisms patterns. Then, we performed six interviews in Portuguese financial services organizations and compare the results. Our goal is to build some theories (ITG mechanisms patterns), which we believe will guide financial services organizations about the advisable ITG mechanisms given their specific context. We also intend to elicit conclusions regarding the most relevant ITG mechanisms for Portuguese financial services organizations. The research methodology adopted was Design Science Research (DSR). We finish our work with limitations, contribution and future work.
Design and Implementation of Client IP Notification Feature on DNS for Proactive Firewall System

The attempts of malicious access and attacks from the Internet to the internal computers of organizations never stop today and corresponding countermeasure for each technique is required. Most organizations introduce some firewall facilities as one of the solutions to protect their internal computers as well networks from those attacks. However, in most organizations, the network administrator has to deploy the policies on the firewall system manually based on the layer 3 and 4 information and only identified communication peers can be controlled by the policy-base firewall system. To solve these problems, we focused on the domain name resolution which happens prior to most TCP/IP communications and approach a new mechanism: adaptively investigable firewall system based on DNS query initiator by notifying the DNS query side client IP address to the target DNS server. In this paper, we mainly present the detail of design and implementation of the client IP address notification feature in the caching DNS server by embedding the subnet address as well as subnet mask of the query source client by practically using the DNS expanded standard (EDNS0).
Pensions reforms, redistribution and welfare

This thesis deals with the optimal design of pensions systems in the face of demographic changes. Though the chapters differ in terms of the key questions addressed, the unifying theme remains which pensions system yields the highest welfare under differing economic conditions. We use a standard overlapping generations model with heterogeneous agents to address the various questions. The role of the pensions system varies between consumption smoothing and redistribution, or a combination of both. The provision of pensions, whether universal or targeted, has a signficant impact on capital formation and by extension on a host of economic aggregates and welfare. Capital is always higher under a fully-funded scheme. Under certain conditions, it is optimal to have no pay-as-you-go pensions in place and a fully-funded scheme is thus optimal. With a redistributive pensions system, the welfare gain of the poor exceeds the fall in the welfare of the rich thereby resulting in an increase in aggregate welfare. This thesis thus brings together the issues involved in pensions design in a theoretical framework and aims to provide an insight into the various channels at work.
SHALLOW CORES IN THE DARK MATTER HALOS: SELF { INTERACTION IN ACTION?

Using observational data for a sample of dark matter dominated galaxies and two clusters of galaxies, we have found that the central halo density does not depend on its mass, and the core radius is roughly proportional to the maximum rotation velocity. A good agreement with these scaling laws is obtained for CDM halos whose dense inner parts were expanded by gravothermal instabilities if the particles ecien tly self{interact only in these parts. We nd that the particle cross{ section is inversely proportional to the velocity dispersion.
Low-performing student responses to state merit scholarships

State merit scholarships may affect academic outcomes for low-performing college students, yet low-performers are generally overlooked in existing literature. New Mexico’s lottery scholarship provides tuition-free college to residents meeting a uniquely “low-bar” eligibility criteria. Using administrative data, a discontinuity in eligibility rules identifies local average treatment effects on degree completion and course taking behavior for students with below-average college grades. Results suggest a reduction in time-to-degree corresponding to the scholarship’s funding cap, with no overall change in degree completion. Despite modest eligibility requirements related to credit completion, the scholarship increased credit completion among low-achieving students. Some students appear to manipulate scholarship eligibility by taking fewer courses or strategically dropping courses during a qualifying semester in order to secure aid. A bounding exercise suggests partial manipulation of eligibility rules results in selection bias which underestimates the true effect of the scholarship on time to degree and credit completion.
Anaesthesia and hypertension.

The sympathetic nervous system plays an important role in the regulation of arterial pressure in normal man (Korner, 1979). Figure 1 shows a schema for how perturbation of arterial pressure in everyday arterial pressures well above the normal range, and are therefore deemed to be hypertensive. To what extent does failure of pressure regulation play a role in the development of hypertension, and to what
Locomotor training in tetraplegic patients : an orthopedic assessment upon its effects on the osteoarticular system

This study has been evaluating tetraplegic patients who have been walking for several months with the aid of a system that involves neuromuscular stimulation, treadmill and a harness support device[20-23]. Clinical and radiological evolution of two patients who have taken part in the training programme were assessed. Improvement on the severity of the heterotopical ossification has been noticed in both hip joints of the first patient. On the other patient, despite knee instability and an intense programme routine, no knee injury was observed, suggesting that the training programme is safe for this joint.
Analytical Approach for Performance of Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have bee n noticed and researched in recent years. WSNs have inherent and unique characteristics compared with traditional networks. It consists of light-weight, low power and small size sensor nodes (SNs). They have ability to monitor, calculat e and communicate wirelessly. Sensor nodes should s end their collected data to a determined node called Sink. The sink pro cesses data and performs appropriate actions. Nodes u ing routing protocol determine a path for sending data to sink. Sensor nodes have a limited transmission range, an d their processing and storage capabilities as well as their energy re sources are also limited. Routing protocols for wir eless sensor networks have to ensure reliable multi-hop communication und er these conditions. In this paper, we provide an accurate simulation mo del with respect to the specifications of IEEE 802. 15.4 standard. We simulated and analyzed two different s cenarios, where we examined the topological feature s and performance of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard using OPN ET simulator. We compared the two possible topologi es (Mesh and Tree) to each other. The comparative results ha ve been reported for the performance metrics like: Number of hopes, End to End Delay and Load of network.
Bearings-only tracking with sea trial sonar data from multiple asynchronous sonobuoys

In this report, we address practical issues associated with tracking a single non-manoeuvering target using bearings-only data. In particular, we investigate the performance of various tracking algorithms and techniques by processing real trial data obtained from a field of sonobuoys. Difficulties using conventional modelling assumptions are illustrated. The primary aim is to understand the performance of existing tracking algorithms when applied to sea trial sonar data and to illustrate potential performance improvements with algorithm enhancements.
A Planning Approach to Active Visual Search in Large Environments

In this paper we present a principled planner based approach to the active visual object search problem in unknown environments. We make use of a hierarchical planner that combines the strength of decision theory and heuristics. Furthermore, our object search approach leverages on the conceptual spatial knowledge in the form of object co-occurrences and semantic place categorisation. A hierarchical model for representing object locations is presented with which the planner is able to perform indirect search. Finally we present real world experiments to show the feasibility of the approach.
Using the UML language to express the ODP enterprise concepts

Specification is not a gimmick; it is a real discipline that offers many advantages to software developers. It is helpful for building, managing and describing applications. Specification standards are now available, such as the OMG (Object Management Group) adoption of the UML (Unified Modelling Language) notation and the RM-ODP (Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing) standards developed by ISO (International Standardisation Organisation) and ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Sector). However, these standards are totally independent, even though they deal with the same topic. In order to conciliate these two approaches, we propose a way to use the UML notation to express RM-ODP enterprise concepts.
Free radicals and phagocytic cells

Phagocytes mediate their innate immunological response by releasing products that damage invading microorganisms. These products include proteins such as lysozyme, peroxidases, and elastase as well as reactive oxygen species such as superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, hypohalous acid, and hydroxyl radical. Although it is clear that many phagocytic secretory products have direct cytotoxic potential, understanding is limited of how multiple products interact to generate and modulate the cytotoxic response. This review focuses on recent findings that elucidate the biochemical nature of secretory product interaction in the formation of free radicals, particularly the highly reactive hydroxyl radical. The possible role of these reactions in phagocyte microbicidal activity and inflammatory tissue injury is discussed. —Rosen, G. M. , Pou, S. , Ramos, C. L. , Cohen, M. S. , Britigan, B. E. Free radicals and phagocytic cells. FASEB J. 9, 200–209 (1995)
EXTENSIONS ON ADAPTIVE OUTPUT FEEDBACK CONTROL OF NONLINEAR DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS USING NEURAL NETWORKS Fabŕıcio

This paper reviews a recently developed adaptive output feedback control methodology using neural networks. It is shown how to remove the contraction mapping assumption used in the original paper and it is clarified the impact of this removal in the approximate model selection. Moreover, it is illustrated how to explore the previous information, available in the form of an approximate model, to improve the controlled system performance. Keywords— Output feedback, neural networks, adaptive control, input-output linearization. Resumo— Neste trabalho faz-se uma revisão de uma técnica recentemente desenvolvida de controle adaptativo utilizando realimentação de sáıda e redes neurais. É mostrado como se pode remover a suposição de mapeamento tipo contração utilizada no trabalho original, além de se esclarecer o impacto deste resultado na seleção de um modelo aproximado da planta. Ilustra-se também como se pode explorar a informação prévia dispońıvel, sob a forma de um modelo aproximado, na melhoria de desempenho do sistema controlado. Palavras-chave— Realimentação de sáıda, redes neurais, controle adaptativo, linearização entrada-sáıda.
Micromachined devices for wireless communications

An overview of recent progress in the research and development of micromachined devices for use in wireless communication subsystems is presented. Among the specific devices described are tunable micromachined capacitors, integrated high-Q inductors, micromachined low-loss microwave and millimeter-wave filters, low-loss micromechanical switches, microscale vibrating mechanical resonators with Q's in the tens of thousands, and miniature antennas for millimeter-wave applications. Specific applications are reviewed for each of these components with emphasis on methods for miniaturization and performance enhancement of existing and further wireless transceivers.
Hubble Space Telescope Studies of the WLM Galaxy. II. The Star Formation History from Field Stars

HST F555W and F814W photometry of a portion of the WLM galaxy is presented. The distance modulus is determined via fitting of the entire color-magnitude diagram to be (m-M)0 = 24.88 ± 0.09, which is consistent with the red giant branch tip distance. The galaxy's measurable star formation history appears to have begun no more than 12 Gyr ago, with about half of WLM's total star formation (by mass) formed before 9 Gyr ago. The star formation rate gradually decreased, until a recent increase in activity starting between 1 and 2.5 Gyr ago. This is still continuing to the present time and is concentrated in the bar of the galaxy, as shown by the difference in recent star formation rates in the three WF chips.
Software Reliability Engineering

Software-reliability engineering (SRE) stems from the needs of software users. The day-to-day operation of our society is increasingly more dependent on software-based systems and tolerance to failures of such systems is decreasing. Software engineering is not only expected to help deliver a software product of required functionality on time and within cost, it is also expected to help satisfy certain quality criteria. The most prominent one is reliability. SRE is the "applied science of predicting, measuring, and managing the reliability of software-based systems to maximize customer satisfaction" [Mus90, Lyu96.
CD4+ T Cell-Induced Differentiation of EBV-Transformed Lymphoblastoid Cells Is Associated with Diminished Recognition by EBV-Specific CD8+ Cytotoxic T Cells 1

EBV transformation of human B cells in vitro results in establishment of immortalized cell lines (lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL)) that express viral transformation-associated latent genes and exhibit a fixed, lymphoblastoid phenotype. In this report, we show that CD4+ T cells can modify the differentiation state of EBV-transformed LCL. Coculture of LCL with EBV-specific CD4+ T cells resulted in an altered phenotype, characterized by elevated CD38 expression and decreased proliferation rate. Relative to control LCL, the cocultured LCL were markedly less susceptible to lysis by EBV-specific CD8+ CTL. In contrast, CD4+ T cell-induced differentiation of LCL did not diminish sensitivity of LCL to lysis by CD8+ CTL specific for an exogenously loaded peptide Ag or lysis by alloreactive CD8+ CTL, suggesting that differentiation is not associated with intrinsic resistance to CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity and that evasion of lysis is confined to EBV-specific CTL responses. CD4+ T cell-induced differentiation of LCL and concomitant resistance of LCL to lysis by EBV-specific CD8+ CTL were associated with reduced expression of viral latent genes. Finally, transwell cocultures, in which direct LCL-CD4+ T cell contact was prevented, indicated a major role for CD4+ T cell cytokines in the differentiation of LCL.
A simple yet accurate correction for winner's curse can predict signals discovered in much larger genome scans

Motivation: For genetic studies, statistically significant variants explain far less trait variance than ‘sub-threshold’ association signals. To dimension follow-up studies, researchers need to accurately estimate ‘true’ effect sizes at each SNP, e.g. the true mean of odds ratios (ORs)/regression coefficients (RRs) or Z-score noncentralities. Naïve estimates of effect sizes incur winner’s curse biases, which are reduced only by laborious winner’s curse adjustments (WCAs). Given that Z-scores estimates can be theoretically translated on other scales, we propose a simple method to compute WCA for Z-scores, i.e. their true means/noncentralities. Results:WCA of Z-scores shrinks these towards zero while, on P-value scale, multiple testing adjustment (MTA) shrinks P-values toward one, which corresponds to the zero Z-score value. Thus, WCA on Z-scores scale is a proxy for MTA on P-value scale. Therefore, to estimate Z-score noncentralities for all SNPs in genome scans, we propose FDR Inverse Quantile Transformation (FIQT). It (i) performs the simpler MTA of P-values using FDR and (ii) obtains noncentralities by back-transforming MTA P-values on Z-score scale. When compared to competitors, realistic simulations suggest that FIQT is more (i) accurate and (ii) computationally efficient by orders of magnitude. Practical application of FIQT to Psychiatric Genetic Consortium schizophrenia cohort predicts a non-trivial fraction of sub-threshold signals which become significant in much larger supersamples. Conclusions: FIQT is a simple, yet accurate, WCA method for Z-scores (and ORs/RRs, via simple transformations). Availability and Implementation: A 10 lines R function implementation is available at https://github.com/bacanusa/FIQT. Contact: sabacanu@vcu.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
FISCAL INEQUITY AND TAX EVASION: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH

This paper seeks to examine the relationship between fiscal inequity and tax evasion using an experimental approach. In the experiment, human subjects are faced with hypothetical tax evasion decisions and their behavior is observed. On the basis of socio-psychological research on inequity, it is hypothesized that the amount of taxes evaded will increase for victims of fiscal inequity but decrease for beneficiaries of fiscal inequity. The results of the experiment support this hypothesis.
Multiplexer based Design for Ternary Logic Circuits

Three valued logic which is also called as a ternary logic is a best alternative to conventional binary logic. Ternary logic has got its own importance due to its energy efficiency resulting from reduced complexity of interconnect and chip area. This paper presents a methodology for the design of ternary multiplexer circuit and also the design of ternary logic circuits based on CMOS. Designing of ternary multiplexer is presented first. Later the proposed methodology for the design of ternary logic circuits is presented. This proposed design methodology is used to implement 1-bit half adder circuit using SPICE model. These new proposed implementations are compared with the old existing designs for the parameters like delay, power, number of transistors, power delay product etc. Simulation results indicate that the mux based 1-bit half adder design has reduced number of transistors, delay and power delay product when compared to the existing binary logic design.
Visualizing Object-oriented Software for Understanding and Documentation

Understanding or comprehending source code is one of the core activities of software engineering. Understanding object-oriented source code is essential and required when a programmer maintains, migrates, reuses, documents or enhances source code. The source code that is not comprehended cannot be changed. The comprehension of object-oriented source code is a difficult problem solving process. In order to document object-oriented software system there are needs to understand its source code. To do so, it is necessary to mine source code dependencies in addition to quantitative information in source code such as the number of classes. This paper proposes an automatic approach, which aims to document object-oriented software by visualizing its source code. The design of the object-oriented source code and its main characteristics are represented in the visualization. Package content, class information, relationships between classes, dependencies between methods and software metrics is displayed. The extracted views are very helpful to understand and document the object-oriented software. The novelty of this approach is the exploiting of code dependencies and quantitative information in source code to document object-oriented software efficiently by means of a set of graphs. To validate the approach, it has been applied to several case studies. The results of this evaluation showed that most of the object-oriented software systems have been documented correctly.
Exploring the Organizational Effects of Mobile Business Process Reengineering

Superior IT business value from mobile and ubiquitous technology can be achieved when enterprises apply Mobile Business Process Reengineering (M-BPR) to optimize their business processes beyond given structures. In this contribution, we use case study research to examine organizational and process changes through M-BPR along with the resulting benefits. The outcome of the paper is a set of five hypotheses on the typical organizational effects of M-BPR. They can be used by enterprises as a reference for their own M-BPR initiative and by researchers to further explore the specific IT business value attainable through M-BPR and serve as a starting point for a business transformation model of mobile-integrated business processes.
The role of interlayer adhesion in graphene oxide upon its reinforcement of nanocomposites

Graphene oxide (GO) has become a well-established reinforcement for polymer-based nanocomposites. It provides stronger interfacial interaction with the matrix when compared with that of graphene, but its intrinsic stiffness and strength are somewhat compromised because of the presence of functional groups damaging the graphene lattice and increasing its thickness, and its tendency to adopt a crumpled structure. Although the micromechanics of graphene reinforcement in nanocomposites has been studied widely, the corresponding micromechanics investigations on GO have not been undertaken in such detail. In this work, it is shown that the deformation micromechanics of GO can be followed using Raman spectroscopy and the observed behaviour can be analysed with continuum mechanics. Furthermore, it is shown that the reinforcement efficiency of GO is independent of its number of layers and stacking configurations, indicating that it is not necessary to ensure a high degree of exfoliation of GO in the polymer matrix. It also demonstrates the possibility of increasing the concentration of GO in nanocomposites without sacrificing mechanical reinforcement efficiency. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Multiscale modelling of the structural integrity of composite materials’.
On the Relevance of Spectral Features for Instrument Classification

Automatic knowledge extraction from music signals is a key component for most music organization and music information retrieval systems. In this paper, we consider the problem of instrument modelling and instrument classification from the rough audio data. Existing systems for automatic instrument classification operate normally on a relatively large number of features, from which those related to the spectrum of the audio signal are particularly relevant. In this paper, we confront two different models about the spectral characterization of musical instruments. The first assumes a constant envelope of the spectrum (i.e., independent from the pitch), whereas the second assumes a constant relation among the amplitude of the harmonics. The first model is related to the Mel frequency cepstrum coefficients (MFCCs), while the second leads to what we will refer to as harmonic representation (HR). Experiments on a large database of real instrument recordings show that the first model offers a more satisfactory characterization, and therefore MFCCs should be preferred to HR for instrument modelling/classification.