Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ASEO: A Method for the Simultaneous Estimation of Single-Trial Event-Related Potentials and Ongoing Brain Activities

Cognitive functions are often studied by recording electric potentials from the brain over repeated presentations of a sensory stimulus or repeated performance of a motor action. Each repetition is called a trial. Recent work has demonstrated that contrary to the traditional view, the event-related potential (ERP) can vary from trial to trial and the background ongoing activity often contains rich information about the cognitive state of the brain. Based on such a variable signal plus ongoing activity model, an iterative parameter estimation method is proposed in which both the single-trial parameters of the ERP and the autoregressive representation of the ongoing activity are obtained simultaneously. This technique, referred to as the analysis of single-trial ERP and ongoing activities method, is first tested on simulation examples, and then applied to the local field potential recordings from monkeys performing a visuomotor task.
Multivariate Heteroscedasticity Models for Functional Brain Connectivity

Functional brain connectivity is the co-occurrence of brain activity in different areas during resting and while doing tasks. The data of interest are multivariate timeseries measured simultaneously across brain parcels using resting-state fMRI (rfMRI). We analyze functional connectivity using two heteroscedasticity models. Our first model is low-dimensional and scales linearly in the number of brain parcels. Our second model scales quadratically. We apply both models to data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) comparing connectivity between short and conventional sleepers. We find stronger functional connectivity in short than conventional sleepers in brain areas consistent with previous findings. This might be due to subjects falling asleep in the scanner. Consequently, we recommend the inclusion of average sleep duration as a covariate to remove unwanted variation in rfMRI studies. A power analysis using the HCP data shows that a sample size of 40 detects 50% of the connectivity at a false discovery rate of 20%. We provide implementations using R and the probabilistic programming language Stan.
A Theoretical Analysis of the Audit Committee's Role in China

This paper aims to analyze the role of the Audit Committee (AC) in China by employing the following theoretical frameworks: managerial hegemony theory to examine whether ACs in China serve as a mere “rubber stamp”; the origin of agency theory to determine whether ACs are supported by the separation of ownership and control to act as overseers and supervisors; and to use resource dependence theory to assess whether ACs provide added value by acting as consultants and trainers in China. Telephone interviews surveying 330 listed companies in China yielded 61 interviews, and the research results reveal that the AC’s role supports both the resource dependency and agency theories but conflicts with managerial hegemony theory.
SOME EVIDENCE ON MEAN REVERSION IN EX ANTE REAL INTEREST RATES

Ex ante real interest rates and their differentials are tested for mean reversion using quarterly data on three-month treasury bill rates and consumer prices for twelve major industrial countries over the period 1972:1-1993:3. The results are strongly supportive of mean reversion, particularly when less conventional tests are employed. The conclusion that can be derived from the empirical evidence is that goods, capital, and foreign exchange markets have become highly integrated in the countries under consideration. Copyright 1996 by Scottish Economic Society.
A STAKEHOLDER-BASED APPROACH TO CROSS-POLICY PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF PROMOTION EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS

In recent years, the government has endorsed wage subsidies as a policy instrument to deal with this country? s diverse unemployment since financial crisis of 2007. The major purpose of this paper is to compare implementation process and effectiveness of four selected promotion employment policies from the stakeholder approach. The research considers Diverse Employment Project, Instant Employment Plan, Workplace Experience for Youth, and Promotion of Employment through Improving Quality Human Project as cross-policy research targets. Those programs are characterized as types of wage subsidies policy to raise employment levels. This paper conducts a telephone survey to obtain insights into wage subsidy design and implementation issues. The research argues that although wage subsidies may be successful at creating jobs, they should not be seen as the primary or dominant policy instrument for dealing with the broader unemployment problem. The research also finds that grant standards are inconsistent with the each other; it shows trade-off and competition among the programs. To enhance the effectiveness of wage subsidies, they should preferably be linked to structured workplace training, be targeted to industries where employment will be responsive to changes in labor costs, and be focused on the unemployment. The research suggests that the relevant authorities review and improve existing administrative operations of those programs, the contents of streamlining processes and operations to reduce administrative procedure pressure.
Direct Torque Control optimization with loss minimization of induction motor

Due to their robustness, reliability, low price and maintenance free, induction motors are widely used in industrial applications. Generally, the impact of energy consumption in total input cost is significant. So, improving efficiency in electric drives using such motors is important and control strategy for minimum energy loss, as one of optimal operation strategies, can help to reach this goal. Different schemes for efficiency optimization of an induction motor drive controlled through the field oriented method were developed for steady state operation. This paper proposes an alternative to the classical techniques of Loss Model Controller by using Optimal Direct Torque Control of induction machine fed by three-phase inverter. In this approach, the main advantages of the direct torque control are combined to those of the optimal control with loss minimization. Numerical simulation results compared to measurements show good agreement and dynamic performances of the proposed method.
Emerging and Reemerging Influenza Virus Infections

Influenza A virus infection occurs in many species. Wild waterfowl harbor the widest variety of influenza A viruses and serve as a constant reservoir for the emergence of new viruses. Highly pathogenic avian influenza, or “fowl plague,” has been a known poultry disease for more than 130 years. It continues to emerge and reemerge, but global changes in trade and poultry production have expanded the impact and geographic range of these outbreaks. One subtype of highly pathogenic avian influenza, H5N1, has infected poultry on several continents as well as many people, leading to a human disease that is markedly different from seasonal influenza and that is associated with high mortality.
The natural progression of peanut allergy: Resolution and the possibility of recurrence.

BACKGROUND It was once thought that peanut allergy is a lifelong problem. We previously reported that about 20% of children outgrow their peanut allergy and that more than 60% of patients with a peanut-IgE level of 5 or less passed an oral challenge. OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to further describe the natural progression of peanut allergy by reviewing patients who have undergone oral peanut challenges since the previous study. METHODS Patients with peanut-IgE levels of 5 or less were offered a peanut challenge. Those who passed were further evaluated by questionnaire to assess reintroduction of peanut into their diet and whether any recurrence has occurred. RESULTS Eighty-four patients were evaluated, and 80 underwent complete analysis. Fifty-five percent with peanut-IgE levels of 5 or less and 63% with peanut-IgE levels of 2 or less passed challenges, compared to 61% and 67%, respectively, in our previous study. The 4 additional patients passed peanut challenges in this study after previously failing. Three patients with initial anaphylactic reactions and 2 patients with initial peanut-IgE levels greater than 70 passed their challenge. Follow-up of those who passed in both studies showed that the majority of patients reintroduced peanut into their diet, but that continued label reading, infrequent/limited ingestion, and aversion to peanut were all common in this population. Two patients had suspected subsequent reactions to peanut after passing their challenge. CONCLUSIONS Patients with a history of peanut allergy and peanut-IgE levels of 5 or less have at least a 50% chance of outgrowing their allergy. Recurrence of peanut allergy may occur but appears to be uncommon.
The Role of Education and Human Capital in Economic Development: An Empirical Assessment

Estimates of aggregate production functions from intercountry data have strengthened speculations that human capital is an important determinant of modern economic growth and a critical factor in explaining the convergence in growth across countries. For this macro literature to shed more empirical light on the growth contribution of education and other forms of human capital, measures of the stock of human capital must be improved and disaggregated. In particular, connections between diet, disease, height, stature and labor productivity imply that aggregate growth theories should seek to incorporate health, as well as education. Micro economic studies of individual wage differentials derived from household surveys are available from many low income countries. A host of difficult to resolve econometric problems cloud the interpretation of the partial association between the logarithm of wage rates and the years of education a worker has obtained. Nonetheless, this association between wage productivity and schooling provides a useful, if imperfect, estimate of private returns. Policymakers should take account of wage differentials by level of education as both an indicator of private payoff to educational investments in a national labor market and a criterion in setting public priorities to foster development and often to promote a more equal distribution of personal income.
Real per capita GNP of USA: examination of the presence of a unit root via overdifferencing

This letter examines the first difference of the logarithm of real per capita GNP of the USA (approximately growth rate) to see whether it possesses a moving average unit root (overdifferencing). The presence of such a moving average unit root implies that the logarithm of real per capita GNP of the USA has no unit root.
Knowledge flows in international business: a JIBS citation analysis

Purpose – As an interdisciplinary, integrative field, international business exchanges knowledge with other academic areas. The inflow of theories, models, constructs and empirical findings infuses the field's theoretical and methodological base, while outflow represents impact on other academic areas. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the knowledge flows into and from international business, using journal citation counts as the primary indicator.Design/methodology/approach – Following Salancik, the paper opted to use an index of structural influence over the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) impact factor, focusing on the sub‐area of management. It analyzed cross‐citations between the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) and a group of the leading management journals over a 13‐year period.Findings – Using cross citations method, JIBS was found to be a net importer, especially from strategy; however in the most recent period the journal has become a net knowledge exporter.Research.
Cross-National Privacy Concerns on Data Collection by Government Agencies (Short Paper)

We conducted an online survey with 366 participants from Canada, India, the UK, and the US to compare privacy concerns and opinions about the collection of personal data by law enforcement and government agencies. We investigated what data participants were willing to share, in what circumstances participants were willing to allow data collection, what procedures companies should follow when they receive requests for customer information, and participants' general concern about their privacy. Statistical analysis showed that nationality and gender had significant impacts on participants' trust and perceptions of their governments, while nationality also impacted participants' willingness to share data under various circumstances. While participants were, on the whole, moderately amendable to data collection by government agencies given a court-ordered warrant, they also indicated a strong desire for increased transparency, and reported a lacklustre knowledge about privacy legislation.
Dubanton's and Wait's Approximations of the Earth Return Impedance Used for Evaluating Transmission-Line Wave Propagation Parameters

In this letter, a new theoretical support of the well-known Dubanton's approximation widely used in the evaluation of the earth return impedance of transmission lines is provided. For that purpose, the electromagnetic-wave theory of guided cylindrical waves along an axial conductor inside a circular tunnel, developed by J. Wait, is utilized, considering that the tunnel radius is very large and that only the fundamental quasi-transverse electric-magnetic mode propagates.
The Role of Geography in Financial and Economic Integration: A Comparative Analysis of Foreign Direct Investment, Trade and Portfolio Investment Flows

The objective of this paper is to examine the role of geography in explaining the patterns of financial and economic integration among both developed and developing countries. Using a gravity model, we compare North-North, North-South and South-North FDI, trade and portfolio investment flows to examine how geographical factors influence these bilateral flows. The results indicate that the impact of geography variables on FDI and portfolio are similar to their effect on trade. Geography variables have a statistically significant effect both on FDI and portfolio investment, but FDI is more sensitive to distance. We interpret the negative effect of distance as the existence of information costs in financial flows. Also bilateral FDI, trade and portfolio investment flows react to macroeconomic fundamentals in the same way, however, with different degrees of sensitivity. There are significant differences between North-North and North-South flows. Our results find support for the argument that most FDI among industrial countries are horizontal, whereas most FDI investment in developing countries is vertical. The fact that the significance of geographical variables on financial flows still remained even after controlling for the macroeconomic fundamentals, is in contrast with the standard capital market model. The results can, however, be reconciled if geographical factors can proxy for information costs, which may in turn explain why country portfolios are still home-biased. The significant effect of distance on financial flows may also explain how idiosyn cratic shocks are spread (i.e. contagion) to other countries in the same region. Ultimately, the geographical location of a country may determine its economic and financial integration into the world economy.
Effect of Flux Activators on the Solder Wettability of Solder Anisotropic Conductive Films

In this paper, a thermal acid generator was added as a flux activator in solder anisotropic conductive films (ACFs) to eliminate solder oxide resulting in stable solder wetting on metal pads. Since the native solder oxide causes poor wettability of the solder particles, solder oxide was chemically removed by the flux activator in solder ACFs. The test vehicles consisted of polyimide-based flexible printed circuits and FR-4 organic rigid printed circuit boards, which have 300-μm pitch Cu pads with electroless nickel immersion gold metal surface finish. The thickness of the solder incorporated ACFs were 50 μm and it consists of epoxy-based adhesive resin, 20 wt% of 5-15-μm diameter SAC305 (96.5Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu) solder particle, flux activator, and 5 wt% of 5-μm diameter Au-coated Ni particles, which act as a spacers to maintain a stable gap between metal pads. According to the experimental results, solder wettability improved significantly, as the amount of the flux activator increased in the solder ACFs due to solder oxide removal. As a result, the flux activator caused significant improvement of electrical properties of solder ACF joints, such as contact resistance, power handling capability, and reliability. Therefore, the flux activator added solder ACFs can provide an excellent interconnection method for high-power flex-on-board and flex-on-flex assemblies.
Correlation between cytological and histological grading of breast cancer and its role in prognosis

Context: Assigning grade to breast cancer on FNAC provides prognostic information and guides optimal therapy. Aims: The present study was undertaken to grade breast carcinoma on cytology by Robinson's grading system and correlate it with Elstons modified Bloom Richardson histological grading system. Settings and Design: It is a prospective study done on fifty cases of breast cancer reported on cytology. Materials and Methods: Fifty patients who underwent FNAC and mastectomy for breast carcinoma were cytologically and histologically graded. Correlation between cytological and histological grading system was determined. Sensitivity and specificity of Robinson's cytological grading system was calculated in each grade. All cases evaluated for presence of metastasis to axillary lymph nodes. Statistical Analysis Used: Correlation between cytological and histological grading was established using the non parametric Spearmanâ€™ s correlation coefficient. Results: Concordance rate between cytological and histological grade was 78%. The coefficient of correlation between cytological grade and histological grade was 0.804 and P value was <0.001 which indicated a strong correlation and significant association between the cytological and histological grade. Sensitivity was maximum in cytological grade I tumors (100%) and least in cytological grade III tumors (45.45%). Specificity was maximum in cytological grade III tumors (94.87%) and least in cytological grade II tumors (72.72%). The incidence of axillary lymph node metastasis was maximum in cytological grade III tumors and grade I tumors. Conclusions: Cytological grade strongly predicts histological grade and is useful in selecting neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
Designing Novel Queries for Analysing NoSQL Data of Gene-Disease Associations

To precisely identify gene associated diseases has been an open area of research for biological scientists to ensure clinical and psychological symptoms and treatment for human diseases. Because whole Human Genome is defined now it is the next step to find all necessary possible factors from such a complex data set that cause gene mutations and hence lead inherited and/or non-inherited diseases. So our research implementation combines all important factors from different biomolecular data sources to make one integrated data set and defines new relationships among these factors for gene associated disease/s that were not present in existing platforms. This paper presents a novel query model for NoSQL data storage that can help researchers to visualise relationships among gene factors and two new factors termed as “causative factors” and “drugs/treatment” for associated diseases. Since no data source applies graphical querying for gene associated diseases, our proposed novel cypher query model can help researchers to deeply analyse data set and get results in an efficient manner. The proposed query model writes novel cypher queries for this research domain on a graphical data model implemented in neo4j, which is a NoSQL (Not Only Structured) database. Use of NoSQL database and NoSQL query language has overcome certain limitations of relational databases, the existing data platforms had to cope up with. This paper gives a new suitable data storage format and effective data search queries for large, complex, semi-structured and multi-dimensional gene associated diseases data set to efficiently define new relationships among factors format to open new horizons of research.
Development of nested PCR assays for detection of bovine respiratory syncytial virus in clinical samples

Two nested PCR assays were developed for the detection of bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV). Primers were selected from the gene encoding the F fusion protein (PCR-F) and the gene encoding the G attachment protein (PCR-G). Biotinylated oligonucleotide probes, termed F and G, were selected for the hybridization of the respective PCR products. The sensitivities of the PCR-F and PCR-G assays were similar, both detecting 0.1 tissue culture infective dose of the virus. The PCR-F assay amplified all bovine strains and one human strain (RS32) tested. No cross-reactions were observed with nine heterologous respiratory viruses. PCR-F products of bovine and human RSV strains were discriminated by using endonuclease restriction enzyme ScaI, which specifically cleaved, products of BRSV. Oligonucleotide probe F was also specific for products of BRSV. The PCR-G assay detected all bovine strains and none of the human strains tested. A faint electrophoretic band was also observed with products of Sendai virus. However, probe G did not hybridize with this product, only with products of BRSV. Nasal swabs collected from cattle with no symptoms and cattle in the acute stage of respiratory disease were analyzed for BRSV by the immunofluorescence (IF) method and by the PCR-F and PCR-G assays. The virus was detected by the PCR assays in 31 of 35 (89%) samples tested. Only 23 samples (66%) were positive by the IF method, and these samples were also positive by both the PCR-F and PCR-G assays. The 31 samples detected as positive by PCR originated from cattle presenting clinical signs of acute respiratory disease; the four PCR-negative samples originated from clinically asymptomatic neighboring cattle. All sampled animals subsequently seroconverted and became reactive to BRSV. Thus, the detection of BRSV by PCR correlated with clinical observations and was considerably more sensitive (66 versus 89%) than IF. These results indicate that both nested PCR assays provide rapid and sensitive means for the detection of BRSV infection in cattle. Considering its higher specificity, the PCR-F assay can be recommended as the method of choice in the analysis of clinical specimens of BRSV.
AN ANALYSIS OF COUGH AT THE LEVEL OF THE LARYNX.

EVERY LAYMAN knows about cough, because he has experienced its distress. Every physician knows about cough, because he realizes its value for the protection and preservation of the lower respiratory passages. Only the scientist confesses ignorance, for he finds few precise experimental data about cough, particularly regarding its effect upon the laryngeal structures. The sound of a cough is characteristic and cannot be confused with speaking, singing, laughing, or other vocal manifestations. It seems reasonable to assume, therefore, that cough is associated with a specific pattern of vocal cord vibration and laryngeal behavior. However, these events transpire at such speeds that they cannot be visualized or measured with the usual diagnostic equipment of the clinician. As a result of his careful observations on human subjects and animals Negus 7 reached the conclusion that "cough in the human race . depends on closure of the ventricular bands, with raising of intrapulmonary pressure