Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simulated Annealing Based Femtocell Power Control in Heterogeneous LTE Networks

In two-layer heterogeneous femtocell LTE networks co-channel interference is a limiting factor for the overall system performance. Since both femtocell and macrocell users share the same frequency spectrum, there exists a co-channel interference in the downlink direction. In this study, a power management scheme for macrocells and femtocells in a heterogeneous network, based on simulated annealing optimization algorithm, is employed to adjust the transmission power of the femtocell base stations to mitigate the cochannel interference. The algorithm tries to maximize the signal-tointerference plus noise ratio of the users while minimizing the transmission power of the femtocell base stations. The simulation results show that any noticeable signal-to-interference plus noise ratio doesn’t occur for femtocell users while reducing the femtocell average power consumption dramatically. Besides, the signal-tointerference plus noise ratio for macrocell users is improved though. Thus, simulated annealing based power management is an effective solution to mitigate the co-channel interference for both the femtocell users and macrocell users in a heterogeneous Long Term Evolution network. Keywords—femtocell, heterogeneous, interference, LTE, power control, optimization, simulated annealing.
Magnetic enrichment of bronchial epithelial cells from sputum for lung cancer diagnosis

Sputum is an easily accessible diagnostic material for lung cancer early detection by cytologic and molecular genetic analysis of exfoliated airway epithelial cells. However, the use of sputum is limited by its cellular heterogeneity, which includes >95% macrophages and neutrophils and only about 1% bronchial epithelial cells. We propose to obtain concentrated and purified bronchial epithelial cells to improve early detection of lung cancer in sputum samples.
Innovation and Internationalization as a Single Strategy of the Firm: A Unification of Theories

Recently, innovation and internationalization strategies have explained firm success. Some authors argue that innovation settles internationalization while some others point that internationalization settles the firmâ€™s innovation level. This work unifies these theories, arguing that both are a single strategy of the firm. We also argue that both theories are founded in the same set of variables like technological capabilities, technology investment, alliances and firm decision structure. Tests are based on correlation and regression analysis. We demonstrate the existence of a relationship between innovation and internationalization that canâ€™t be explained by separating them into separate theories.
Demand for Audit Quality: The Case of Laventhol and Horwath's Auditees

This study investigates the demand for audit quality for the firms being audited by Laventhol and Horwath (LH) at the time LH declared bankruptcy. The demand for audit quality by the former LH clients is inferred from their decisions to select Big Six or non–Big Six auditors. Because the change in auditors was involuntary, the sample avoids self-selection issues associated with voluntary auditor switches. LH clients that selected Big Six auditors tended to be more highly leveraged, have less management ownership, and issue more securities in the year after selecting the new auditor than LH clients that selected non–Big Six auditors.
Recent advances in the management of osteosarcoma and forthcoming therapeutic strategies

Osteosarcoma is the most frequent primary bone tumor and occurs mainly in young patients (average age: 18 years). No evolution of the survival rates has been recorded for two decades in response to current treatment, associating often toxic and badly tolerated cures of chemotherapy (given a significant rate of bad responders) with preserving surgery. Among the proposed innovative strategies, immune-based therapy, antiangiogenesis agents, tumor-suppressor or suicide gene therapy, or anticancer drugs not commonly used in osteosarcoma are presented. A further strategy is to target the tumor microenvironment rather than the tumor itself.
Absenteeism due to Functional Limitations Caused by Seven Common Chronic Diseases in US Workers

Objective: The study examined the relationship between functional limitation due to chronic diseases and absenteeism among full-time workers. The studied chronic diseases include arthritis/rheumatism, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, lung disease, and stroke. Methods: We analyzed data from the 2011 to 2013 National Health Interview Survey. Economic impact was determined by workdays lost and lost income. Results: Increase in absenteeism was observed for each studied condition. Employees with multiple conditions also saw increase absenteeism. Employers lose 28.2 million workdays annually ($4.95 billion in lost income) due to functional limitation caused by chronic diseases. Conclusions: The results show a burden on society due to functional limitation caused by studied chronic diseases. Employers should look into implementing intervention/prevention programs, such as the Chronic Disease Self-Management Programs, to help reduce the cost associated with absenteeism.
Environmental Inspections and Emissions of the Pulp and Paper Industry in Quebec

Abstract Although it has long been recognized that monitoring and enforcement problems are an important pitfall of environmental regulation, little empirical work has been done on the impact of current monitoring strategies on pollution emissions. The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of inspections on the self-reported emissions levels of plants in the pulp and paper industry in Quebec. It extends in numerous ways the empirical framework developed by Magat and Viscusi ( J. Law. Econom. 33 , 331–360 (1990)), who analyzed the impact of inspections in the American pulp and paper industry. In particular, our results suggest that both inspections and the threat of an inspection have a strong negative impact on pollution emissions. Furthermore, we find that inspections also induce more frequent self-reporting from the industry.
Trade Credit and Credit Rationing

Asymmetric information between banks and firms can preclude financing of valuable projects. Trade credit alleviates this problem by incorporating in the lending relation the private information held by suppliers about their customers. Incentive compatibility conditions prevent collusion between two of the agents (e.g., the buyer and the seller) against the third (e.g., the bank). Consistent with the empirical findings of Petersen and Rajan (1995), firms without relationships with banks resort more to trade credit, and sellers with greater ability to generate cash lows provide more trade credit. Finally, small firms react to monetary contractions by using trade credit, consistent with the empirical results of Nilsen (1994). Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.
Proactive supply risk management methods for building a robust supply selection process when sourcing from emerging markets

Purpose – This paper aims to identify proactive supply risk management methods which can be used to reduce or remove risk sources during the supplier selection process, in the context of Western‐based manufacturing companies that source from emerging markets.Design/methodology/approach – Learning from the literature and conducting multiple‐case study analyses of five Western‐based manufacturing companies' sourcing experiences from emerging markets.Findings – The experiences of five Western‐based manufacturing companies suggested that applying the risk management process into supplier selection was particularly important and effective for supply risk reduction when sourcing from emerging markets. Supply risk sources must be identified and proactive supply risk management methods must be used to remove or reduce risk sources for effective supply risk management. The proactive risk management methods discovered in this research are: conducting a supplier questionnaire covering a wide range of business dimens.
The analysis of professional sports leagues as joint ventures.

This paper addresses whether the welfare analysis of the agreements and rules of a professional sports league should depend on the organisational form chosen by the league's participants. Courts have analysed sports leagues both as associations of horizontal competitors and as single entities. The former approach suggests much less tolerance for rules that affect competition. Drawing on the distinction between ex ante and ex post competition that has been found useful in the economic analysis of intellectual property rights, the authors suggest a middle road in the horizontal competitors versus single entity characterisations of professional sports leagues.
Real Exchange Rate Risk, Expectations, and the Level of Direct Investment

Four models of direct investment are analyzed assuming various relationships between foreign and domestic production. The direct effect of risk-adjusted expected real foreign currency appreciation is to lower foreign capital cost, thus stimulating direct investment. However, when costs of other inputs are also affected, induced productivity changes or output price changes may offset the direct effect, reducing direct investment. Pooled estimation results for U.S. annual, bilateral direct investment flows to five industrialized countries show significant reductions associated with expected appreciation of real foreign currency and significant increases associated with risk. These results are consistent with the model where, in response to risk, the multinational firm reduces exports to the foreign country but offsets this somewhat by increasing foreign capital input and production.
Current practices in generation of small molecule new leads

The current drug discovery processes in many pharmaceutical companies require large and growing collections of high quality lead structures for use in high throughput screening assays. Collections of small molecules with diverse structures and “drug‐like” properties have, in the past, been acquired by several means: by archive of previous internal lead optimization efforts, by purchase from compound vendors, and by union of separate collections following company mergers. More recently, many drug discovery companies have established dedicated efforts to effect synthesis by internal and/or outsourcing efforts of targeted compound libraries for new lead generation. Although high throughput/combinatorial chemistry is an important component in the process of new lead generation, the selection of library designs for synthesis and the subsequent design of library members has evolved to a new level of challenge and importance. The potential benefits of screening multiple small molecule compound library designs against multiple biological targets offers substantial opportunity to discover new lead structures. Subsequent optimization of such compounds is often accelerated because of the structure‐activity relationship (SAR) information encoded in these lead generation libraries. Lead optimization is often facilitated due to the ready applicability of high‐throughput chemistry (HTC) methods for follow‐up synthesis. Some of the strategies, trends, and critical issues central to the success of lead generation processes are discussed below. J. Cell. Biochem. Suppl. 37: 13–21, 2001. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Work in progress: A new concept mapping approach in an introductory engineering course: Correlation between students' conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills

This paper presents a new concept mapping approach, called “Tree of Dynamics,” to enhance students' perception (intuitive cognition) of the relationships among fundamental concepts in an introductory engineering dynamics course. In this approach, the relationships among concepts are represented by tree structures including roots, trunks, branches, leaves, and fruits, rather than by using linking words or phrases. A total of 76 engineering undergraduates participated in this work-in-progress study. Statistical analysis showed that moderate correlation (r = 0.309, p <; 0.05) existed between students' “tree” scores and exam scores. This research finding implies that the new “Tree of Dynamics” approach not only helps identify students' misconceptions, but also provides a useful tool to help assess students' problem-solving skills in the introductory engineering course.
The Power of Vertex Sparsifiers in Dynamic Graph Algorithms

We introduce a new algorithmic framework for designing dynamic graph algorithms in minor-free graphs, by exploiting the structure of such graphs and a tool called vertex sparsification, which is a way to compress large graphs into small ones that well preserve relevant properties among a subset of vertices and has previously mainly been used in the design of approximation algorithms. Using this framework, we obtain a Monte Carlo randomized fully dynamic algorithm for $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximating the energy of electrical flows in $n$-vertex planar graphs with $\tilde{O}(r\varepsilon^{-2})$ worst-case update time and $\tilde{O}((r+\frac{n}{\sqrt{r}})\varepsilon^{-2})$ worst-case query time, for any $r$ larger than some constant. For $r=n^{2/3}$, this gives $\tilde{O}(n^{2/3}\varepsilon^{-2})$ update time and $\tilde{O}(n^{2/3}\varepsilon^{-2})$ query time. We also extend this algorithm to work for minor-free graphs with similar approximation and running time guarantees. Furthermore, we illustrate our framework on the all-pairs max flow and shortest path problems by giving corresponding dynamic algorithms in minor-free graphs with both sublinear update and query times. To the best of our knowledge, our results are the first to systematically establish such a connection between dynamic graph algorithms and vertex sparsification. We also present both upper bound and lower bound for maintaining the energy of electrical flows in the incremental subgraph model, where updates consist of only vertex activations, which might be of independent interest.
Fostering a “Feeling of Worth” Among Vulnerable HIV Populations: The Role of Linkage to Care Specialists

&NA; To address barriers to adequate engagement in medical care among people living with HIV, Wisconsin's AIDS/HIV Program created a new position, the Linkage to Care (LTC) Specialist. Specialists provide intensive, short‐term case management and patient navigation services for small caseloads of individuals at high risk of disengaging with medical care. Clients are eligible if they are newly diagnosed with HIV or new to medical care, recently released from incarceration, recently out of care, nonadherent to scheduled medical care visits, or have detectable viral load while in care. Interviews with 30 clients of Specialists were conducted to understand experiences with the program and medical care. Common themes included the ability of Specialists to navigate complex systems of care and support services, the unique role Specialists played in their clients’ lives, and the challenges of transitioning out of the program. Although the primary goal of Specialists is to address barriers to medical care, they often adopted a holistic approach that also included housing, financial assistance, and other social determinants of health. Descriptions of the Specialist's role in implementation manuals focus on their functional roles and the services provided. However, clients often discussed the emotional support they received, especially for clients without strong social support networks. Many clients also desired an ongoing relationship with their Specialists even after discharge, but had been able to establish independence and selfefficacy. The LTC Specialists are resource‐intensive considering their small caseloads, but fill an important gap in existing, often overtaxed case management systems.
A BROADBAND X-RAY SPECTRAL STUDY OF THE INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLE CANDIDATE M82 X-1 WITH NuSTAR, CHANDRA, AND SWIFT

M82 X-1 is one of the brightest ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) known, which, assuming Eddington-limited accretion and other considerations, makes it one of the best intermediate-mass black-hole (IMBH) candidates. However, the ULX may still be explained by super-Eddington accretion onto a stellar remnant black hole. We present simultaneous NuSTAR, Chandra, and Swift/XRT observations during the peak of a flaring episode with the aim of modeling the emission of M82 X-1 and yielding insights into its nature. We find that thin accretion disk models all require accretion rates at or above the Eddington limit in order to reproduce the spectral shape, given a range of black-hole masses and spins. Since at these high Eddington ratios the thin-disk model breaks down due to radial advection in the disk, we discard the results of the thin-disk models as unphysical. We find that the temperature profile as a function of disk radius ( ) is significantly flatter ( ) than expected for a standard thin disk (p = 0.75). A flatter profile is instead characteristic of a slim disk, which is highly suggestive of super-Eddington accretion. Furthermore, radiation hydrodynamical simulations of super-Eddington accretion have shown that the predicted spectra of these systems are very similar to what we observe for M82 X-1. We therefore conclude that M82 X-1 is a super-Eddington accretor. Our mass estimates inferred from the inner disk radius imply a stellar remnant black hole ( = M⊙) when assuming zero spin and face-on inclination, or an IMBH for maximal spin and a highly inclined disk.
A Simplified Jump Process for Common Stock Returns

The specification of a statistical distribution which accurately models the behavior of stock returns continues to be a salient issue in financial economics. With the introduction of arithmetic and geometric Brownian motion models, much attention has recently focused on a Poisson mixture of distributions as an appropriate specification of stock returns. For example, see [12], [3], [8], [10], [5], and [1]. Consistent with empirical evidence, these models yield leptokurtic security return distributions and, furthermore, the specification has much economic intuition. In particular, one may always decompose the total change in stock price into “normal” and “abnormal” components. The “normal” change may be due to variation in capitalization rates, a temporary imbalance between supply and demand, or the receipt of any other information which causes marginal price changes. This component is modelled as a lognormal diffusion process. The “abnormal” change is due to the receipt of any information which causes a more than marginal change in the price of the stock and is usually modeled as a Poisson process.
High-Performance Implementation of Point Multiplication on Koblitz Curves

Fast and high-performance computation of finite-field arithmetic is crucial for elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) over binary extension fields. In this brief, we propose a highly parallel scheme to speed up the point multiplication for high-speed hardware implementation of ECC cryptoprocessor on Koblitz curves. We slightly modify the addition formulation in order to employ four parallel finite-field multipliers in the data flow. This reduces the latency of performing point addition and speeds up the overall point multiplication. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed data flow of point addition has the lowest latency in comparison to the counterparts available in the literature. To make the cryptoprocessor more efficient, we employ a low-complexity and efficient digit-level Gaussian normal basis multiplier to perform lower level finite-field multiplications. Finally, we have implemented our proposed architecture for point multiplication on an Altera Stratix II field-programmable gate array and obtained the results of timing and area.
Climate change governance: enhancing local authorities’adaptive capacity

Climate change is a wicked problem that threatens our way of life through environmental changes and governance challenges. Reducing vulnerability requires actions by all formal government structures and society. While much is known about local governance challenges internationally, information has been lacking about the Irish context. Little work has been done concerning how climate change will affect Irish local authorities, how advanced their preparations are, and factors affecting their progress. This is the first comprehensive study in Ireland on climate change governance framed at the city and county level. This research evaluates climate change implications for Irish local authorities and explores ways to enhance their adaptive capacity. This is done through a multi-faceted approach. Climate change exposures were evaluated and ranked through an analysis of local policy documents such as the City and County Development Plans and Climate Change Strategies. An assessment of sectors under local authorities' remit, such as flooding, landslides, water supply, biodiversity and coastal management, was completed for each jurisdiction. The potential for enhancing adaptive capacity was explored through two nationwide surveys involving all 34 planning authorities. Case studies with four local authorities were completed to provide greater insight into the approach of local authorities to prepare for climate change. Seven higher level interviews were conducted with senior officials in two regional authorities and national officials of the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government to explore the links between central government policies and local government implementation. The research findings highlight the importance of considering governance factors. While challenges for exposures and capacities were greater for some local authorities than others, local authorities were more challenged by governance aspects than climate change per se. It is concluded that an integrated approach is needed that links together local expertise and innovation with strategic guidance from central government. The findings identified a pathway for local and national governments to effectively co-operate in addressing climate change adaptation. Without this, preparations for climate change and understanding of climate change governance will leave society unprepared for the upcoming challenges related to climate change and general environmental issues.
Climate Change and Asia’s Coastal Urban Cities

The scientific literature has documented the growing risks of flooding posed for Asia’s coastal cities by the combination of climate change, as reflected in sea level rise and intensified storms and storm surges, and ongoing urban growth in low-lying coastal zones. These issues were already elaborated in the 2007 IPCC (IPCC, 2007) reports but recent studies indicate that climate change, sea level rise and the sinking of the deltas on which most Asian mega urban regions have arisen, are all occurring at much faster rates than earlier projected and therefore pose even greater risks than previously indicated. Global warming appears to be accelerating and may increase to 4° C or more by the end of this century, twice the earlier IPCC projections. The sea level is now expected to rise by one meter or more by 2100; two or three times the earlier projections. The recent typhoons and rains striking Southeast Asia have been the most intense in decades as would be expected as a result of global warming. At the same time, Asia’s urban population is increasing at the rate of 140,000 per day, with much of this growth occurring in low-lying coastal regions and on deltas characterized by land subsidence that is further contributing to flooding risks. While these risks and vulnerabilities have been increasingly detailed in the scientific literature, recognition and effective responses on the part of the urban planning and policy community have been slow to develop. Barriers to adaptation, policy formation and response are reviewed and possible steps forward are outlined.