Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Why do firms voluntarily comply with the Codes of Best Practice?

Enrique Fernández Rodríguez Silvia Gómez Ansón University of Oviedo Abstract: This paper attempts to analyze the determinants that affect compliance with voluntary Codes of Best Practice by firms when no mandatory disclosure is required. More precisely, it studies company characteristics that influence both the decision to comply and the decision to inform of such compliance with the Spanish Code of Best Practice, dubbed the Olivencia Code, by using a sample of firms listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange in the late 1990s. Firms with higher levels of free-float, larger companies and companies that have recently made public offerings are shown to be more willing to comply on both the above counts. Our results cast doubt on the effectiveness of self-enforceable Codes in the absence of a mandatory disclosure of corporate governance related information.
Unsteady aerodynamics of fluttering and tumbling plates 67

We investigate the aerodynamics of freely falling plates in a quasi-two-dimensional flow at Reynolds number of 10, which is typical for a leaf or business card falling in air. We quantify the trajectories experimentally using high-speed digital video at sufficient resolution to determine the instantaneous plate accelerations and thus to deduce the instantaneous fluid forces. We compare the measurements with direct numerical solutions of the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equation. Using inviscid theory as a guide, we decompose the fluid forces into contributions due to acceleration, translation, and rotation of the plate. For both fluttering and tumbling we find that the fluid circulation is dominated by a rotational term proportional to the angular velocity of the plate, as opposed to the translational velocity for a glider with fixed angle of attack. We find that the torque on a freely falling plate is small, i.e. the torque is one to two orders of magnitude smaller than the torque on a glider with fixed angle of attack. Based on these results we revise the existing ODE models of freely falling plates. We get access to different kinds of dynamics by exploring the phase diagram spanned by the Reynolds number, the dimensionless moment of inertia, and the thickness-to-width ratio. In agreement with previous experiments, we find fluttering, tumbling, and apparently chaotic motion. We further investigate the dependence on initial conditions and find brief transients followed by periodic fluttering described by simple harmonics and tumbling with a pronounced period-two structure. Near the cusp-like turning points, the plates elevate, a feature which would be absent if the lift depended on the translational velocity alone.
Networked Control System Design over a Wireless LAN

We analyze and implement a networked control system where the communication between the sensors, the controller, and the actuator takes place over a wireless LAN (802.11b) ad hoc system. The wireless LAN system introduces random delays and packet loss in the feedback loop. We present an extended version of the separation principle of Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control with both random delays and packet loss in the feedback loop. This paper is motivated by many of the implementation constraints encountered during the setup of an experimental NCS. We see from our experimental data that the optimal LQG controller that takes the delays and loss into account indeed performs better than traditional control methods.
Deciphering the Correlation between Breast Tumor Samples and Cell Lines by Integrating Copy Number Changes and Gene Expression Profiles

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers with high incident rate and high mortality rate worldwide. Although different breast cancer cell lines were widely used in laboratory investigations, accumulated evidences have indicated that genomic differences exist between cancer cell lines and tissue samples in the past decades. The abundant molecular profiles of cancer cell lines and tumor samples deposited in the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia and The Cancer Genome Atlas now allow a systematical comparison of the breast cancer cell lines with breast tumors. We depicted the genomic characteristics of breast primary tumors based on the copy number variation and gene expression profiles and the breast cancer cell lines were compared to different subgroups of breast tumors. We identified that some of the breast cancer cell lines show high correlation with the tumor group that agrees with previous knowledge, while a big part of them do not, including the most used MCF7, MDA-MB-231, and T-47D. We presented a computational framework to identify cell lines that mostly resemble a certain tumor group for the breast tumor study. Our investigation presents a useful guide to bridge the gap between cell lines and tumors and helps to select the most suitable cell line models for personalized cancer studies.
Compensation of Scanner Creep and Hysteresis for AFM Nanomanipulation

Nanomanipulation with atomic force microscopes (AFMs) for nanoparticles with overall sizes on the order of 10 nm has been hampered in the past by the large spatial uncertainties encountered in tip positioning. This paper addresses the compensation of nonlinear effects of creep and hysteresis on the piezo scanners which drive most AFMs. Creep and hysteresis are modeled as the superposition of fundamental operators, and their inverse model is obtained by using the inversion properties of the Prandtl-Ishlinskii operator. Identification of the parameters in the forward model is achieved by a novel method that uses the topography of the sample and does not require position sensors. The identified parameters are used to compute the inverse model, which in turn serves to drive the AFM in an open-loop, feedforward scheme. Experimental results show that this approach effectively reduces the spatial uncertainties associated with creep and hysteresis, and supports automated, computer-controlled manipulation operations that otherwise would fail.
Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a chronic, debilitating, psychological condition that occurs in a subset of individuals who experience or witness life-threatening traumatic events. This chapter describes the underlying theoretical foundations and existing research on virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE), a recently emerging treatment for PTSD. Three virtual reality scenarios used to treat PTSD in combat veterans and survivors of terrorism – Virtual Vietnam , Virtual Iraq
Calpain Inhibitor Inhibits p35-p25-Cdk5 Activation, Decreases Tau Hyperphosphorylation, and Improves Neurological Function after Spinal Cord Hemisection in Rats

Aberrant calpain activation is a key mediator of neuron death. We examined the cell-permeable calpain inhibitor MDL28170 in the pathophysiological processes after spinal cord injury (SCI) including p35-p25- cyclin-dependent kinase-5 (Cdk5) activation, tau hyperphosphorylation, neuron cell death, calpain I activation, astrogliosis, and microglia activation. Our study showed that intrathecal administration of MDL28170 improved neurologic dysfunction, prevented neuron loss, decreased the number of apoptotic cells, and abated astrogliosis and microglia activation 7 days after spinal cord hemisection in rats. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction demonstrated calpain inhibition significantly attenuated the ratio of proapoptotic Bax/anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 mRNA in the lesion and penumbra after SCI. Calpain, the calcium-activated proteolytic enzyme, was found to digest p35 to its truncated product, p25. Moreover, abnormal Cdk5 activation by p25 and subsequent tau hyperphosphorylation triggers pathologic events leading to neurodegeneration and neurofibrillary tangles. We found p35-p25-Cdk5 activation and tau hyperphosphorylation in SCI, and then we showed that intrathecal MDL28170 treatment could diminish p35 truncation, and abrogate aberrant tau phosphorylation. Double labeling of calpain I and phosphorylated tau (AT8) in the same cells of spinal cord lesion further implicated pathogenesis of SCI. In conclusion, MDL28170 abated calpain I activation, inhibited apoptosis and neuron loss, quenched microglia and astrocyte activation, and significantly improved neurologic deficit one week after spinal cord hemisection. The neuroprotective mechanisms of calpain inhibitor in SCI could be attenuating upregulation of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, preventing p35 truncation in the lesion and penumbra, and abrogating tau hyperphosphorylation.
Combining the Likelihood and the Kullback-Leibler Distance in Estimating the Universal Background Model for Speaker Verification Using SVM

The state-of-the-art methods for speaker verification are based on the support vector machine. The Gaussian supervector SVM is a typical method which uses the Gaussian mixture model for creating “feature vectors” for the discriminative SVM. And all GMMs are adapted from the same universal background model, which is got by maximum likelihood estimation on a large number of data sets. So the UBM should cover the feature space widely as possible. We propose a new method to estimate the parameters of the UBM by combining the likelihood and the Kullback-Leibler distances in the UBM. Its aim is to find the model parameters which get the high likelihood value and all Gaussian distributions are dispersed to cover the feature space in a great measuring. Experiments on NIST 2001 task show that our method can improve the performance obviously.
Targeting the Overproduction of Peroxynitrite for the Prevention and Reversal of Paclitaxel-Induced Neuropathic Pain

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) accompanied by chronic neuropathic pain is a major dose-limiting side effect of a large number of antitumoral agents including paclitaxel (Taxol). Thus, CIPN is one of most common causes of dose reduction and discontinuation of what is otherwise a life-saving therapy. Neuropathological changes in spinal cord are linked to CIPN, but the causative mediators and mechanisms remain poorly understood. We report that formation of peroxynitrite (PN) in response to activation of nitric oxide synthases and NADPH oxidase in spinal cord contributes to neuropathological changes through two mechanisms. The first involves modulation of neuroexcitatory and proinflammatory (TNF-α and IL-1β) and anti-inflammatory (IL-10 and IL-4) cytokines in favor of the former. The second involves post-translational nitration and modification of glia-derived proteins known to be involved in glutamatergic neurotransmission (astrocyte-restricted glutamate transporters and glutamine synthetase). Targeting PN with PN decomposition catalysts (PNDCs) not only blocked the development of paclitaxel-induced neuropathic pain without interfering with antitumor effects, but also reversed it once established. Herein, we describe our mechanistic study on the role(s) of PN and the prevention of neuropathic pain in rats using known PNDCs (FeTMPyP5+ and MnTE-2-PyP5+). We also demonstrate the prevention of CIPN with our two new orally active PNDCs, SRI6 and SRI110. The improved chemical design of SRI6 and SRI110 also affords selectivity for PN over other reactive oxygen species (such as superoxide). Our findings identify PN as a critical determinant of CIPN, while providing the rationale toward development of superoxide-sparing and “PN-targeted” therapeutics.
How Scalable is Domain Decomposition in Practice

The convergence rates and, therefore, the overall parallel e ciencies of additive Schwarz methods are often dependent on subdomain granularity. Except when e ective coarse-grid operators and intergrid transfer operators are known, so that optimal multilevel preconditioners can be constructed, the number of iterations to convergence tends to increase with granularity for elliptically-controlled problems, for either xed or memory-scaled problem sizes. The communication overhead per iteration also grows with granularity when global operations, such as inner products, are required as part of the acceleration scheme. The growth is sublinear on reasonable networks, but not a priori dismissable as processor counts enter the thousands. In practical large-scale applications, however, the convergence rate degradation of single-level additive Schwarz is sometimes not as serious as the scalar, linear elliptic theory would suggest. Its e ects are mitigated by several factors, including pseudo-transient nonlinear continuation and dominant intercomponent coupling that can be captured fully in a point-block ILU preconditioner. Furthermore, complex models may be so dominated by fully concurrent work at each gridpoint that global communication constitutes a small, albeit growing, tax. We illustrate these favorable claims for the practicality of domain decomposition with encouraging scalabilities for a legacy unstructured-grid Euler ow application code, parallelized with the pseudo-transient Newton-Krylov-Schwarz ( NKS) algorithm using the freely available PETSc library on contemporary high-end platforms. We note some impacts on performance of the horizontal (distributed) and vertical (hierarchical) aspects of the memory system and consider architecturally motivated algorithmic variations for their amelioration.
Cost Study of Diierent Pivoting Strategies on the Bsp Model

In this work the BSP (Bulk Synchronous Parallel) Model is considered as an eeec-tive parallel computing approach capable of producing eecient algorithms which can be executed on whatever parallel environment. The analysis is focused on the theoretical basis provided by the model to predict parallel algorithms running times on a given parallel architecture. Diierent parallel algorithms for performing gaussian elimination have been considered, varying the distribution of data among the processors as well as the pivoting strategy used. A theoretical study of the cost of each one of these algorithms under the assumptions of the BSP model is reported and compared with the experimental results obtained on an IBM SP2 parallel system.
An Overview of the Adaptive Robust DFT

This paper overviews basic principles and applications of the robust DFT (RDFT) approach, which is used for robust processing of frequency-modulated (FM) signals embedded in non-Gaussian heavy-tailed noise. In particular, we concentrate on the spectral analysis and filtering of signals corrupted by impulsive distortions using adaptive and nonadaptive robust estimators. Several adaptive estimators of location parameter are considered, and it is shown that their application is preferable with respect to non-adaptive counterparts. This fact is demonstrated by efficiency comparison of adaptive and nonadaptive RDFT methods for different noise environments.
A Viewpoint on : Indistinguishable Photons from Separated Silicon-Vacancy Centers in Diamond

When it comes to semiconductors, it is well known that one shouldn’t bet against silicon. Now it appears that silicon may also be the key to quantum technologies based on diamond. A team of scientists from Harvard University, Ulm University in Germany, and Tsukuba University and the National Institute for Materials Science, both in Japan, has demonstrated that two separated siliconvacancy (SiV) centers in diamond can emit photons that are indistinguishable [1], i.e., have identical properties (except for their position): same wavelength, same polarization, and when the photons are combined on a beam splitter, the same output directions. Such indistinguishability is one of the most important enablers of quantum information based on atom-photon interactions. It is, for instance, at the heart of measurement-based quantum information protocols, in which computation is carried out by measurements on prepared entangled states: Only if photons emitted from different sources are indistinguishable, can entanglement between them be generated [2]. The finding poses SiV as a potential element for a diamond-based quantum computer.
The impact of day care designed for persons with dementia on their family caregivers

s of studies that met the aims of the review and the inclusion criteria were appraised (n= 33). Studies that only focussed on the impact of day care centres on the person with dementia (n=10) were excluded. However, studies describing the effect on both the person with dementia and the family caregivers were included. The remaining 23 studies were reviewed in full. After scrutiny of these papers, one was excluded due to its economic focus, and three others based on their emphasis on different models and the organisation of day care centres. This process is illustrated in a flow diagram, paper I. 4.1. 4 Assessment of quality The quality of the papers included was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT), designed for the appraisal of complex systematic literature reviews that include qualitative,
On using SAT to ordered escape problems

Routing for high-speed boards is largely a timeconsuming manual task today. The ordered escape routing problem is one of the key problems in board-level routing, and Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) based approach [1] is the only solution to this problem so far. In this paper, we first solve the major deficiency of the original SAT formulation so that the escape problem is completely resolved. Then we propose two techniques to extend SAT approach for large-scale problems. Experimental results on industrial benchmarks show that our methods perform well in terms of both speed and routability.
A predictive defense system for the smart grid

This paper presents the modeling approach, methodologies, and initial results of a multi-layer, hierarchical predictive defense model to assist in information management of the smart grid. The predictive defense model allows users to analyze data collected by multiple control and communication networks to characterize the states of the smart grid. Abnormal, corrupted, or erroneous measurement data and outliers are detected and analyzed to identify whether they are caused by random equipment failures, human error, or tampering. Data collected from different information networks are crosschecked for data integrity based on redundancy, dependency, correlation, or cross-correlations, which reveal the interdependency between data sets. A hierarchically structured reasoning mechanism ranks possible causes of an event to facilitate proactive response or inform mitigation recommendations to remove or neutralize the threats. The model satisfactorily identifies the cause of an event and significantly reduces the operator’s processing burden.
Researching perceptions of childhood sexuality: Using vignettes in interviews with teachers, counsellors, parents and young children

Researching sexuality traverses social and cultural environments in which people live. Frayser (2003) refers to ‘shifting cultural maps’ as constructions of sexuality move from reproductive to relational and recreational understandings. “An expanded view of sexuality has meant an expanded interpretation of what is sexual; Words, looks, touches, pictures, and movements can all be construed in sexual ways” (Frayser, 2003, p. 267). Mitchell (2005), researching children’s sexuality in the Australian context, noted limitations in the literature, including the conceptualisation of sexuality; the difficulty of defining ‘normal’ sexual development when children’s sexuality is not considered in a wider, social and cultural context; and the dearth of research about children’s understandings of sexuality.
Dealing with Illumination in Visual Scenes: Effects of Ageing and Alzheimer's Disease

Various visual functions decline in ageing and even more so in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here we investigated whether the complex visual processes involved in ignoring illumination-related variability (specifically, cast shadows) in visual scenes may also be compromised. Participants searched for a discrepant target among items which appeared as posts with shadows cast by light-from-above when upright, but as angled objects when inverted. As in earlier reports, young participants gave slower responses with upright than inverted displays when the shadow-like part was dark but not white (control condition). This is consistent with visual processing mechanisms making shadows difficult to perceive, presumably to assist object recognition under varied illumination. Contrary to predictions, this interaction of “shadow” colour with item orientation was maintained in healthy older and AD groups. Thus, the processing mechanisms which assist complex light-independent object identification appear to be robust to the effects of both ageing and AD. Importantly, this means that the complexity of a function does not necessarily determine its vulnerability to age- or AD-related decline. We also report slower responses to dark than light “shadows” of either orientation in both ageing and AD, in keeping with increasing light scatter in the ageing eye. Rather curiously, AD patients showed further slowed responses to “shadows” of either colour at the bottom than the top of items as if they applied shadow-specific rules to non-shadow conditions. This suggests that in AD, shadow-processing mechanisms, while preserved, might be applied in a less selective way.
Physician’s Perceptions of Interprofessional Collaboration in Clinical Training Hospitals in Northeastern Japan

Background Effective and efficient interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is needed between departments in a healthcare setting. Although Japanese physicians are expected to provide leadership in IPC, it has been suggested that their perception of IPC is more negative than among other healthcare professionals. The purpose of this study was to clarify Japanese physician’s perceptions of IPC and what factors influenced their views. Methods This cross-sectional study surveyed 732 medical doctors at a university hospital and six foundation hospitals in a prefecture located in Tohoku district, northeastern Japan. Those hospitals were approved for delivery of postgraduate clinical training. Physician’s perceptions of IPC were investigated for three items, namely providing patient-centered care, preventing medical accidents, and improving the quality of medical care. A total of 409 doctors who were engaged in clinical practice, responded adequately to the survey. Factors associated with negative perceptions towards IPC among physicians were analyzed using a logistic regression model. Results The proportion of negative perceptions of IPC for providing patient-centered care, preventing medical accidents, and improving the quality of medical care were 41.1%, 34.0% and 33.7%, respectively. Negative perceptions of IPC for providing patient-centered care were associated with older age (50 + years; odds ratio (OR): 2.73; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11 - 6.68) and a lower frequency of interprofessional meetings (no meetings; OR: 2.95; 95%CI: 1.43 - 6.08). Negative perceptions of IPC for preventing medical accidents were associated with a lower frequency of interprofessional meetings (no meetings, OR: 3.23; 95%CI: 1.58 - 6.62). Negative perceptions of IPC for improving the quality of medical care were associated with middle age (40 - 49 years, OR: 2.93; 95%CI: 1.20 - 7.12) and a lower frequency of interprofessional meetings (no meetings; OR: 2.75; 95%CI: 1.34 - 5.66). Conclusions Physician’s negative perceptions of IPC in our study were associated with age and a lower frequency of interprofessional meetings. Our findings suggest that effective regular interprofessional meetings serve to share information about patients, and to allow physicians to understand each other better, which should have a positive impact on the quality of patient-centered care.