Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Poverty traps and nonlinear income dynamics with measurement error and individual heterogeneity

Abstract Theories of poverty traps stand in sharp contrast to the view that anybody can make it through hard work and thrift. However, empirical detection of poverty traps is complicated by the lack of long panels, measurement error and attrition. This paper shows how dynamic pseudo-panel methods can overcome these difficulties, allowing estimation of nonlinear income dynamics and testing of the presence of poverty traps. The paper explicitly allows for heterogeneity in income dynamics, to account for the possibility that particular groups of individuals may face traps, even if the average individual does not. These methods are used to examine the evidence for a poverty trap in labour earnings, income and expenditure in urban Mexico and are compared to panel data estimates from a short rotating panel. The results do find evidence of nonlinearities in household income dynamics, and demonstrate large bias in the panel data estimates. Nevertheless, even after allowing for heterogeneity and accounting for measurement error, we find no evidence for the existence of a poverty trap for any group in our sample.
Microstructural effects on the ignition behavior of HMX

The detonation physics community has embraced the idea that initiation of high explosives proceeds from an ignition event through subsequent growth to steady detonation. A weakness of all the commonly used ignition and growth models is that microstructural characteristics are not explicitly incorporated in their ignition and terms. This is the case in spite of a demonstrated, but not well-understood, empirical link between morphology and initiation of energetic materials. Morphological effects have been parametrically studied in many ways, with the majority of efforts focused on establishing a tie between bulk powder metrics and ignition of the pressed beds. More recently, there has been a shift toward characterizing the microstructure of pressed beds in order to understand the underlying mechanisms governing behavior. We have assessed the utility of using a modified James' model as a tool to quantify effects of bed microstructure on ignition behavior. Using this construct, we have studied the ignition behavior of two types of HMX materials in an attempt to quantify effects of microstructure (i.e. mesoscale features) on continuum level ignition behavior. Microstructures of the two HMX materials were characterized using ion bombardment cross sectioning techniques that expose the microstructure of pellets studied in the ignition experiments.
Complement-mediated T-cell depletion of bone marrow: comparison of T10B9.1A-31 and Muromonab-Orthoclone OKT3.

BACKGROUND T10B9.1A-31 (T(10)B(9)) and Muromonab-Orthoclone OKT3 (OKT3) are both murine MAb with a narrow specificity for T lymphocytes. Over the past 10 years, we have used each for T-cell depletion (TCD) of BM. In this report we describe similarities and differences using these antibodies, as well as their effects on patient outcome. METHODS We compared BM mononuclear cells (BMMC) prepared using a Cobe Spectra apheresis machine with density gradient (DG) separation to remove RBC and enrich for CD34(+) cells prior to TCD. FACS and limiting dilution assays (LDA) were used to measure the efficiency of TCD, the subsets of cells removed and CD34 content. Univariate statistics were used to assess graft outcome, including GvHD, graft failure, post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD), relapse, DFS, and TRM. RESULTS BMMC preparation on the Cobe Spectra resulted in superior recovery of CD34(+) cells. However, this method could not be used with OKT3 due to inhibition of T-cell lysis. Optimal TCD required two rounds of complement at room temperature for OKT3, compared with one or two rounds for T(10)B(9). TCR(gamma delta)(+) T-cells, but not natural killer cells, were spared to a greater degree with T(10)B(9). Further T-cell loss occurred during culture with T(10)B(9) but not with OKT3. Overall efficiency of TCD was superior using T(10)B(9). The risk of acute GvHD was higher with OKT3-mediated TCD, independent of T-cell content, and may have led to a higher incidence of PTLD. A decreased risk of relapse for patients with high-risk disease was seen with OKT3-treated grafts, but engraftment, TRM and DFS did not significantly differ. DISCUSSION TCD using OKT3 results in higher T-cell content and higher rates of acute GvHD and PTLD compared with T(10)B(9). Cobe Spectra cannot be used for BMMC processing with OKT3, fewer CD34(+) are therefore infused. Technical, as well as biological, differences between narrow specificity MAbs can affect graft outcome.
Design Issues in Minimizing Infrastructure Requirements of Mobile Social Software Introduction System

Numerous applications of social proximity-sensing software have emerged during the last twelve years. We have developed Bluetooth based mobile social software introduction system with the goal to explore the way in which an existing mobile technology could be used to bring people of similar interest together, while not using infrastructure such as Internet or mobile carrier networks. Here we discuss design issues in minimizing infrastructure requirements of mobile social software introduction system as well as privacy, authentication and trust issues of the fully decentralized system that does not have any authentication and / or trust authority.
Iron-biofortification in rice by the introduction of three barley genes participated in mugineic acid biosynthesis with soybean ferritin gene

Iron deficiency is a serious problem around the world, especially in developing countries. The production of iron-biofortified rice will help ameliorate this problem. Previously, expression of the iron storage protein, ferritin, in rice using an endosperm-specific promoter resulted in a two-fold increase in iron concentration in the resultant transgenic seeds. However, further over expression of ferritin did not produce an additional increase in the seed iron concentration, and symptoms of iron deficiency were noted in the leaves of the transgenic plants. In the present study, we aimed to further increase the iron concentration in rice seeds without increasing the sensitivity to iron deficiency by enhancing the uptake and transport of iron via a ferric iron chelator, mugineic acid. To this end, we introduced the soybean ferritin gene (SoyferH2) driven by two endosperm-specific promoters, along with the barley nicotianamine synthase gene (HvNAS1), two nicotianamine aminotransferase genes (HvNAAT-A and -B), and a mugineic acid synthase gene (IDS3) to enhance mugineic acid production in rice plants. A marker-free vector was utilized as a means of increasing public acceptance. Representative lines were selected from 102 transformants based on the iron concentration in polished seeds and ferritin accumulation in the seeds. These lines were grown in both commercially supplied soil (iron-sufficient conditions) and calcareous soil (iron-deficient conditions). Lines expressing both ferritin and mugineic acid biosynthetic genes showed signs of iron-deficiency tolerance in calcareous soil. The iron concentration in polished T3 seeds was increased by 4 and 2.5 times, as compared to that in non-transgenic lines grown in normal and calcareous soil, respectively. These results indicate that the concomitant introduction of the ferritin gene and mugineic acid biosynthetic genes effectively increased the seed iron level without causing iron sensitivity under iron-limited conditions.
Diagnosis by parameter estimation of stator and rotor faults occurring in induction machines

In this paper, the authors give a new model of squirrel-cage induction motors under stator and rotor faults. First, they study an original model that takes into account the effects of interturn faults resulting in the shorting of one or more circuits of stator-phase winding. They introduce, thus, additional parameters to explain the fault in the three stator phases. Then, they propose a new faulty model dedicated to broken rotor bars detection. The corresponding diagnosis procedure based on parameter estimation of the stator and rotor faulty model is proposed. The estimation technique is performed by taking into account prior information available on the safe system operating in nominal conditions. A special three-phase induction machine has been designed and constructed in order to simulate true faulty experiments. Experimental test results show good agreement and demonstrate the possibility of detection and localization of previous failures.
An evaluation of nonlinear filtering algorithms for integrating GNSS and inertial measurements

The quality of dead reckoning positioning algorithms which are integrating GNSS and INS measurements is a crucial factor for advanced vehicular safety systems. Apart from sensor performances, the most important factor determining this quality is the filter algorithm. Thus, this paper aims to compare and evaluate different nonlinear filtering approaches, focusing on their performance in GNSS/INS integration. The presented approach is based on an advanced motion model which assumes a constant turn rate and longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle. Using this approach, the unscented Kalman Filter is compared to the standard extended Kalman filter. For the evaluation, experimental data obtained by a DGPS receiver with RTK capabilities are used. With this approach, the filter assessment is performed in different scenarios, including urban areas.
Emulators as sources of hidden cognitive variables

I focus on the distinction between sensation and perception. Perceptions contain additional information that is useful for interpreting sensations. Following Grush, I propose that emulators can be seen as containing (or creating) hidden variables that generate perceptions from sensations. Such hidden variables could be used to explain further cognitive phenomena, for example, causal reasoning.
OZONE GENERATION USING ELECTRICAL DISCHARGES: A comparative study between Pulsed Streamer Discharge and Atmospheric Pressure Glow Discharge

This thesis deals with an investigation into atmospheric pressure glow discharge and pulsed streamer discharge techniques of ozone generation, in an attempt to compare their performances in the generation of a high concentration and high yield of ozone. It is motivated by the desire to exploit further the ability and potential possessed by both techniques for ozone generation and to provide support to the increased demand for ozone in many areas of application. Chapter 1 of the thesis provides a brief history into the application of ozone. In Chapter 2, a basic understanding of the gas discharge is given for both thermal and non-thermal plasm as, and the theory 0 f non-thermal plasma is presented. The different types of electric discharges commonly used for ozone generation are explained. A review of the effect of both the physical configuration and the electrical parameters on the ozone yield and concentration is presented in Chapter 3, with the three main parameters that limit the efficiency of the production being highlighted. The second part of the thesis describes a thorough experimental investigation. In Chapter 4, a study is made of the stability of the atmospheric pressure glow discharge (APGD) which is found to be more stable when perforated electrodes are used rather than a fine steel wire mesh. Following this, a comparative study between APGD and pulsed streamer discharge (PSD) is presented in Chapter 5. A detailed investigation into both APGD and PSD in air is described. The effects of varying the input voltage, gap distance, chamber length, air flow rate and gas residence time are all used to evaluate the performance of both techniques. The PSD is found to generate a higher concentration but with a lower ozone yield. On the other hand, the APGD generates a lower concentration but with a higher yield. Chapter 6 presents the effect of a cross magnetic field on an AC corona and the PSD techniques and its influence on ozone generation. Results show no apparent effect of the magnetic field in either technique. Chapter 7 describes the use of dimensional analysis in investigating the effect of the electrical and the discharge configuration parameters on ozone production in oxygen by means of a PSD. Ozone destruction factors are taken into account in the model, and predicted results are shown to be in good agreement with experimental findings.
Dynamic power scheduling system for JPEG2000 delivery over wireless networks

Third generation mobile terminals diffusion is encouraging the development of new multimedia based applications. The reliable transmission of audiovisual content will gain major interest being one of the most valuable services. Nevertheless, mobile scenario is severely power constrained: high compression ratios and refined energy management strategies are highly advisable. JPEG2000 as the source encoding stage assures excellent performance with extremely good visual quality. However the limited power budged imposes to limit the computational effort in order to save as much power as possible. Starting from an error prone environment, as the wireless one, high error-resilience features need to be employed. This paper tries to investigate the trade-off between quality and power in such a challenging environment.
Smoking, Alcohol, and Betel Quid and Oral Cancer: A Prospective Cohort Study

We aimed to investigate the association between smoking, alcoholic consumption, and betel quid chewing with oral cancer in a prospective manner. All male patients age ≥18 years who visited our clinic received an oral mucosa inspection. Basic data including personal habits were also obtained. A multivariate logistic regression model was utilized to determine relevant risk factors for developing oral cavity cancer. A total of 10,657 participants were enrolled in this study. Abnormal findings were found in 514 participants (4.8%). Three hundred forty-four participants received biopsy, and 230 patients were proven to have oral cancer. The results of multivariate logistic regression found that those who smoked, consumed alcohol, and chewed betel quid on a regular basis were most likely to develop cancer (odds ratio: 46.87, 95% confidence interval: 31.84–69.00). Therefore, habitual cigarette smokers, alcohol consumers, and betel quid chewers have a higher risk of contracting oral cancer and should receive oral screening regularly so potential oral cancer can be detected as early as possible.
The Insect Mushroom Bodies: a Paradigm of Neural Reuse

This paper is devoted to discuss the implementation of models,which are inspired by the fly Drosophila melanogaster and able to handle open problems in the field of robotics such as attention, expectation and sequence learning. The role of the Mushroom Bodies (MBs) in solving these tasks is analyzed in detail and a unifying plausible biologically inspired model is proposed. The developed neural structure is able to show different capabilities in line with the paradigm of neural reuse. The same neural circuit can be exploited to accomplish multiple tasks showing interesting capabilities such as attention, expectation and delayed match-to-sample. The simulation results here reported suggest at the same time new neurobiological experiments suited to better understand the underlying mechanisms, to verify the hypotheses formulated and to prove the biological significance of the results.
No Evidence for Task Automatization After Dual-Task Training in Younger and Older Adults

The present study investigated the ability of older adults in contrast to younger adults to automatize new choice tasks as a result of simultaneous dual-task practice. Importantly, the study was carried out in conditions optimal for dual-task performance and task automatization. Despite this, the results of detailed analyses were not consistent with the assumption that either older or younger adults are able to automatize new choice tasks; neither group showed evidence of automatization. Even in analyses focusing on high dual-task performers (i.e., individuals who performed equally well in single and dual tasks) the results were not consistent with this assumption. Instead, it seems to be the case that both older and younger adults continue to use capacity-limited processes to process choice tasks after dual-task practice. These conclusions are consistent with findings from studies using single-task practice and tests of task automatization in dual tasks (Maquestiaux, Laguë-Beauvais, Ruthruff, Hartley, & Bherer, 2010; Maquestiaux, Didierjean, Ruthruff, Chauvel, & Hartley, 2013).
Comparison Study of Oral Iron Preparations Using a Human Intestinal Model

Iron deficiency and related iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) are the most prevalent nutritional disorders worldwide. The standard treatment involves supplementation with solid or liquid iron supplement preparations, usually based on a ferrous salt such as ferrous sulphate, ferrous fumarate, or ferrous gluconate. In the present study, we compared iron uptake and absorption from various solid and liquid iron supplement preparations currently available in the United Kingdom using the well-characterised human epithelial adenocarcinoma cell line Caco-2. Intracellular ferritin protein formation by the Caco-2 cell was considered an indicator of cellular iron uptake and absorption. We investigated the effects of formulation ingredients at a defined pH on iron uptake and absorption, and designed a novel two-stage dissolution-absorption protocol that mimicked physiological conditions. Our experiments revealed wide variations in the rate of dissolution between the various solid iron preparations. Conventional-release ferrous iron tablets dissolved rapidly (48 ± 4 mins to 64 ± 4 mins), whereas modified-released tablets and capsules took significantly longer to undergo complete dissolution (274 ± 8 to 256 ± 8 mins). Among the solid iron preparations, ferrous sulphate conventional-release tablets demonstrated the highest iron absorption, whereas modified-release ferrous preparations demonstrated uniformly low iron absorption, as compared to the control (P < 0.05). Taken together, our results demonstrate that there are wide-ranging variations in dissolution times and iron uptake from oral iron preparations, with the physical characteristics of the preparation as well as the form of iron playing a key role.
CAMERA CALIBRATION ERROR ANALYSIS IN STEREO MEASUREMENTS

Camera calibration is an important and sensitive step in 3D environment reconstruction by stereovision. Small errors in the estimation of the camera parameters could rise to high errors in the 3D measurements, as the working distance increases. Therefore a method for analyzing the influence of each camera’s parameter error in the accuracy of the 3D measurement is compulsory in order to minimize the overall 3D reconstruction error. In this paper we propose a method to analyze the influence of each camera’s parameter of the stereovision system by applying a 3D stereo-reconstruction algorithm on a controlled 3D scene, having a depth range comparable with the working range of the 3D measurement application.
Processor scheduling on multiprogrammed, distributed memory parallel computers

Multicomputers, consisting of many processing nodes connected through a high speed interconnection network, have become an important and common platform for a large body of scientific computations. These parallel systems have traditionally executed programs in batch mode, or have at most space-shared the processors among multiple programs using a static partitioning policy. This, however, can result in relatively low system utilization and throughput for important classes of scientific applications.In this paper we consider "a class of scheduling policies that attempt to increase processor utilization and system throughput by timesharing a partition of processors among multiple programs. We compare the system performance under this multiprogramming policy with that of static partitioning for a variety of workloads via both analytic and simulation modeling. Our results show that timesharing a partition can provide significant improvements in performance, particularly at moderate to heavy loads. The performance gains of the multiprogrammed policy depend upon the inherent efficiency of the parallel programs that comprise the workload, decreasing with increasing program efficiency. Our analysis also provides the regions over which one scheduling policy outperforms the other, as a function of system load.
Enhancing Posturography Stabilization Analysis and Limits of Stability Assessment

iv DEDICATION . vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . viii LIST OF FIGURES . xi LIST OF TABLES . xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.0 Posturography and Older Adults . 1 1.1 Improving Current Approach to Determining Stabilization Time . 3 1.2 Improving Current Analysis of the Limits of Stability Assessment . 6 1.3 Incorporating Wearable Sensors in the Limits of Stability Test to Differentiate Between Fallers and Non-Fallers . 7 1.4 Incorporating Wearable Sensors in the Limits of Stability Assessment to Evaluate Test Adherence . 8 1.5 Dissertation Layout . 9 CHAPTER 2: A METHOD FOR APPLYING TIME TO STABILIZATION ANALYSIS TO OLDER ADULT DATA . 10 2.0 Introduction . 10 2.1 Methods . 12 2.2 Results . 19 2.3 Discussion . 21 CHAPTER 3: AGE STRATIFICATION AND SAMPLE ENTROPY ANALYSIS ENHANCE THE LIMITS OF STABILITY TEST FOR OLDER ADULTS . 25 3.0 Introduction . 25 3.1 Methods . 27 3.2 Results . 30 3.3 Discussion . 32
Online environment reconstruction for biped navigation

As navigation autonomy becomes an increasingly important research topic for biped humanoid robots, efficient approaches to perception and mapping that are suited to the unique characteristics of humanoids and their typical operating environments are required. This paper presents a system for online environment reconstruction that utilizes both external sensors for global localization, and on-body sensors for detailed local mapping. An external optical motion capture system is used to accurately localize on-board sensors that integrate successive 2D views of a calibrated camera and range measurements from a SwissRanger SR-2 time-of-flight sensor to construct global environment maps in real-time. Environment obstacle geometry is encoded in 2D occupancy grids and 2.5D height maps for navigation planning. We present an on-body implementation for the HRP-2 humanoid robot that, combined with a footstep planner, enables the robot to autonomously traverse dynamic environments containing unpredictably moving obstacles