Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hybrid Energy Supply based Energy Efficiency and Spectral Efficiency Tradeoff for Green Cellular System

The tradeoff between energy efficiency (EE) and spectral efficiency (SE) under the smart grid with joint energy harvesting and grid power supply is considered. The price factor in economics is used to propose the economic EE and SE. Then a new EE-SE tradeoff metric called the EE-SE adaptive tradeoff (ESAT) is built under the fluctuating harvesting energy. Furthermore, the offline optimization problem is put forward and the solution is discussed. The offline solutions based on the branch-and-bound algorithm and the Lagrange dual decomposition method are discussed to analyze the influence of renewable energy quantity on the proposed structure. Numerical results indicate that the proposed ESAT framework is efficient to the tradeoff between EE and SE.
The administration of a loading dose of aspirin to patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction while receiving chronic aspirin treatment reduces thromboxane A2-dependent platelet reactivity

Abstract The optimal dose of aspirin for patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) while receiving chronic aspirin therapy has not been clearly established. We evaluated whether continued treatment with 100 mg of aspirin or a loading dose (200–500 mg) influences thromboxane A2 (TX) suppression or platelet reactivity. Sixty-four consecutive patients with AMI and 98 healthy subjects (82 aspirin-free and 16 receiving 100 mg daily for a week) were evaluated. Treatment was at the discretion of the attending physician. Collagen (1 µg/ml)-induced TX synthesis, 14C-serotonin-release, platelet aggregation, and the PFA-100 assay were evaluated. The platelet TX synthesis of patients receiving a loading dose of aspirin was sixfold lower than that of patients receiving 100 mg of aspirin (p < 0.005). This was associated with marked reductions in 14C-serotonin-release and arachidonic-acid-induced aggregation and an increase in the PFA-100 closure time (p < 0.01). Categorization of patients according to their TX synthesis (<95% or ≥95% inhibition vs. healthy aspirin-free subjects) revealed that 8% of the patients treated with loading doses had a poor response (<95% inhibition) vs. 53% of those treated with 100 mg (p < 0.001). Patients with lower TX inhibition had higher serum NT-Pro-BNP (p < 0.005), a marker of poor left ventricular systolic function. Administration of a loading dose of aspirin to patients with AMI during existing chronic aspirin treatment induced greater reductions in platelet TX synthesis and TX-dependent platelet reactivity than the continued treatment alone.
Higher Education in Competition: Opportunities and Risks

A new law on higher education came into effect in North Rhine– Westphalia on 1 April 2000, setting a new direction, based in law, that should and will lay the foundations for a revamping of higher education in this state. But since the 1990s, the critical debates that are part of the general German discussion on higher education have shown a more emphatic turn toward business. This has altered permanently and decisively the traditional notion of the university. Terms such as “efficiency,” “global economy,” “controlling,” and “new management” steer the discussion on the structures of higher education. The business model aims at optimization of organization to achieve the greatest possible returns from sparse resources. This in turn is accompanied by an idea of tapping new nongovernment sources of financing, for example, tuition fees or education taxes and, under the title “profiling,” by a call for cooperation and for a division of tasks among the state’s universities. This model has eclipsed not only the discussion of traditional values but also the debates, initiated by the 1960s student movement, on the role of the university in distributing pro-
Duurzame rechtsbijstand, legal empowerment en microrecht

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Address by the President of the Faculty of Actuaries. The World Needs Actuaries

ABSTRACT This presidential address looks at the current state of affairs, the opportunities and threats to our traditional areas of interest and the importance of developing in wider fields. It pays tribute to all the volunteers who help make it the organisation that it is whilst highlighting the need for all Fellows and students to be engaged with its future.
On throughput gain of interference alignment in multi-hop MIMO networks

In this paper, we investigate the potential throughput gain brought by cooperative interference alignment (IA) in multi-hop MIMO networks. Unlike the fully-connected K-user interference network where IA is usually considered, IA cooperations in multi-hop MIMO networks are limited by node density, leading to an inevitable coexistence of IA and non-IA links. Though cooperating links within the same IA group can nullify intra-group interference via IA, uncoordinated inter-group interferences as well as the interferences from non-IA links retain with noises. Hence, whether or not IA can brought throughput gain for such networks is still an open question. In allusion to this question, we firstly extend a cross-layer PHY-MAC model for MIMO networks to jointly abstract the IA and non-IA links with a set of transmission patterns. Then we formulate the problem of throughput-optimal topology control for multi-hop MIMO networks with IA and that without IA and prove their NP-hardness. We further propose integer linear mathematical models for the formulated problems and investigate the benefits of IA cooperations via simulations. Simulation results show that regardless of the number of antennas, IA cooperations do not offer noticeable throughput gain in random networks.
The Impact of Government Participation and Prospects on Party Policy Preferences in Belgium

This article analyses the impact of government prospects and government participation on party policy preferences. Comparing the content of manifestos of governing and opposition parties in Belgium during three decades, I observed that the relationship of a party to the act of governing influences the content of its manifesto. In that sense, party preferences are not only driven by ideology and vote-seeking arguments but are part of a larger party strategy: parties adapt their electoral platform when they are in government or are willing to enter into it. The conclusion of the article also discusses the literature on government formation. Such literature hypothesizes that parties that are ideologically similar would form a coalition. However, results for the Belgian case demonstrate that parties strategically adapt their electoral platform when wanting to enter the government. Coalitions are made up of parties with similar policy preferences, not because they ‘are’ alike but because parties strategically ‘make’ them alike.
Retinal Vessel Tortuosity and Its Relation to Traditional and Novel Vascular Risk Markers in Persons with Diabetes

ABSTRACT Purpose/Aim: To investigate the association between retinal vascular tortuosity and traditional- and vascular-related risk factors in persons with diabetes. Methods: We recruited 224 diabetic patients. Retinal vascular tortuosity was measured from fundus photographs. Association of tortuosity with the following factors was assessed after adjusting for significant co-factors: diabetes duration, HbA1c, systolic blood pressure (SBP), cholesterol and body mass index (BMI), flicker-light induced retinal vasodilatation, and markers of endothelial function and inflammation (skin microvacular responses to acetylcholine iontophoresis, soluble e-selectin, inter-cellular adhesion molecule-1, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, endothelin-1, total nitrite, C-reactive protein). Results: Adjusting for age and gender, longer diabetes duration was associated with more tortuous retinal arterioles (mean difference in arteriolar tortuosity 5.85 × 10−5, 95% Confidence Interval 1.44–10.3 × 10−5; p = 0.016; ≤10 versus >10 years duration). Reduced flicker-light induced retinal vasodilatation was associated with tortuous arterioles and venules (mean difference in arteriolar tortuosity 5.62 × 10−5, 4.50–6.72 × 10−5; p < 0.001 and in venules 5.94 × 10−5, 3.33–8.55 × 10−5; p < 0.001; comparing highest versus lowest tertile of flicker-light vasodilatation). These associations remained after adjusting for co-factors. Diabetes duration explained about 36% and flicker-light vasodilatation 25% of the variation in retinal arteriolar tortuosity. No associations were found between retinal arteriolar or venular tortuosity and HBA1c, SBP, cholesterol, BMI and serum markers of endothelial function. Conclusions: Increased retinal arteriolar tortuosity was related to longer diabetes duration and reduced flicker-light induced vasodilatory response, suggesting that retinal vascular tortuosity in adults with diabetes may be influenced by multiple diabetes-related physio-pathological changes.
Gate dielectric-breakdown-induced microstructural damage in MOSFETs

Numerous failure mechanisms associated with hard breakdowns (HBD) in ultrathin gate oxides were physically studied with high-resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM). Migration of silicide from silicided gate and source/drain regions, abnormal growth of dielectric-breakdown-induced epitaxy (DBIE), poly-Si gate meltdown and recrystallization, severe damage in Si substrate, and total epitaxy of poly-Si gate and Si substrate of the entire transistor are among the common microstructural damages observed in metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) after HBDs in gate oxides (Gox) were observed electrically. The type of catastrophic failures and its degree of damage were found to be strongly dependent on the allowable current density and total resistance of the breakdown path during the breakdown transient. The physical analysis data from TEM analysis allow us to establish the sequence of the physical damage associated with the Gox HBD in narrow transistors. The proposed model is able to predict the next possible microstructural damage induced by HBD. Such knowledge will allow failure analysts to be able to retro-predict the current and power consumption in a field EOS/ESD failure based on the physical analysis and propose a knowledgeable guess on the potential root cause of the failures.
A Real-Time FPGA Based Human Detector

An ARM-platform and FPGA-based accelerator rather than PC-based system is utilized in this study for completing a real-time FPGA-based human detector. The system presents the advantages of small size, low cost, high computing speed, and being portable and could be built in small cameras for surveillance applications. When background segmentation is introduced, the computing efficiency could reach about 15 fps. Moreover, this study has proven that the reduction on the total detection rate is less than 0.3% while changing HOG algorithm into the presented FPGA hardware implementation.
Relationship between oxygen uptake and oxygen delivery in septic Patients: Effects of prostacyclin versus dobutamine

Objective:To compare the effects of prostacyclin (PGI2) and dobutamine on the relationship between oxygen delivery (Do2) and oxygen uptake (Vo2) in stable septic patients. Design:Prospective study using a crossover design with alternate order of medications. Patients:Seventeen patients with documented sepsis and a stable hemodynamic status with normal blood lactate concentrations. Eleven patients were mechanically ventilated. Eight patients eventually died. Interventions:Do2 and Vo2 were calculated before and after a 20-min infusion of 5 ng/kg/min of PGI2 followed or preceded by 5 μg/kg/min of dobutamine. Measurements and Main Results:Both medications increased cardiac output significantly. At the dose used, PGI2 infusion reduced mean arterial pressure from 90.8 ± 16.8 to 81.5 ± 17.3 mm Hg (p < .01) and Pao2 from 97 ± 25 torr to 82 ± 22 torr (from 12.9 ± 3.3 to 10.9 ± 2.9 kPa) (p < .01) and increased venous admixture from 17.5 ± 0.6% to 23.8 ± 8.2% (p < .01). Dobutamine had no significant influence on these variables. PGI2 increased Do2 by 19% (from 470 ± 105 to 557 ± 117 mL/min/m2, p < .01) while dobutamine increased Do2 by 27% (from 463 ± 103 to 589 ± 156 mL/min/m2, p < .01). PGI2 increased Vo2 by 5% (from 148 ± 38 to 155 ± 36 mL/min/m2) while dobutamine increased Vo2 by 10% (from 146 ± 36 to 161 ± 41 mL/min/m2, p < .01). Accordingly, there was an identical decrease in oxygen extraction with PGI2 (from 32.4 ± 8.2% to 28.6 ± 7.1%, p < .01) and dobutamine (from 32.4 ± 8.3% to 28.5 ± 7.8%, p < .01). The responses to these medications were similar in survivors and nonsurvivors. Conclusions:PGI2 and dobutamine at the doses used have similar effects on oxygen extraction in critically ill, septic patients, but dobutamine increases Do2 more consistently and is better tolerated than prostacyclin. (Crit Care Med 1993; 21:1658–1664)
An alternative measure to detect intentional earnings management through discretionary accruals

Title of Dissertation: An Alternative Measure to Detect Intentional Earnings Management through Discretionary Accruals Salma S. Ibrahim, 2005 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Oliver Kim, Accounting and Information Assurance Department This study proposes an alternative measure of discretionary accruals that can be used in testing for intentional earnings management. Prior research has shown the prevalence of measurement error in all models used to estimate discretionary accruals (Healy (1985), DeAngelo (1986), Jones (1991) and modified Jones models (Dechow et al., 1995). The alternative measure proposed relies on the premise that managers use one or more components of accruals (accounts receivable, inventories, accounts payable, other working capital and depreciation) to manipulate bottom-line income in a given direction, consistent with their incentives. In other words, components of discretionary accruals are expected to be positively correlated. If they are not, this is an indication of high measurement error in the models estimating them. The alternative measure is tested in terms of its power (type II error) and specification (type I error) and compared to the traditional discretionary accruals measure. The power of the tests is measured in random samples with added accrual manipulation as well as a sample of firms targeted by the Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged fraud and a sample of firms that violated their debt covenants. The results indicate that the power of this alternative discretionary measure is higher than that of the traditional discretionary accruals measure. The specification (specificity) is tested in random samples chosen from the full sample as well as random samples chosen from extreme income and cash from operations observations and a sample in which discretionary accruals is a noisy measure of the estimated discretionary accruals. The results indicate that the specification of detecting earnings management behavior is improved by using the alternative discretionary accruals measure. AN ALTERNATIVE MEASURE TO DETECT INTENTIONAL EARNINGS MANAGEMENT THROUGH DISCRETIONARY ACCRUALS
A Nation of Gamblers: Real Estate Speculation and American History

The great housing convulsion that buffeted America between 2000 and 2010 has historical precedents, from the frontier land boom of the 1790s to the skyscraper craze of the 1920s. But this time was different. There was far less real uncertainty about fundamental economic and geographic trends, making the convulsion even more puzzling. During historic and recent booms, sensible models could justify high prices on the basis of seemingly reasonable projections about stable or growing prices. The recurring error appears to be a failure to anticipate the impact that elastic supply will eventually have on prices, whether for cotton in Alabama in 1820 or land in Las Vegas in 2006. Buyers don't appear to be irrational but rather cognitively limited investors who work with simple heuristic models, instead of a comprehensive general equilibrium framework. Low interest rates rarely seem to drive price growth; under-priced default options are a more common contributor to high prices. The primary cost of booms has not typically been overbuilding, but rather the financial chaos that accompanies housing downturns.
Analysis of definitions of general practice, family medicine, and primary health care: a terminological analysis

Background There are numerous definitions of general practice/family medicine (GP/FM) and primary health care (PHC), but the distinction between the two concepts is unclear. Aim To conduct a terminological analysis of a set of definitions of GP/FM and of PHC, to clarify the commonalities and differences between these two concepts. Design Sets of 20 definitions were collected in two 'bags of words' (one for GP/FM and one for PHC terms). A terminological analysis of these two collections was performed to prioritise the terms and analyse their universe of discourse. Method The two collections were extracted with VocabGrabber, configured in two 'term clouds' using Wordle, and further explored for similarities using Tropes. The main terms were analysed using the Aristotelian approach to the categorisation of things. Results Although continuity of care (characterised by a person-centred approach and shared decision making) is common to both sets, the two sets of definitions differ greatly in content. The main terms specific to GP/FM (community, medicine, responsibility, individual, problem, and needs) are different from those specific to PHC (home, team, promotion, collaborator, engagement, neighbourhood, and medical centre). Conclusion Terminological analysis of the definitions for GP/FM and PHC shows two overlapping but distinct entities, necessitating a different taxonomic approach and different bibliographic search strategies.
Effects of partial fuel pump failure on center of gravity control for high-speed aircraft

Aircraft center of gravity control is an important technology to gain potential performance benefits. In-flight center of gravity control is usually based on a fuel transfer system which enables fuel to be transferred among fuselage fuel tanks and then adjust aircraft center of gravity. The aim of this article is to systematically investigate the influences of partial fuel pump failures on the CG control performance for the high-speed aircraft. As the basis, modeling process of center of gravity varying with fuel transfer is put forward and the sliding model based control law for center of gravity is presented in detail. Then the detailed simulation analysis of possible failures effects on center of gravity tracking performance for the high-speed aircraft is carried out, including different one or two fuel pump failures. Finally, the corresponding emergency strategies for the aircraft center of gravity control system are proposed.
The association between environmental and psychosocial factors towards physical activity and screen time of children: an application of the Integrative Behavioural Model

ABSTRACT Physical activity is beneficial at all stages of life, and has been linked as a protective factor from obesity, and other chronic health conditions. Despite the benefits of physical activity, less than half of US children meet the current recommendations, and activity levels decline with age. When planning physical activity interventions, behavioural theories should be utilised, given the inherent benefits theory-based approaches possess. The purpose of this study was to investigate how constructs of the Integrative Theoretical Model (IM) are associated with physical activity and screen time among children (9 years ±1.2; n = 264). Using structural equation modeling, a final model proved to have a good fit (CFI = 0.989; TLI = 0.975; RMSEA = 0.043), and results indicated intentions and perceived behavioural control (PBC) explained 19.4% of the variance for physical activity, and attitudes, perceived norms, and PBC accounted for 62% of the variance of intentions. Furthermore, attitudes and perceived norms were negatively associated with total screen time, and accounted for 10% of the variance. Results suggest that IM is a useful framework for explaining physical activity and screen time among children.
There is Power in Coalition: A framework for assessing how and when union-community coalitions are effective and enhance union power

Abstract Proposals for union revitalisation suggest the importance of unions reaching out to the community and the formation of union-community coalitions. Yet, how this process of ‘reaching out’ can be most effective for building union power and advancing union renewal is little understood. This article presents a framework for assessing union-community coalitions, and how different types of coalitions offer varying possibilities for enhancing the power of unions. The framework extends from ad hoc coalitions to complex integrated ‘deep coalition’ forms. I identify a series of coalition features—common interest, structure, organisational buy-in and scale—and argue that they are key determinants of coalition variation and effectiveness. I also explore how these different coalition forms provide increasing possibilities for union power, and they promote possibilities for union renewal. I argue that the possibilities for union power and union transformation are increasingly likely when there is broader and deeper interconnection between unions and community organisations within the coalition form.
Simulation, Sensitivity, and Management Decision Rules

A WHOLE theory of business organization and communication was made unnecessary by early economists who assumed that businessmen would automatically act to minimize total costs at any level of output. This minimal concept provided later theorists with the means to build up an elaborate theory of marginal analysis upon the implicit assumption that managers know how to, and can, organize their resources efficiently at any reasonable level of output in both the long and the short run. Little attention has been paid to problems of optimal company organization in ways that take into account factor interdependence, immeasurability, incompleteness, and ineffectiveness of practical working rules, imperfect co-ordination, and so on. Here an attempt will be made to show how the uncritical use of some well-accepted management decision rules derived from economic analyses may lead to incorrect and costly actions. Practical examples will be used to show how under certain conditions the models of behavior and rough estimates of pertinent parameters can lead to suggestions that relate to the question of when to spend time and money collecting and interpreting business information.