Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Labor Market in the Czech Republic: Trends, Policies, and Attitudes (in English)

The Czech Republic is no longer an employment haven, the site of what had been declared as an “unemployment miracle. ” What happened? In this paper, the authors gather various statistical and sociological data on employment and unemployment trends, wage development, and workers’ opinions and their labor market strategies, taken from various surveys. In such manner, not only is the history of the Czech labor market over the past decade written, but also the reasons for the deteriorating labor market performance are addressed, and an appropriate policy agenda is outlined. In particular, the authors identify existing labor market rigidities and show that high unemployment here proceeds in an ever-widening gyre, resulting in the emergence of the unemployment trap and benefit dependency. Active labor market policy measures alone appear to be insufficient to deal with this problem.
Monocular Depth Prediction Using Generative Adversarial Networks

We present a technique for monocular reconstruction, i.e. depth map and pose prediction from input monocular video sequences, using adversarial learning. We extend current geometry-aware neural network architectures that learn from photoconsistency-based reconstruction loss functions defined over spatially and temporally adjacent images by leveraging recent advances in adversarial learning. We propose a generative adversarial network (GAN) that can learn improved reconstruction models, with flexible loss functions that are less susceptible to adversarial examples, using generic semi-supervised or unsupervised datasets. The generator function in the proposed GAN learns to synthesize neighbouring images to predict a depth map and relative object pose, while the discriminator function learns the distribution of monocular images to correctly classify the authenticity of the synthesized images. A typical photoconsistency-based reconstruction loss function is used to assist the generator function to train well and compete against the discriminator function. We demonstrate the performance of our method on the KITTI dataset in both, depth-supervised and unsupervised settings. The depth prediction results of the proposed GAN are shown to compare favorably with state-of-the-art techniques for monocular reconstruction.
The Effect of Financial and Macroeconomic Factors on the Oil Market

Our objective in this paper is to contribute to the discussion and identify, in the short-run, the effects of basic financial indicators (equity, bonds, exchange rates, Baltic exchange dry index) and widely traded commodities (Gold, Wheat) on the crude oil market. A generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model is employed to test the above hypothesis for the period of almost 10 years using daily data from June 1st, 2004 to May 30th, 2014. The results coming out of our investigation suggest that wheat and bonds markets have negative impact to the oil market. Also, the results indicate that the volatility of US $/Yen exchange rate and the volatility of Baltic exchange dry index influence significantly negatively the oil market. Lastly, our findings indicate that both, gold market as well as stock market, positively influence the oil market, confirming the relevant literature which was reviewed and summarized
Diagnostic errors--the next frontier for patient safety.

1. Vevers V. Obama says WH will remain smoke-free. http://www.cbsnews. com /blogs/2008/12/08/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4654231.shtml. Accessed December 9, 2008. 2. Reinberg S. Cancer to surpass heart disease as world’s leading killer. washingtonpost . com Web page. December 9, 2008. http://www.washingtonpost. com /wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/09/AR2008120901814.html. Accessed December 10, 2008. 3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cigarette smoking among adults—United States, 2007 [published correction appears in MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2008;57(47):1281]. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2008; 57(45):1221-1226. 4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking-attributable mortality, years of potential life lost, and productivity losses—United States, 2000-2004. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2008;57(45):1226-1228. 5. American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. Summary of 100% smokefree state laws and population protected by 100% US smokefree laws. January 4, 2009. http: //www.no-smoke.org/pdf/SummaryUSPopList.pdf. Accessed December 12, 2009. 6. Risbeck CA. ADHA smoking cessation initiative liaisons, II: partnering with tobacco quitlines. November 2007. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1ANQ /is_/ai_n25015057. Accessed December 9, 2008. 7. WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: third session of the conference of the parties to the WHO FCTC. http://www.who. int/fctc/en/. Accessed January 10, 2009. 8. Fiore M, Croyle RT, Curry SJ, et al. Preventing 3 million premature deaths and helping 5 million smokers quit: a national action plan for tobacco cessation. Am J Public Health. 2004;94(2):205-210. 9. Peto R, Lopez A. The future worldwide health effects of current smoking patterns. In: Boyle P, Gray N, Henningfield J, Seffrin J, Zatonski W, eds. Tobacco and Public Health: Science and Policy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2004: 281-286. 10. Mackay J, Erikson M, Shafey O. The Tobacco Atlas. 2nd ed. Atlanta, GA: American Cancer Society; 2006. 11. Fiore MC, Jaen CR, Baker TB, et al. Treating tobacco use and dependence: 2008 update. Rockville, MD: US Dept of Health and Human Services; May 2008. http://www.surgeongeneral. gov/tobacco/. Accessed February 5, 2009. 12. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Dieseases. Treatment of HIV infection. http://www.niaid. nih.gov/factsheets/treat-hiv.htm. Updated November 8, 2007. Accessed February 8, 2009. 13. CEO Roundtable on Cancer Web page. http://www.ceoroundtableoncancer . org. Accessed December 19, 2008.
The role of polyethylene wear in joint replacement failure

Abstract Aseptic loosening is the major cause of failure of joint replacement prostheses. Polyethylene implants removed at revision surgery regularly show wear. It is proposed that the polyethylene particles released into the tissues as a consequence of this wear induce a tissue response that precedes aseptic loosening. This paper presents the results of recent in vivo and in vitro studies of the biological response to polyethylene wear particles undertaken in the authors' laboratories. A clinical perspective is provided by the inclusion of the authors' recent observations of retrieval analyses of joint replacement implant wear and the tissue response to polyethylene in humans.
Lactoferrin release and interleukin-1, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor production by human polymorphonuclear cells stimulated by various lipopolysaccharides: relationship to growth inhibition of Candida albicans

Lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) from Escherichia coli, Serratia marcescens, and Salmonella typhimurium, at doses from 1 to 100 ng/ml, strongly enhanced growth inhibition of Candida albicans by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) in vitro. Flow cytometry analysis demonstrated that LPS markedly augmented phagocytosis of Candida cells by increasing the number of yeasts ingested per neutrophil as well as the number of neutrophils capable of ingesting fungal cells. LPS activation caused augmented release of lactoferrin, an iron-binding protein which itself could inhibit the growth of C. albicans in vitro. Antibodies against lactoferrin effectively and specifically reduced the anti-C. albicans activity of both LPS-stimulated and unstimulated PMN. Northern (RNA blot) analysis showed enhanced production of mRNAs for interleukin-1 beta, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and interleukin-6 and in neutrophils within 1 h of stimulation with LPS. The cytokines were also detected in the supernatant of the activated PMN, and their synthesis was prevented by pretreatment of LPS-stimulated PMN with protein synthesis inhibitors, such as emetine and cycloheximide. These inhibitors, however, did not block either lactoferrin release or the anti-Candida activity of LPS-stimulated PMN. These results demonstrate the ability of various bacterial LPSs to augment neutrophil function against C. albicans and suggest that the release of a candidastatic, iron-binding protein, lactoferrin, may contribute to the antifungal effect of PMN. Moreover, the ability to produce cytokines upon stimulation by ubiquitous microbial products such as the endotoxins points to an extraphagocytic, immunomodulatory role of PMN during infection.
Pinyin as Subword Unit for Chinese-Sourced Neural Machine Translation

Unknown word (UNK) or open vocabulary is a challenging problem for neural machine translation (NMT). For alphabetic languages such as English, German and French, transforming a word into subwords is an effective way to alleviate the UNK problem, such as the Byte Pair encoding (BPE) algorithm. However, for the stroke-based languages, such as Chinese, aforementioned method is not effective enough for translation quality. In this paper, we propose to utilize Pinyin, a romanization system for Chinese characters, to convert Chinese characters to subword units to alleviate the UNK problem. We first investigate that how Pinyin and its four diacritics denoting tones affect translation performance of NMT systems, and then propose different strategies to utilise Pinyin and tones as input factors for Chinese–English NMT. Extensive experiments conducted on Chinese–English translation demonstrate that the proposed methods can remarkably improve the translation quality, and can effectively alleviate the UNK problem for Chinese-sourced translation.
Conjugated linoleic acid-induced milk fat depression in lactating ewes is accompanied by reduced expression of mammary genes involved in lipid synthesis.

Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) are produced during rumen biohydrogenation and exert a range of biological effects. The trans-10,cis-12 CLA isomer is a potent inhibitor of milk fat synthesis in lactating dairy cows and some aspects of the mechanism have been established. Conjugated linoleic acid-induced milk fat depression has also been observed in small ruminants and our objective was to examine the molecular mechanism in lactating ewes. Multiparous lactating ewes were fed a basal ration (0.55:0.45 concentrate-to-forage ratio; dry matter basis) and randomly allocated to 2 dietary CLA levels (n=8 ewes/treatment). Treatments were zero CLA (control) or 15 g/d of lipid-encapsulated CLA supplement containing cis-9,trans-11 and trans-10,cis-12 CLA isomers in equal proportions. Treatments were fed for 10 wk and the CLA supplement provided 1.5 g of trans-10,cis-12/d. No treatment effects were observed on milk yield or milk composition for protein or lactose at wk 10 of the study. In contrast, CLA treatment significantly decreased both milk fat percentage and milk fat yield (g/d) by about 23%. The de novo synthesized fatty acids (FA; C16) was increased (10%) for the CLA treatment. In agreement with the reduced de novo FA synthesis, mRNA abundance of acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase α, FA synthase, stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1, and glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase 6 decreased by 25 to 40% in the CLA-treated group. Conjugated linoleic acid treatment did not significantly reduce the mRNA abundance of enzymes involved in NADPH production, but the mRNA abundance for sterol regulatory element-binding factor 1 and insulin-induced gene 1, genes involved in regulation of transcription of lipogenic enzymes, was decreased by almost 30 and 55%, respectively, with CLA treatment. Furthermore, mRNA abundance of lipoprotein lipase decreased by almost 40% due to CLA treatment. In conclusion, the mechanism for CLA-induced milk fat depression in lactating ewes involved the sterol regulatory element-binding protein transcription factor family and a coordinated downregulation in transcript abundance for lipogenic enzymes involved in mammary lipid synthesis.
Bargaining and coalitions

From book description: Game-Theoretic Models of Bargaining provides a comprehensive picture of the new developments in bargaining theory. It especially shows the way the use of axiomatic models has been complemented by the new results derived from strategic models. The papers in this volume are edited versions of those given at a conference on Game Theoretic Models of Bargaining held at the University of Pittsburgh. There are two distinct reasons why the study of bargaining is of fundamental importance in economics. The first is that many aspects of economic activity are directly influenced by bargaining between and among individuals, firms, and nations. The second is that bargaining occupies an important place in economic theory, since the ‘pure bargaining problem’ is at the opposite pole of economic phenomena from the case of ‘perfect competition’. This volume is an outgrowth of the renewed interest in the strategic approach to the theory of bargaining and to the general theory of non-cooperative games.
Hierarchical 3-D Floorplanning Algorithm for Wirelength Optimization

Three-dimensional (3-D) IC physical design problems are usually of higher complexity, with a greatly enlarged solution space due to multiple device structure. In this paper, a new 3-D floorplanning algorithm is proposed for wirelength optimization. Our main contributions and results can be summarized as follows. First, a new hierarchical flow of 3-D floorplanning with a new inter-layer partitioning method. The blocks are partitioned into different layers before floorplanning. A simulated annealing (SA) engine is used to partition blocks with the objective of minimizing the statistical wirelength estimation results. The solution quality is not degraded by the hierarchical flow. Second, floorplans of all the layers are generated in a SA process. Original 3-D floorplanning problem is transformed into solving several 2-D floorplanning problems simultaneously. The solution space is scaled down to maintain a low design complexity. Finally, Experimental results show that our algorithm improves wirelength by 14%-51% compared with previous 3-D floorplanning algorithms. The hierarchical approach is proven to be very efficient and offers a potential way for high-performance 3-D design
Temporal relation between sleep and mood in patients with bipolar disorder.

BACKGROUND Early recognition of the prodromal symptoms of bipolar disorder, combined with a patient action plan, may help to prevent relapses. Sleep disturbances are frequent warning signs of both mania and depression. This study used cross correlation analysis to characterize the relationship between mood, sleep and bedrest in longitudinal data. METHODS Self-reported mood, sleep and bedrest (mean 169 +/- 59 days of data per patient) from 59 outpatients with bipolar disorder receiving standard treatment were analyzed. The cross correlation function was used to determine the latency between the changes in sleep and/or bedrest and mood for time shifts of between -7 and 7 days. RESULTS For sleep and/or bedrest, a significant inverse correlation was found with the change in mood, most commonly with a time latency of one day. Sleep plus bedrest had the strongest relationship with a change in mood, with a significant correlation in 24 of 59 patients (41%) for the night before or night of a mood change. The patients with a significant cross-correlation between mood and sleep plus bedrest reported about two thirds of all large sleep changes of >3 h and three fourths of all large mood changes (>20 on 100-unit scale). Patients with a significant cross correlation were more likely to take benzodiazepines. CONCLUSION In most patients with a significant cross correlation between sleep and/or bedrest and mood, the mood change occurred on the day following the change in sleep and/or bedrest. Sleep changes from a previous pattern, especially those of more than 3 h, may indicate that a large mood change is imminent.
CKD-mineral and bone disorder and risk of death and cardiovascular hospitalization in patients on hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Parathyroid hormone, calcium, and phosphate have been independently associated with cardiovascular event risk. Because these parameters may be on the same causal pathway and have been proposed as quality measures, an integrated approach to estimating event risks is needed. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS Prevalent dialysis patients were followed from August 31, 2005 to December 31, 2006. A two-stage modeling approach was used. First, the 16-month probabilities of death and composite end point of death or cardiovascular hospitalization were estimated and adjusted for potential confounders. Second, patients were categorized into 1 of 36 possible phenotypes using average parathyroid hormone, calcium, and phosphate values over a 4-month baseline period. Associations among phenotypes and outcomes were estimated and adjusted for the underlying event risk estimated from the first model stage. RESULTS Of 26,221 patients, 98.5% of patients were in 22 groups with at least 100 patients and 20% of patients were in the reference group defined using guideline-based reference ranges for parathyroid hormone, calcium, and phosphate. Within the 22 most common phenotypes, 20% of patients were in groups with significantly (P<0.05) higher risk of death and 54% of patients were in groups with significantly higher risk of the composite end point relative to the in-target reference group. Increased risks ranged from 15% to 47% for death and from 8% to 55% for the composite. More than 40% of all patients were in the three largest groups with elevated composite end point risk (high parathyroid hormone, target calcium, and high phosphate; target high parathyroid hormone, target calcium, and high phosphate; and target high parathyroid hormone, target calcium, and target phosphate). CONCLUSION After adjusting for baseline risk, phenotypes defined by categories of parathyroid hormone, calcium, and phosphate identify patients at higher risk of death and cardiovascular hospitalization. Identifying common high-risk phenotypes may inform clinical interventions and policies related to quality of care.
A candle in the wind or a beacon for the future? Professional associations - facing an uncertain future?

The current uncertainty among information professionals over jobs, qualifications and future prospects has caused some loss of faith in their professional associations’ ability or willingness to do anything to halt the downward trends, or to respond to their members’ needs for visible and persuasive championship. Perhaps these traditional bodies need to be replaced with active and positive alternatives — but how, where and with what? An analysis of successes and failures focusing particularly on the associations important to those working in business, industry and consultancy organizations might help to clarify the way ahead.
An Economic Assessment of Parents' Self-Composure: The Case of Physical Child Abuse

Abstract This paper uses a maximum likelihood procedure that accounts for unobserved heterogeneity in the sample to implement a preference-based model to assess factors that influence parents' likelihood of losing their composure and physically abusing their children. A basic supposition of the model is that parents prefer to deal with parent-child conflict by choosing tactics and behaviors that do not exceed a specified level of violence; however, endogenous parent and child behaviors and exogenous circumstances may arouse parents' emotions that cause this level to be exceeded. Our results suggest policy interventions that influence such circumstances and associated behaviors may strongly influence the incidence of physical child abuse. We estimate the ex ante annual value parents attach to risk reductions of self-composure losses associated with excessive parent-child violence. This value is shown to be greater than currently estimated annual savings in ex post costs associated with a comparable decrease in U.S. physical child abuse incidence.
Efficiency estimation of all optical contension detection in optical router for 60 Gbps

In this paper, optical logic circuit based on XGM, FWM effect of single SOA symmetry for optical packet contention detection is presented. All the decisions making, and processing of incoming signals are performed in optical domain for data rate of 60 Gbps. The contention detector efficiency is analyzed for increase in input optical power with different pump power.
Centralisation Of Wage Bargaining And Macroeconomic Performance

Starting from the theoretical argument underlying the “hump shape” hypothesis, the paper investigates the various dimensions of centralisation in the wage formation process. The diversity of effects discussed in the paper makes it harder to arrive at unambiguous policy conclusions. Careful analysis of the various features and economy-wide direct as well as indirect effect of the degree of centralisation in the wage formation process suggests that there exists various trade-offs, the most important of which appears to be that between real wage restraint and relative wage flexibility: centralisation favours the former but reduces the latter. This suggests that its effect on macroeconomic performance depends on the type of shocks affecting the economy . Cette tude analyse les divers aspects de la centralisation dans le processus de formation des salaires en s'appuyant sur l'hypothse thorique de "courbe en U inverse". La diversit des effets analyss rend ambigu les conclusions politiques qui peuvent tre tires de ce papier. Une tude minutieuse des divers aspects de la centralisation et de leurs effets tant directs qu'indirects, sur le processus de formation des salaires suggre qu'il existe diffrent choix d'objectifs, le plus important semble tre entre la contrainte de salaire rel et la flexibilit du salaire relatif : la centralisation favorise le premier et affaiblit le second. Ceci suggre que l'impact sur la performance macro-conomique dpend du type de choc affectant l'conomie .
A probabilistic approach to measure hotel service quality

In this paper we present a probabilistic approach to the evaluation of hotel service quality. The proposed model stems from the need to provide hotel management with a diagnostic tool to evaluate and control the service quality from the customer satisfaction perspective. In order to manage a service effectively, its main quality 'elements' need to be evaluated, identifying suitable standards of comparison and verifying that the quality requirements are fulfilled. The quality elements of the hotel service can be classified into different categories. So the proposed model evaluates the contribution of each category to the hotel service quality level by identifying the logical structures which represent the relationships between them (the categories) and customer satisfaction. The practical implementation of the model does not involve the customers but only some quality experts who are specifically instructed in simulating, in a short time, several contacts between customers and service. A practical application of the method to the hotel industry is analysed and discussed.
Is the Phillips Curve Really a Curve? Some Evidence for Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States

Previous tests for convexity in the Phillips curve have been biased because researchers have employed filtering techniques for the nonaccelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) that have been fundamentally inconsistent with the existence of convexity. This paper places linear and nonlinear models of the Phillips curve on an equal statistical footing by estimating model-consistent measures of the NAIRU. After imposing plausible restrictions on the variability in the NAIRU, we find that the nonlinear model fits the data best. The implications for the macro-economic policy debate are that policymakers who are unsuccessful in stabilizing the business cycle will induce a higher natural rate of unemployment.