Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knowledge Acquisition Strategies and Company Performance in Young High Technology Companies

Research on knowledge strategies argues that the configuration of activities used by companies to acquire new and leverage existing knowledge is an important influencing factor of company performance. However, we do not know very much about how companies actually structure knowledge acquisition. In addition, we do not know which configurations of knowledge acquisition are conducive to company performance. Furthermore, knowledge strategies have largely been neglected in the context of young and entrepreneurial companies. Drawing on an explorative analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, we investigate strategies and activities for knowledge acquisition in the context of young biotechnology companies in Germany. The study reveals four distinct knowledge acquisition strategies (low key, mid range, focus and explorer) and shows that these strategies differ in their relation to company performance as a result of their configuration of knowledge acquisition activities and the type of knowledge acquired.
Lyapunov design of a new model reference adaptive control system using partial a priori information

A new approach to adaptive model reference control, based on Lyapunov's direct method, is presented. A design procedure for single output systems has been developed and the re­ sults verified by computer simulation. The algorithm presented in this paper guarantees asymptotic stability, provided that the transfer function of the equivalent error system is strictly positive real. Since the direct Lyapunov's method is used, the stability conditions are sufficient but not necessary. Therefore, the assumptions are more stringent than they need be. Consequently, as verified by simulation, the algorithm performs very well even if those assumptions are violated. The implementation of the proposed algorithm requires a priori partial information on the plant.
Sphingosine 1-Phosphate Distribution in Human Plasma: Associations with Lipid Profiles

The physiological significance of sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) transport in blood has been debated. We have recently reported a comprehensive sphingolipid profile in human plasma and lipoprotein particles (VLDL, LDL, and HDL) using HPLC-MS/MS (Hammad et al., 2010). We now determined the relative concentrations of sphingolipids including S1P in the plasma subfraction containing lipoproteins compared to those in the remaining plasma proteins. Sphingomyelin and ceramide were predominantly recovered in the lipoprotein-containing fraction. Total plasma S1P concentration was positively correlated with S1P concentration in the protein-containing fraction, but not with S1P concentration in the lipoprotein-containing fraction. The percentage of S1P transported in plasma lipoproteins was positively correlated with HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) concentration; however, S1P transport in lipoproteins was not limited by the concentration of HDL-C in the individual subject. Thus, different plasma pools of S1P may have different contributions to S1P signaling in health and disease.
A Model Framework to Estimate Impact and Cost of Genetics-Based Sterile Insect Methods for Dengue Vector Control

Vector-borne diseases impose enormous health and economic burdens and additional methods to control vector populations are clearly needed. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) has been successful against agricultural pests, but is not in large-scale use for suppressing or eliminating mosquito populations. Genetic RIDL technology (Release of Insects carrying a Dominant Lethal) is a proposed modification that involves releasing insects that are homozygous for a repressible dominant lethal genetic construct rather than being sterilized by irradiation, and could potentially overcome some technical difficulties with the conventional SIT technology. Using the arboviral disease dengue as an example, we combine vector population dynamics and epidemiological models to explore the effect of a program of RIDL releases on disease transmission. We use these to derive a preliminary estimate of the potential cost-effectiveness of vector control by applying estimates of the costs of SIT. We predict that this genetic control strategy could eliminate dengue rapidly from a human community, and at lower expense (approximately US$ 2∼30 per case averted) than the direct and indirect costs of disease (mean US$ 86–190 per case of dengue). The theoretical framework has wider potential use; by appropriately adapting or replacing each component of the framework (entomological, epidemiological, vector control bio-economics and health economics), it could be applied to other vector-borne diseases or vector control strategies and extended to include other health interventions.
Assessment of activity trackers: toward an acceptance model

In this project we seek to understand the factors that influence user acceptance of Activity Trackers, through a model that quantifies how users come to adhere to the use of Activity Trackers. The proposed research model and hypotheses were validated and tested with data collected from a cross-sectional survey conducted using a self-selected convenience sample. Constructs from half dozen of established models were gathered into a suppositional model, based on their hypothetical applicable relevance for the Activity Trackers use. The results were analyzed using a variety of statistical techniques including Structural Equation analysis. The final result can be a first step for researchers aiming to complement their own processes of study, ideation or design of Activity by taking into account factors such as Usefulness, Ease of Use, Health Consciousness, Hedonic Motivation, Image, Habit, etc.
Improved error bounds for rate-1/2, terminated convolutional codes with QPSK in Nakagami-m fading channels

This paper presents tighter performance upper bounds for the bit error probability of terminated convolutional codes combined with QPSK modulation operating over frequency non-selective Nakagami-m fading channels. In particular, a method to derive the weight enumerators for rate-1/2, terminated convolutional codes with QPSK modulation is shown and the tighter upper bounds are derived using new weight enumerators. Simulation results prove that the derived upper bounds are tighter than the conventional upper bounds.
Comprehensive analysis of insertion elements in circuit breaker to reduce switching overvoltages

One of the switching overvoltage reduction methods of ultra high voltage (UHV) transmission line is to use a pre-insertion resistor in the circuit breaker. There are no comprehensive and specific references concerning the pre-insertion resistor. In this paper, utilizing the closing resistor for switching overvoltage reduction is completely studied. In addition, the installation of inductor and capacitor in parallel with circuit breaker is comprehensively studied. The advantages of using resistor in parallel with circuit breaker instead of the inductor and capacitor are also compared. The analyses are verified by simulations on an actual 400 kV transmission line of Azerbaijan province network in Iran using ATPDRAW software and Electro Magnetical Transient Program.
On an Online Spanning Tree Problem in Randomly Weighted Graphs

This paper is devoted to an online variant of the minimum spanning tree problem in randomly weighted graphs. We assume that the input graph is complete and the edge weights are uniformly distributed over [0,1]. An algorithm receives the edges one by one and has to decide immediately whether to include the current edge into the spanning tree or to reject it. The corresponding edge sequence is determined by some adversary. We propose an algorithm which achieves $\mathbb{E}[ALG]/\mathbb{E}[OPT]=O(1)$ and $\mathbb{E}[ALG/OPT]=O(1)$ against a fair adaptive adversary, i.e., an adversary which determines the edge order online and is fair in a sense that he does not know more about the edge weights than the algorithm. Furthermore, we prove that no online algorithm performs better than $\mathbb{E}[ALG]/\mathbb{E}[OPT]=\Omega(\log n)$ if the adversary knows the edge weights in advance. This lower bound is tight, since there is an algorithm which yields $\mathbb{E}[ALG]/\mathbb{E}[OPT]=O(\log n)$ against the strongest-imaginable adversary.
ON 2 2 SYSTEMS OF CONSERVATION LAWS WITH FLUXES THAT ARE ENTROPIES

In this article, we study systems of conservation laws with two de- pendent and two independent variables which have the property that the fluxes are entropies. Several characterizations of such flux functions are presented. It turns out, that the corresponding systems automatically possess a large class of additional entropies, they are closely related to a kinetic equation, and, in the case of strict hyperbolicity, they can be decoupled into two independent Burgers' equations. The isentropic Euler equations with zero or cubic pressure laws are the most prominent examples of such systems, but other examples are also presented.
Effect of Pitch Type, Pitch Count, and Pitching Mechanics on Risk of Elbow and Shoulder Pain in Youth Baseball Pitchers

Background Joint pain is thought to be an early sign of injury to a pitcher. Objective To evaluate the association between pitch counts, pitch types, and pitching mechanics and shoulder and elbow pain in young pitchers. Study Design Prospective cohort study. Methods Four hundred and seventy-six young (ages 9 to 14 years) baseball pitchers were followed for one season. Data were collected from pre- and postseason questionnaires, injury and performance interviews after each game, pitch count logs, and video analysis of pitching mechanics. Generalized estimating equations and logistic regression analysis were used. Results Half of the subjects experienced elbow or shoulder pain during the season. The curveball was associated with a 52% increased risk of shoulder pain and the slider was associated with an 86% increased risk of elbow pain. There was a significant association between the number of pitches thrown in a game and during the season and the rate of elbow pain and shoulder pain. Conclusions Pitchers in this age group should be cautioned about throwing breaking pitches (curveballs and sliders) because of the increased risk of elbow and shoulder pain. Limitations on pitches thrown in a game and in a season can also reduce the risk of pain. Further evaluation of pain and pitching mechanics is necessary.
Life and health satisfaction in the adult population of Iran

OBJECTIVES Increasing interest has emerged in the use of subjective well-being as a development indicator and for the evaluation of public policies. The aim of this study was to assess life and health satisfaction and their determinants in the adult population of Iran. METHODS We conducted a survey of a sample of 3,150 adults at least 18 years of age in Tehran, the capital of Iran. The subjects were selected using a stratified random sampling method, and they were interviewed face-to-face at their usual residence by trained interviewers. Life satisfaction was used as a measure of subjective well-being. We used ordinary least square regression models to assess the associations of life and health satisfaction with socio-demographic variables. RESULTS On a 0-10 scale, the mean (standard deviation) scores for life and health satisfaction were 6.93 (2.54) and 7.18 (1.97), respectively. The average score for life satisfaction in females was 0.52 points higher than in males. A U-shaped relationship was found between age and life satisfaction, with respondents 35 to 44 years of age having the lowest average level of life satisfaction. Satisfaction with life and health among divorced respondents was significantly lower than among never-married and married participants. The scores for life satisfaction in respondents who rated their health status as poor were 3.83 points lower than in those who rated their health status as excellent. CONCLUSIONS The majority of the population of Tehran was satisfied with their life and health. Self-rated health status had the greatest impact on life satisfaction.
Low-Back Biomechanics and Static Stability During Isometric Pushing

Pushing and pulling tasks are increasingly prevalent in industrial workplaces. Few studies have investigated low-back biomechanical risk factors associated with pushing, and we are aware of none that has quantified spinal stability during pushing exertions. Data recorded from 11 healthy participants performing isometric pushing exertions demonstrated that trunk posture, vector force direction of the applied load, and trunk moment were influenced (p < .01) by exertion level, elevation of the handle for the pushing task, and foot position. A biomechanical model was used to analyze the posture and hand force data gathered from the pushing exertions. Model results indicate that pushing exertions provide significantly (p < .01) less stability than lifting when antagonistic cocontraction is ignored. However, stability can be augmented by recruitment of muscle cocontraction. Results suggest that cocontraction may be recruited to compensate for the fact that equilibrium mechanics provide little intrinsic trunk stiffness and stability during pushing exertions. If one maintains stability by means of cocontraction, additional spinal load is thereby created, increasing the risk of overload injury. Thus it is important to consider muscle cocontraction when evaluating the biomechanics of pushing exertions. Potential applications of this research include improved assessment of biomechanical risk factors for the design of industrial pushing tasks.
Developing a Leadership Identity: A Grounded Theory

This grounded theory study on developing a leadership identity revealed a 6-stage developmental process. The thirteen diverse students in this study described their leadership identity as moving from a leader-centric view to one that embraced leadership as a collaborative, relational process. Developing a leadership identity was connected to the categories of developmental influences, developing self, group influences, students' changing view of self with others, and students' broadening view of leadership. A conceptual model illustrating the grounded theory of developing a leadership identity is presented.
A 20/40-GHz Dual-Band Voltage-Controlled Frequency Source in 0.13-$\mu{\hbox {m}}$ CMOS

An LC-type voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and a push-push frequency doubler are presented for 20/40-GHz dual-band design in standard 0.13-μm CMOS. Combining the varactor with the transconductance-tuned regime, the VCO is realized to arrive at the range extension for high-frequency operation. In addition, a technique using sensitivity distribution is adopted to achieve linear tuning range. The VCO provides the tuning range of 19.8-22.6 GHz, and the measured phase noise at 21.2-GHz frequency is -105.7 dBc/Hz at a 1-MHz offset. The doubler following the VCO can provide twice the frequency over the tuning range and generate output with better fundamental rejection resulting from the notch characteristic. The measured phase noise of the doubler at 42.4-GHz frequency is -94.6 dBc/Hz at a 1-MHz offset while dissipating 8 mW in the whole circuit.
Towards speech rate independence in large vocabulary continuous speech recognition

We present a new speech rate classifier (SRC) which is directly based on the dynamic coefficients of the feature vectors and it is suitable to be used in real time. We also report the study that has been carried out to determine what parameters of speech are the best regarding the speech rate classification problem. In this study we analyse the correlation between several speech parameters and the average speech rate of the utterance. Finally, we report a compensation technique, which is used together with the SRC. This technique provides with a word error rate (WER) reduction of a 64.1% for slow speech rate and a 32% reduction of the average WER.
Microtubule-targeting agents inhibit angiogenesis at subtoxic concentrations, a process associated with inhibition of Rac1 and Cdc42 activity and changes in the endothelial cytoskeleton

Conventional anticancer agents may display antiangiogenic effects, but the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. We determined the antiangiogenic properties of cisplatin, doxorubicin, and the microtubule-targeting agents docetaxel, epothilone B, and vinblastine at concentrations not affecting cell proliferation. We also assessed tubulin and actin morphology and the activity of two key molecules in cell motility, the small Rho GTPases Cdc42 and Rac1. The highest non-toxic concentration (HNTC) of each drug was defined as the concentration inhibiting a maximum of 10% human umbilical vein endothelial cell growth on a 1-hour drug exposure, being for cisplatin 10 μmol/L, doxorubicin 100 nmol/L, docetaxel 10 nmol/L, epothilone B 1 nmol/L, and vinblastine 10 nmol/L. Comparative endothelial cell functional assays using HNTCs for an exposure time of 1 hour indicated that endothelial cell migration in the wound assay, endothelial cell invasion in a transwell invasion system, and endothelial cell formation into tubelike structures on a layer of Matrigel were significantly inhibited by docetaxel, epothilone B, and vinblastine (P < 0.05), but not by cisplatin and doxorubicin. Docetaxel was slightly more efficient in the inhibition of endothelial cell motility than epothilone B and vinblastine. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that only the microtubule-targeting agents affected the integrity of the tubulin and F-actin cytoskeleton, which showed disturbed microtubule structures, less F-actin stress fiber formation, and appearance of nuclear F-actin rings. These observations were associated with early inhibition of Rac1 and Cdc42 activity. In conclusion, HNTCs of microtubule-targeting agents efficiently reduce endothelial cell motility by interference with microtubule dynamics preventing the activation of Rac1/Cdc42 and disorganizing the actin cytoskeleton. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(8):2348–57]
Properties of Pseudoholomorphic Curves in Symplectisations Iv: Asymptotics with Degeneracies

We study pseudoholomorphic maps ~ u = (a; u): _ S ! R M de-ned on punctured Riemannian surfaces, satisfying T ~ u i = ~ J T ~ u, with a special almost complex structure ~ J associated with a contact form on the 3-dimensional compact manifold M. If the energy of ~ u is bounded, the projection u into M tends, as jzj ! 1, to a periodic orbit x(t) of the Reeb vector eld X deened by. We describe the precise asymptotic behavior of ~ u, assuming that x(t) is not isolated but rather lies on a 2-dimensional surface in M foliated by periodic orbits. We establish an asymptotic formula demonstrating the exponential nature of the asymptotics. Contents 1. Introduction and main results 1 2. A normal form and the basic setup 5 3. Localization of the end 9 4. Exponential decay estimates in the normal direction 22 5. The representation formula 25 6. Exponential estimates in the tangential direction 32 References 34
Applying low rank representation based spatial pyramid matching in welding image classification

Spatial Pyramid Matching (SPM) and related methods have been found perform well in general image classification. A recently proposed improvement on this was LrrSPM, which used low rank representation of encode the SIFT descriptors, to achieve comparable recognition rates, with faster processing speeds. While image classification of this kind has been applied to many fields, an area where this has not been used is in industrial welding applications. This paper attempts to apply LrrSPM to welding image datasets, and show comparable classification results. It also proposes a cognitive architecture involving associative neural networks to perform classification on the images.
Graph relationship discovery using Pregel computing model

Distributed computing is widely used nowdays. Its computational power and memory resources are vital for computations with large-scale datasets, which cannot be handled with a stand-alone system. Pregel is a novel graph distributed computing model, featuring vertex-centric computing, divided into a set of supersteps. In this paper we propose a new algorithm called Pregel Computing Model Algorithm for Relationship Search (PCMARS). Our algorithm is well suited for both directed and undirected graphs, where edges can be weighted and typed. Typed edges are used in RDF graph model for Big Data notion. PCMARS is able to simulate traversal in the opposite direction of the edge, it does not use additional indexing, nor does it change graph structure. We demonstrate PCMARS in our example scenario with the use of Freebase dataset and several test case graphs.
3-D model-based segmentation of videoconference image sequences

This paper describes a three-dimensional (3-D) model-based unsupervised procedure for the segmentation of multiview image sequences using multiple sources of information. The 3-D model is initialized by accurate adaptation of a two-dimensional wireframe model to the foreground object of one of the views. The articulation procedure is based on the homogeneity of parameters, such as rigid 3-D motion, color, and depth, estimated for each subobject, which consists of a number of interconnected triangles of the 3-D model. The rigid 3-D motion of each subobject for subsequent frames is estimated using a Kalman filtering algorithm, taking into account the temporal correlation between consecutive frames. Information from all cameras is combined during the formation of the equations for the rigid 3-D motion parameters. The threshold used in the object segmentation procedure is updated at each iteration using the histogram of the subobject parameters. The parameter estimation for each subobject and the 3-D model segmentation procedures are interleaved and repeated iteratively until a satisfactory object segmentation emerges. The performance of the resulting segmentation method is evaluated experimentally.
Short-Term Traffic Flow Prediction Based on ANFIS

Accurate short-term traffic flow prediction has become a critical problem in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). In the paper, a kind of adaptive prediction method for short-term traffic flow based on ANFIS (adaptive-network-based fuzzy interference system) model was presented. ANFIS is a fuzzy interference tool implemented in the framework of adaptive network. It combines the comprehensibility of fuzzy rules and the adaptability and self-learning algorithms of neural networks. The traffic flow prediction model with 104 changeable parameters will be established through the training process, the goal of which is reduce the prediction errors between real predicting output the ANFIS model and the desired output. The result of simulation research demonstrates that this method has the advantage of high precision and good adaptability. This scheme is novel and advanced in the domain of the road traffic flow prediction. The application of the scheme will remarkably improve the response efficiency and precision degree of the road traffic inducement and control system in our country.
GLAD: a mixed-membership model for heterogeneous tumor subtype classification

MOTIVATION Genomic analyses of many solid cancers have demonstrated extensive genetic heterogeneity between as well as within individual tumors. However, statistical methods for classifying tumors by subtype based on genomic biomarkers generally entail an all-or-none decision, which may be misleading for clinical samples containing a mixture of subtypes and/or normal cell contamination. RESULTS We have developed a mixed-membership classification model, called glad, that simultaneously learns a sparse biomarker signature for each subtype as well as a distribution over subtypes for each sample. We demonstrate the accuracy of this model on simulated data, in-vitro mixture experiments, and clinical samples from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project. We show that many TCGA samples are likely a mixture of multiple subtypes. AVAILABILITY A python module implementing our algorithm is available from http://genomics.wpi. edu/glad/. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.