Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tariff Rate Quotas : A Market Access Barrier for Developing Countries Products ? The Case of Switzerland

At present WTO member countries use a total of 1425 tariff rate quotas (TRQs) on agricultural products. The implementation of TRQs was envisaged, among other things, as a means to improve market access for developing countries exports. Since most of the developing countries are potentially large exporters of agricultural products and market access opportunities for exporters from developing countries are strongly dependent on the administration of TRQs, the administration of TRQs are a matter of concern for these countries. Using Switzerland as a case study, this paper discusses whether tariff rate quotas enhance or discriminate against market access for developing country agricultural exports. Classification: Tariff rate quotas, developing countries, agriculture 1 Research Associate, SIAW-HSG, Dufourstr. 48, Universität St. Gallen, CH 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland Email: sangeeta.khorana@unisg.ch The author wishes to thank the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) for the funding support for this project. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SECO or any other organisation.
Fine-grain thermal profiling and sensor insertion for FPGAs

Increasing logic densities and clock frequencies on FPGAs lead to rapid increase in power density, which translates to higher on-chip temperature. In this paper, we investigate the thermal behavior of general applications on fine-grain reconfigurable fabrics and we introduce the pre-mapping sensor insertion problem for thermal monitoring. Our study shows that on average the maximum temperature on the chip is 19.5degC higher than the ambient temperature for a transition density of 0.5 at the primary inputs. For fine-grain reconfigurable devices targeted for general applications it is difficult to predict the locations of potential hotspots a priori. However, programmability presents a unique opportunity for effective thermal monitoring. It would allow us to perform a thermal simulation on a given design first and obtain the locations of potential points of interest in a design. Then, in the pre-mapping stage the design can be updated with insertion of thermal sensors. Given a set of expected hot spots in a design we aim to determine the minimum number of sensors and their locations in order to monitor these locations with a given sensitivity requirement. Since the thermal sensors are implemented using unused CLBs on the fabric it is essential to use the logic resources efficiently. We propose an efficient algorithm to solve the sensor placement problem addressing this optimization goal
An improved full-bridge zero-voltage-switched PWM converter using a saturable inductor

The saturable inductor is employed in the full-bridge (FB) zero voltage switched (ZVS) pulse width modulated (PWM) power converter to improve its performance. The current and voltage stresses of the switches as well as parasitic oscillations are significantly reduced compared to those of the conventional FB-ZVS-PWM power converter. The qualitative analysis is presented and is verified on a 500 kHz, 5 V/40 A converter. >
Modeling and Control of an Antagonistic Shape Memory Alloy Actuator

Abstract. This work presents the modeling, grey-box parameter estimation and control design of a force-cooled antagonistic shape memory alloy (SMA) rotational actuator. The model is based on a sub-layer phase transformation approach, taking account the large non-linearities that rise from the phase-transformation dynamics (in special, the highly hysteretic dynamics). A Quadratic Sequential Algorithm is used to estimate the model parameters and fit the real data of a tested bench model in the modeled parameters. At last, two model-referenced control schemes, both nonlinear, are designed and simulated using the estimated model, each in force and position control modes. The first control scheme is a nonlinear feedback linearization, which does not take account eventual model or parameter error effect. Then, a nonlinear sliding mode controller with limit layer, more robust to eventual mismatch in modeling and state estimation is introduced and simulated. Both are then compared in terms of stability, dynamic response and cutoff frequency.
Perceived Instability of Virtual Haptic Texture: III. Effect of Update Rate

This study investigates the effect of update rate on the quality of haptic virtual textures, with the goal to develop a guideline for choosing an optimal update rate for haptic texture rendering. Two metrics, control stability and perceived quality of the virtual haptic texture, were used. For control stability, we examined the effect of update rate on the buzzing of virtual haptic textures. For perceived quality, we measured the discriminability of virtual haptic textures rendered at different update rates. Our study indicates that update rates much higher than the conventional 1 kHz are needed in order to achieve a stable rendering of clean and hard textured surfaces. We also found that our ability to distinguish textures rendered with different update rates depends on whether the virtual textures contain perceived instability. Based on these results, we provide a general guideline for selecting an optimal update rate for rendering virtual textured surfaces.
1 3 D Reconstruction from Two Views

In this project, we study a method to reconstruct a 3D scene from two views. First, we extract and match SIFT keypoints from two images, based on which we compute the fundamental matrix that relates the two images. Then we derive the camera matrices and reconstruct the 3D scene. To achieve better visual effects, we interpolate between the sparse 3D points. In order to do that, we first pick a point in one 2D image and find out the according matching point in another 2D image by searching along the epipolar line. Then the interpolation can be applied in each of the object's planes. Our results show a good 3D reconstruction from several viewpoints.
Plug-in electric vehicle charging demand estimation based on queueing network analysis

Charging stations are critical infrastructure for the integration of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in the future distribution systems. With a steadily increasing PEV penetration level, the PEV charging demands of charging stations are expected to constitute a significant portion of the total electric power demands. An accurate estimation of PEV charging demands is crucial for the planning and operation of future distribution systems. However, the estimation remains a challenging issue, as the charging demands of nearby charging stations are closely correlated to each other and depend on vehicle drivers' response to charging prices. The evaluation of charging demands is further complicated by the highly dynamic vehicle mobility, which results in random PEV arrivals and departures. In order to address these challenges, a BCMP queueing network model is presented in this paper, in which each charging station is modeled as a service center with multiple servers (chargers) and PEVs are modeled as the customers in the service centers. Based on the stationary distribution of the number of PEVs in each charging station, the statistics of PEV charging demands can be obtained. The analytical model is validated by a case study based on realistic vehicle statistics extracted from 2009 National Household Travel Survey and New York State Transportation Federation Traffic Data Viewer.
Whole-Arm Rehabilitation Following Stroke: Hand Module

In 1991, a novel robot named MIT-MANUS was introduced as a test bed to study the potential of using robots to assist in and quantify the neuro-rehabilitation of motor function. It introduced a new brand of therapy, offering a highly backdrivable mechanism with a soft and stable feel for the user. MIT-MANUS proved an excellent fit for shoulder and elbow rehabilitation in stroke patients, showing in clinical trials a reduction of impairment in these joints. The greater reduction in impairment was observed in the group of muscles exercised. This suggests a need for additional robots to rehabilitate other target areas of the body. The focus here is a robot for hand rehabilitation. Previous work has expanded the planar MIT-MANUS including an anti-gravity robot for shoulder-and-elbow training, and a wrist robot for wrist flexion-extension, abduction-adduction, and pronation-supination training. In this paper we present the "missing link": a hand robot. We will discuss the basic system design and characterization. A comprehensive review of the hand robot design, characterization, and initial whole-arm clinical results are being submitted elsewhere (IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering)
The cost-effectiveness, health benefits, and financial costs of new antiviral treatments for hepatitis C virus.

BACKGROUND New hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatments deliver higher cure rates with fewer contraindications, increasing demand for treatment and healthcare costs. The cost-effectiveness of new treatments is unknown. METHODS We conducted a microsimulation of guideline testing followed by alternative treatment regimens for HCV among the US population aged 20 and older to estimate cases identified, treated, sustained viral response, deaths, medical costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of different treatment options expressed as discounted lifetime costs and benefits from the healthcare perspective. RESULTS Compared to treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin (PR), and a protease inhibitor for HCV genotype (G) 1 and PR alone for G2/3, treatment with PR and Sofosbuvir (PRS) for G1/4 and treatment with Sofosbuvir and ribavirin (SR) for G2/3 increased QALYs by 555 226, reduced deaths by 80 682, and increased costs by $26.2 billion at an ICER of $47 304 per QALY gained. As compared to PRS/SR, treating with an all oral regimen of Sofosbuvir and Simeprevir (SS) for G1/4 and SR for G2/3, increased QALYs by 1 110 451 and reduced deaths by an additional 164 540 at an incremental cost of $80.1 billion and an ICER of $72 169. In sensitivity analysis, where treatment with SS effectiveness was set to the list price of Viekira Pak and then Harvoni, treatment cost $24 921 and $25 405 per QALY gained as compared to PRS/SR. CONCLUSIONS New treatments are cost-effectiveness per person treated, but pent-up demand for treatment may create challenges for financing.
Correlation analysis of seizure detection features

Automated seizure detection is important for speeding up epilepsy diagnosis or for controlling an implantable brain stimulator to avert seizures. Various features calculated from the electroencephalogram (EEG) can be used to detect seizures, and combining features can give superior detection performance. This paper investigates the correlation between seizure detection features in order to determine which ones should be combined for the purposes of seizure detection. Combinations of three features involving relative average amplitude, relative scale energy, coefficient of variation of amplitude, relative power, relative gradient and bounded variation tended to show the lowest correlations.
A 40.0 GS/S TIME INTERLEAVED 6 BIT FLASHADC FOR 40GBE APPLICATIONS

This paper presents the analog back end design of a 40-GS/s 6-bit Flash ADC for 40GbE applications. It is designed in a 45 nm CMOS technology on the basis of a 16-fold time-interleaving procedure. In this work a 6-b 2.5 - GS/s flash ADC was designed (which is used for time interleaving) with a time-domain latch interpolation method that reduces the number of dynamic comparators used in the first stage of ADC by half. The reduced number of comparators lowers load capacitance to the sample and hold circuit, power consumption and the overhead of comparator calibration. The measured peak DNL and INL are 0.53 and 0.61 LSB, respectively. The calculated SFDR and SNDR are 42.1 and 33.3 dB, and the power consumption is about 69mW.
On quantum advantage in dense coding

The quantum advantage of dense coding—the increase in the rate of classical information transmission due to shared entanglement—is studied. General encoding quantum operations are considered. Particular attention is devoted to the case of many senders and one receiver. It is shown that restrictions on the possible operations among the many senders can strongly affect the usefulness of a shared quantum state for dense coding. It is shown, e.g., that there are states that do not provide any quantum advantage if communication among the senders is not allowed, but are useful for dense coding as soon as the senders can communicate classically. These results are actually independent of the particular quantification of the quantum advantage, being valid for any reasonable definition of such a rate increase. It is further shown that the quantum advantage of dense coding satisfies a monogamy relation with the so-called entanglement of purification.
Failure of anti tumor-derived endothelial cell immunotherapy depends on augmentation of tumor hypoxia

We have previously demonstrated that Tenascin-C (TNC)+ human neuroblastoma (NB) cells transdifferentiate into tumor-derived endothelial cells (TDEC), which have been detected both in primary tumors and in tumors formed by human NB cell lines in immunodeficient mice. TDEC are genetically unstable and may favor tumor progression, suggesting that their elimination could reduce tumor growth and dissemination. So far, TDEC have never been targeted by antibody-mediated immunotherapy in any of the tumor models investigated. To address this issue, immunodeficient mice carrying orthotopic NB formed by the HTLA-230 human cell line were treated with TDEC-targeting cytotoxic human (h)CD31, that spares host-derived endothelial cells, or isotype-matched mAbs. hCD31 mAb treatment did not affect survival of NB-bearing mice, but increased significantly hypoxia in tumor microenvironment, where apoptotic and proliferating TDEC coexisted, indicating the occurrence of vascular remodeling. Tumor cells from hCD31 mAb treated mice showed i) up-regulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related and vascular mimicry (VM)-related gene expression, ii) expression of endothelial (i.e. CD31 and VE-cadherin) and EMT-associated (i.e. Twist-1, N-cadherin and TNC) immunophenotypic markers, and iii) up-regulation of high mobility group box-1 (HMGB-1) expression. In vitro experiments with two NB cell lines showed that hypoxia was the common driver of all the above phenomena and that human recombinant HMGB-1 amplified EMT and TDEC trans-differentiation. In conclusion, TDEC targeting with hCD31 mAb increases tumor hypoxia, setting the stage for the occurrence of EMT and of new waves of TDEC trans-differentiation. These adaptive responses to the changes induced by immunotherapy in the tumor microenvironment allow tumor cells to escape from the effects of hCD31 mAb.
Antibodies against neutrophil LY6G do not inhibit leukocyte recruitment in mice in vivo.

To the editor: Ly6G is a marker of neutrophils, but the function of this GPI-linked receptor has remained mysterious. Wang et al provided data implicating Ly6G in regulating leukocyte migration. [1][1] These investigators found that low doses of antibodies (10 μg total administration) directed
The Impact of Injections of Different Nutrients on the Bacterial Community and Its Dechlorination Activity in Chloroethene-Contaminated Groundwater

Dehalococcoides spp. are currently the only organisms known to completely reduce cis-1,2-dichloroethene (cis-DCE) and vinyl chloride (VC) to non-toxic ethene. However, the activation of fermenting bacteria that generate acetate, hydrogen, and CO2 is considered necessary to enhance the dechlorination activity of Dehalococcoides and enable the complete dechlorination of chloroethenes. In the present study, we stimulated chloroethene-contaminated groundwater by injecting different nutrients prepared from yeast extract or polylactate ester using a semicontinuous culture system. We then evaluated changes in the bacterial community structure and their relationship with dechlorination activity during the biostimulation. The populations of Dehalococcoides and the phyla Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Spirochaetes increased in the yeast extract-amended cultures and chloroethenes were completely dechlorinated. However, the phylum Proteobacteria was dominant in polylactate ester-amended cultures, in which almost no cis-DCE and VC were dechlorinated. These results provide fundamental information regarding possible interactions among bacterial community members involved in the dechlorination process and support the design of successful biostimulation strategies.
The American Past in the Age of Fracture: episodes from the History Wars in the United States during the 1990s

In the 1990s, the United States faced several history wars about the meaning of the national past for that present. Among these, we can highlight the controversy over National History Standards, which sought to minimally incorporate certain multicultural perspectives for the teaching of history in the country, and the Crossroads exhibition, imagined as a critical reflection about the end of World War II and the use of atombombs against Japan. These disputes, the article argues, can be understood in the broader context of the culture wars that raged in the period as well as the return to the past driven by the gradual erosion of futuristic projects during those years. Finally, we briefly discuss the impact of the history wars in the American disciplined historiography.
Review of quantum computing: a gentle introduction by Eleanor Rieffel and Wolfgang Polak

This is an introductory book on quantum computation. Since many books on quantum computation have already been reviewed and presented in this column (e.g. issues 34-3, 36-3, 38-1, 40-4, 41-3), I presume that most readers already know what a quantum computer is, or what Grover’s algorithm is famous for, so I shall try not to repeat statements of common knowledge. Let me just say that this book addresses the circuit model of quantum computation, where computation is preformed by quantum gates (a.k.a. unitary transformations) and algorithmic processes are usually expressed as circuits built using such gates. Also, the content focuses on quantum algorithmic processes, i.e. it does not contain details on hardware implementations of quantum computers.
Integrative Approaches Utilizing Oxytocin to Enhance Prosocial Behavior: From Animal and Human Social Behavior to Autistic Social Dysfunction

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is as high as 1 in 100 individuals and is a heavy burden to society. Thus, identifying causes and treatments is imperative. Here, we briefly review the topics covered in our 2012 Society for Neuroscience Mini-Symposium entitled “Integrative Approaches Using Oxytocin to Enhance Prosocial Behavior: From Animal and Human Social Behavior to ASD's Social Dysfunction. ” This work is not meant to be a comprehensive review of oxytocin and prosocial behavior. Instead, we wish to share the newest findings on the effects of oxytocin on social behavior, the brain, and the social dysfunction of ASD at the molecular, genetic, systemic, and behavior levels, in varied subjects ranging from animal models to humans suffering from autism for the purpose of promoting further study for developing the clinical use of oxytocin in treating ASD.
The curious case of Mercury's internal structure

The recent determination of the gravity field of Mercury and new Earth‐based radar observations of the planet's spin state afford the opportunity to explore Mercury's internal structure. These observations provide estimates of two measures of the radial mass distribution of Mercury: the normalized polar moment of inertia and the fractional polar moment of inertia of the solid portion of the planet overlying the liquid core. Employing Monte Carlo techniques, we calculate several million models of the radial density structure of Mercury consistent with its radius and bulk density and constrained by these moment of inertia parameters. We estimate that the top of the liquid core is at a radius of 2020 ± 30 km, the mean density above this boundary is 3380 ± 200 kg m−3, and the density below the boundary is 6980 ± 280 kg m−3. We find that these internal structure parameters are robust across a broad range of compositional models for the core and planet as a whole. Geochemical observations of Mercury's surface by MESSENGER indicate a chemically reducing environment that would favor the partitioning of silicon or both silicon and sulfur into the metallic core during core‐mantle differentiation. For a core composed of Fe–S–Si materials, the thermodynamic properties at elevated pressures and temperatures suggest that an FeS‐rich layer could form at the top of the core and that a portion of it may be presently solid.
Modeling the macroeconomic effects of AIDS, with an application to Tanzania.

The 1956 Solow growth model is expanded to study the effects of the AIDS epidemic on the growth path of the economy and per capita GDP (gross domestic product). AIDS and no-AIDS scenarios are compared analytically and via simulations based upon Tanzanian demographic and macroeconomic data. The 1st section discusses various channels through which AIDS might affect the macroeconomy and describes its expected demographic impact in Tanzania. The model incorporating these key channels is then developed in the 2nd section. It is employed specifically to discuss the likely effect on the ratio of capital to labor and on output per capita as the economy moves from a no-AIDS situation toward a new steady state in which AIDS is assumed to be endemic. A simple simulation model in the 3rd section forecasts the time paths of macro aggregates in Tanzania as the prevalence of AIDS increases. These time paths are then compared with simulated results for a no-AIDS situation to determine the severity of the impact of the disease on the growth path of the Tanzanian economy, Bulatao's 1990 demographic scenarios are input in the simulated version of the model. The 4th section concludes by considering the policy implications of the analysis. The analysis indicates that without decisive policy action AIDS may reduce the GDP of Tanzania in the year 2010 by 15-25% over what it would be if AIDS did not exist. Per capita income levels are expected to fall by 0-10% by the year 2010.
Grid middleware for engineering design search and optimisation

Design search and optimisation algorithms can be used by engineers to yield improved designs. Design search involving the analysis of the aerodynamic properties of a design, using Computational Fluid Dynamics, is both computationally and data intensive, making this problem well matched to Grid computing. Evaluation of the quality of a design (the objective function) may require commercial and user supplied software packages to be called in sequence, data transferred to and from suitable compute resources, in addition to preand post-processing. To allow engineers to express these necessarily complex workflows we expose a suite of Grid-enabled tools to a high-level scripting language. These tools include client functionality to Globus compute resources, and to a job submission Web service which exposes a cycle-scavenging Condor pool. These tools are exposed as functions to the Matlab environment that can be used directly by the engineer, or intergrated into higher level functions for design search and optimisation. Here the benefits of the scripting approach are discussed, together with details of the Grid middleware used and the implementation of the client functionality.