Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fog computing job scheduling optimization based on bees swarm

ABSTRACT Fog computing is a new computing architecture, composed of a set of near-user edge devices called fog nodes, which collaborate together in order to perform computational services such as running applications, storing an important amount of data, and transmitting messages. Fog computing extends cloud computing by deploying digital resources at the premise of mobile users. In this new paradigm, management and operating functions, such as job scheduling aim at providing high-performance, cost-effective services requested by mobile users and executed by fog nodes. We propose a new bio-inspired optimization approach called Bees Life Algorithm (BLA) aimed at addressing the job scheduling problem in the fog computing environment. Our proposed approach is based on the optimized distribution of a set of tasks among all the fog computing nodes. The objective is to find an optimal tradeoff between CPU execution time and allocated memory required by fog computing services established by mobile users. Our empirical performance evaluation results demonstrate that the proposal outperforms the traditional particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm in terms of CPU execution time and allocated memory.
Satellite-Based Probabilistic Assessment of Soil Moisture Using C-Band Quad-Polarized RISAT1 Data

This paper attempts to probabilistically estimate the surface soil moisture content (SMC) by using the synthetic aperture radar data provided by radar imaging satellite1. The novelty of this paper lies in: 1) developing a combined index to understand the role of all the backscattering coefficients with different polarization and soil texture information in influencing the SMC; 2) using normalized incidence angles, which enables the model to be applicable for different incidence angles; and 3) determination of uncertainty range of the estimated SMC. The dimensionality problem, which is frequently observed in the multivariate analysis, is reduced in the development of the combined index by the use of supervised principal component analysis (SPCA). The SPCA also ensures the maximum attainable association between the developed combined index and surface SMC above wilting point (WP). The association between the combined index and the surface SMC above WP is modeled through joint probability distribution by using the Frank copula. The model is developed and validated with the field soil moisture values over 334 monitoring points within the study area. The outcomes obtained by applying the proposed model indicate an encouraging potential of the model to be applied for bareland and vegetated land (<30 cm height).
Missense mutations of conserved glycine residues in fibrillin‐1 highlight a potential subtype of cb‐EGF‐like domains

In six index cases/families referred for Marfan syndrome (MFS) molecular diagnosis, we identified six novel mutations in the FBN1 gene: c.1753G>C (p.Gly585Arg), c.2456G>A (p.Gly819Glu), c.4981G>A (p.Gly1661Arg), c.5339G>A (p.Gly1780Glu), c.6418G>A (p.Gly2140Arg) and c.6419G>A (p.Gly2140Glu). These variants, predicted to result in Glycine substitutions are located at the third position of a 4 amino acids loop‐region of calcium‐binding Epidermal Growth Factor‐like (cb‐EGF) fibrillin‐1 domains 5, 9, 24, 25 and 32. Familial segregation studies showing cosegregation with MFS manifestations or de novo inheritance in addition to in silico analyses (conservation, 3D modeling) suggest evidence for a crucial role of the respective Glycine positions. Extending these analyses to all Glycine residue at position 3 of this 4 residues loop in fibrillin‐1 cb‐EGF with the UMD predictor tool and alignment of 2038 available related sequences strongly support a steric strain that only allows Glycine or even Alanine residues for domain structure maintenance and for the fibrillin functions. Our data compared with those of the literature strongly suggest the existence of a cb‐EGF domain subtype with implications for related diseases. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Ultrasonography-guided PNL in comparison with laparoscopic ureterolithotomy in the management of large proximal ureteral stone.

PURPOSE The aim of study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of PNL in comparison with laparoscopic ureterolithotomy (LUL) in proximal ureteral stones larger than 1 cm. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 80 patients who were candidates for treatment of large ureteral stones in our urology center were enrolled in the study between September 2004 and September 2008. By using patient randomization, they were assigned into two forty-patient groups (PNL and LUL). After evaluating the patients with laboratory tests and IVP, PNL was performed under sonography guidance in the prone position or the patients were submitted to classic laparoscopic ureterolithotomy (LUL) transperitoneally. All patients underwent postoperative assessments including KUB and ultrasonography. RESULTS A hundred-percent success was achieved in both groups. The mean age of the patients were 39.4 (16-63) and 35.2 (18-57) years old in PNL and LUL groups, respectively. The mean stone size in PNL group was 14.2 (10-25) mm and in LUL group was 13.5 (10-28) mm. The duration of the operations were 54.35 (50-82) minutes, and 82.15 (73-180) minutes (P < 0.0001); and the average hospital stay days were 2.6 (2-5) and 3.5 (3-8) days (p = 0.011) in groups PNL and LUL, accordingly. The mean Hb decrease in PNL group was 0.9mg/dL and in LUL group was 0.4mg/dL (p = 0.001). No statistically significant differences in terms of blood transfusion, fever, ICU admission, and prolonged urinary leakage were detected in both groups. CONCLUSION According to our study, percutaneous nephrolithotomy under ultrasonography guidance is comparable with the laparoscopic ureterolithotomy for the treatment of proximal ureteral stones larger than 1 cm.
Bypassing the ‘ratification straitjacket’: reviewing US legal participation in a climate agreement

The issue of US ratification of international environmental treaties is a recurring obstacle for environmental multilateralism, including the climate regime. Despite the perceived importance of the role of the US to the success of any future international climate agreement, there has been little direct coverage in terms of how an effective agreement can specifically address US legal participation. This article explores potential ways of allowing for US legal participation in an effective climate treaty. Possible routes forward include the use of domestic legislation such as section 115 (S115) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the use of sole–executive agreements, instead of Senate ratification. Legal participation from the US through sole–executive agreements is possible if the international architecture is designed to allow for their use. Architectural elements such as varying legality and participation across an agreement (variable geometry) could allow for the use of sole–executive agreements. Two broader models for a 2015 agreement with legal participation through sole–executive agreements are constructed based upon these options: a modified pledge and review system and a form of variable geometry composed of number of opt-out, voting-based protocols on specific issues accompanied by bilateral agreements on mitigation commitments with other major emitters through the use of S115 and sole–executive agreements under the Montreal Protocol and Chicago Convention (‘Critical Mass Governance'). While there is no single solution, Critical Mass Governance appears to provide the optimum combination of tools to effectively allow for US legal participation whilst ensuring an effective treaty. Policy relevance This article provides some recommendations on how to create an effective, legally binding treaty that allow for US legal participation without Senate approval. Given the recent election of a Republican majority in the US Senate and Congress, increasing willingness of the President to utilize his executive powers, as well as a strong shift in negotiations to appease US interests, the insights of this research are timely and relevant to delegations and other United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) actors. It will also be of use to domestic US actors involved with climate policy by illustrating how to allow for effective and sustainable US multilateral engagement that bypasses domestic political gridlock.
Investigating the use of emergent strategic human resource management activity in the small firm

There is little information regarding how, or whether, small‐firm owners use their own and their management team’s skills and experiences as part of a strategic approach to achieving business goals, durability and, if desired, growth. It would appear that firms which do utilise a strategic approach, however informal, are more likely to endure. Design school strategic management techniques have traditionally been sited in, and associated with, corporate enterprises and, as such, would not be readily accessible to most small firms. Recent critics of this design school approach argue that strategic activity, in the majority of firms, is far more intuitive and flexible than previously believed and describe this as an emergent approach to strategy. If this is the case, it should be possible for most small‐firm owners and managers to harness their business skills, which evidence would suggest are likely to be intuitive, based on experience, and flexible, to develop an emergent approach to strategy. To investigate the proposition further, this paper focuses primarily upon strategic human resource management (HRM) in small firms, arguing that the efficient use of labour in small firms is a critical activity for such firms to achieve durability and if desired, growth. This paper will, therefore, briefly consider the debates surrounding design school and emergent strategies, examine the role of strategic HRM within the enterprise in some detail and then present empirical findings to illustrate these issues.
Recent Update on Carotid Endarterectomy versus Carotid Artery Stenting

Carotid artery stenosis (CS) is a major cause of ischemic stroke. Treatment of CS consists of best medical treatment and carotid revascularization (CR), including carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and carotid artery stenting (CAS). Both CR techniques have their own procedural risks. Therefore, selection of the appropriate treatment for patients with CS is relatively complicated. Many studies and guidelines have reported the efficacy of each treatment for both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. However, the results are still controversial, especially concerning the efficacy and safety of CEA and CAS. In this paper, we review and discuss the current evidence and compare results from studies of CEA and CAS, including major randomized trials, meta-analyses and ongoing trials. Moreover, based on the current data, we propose a new comprehensive decision-making for the management of CS.
Toward a theory of financial bricolage: the impact of small loans on new businesses

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of small loans on new firm performance using data from the second Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, a large longitudinal data set of new firms in the USA. Contrary to prior research which suggests that small or microloans primarily benefit entrepreneurs who experience disadvantages in the marketplace, the findings revealed no significant differences in loan source or loan amount by gender, ethnicity, or employment status during the early years of the firm. The findings did reveal, however, that the motivations (push vs pull) of the entrepreneur were a determinant of loan source. From this, the authors begin to develop a theory of financial bricolage based on the premise that small loans secured at key points in time can make a significant difference on firm performance for all types of entrepreneurs, not just those who have traditionally be classified as “disadvantaged. ” Design/methodology/approach – The data for this study was taken from.
Cost Minimizing Single Sampling Plans with AIQL and AOQL Constraints

This paper investigates and formulates the relationships among average incoming quality limit (AIQL), production process quality level and average fraction defective after production process for a single-stage manufacturing connected-unit situation. Cost components of the system are identified. In order to derive minimum cost single sampling plans where inspection is by attribute, a mathematical model is developed and plans are obtained using discrete optimization for the total expected loss function subject to AIQL and AOQL equality constraints.
Union Effects on White-Collar Compensation

This paper uses two new data sources, each of which combines information on worker and establishment characteristics with detailed information on the components of employee compensation, to examine union/nonunion pay differentials for white-collar workers. Estimates reveal that nonunion wages and total compensation are more responsive than union pay levels to worker productivity differences, such as education and work experience. Also, large firms pay 10 to 15 percent more to their white-collar employees than small firms in the nonunion sector but only 5 percent or less in the union sector. Overall, the white-collar union wage differential appears to be 3.5 to 4.0 percent, rising to 7.1 percent when fringe benefits are included in the dependent variable. Significant spillovers to nonunion white-collar workers, which appear to erode the measured union/nonunion pay differentials, are also found.
Interleukin-6, C-reactive protein and interleukin-10 after antidepressant treatment in people with depression: a meta-analysis

Background Cross-sectional studies support an association between depression and inflammatory markers. However, little is known of their relationship in the context of antidepressant treatment. Our aim was to explore via meta-analysis whether antidepressant treatment is associated with a reduction in three inflammatory markers associated with depression. Method A computerized search of EMBASE, Medline, PsycINFO and Cochrane Library databases was completed using subject headings for depression and either interleukin-6, C-reactive protein or interleukin-10, selecting studies which reported circulating levels of inflammatory markers before and after antidepressant treatment for people with depression. Outcome and moderator variables were coded for analysis, including inflammatory marker change, depression severity change, age, gender ratio, assay brand, treatment response and weight change. Results Pooled effect sizes showed a significant decrease in interleukin-6 (n=14, d=−0.42, p=0.02), marginally significant decrease in C-reactive protein (n=8, d=−0.57, p=0.05) and a non-significant decrease in interleukin-10 (n=3, d=−0.45, p=0.14) after treatment. High levels of heterogeneity were observed, which may be associated with clinical variations between the studies such as weight gain, anxiety, incomplete remission and other individual differences and co-morbidities. Conclusions The findings of this meta-analysis indicate that there may be a normalization of overactive inflammatory processes following antidepressant treatment.
Highly specific localization of promoter regions in large genomic sequences by PromoterInspector: a novel context analysis approach.

We present a new algorithm called PromoterInspector to locate eukaryotic polymase II promoter regions in large genomic sequences with a high degree of specificity. PromoterInspector focuses on the genetic context of promoters, rather than their exact location. Application of PromoterInspector can serve as a crucial pre-processing step for other methods to locate exactly, or to analyze promoters. PromoterInspector does not depend on heuristics, because it is purely based on libraries of IUPAC words extracted from training sequences by an unsupervised learning approach. We compared PromoterInspector to in silico promoter prediction tools using the sequences from the review by J.W. Fickett. PromoterInspector compared favourably on Fickett's evaluation scheme. A true positive to false positive ratio of 2.3 was obtained, surpassing the best ratio of 0.6, reported for TSSG. The application of our method to several large genomic sequences of over 1.3 million base-pairs in total resulted in even more specific predictions. The coverage of annotated promoters was comparable to other in silico promoter prediction methods, while the true positive predictions increased by up to 100% of total matches. PromoterInspector scans 100 kb in less than one minute on a workstation, and thus is especially applicable for large genome analysis. The method is available at http://genomatix.gsf. de/cgi-bin/promoterinspector/promoterinspector.pl.
Comparative analysis of pre-bid forecasting of building prices based on Singapore data

An analysis is described of a sample of pre-bid forecasts for 181 Singapore building contracts awarded between 1980 and 1991 in comparison with previous research results in this topic. Despite the apparent contradictions that occur between findings, it is shown that such differences could be illusionary due to a general lack of reported significance levels together with, in some cases, small sample sizes. As a result it is suggested that a general commonality in outcomes may exist in the form of a single underlying variable.
Style and Performance of Dutch Socially Responsible Investment Funds

Controlling for investment style, the performance differential between Dutch socially responsible mutual funds and conventional investments over 2001-2003 is not statistically significant. This confirms conclusions drawn elsewhere in the literature. Contrary to most of the findings on socially responsible investing, the socially responsible funds seem to be tilted toward value stocks in this period, which would lend support to the rational asset pricing theory.
A balanced anesthesia with dexmedetomidine decreases postoperative nausea and vomiting after laparoscopic surgery.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of adding dexmedetomidine to a balanced anesthetic technique on postoperative nausea and vomiting after laparoscopic gynecological surgeries. METHODS A prospective double-blind randomized study was designed at Jordan University Hospital, Amman, Jordan between December 2008 and February 2009. Eighty-one female patients in their child-bearing age (17-48 years); American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) clinical status I, who were scheduled for elective diagnostic laparoscopic surgeries under general anesthesia were divided into 2 groups. Group D (n=42) received dexmedetomidine infusion, while group P (n=39) received 0.9% sodium chloride infusion along with the balanced anesthesia. The incidence of early (up to 24 hours) postoperative nausea, vomiting, nausea and vomiting, and the need for postoperative rescue anti-emetic medications were recorded. RESULTS The total incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting decreased significantly in group D; 13 out of 42 patients (31%), compared to group P; 23 out of 39 patients (59%), vomiting alone did not significantly change, the incidence of postoperative nausea, and the use of rescue anti-emetic medications were significantly different. A significant drop in overall consumption of fentanyl and sevoflurane was also noted in group D. CONCLUSION Combining dexmedetomidine to other anesthetic agents, results in more balanced anesthesia and a significant drop in the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting after laparoscopic gynecological surgeries.
The Value Relevance of Financial Accounting Information in a Transition Economy: The Case of the Czech Republic

ABSTRACT The paper investigates the value relevance of accounting information in the Czech Republic in 1994–2001. Value relevance is understood as the ability of financial statement information to capture or summarise information that affects share values and empirically tested as a statistical association between market values and accounting values. The objective of the study is to investigate the validity of the value relevance methodology by finding an accounting setting where the results of value relevance tests might be predicted unambiguously. If the results of these tests confirm the predicted results, the validity of the value relevance methodology might be assumed. A transition economy represented by the Czech Republic provides such an institutional and accounting setting. It might be assumed that value relevance of accounting information is lower in a transitional economy than in a well-developed market economy. It can also be assumed that the value relevance increases over time as a result of the progress in transition. The results of the study confirm these predicted results and give thus supportive evidence of the validity of the value relevance methodology.
The Economies of Southeast Asia: The Growth and Development of Asean Economies

Part 1 ASEAN economic development and co-operation: evolution of ASEAN co-operation and institutional structure ASEAN economic growth - an overview ASEAN development and economic co-operation sub-regional economic co-operation the role of government in ASEAN. Part 2 ASEAN external economic relations: ASEAN economic relations - the US, Japan, EU, China and Vietnam ASEAN and other regional trading arrangements regionalism, multilateralism and the WTO role of foreign direct investment (FDI). Part 3 Future ASEAN economic co-operation and challenges: ASEAN co-operation under AFTA ASEAN Free Trade Area and the newly emerging South East Asian economies economic interdependence in ASEAN domestic capital development and the environment.
Urban-Biased Policies and Rising Income Inequality in China

Since the inception of economic reforms, China has experienced the largest increase in income inequality of all countries with comparable data. Using household survey information, this paper decomposes the overall inequality into three sectoral components - within rural areas, within urban areas, and sectoral disparity. The results indicate that rising rural-urban income differentials have been the driving factor behind the increases in China's overall inequality. I argue that urban-biased policies and institutions, including labor mobility restrictions, welfare systems, and financial policies of inflation subsidies and investment credits to the urban sector, are responsible for the long-term rural-urban divide and the recent increases in disparity.
Out of Step? Voters and Social Issues in U.S. Presidential Elections

Recent political commentary has argued that the Republican Party is “out of step” with voters on social issues, costing Republicans the 2012 presidential election. This dramatic claim is deserving of scrutiny in its own right and also for the way it offers new perspective on long-standing controversies concerning the role of social issues in U.S. national elections. We present results that seek to advance established scholarship on electoral politics as well as journalistic claims concerning the rising importance of social issues for elections. Using data from the American National Election Study, we find that social issues mattered to voters in presidential elections from 1992 through 2012. The influence of social issues on voter choice rivals those of attitudes toward defense spending and government provision. We find further evidence that liberalizing trends in social issue opinion consistently benefited Democratic candidates in presidential elections. We consider the relevance of these results for scholarship on voter choice and elections, noting further implications for commentary on the 2012 presidential election.