Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accounting for Management Control in Large Libyan Companies

The study gives an account of management control practices in Libya during a period of relative political and economic stability that preceded the 2011 war and regime change. Using a two-level contingency model and survey data, stepped mediation regression first ascertains contingency relationships between organisational variables and management control system (MCS) effectiveness. We also explicitly focus on the mediating role of management accounting information (MAI) in MCS effectiveness. We find that centralisation, formalisation, environmental uncertainty and competitive strategy significantly influence MCS effectiveness. Full mediation is observed in relation to centralisation, whereas partial mediation is detected for formalisation, environmental uncertainty, and competitive strategy. Manufacturing process complexity is not present in first level relationships and further tests only yielded an indirect MAI effect, not mediation in this case. The full vs. partial mediation distinction is not evident in most previous MCS interaction research, nor is the isolation of the indirect effect, and future research needs to explore this with larger samples. This is possibly the first study to develop and apply a multi-level contingency model that explicitly focuses on the mediating role of MAI to empirically examine MCS effectiveness and contributes to the nascent literature on management accounting in emerging economies.
Departure resilient control for autonomous air vehicles

A new approach for developing guidance and control laws for aircraft that have departed controlled flight is presented. The method leverages and produces flight trajectories similar to what pilots would perform. The method induces a periodic orbit and then escapes from the periodic orbit into normal flight. The problem is approached from the inertial reference frame in order to better define the behavior of periodic orbit dynamics. A control law that effectively maps the aircraft inertial dynamics to bifurcations facilitates the production of periodic orbit behavior. In addition to circular orbits, the control law proves to expand the set to elliptical orbits and presents a framework for alternative orbit geometries.
Adaptive induction of NF‐E2–Related Factor‐2‐driven antioxidant genes in endothelial cells in response to hyperglycemia

Hyperglycemia in diabetes mellitus elicits vascular oxidative stress promoting the development of cardiovascular diseases. Nrf2 is a redox‐sensitive transcription factor that regulates expression of numerous antioxidant enzymes. The present study was designed to elucidate the homeostatic role of adaptive induction of Nrf2‐driven free radical detoxification mechanisms in endothelial protection under diabetic conditions. We found that in cultured coronary arterial endothelial cells hyperglycemia activated Nrf2 and up‐regulated the expression of the Nrf2 target genes NQO1, GCLC and HMOX1. These effects were significantly attenuated by siRNA knockdown of Nrf2, overexpression of Keap‐1 (which inactivates Nrf2) or by pre‐treatment with PEG‐catalase and N‐acetylcysteine, whereas administration of H2O2 mimicked the effect of high glucose. To test the effects of metabolic stress in vivo, Nrf2+/+ and Nrf2−/− mice were fed a high fat diet (HFD). The HFD elicited significant increases in mRNA expression of Gclc and Hmox1 in aortas of Nrf2+/+ mice but not in vessels of Nrf2−/− mice, as compared to the respective standard diet‐fed controls. Additionally, HFD‐induced oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction were more severe in Nrf2−/− mice, as compared to Nrf2+/+ mice. Thus, adaptive activation of the Nrf2/ARE pathway confers endothelial protection under diabetic conditions. (Funding: ADA, AFAR, NIH).
Mobile Broadband Traffic Forecast Modeling for Network Evolution Studies

Market analyst research studies predict significant mobile data traffic increase over the next 5 to 10 years. The mobile network operators have to be able to meet these capacity demands by upgrading and optimizing their existing networks in parallel with the deployment of new radio access technologies. This paper proposes a mathematical modeling framework for the mobile broadband traffic growth to be employed in mobile network evolution studies. We show that an "S-curve" model based on the Gompertz function can be appropriately parameterized and provides sufficient flexibility for predicting various traffic growth scenarios. We exemplify the use of the proposed traffic modeling approach with a network evolution case study in the generic setting of a dense urban European network deployment scenario in combination with assumptions on the target network key performance indicator and user equipment receiver capabilities.
Agreement Matters : Challenges of Translating into a Morphologically Rich Language , and the Advantages of a Syntax-Based System

Consider the following (simple) English sentences: “I driv e a car. ”, “I don’t know how to drive”, “I wash the car”, “I wash the floor”. Translating them to Hebrew using Goo gle’s statistical MT system, yields: zipekna bdep ip` (I drive(masculine) a car);bedpl zr ei `l ip` (I don’t know(feminine) how to drive); ugex ip` zipeknd z` (I wash(masculine) the car); and dtvxd z` zthey ip` (I wash(feminine) the floor). While amusing and not quite politically correct, these are al l arguably very good translations: without explicit gender marking, the translator can not know if the speaker is ma culine or feminine, and he (she? ) resorts to deciding based on her (his? ) cultural knowledge. This does, however, highlight a class of problems which aris e when attempting to translate from a morphologically clean language (e.g. English) into a morphologic ally rich one (e.g. Hebrew): many words in the target language are morphologically marked for gender and number, and the translator should be able to generate these markings correctly, based on little, elusive or sometimes n o evidence in the source language. These issues are orthogonal to the data sparsity issues associated with high ly inflected languages. Can current state-of-the-art statistical MT systems handl e this? In what follows we present a few cases where the target language output should be morphologically marke d for either gender or number, with varying amounts (and sources) of information available on the source langua ge text, and discuss the suitability of current translation models to handle these phenomena. We show that correct handling of morphological agreement is beyond the reach of current systems as it requires better syntactic models, looking beyond a single sentence, and performing accurate anaphora resolution. However, while phrase-based models can not model even the simplest ca ses, syntax based models already posses most of the necessary machinery. While we demonstrate using English ⇒ Hebrew translations, similar issues will occur when transl ting into practically any morphologically rich language. Moreover, the issues discussed remain relevant also when the source language is also morphologically rich.
Inertial Sensors to Assess Gait Quality in Patients with Neurological Disorders: A Systematic Review of Technical and Analytical Challenges

Gait disorders are major causes of falls in patients with neurological diseases. Understanding these disorders allows prevention and better insights into underlying diseases. InertiaLocoGraphy (ILG) –the quantification of gait by using inertial measurement units (IMUs) –shows great potential to address this public health challenge, but protocols vary widely and normative values of gait parameters are still unavailable. This systematic review critically compares ILG protocols, questions features extracted from inertial signals and proposes a semeiological analysis of clinimetric characteristics for use in neurological clinical routine. For this systematic review, PubMed, Cochrane and EMBASE were searched for articles assessing gait quality by using IMUs that were published from January 1, 2014 to August 31, 2016. ILG was used to assess gait in a wide range of neurological disorders – including Parkinson disease, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer disease, cerebral palsy, and cerebellar atrophy – as well as in the faller or frail older population and in people presenting rheumatological pathologies. However, results have not yet been driving changes in clinical practice. One reason could be that studies mainly aimed at comparing pathological gait to healthy gait, but there is stronger need for semiological descriptions of gait perturbation, severity or prognostic assessment. Furthermore, protocols used to assess gait using IMUs are too many. Likely, outcomes are highly heterogeneous and difficult to compare across large panels of studies. Therefore, homogenization is needed to foster the use of ILG to assess gait quality in neurological routine practice. The pros and cons of each protocol are emphasized so that a compromise can be reached. As well, analysis of seven complementary clinical criteria (springiness, sturdiness, smoothness, steadiness, stability, symmetry, synchronization) is advocated.
Gaze Control in Putting

The gaze of low and higher handicap golfers was assessed while they performed consecutive putts from 3 m, wearing an eye-movement helmet that permitted normal mobility. MANOVA (count and duration), with univariate follow-up, revealed significant differences in gaze between five low (LH, 0–8) and seven higher handicap golfers (HH, 10–16). The LH (ie more highly skilled) golfers were found to use a variable form of gaze control in which longer fixation durations on the ball and target were observed, and there were fewer fixations on the club and surface, with more express saccades and quicker saccades between gaze locations. The HH golfers, in contrast, allocated the same mean durations to each gaze (about 1 s), independent of type of control (fixation, saccade, or tracking) or location (ball, club, target, or surface). In comparing hits to misses, there was an increased probability of hits if the golfers used express saccades to the club during preparation, and a steady fixation on the ball during the backswing/foreswing of the club, as well as a steady fixation on the surface during contact. These results suggest that with the acquisition of the putting skill, there are changes in gaze control, characterized by economy in the number of gaze shifts, the development of priority to specific gaze locations, and economy in the allocation of time between preferred gaze locations. In the discussion two reasons are proposed that may partially explain the results found here, as well as help further our understanding of the role of gaze in targetting skills.
Detecting and classifying anomalous behavior in spatiotemporal network data ∗

We investigate different models for detecting and classifying important geopolitical events in high-frequency spatiotemporal network data. Building on previous empirical work on the network response to real-world events, our goal is to develop a generative model that can identify the time, location, and nature of different emergency and non-emergency events. As a testbed for these models, we use a large dataset containing billions of anonymized mobile phone calls and text messages from Afghanistan, and associated metadata on several known important geopolitical events. We find that simple and scalable time-series models of geographically aggregated call volume can accurately identify the onset of major events when the approximate time and location of the event is known. However, such models ignore the network structure in the data, and are not well suited to spatial localization. Preliminary results from dynamic matrix factorization models, which generatively model network structure, indicate a promising area for future work.
Why do patients with minor or moderate conditions that could be managed in other settings attend the emergency department?

Objectives To estimate the potential of alternative providers of care for minor health problems to reduce demands on emergency departments (EDs). Methods Data were collected in a type 1 urban ED over a 2-month period in two stages: questionnaire to adult attendees presenting to the ED; and a notes review. Results The usable response rate was 68% (n=261/384). The notes review confirmed that more than two-thirds of the presenting conditions could have been managed in settings other than the ED. The attendees' reasons on the questionnaire indicated a strong belief that the only provider able to deal with their concerns at that time was the ED. For some users, the ED was not the first contact with a healthcare provider for the same health problem. Few believed that they would be seen quicker in the ED or that the ED was more convenient. The most frequent reason for presenting to the ED was ‘being advised to attend by someone else’. The ‘adviser’ was more likely to be a health professional (doctor or nurse or NHS Direct) than to be ‘friends or family’. Conclusions Although there appears to be considerable potential for minor conditions to be managed in settings other than the ED, our findings indicate that patients will continue to present these conditions to the ED. Patient perceptions of the urgency of their treatment need, and also the availability and capacity of alternative services may be offsetting their potential to substitute for the ED. Advice from other services may be contributing to demands on the ED.
Correlation-Based Pattern Stability Analysis and a Figure of Merit for UWB Antennas

Combining the concepts of pulse fidelity, time-domain correlation patterns, and frequency-domain pattern stability, we propose the concept of frequency-domain correlation patterns and a figure of merit, called pattern stability factor (PSF), to characterize pattern stability of wideband antennas. The frequency-domain correlation pattern represents the relationship between radiation in a reference direction to radiation in all other directions of interest, over a specified bandwidth. With practical examples, we demonstrate that this tool is very useful when selecting a single transfer function (and a reference direction) for the antenna when designing or optimizing an ultrawideband (UWB) system. Careful selection of the reference direction is crucial for antennas with relatively less stable patterns, but even antennas with relatively stable patterns can perform poorly overall if an inappropriate reference direction is chosen. The PSF represents the overall pattern stability of an antenna for a specific bandwidth and a range of directions. It is useful as a quantitative measure: a) to compare the suitability of different antennas for a given wideband or multiband application; b) to assess pattern stability improvement methods; and c) to quantify the effect of packaging, etc., on stability. We also propose the concept of PSF bandwidth and show how it can be used to identify stable frequency bands of a given antenna within its impedance bandwidth, and how it compares with the impedance bandwidth of some UWB antennas
miR-8 microRNAs regulate the response to osmotic stress in zebrafish embryos

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are highly conserved small RNAs that act as translational regulators of gene expression, exerting their influence by selectively targeting mRNAs bearing complementary sequence elements. These RNAs function in diverse aspects of animal development and physiology. Because of an ability to act as rapid responders at the level of translation, miRNAs may also influence stress response. In this study, we show that the miR-8 family of miRNAs regulates osmoregulation in zebrafish embryos. Ionocytes, which are a specialized cell type scattered throughout the epidermis, are responsible for pH and ion homeostasis during early development before gill formation. The highly conserved miR-8 family is expressed in ionocytes and enables precise control of ion transport by modulating the expression of Nherf1, which is a regulator of apical trafficking of transmembrane ion transporters. Ultimately, disruption of miR-8 family member function leads to an inability to respond to osmotic stress and blocks the ability to properly traffic and/or cluster transmembrane glycoproteins at the apical surface of ionocytes.
Public Relations Writing and the Corporate Image

In this article Professor Morton suggests that Public Relations should mean more to a firm than keeping a specialized staff of public relations workers. The firm must make an effort to im prove its public relations in all phases of its existence. At the same time there is much that can be done to improve the quality of public relations writ ing as a part of the over-all image-making process. This article is based on an ad dress before the ABWA Nation al Convention, San Francisco, August 31, 1967.
Faculty First

The increasing number of English language learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools requires rethinking teacher education (TE). Most teachers have received little preparation in how to educate ELLs. Change in TE programs is needed to ensure that TE students are prepared to teach ELLs. Such change begins by educating TE faculty first. One catalyst for change, a faculty institute in which faculty, doctoral students, and public school personnel participated, is described here. Analysis of the process, the content, and course changes illustrated this TE program’s efforts to infuse the curriculum with ELL scholarship. Change occurred with respect to individual faculty knowledge and awareness and resulted in changes to course syllabi. Emerging issues during the process illustrate how context influenced this change effort. TE programs need to adopt changes in order to graduate teachers confident in their knowledge of and preparation for multilingual and multicultural populations in order to serve all pupils effectively.
Types of recurrent stroke in survivors of intracerebral hemorrhage.

To the Editor: I read with great interest the recent article1 by Arakawa and colleagues. In this important study, Arakawa and colleagues followed up 74 patients with hypertensive brain hemorrhage for a mean of 2.8 years and reported higher diastolic blood pressure (DBP) but not higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) as the risk factor for recurrent brain hemorrhage. I would make the following comments. First, recurrent stroke affected 9 of the 74 patients; the type of recurrent stroke was intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in 8 (89%) and ischemic stroke (IS) in 1 (11%). 1 Although most of the recurrent strokes are of the same type as the first episode in patients surviving from IS, this may not apply to survivors of ICH. In a study by Yamamoto and Bogousslavsky,2 the recurrent strokes were of the same type as …
Fitting solid meshes to animated surfaces using linear elasticity

Computing correspondence between time frames of a time-dependent 3D surface is essential for the understanding of its motion and deformation. In particular, it can be a useful tool in compression, editing, texturing, or analysis of the physical or structural properties of deforming objects. However, correspondence information is not trivial to obtain for experimentally acquired 3D animations, such as time-dependent visual hulls (typically represented as either a binary occupancy grid or as a sequence of meshes of varying connectivity). In this article we present a new nonrigid fitting method that can compute such correspondence information for objects that do not undergo large volume or topological changes, such as living creatures. Experimental results show that it is robust enough to handle visual hull data, allowing to convert it into a constant connectivity mesh with vertices moving in time. Our procedure first creates a rest-state mesh from one of the input frames. This rest-state mesh is then fitted to the consecutive frames. We do this by iteratively displacing its vertices so that a combination of surface distance and elastic potential energy is minimized. A novel rotation compensation method enables us to obtain high-quality results with linear elasticity, even in presence of significant bending.
Trunk reservation effects on multi-server system with batch arrivals of loss and delay customers

A multi-server system with trunk reservation is studied. The system is offered by two types of customers (class-1 and class-2). They arrive in independent batch Poisson streams and have an exponentially distributed service time. Class-1 customers will be lost or rejected if they find all S servers busy on their arrivals. Class-2 customers will use at most S′ = S − R servers and enter a queue with N capacity if they find the number of idle servers less than or equal to R on their arrivals. Here, R is the number of reserved servers for class-1 customers. An example of the system is realized in NTT’s facsimile communications network F-NET. key words: trunk reservation, batch arrivals, multi-server
Interactive biotic and abiotic regulators of soil carbon cycling: evidence from controlled climate experiments on peatland and boreal soils

Partially decomposed plant and animal remains have been accumulating in organic soils (i.e. >40% C content) for millennia, making them the largest terrestrial carbon store. There is growing concern that, in a warming world, soil biotic processing will accelerate and release greenhouse gases that further exacerbate climate change. However, the magnitude of this response remains uncertain as the constraints are abiotic, biotic and interactive. Here, we examined the influence of resource quality and biological activity on the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration under different soil moisture regimes. Organic soils were sampled from 13 boreal and peatland ecosystems located in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Finland and Sweden, representing a natural resource quality range of C, N and P. They were incubated at four temperatures (4, 10, 15 and 20 °C) at either 60% or 100% water holding capacity (WHC). Our results showed that chemical and biological properties play an important role in determining soil respiration responses to temperature and moisture changes. High soil C : P and C : N ratios were symptomatic of slow C turnover and long‐term C accumulation. In boreal soils, low bacterial to fungal ratios were related to greater temperature sensitivity of respiration, which was amplified in drier conditions. This contrasted with peatland soils which were dominated by bacterial communities and enchytraeid grazing, resulting in a more rapid C turnover under warmer and wetter conditions. The unexpected acceleration of C mineralization under high moisture contents was possibly linked to the primarily role of fermented organic matter, instead of oxygen, in mediating microbial decomposition. We conclude that to improve C model simulations of soil respiration, a better resolution of the interactions occurring between climate, resource quality and the decomposer community will be required.
CMOS fuzzy controllers implemented as mixed-signal ICs

This paper describes a programmable fuzzy controller chip designed with mixed-signal IC techniques. Its input and output signals are analog to directly interact with the information from the real world. The programmability interface is digital and the output signal is also given in digital format to allow easy embedding into digital processing environments. Experimental results from a prototype integrated in a 2.4-/spl mu/m CMOS process are included.