Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal Monetary Policy in an Estimated DSGE for the Euro Area

The objective of this paper is to examine the main features of optimal monetary policy within a micro-founded macroeconometric framework. First, using Bayesian techniques, we estimate a medium scale closed economy DSGE for the euro area. Then, we study the properties of the Ramsey allocation through impulse response, variance decomposition and counterfactual analysis. In particular, we show that, controlling for the zero lower bound constraint, does not seem to limit the stabilization properties of optimal monetary policy. the Ramsey allocation reasonably well. Such optimal simple operational rules seem to react specifically to nominal wage inflation. Overall, the Ramsey policy together with its simple rule approximations seem to deliver consistent policy messages and may constitute some useful normative benchmarks within medium to large scale estimated DSGE framework. prove the economic micro-foundation and the econometric identification of the structural disturbances. We also present simple monetary policy rules which can “approximate” and implement However, this normative analysis based on estimated models reinforces the need to improve the economic micro-foundation and the econometric identification of the structural disburbances. JEL Classification: E4, E5
Comparison of two touchpad-based methods for numeric entry

Small hand-held touchpads can be used to replace stylus-based digitizing tablets when the use of a stylus is not convenient. In text entry tasks where the writing surface is held in a hand the error rate becomes a problem. The small size of strokes compared to the width of the fingertip and the additional imprecision caused by the interaction of the pad and finger movements make input very imprecise. We describe a new improved clock-face based stroke system for entering numbers with a touchpad. In a 20-session user study with 6 users we found slightly better throughput of successfully entered numbers with the proposed new system. This advantage was mainly due to lower error rate with the new system. User preference similarly slightly favored the new system over an earlier straightforward proposal based on the clock metaphor
Prevalence of malnutrition in Saudi children: a community-based study

Background and Objective: There is no published information on the prevalence of malnutrition in Saudi Arabia. The objective of this study was to establish the prevalence data. Methods: The prevalence of nutritional indicators in the form of underweight, stunting, and wasting in a national sample of children younger than 5 years of age was calculated using the new WHO standards as reference. Calculations were performed using the corresponding WHO software. The prevalence of moderate and severe underweight, wasting and stunting, was defined as the proportion of children whose weight for age, weight for height, and height for age were below -2 and -3 standard deviation scores, respectively. Results: The number of children younger than 5 years of age was 15 516 and 50.5% were boys. The prevalence of moderate and severe underweight was 6.9% and 1.3%, respectively. The prevalence of moderate and severe wasting was 9.8% and 2.9%, respectively. Finally, the prevalence of moderate and severe stunting was 10.9% and 2.8%, respectively. The prevalence was lower in girls for all indicators. Comparison of the prevalence of nutritional indicators in selected countries demonstrates large disparity with an intermediate position for Saudi Arabia. Conclusion: This report establishes the national prevalence of malnutrition among Saudi children. Compared to data from other countries, these prevalence rates are still higher than other countries with less economic resources, indicating that more efforts are needed to improve the nutritional status of children.
Works Councils and Collective Bargaining in Germany: The Impact on Productivity and Wages

This paper investigates the interaction between establishment-level codetermination and industry-level collective bargaining in Germany. Based on a simple bargaining model we derive our main hypothesis: In establishments covered by collective bargaining agreements works councils are more likely to be engaged in productivity enhancing activities and less engaged in rent seeking activities than their counterparts in uncovered firms. Using data from German manufacturing establishments, our empirical analysis confirms this hypothesis. The presence of works councils exerts a positive impact on productivity within the covered industrial relations regime but not within the uncovered industrial relations regime. In contrast, the presence of works councils has a positive effect on wages within the uncovered industrial relations regime but not to the same degree within the covered industrial relations regime.
3D ICs: An opportunity for fully-integrated, dense and efficient power supplies

With 3D technologies, the in-package solution allows integrated, efficient and granular power supplies to be designed for multi-core processors. As the converter design obtains few benefits from the scaling, 3DIC allows the best technology to be chosen i.e. one which suits the DC-DC converter design. This paper evaluates the achievable power efficiency between on-die and in-package converters using a combination of active (28 and 65nm CMOS nodes) and passive (poly, MIM, vertical capacitor) layers. Based on the same load power consumption, on-die and in-package switched capacitor converters achieve 65% and 78% efficiency, respectively, in a 1mm2 silicon area. An additional high density capacitance layer (100nF/mm2) improves efficiency by more than 20 points in 65nm for the same surface which emphasizes the need for dedicated technology for better power management integration. This paper shows that in-package power management is a key alternative for fully-integrated, dense and efficient power supplies.
Committee Constructions for Solving Problems of Selection, Diagnostics, and Prediction

In this paper, we consider the issues of the existence of committee solutions and their generalizations for inconsistent systems of relations. An approach to investigating these issues, which is based on an analysis of the structure of the hypergraph of maximal consistent subsystems, is proposed. New upper bounds for the number of elements of a minimum committee for a system of linear inequalities are given. We show that the problem of constructing a minimum committee is in the general case NP-hard and give conditions which allow us to solve it either exactly or approximately with a prescribed accuracy in a polynomial time. New estimates for the capacity of the class of committee decision rules are presented. An inconsistent system of constraints (equations or inequalities) is an object often arising at the stage of modeling of applied problems in many areas of knowledge: physics, technology, economics, etc. Several approaches to generalizing the notion of a solution to a system of constraints in the case of its inconsistency are known. One of these approaches is Chebyshev's approach, which is associated with weakening of constraints of the system and, correspondingly, finding a "least" (in the given metrics) perturbation of parameters of the initial problem allowing the system to be solvable. Then, as an approximation of the solution to the initial system one takes the solution of the obtained perturbed problem. Another approach (see, for example, (9-11, 22)) is connected with consideration not one approximation of the solution, but a whole set each of whose elements is an exact solution of a suitable suciently large subsystem of the initial system. The simplest example of such "collective" solution is a majority committee, i.e., such a sequence that each constraint is satisfied by more than a half of its elements. This paper contains a survey of both known and recently obtained by the authors results concerning properties of committee solutions of inconsistent systems of constraints as well as committee decision rules in pattern recognition. In those cases where it is necessary, assertions are supplied with corresponding proofs and examples.
Drums: A Middleware-Aware Distributed Robot Monitoring System

We introduce Drums, a new tool for monitoring and debugging distributed robot systems, and a complement to robot middleware systems. Drums provides online time-series monitoring of the underlying resources that are partially abstracted away by middleware like ROS. Interfacing with the middleware, Drums provides de-abstraction and de-multiplexing of middleware services to reveal the system-level interactions of your controller code, the middleware, OS and the robot(s) environment. We show worked examples of Drums' utility for debugging realistic problems, and propose it as a tool for quality of service monitoring and introspection for robust autonomous systems.
Detection of Intraepithelial and Stromal Langerin and CCR5 Positive Cells in the Human Endometrium: Potential Targets for HIV Infection

Both the upper (endocervix and uterus) and lower (ectocervix and vagina) female genital tract mucosa are considered to be target sites for sexual transmission of HIV. There are a few reports on the T cell and antigen-presenting cell distribution in human endometrial tissue however, there is little known about the expression of the HIV co-receptor CCR5 and HIV-binding C-type lectin receptors on endometrial cell subsets. We therefore assessed endometrial tissue sections from HIV seronegative women undergoing hysterectomy of a benign and non-inflammatory cause for phenotypic characterization of potential HIV target cells and receptors by immunohistochemistry. Langerin was expressed on intraepithelial CD1a+CD4+ and CD11c+CD4+ Langerhans cells. Furthermore, CCR5+CD4+CD3+ T cells, DC-SIGN+MR+CD11c+ myeloid dendritic cells and MR+CD68+ macrophages were found within or adjacent to the epithelium of the uterine lumen. In addition, occasional CD123+ BDCA-2+ plasmacytoid dendritic cells were detected deep in the endometrial stroma. Both T cells and several antigen-presenting cells were detected in lymphoid aggregate formations in close proximity to the epithelial lining. The finding of intraepithelial and stromal Langerin+ cells as well as CCR5+ CD4+ T cells is novel for human endometrium.
The protective antigen of a highly immunogenic strain of clostridium chauvoei including an evaluation of its flagella as a protective antigen.

SUMMARY: Evidence suggesting that the flagella of the highly immunogenic Clostridium chauvoei, strain ch3, may be important in stimulating protective immunity was studied by preparing a pure flagellar suspension from the organism and comparing the protective antigenicity of the flagellar suspension and deflagellated cells. The protective antigenicity of strain ch3 was not of flagellar origin, but due to a heat labile, pH sensitive, non-agglutinogenic somatic antigen.
Device Health Estimation by Combining Contextual Control Information with Sensor Data

The goal of this work is to bridge the gap between business decision-making and real-time factory data. Beyond real- time data collection, we aim to provide analysis capability to obtain insights from the data and converting the learnings into actionable recommendations. For device health estimation, we focus on analyzing device health conditions and propose a data fusion method that com- bines sensor data with limited diagnostic signals with the de- vice’s operating context. We propose a segmentation algo- rithm that provides a temporal representation of the device’s operation context, which is combined with sensor data to fa- cilitate device health estimation. Sensor data is decomposed into features by time-domain and frequency-domain analy- sis. Principal component analysis is used to project the high- dimensional feature space into a low-dimensional space fol- lowed by a linear discriminant analysis to search the optimal separation among different device health conditions. Our in- dustrial experimental results show that by combining device operating context with sensor data, our proposed segmenta- tion and linear transformation approach can accurately iden- tify various device imbalance conditions even for limited sen- sor data which could not be used to diagnose imbalance on its own. For device health prediction, we propose a restricted Boltz- mann machine based method to automatically generate fea- tures that can be used for remaining useful life prediction, which is performed by a random forest regression algorithm. The proposed method was validated through run-to-failure dataset of a machine tool spindle test-bed.
Caught Red-Handed: Rc Encodes a Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Protein Conditioning Red Pericarp in Rice[W][OA]

Rc is a domestication-related gene required for red pericarp in rice (Oryza sativa). The red grain color is ubiquitous among the wild ancestors of O. sativa, in which it is closely associated with seed shattering and dormancy. Rc encodes a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein that was fine-mapped to an 18.5-kb region on rice chromosome 7 using a cross between Oryza rufipogon (red pericarp) and O. sativa cv Jefferson (white pericarp). Sequencing of the alleles from both mapping parents as well as from two independent genetic stocks of Rc revealed that the dominant red allele differed from the recessive white allele by a 14-bp deletion within exon 6 that knocked out the bHLH domain of the protein. A premature stop codon was identified in the second mutant stock that had a light red pericarp. RT-PCR experiments confirmed that the Rc gene was expressed in both red- and white-grained rice but that a shortened transcript was present in white varieties. Phylogenetic analysis, supported by comparative mapping in rice and maize (Zea mays), showed that Rc, a positive regulator of proanthocyanidin, is orthologous with INTENSIFIER1, a negative regulator of anthocyanin production in maize, and is not in the same clade as rice bHLH anthocyanin regulators.
Kinetic evidence for a two-stage mechanism of protein denaturation by guanidinium chloride

Significance Guanidinium chloride (GdmCl) has been used to modulate the stability of proteins for more than 50 years; surprisingly, however, the molecular mechanism of its action is still poorly understood. Here, we provide direct kinetic evidence for the hypothesis that GdmCl unfolds proteins by a two-step mechanism. In the first step, it binds to the protein surface, resulting in the formation of a “dry molten globule,” an expanded form of the native protein with a dry core. Core solvation and global structural disruption occur in the second step. The observation of a dry molten globule during unfolding indicates that dispersion forces, and not only the hydrophobic effect, also play an important role in stabilizing proteins. Dry molten globular (DMG) intermediates, an expanded form of the native protein with a dry core, have been observed during denaturant-induced unfolding of many proteins. These observations are counterintuitive because traditional models of chemical denaturation rely on changes in solvent-accessible surface area, and there is no notable change in solvent-accessible surface area during the formation of the DMG. Here we show, using multisite fluorescence resonance energy transfer, far-UV CD, and kinetic thiol-labeling experiments, that the guanidinium chloride (GdmCl)-induced unfolding of RNase H also begins with the formation of the DMG. Population of the DMG occurs within the 5-ms dead time of our measurements. We observe that the size and/or population of the DMG is linearly dependent on [GdmCl], although not as strongly as the second and major step of unfolding, which is accompanied by core solvation and global unfolding. This rapid GdmCl-dependent population of the DMG indicates that GdmCl can interact with the protein before disrupting the hydrophobic core. These results imply that the effect of chemical denaturants cannot be interpreted solely as a disruption of the hydrophobic effect and strongly support recent computational studies, which hypothesize that chemical denaturants first interact directly with the protein surface before completely unfolding the protein in the second step (direct interaction mechanism).
A multiobjective hybrid genetic algorithm for the capacitated multipoint network design problem

The capacitated multipoint network design problem (CMNDP) is NP-complete. In this paper, a hybrid genetic algorithm for CMNDP is proposed. The multiobjective hybrid genetic algorithm (MOHGA) differs from other genetic algorithms (GAs) mainly in its selection procedure. The concept of subpopulation is used in MOHGA. Four subpopulations are generated according to the elitism reservation strategy, the shifting Prufer vector, the stochastic universal sampling, and the complete random method, respectively. Mixing these four subpopulations produces the next generation population. The MOHGA can effectively search the feasible solution space due to population diversity. The MOHGA has been applied to CMNDP. By examining computational and analytical results, we notice that the MOHGA can find most nondominated solutions and is much more effective and efficient than other multiobjective GAs.
Expression profiles in surgically-induced carotid stenosis: a combined transcriptomic and proteomic investigation

Vascular injury aimed at stenosis removal induces local reactions often leading to restenosis. The aim of this study was a concerted transcriptomic‐proteomics analysis of molecular variations in a model of rat carotid arteriotomy, to dissect the molecular pathways triggered by vascular surgical injury and to identify new potential anti‐restenosis targets. RNA and proteins extracted from inbred Wistar Kyoro (WKY) rat carotids harvested 4 hrs, 48 hrs and 7 days after arteriotomy were analysed by Affymetrix rat microarrays and by bidi‐mensional electrophoresis followed by liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry, using as reference the RNA and the proteins extracted from uninjured rat carotids. Results were classified according to their biological function, and the most significant Kyoro Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways were identified. A total of 1163 mRNAs were differentially regulated in arteriotomy‐injured carotids 4 hrs, 48 hrs and 7 days after injury (P < 0.0001, fold‐change ≥2), while 48 spots exhibited significant changes after carotid arteriotomy (P < 0.05, fold‐change ≥2). Among them, 16 spots were successfully identified and resulted to correspond to a set of 19 proteins. mRNAs were mainly involved in signal transduction, oxidative stress/inflammation and remodelling, including many new potential targets for limitation of surgically induced (re)stenosis (e.g. Arginase I, Kruppel like factors). Proteome analysis confirmed and extended the microrarray data, revealing time‐dependent post‐translational modifications of Hsp27, haptoglobin and contrapsin‐like protease inhibitor 6, and the differential expression of proteins mainly involved in contractility. Transcriptomic and proteomic methods revealed functional categories with different preferences, related to the experimental sensitivity and to mechanisms of regulation. The comparative analysis revealed correlation between transcriptional and translational expression for 47% of identified proteins. Exceptions from this correlation confirm the complementarities of these approaches.
In Mice Lacking V2a Interneurons, Gait Depends on Speed of Locomotion

Many animals are capable of changing gait with speed of locomotion. The neural basis of gait control and its dependence on speed are not fully understood. Mice normally use a single “trotting” gait while running at all speeds, either over ground or on a treadmill. Transgenic mouse mutants in which the trotting is replaced by hopping also lack a speed-dependent change in gait. Here we describe a transgenic mouse model in which the V2a interneurons have been ablated by targeted expression of diphtheria toxin A chain (DTA) under the control of the Chx10 gene promoter (Chx10::DTA mice). Chx10::DTA mice show normal trotting gait at slow speeds but transition to a galloping gait as speed increases. Although left–right limb coordination is altered in Chx10::DTA mice at fast speed, alternation of forelegs and hindlegs and the relative duration of swing and stance phases for individual limbs is unchanged compared with wild-type mice. The speed-dependent loss of left–right alternation is recapitulated during drug-induced fictive locomotion in spinal cords isolated from neonatal Chx10::DTA mice, and high-speed fictive locomotion evoked by caudal spinal cord stimulation also shows synchronous left–right bursting. These results show that spinal V2a interneurons are required for maintaining left–right alternation at high speeds. Whether animals that generate galloping or hopping gaits, characterized by synchronous movement of left and right forelegs and hindlegs, have lost or modified the function of V2a interneurons is an intriguing question.
Functional Connectivity between Face-Movement and Speech-Intelligibility Areas during Auditory-Only Speech Perception

It has been proposed that internal simulation of the talking face of visually-known speakers facilitates auditory speech recognition. One prediction of this view is that brain areas involved in auditory-only speech comprehension interact with visual face-movement sensitive areas, even under auditory-only listening conditions. Here, we test this hypothesis using connectivity analyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Participants (17 normal participants, 17 developmental prosopagnosics) first learned six speakers via brief voice-face or voice-occupation training (<2 min/speaker). This was followed by an auditory-only speech recognition task and a control task (voice recognition) involving the learned speakers’ voices in the MRI scanner. As hypothesized, we found that, during speech recognition, familiarity with the speaker’s face increased the functional connectivity between the face-movement sensitive posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) and an anterior STS region that supports auditory speech intelligibility. There was no difference between normal participants and prosopagnosics. This was expected because previous findings have shown that both groups use the face-movement sensitive STS to optimize auditory-only speech comprehension. Overall, the present findings indicate that learned visual information is integrated into the analysis of auditory-only speech and that this integration results from the interaction of task-relevant face-movement and auditory speech-sensitive areas.
Wearability Assessment of a Wearable System for Parkinson's Disease Remote Monitoring Based on a Body Area Network of Sensors

Wearable technologies for health monitoring have become a reality in the last few years. So far, most research studies have focused on assessments of the technical performance of these systems, as well as the validation of the clinical outcomes. Nevertheless, the success in the acceptance of these solutions depends not only on the technical and clinical effectiveness, but on the final user acceptance. In this work the compliance of a telehealth system for the remote monitoring of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients is presented with testing in 32 PD patients. This system, called PERFORM, is based on a Body Area Network (BAN) of sensors which has already been validated both from the technical and clinical point for view. Diverse methodologies (REBA, Borg and CRS scales in combination with a body map) are employed to study the comfort, biomechanical and physiological effects of the system. The test results allow us to conclude that the acceptance of this system is satisfactory with all the levels of effect on each component scoring in the lowest ranges. This study also provided useful insights and guidelines to lead to redesign of the system to improve patient compliance.