Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Workload Models for Autonomic Database Management Systems

Autonomic computing is a promising approach to the problem of effectively managing large complex software systems such as database management systems (DBMSs). In order to be self-managing, an autonomic DBMS (ADBMS) must understand key aspects of its workload, including composition, frequency patterns, intensity and resource requirements. It must therefore use and maintain different characterizations, or models, of the workload to support its various kinds of decision-making. Our research into various aspects of ADBMSs has led us to develop a number of different workload models. In this paper, we examine the importance of workload models to ADBMSs. We discuss the types of workload models needed by ADBMSs and describe examples from our research. We then outline the requirements for an infrastructure to develop and maintain the workload models needed by an ADBMS
The Vice Presidency: Its Institutional Evolution and Contemporary Status

T HIS ESSAY SEEKS to trace the recent evolution and changing status of the Vice Presidency as an office in the American scheme of government. Special attention will be given to the experience since 1952. Taken as a whole, the experience suggests that the following propositions are a reasonable summary of the situation for the time being: 1. The Vice Presidency is in transition to a new institutional status in which it will be recognized as an office established predominantly in the Executive Branch, while retaining its constitutional prerogatives in the Legislative Branch. 2. Future Vice Presidents can be expected to serve routinely as deputy chiefs of state and deputy leaders of their national political party; to be available for service at any time as deputy to the President in the field of foreign affairs; to receive many ad hoc administrative and legislative assignments; to continue to accumulate a set of continuing functions in the Executive Branch; and to serve from time to time as Acting President under the Twenty-fifth Amendment. 3. The increasing recognition of the Vice Presidency reflects the hazards of the present world situation, in which the Vice President may be called upon at any time to take over as commander-in-chief, as well as the growing burdens on the time and strength of the President as chief executive, leader of his political party, and chief of state. 4. The functions, duties, and prerogatives of the Vice President as a member of the Executive Branch are not likely to be expanded except with the formal or informal concurrence of the President; but once such functions, duties. , and prerogatives are in place, withdrawal through action by the President becomes more difficult than their initial establishment. 5. The Vice Presidency is rapidly achieving a status in which a typical incumbent will be the most likely next presidential
Stock price leads and lags before the golden age of high-frequency trading

ABSTRACT In this article, I take advantage of the revision of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index membership in 1999, to study the environment for high-frequency trading back then. Between stocks leaving or joining the DJIA, and similar stocks remaining in the DJIA, consistent price lead and lag relationships can be established. This provides evidence that statistical arbitrage is entirely feasible at the time, and it is plausible that a significant portion of the trading volume in 1999 is due to high-frequency trading.
Effect of streptococcal lipoteichoic acid on prolyl hydroxylase activity as related to collagen formation in mouse fibroblast monolayers

Dried and wet mouse fibroblast monolayers with labeled collagenous substrate were used to study the effects of lipoteichoic acid (LTA) on cellular prolyl hydroxylase activity. LTA is a scavenger of cations, and Fe2+ is essential for prolyl hydroxylase activity. Surprisingly, addition of LTA to dried monolayers resulted in increased prolyl hydroxylase activity, whereas preincubation of Fe2+ with LTA only negated this increase. However, significant inhibition of enzyme activity by wet monolayers occurred whether LTA was added directly to the test system or whether it was used after preincubation with Fe2+. These data suggest that LTA causes membrane perturbations. Also, that the binding of LTA to the membrane of dried and wet monolayers appears to be decidedly different when based on the subsequent availability of Fe2+ for cellular prolyl hydroxylase activity. The ability of LTA to act as a cationic exchanger and the presence of intracellular Fe2+ inaccessible to LTA probably accounted for the lack of complete inhibition of prolyl hydroxylase activity by this amphiphile in the wet cell system. Considerably less iron was needed to negate the partial inhibition of prolyl hydroxylase activity by LTA in viable cells than was needed to restore the increased enzyme activity by this amphiphile in equivalent dried preparations. These and other results showed that, although LTA does not affect collagen polypeptide chain formation in wet monolayers, its involvement at the molecular level does result in a marked decrease in the hydroxylation of collagenous peptidyl prolyl residues through LTA interaction with Fe2+. This reduction in prolyl hydroxylase activity equaled the reduction in hydroxylation of collagenous protein in fibroblast monolayers caused by LTA reported earlier (O. Leon and C. Panos, Infect. Immun. 40:785-794, 1983). Therefore, these data suggest that partial inhibition of prolyl hydroxylase activity is directly related to the synthesis of defective collagen by wet fibroblast monolayers exposed to minute amounts of group A, type 12 streptococcal LTA. Use of LTA also showed that complete inhibition of hydroxyproline formation is not required for the continued formation and accumulation of defective collagenous protein by these monolayers.
Performance Measure Manipulation

A twoâ€ period model in which communication restrictions preclude the usual revelation representation is analyzed, and the communication policies take on the appearance of â€œincome smoothing. â€ The driving force is the information content of the â€œsmoothedâ€ or manipulated series, relative to its counterpart were manipulation not possible. Various possibilities arise, depending on the underlying stochastic structure: performance measure manipulation might be socially efficient, or not; and when it is best to invite and motivate this manipulation, the optimal policy itself can take on a variety of forms.
Aspect‐oriented re‐engineering of e‐learning courseware

Purpose – This paper proposes solutions to problems related to the maintenance and update of already existing e‐learning courseware.Design/methodology/approach – A structured approach in form of a reference model for the re‐engineering of existing educational material is presented. In this context, concepts already established in the area of aspect‐oriented programming are applied to deal with crosscutting concerns in e‐learning material. Finally, a software product line approach is proposed for the creation of new courseware using re‐engineered components.Findings – It turns out that some aspects of the methodology developed for aspect‐oriented programming can also be used to restructure the existing e‐learning material in such a way that maintenance is eased and redundancy is significantly reduced. In addition, software product lines for e‐learning material provide a global framework for coordinating the re‐engineering and reuse of components.Practical implications – The advantage of the proposed approa.
The N Terminus and C Terminus of Herpes Simplex Virus 1 ICP4 Cooperate To Activate Viral Gene Expression

ABSTRACT Infected cell polypeptide 4 (ICP4) activates transcription from most viral promoters. Two transactivation domains, one N-terminal and one C terminal, are largely responsible for the activation functions of ICP4. A mutant ICP4 molecule lacking the C-terminal activation domain (n208) efficiently activates many early genes, whereas late genes are poorly activated, and virus growth is severely impaired. The regions within the N terminus of ICP4 (amino acids 1 to 210) that contribute to activation were investigated by analysis of deletion mutants in the presence or absence of the C-terminal activation domain. The mutants were assessed for their abilities to support viral replication and to regulate gene expression. Several deletions in regions conserved in other alphaherpesviruses resulted in impaired activation and viral growth, without affecting DNA binding. The single small deletion that had the greatest effect on activation in the absence of the C terminus corresponded to a highly conserved stretch of amino acids between 81 and 96, rendering the molecule nonfunctional. However, when the C terminus was present, the same deletion had a minimal effect on activity. The amino terminus of ICP4 was predicted to be relatively disordered compared to the DNA-binding domain and the C-terminal 500 amino acids. Moreover, the amino terminus appears to be in a relatively extended conformation as determined by the hydrodynamic properties of several mutants. The data support a model where the amino terminus is an extended and possibly flexible region of the protein, allowing it to efficiently interact with multiple transcription factors at a distance from where it is bound to DNA, thereby enabling ICP4 to function as a general activator of polymerase II transcription. The C terminus of ICP4 can compensate for some of the mutations in the N terminus, suggesting that it either specifies redundant interactions or enables the amino terminus to function more efficiently.
Direct Displacement Effects of Labour Market Programmes

Using a panel of 250 Swedish municipalities over the period 1987–1996, we examine the direct displacement effects of active labour market programmes (ALMPs). Compared to earlier studies on this topic, we have more and better data. Based on our GMM estimations, we find that there are direct displacement effects from subsidised employment (in the order of approximately 65%), but that there seem to be no (significant) displacement effects from training. This result seems to be robust to several alternative specifications.
The Effects of Bank Regulations, Competition, and Financial Reforms on Banks’ Performance

In this paper, we examine the influence of bank regulation, concentration, and financial and institutional development on commercial bank margins and profitability across a broad selection of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. The empirical results suggest that bank-specific characteristics, in particular bank capitalization and credit risk, have a positive and significant impact on banks' net interest margin, cost efficiency, and profitability. Also we find that macroeconomic and financial development indicators have no significant impact on net interest margins, except for inflation. Regulatory and institutional variables seem to have an impact on bank performance.
The role of accountants in improving manufacturing technology

Abstract The case study investigates the relationship between the development of material requirements planning/just-in-time (MRP/JIT) operations management methods and an accounting system within a manufacturing company. The study identifies the improvements that have already been made and those yet to be made and investigates the role the accounting function in stimulating or inhibiting improvement.
Systemic Inflammatory Response and Potential Prognostic Implications After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Substudy of the Target Temperature Management Trial*

Objectives:Whole-body ischemia during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest triggers immediate activation of inflammatory systems leading to a sepsis-like syndrome. The aim was to investigate the association between level of systemic inflammation and mortality in survivors after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated with targeted temperature management. Design:Post hoc analysis. Setting:Single-center study of a prospective multicenter randomized study. Patients:One hundred sixty-nine patients (99%) with available blood samples out of 171 patients included in the Target Temperature Management trial, randomly assigning patients to targeted temperature management at 33°C or 36°C. Intervention:None. Measurements and Main Results:At baseline and 24, 48, and 72 hours after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, blood samples were obtained and screened for a battery of inflammatory markers. Level of interleukin-1&bgr;, interleukin-2, interleukin-4, interleukin-5, interleukin-6, interleukin-9, interleukin-10, interleukin-12, interleukin-13, tumor necrosis factor-&agr;, interferon-&ggr;, C-reactive protein, and procalcitonin were measured. Mortality at 30 days was evaluated by Cox analysis, and the predictive capability of inflammatory markers was evaluated by area under the curve. Level of all inflammatory markers changed significantly within 72 hours after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (all p values < 0.001), but only procalcitonin levels showed overall differences between nonsurvivors and survivors (p = 0.0002). At baseline, interleukin-6 was independently associated with mortality, whereas both interleukin-6 levels (hazard ratio = 1.23 [1.01–1.49]; p = 0.04) and procalcitonin levels (hazard ratio = 1.20 [1.03–1.39]; p = 0.02) 24 hours after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest were associated with 30-day mortality with no interactions between targeted temperature management group and levels of interleukin-6 (p = 0.25) or procalcitonin (p = 0.85). None of the other inflammatory markers were independently associated with mortality. Area under the curve for procalcitonin and interleukin-6, 24 hours after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, were 0.74 and 0.63, respectively. Conclusions:Level of inflammation, assessed by interleukin-6 and procalcitonin, was independently associated with increased mortality with the highest discriminative value obtained 24 hours after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Interventions aiming at decreasing level of inflammation as a way to improve outcome may be investigated in future studies.
Fluid effects on the pipe's isolation plugging tool by large-eddy simulation

The isolation plugging tool is normally developed for deep water pipeline repairing. It is a mechanical structure of plugging and sealing fluid in high-pressure pipelines to make sure the pipe maintenance operation under normal transmission. In order to design control the plugging tool, the analysis of underlying flow field physics in pipeline is necessary based on the in-situ situation. The flow features of fluid adjacent to the plugging tool in the pipeline are analyzed by large-eddy simulation. The velocity vectors, pressure and energy loss distribution of the flow through the plugging tool are investigated. The force on the plugging tool is derived in three different directions. In order to analyze the bearing mechanism of the plugging tool with different dimensions, we compare the forces generated by the flow with different ratio of length of the plugging tool. The results show that the turbulent state in the downstream of the plugging tool is symmetrical about central plane. The periodical evolution of vortexes in downstream directly leads to the further development of turbulence. The vortexes are connected with the pressure distribution and energy loss. The influenced distance in downstream is twice as long as length of the plugging tool. The x and y directional total forces on the plugging tool are almost same and periodic. The length of the plugging tool is longer, the axial force is bigger on it.
Hyperspectral Image Classification by Bootstrap AdaBoost With Random Decision Stumps

We consider a supervised classification of hyperspectral data using AdaBoost with stump functions as base classifiers. We used the bootstrap method without replacement to improve stability and accuracy and to reduce overtraining. We randomly split a data set into two subsets: one for training and the other one for validation. Subsampling and training/validation steps were repeated to derive the final classifier by the majority vote of the classifiers. This method enabled us to estimate variable relevance to the classification. The relevance measure was used to estimate prior probabilities of the variables for random combinations. In numerical experiments with multispectral and hyperspectral data, the proposed method performed extremely well and showed itself to be superior to support vector machines, artificial neural networks, and other well-known classification methods.
The Impact of an Auditor's Initial Hypothesis on Subsequent Performance at Identifying Actual Errors*

Previous work on hypothesis generation demonstrates that auditors tend to generate frequently occurring financial statement errors as their initial hypotheses to explain unexpected fluctuations. However, such work does not examine how the initially generated hypothesis affects subsequent performance at identifying an actual error. We hypothesized that the initially generated hypothesis would interfere with an auditor's ability to subsequently switch to a different hypothesis. Thus, if the initial hypothesis were incorrect, auditors would find it difficult to switch hypotheses in order to identify an actual error. Moreover, initially generating a frequent error would exacerbate this difficulty. Auditor-subjects were asked to generate an initial error hypothesis after seeing a pattern of fluctuations in which sales and accounts receivable were overstated. After they generated their initial hypothesis, half of the subjects were provided with additional information that was consistent with a very frequent error (sales cutoff) and the other half were provided with information consistent with an infrequent error (sales recorded twice). As expected, we found that initially generating the very frequent error (i.e., sales cutoff) versus some other less frequent error affected auditors' subsequent performance at identifying actual errors. Specifically, auditors who generated the very frequent error as their initial hypothesis performed best when it was the actual error, but performed worst when the infrequent error was the actual error. In contrast, auditors who generated a less frequent error as their initial hypothesis performed moderately well (i.e., between best and worst) both when the actual error was frequent and when it was infrequent. The implications of these results for audit efficiency and effectiveness are discussed.
Distance to Hospital and Children's Use of Preventive Care: Is Being Closer Better, and for Whom?

This article examines the effect of distance to hospital on preventive care among children using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth's Child-Mother file matched to data from the 1990 American Hospital Association Survey. Among central-city black children, each additional mile from the hospital is associated with a 3-percentage-point decline in the probability of having had a checkup (from a mean baseline of 74%). Moreover, the effects are similar for privately and publicly insured black children. For this group, access to providers is as important as private insurance coverage in predicting use of preventive care. (JEL I1) Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.
RULES VERSUS DISCRETION: A SIMULATION STUDY

The "rules versus discretion" debate has continued sporadically for some years now. Policy recommendations still are made because of the alleged desirability of some rules, and criticism periodically is leveled at the Federal Reserve because of deviations of monetary aggregates from guidelines that have been proposed. In the light of the continued concern over the question of rules versus discretion, we report on some results of a study of decision rules for monetary policy. We find that a steady rate of growth in the money stock, which Friedman recommends, does not necessarily perform well. Our investigation indicates that under many conditions good results occur when fairly wide variations in the rate of growth in money are permitted. These findings are based on a simulation study which focuses on conditions when there is uncertainty and misspecification of underlying economic relations. We begin by constructing a model, then generating the time paths of GNP given different forecasting errors and different decision rules. We assume for the purposes of this exercise that the underlying structure of the economy is captured by the monetarist, "St. Louis model. " [1] Moreover, we presume that policy makers who must implicitly or explicitly judge the underlying structure of the economy make gross errors in forecasting GNP so that their predictions are only as good as naive extrapolations; thus we deliberately handicap discretionary policy by taking inept forecasting as the norm. But we also include scenarios where, given forecasting errors, adaptations to past discrepancies between target and realized values of GNP occur. So in some sense, cases are included so that "learning" from past errors is simulated. One may compare the approach here with other investigations that have yielded information on the "rules versus discretion" controversy. Without reviewing the literature in detail, suffice it to say that the first extensive empirical work-on the subject was by Bronfenbrenner [3] and Modigliani [7]. Pierce [8] has generated some evidence on the performance of rules in the context of a large scale econometric model. Holt [6] has provided mathematical models of the effect of errors in estimating structure, and Brainard [2] has laid out the conditions for optimal policy in linear models when coefficients are not known with certainty. Unlike other research, Holt's and Brainard's work has the advantage of providing exact solutions rather than relying on simulation results alone. Holt,
Employment creation and localization: the crucial human resource issues for the GCC

This paper outlines crucial issues of employment creation and localization in the states of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) and the factors underlying the issues. Rapid demographic changes, highs and lows of oil prices, inequality of wealth, inadequate education systems and ineffective government policies are creating major human resource challenges for the region. Governments' preference for expediency rather than solutions has contributed to the ‘challenges’ becoming serious problems which could threaten the existence of the GCC states and cause harm to other countries. The private sector has been intent on maximizing short-term gain while creating long-term problems. Governments throughout the region have emphasized the need for the private sector to localize. Even if, however, the private sector is willing to employ many more citizens there will not be enough jobs for all who want employment. Governments have attempted to reduce dependence on foreign labour rather than creating a productive indigenous workforce and worthwhile jobs for their citizens. This paper does not provide academic theory or practical solutions to these crucial issues; however, it does make clear the serious challenges facing this part of the Middle East and suggests some directions for research and practice. The paper seeks to build sufficient understanding for academics to build theory to help governments and employers meet the challenges of creation of sufficient numbers of jobs for the increasing population of nationals while managing the orderly departure of foreign workers.