Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corruption and Composition of Foreign Direct Investment: Firm-Level Evidence

This paper studies the impact of corruption in a host country on foreign investor's preference for a joint venture versus a wholly-owned subsidiary. A simple model highlights a basic trade-off in using local partners. On the one hand, corruption makes local bureaucracy less transparent and increases the value of using a local partner to cut through the bureaucratic maze. On the other hand, corruption decreases the effective protection of investor's intangible assets and lowers the probability that disputes between foreign and domestic partners will be adjudicated fairly, which reduces the value of having a local partner. The importance of protecting intangible assets increases with investor's technological sophistication, which tilts the preference away from joint ventures in a corrupt country. Empirical tests of the hypothesis on a firm-level data set show that corruption reduces inward FDI and shifts the ownership structure towards joint ventures. Conditional on FDI taking place, an increase in corruption from the Hungarian level to that of Azerbaijan decreases the probability of a wholly-owned subsidiary by 10-20%. Technologically more advanced firms are found to be less likely to engage in joint ventures. On the other hand, US firms are found to be more averse to joint ventures in corrupt countries than investors of other nationalities. This may be due to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Adaptive Tuning of IEEE 802 . 11 MAC for Improving Control Performance in Cyber-Physical Systems

In this paper, we study the problem of parameter tuning in IEEE 802.11 for improving control performance in cyber-physical systems (CPS). Our main idea is to exploit th e fact that control performance depends more on delay distribution rather than just the average delay. Our contributions are two folds: i) Instead of trying to minimize the average network delay, we control the delay variance that can be more critical to control performance. ii) In order to validate our approach, we implement a CPS testbed, where a remote controller controls a drone via an IEEE 802.11 network. We examine the tracking error of the controller for a given reference. Our preliminary results show that the proposed approach can significantly improve control performance.
Optimized Seizure Detection Algorithm: A Fast Approach for Onset of Epileptic in EEG Signals Using GT Discriminant Analysis and K-NN Classifier

Background Epilepsy is a severe disorder of the central nervous system that predisposes the person to recurrent seizures. Fifty million people worldwide suffer from epilepsy; after Alzheimer’s and stroke, it is the third widespread nervous disorder. Objective In this paper, an algorithm to detect the onset of epileptic seizures based on the analysis of brain electrical signals (EEG) has been proposed. 844 hours of EEG were recorded form 23 pediatric patients consecutively with 163 occurrences of seizures. Signals had been collected from Children’s Hospital Boston with a sampling frequency of 256 Hz through 18 channels in order to assess epilepsy surgery. By selecting effective features from seizure and non-seizure signals of each individual and putting them into two categories, the proposed algorithm detects the onset of seizures quickly and with high sensitivity. Method In this algorithm, L-sec epochs of signals are displayed in form of a third-order tensor in spatial, spectral and temporal spaces by applying wavelet transform. Then, after applying general tensor discriminant analysis (GTDA) on tensors and calculating mapping matrix, feature vectors are extracted. GTDA increases the sensitivity of the algorithm by storing data without deleting them. Finally, K-Nearest neighbors (KNN) is used to classify the selected features. Results The results of simulating algorithm on algorithm standard dataset shows that the algorithm is capable of detecting 98 percent of seizures with an average delay of 4.7 seconds and the average error rate detection of three errors in 24 hours. Conclusion Today, the lack of an automated system to detect or predict the seizure onset is strongly felt.
Expression of miR-148/152 Family as Potential Biomarkers in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Background Altered miR-148/152 family expression contributes to human carcinogenesis. This study was designed to detect the potential for using miR-148/152 family as biomarkers for NSCLC patients. Material/Methods The relative expression levels of miR-148/152 family (miR-148a, miR-148b, and miR-152) in serum of 36 non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) patients, 20 patients with benign pulmonary diseases (BPD), and 10 healthy individuals were assessed by real-time reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Results The expression of all three miRNAs were significantly lower in the serum of NSCLC than that of BPD and healthy controls (all p<0.01), and their expression levels were strongly correlated with each other (r=0.781, 0.720, and 0.645, respectively). Downregulation of miR-148/152 family was found to be corrected with more aggressive tumors. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) for miR-148a, miR-148b, and miR-152 discriminating NSCLC from BPD were 0.775, 0.725, and 0.774, respectively, all higher than that of CEA (0.506). Combining the three miRNAs increased the discrimination performance, yielding an AUC of 0.789 (95% confidence interval, 0.643 to 0.895), with a sensitivity of 72.2% and a specificity of 90.0%. Conclusions The results of present study suggest that the expression levels of circulating miR-148/152 family may serve as biomarkers for NSCLC.
Goodness of Regularity in Dot Patterns: Global Symmetry, Local Symmetry, and Their Interactions

Goodness is a classic Gestalt notion defined as salience or perceptual strength of a given pattern. All operational models of goodness have assigned a central role to mirror symmetry but not much attention has been paid to the distinction between global and local mirror symmetry, and their possible interactions. We designed eight different types of dot patterns (all consisting of 80 dots), combining different numbers (0, 1, and 2) and relative orientations (parallel or orthogonal to each other) of local and global axes of symmetry (affecting 50% or 100% of the dots, respectively) at different absolute orientations (vertical and horizontal). Each of 640 trials consisted of a short presentation of a new dot pattern, which subjects had to classify as regular or random. We hypothesised that the overall goodness of patterns is not the simple sum of the amount of regularity present in them but depends on the cooperation and competition between symmetries. The results confirmed our hypothesis, showing that performance in this regularity-detection task did not increase in a linear way when some symmetries were added to other symmetries.
Investigating the Synergistic Interaction of Diabetes, Tobacco Smoking, Alcohol Consumption, and Hypercholesterolemia on the Risk of Pancreatic Cancer: A Case-Control Study in Italy

The aims of the present research are to investigate the possible predictors of pancreatic cancer, in particular smoking status, alcohol consumption, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes mellitus, in patients with histologically confirmed pancreatic carcinoma and to examine the synergism between risk factors. A case-control study (80 patients and 392 controls) was conducted at the Teaching Hospital “Agostino Gemelli” in Rome. A conditional logistic regression was used for the statistical analysis and results were presented as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). We also investigated the possible interactions between risk factors and calculated the synergism index (SI). The multivariate analysis revealed that hypercholesterolemia and alcohol consumption resulted in important risk factors for pancreatic cancer even after the adjustment for all variables (OR: 5.05, 95% CI: 2.94–8.66; OR: 2.25, 95% CI: 1.30–3.89, resp.). Interestingly, important synergistic interactions between risk factors were found, especially between ever smoking status and alcohol consumptions (SI = 17.61) as well as alcohol consumption and diabetes (SI = 17.77). In conclusion, the study confirms that hypercholesterolemia and alcohol consumption represent significant and independent risk factors for pancreatic cancer. Moreover, there is evidence of synergistic interaction between diabetes and lifestyle factors (drinking alcohol and eating fatty foods).
A New Resource Allocation Model for Grid Networks based on Bargaining in a Competitive Market

Resource allocation is an important subject in Grid computing environment. Many types of non-similar resources exist in the grid computing environment which can also be considered from economics’ point of view. Moreover, suppliers and customers are independent subjects with two very different environments in the grid computing environment. Therefore negotiations are considered very important. Bargaining is one of the most functional methods of negotiation in economic grid. In this paper a new resource allocation algorithm based on bargaining in a competitive market is proposed. The presented paper tries to increase the number and speed of successful negotiation by considering the meaning of competition in the market and deadline in the bargaining model. The proposed model is suitable for real-time software implementation to illustrate the concept of buying from seller’s competitive market. The Simulation results on prototype data show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Genomic Insights into the Different Layers of Gene Regulation in Yeast

The model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae has allowed the development of new functional genomics techniques devoted to the study of transcription in all its stages. With these techniques, it has been possible to find interesting new mechanisms to control gene expression that act at different levels and for different gene sets apart from the known cis-trans regulation in the transcription initiation step. Here we discuss a method developed in our laboratory, Genomic Run-On, and other new methods that have recently appeared with distinct technical features. A comparison between the datasets generated by them provides interesting genomic insights into the different layers of gene regulation in eukaryotes.
Determinants of Tourist Arrivals in Africa: A Panel Data Regression Analysis

Africa's tourism potential is acknowledged to be significant but underdeveloped. This paper uses both cross-section data and panel data for the period 1996–2000 to identify the determinants of tourism arrivals in 43 African countries, taking into account tourists' country of origin. The results strongly suggest that political stability, tourism infrastructure, marketing and information, and the level of development at the destination are key determinants of travel to Africa. Typical ‘developed country determinants’ of tourism demand, such as the level of income in the origin country, the relative prices and the cost of travel, are not so significant in explaining the demand for Africa as a tourism destination. It is therefore recommended that attention should be given to improving the overall stability of the continent and the availability and quantity of tourism infrastructure.
Hypothermia Augments Neuroprotective Activity of Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy

Though hypothermia is the only clinically available treatment for neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), it is not completely effective in severe cases. We hypothesized that combined treatment with hypothermia and transplantation of human umbilical cord blood (UCB)-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) would synergistically attenuate severe HIE compared to stand-alone therapy. To induce hypoxia-ischemia (HI), male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to 8% oxygen for 120 min after unilateral carotid artery ligation on postnatal day (P) 7. After confirmation of severe HIE involving >50% of the ipsilateral hemisphere volume as determined by diffusion-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) within 2 h after HI, intraventricular MSC transplantation (1 × 105 cells) and/or hypothermia with target temperature at 32°C for 24 h were administered 6 h after induction of HI. Follow-up brain MRI at P12 and P42, sensorimotor function tests at P40–42, evaluation of cytokines in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) at P42, and histologic analysis of peri-infarct tissues at P42 were performed. Severe HI resulted in progressively increased brain infarction over time as assessed by serial MRI, increased number of cells positive for terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase nick-end labeling, microgliosis and astrocytosis, increased CSF cytokine levels, and impaired function in behavioral tests such as rotarod and cylinder tests. All of the abnormalities observed in severe HIE showed greater improvement after combined treatment with hypothermia and MSC transplantation than with either therapy alone. Overall, these findings suggest that combined treatment with hypothermia and human UCB-derived MSC transplantation might be a novel therapeutic modality to improve the prognosis of severe HIE, an intractable disease that currently has no effective treatment.
Determinanty prywatnych wydatków edukacyjnych w Polsce – wyniki badania eksploracyjnego

Wysokość środków przeznaczanych na edukację przez gospodarstwa domowe jest uzależniona od wielu czynników. W artykule stawia się hipotezy dotyczące determinant wydatków edukacyjnych ponoszonych przez polskie gospodarstwa domowe na edukację dzieci w wieku od 6 do 18 lat i weryfikuje je na podstawie danych zgromadzonych w badaniu IBE Wydatki edukacyjne gospodarstw domowych i ich uwarunkowania. Związki czynników leżących po stronie gospodarstwa domowego z wydatkami edukacyjnymi ogółem oraz w podziale na wydatki obowiązkowe i nieobowiązkowe zbadano metodą regresji. Kapitał kulturowy gospodarstwa domowego, wykształcenie rodziców oraz zamożność mają znaczenie dla wysokości ponoszonych wydatków. Pozytywna ocena szkoły również wiąże się z wyższymi wydatkami edukacyjnymi.
The Promise of Entrepreneurship for the Future Development of Factor-Driven Economies in Africa

Until recently, the African continent has held positive fundamentals for growth. However, the continent continues to face profound developmental challenges and structural weaknesses that impede sustained and inclusive growth. Largely driven by natural resources and commodities, the growth of African economies has not generated sufficient economic diversification, job growth or development for the majority of its citizens. In recent years, entrepreneurship has been recognised as a key ingredient of sustainable economic growth and quality job creation, and with the promise of resource coordination, businesses creation, and innovation. The question to be put forward is whether entrepreneurship holds the promise for the development progress of Africa. Thus, in this conceptual paper entrepreneurship is proposed as a key essence of economic growth and structural change for the future transition of Africa’s economies.
Stylometry-based Fraud and Plagiarism Detection for Learning at Scale

Fraud detection in free and natural text submissions is a major challenge for educators in general. It is even more challenging to detect plagiarism at scale and in online classes such as Massive Open Online Courses. In this paper, we introduce a novel method that analyses the writing style of an author (stylometry) to identify plagiarism. We will show that our system scales to thousands of submissions and students. For a given test set of ~4000 users our algorithm shows F-scores of over 90%.
Evolutionary models for two hyper-iron-poor low-mass stars

The possible origin of two low-mass hyper-iron-poor (HIP) stars, HE0107-5240 and HE13272326 are investigated. The three scenarios tested are as follows. (i) The star forms metal free (Population III) and accretes metals throughout its lifetime. (ii) A Population III binary star system forms, and the lower mass star accretes metals from the higher mass star during its asymptotic giant branch phase. (iii) An HIP Population II star is formed and evolves with no further pollution. Using the NG-ELMS code, stellar evolution models of these three scenarios are computed and fitted to the observed colours. Models are computed at 0.8 and 0.7 M� , and for several metal accretion rates. It is not possible to unambiguously identify the origin, evolutionary stage or mass for either star with the present observational data. Our evolutionary models indicate that HE0107−5240 is either a red giant or a subgiant close to the base of the red giant branch. In line with the study of Aoki et al., HE1327−2326 is found to be either a main-sequence or a subgiant star. If HE1327−2326 is a main-sequence star the fits indicate that it must have a mass less than 0.8 M� ; if the star is assumed to have an age of around 12.5 Gyr it will have a mass closer to 0.7 M� . Main-sequence low-mass model Population III stars which have been polluted with metals are found to closely resemble Population II stars. However, the case is different for subgiants. The polluted and unpolluted Population III subgiants have luminosity up to twice that of a comparable Population II model. If HE1327−2326 is a subgiant, its distance is measured and if its mass can be reasonably well constrained, it should be possible to determine if it is a Population II or III star.
ViPiD - Virtual 3D Person Models for Intuitive Dialog Systems

ViPiD is a complete framework for audio and 3D video capturing of one or several moving persons as well as the creation of 3D person models for intuitive dialog systems. Therefore we are setting up a multi-camera environment for 3D scene analysis, incorporating aspects such as 3D/4D recons truction, motion estimation, virtual camera integration, coding of time variant 3D meshes and free viewpoint video.
Wearable Technologies for Automotive User Interfaces: Danger or Opportunity?

Wearable technologies are spreading into human's everyday life. Smart bracelets, watches and glasses promise to provide us with ready-at-hand access to several information and interaction possibilities. What happens when these technologies enter the car? Are they a mere danger or can also offer information and interaction opportunities that can improve the vehicle inhabitants' user experience and safety? This workshop aims to discuss all the opportunities and dangers that such technologies not only are already bringing in nowadays vehicles, but could also bring in future semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles.
A 100-channel hermetically sealed implantable device for wireless neurosensing applications

A 100-ch fully head-implantable wireless broadband neural recording system was developed. It features 100 parallel wideband (0.1Hz ~ 7.8 kHz) neural recording channels, a medical grade 200mAh Li-ion battery recharged inductively at 2 MHz, and data telemetry using both 3.2/3.8GHz FSK wireless and 850nm IR laser data link. All active electronics are hermetically sealed in a titanium enclosure with a sapphire window. Custom 100 individual hermetic feedthroughs enable connection to the microelectrode intracortical array. This wireless implant has been validated both on-bench and in freely moving pig and monkey models.
Jamming of Wireless Localization Systems

In this paper, the optimal jamming of wireless localization systems is investigated. Two optimal power allocation schemes are proposed for jammer nodes in the presence of total and peak power constraints. In the first scheme, power is allocated to jammer nodes in order to maximize the average Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of target nodes, whereas in the second scheme, the power allocation is performed for the aim of maximizing the minimum CRLB of target nodes. Both the schemes are formulated as linear programs, and a closed-form solution is obtained for the first scheme. For the second scheme, under certain conditions, the property of full total power utilization is specified, and a closed-form solution is obtained when the total power is lower than a specific threshold. In addition, it is shown that non-zero power is allocated to at most NT jammer nodes according to the second scheme in the absence of peak power constraints, where NT is the number of target nodes. In the presence of parameter uncertainty, robust versions of the power allocation schemes are proposed. Simulation results are presented to investigate the performance of the proposed schemes and to illustrate the theoretical results.
Capacity and capacity-achieving input distribution of the energy detector

This paper presents the channel capacity and capacity-achieving input distribution of an energy detection receiver structure. A proper statistical model is introduced which makes it possible to treat the energy detector as a constrained continuous communication channel. To solve this non-linear optimization we used the Blahut-Arimoto algorithm extended with a particle method, so that also continuous channels can be handled. To get a better convergence behavior of the algorithm, we also implement two new methods, which are called “fuse particles” and “kick particles” [1]. The results we present show that the capacity of the energy detector decreases with increasing integration time and decreasing peak-to-average power ratio. It is shown that the capacity-achieving input distribution is discrete with a finite number of mass points.
Multinational Firms and Labor Market Pooling

In the presence of increasing specialization of workers it becomes more and more difficult for firms to find the most suitable workers. In such an environment a multinational enterprise (MNE) has an advantage because it can exchange workers between plants in different countries. Recruiting from the home and foreign plant leads to a larger labor market pool for an MNE, reducing the mismatch of its workforce. This paper analyzes the consequences of this advantage for production, employment, prices and wages. In line with recent empirical results, we find that the additional ability to recruit workers from the home and foreign labor market leads to lower mismatch, higher average productivity of workers, lower prices, higher output, and higher employment of a plant of an MNE as compared with a national firm, while the wage‐effects depend on firm productivity.
Non-medical factors influencing peritoneal dialysis utilization: the Swiss experience.

The use of peritoneal dialysis (PD) in the treatment of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) fluctuates considerably from country to country [1]. The proportion varies from 0 to above 60% of the total dialysis population and is most often explained by socioeconomic, health care or reimbursement factors [1–4]. This disparity, however, also exists at the regional or at the centre level and may also change over time within the same unit, meaning that other factors must play a role. Based on the Swiss experience over the last few years, the present review analyses those factors and proposes some strategies towards a more homogeneous use of dialysis modalities.
Investigating health management practices of individuals with diabetes

Chronic diseases, endemic in the rapidly aging population, are stretching the capacity of healthcare resources. Increasingly, individuals need to adopt proactive health attitudes and contribute to the management of their own health. We investigate existing diabetes self-management practices and ways in which reflection on prior actions impacts future lifestyle choices. The findings suggest that individuals generate and evaluate hypotheses regarding health implications of their actions. Thus, health-monitoring applications can assist individuals in making educated choices by facilitating discovery of correlations between their past actions and health states. Deployment of an early prototype of a health-monitoring application demonstrated the need for careful presentation techniques to promote more robust understanding and to avoid reinforcement of biases.