Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New evidence on the output cost of fighting inflation

The Federal Reserve has made significant progress toward price stability over the last two decades. The annual inflation rate has declined from 13 percent in the early 1980s to roughly 2 percent today. But, to be sure, the current low-inflation environment has come at a price. > One key cost of achieving low inflation is the output loss that generally accompanies a permanent decline in inflation, as occurred in the early 1980s and early 1990s. Another more subtle output cost of fighting inflation is the cost of preventing inflation from rising. As incipient inflation pressures build, tighter monetary policy can slow the economy and thereby preemptively forestall the rise in actual inflation. The slower output growth is the cost of resisting inflation pressures. Together, these two output costs of fighting inflation play important roles in determining how best to maintain low inflation and how to seek further disinflation toward price stability. > A significant factor determining the output cost of fighting inflation is the tradeoff between inflation and output, often referred to as the Phillips curve. Traditionally, estimates of this relationship assume the shape of this curve is linear. This implies that the slope of the Phillips curve is a constant and, therefore, independent of the stage of the business cycle, the speed of the disinflation, and how aggressively incipient inflation pressures are fought. Recent research, however, has begun to question whether the slope is constant. Assessing the output cost of fighting inflation may be more complicated than traditionally assumed. > Filardo investigates the shape of the Phillips curve and the associated output cost of fighting inflation. He concludes that, while the Phillips curve traditionally has been thought of as approximately linear, closer examination of the inflation-output relationship reveals important nonlinearities. This new evidence and its implications for the output cost of fighting inflation may require new policy strategies.
EU eastern enlargement in theory and practice : a policy of administrative conditionality?

The fifth enlargement of the EU to include Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) has led to the creation of new policy instruments, which will become a common feature in future enlargement rounds of the Community. Drawing on policy transfer literature and new forms of governance, this thesis explores the role of the EU and its administrative conditionality in shaping the public administration reforms in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It analyses the introduction of the "twinning exercise" within the context of the 1997 reforms of the enlargement strategy. This is followed by a discussion of the procedural changes which had to be introduced in order to facilitate the secondment of member states' civil servants to administrations in CEE. While emphasizing a new tendency in EU policymaking, the use of the semi-voluntary forms of coordination among its member states and the applicants, it is argued that the substantive policies of the enlargement process allow for the transfer of institutional models and implementation structures from current member states to the applicants. As a result, the EU's conditionality on administrative capacities at sectoral level has gained momentum from the engagement of member states' civil servants in the accession process, although resistance in many of the applicants' ministries has partially prevented full compliance with the acquis communautaire. The thesis regards the introduction of the twinning exercise as mainly driven by lesson-drawing. It argues that, in the long run, the policy outcome of twinning projects is convergence in form of hybridisation rather than compliance on the basis of 'full transfer'.
ReCompAc: Reconfigurable compute accelerator

This paper presents a promising technique for accelerating frequently executed (hot) code regions. Unlike most accelerators which utilize dedicated hardware structures, our architecture exploits the available execution resources of a chip multiprocessor (CMP), while dynamically specializing into a reconfigurable compute accelerator. Execution units available in one or more general purpose cores are placed close to each other on the chip. An additional reconfigurable switched network is used to couple these units and to specialize the functionality of the accelerator for the hot code regions. The available general purpose hardware in cores executes memory instructions, feeds and controls the accelerator. Moreover, the CMP supports core fusion, and while fusing cores resources it allows for more aggressive memory processing for memory intensive applications. The dynamic specialization of available execution resources increases the performance and efficiency of CMP, while requiring minimal hardware modifications. Our initial results indicate a speedup of 7× compared to a general purpose execution.
Removal of Cu from Aqueous Solution Using Slag

This study intends to establish the usage of steel slag in absorption of Cu Within this study the two types of blast furnace and converter slag were examined in laboratory conditions and the effects of parameters of time, concentration, solutions’ pH on the amount of absorption were studied. Studying the experiments showed convertor slag’s absorption of Cu per gr was greater in a balance time of 15 minutes with high concentrations of metallic elements of 500 and 1000 ppm, but increase in pH did not alter the absorption. And the highest absorption of Cu was that of blast furnace slag with the same conditions. The only difference was that the more the pH increased the greater the absorption was, in a way that the greater amount of absorption occurred in a pH of 7. Considering the great volume of slag and its feature of absorbing Cu, usage of this absorbent can be taken into consideration as a method of quality treatment and complimentary filtration of effluent. [Golshan Shirneshan, Noorallah Mirghafari. Removal of Cu from Aqueous Solution Using Slag. Journal of American Science 2011;7(6):859-862]. (ISSN: 1545-1003). http://www.americanscience. org.
Statistical approaches for personal feature extraction from pressure array sensors

We propose two statistical probability approaches to extract personal feature from the user's grip force data. One approach is based on grip force changes predicted by the Kalman filter, the other is based on distributions of grip force changes by Jensen-Shannon(JS) divergence. Personal feature is the customary behavior that repeatedly appears without the user being aware of it. The personal feature is used for not only user-authentication, but also user-special commands. We mount pressure array sensors on a mobile phone and show that our proposals can extract personal feature from the user's grip force data with 10[%] error in FAR-FRR by the Kalman filter approach and the accuracy of 100[%] by the JS divergence approach.
Documentation Is Important

Inaccurate, incomplete, out of date, or missing documentation is a major contributor to poor software quality. A 4-level Software System Documentation Process Model and assessment procedure whose goal is to improve the documentation process have been designed. A maturity level and documentation process profile is generated from the responses to an assessment instrument that takes only 30 minutes to complete. The profile indicates what practices the organization is doing well, what practices need improvement, and challenges to move to the next higher maturity level. This article reports promising preliminary assessment results. Fourteen projects at five organizations have been assessed. One promising data point was an organization where three projects were assessed. One project was at level 1 and the other two at level 2. During integration testing 41% of the defects found were design and requirements defects for the project at level 1 whereas only 25% of the defects were design and requirements defects for the two projects at level 2. This limited data suggests that organizations at a higher maturity discover a larger percentage of defects earlier than organizations at a lower maturity level.
Residence close to high traffic and prevalence of coronary heart disease.

AIMS Long-term exposure to urban air pollution may accelerate atherogenesis and increase cardiopulmonary mortality. We aim to examine the relationship between the long-term residential exposure to traffic and prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD). METHODS AND RESULTS We used baseline data from the German Heinz Nixdorf RECALL study, a population-based, prospective cohort study. For 3399 participants from two cities, we assessed the long-term personal traffic exposure and background air pollution, comparing residents living within 150 m of major roads with those living further away. The principal outcome variable was clinically manifest CHD. We evaluated the association with multivariable logistic regression, controlling for background air pollution and individual level risk factors. Of 3399 participants, 242 (7.1%) had CHD. The crude odds ratio (OR) for prevalence of CHD at high traffic exposure was significantly elevated (1.62, 95%CI 1.12-2.34) and rose to 1.85 (95%CI 1.21-2.84) after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors and background air pollution. Subgroup analysis showed stronger effects for men (OR 2.33, 95%CI 1.44-3.78), participants younger than 60 years (OR 2.67, 95%CI 1.24-5.74) and never-smokers (OR 2.72, 95%CI 1.40-5.29). CONCLUSION This study provides epidemiological evidence that the long-term exposure to traffic-related emissions may be an important risk factor for CHD.
Phase II study of biweekly paclitaxel and cisplatin combination chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer: Korea Japan Collaborative Study Group Trial.

BACKGROUND Benefits of chemotherapy have generally been modest in gastric cancer, although those regimens developed more recently have produced higher response rates. Paclitaxel plus cisplatin is one such regimen and divided administration of paclitaxel has been suggested to be associated with lower neurological and hematologic toxicities and be able to achieve higher paclitaxel dose intensities than paclitaxel administration at 175 mg/m2 every 3 weeks. This study was undertaked to assess the efficacy and toxicity of a biweekly paclitaxel and cisplatin combination treatment in advanced gastric cancer. METHODS Twenty-five patients from Japan and Korea, 50 patients in total, were entered into this trial which was conducted from October 2004 to June 2005. Median age of the patients was 57 years (range: 26-78). Paclitaxel 140 mg/m2 was administered intravenously on days 1 and 15 of each 4-week cycle. Cisplatin 30 mg/m2 was also administered on days 1 and 15 with standard hydration. A total of 278 courses of treatment (two treatment courses per cycle) were conducted for 50 patients. The median number of treatment cycles per patient was two with a range of one to six. RESULTS Nine of the 50 patients responded to the treatment, with an overall objective response rate of 18% (95% CI, 12-41), which included one complete response. Two patients were not evaluable and 14 patients had stable disease as best response. The median survival duration of the 50 patients was 333 days (range: 52-637+ days). The main toxicity was neutropenia. Significant toxicity (NCI-CTC grade 3 or 4) included neutropenia in 19 patients (38%), anorexia in four (8%), infection in three (6%), anemia in three (6%), and abdominal pain in three (6%). CONCLUSIONS Biweekly paclitaxel and cisplatin combination chemotherapy showed modest activity in advanced gastric carcinoma with a favorable toxicity pattern.
Pollution Externality and Pollution Abatement Capital: A Closed-Form Solution for the Investment Rate of a Green Firm with Uncertainty and Irreversibility

This paper focuses on environmental policies aimed at rising investment in pollution abatement capital. Capital irreversibility is not postulated but endogenized using a quadratic adjustment cost function. We assume that ecological uncertainty, i.e. uncertainty over the dynamics of pollution, affects firm investment decisions. Closed-form solutions for the investment and value of a green firm are derived, showing that irreversibility reduces its fundamental value. The effects of environmental policies are investigated considering taxes on polluting inputs and subsidies to reduce the cost of abatement capital. Environmental policies promoted to enforce abatement capital may generate the unexpected result of reducing the abatement investment rate.
Cognitive levels and Software Maintenance Sub-tasks

This paper describes a case study that was carried out to characterize the behaviour of professional programmers, working on in-vivo software maintenance tasks, in terms of the cognitive levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Specifically, it evaluates if their behaviour on specific maintenance sub-tasks can be associated with specific cognitive levels of the taxonomy. The findings suggest that some such relationships do exist. Indeed, several of the identified relationships are at the most cognitively-demanding levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Allied with reports from other research in the domain of software maintenance, these relationships suggest that difficult sub-tasks within software maintenance are difficult, in part, because of the cognitive levels that programmers must work at when undertaking them. Thus, they suggest the nature of the support that should be offered to maintenance programmers involved in these tasks.
Läraren som konkurrensmedel : kunskapskälla, stödperson eller icke-person?

The purpose of the article is to show empirically how upper-secondary schools describe, understand and present teachers in their external communication. The ambition is to demonstrate to what extent and how teachers’ competencies are stressed by local school management in a competitive setting. Swedish upper-secondary schools’ Internet communication to external audiences is content analyzed. Private and public schools are compared. The study finds that teachers’ qualities and competencies are rarely communicated. Other aspects are emphasized. When teachers are mentioned, it is usually as a depersonalized category whose function is stressed, for example the role of the teacher in the pedagogical concept or idea that the school adopts. In practice, no differences between private and public schools are found. The findings of the study can be understood in the context of the ongoing discussion on teachers’ status. By being “non-existent” in the external communication, the image of the teachers as a group with low professional status is sustained.
Heuristic algorithms in topological design of telecommunication networks

The paper addresses the generic topological network design problem and considers the use of various heuristic algorithms for solving the problem. The target of the optimisation is to determine a network structure and demand allocation pattern that would minimise the cost of the network, which is given by fixed installation costs of nodes and links and variable link capacity costs described by linear or concave functions. Input data for the optimisation consists of a list of potential node and link locations and their costs and a set of demands defined between the nodes. Since the problem is known to be NP-hard, the use of specialised heuristic algorithms is proposed. The presented approaches encompass original ideas as well as selected methods described in literature and their enhancements. The algorithms are based on the following ideas and methods: shifting of individual flows, local and global restoration of flows from chosen links or nodes, Yaged algorithm for finding local minima, Minoux greedy algorithm, simulated allocation and genetic algorithms. Efficiency of each of the proposed methods is tested on a set of numerical examples.
The Acquisition and Performance of Text-Editing Skill: A Cognitive Complexity Analysis

Kieras and Polson (1985) proposed an approach for making quantitative predictions on ease of learning and ease of use of a system, based on a production system version of the goals, operators, methods, and selection rules (GOMS) model of Card, Moran, and Newell (1983). This article describes the principles for constructing such models and obtaining predictions of learning and execution time. A production rule model for a simulated text editor is described in detail and is compared to experimental data on learning and performance. The model accounted well for both learning and execution time and for the details of the increase in speed with practice. The relationship between the performance model and the Keystroke-Level Model of Card et al. (1983) is discussed. The results provide strong support for the original proposal that production rule models can make quantitative predictions for both ease of learning and ease of use.
Suppression of Antitumor Immunity by Stromal Cells Expressing Fibroblast Activation Protein–α

Tumor Vaccination Success Vaccination with tumor-specific antigens is one of several attempted therapies seeking to harness the immune system, but—unfortunately—this strategy has been unsuccessful, possibly because of the immunosuppressive properties of the tumor microenvironment. Kraman et al. (p. 827; see the Perspective by Schreiber and Rowley) have identified immunosuppressive cells of mesenchymal origin in mice comprising 2% of the tumor stromal cell population. They were identified by expression of the fibroblast activation protein–α. Deletion of these cells in lung or pancreatic cancers in mice allowed successful therapeutic vaccination against the tumors, which was dependent on the adaptive immune system and the cytokines interferon-γ and tumor necrosis factor–α. These findings reveal that multiple cell types contribute to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and will inform therapeutic cancer vaccine design. Tumor connective-tissue cells of mesenchymal origin suppress antitumor immune responses. The stromal microenvironment of tumors, which is a mixture of hematopoietic and mesenchymal cells, suppresses immune control of tumor growth. A stromal cell type that was first identified in human cancers expresses fibroblast activation protein–α (FAP). We created a transgenic mouse in which FAP-expressing cells can be ablated. Depletion of FAP-expressing cells, which made up only 2% of all tumor cells in established Lewis lung carcinomas, caused rapid hypoxic necrosis of both cancer and stromal cells in immunogenic tumors by a process involving interferon-γ and tumor necrosis factor–α. Depleting FAP-expressing cells in a subcutaneous model of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma also permitted immunological control of growth. Therefore, FAP-expressing cells are a nonredundant, immune-suppressive component of the tumor microenvironment.
The relation between finger gnosis and mathematical ability: why redeployment of neural circuits best explains the finding

This paper elaborates a novel hypothesis regarding the observed predictive relation between finger gnosis and mathematical ability. In brief, we suggest that these two cognitive phenomena have overlapping neural substrates, as the result of the re-use (“redeployment”) of part of the finger gnosis circuit for the purpose of representing numbers. We offer some background on the relation and current explanations for it; an outline of our alternate hypothesis; some evidence supporting redeployment over current views; and a plan for further research.
Measurement of the Spin-Orbit Angle of Exoplanet HAT-P-1b

We present new spectroscopic and photometric observations of the HAT-P-1 planetary system. Spectra obtained during three transits exhibit the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, allowing us to measure the angle between the sky projections of the stellar spin axis and orbit normal, λ = 3.7°± 2.1°. The small value of λ for this and other systems suggests that the dominant planet migration mechanism preserves spin-orbit alignment. Using two new transit light curves, we refine the transit ephemeris and reduce the uncertainty in the orbital period by an order of magnitude. We find a upper limit on the orbital eccentricity of 0.067, with 99% confidence, by combining our new radial velocity measurements with those obtained previously.
Celecoxib Adjunctive Treatment to Antipsychotics in Schizophrenia: A Review of Randomized Clinical Add-On Trials

Schizophrenia is a severe, chronic and debilitating mental disorder. Past literature has reported various hypotheses about the psychopathology of schizophrenia. Recently, a growing literature has been trying to explain the role of inflammation in the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia. In the past, numerous immune modulation and anti-inflammatory treatment options have been proposed for schizophrenia, but sometimes the results were inconsistent. Electronic search was carried out in November 2015. PubMed and Scopus databases have been used to find studies to introduce in this review. Only randomized-placebo-controlled add-on trials were taken into account. In this way, six articles were obtained for the discussion. Celecoxib showed beneficial effects mostly in early stages of schizophrenia. In chronic schizophrenia, the data are controversial, possibly in part for methodological reasons.
Emotional Man: A Third Perspective on Collective and Corporate Action

The rational and normative man models have predominated in the social sciences. This paper proposes an emotional man model as an alternative point of departure for analyses of individual, but also of collective and corporate action. The overall argument is developed in two steps. First, the concepts of "pure" and "constrained" emotional man are introduced and developed. Then an emotional interaction model addressing the theme of cooperation is presented. After engaging the cooperative interaction model to highlight certain aspects of collective action, the author engages the concepts of "pure" and "constrained" emotional man to provide a new perspective on corporate actors.
From contours to characters segmentation of cursive handwritten words with neural assistance

This paper presents a novel algorithm to resolve an open problem to correctly locating letter boundaries in off-line unconstrained cursive handwritten word images. The proposed algorithm is based on vertical contour analysis. Following preprocessing, during the course of pre-segmentation vertical contours are analyzed from right to left. Furthermore to improve accuracy of segmentation, trained ANN is employed to validate segment points. For fair analysis, experiments were performed on IAM benchmark database. Results obtained thus show that the proposed approach is capable to accurately locating the letter boundaries for unconstraint cursive handwritten words