Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
VISUAL SEARCH PROBLEMS AS CAUSATIVE FACTOR OF ACCIDENTS AT CROSSROADS

In Japan, many fatal accidents involving two vehicles at rural crossroads happen at intersections with good visibility, such as those located in rice field areas. The present study investigated a possible causative factor of these accidents from the point of visual search performance. One possible countermeasure to prevent these accidents was also examined. Two experiments were conducted using the advanced driving simulator of the Centre for Environmental and Traffic Psychology (University of Groningen). In the experiments typical sceneries of rice field intersections were projected on a 165 degrees horizontal screen. It has been found that a vehicle on collision course appears not to move but remains static in the other driver's peripheral visual field. In the first experiment, peripheral vision’s detection performance of both a vehicle on collision course, and of a vehicle not on collision course was studied. It was shown that a vehicle that is not on collision course can be easily detected. On the other hand, the detection of a vehicle on collision course was much more delayed especially when the object was further in the peripheral visual field. In the 2nd experiment, the effect of road side fences on the detection of a vehicle on collision course was studied. Fences were set along the roadside of the crossing path, making a vehicle on collision course abruptly appear from behind a fence. It was shown that the detection was earlier with fences compared to the without fences condition.
Detecting Financial Statements Fraud: The Evidence from Russia

Russian stakeholders of joint stock companies, which shares are not traded on a stock exchange, and limited liability companies need the effective instruments which enable them to detect the facts of financial statement fraud quickly because the financial statement remains the main source of information about the companies’ performance for them. Although Institute of Auditors is one of the most reliable tools which identify financial statement manipulations, the costs, connected with audit, are too high and, and as a result, stakeholders have to look for other instruments to distinguish fraudsters, which make an attempt to overestimate or underestimate net assets and financial results, from non-fraudsters. Mathematical model of the American researcher Messod Beneish can be considered as an example of such tools. The general purpose of this paper is to identify whether it is possible, basing on the Beneish model, to create a new one, which enables to distinguish fraudulent from non-fraudulent financial statements reporting in Russia, and determine the accuracy level of fraud status forecasts made by using this model. In our research we are going to concentrate on identification of companies, which overestimate net assets and financial results. Tо obtain the information on the financial ratios included in the model we use financial reports of Russian both non-traded joint stock companies and limited liability firms. The conclusion can also be drawn that it is possible to develop the fraud detection probit model and linear model (integrated M-score index), which enabled stakeholders to identify fraud status correctly in 83% and 60% respectively. Developing the model we include extra parameters, connected with growth rate of other income to sales ratio and an accounting policy of the company. It was found that fraud risk increases if the company chooses accounting policy according to which administrative costs are charged to core product expenses.
Cooperative rendezvous of ground vehicle and aerial vehicle using model predictive control

This paper considers the problem of controlling a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle and a cooperating unmanned ground vehicle to rendezvous by making the aerial vehicle land on top the ground vehicle. Both vehicles are actively taking part in the control effort, where they coordinate positions and velocities to complete the landing. The rendezvous time and the terminal state are kept free to increase the flexibility of the solution. There are two main challenges with this maneuver. First, the controller must force the system to stay within a safe set such that the aerial vehicle approaches the ground vehicle directly from above. Second, the rendezvous must occur within some finite distance. A model predictive control algorithm is proposed to achieve these objectives. The choice is motivated by recent experimental results showing how the landing safety and efficiency could benefit from including safety margins already in the computation of the control inputs. A controller, which steers the agents towards rendezvous and which indirectly provides safety guarantees through non-convex optimization constraints, is derived. Simulations are provided showing the ability of the controller to plan a safe trajectory online, even under the disturbance of wind gusts.
Identifying the cause of detected errors

The author presents an approach to the consistent diagnosis of error monitoring observations in a distributed fault-tolerant computing system, even when the faulty source produces arbitrary errors. He describes the online algorithm used in the multicomputer architecture for fault tolerance (MAFT) to diagnose faulty system elements. By the use of syndrome information which categorizes detected errors as either symmetric or asymmetric, bounds for correct diagnosis can be deduced. Finally, an interactive consistency algorithm is employed to guarantee consistent diagnosis in a distributed environment and to provide online verification of all diagnostic units. <<ETX>>
OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR CHOICE AS TIME ALLOCATION '

When pigeons' standing on one or the other side of a chamber was reinforced on two concurrent variable-interval schedules, the ratio of time spent on the left to time spent on the right was directly proportional to the ratio of reinforcements produced by standing on the left to reinforcements produced by standing on the right. The constant of proportionality was less than unity for all pigeons, indicating a bias toward the right side of the chamber. The biased matching relation obtained here is comparable to the matching relation obtained with concurrent reinforcement of key pecks. The present results, together with related research, suggest that the ratio of time spent in two activities equals the ratio of the "values" of the activities. The value of an activity is the product of several parameters, such as rate and amount of reinforcement, contingent on that activity.
A NOTE ON THE COMPLEXITY ANALYSIS OF FAST ITERATIVE SHRINKAGE-THRESHOLDING ALGORITHM

The fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm (FISTA) which was proposed by Beck and Teboulle in 2009, is a benchmark for minimization the sum of two convex functions such that one is differentiable with Lipschitz gradient. They proved the sequence generated by FISTA for which the the objective is controlled, have a complexity rate which is the optimal complexity rate for first-order algorithm in the sense of Nemirovski and Yudin. However, their proof strategy is tricky. In this note, we give a new proof of the complexity analysis of FISTA. The same complexity rate of function value sequence is easily established.
An Empirical Investigation of the Performance of Commodity-Based Leveraged ETFs

We investigate the ability of 12 commodity-based leveraged ETFs in the ProShares family to achieve their stated investment objectives. We find that these 12 ETFs generate average daily returns that are not statistically significantly different from their stated objectives. We also find evidence that over their entire lives these ETFs generally underperform expectations when considering their exposure (long vs. short), desired leverage, and expense ratios. Despite this general underperformance relative to expectations, we also find that roughly 1/3 of the ETFs outperform expectations. We also report that over their entire lives the 12 leveraged ETFs in our sample struggle mightily to beat the performance of their corresponding unlevered commodities or indices. Their general inability to beat their corresponding unlevered commodities or indices over the long-run is demonstrated to be a function of the price volatility of the commodities and indices. We conclude that these commodity-based leveraged ETFs are effective ways to gain double and double inverse exposure to the corresponding commodities and indices on a daily basis. However, we advise against using these ETFs in any sort of buy-and-hold investment program.
Diagnostic test-pattern generation targeting open-segment defects and its diagnosis flow

As an open defect occurs in one wire segment of the circuit, different logic values on the coupling wires of the physical layout may result in different faulty behaviours, which are so called the Byzantine effect. Many previous researches focus on the test and diagnosis of open defects but the pattern diagnosability has not properly addressed. Therefore in this study, a high-resolution diagnostic framework for open defects is proposed and consists of a diagnostic test-pattern generation (DTPG) and its diagnosis flow. The branch-and-bound search associated with controllability analysis is incorporated in satisfiability-based DTPG to generate patterns for the target segment. Later, a precise diagnosis flow constructs the list of defect candidates in a dictionary-based fashion followed by an inject-and-evaluate analysis to greatly reduce the number of candidates for silicon inspection. Experimental results show that the proposed framework runs efficiently and deduces nearly one candidate for each open-segment defect on average among all ISCAS'85 benchmark circuits.
Sorption efficiency study of pesticide adsorption on granulated activated carbon from groundnut shell using GC/MS.

KOH, H3PO4 and ZnCl2 catalyzed Groundnut Shells, subjected to a one and two steps activation methods were employed to study Insecticide (Dichlorvos) uptake. Quantitation, using GC/MS gave a percentage removal of over 98% by all the sorbent in the series. The percentage removal for the one step method follows the trend 1S/KOH/10 (100%) > 1S/H3PO4/10 (99.780%) > 1S/ZnCl2/10 (99.240%). Physicochemical data and close proximity of equilibrium results (qe) to those of similar biowaste as reviewed in literature are indication that Groundnut Shell based sorbent in this study could compete favorably well for pesticide(dichlorvos) uptake. [World Rural Observations 2010; 2(1):18-24]. ISSN: 1944-6543 (print); ISSN: 1944-6551 (online)
Reproductive Output of Female Anopheles gambiae (Diptera: Culicidae): Comparison of Molecular Forms

Abstract Knowledge of ecological differences between the molecular forms of Anopheles gambiae Giles (Diptera: Culicidae) might lead to understanding of their unique contribution to disease transmission, to better vector control, and to identification of the forces that have separated them. We compared female fecundity measured as egg batch size in relation to body size between the molecular forms in Mali and contrasted them with their sibling species, Anopheles arabiensis Patton. To determine whether eggs of different egg batches are of similar “quality,” we compared the total protein content of first-stage larvae (L1s), collected <2 h after hatching in deionized water. Egg batch size significantly varied between An. gambiae and An. arabiensis and between the molecular forms of An. gambiae (mean batch size was 186.3, 182.5, and 162.0 eggs in An. arabiensis and the M and the S molecular form of An. gambiae, respectively). After accommodating female body size, however, the difference in batch size was not significant. In the S molecular form, egg protein content was not correlated with egg batch size (r = −0.08, P > 0.7) nor with female body size (r = −0.18, P > 0.4), suggesting that females with more resources invest in more eggs rather than in higher quality eggs. The mean total protein in eggs of the M form (0.407 &mgr;g per L1) was 6% higher than that of the S form (0.384 &mgr;g per L1), indicating that the M form invests a greater portion of her resources into current (rather than future) reproduction. A greater investment per offspring coupled with larger egg batch size may reflect an adaptation of the M form to low productivity larval sites as independent evidence suggests.
EFFECTIVENESS OF A FACE-TO-FACE WEIGHT LOSS INTERVENTION PAIRED WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AMONG RURAL ADULTS IN KENTUCKY

OF THESIS EFFECTIVENESS OF A FACE-TO-FACE WEIGHT LOSS INTERVENTION PAIRED WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AMONG RURAL ADULTS IN KENTUCKY The obesity epidemic remains a serious issue in the United States leading to significant public health implications and costs. Few weight loss interventions paring mobile technology with face-to-face interventions have been conducted in rural communities. Yet, mobile technology interventions offer good potential for delivery but it is unclear if the combination of these weight loss strategies are beneficial. This study sought to examine how integrating mobile technology with face-to-face weight loss interventions in rural communities affects weight loss. Additionally, to determine if mobile technology paired with face-to-face interventions could increase autonomous and controlled motivation levels among adults in rural Kentucky. The addition of mobile technology with face-to-face intervention provided no significant interaction effect for weight loss compared to the mobile technology group alone. However, a group and time effect was observed for weight loss change. An interaction effect for autonomous motivation indicated that neither group changed independently, but comparing their change over time, the intervention group increased while the control group decreased. A time effect was found as controlled motivation decreased from baseline to final. Future research is required to develop weight loss interventions using technology and face-to-face strategies that may enhance motivation and weight loss outcomes.
Internal Audit: Its Implications To Good Corporate Governance (GCG) In PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia

The study aims to know the implications of audit internal to good corporate governance. It is known that audit internal plays a vital role in every entity or an organization. Audit internal helps achieve organizational objectives while good corporate governance emphasizes on how performance is monitored and optimized. This paper used descriptive method wherein data were gathered through questionnaires. Research questionnaires were distributed to 20 respondents who were working in Internal Audit Unit of PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia. Internal audit as the independent variable has four (4) indicators, independence, professional competence, scope of work, and Implementation of audit activities. Good corporate governance as the dependent variable has four (4) indicator, these are, fairness, transparency, accountability, and responsibility. Data gathered were processed and concluded. Based on the result of the research, it is known that internal audit is related to good corporate governance with an r = 0.661, this means that the relationship of both variable is strong and positive. It is also known that audit internal affects good corporate governance with an α = 5%, it is known that it affects significantly. Also, the result shows that tvalue of 3.574 is > ttable value of 1.734, which is means that Ho is rejected.
Posteriori Restoration of Turn-Taking and ASR Results for Incorrectly Segmented Utterances

SUMMARY Appropriate turn-taking is important in spoken dialogue systems as well as generating correct responses. Especially if the dialogue features quick responses, a user utterance is often incorrectly segmented due to short pauses within it by voice activity detection (VAD). Incorrectly segmented utterances cause problems both in the automatic speech recognition (ASR) results and turn-taking: i.e., an incorrect VAD result leads to ASR errors and causes the system to start responding though the user is still speaking. We develop a method that performs a posteriori restoration for incorrectly segmented utterances and implement it as a plug-in for the MMDAgent open-source software. A crucial part of the method is to classify whether the restoration is required or not. We cast it as a binary classiﬁcation problem of detecting originally single utterances from pairs of utterance fragments. Various features are used representing timing, prosody, and ASR result information. Experiments show that the proposed method outperformed a baseline with manually-selected features by 4.8% and 3.9% in cross-domain evaluations with two domains. More detailed analysis revealed that the dominant and domain-independent features were utterance intervals and results from the Gaussian mixture model (GMM).
Robust carrier frequency offset and channel estimation for orthogonal frequency division multiple access downlink systems in the presence of severe adjacent-cell interference

This study investigates joint estimation carrier frequency offset (CFO) and channel impulse response (CIR) in the problematic orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) downlink scenario at the cell boundary, where a maximum supposition of three adjacent base stations preambles can be received. A novel scheme is proposed for estimating the CFOs and CIRs of different cells. First, the highly efficient joint maximum-likelihood (JML) algorithm is used to enable robust CFO estimation by exploiting the idempotent property of the projection matrix. Next, in order to estimate the precise CIR, the composite CFO-based and circularly shifted preamble signatures are proposed by applying the constrained minimum variance (CMV) algorithm to suppress adjacent-cell interference. Finally, the CFO and CIR estimations are enhanced by an iterative cancellation scheme. To the best of the authors research, there is no publication study proposed joint JML-CFO and CMV-CIR estimators for OFDMA downlink systems with adjacent-cell interference. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms provide better performance than the conventional estimators and approach the theoretical Cramer–Rao lower bound at the cell boundary over frequency-selective fading channels.
Impairment of Executive Functions in Boys with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

The main aim of the present study is to compare the efficiency of executive control processes in 24 boys with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 58 normal controls of similar age (between 8 and 11 years). Three reaction time (RT) paradigms were utilized: a dual task that requires coordination of two tasks responses, a shift task that makes it necessary to disengage attention from one task and engage into another one, and a stimulus-response spatial compatibility task that requires participants to inhibit a prepotent response. Another purpose of the study is to examine whether Barkley’s (1997) executive dysfunction or Sergeant et al.’s (1999) resource allocation/arousal model best account for the behavioral deficits associated with ADHD. Examination of raw RT data showed significantly poorer performance in ADHD children with respect to age-matched controls on both the higher-level cognitive functions of executive control and on lower-level abilities (e.g., speed of processing) of all tasks of this study. However, using proportional transformations of raw RT data, we could demonstrate that, in addition to differences in processing speed, also executive control processes were significantly impaired in children with ADHD.
Influence of Diet on Digestive Microflora and Gut Health of the Chicken

The poultry industry has been accompanied by the emergence of a large variety of pathogens and bacterial resistance due to the increase in production scales and the use of Antibiotic Growth Promoters (AGP). As a result, poultry become more sensitive to harmful bacteria such as Escherichia Coli, Salmonella spp. , Clostridium perfringens and Campylobacter jejunum. There are considerable numbers of producers that depend on AGP in feed to overcome these diseases. With consumers pressure about the use of antibiotics in animal feed and its link to the increase of antibiotic resistant bacteria, the European Union has decided to ban the antibiotics as feed additives in January, 1 st 2006. In the US the poultry industry is facing a possible ban of antibiotic feed additives, and there is a growing interest in finding valuable alternatives to prevent diseases. Therefore, many activities were initiated to establish other substances with beneficial effects on animals via modification of the intestinal microflora. Among these alternatives to antibiotics are probiotics or direct-fed microbs (DFM). The effects of probiotic or DFM on gut health and performance in poultry is well documented. Several studies demonstrated an improvement in birds fed diets with probiotics in a challenge disease model. In addition several researches and data presented in this presentation suggest that probiotics have the potential to improve bird gut health and to overcome growing challenge in poultry production.
The effect of cognitive tasks and verbalization instructions on heart rate and skin conductance.

This study investigated the effects of cognitive tasks and verbalization instructions on heart period (HP) and skin conductance (SC). Two tasks (imagining common scenes and solving mental arithmetic puzzles) were used to test the hypothesis that conditions requiring attention to internal processess (rejection of the environment) are accompanied by cardiac acceleration and SC increases. Each type of task was administered under three instruction conditions: no verbalization, later verbalization and concurrent verbalization. It was found that the imagination task was associated with no significant changes in HP or SC unless the S was preparing to talk or actually talking. Mental arithmetic resulted in cardiac acceleration and SC increase even when no verbalization was required; however, this result is perhaps due to the covert verbalization inherent in the process of solving mental arithmetic problems. Both later and concurrent verbalization also produced significant increases in physiological activation during the arithmetic task. The findings of this study do not support the notion that conditions requiring rejection of the environment are associated with specific physiological changes. Rather the changes are generally attributable to the verbalization requirement. The effects of instructions requiring S to verbalize later are interpreted as due to either a motor set phenomenon or fear of being evaluated while talking.
Need for Early Antifungal Treatment Confirmed in Experimental Disseminated Candida albicans Infection

ABSTRACT Groups of mice infected intravenously with Candida albicans were treated intraperitoneally with amphotericin B, caspofungin, or fluconazole, starting at intervals before and after challenge. Survival was longest and tissue burdens were most reduced with early treatment, and survival times fell proportionately as treatment was delayed, reinforcing clinical recommendations for the earliest possible initiation of antifungal therapy.