Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wifi and health: Perspectives and risks

Increased exposure to electromagnetic fi elds such as radio frequencies used by Wifi technology raise questions and concerns about their impact on health. For answer these questions, several scientifi c studies have carried out followed by results publication in prestigious scientifi c revues. Literature conducted on the effects of non-ionizing radiation and Wifi waves is vast and sometimes controversial. Epidemiological studies and the results of in vitro and in vivo experimental studies have showed the biological effects of electromagnetic fi eld in different frequencies range. These effects caused disorders at the molecular and behavioral level. However, these studies were insuffi cient to confi rm the directly related effects to the cause. Therefore, further research must be done to raise the controversy about the safety of wireless waves. Review Article
ICT 4 D 2 . 0 : The Next Phase of Applying ICTs for International Development

We are moving to a new phase in ICT4D – the application of information and communication technologies for international development. This new phase presents new opportunities for informatics professionals, and new markets for ICT vendors. It also brings new challenges to our established methods of working, and the need for new expertise and new worldviews. These must be understood if we are to harness digital technologies in the service of some of our world's most severe problems.
Design of the Utah/M.I.T. Dextrous Hand

The Center for Engineering Design at the University of Utah, and the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a robotic end effector intended to function as a general purpose research tool for the study of machine dexterity. The high performance, multifingered hand will provide two important capabilities. First, it will permit the experimental investigation of basic concepts in manipulation theory, control system design and tactile sensing. Second, it will expand understanding required for the future design of physical machinery and will serve as a "test bed" for the development of tactile sensing systems. The paper includes: 1) a discussion of issues important to the development of manipulation machines; 2) general comments regarding design of the Utah/M.I. T. Dextrous Hand; and, 3) a detailed discussion of specific subsystems of the hand.
An Exploratory Study of Minor League Baseball Statistics

We consider the problem of projecting future success of Minor League baseball players at each level of the farm system. Using tree based methods, in particular random forests, we consider which statistics are most correlated with Major League success, how Major League teams use these statistics differently in handling prospects, and how prior belief in a players ability, measured through draft position, is used throughout a players Minor League career. We show that roughly the 18th round prospect corresponds to being draft neutral for a team, whereas teams essentially make decisions based strictly on performance. We use for our data all position players drafted between 1999 and 2002.
Comparative Evaluation of the Efficacy and Side Effects of Imipramine , Sertraline and an Ayurvedic Formulation in Patients of Depression Key

Settings and Design: This study was an open labeled randomized clinical trial which involved 90 depressive patients who were divided into three groups of 30 each, for the administration of imipramine, sertraline, and an Ayurvedic formulation respectively. HAM-D scoring was done and a side effect checklist was also prepared. Materials and Methods: The Ayurvedic formulation consisted of aqueous extracts of Brahmi, Shankhpuship, Malkangni and Jatamansi which were mixed in equal proportions (250 mg each). The Ayurvedic formulation was administered at a dose of 1000 mg orally in two divided doses; and imipramine and sertraline were administered at a dose of 150 mg each per day, to separate the groups of patients. The persons who abided by the inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected randomly. The effect of the treatments on the treated patients was repeatedly assessed at a continuous interval of two weeks for three months.
The financial cost of fraud: what data from around the world shows

The report doesn’t just look at detected fraud or the individual cases which have come to light and been prosecuted. Because there is no crime which has a 100% detection rate, adding together detected fraud significantly underestimates the extent of the problem. It is also the case that if detected fraud losses go up, does that mean that there is more fraud or that there has been better detection; equally, if detected fraud losses fall, does that mean that there is less fraud or worse detection?
The Manitoba Longitudinal Study on Aging: Preliminary Findings on Health Care Utilization by the Elderly

This research links survey data from a large probability sample of the elderly population of one Canadian province with provincial insurance data documenting all their health care use during the years before and after the interview. The data show that “the elderly” are not high users of the health care system. Instead, a small proportion of those age 65 and older account for a disproportionately large share of service utilization. The study also identifies several predictors of high health-care use and discusses the implications of its findings for health care policy, practice, and research.
Bandwidth and rate allocation tradeoffs of source : channel coding, packetization and modulation in unequally protected multimedia communication systems

A conventional approach to the design of wireless multimedia communications is the layered approach, in which the network layers function independent of each other. This kind of layered approach is inspired partly by Shannon's separation theorem in which the optimization of each block is equivalent to optimization of the overall source-channel coding operation. However, the separation theorem is valid only in a point-to-point communication scenario in the case of asymptotically long block lengths of data and assumes huge amounts of processing power and delay. Therefore, current practical communication systems strive to jointly design building blocks of a multimedia system for better performance. The focus of this dissertation is therefore to present various joint designs for different channel models and systems, although limited by physical constraints such as bandwidth, power and complexity. First, a robust coded scheme for progressive multimedia transmission is considered for an additive white Gaussian noise channel, a Rayleigh fading channel, and a frequency selective channel using in combination different unequal protection methods. We investigate the judicious use of the limited bandwidth through the combination and optimization of a progressive source coder, a rate compatible punctured convolutional code and a hierarchical modulation. Next, we investigate a novel packet formatting scheme for progressive sources using interleavers and various channel codes. The source coder is combined with a concatenated block coding mechanism to produce a robust transmission system for embedded bit streams. The objective is to create embedded codewords such that, for a particular information block, the necessary protection is obtained via multiple channel codings, contrary to the conventional methods which use a single code rate per information block. We show that near capacity performance can be achieved using the proposed scheme in conjunction with low density parity check codes in a binary symmetric channel scenario. We initially focus on coding strategies for multimedia where the channel state information is missing. A generalized Digital Fountain (DF) code is proposed to provide efficient universal forward error correction solution for lossy packet networks with increased unequal error protection and unequal recovery time properties. We propose a progressive source transmission system using this generalized code design. We apply the generalized DF code to a progressive source and show that it has better unequal protection and recovery time properties than other published results
Factor VIII inhibitors in mild and moderate‐severity haemophilia A

Summary. Inhibitors are an uncommon complication of mild haemophilia, occurring in 3–13% of patients and usually arising during adulthood. The risk of inhibitor development in this group appears to be associated with relatively few high‐risk factor VIII genotypes clustered in the A2 and C2 domains, especially the Arg593‐Cys and the Trp2229‐Cys mutations. Kindreds with these mutations have an inhibitor incidence of up to 40%. These mutations may induce a stable conformational change in the factor VIII molecule rendering it antigenically distinct from wild‐type factor VIII. Inhibitors in mild haemophilia usually cross‐react with endogenous factor VIII reducing the basal VIIIC to <0.01 IU/ml, and causing spontaneous bleeding. This bleeding is sometimes severe and life‐threatening, two‐thirds of patients developing a pattern of soft tissue, gastrointestinal (GI) and urinogenital bleeding reminiscent of acquired haemophilia. Bleeding has been treated with human and porcine factor VIII, bypass therapy and DDAVP. Recombinant factor VIIa and DDAVP have the advantage that they do not induce an anamnestic rise in inhibitor titre. About 60% of these inhibitors disappear in the remainder over a median of 9 months. Few of these inhibitors recur, suggesting that most such patients have become tolerant. The inhibitors persist long‐term and remain troublesome in about 40% of patients. The limited data available on immune tolerance induction in this group indicate a generally poor response to this approach. Two of nine achieved tolerance, with a partial response in a further four. Inhibitors are an uncommon but life‐threatening complication of haemophilia. This complication should be considered when selecting the treatment modality for patients with a family history of inhibitors, and DDAVP used whenever possible.
Doherty power amplifier with asymmetrical drain voltages for enhanced efficiency at 8 dB backed-off output power

In this paper, we present a high-efficiency 300 W Doherty power amplifier (DPA) that can improve the efficiency at an 8 dB backoff from its saturated output power (PSAT). To enhance the efficiency, asymmetrical drain voltages are supplied to a carrier amplifier and a peak amplifier in the DPA. The drain voltages and radio frequency (RF) circuit parameters of each amplifier are determined by basic load-impedance analysis. The DPA is fabricated using a push-pull laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) field-effect transistor (FET) for an ultrahigh frequency (UHF) band. The drain voltages are set to 50 V and 30 V. Measurement results using a continuous wave (CW) signal indicate a drain efficiency (ηd) of 50% at a PSAT of 55 dBm and a ηd of 48% at an 8 dB backoff from PSAT, which means that the proposed DPA can extend the power range in which its highest efficiency is maintained. For a wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) signal with a peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of 8 dB, the measurement results indicate a ηd of 43% and an adjacent-channel leakage power ratio (ACLR) of −23 dBc at an output power of 47 dBm.
Molecular cloning of lethal(2)giant larvae, a recessive oncogene of Drosophila melanogaster.

Recessive mutations at the lethal(2)giant larvae (l(2)gl) locus of Drosophila melanogaster cause a complex syndrome, which has as its most striking features the development of malignant neuroblastomas in the larval brain and tumors of the imaginal discs. A chromosomal segment containing the l(2)gl gene has been cloned. Within this segment a transcription unit has been localized which is structurally changed in all l(2)gl alleles examined. The developmental profile of expression of the two RNAs (6 and 4.5 kb) made by this transcription unit coincides with the two major terminal phases of cell proliferation in the developing fly, namely, early embryogenesis and late third instar larvae. Tumors are produced when both normal l(2)gl alleles are inactivated by deletion or insertional mutation. The normal function of the l(2)gl presumably controls the normal cell proliferation of the optic centers of the brain and the imaginal discs, as well as their post‐mitotic differentiation.
A Rating Tool for Effective Social Media Policy Development

Social media technologies are increasingly being adopted to support knowledge sharing and collaboration in both the private and public sectors. It has therefore become essential to develop policies guiding the use of social media within organisations. The need to protect an organisation’s interests by guiding employees’ appropriate use of social media is a key issue for senior managers. This issue has to be balanced against the benefits of empowering employees to make use of social media in flexible, innovative ways. This paper highlights the major components of a social media policy, based on the Social Media and Organisation Policy (SOMEOP) Framework. A method is proposed to enable organisations to effectively evaluate each of the components using a rating system. The framework and rating tool can be used to improve the effectiveness of policy development. A preliminary validation of the instrument indicated that the rating system can assist users with identifying and understanding policy strengths and weaknesses.
A Virtualization-Based Hybrid Storage System for a Map-Reduce Framework

SUMMARY A map-reduce framework is popular for big data analysis. In the typical map-reduce framework, both master node and worker nodes can use hard-disk drives (HDDs) as local disks for the map-reduce computation. However, because of the inherit mechanical problems of HDDs, the I / O performance is a bottleneck for the map-reduce framework when I / O-intensive applications (e.g., sorting) are performed. Replacing HDDs with solid-state drives (SSDs) is not economical, although SSDs have better performance than HDDs. In this paper, we propose a virtualization-based hybrid storage system for the map-reduce framework. The objective of the paper is to combine the advantages of the fast access property of SSDs and the low cost of HDDs by realizing an economical design and improving I / O performance of a map-reduce framework in a virtualization environment. We propose three storage combinations: SSD-based, HDD-based, and a hybrid of SSD-based and HDD-based storage systems which balances speed, capacity, and lifetime. According to experiments, the hybrid of SSD-based and HDD-based storage systems o ﬀ ers superior performance and economy.
Regional Differences in Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability Changes and Inflammation in the Apathogenic Clearance of Virus from the Central Nervous System1

The loss of blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity in CNS inflammatory responses triggered by infection and autoimmunity has generally been associated with the development of neurological signs. In the present study, we demonstrate that the clearance of the attenuated rabies virus CVS-F3 from the CNS is an exception; increased BBB permeability and CNS inflammation occurs in the absence of neurological sequelae. We speculate that regionalization of the CNS inflammatory response contributes to its lack of pathogenicity. Despite virus replication and the expression of several chemokines and IL-6 in both regions being similar, the up-regulation of MIP-1β, TNF-α, IFN-γ, and ICAM-1 and the loss of BBB integrity was more extensive in the cerebellum than in the cerebral cortex. The accumulation of CD4- and CD19-positive cells was higher in the cerebellum than the cerebral cortex. Elevated CD19 levels were paralleled by κ-L chain expression levels. The timing of BBB permeability changes, κ-L chain expression in CNS tissues, and Ab production in the periphery suggest that the in situ production of virus-neutralizing Ab may be more important in virus clearance than the infiltration of circulating Ab. The data indicate that, with the possible exception of CD8 T cells, the effectors of rabies virus clearance are more commonly targeted to the cerebellum. This is likely the result of differences in the capacity of the tissues of the cerebellum and cerebral cortex to mediate the events required for BBB permeability changes and cell invasion during virus infection.
Business Model Innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that expands business model innovation literature by including a social goal, the emerging markets (EMs) environmental characteristics and adopting a bottom-up perspective. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on a single-case study. Sistema Ser/CEGIN (SER–CEGIN) is an Argentine social business that offers high-quality medical healthcare to BOP users. Findings – The paper presents a new conceptualization on business model innovation that includes three dimensions: firm-centric, environment and customer-centric. The framework incorporates to the traditional framework on business model innovation, the social profit equation, the general and task environment and the end-user, as well as the dynamics between them. Research limitations/implications – While the authors acknowledge the importance of studying the components of the business model operating levels (economic, operational and strategic) to determine the type of business model inn.
Changes in the Competitive Strategy of Estonian Public Companies in the next Five Years: Challenges for Top Managers, Academics and Consultants

To create a sustainable competitive advantage, the firm must adapt its strategy in accordance with changes in industry. The purpose of this survey is to reveal how top managers see major changes in strategic management over the next five years. Companies from the Tallinn OMX Market were chosen as a sample of leading companies. Structured interviews were conducted with thirteen top managers. This revealed highly plausible changes in strategic management over the next five years as predicted by top managers of Estonian public companies A± these were in the areas of the value chain, corporate structure, planning and control systems, motivation schemes and external opportunities. The major challenges for top managers in the near future are to successfully align the organizational structure with the value chain in accordance with emerging opportunities in foreign markets and define and invest enough in distinctive competencies to achieve sustainable profitable growth. This result is in accordance with the reflections of top mangers that their main priorities in strategic research and development are to facilitate the strategy development process, implement management tools, and research into and share knowledge and experience of doing business in foreign markets. These results suggest specific challenges for academics and consultants for achieving better collaboration in strategic management and development.
Numerical dispersion analysis of the unconditionally stable 3-D ADI-FDTD method

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of numerical dispersion of the recently developed unconditionally stable three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method where the alternating-direction-implicit technique is applied. The dispersion relation is derived analytically and the effects of spatial and temporal steps on the numerical dispersion are investigated. It is found that the unconditionally stable FDTD scheme has advantages over the conventional FDTD of the Yee's scheme in modeling structures of fine geometry where a graded mesh is required. The unconditionally stable FDTD allows the use of a large time step in a region of fine meshes while maintaining numerical dispersion errors smaller than those associated with the region of coarse meshes.
Academics in Wonderland: The Team Production and Director Primacy Models of Corporate Governance

This paper examines the Team Production and Director Primacy Models of corporate governance, finds them wanting, and explains why corporate governance is moving toward shareholder primacy and why this will benefit not only investors but the whole American economy.The director primacy model posits that shareholders are so ill-informed and so divided in their interests that they would self-destruct if they controlled the firm. Accordingly they tie their own hands by ceding control to a board of independent directors. Advocates of the team production theory often agree with the foregoing but stress the importance to the firm of other constituencies, or stakeholders, including suppliers, customers, creditors and, especially, employees. To obtain the needed commitments from these stakeholders firms must credibly promise to treat them well, but these arrangements are too complex to be specified in contracts. If shareholders controlled the firm, they could renege on their implicit promises to stakeholders. Accordingly, firms hand control to a board of disinterested directors who act as mediating hierarchs to balance the interests of all constituencies.These theories are riddled with internal contradictions and fail many tests of empirical verification. In my article I expose these problems and show that the current reality of corporate governance is not control by independent, disinterested directors but by CEOs. I then discuss why the alternative -- shareholder primacy -- has not been achieved. I describe both the obstacles to shareholder control and current trends that are facilitating a stronger investor voice. Finally, I suggest that these trends and new ideas may soon lead to real shareholder primacy, and that this will benefit not only investors but the whole American economy.
Impact de la syndication sur la performance des entreprises financées par capital-investissement et sur la richesse des parties prenantes

In this study, we show the importance of the syndication as a specific mechanism of governance. Through this mechanism, private equity takes an active role in the development of the investee firm and has a disciplinary role. By syndication, venture capitalists have direct control. The sample covers the period 2000-March 2009 and consists of 106 VC backed IPOs. We study the impact of VC backing on corporate governance and more precisely the impact of syndication on performance and stakeholders' wealth. The empirical validation shows that syndication hasn't an influence on performance and on VC' wealth.
The economic crisis as a game changer? Exploring the role of social construction in sustainability transitions

Continuing economic turbulence has fuelled debates about social and political reform as much as it has stimulated actions and initiatives aimed at a more fundamental transition of dominant economic systems. This paper takes a transition perspective to explore, from a Western European viewpoint, how the economic crisis is actually viewed through a variety of interpretations and responded to through a range of practices. We argue that framing societal phenomena such as the economic crisis as "symptoms of transition" through alternative narratives and actions can give rise to the potential for (seemingly) short-term pressures to become game changers. Game changers are then defined as the combination of: specific events, the subsequent or parallel framing of events in systemic terms by engaged societal actors, and (eventually) the emergence of (diverse) alternative narratives and practices (in response to the systemic framing of events). Game changers, when understood in these terms, help to orient, legitimize, guide, and accelerate deep changes in society. We conclude that such dynamics in which game changers gain momentum might also come to play a critical role in transitions. Therefore, we argue for developing a better understanding of and methodologies to further study the coevolutionary dynamics associated with game changers, as well as exploring the implications for governance.