Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
C-Band Satellite Scatterometer Intercalibration

A methodology of intercalibration of C-band spaceborne scatterometers is developed and applied to European Remote Sensing satellite-1 (ERS-1), European Remote Sensing satellite-2 (ERS-2), and Meteorological Operational satellite (METOP) scatterometer data. Assuming that the differences between the instruments can be represented by an incidence-angle-dependent bias, this paper presents and discusses four methods, providing an estimate of that bias and of its standard deviation. Model-based methods performed more accurately than a direct comparison of σ0. The latter provides a systematic larger positive bias. The methodology is applied to ERS-1 and ERS-2 data acquired during the tandem mission in 1996. The same methodology is applied to ERS-2 and Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) data acquired in December 2008. Generally, the bias between the ERS-1 and ERS-2 scatterometers is smaller than 0.2 dB over most incidence angles, and the four methods provide relatively consistent results. The bias between ERS-2 and ASCAT is slightly higher, reaching 0.4 dB at certain incidence angles. These results suggest that these scatterometers need to be intercalibrated to achieve a consistent backscatter data.
Ryanodine receptor Ca2+‐release channels are an output pathway for the circadian clock in the rat suprachiasmatic nuclei

Ryanodine‐sensitive intracellular Ca2+ channels (RyRs) are present in suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) neurons, but the functions served by these channels are not known. Here we addressed whether mobilization of intracellular Ca2+ stores through the RyRs may be a link between the molecular clock and the firing rate in SCN neurons. Activation of the RyRs by administration of either 1 mm caffeine or 100 nm ryanodine increased the firing frequency, whereas inhibition of RyRs by 10 µm dantrolene or 80 µm ryanodine decreased firing rate. Similar results were obtained in experiments conducted at either midday or midnight. Furthermore, these effects were not mediated by synaptic transmission as blockade of GABA A, AMPA and NMDA receptors did not prevent the excitatory or inhibitory effects induced by either dose of ryanodine on SCN firing. We conclude that gating of RyRs is a key element of the intricate output pathway from the circadian clock within SCN neurons in rats.
Missing Events in Event Studies: Identifying the Effects of Partially-Measured News Surprises

This paper analyzes recent trends in Sweden's labor market regulations in relation to comparator economies and examines the relationship between labor market regulations and outcomes. The paper finds that the Swedish labor market responded more rapidly to the recent global financial crisis than the majority of the European Union economies, which helped Sweden to recover quickly. Sweden's hiring regulations are more flexible than those of many comparator economies, however, fixed-term contracts of short duration might have adverse consequences for the economy. In addition, Sweden's regulations on work during the weekly holidays and mandatory paid annual leave are stricter than those of the majority of comparator economies. Moreover, among the economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Sweden has one of the largest differences in employment protection between permanent and temporary employees, which could lead to a segmented labor market, where insiders enjoy high job security and outsiders are largely marginalized. This could be cause for concern, given that Sweden has a higher share of involuntary temporary workers among youth and involuntary part-time workers than both the Nordic and European Union averages. While protecting employees is important, excessive protection, particularly if it differs across different types of employment contracts, has been shown to have adverse effects on welfare and economic performance.
A Probabilistic Model of Neutral and Selective Dynamics of Protein Network Evolution

Comparative approaches in genomics have long relied on rigorous mathematical models of sequence evolution. Such models provide the basis for formulating and solving well-defined computational problems, in turn yielding key insights into the evolutionary processes acting on the genome. Analogous model-based approaches for analyzing biological networks are still under development. Here we describe a model-based approach for estimating the probability of network rewiring events during evolution. Our method builds on the standard duplication-and-divergence model and incorporates phylogenetic analysis to guide the comparison of protein networks across species. We apply our algorithm to study the evolution of functional modules and unconstrained network regions in seven available eukaryotic interactomes. Based on this analysis we identify a map of co-functioning protein families whose members participate in strongly conserved interactions and form major complexes and pathways in the eukaryotic cell. The proposed approach provides principled means for inferring the probability of network rewiring events, enabling insights into the conservation and divergence of protein interactions and the formation of functional modules in protein networks.
Assessment of living renal donors with spiral CT.

PURPOSE To determine whether spiral computed tomography (CT) can be used to evaluate potential living renal donors. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twelve potential living renal donors underwent spiral CT and conventional arteriography. CT angiography was performed with 30-second spiral acquisition during injection of 150 mL of nonionic iodinated contrast material into an antecubital vein at 5 mL/sec. Five minutes after injection, a frontal abdominal scout projection was obtained to assess the renal collecting system. Results of blinded interpretations of axial CT angiograms, three-dimensional CT angiograms, and conventional arteriograms were correlated with intraoperative findings in 11 cases. RESULTS Axial and three-dimensional CT angiography were 100% sensitive for identifying seven accessory renal arteries and 14% and 93% sensitive for identifying five prehilar renal artery branches. Renal venous anomalies were confirmed in three patients at surgery. Operative management changed in four of 11 patients who underwent donor nephrectomy. CONCLUSION Spiral CT holds promise as a single examination for anatomic assessment of living renal donors.
Hearing as a predictor of falls and postural balance in older female twins.

BACKGROUND The purpose of the present study was to examine, first, whether hearing acuity predicts falls and whether the potential association is explained by postural balance and, second, to examine whether shared genetic or environmental effects underlie these associations. METHODS Hearing was measured using a clinical audiometer as a part of the Finnish Twin Study on Aging in 103 monozygotic and 114 dizygotic female twin pairs aged 63-76 years. Postural balance was indicated as a center of pressure (COP) movement in semi-tandem stance, and participants filled in a fall-calendar daily for an average of 345 days after the baseline. RESULTS Mean hearing acuity (better ear hearing threshold level at 0.5-4 kHz) was 21 dB (standard deviation [SD] 12). Means of the COP velocity moment for the best to the poorest hearing quartiles increased linearly from 40.7 mm(2)/s (SD 24.4) to 52.8 mm(2)/s (SD 32.0) (p value for the trend = .003). Altogether 199 participants reported 437 falls. Age-adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for falls, with the best hearing quartile as a reference, were 1.2 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.4-3.8) in the second, 4.1 (95% CI = 1.1-15.6) in the third, and 3.4 (95% CI = 1.0-11.4) in the poorest hearing quartiles. Adjustment for COP velocity moment decreased IRRs markedly. Twin analyses showed that the association between hearing acuity and postural balance was not explained by genetic factors in common for these traits. CONCLUSION People with poor hearing acuity have a higher risk for falls, which is partially explained by their poorer postural control. Auditory information about environment may be important for safe mobility.
PD pulse sequence analysis and its relevance for on-site PD defect identification and evaluation

Digital partial discharge (PD) diagnosis has become a state of the art, but computer aided procedures based on pattern recognition principles are negatively effected by on-site disturbances. The benefits and limits of expert diagnosis compared to machine intelligent systems are discussed. It is pointed out that a sufficient noise resistivity and test voltage independency of the diagnosis concept is a must for a successful on-site PD defect identification and evaluation. Experimental results are presented, taken into account especially novel evaluation procedures, which are more independent from the applied PD sensors. It is shown that PD defect identification on site at operating voltages and respectively disturbed data is still a challenge. A method of resolution with an intelligent noise resistant diagnosis concept is discussed. A hierarchical and redundant approach is presented, which improves the on site PD source identification as well as on-site risk assessment.
Analyse et enrichissement de flux compressés : application à la vidéo surveillance. (Compressed streams analysis and enrichment : application to video surveillance)

Le developpement de reseaux de videosurveillance, civils ou militaires, pose des defis scientifiques et technologiques en termes d’analyse et de reconnaissance des contenus des flux compresses. Dans ce contexte, les contributions de cette these portent sur : - une methode de segmentation automatique des objets mobiles (pietons, vehicules, animaux …) dans le domaine compresse, - la prise en compte des differents standards de compression les plus couramment utilises en surveillance (MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2 et MPEG-4 Part 10 / H.264 AVC), - une chaine de traitement multi-flux optimisee depuis la segmentation des objets jusqu’a leur suivi et description. Le demonstrateur realise a permis d’evaluer les performances des approches methodologiques developpees dans le cadre d’un outil d’aide a l’investigation, identifiant les vehicules repondant a un signalement dans des bases de donnees de plusieurs dizaines d’heures. En outre, applique a des corpus representatifs des differentes situations de videosurveillance (stations de metro, carrefours, surveillance de zones en milieu rural ou de frontieres .), le systeme a permis d’obtenir les resultats suivants : - analyse de 14 flux MPEG-2, 8 flux MPEG-4 Part 2 ou 3 flux AVC en temps reel sur un coeur a 2.66 GHZ (video 720x576, 25 images par seconde), - taux de detection des vehicules de 100% sur la duree des sequences de surveillance de trafic, avec un taux de detection image par image proche des 95%, - segmentation de chaque objet sur 80 a 150% de sa surface (sous ou sur-segmentation liee au domaine compresse). Ces recherches ont fait l’objet du depot de 9 brevets lies a des nouveaux services et applications rendus operationnels grâce aux approches mises en oeuvre. Citons entre autres des outils pour la protection inegale aux erreurs, la cryptographie visuelle, la verification d’integrite par tatouage ou l’enfouissement par steganographie
Adaptive stack filtering under the mean absolute error criterion

An adaptive filtering algorithm is developed for the class of stack filters, which is a class of nonlinear filters obeying a weak superposition property. The adaptation algorithm can be interpreted as a learning algorithm for a group of decision-making units, the decisions of which are subject to a set of constraints called the stacking constraints. Under a rather weak statistical assumption on the training inputs, the decision strategy adopted by the group, which evolves according to the proposed learning algorithm, can be shown to converge asymptotically to an optimal strategy in the sense that it corresponds to an optimal stack filter under the mean absolute error criterion. This adaptive algorithm requires only increment, decrement and comparison operations and only local interconnections between the learning units. Implementation of the algorithm in hardware is therefore very feasible.
Simplified volterra series based nonlinear equalization in short reach optical transmissions

In this paper, theoretical investigation about the nonlinearity distortion caused by the chromatic dispersion and square law detection is presented. Then Volterra series based nonlinear equalizer (VNLE) is proposed for CAP modulation short reach optical transmission. The coefficients for high order Volterra kernels in the VNLE are investigated and the number of nonlinear memory length is optimized. More than 1 dB improvement at BER of 3.8 × 10-3 for 28 Gb/s CAP16 signal after 15km is observed with the help of the proposed simplified VNLE that only considering about the 2nd intra-kernels.
Leveraging weak segmentation for multi-object tracking system

Object Tracking is an important task in Computer Vision, which has gained increasing attention from academia to industry. In this paper, we propose a real-time tracking system based on weak segmentation. Different from general tracking by detection systems, we do not classify objects into car, cat or bike, instead we just classify the image into object area and non-object area. Many tracking systems simply combine weak segmentation results with Kalman filter, which cannot track objects well when the target moves irregularly. In this paper, we use state-of-art background subtraction methods to accomplish weak segmentation and incorporates weak segmentation results with the local invariant feature to create robust object association, finally we proposal a status machine to convert temporary object association into long-term object tracking results. The experiment shows our algorithm outperforms the state-of-art tracking by weak segmentation algorithms.
Essays in health economics and public finance

This dissertation focuses on topics in health economics and public finance. I deal with questions that have importance for health policy, and that are simultaneously of general economic interest; in particular, I consider the efficiency impact of privatization, the effects of competition in health care markets, and the effects of incomplete contracting and imperfect competition on rates of pass-through to consumers and governments. In Chapter One, I examine the extent to which contracting out by governments yields efficiency improvements, by looking to Medicaid contracting in New York State. To identify the efficiency impact of private, relative to public Medicaid, I exploit involuntary switching between the two; primarily, I leverage agebased rules forcing individuals to switch from private to public Medicaid at 65. I also leverage unique administrative data, which longitudinally tracks individual utilization across the public and private Medicaid settings. I find evidence that private Medicaid yields efficiency improvements, but find no evidence that these improvements are passed on to either governments or patients. Instead, I find that pass-through is substantially limited by incomplete contracting, with plans shifting costs to medical services that remain under government provision. In Chapter Two, I examine the effects of cost-sharing among a previously understudied population-those dually enrolled in Medicaid and Medicare. I leverage an exogenous court ruling that resulted in loss of Medicaid coverage in Tennessee, among 25,000 individuals who had previously been dually-enrolled. This disenrollment resulted in an increase in average cost-sharing rates, from around 0% to around 20%. I find that this cost-sharing increase resulted in a utilization reduction of about 30%, implying an arc-elasticity in spending of about -. 2. In Chapter Three, with Mark Duggan and Amanda Starc, we examine how contracts are affected by their generosity, by looking to the Medicare Advantage program. In doing so, we exploit a substantial policyinduced increase in MA reimbursement in metropolitan areas with a population of 250,000 or more relative to MSAs below this threshold. Our findings also reveal that about one-eighth of the additional reimbursement is passed through to consumers in the form of better coverage. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Applied Economics First Advisor Mark G. Duggan This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn. edu/edissertations/2071
Flu Vaccine Market In The United States: A Case Study

he recent experience in the United States with a shortage in available doses of flu vaccine demonstrates a heavy reliance on a limited number of suppliers for the flu vaccine. The announcement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Department of Health and Human Services (hereinafter “Centers for Disease Control”, or “CDC”) in early October of 2004 that the total amount of flu vaccine prepared by a leading manufacturer at a plant in England had become contaminated and would not be available for distribution in the United States during the 2004-2005 season created an immediate shortage and challenge for the United States Department of Health and Human Services and its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Health and Human Services, 2004)(a). Literally overnight, federal officials were faced with the prospect of having their anticipated supply of approximately 100 million vials of injectable flu vaccine reduced by 46 to 48 million vials, with insufficient time to produce more for the imminent flu season. The reaction was reminiscent of the oil and gasoline shortages of the early 1970’s, where motorists waited in long lines for gasoline pumps during the oil crisis. In 2004 reports surfaced of senior citizens waiting hours in long lines, often enduring poor conditions during such wait, in hopes of receiving one of the rare flu shots. Several states filed lawsuits against a flu vaccine distributor, essentially charging the distributor with price gouging on vials of vaccine. According to the allegations contained in these lawsuits, in some instances distributors increased prices for vials of vaccine to more than ten (10) times the market value prior to the announced shortage. (Weissman, 2004).
Inclusive Growth and Path Selection of Ancient Town Tourism—— A Case Study on the “New Tickets Deal” of Phoenix Ancient City

The market-oriented operation has become the mainstream pattern of ancient town tourism development in our country. Along with the booming tourism of ancient towns,increasing conflicts of local interests has brought restrictions to the commercialization and sustainable development of ancient towns. In reality,a harmonious interest pattern depends on efficient and comprehensive development of economic,social and environmental benefits of tourism. Taking the case of the new ticket policy of Phoenix ancient city,the paper objectively probes,in the perspective of inclusive development,into the inclusive status of stakeholders,and points out four paths for the inclusive growth of ancient town tourism:to enhance the government's legitimacy and the acceptance of public policy,to complete the cultural tourism industrial chain and integrate industries of ancient towns,to attach importance to people's livelihood and promote the level of local human capital and cultivate"local forces",to establish inclusive interest coordination mechanism on the basis of sustainable development of ancient towns.
Behavioural indicators of perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness within Romanian and British public sector hospitals

Purpose – This paper aims to report the results of a replication study of perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness within a Romanian public sector hospital, and to discuss the extent to which they are similar to and different from findings from equivalent studies carried out in two British NHS Trust hospitals.Design/methodology/approach – Concrete examples (critical incidents) of effective and ineffective managerial behaviour were collected using Flanagan's critical incident technique (CIT). The critical incidents were content analyzed to identify a smaller number of behavioural statements (BSs). These were then compared and contrasted against two British BS data sets using realist qualitative analytic methods, and deductively coded and sorted into extant behavioural categories.Findings – A total of 57 BSs were identified of which 30 were examples of effective and 27 of least effective/ineffective managerial behaviour. The multi‐case/cross‐nation comparative analysis revealed high degrees of comm.
From the Individual to the World: How the Competing Values Framework Can Help Organizations Improve Global Strategic Performance

In a competitive global economy, organizations need to be able to redefine themselves and their strategic visions. However, many change initiatives are unsuccessful due to the lack of consideration for organizational cultural variables. The Competing Values Framework, when used in conjunction with strategic planning, can increase the chances of success. Tools like the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument and the Managerial Behavior Instrument provide concrete ways to assess where the organization is, where it should be, and realigning the organization from the individual manager to the entire organizational culture.
Nutritional requirements for growth and sporulation of Clostridium perfringens.

Two strains of Clostridium perfringens grew in a chemically defined medium consisting of L-tryptophan, L-arginine, L-glutamic acid, L-histidine HC1, L-leucine, DL-threonine, DLphenylalanine, DL-tryrosine, DL-valine, L-cystine, ascorbic acid, Ca d-pantothenate, pyridoxine, biotin, adenine HCI, glucose, salts and mercaptoacetic acid. Alanine, aspartic acid and methionine were highly stimulatory but not essential for growth. Growth did not occur in the absence of glucose, but other fermentable carbohydrates were not tested. Acetone, isopropyl alcohol, succinic acid, acetic acid, butanol, butyric acid, lactic acid, pyruvic acid, oxaloacetic acid or acetaldehyde did not eliminate the requirement for glucose. Methionine was required for sporulation ; one strain also required riboflavin, isoleucine, serine and lysine. Butanol increased the degree of sporulation in a complex thioglycolate medium. Failure of CI. perfringens to sporulate in inadequately buffered media containing glucose was shown to be caused by the high H-ion concentration developing in the culture medium. In addition, some possible end-products of glucose metabolism such as lactic acid, oxaloacetic acid and acetaldehyde, reduced sporulation in one strain appreciably.
Dealing with Towers, Antennas, and Satellite Dishes

Abstract Communities face increasing pressure to site telecommunications facilities. But because communications involve national interests, federal laws, including the Telecommunications Act of 1996, often limit the amount of control communities have over siting these facilities. This article reviews the recent changes in federal law and explains how communities might still address the siting of communications facilities in their local planning and zoning programs. First, the article gives a historical sketch of the communications industry, its impact on communities, and federal and local control before 1996.