Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endogenous Group Formation in Contests: Unobservable Sharing Rules

We study contests in which players compete by expending irreversible effort to win a prize, the prize is awarded to one of the players, the winner shares the prize with other players in his group, if any, and each group's sharing rule is unobservable to the other groups and the singletons, if any, when the players expend their effort. The number of groups, their sizes, and the number of singletons are exogenous in the first model, whereas they are endogenous in the second model. We show that group formation occurs if the number of players is four or smaller, but does not occur otherwise. We examine the effect of endogenous group formation on total effort level and the profitability of endogenous group formation. In each of the two models, comparing the outcomes of the case of unobservable sharing rules with those of the case of observable sharing rules, we show that the two cases yield quite different outcomes.
Using DIR- Floor time based program to promote attachment behaviors in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

This study aimed to promote secure attachment behaviors with DIR/ Floor time based program in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Study sample included (7) children from a kindergarten of special needs whom diagnosed as children with ASD. Study tools were PsychoEducational Profile – Revised (PEP-R) prepared by Schoppler et al.,1990, Child Attachment Behaviors Questionnaire (CABQ), and DIR/ Floor time based program which are both prepared for this study. The findings indicated that children with ASD (study sample) had insecure attachment behaviors (avoidant and resistantambivalent) and not disorganized – disoriented attachment behaviors. Results showed that DIR/Floor time based program was statistically significant (at 0.05) to promote secure attachment behaviors and was effective to release autism in study sample from severally autistic to mildly moderately autistic.
Representative Bureaucracy and Contracted Government Officials

Modern public sector organizations increasingly consist of contracted staff with ambiguous organizational affiliations. This article extends the Representative Bureaucracy (RB) literature by analysing such ‘contracted’ government officials – using seconded national experts (SNEs) in the European Commission (Commission) as the empirical laboratory. The analysis also moves beyond bureaucrats’ socio-demographic characteristics, and argues that it is important to address representativeness in terms of the constituent population’s policy preferences. Our empirical analysis – based on a unique survey among Commission SNEs – highlights two novel results: First, contracted Commission staff does not appear passively representative of its constituent population. This holds both when looking at socio-demographic characteristics and policy preferences. Second, Contracted Commission staff’s self-perceived decisionmaking behaviour appears to reflect the policy preferences of their home country population (rather than their socio-demographic characteristics). The latter suggests a potential for active representation in terms of policy interests, but not socio-demographic characteristics.
Diode laser microwave induced plasma cavity ringdown spectrometer: Performance and perspective

Recent studies combining an atmospheric-pressure plasma source (inductively coupled plasma or microwave induced plasma) with cavity ringdown spectroscopy (plasma-CRDS) have indicated significant promise for ultra-sensitive elemental measurements. Initial plasma-CRDS efforts employed an inductively coupled plasma as the atomization source and a pulsed laser system as the light source. In an effort to improve the portability and reduce the cost of the system for application purposes, we have modified our approach to include a compact microwave induced plasma and a continuous wave diode laser. A technique for controlling the coupling of the continuous wave laser to the ringdown cavity has been implemented using a standard power combiner. No acouto-optic modulator or cavity modulation is required. To test the system performance, diluted standard solutions of strontium (Sr) were introduced into the plasma by an in-house fabricated sampling device combined with an ultrasonic nebulizer. SrOH radicals were genera.
User’s Gender Prediction Based on Smartphone Applications Installed: Analysis from Real World Data to Simulation

Users’ gender information for a smartphone application cannot be approached directly since it is considered as private. However, this basic demographic information is of great value during persona analysis. In this paper, an innovative feature selection approach is proposed for gender prediction based on smartphone applications installed. We construct weighted average female-oriented and male-oriented features, and applying it to four machine learning algorithms. Meanwhile, simulation is carried out to make horizontal models comparison easy even between supervised and unsupervised algorithms. Prediction accuracy can be as high as 90.4% for weighted average logistic regression model.
Bayesian inference on the galactic magnetic field toward the south galactic pole using UHECRs

Owing to the Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO), we have an unprecedented amount of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) data. Using the data, we study the influence of the galactic magnetic field (GMF) on the trajectory of UHECRs with energy above $6\times10^{19}$ eV. The GMF is not uniform, and its configuration is still uncertain. Besides, most studies on the GMF have been about the disk field. In this study, we focus on the GMF toward the south galactic pole (SGP), which is thoroughly within the field of view of the PAO. We examine the effects of the GMF on the arrival direction of UHECRs by statistical tests of correlation with the large-scale structure of the universe. The deflection angle of UHECRs affected by the GMF is inferred through the Bayesian inference with Monte-Carlo simulations. We present the estimated strength of the GMF toward the SGP based on the deflection angle and discuss the implications of our results.
Odds ratio estimation in the presence of complete OR quasi-complete separation in data

In presence of completely or quasi-completely separated data, the maximum likelihood estimates for the logistic regression parameters do not exist. In medical research the question is of great importance because of the need to obtain finite odds ratios. Statistical packages do not solve the estimation problem with non-overlapped dataset. We suggest to apply the hidden logistic regression model and the MEL estimator of Rousseeuw and Christmann (2003) where a unique solution is graphically obtained by the inspection of the ridge trace of regression parameters (IRT). Alternatively, we introduce a Cross Validation (CV) based method to choose the regularization parameter. A real data-set on oral candidosis affection is considered. Our analysis points out that CV rather than IRT leads to ML estimates with minimum misclassification error rate.
Testing for response shift in treatment evaluation of change in self‐reported psychopathology amongst secondary psychiatric care outpatients

If patients change their perspective due to treatment, this may alter the way they conceptualize, prioritize, or calibrate questionnaire items. These psychological changes, also called “response shifts,” may pose a threat to the measurement of therapeutic change in patients. Therefore, it is important to test the occurrence of response shift in patients across their treatment.
Revisiting the winners and the losers a decade after coral bleaching

Over the past 3 decades, thermal stress events have damaged corals globally. Few stud- ies, however, have tracked the recovery process or assessed whether winners in the short term are also winners in the long term. In the present study, we repeatedly sampled a coral assemblage over a 14 yr period, from 1997 to 2010, through 2 thermal stress events (in 1998 and 2001). Our goal was to examine the consistency of short-term winner and loser outcomes over the recovery period. Although species richness had recovered after 10 yr, the reef composition had changed, and few pocilloporids were to be found. The short-term winners were the thermally tolerant encrusting and massive coral morphologies (Porites and faviids) and Acropora colonies <5 cm in diameter. Long-term winners were revealed as (1) thermally tolerant, locally persistent colonies, (2) remnant survivors that rapidly regrew, and (3) regionally persistent colonies that recruited.
Spatiotemporal Characterization of a Conical Swirler Flow Field Under Strong Forcing

In this study, a spatiotemporal characterization of forced and unforced flows of a conical swirler is performed based on particle image velocimetry (PIV) and laser Doppler anemometry (LDA). The measurements are performed at a Reynolds number of 33,000 and a swirl number of 0.71. Axisymmetric forcing is applied to approximate the effects of thermoacoustic instabilities on the flow field at the burner inlet and outlet. The actuation frequencies are set at the natural flow frequency (Strouhal number St f ≈0.92) and two higher frequencies (St f ≈1.3 and 1.55) that are not harmonically related to the natural frequency. Phase-averaged measurement are used as a first step to visualize the coherent flow structures. Second, proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is applied to the PIV data to characterize the effect of the actuation on the fluctuating flow. Measurements indicate a typical natural flow instability of helical nature in the unforced case. The associated induced pressure and flow oscillations travel upstream to the swirler inlet where generally fuel is injected. This observation is of critical importance with respect to the stability of the combustion. Harmonic actuation at different frequencies and amplitudes does not affect the mean velocity profile at the outlet, while the coherent velocity fluctuations are strongly influenced at both the inlet and outlet. On one hand, the dominant helical mode is replaced by an axisymmetric vortex ring if the flow is forced at the natural flow frequency. On the other hand, the natural flow frequency prevails at the outlet under forcing at higher frequencies and POD analysis indicates that the helical structure is still present. The presented results give new insight into the flow dynamics of a swirling flow burner under strong forcing.
- Swansea University Open Access Repository

With the proliferation of mobile network, mobile devices, and Web of things, many different industries including government departments, private firms, and research communities offer more transparency through releasing data. The resultant effort offers a new paradigm - open data - still at infancy stage though. Despite the rising research initiatives explaining its benefits and challenges, and demonstrating policy conception and project details, no systematic survey of extant literature on open data is performed yet. Such a study could examine open data from a holistic canvas, assess the current status of research and propose future direction. This study conducts a review of the extant literature in order to ascertain the current state of research on open data and present an extensive exploration for eleven different types of analyses: contexts, perspectives, level of analysis, research methods, the drivers, benefits, barriers, theory/model development, the most productive journals, authors, and institutions. Also, we present a number of future research agendas. This study also explains the implications to assist researchers, policy makers and journal editors.
Business Ontology for Evaluating Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper presents a software solution that is developed to automatically classify companies by taking into account their level of social responsibility. The application is based on ontologies and on intelligent agents. In order to obtain the data needed to evaluate companies, we developed a web crawling module that analyzes the company’s website and the documents that are available online such as social responsibility report, mission statement, employment structure, etc. Based on a predefined CSR ontology, the web crawling module extracts the terms that are linked to corporate social responsibility. By taking into account the extracted qualitative data, an intelligent agent, previously trained on a set of companies, computes the qualitative values, which are then included in the classification model based on neural networks. The proposed ontology takes into consideration the guidelines proposed by the “ISO 26000 Standard for Social Responsibility”. Having this model, and being aware of the positive relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and financial performance, an overall perspective on each company’s activity can be configured, this being useful not only to the company’s creditors, auditors, stockholders, but also to its consumers.
Landscape Composition Influences the Restoration of Subtropical Coastal Dune Forest

Successional processes should increase habitat complexity, and increase resources available for forest‐associated species. However, according to the theory of Island Biogeography, the size, amount of edge, and isolation of a habitat patch will influence the probability of successful colonization. If this is true for restoring patches of coastal dune forest, then restoration managers need to mitigate for spatial characteristics.
A design software tool for conceptual design of wind turbine gearboxes

The paper reports the development of a design software tool for wind turbine gearboxes. It facilitates the conceptual design of wind turbine gearboxes supporting designs with different combinations of epicyclic and parallel gear stages. Analyses of gear bending strength and pitting resistance are in accordance with the AGMA2001 standard. The calculations of the AGMA geometry factors and are verified in accordance with the AGMA 908 information sheets. A case study of a 2MW and three phase asynchronous generator with a nominal rotational speed around 1600 rpm has been tested to demonstrate the capabilities of the design software tool.
Drivers for Retirement Planning and Saving of Women in Selected Private Secondary and Primary Schools in Nyeri County, Kenya

Failure to save for retirement can result in hardships not only for the individual but for society as well. While teachers in public school have a pension scheme under the Teachers Service Commission their counterparts in private schools do not enjoy such a benefit and have to plan for their own retirement. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors influencing planning and savings for retirement amongst women from selected private schools in Nyeri County. Specifically, the study aimed to assess the extent to which marital status affects retirement planning and saving of women; to analyze the extent to which age affects retirement planning and saving for women; to evaluate the extent to which one’s income influences planning and saving for retirement for women and to examine the extent to which level of education influences planning and savings for retirement among women in selected private schools within Nyeri County. The research adopted a descriptive research design and targeted 482 teachers in privates’ schools in Nyeri County. Stratified sampling was used to sample 241 teachers. The researcher used primary data for this research study which was obtained through self-administered questionnaire with closed and open ended questions. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and a regression model were used to describe the findings. Age (p=0.027) and Income (p=0.038) were found to be statistically significant at a 95% confidence level. In addition, age had the greatest effect on financial performance with a unit change in the age of female teachers resulting to a 39.7% increase in retirement saving. The study concluded that age and income are strong predictors of retirement saving among women. With increase in age, women have more experience which qualifies them for better jobs. With higher pay, the women have more disposable income which enables them save for retirement. The study recommended that the government should create a policy which makes it mandatory for married couples to save for retirement. The study also recommended public education should be implemented to encourage women to save for retirement even at a young age. Keywords: Retirement Planning and Saving,
The Electric Energy Market in Greece: New Aspects and Trends

A report of some significant aspects of the Greek electric energy market is presented in this paper. The paper comprises two parts. First, the European and Greek institutional frame for the liberalization of the electric energy market is presented. The most important laws and directives concerning the electric energy market liberalization are reported and analyzed. Second, the study is focused on the present status of the electric power generation in Greece, as well as on the increase rate of the electric power consumption in Greece.
The Design of Production Systems for Low-Income Housing Projects

In Brazil, the Federal Government has recently increased investments in Programs for lowincome housing. This change has encouraged several construction companies to get involved in the development of house-building projects, which demand different capabilities compared to other market segments. These projects usually consist of fairly large number of house or apartment-building repetitive units, require a relatively short lead-time, and are limited by a fairly small profit margin. The design of the production system has a key importance on the project cost and time performance of such projects. This paper discusses the scope and the main requirements of the production system design in this context. It is based on multiple case studies carried out in the South of Brazil. The main contributions are concerned with the set of decisions involved, tools for the design of the main production flows, and the management of hand-offs between crews.
Integration of Porous Carbon Nanowrinkles into Carbon Micropost Array for Microsupercapacitors

Porous carbon nanowrinkles (PCW) coated on carbon micropost (CMP) arrays were successfully fabricated via three-step process, which took advantages of the large difference in elastic moduli between PCW and the raw material of CMP. The effect of nanowrinkle integration on the electrochemical performances was investigated, showing an improved electrochemical performance. The electrode also shows excellent cycling stability, which retains 84% of its initial discharge capacitance after 1700 cycles with >90% Coulombic efficiency. This enhanced electrochemical performance is ascribed to the synergistic effect of enlarged surface area and porous structure of PCW. The obtained PCW/CMP compositing electrode with the advantages of low cost and easy scaling-up has great potential for on-chip supercapacitors.
B meson decays to charmless meson pairs containing eta or eta

The authors present updated measurements of the branching fractions for B{sup 0} meson decays to {eta}K{sup 0}, {eta}{eta}, {eta}{phi}, {eta}{omega}, {eta}{prime}K{sup 0}, {eta}{prime}{eta}{prime}, {eta}{prime}, {phi}, and {eta}{prime}{omega} and branching fractions and CP-violating charge asymmetries for B{sup +} decays to {eta}{pi}{sup +}, {eta}K{sup +}, {eta}{prime}{pi}{sup +}, and {eta}{prime} K{sup +}. The data represent the full dataset of 467 x 10{sup 6} B{bar B} pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e{sup +}e{sup -} collider at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Besides large signals for the four charged B decays modes and for B{sup 0} {yields} {eta}{prime}K{sup 0}, they find evidence for three B{sup 0} decays modes at greater than 3.0{sigma} significance. They find {Beta}(B{sup 0} {yields} {eta}K{sup 0}) = (1.15{sub -0.38}{sup +0.43} {+-} 0.09) x 10{sup -6}, {Beta}(B{sup 0} {yields} {eta}{omega}) = (0.94{sub -0.30}{sup +0.35} {+-} 0.09) x 10{sup -6}, and {Beta}(B{sup 0} {yields} {eta}{prime}{omega}) = (1.01{sub -0.38}{sup +0.46} {+-} 0.09) x 10{sup -6}, where the first (second) uncertainty is statistical (systematic). For the B{sup +} {yields} {eta}K{sup +} decay mode, they measure the charge asymmetry {Alpha}{sub ch} (B{sup +} {yields} {eta}K{sup +}) = -0.36 {+-} 0.11 {+-} 0.03.
Paired cycle-GAN based image correction for quantitative cone-beam CT.

PURPOSE The incorporation of cone-beam CT (CBCT) has allowed for enhanced image-guided radiation therapy. While CBCT allows for daily 3D imaging, images suffer from severe artifacts, limiting the clinical potential of CBCT. In this work, a deep-learning-based method for generating high quality corrected CBCT (CCBCT) images is proposed. METHODS The proposed method integrates a residual block concept into a cycle-consistent adversarial network (cycle-GAN) framework, called res-cycle GAN, to learn a mapping between CBCT images and paired planning CT images. Compared with a GAN, a cycle-GAN includes an inverse transformation from CBCT to CT images, which constrains the model by forcing calculation of both a CCBCT and a synthetic CBCT. A fully convolution neural network (FCN) with residual blocks is used in the generator to enable end-to-end CBCT-to-CT transformations. The proposed algorithm was evaluated using 24 sets of patient data in the brain and 20 sets of patient data in the pelvis. The mean absolute error (MAE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), normalized cross-correlation (NCC) indices and spatial non-uniformity (SNU) were used to quantify the correction accuracy of the proposed algorithm. The proposed method is compared to both a conventional scatter correction and another machine learning-based CBCT correction method. RESULTS Overall, the MAE, PSNR, NCC and SNU were 13.0 HU, 37.5 dB, 0.99 and 0.05 in the brain, 16.1 HU, 30.7 dB, 0.98, and 0.09 in the pelvis for the proposed method, improvements of 45%, 16%, 1%, and 93% in the brain, and 71%, 38%, 2%, and 65% in the pelvis, over the CBCT image. The proposed method showed superior image quality as compared to the scatter correction method, reducing noise and artefact severity. The proposed method produced images with less noise and artifacts than the comparison machine learning-based method. CONCLUSIONS The authors have developed a novel deep learning-based method to generate high-quality corrected CBCT images. The proposed method increases on-board CBCT image quality, making it comparable to that of the planning CT. With further evaluation and clinical implementation, this method could lead to quantitative adaptive radiation therapy. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
In Vivo Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Targets of Levonadifloxacin against Staphylococcus aureus in a Neutropenic Murine Lung Infection Model

Levonadifloxacin is a novel benzoquinolizine subclass of fluoroquinolone, active against quinolone-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. A phase 3 trial for levonadifloxacin and its oral prodrug was recently completed. The present study identified area under the concentration-time curve for the free, unbound fraction of a drug divided by the MIC (fAUC/MIC) as an efficacy determinant for levonadifloxacin in a neutropenic murine lung infection model. ABSTRACT Levonadifloxacin is a novel benzoquinolizine subclass of fluoroquinolone, active against quinolone-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. A phase 3 trial for levonadifloxacin and its oral prodrug was recently completed. The present study identified area under the concentration-time curve for the free, unbound fraction of a drug divided by the MIC (fAUC/MIC) as an efficacy determinant for levonadifloxacin in a neutropenic murine lung infection model. Mean plasma fAUC/MIC requirement for static and 1 log10 kill effects against 9 S. aureus were 8.1 ± 6.0 and 25.8 ± 12.3, respectively. These targets were employed in the selection of phase 3 doses.