Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knowledge management at the Finnish government

In this paper, knowledge management is seen as an element of strategic management for which the highest level of the organisation is responsible. Knowledge management is discussed in the framework of the current reform of the central government in Finland. The main goals of the reform are: ○ To strengthen the cooperation in the central government: to develop strategic planning and its tools and to develop cooperation among ministries. ○ To analyse the role of the ministries in guiding the administrative sector of the ministry ○ To improve the confidence of citizens and civil servants towards the administration and to empower citizens in public affairs. The new model for government work is described. The strategic policy programmes are central in the new model. The aim of knowledge management as a part of the reform of the central government is to bring the strategically important knowledge and information into effective, common use in the government. A part of the knowledge support for the strategic policy programmes is planned to be in the intranet portal of the government. Finally, the role of the information services in the knowledge support system is discussed.
PENGARUH CORPORATE GOVERNANCE TERHADAP CAPITAL STRUCTURE

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui apakah atribut corporate governance mempengaruhi keputusan pemilihan capital structure pada badan usaha di Indonesia. Dalam penelitian ini, populasi yang digunakan adalah seluruh badan usaha sektor manufaktur yang terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia (BEI) periode 2010 sampai 2012. Jumlah sampel yang digunakan adalah sebanyak 282 tahun badan usaha. Variabel dependen yang digunakan adalah Total Debt Ratio (TDR). Sedangkan, variabel independen yang digunakan dalam penelitian adalah board size, outside director, CEO tenure, ownership concentration, dan managerial ownership. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa outside director berpengaruh positif terhadap total debt ratio dan ownership concentration berpengaruh negatif terhadap total debt ratio. Hasil ini menunjukkan bahwa outside director (komisaris independen) dipercaya untuk menjalankan fungsi pengawasan yang lebih baik terhadap kinerja manajer sehingga peningkatan utang diharapkan justru dapat meningkatkan kinerja perusahaan. Namun disisi lain, blockholder (yang diproksikan dengan ownership concentration) tidak menginginkan tingkat utang yang terlalu tinggi, karena selain akan mengurangi return bagi mereka, juga akan meningkatkan risiko kebangkrutan. Variable corporate governance yang lain tidak berpengaruh signifikan terhadap tingkat utang perusahaan.
First Report of the Collaborative Outcome Data Project on the Effectiveness of Psychological Treatment for Sex Offenders

This meta-analytic review examined the effectiveness of psychological treatment for sex offenders by summarizing data from 43 studies (combined n = 9,454). Averaged across all studies, the sexual offence recidivism rate was lower for the treatment groups (12.3%) than the comparison groups (16.8%, 38 studies, unweighted average). A similar pattern was found for general recidivism, although the overall rates were predictably higher (treatment 27.9%, comparison 39.2%, 30 studies). Current treatments (cognitive–behavioral, k = 13; systemic, k = 2) were associated with reductions in both sexual recidivism (from 17.4 to 9.9%) and general recidivism (from 51 to 32%). Older forms of treatment (operating prior to 1980) appeared to have little effect. Future directions for improving the quality of sex offender treatment outcome evaluations are discussed.
Inductive components in Power Electronics

Often the effort in Power Electronics is concentrated in the design of control and active power components. However inductors and transformers have to be designed as well and are often specific for converters. Usually the core is still selected within available shapes, but the winding type has to be designed on purpose. In today transformers and inductors for power Electronics, almost no design is possible any more without taking eddy current losses in account. This is true for transformers, but even more for inductors where the air gap results in an induction heating of wires close to it. Here a method is described to calculate the eddy current losses for inductors and transformers made with round wires. It fulfills the exact limit cases of known analytic solutions and is tuned by finite elements. The method is based on three field types which is extended to high frequencies taking horizontal and vertical filling factors and field type in account. It is compatible with the book [1] of the same author, but formulated in a different way. In inductors it helps to take a distance from the air gap. In transformers interleaving is a good solution. )
Towards automatic Digital Surface Model generation using a Graphics Processing Unit

Digital Surface Models (DSM) are widely used in the earth sciences. It provides information for various geological studies and other applications. There are a number of methods for automatic DSM generation, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses, none of which are perfect. Even though there are plenty of algorithms to date which can generate the DSMs, it is a computationally complex calculation and does tend to take some time to complete. In order to achieve faster DSMs, an algorithm was implemented on a Graphics Processing Unit. This platform greatly improves the processing speed but does have some drawbacks; namely, no support for double precision floating point values, limited memory and algorithms has to be adapted to be usable in a stream processor environment. A speed performance increase of 900% was obtained while having a negligble decrease in accuracy. The GPU does offer a more efficient platform for computationally extensive digital surface modelling applications.
Expression of Vibrio vulnificus Capsular Polysaccharide Inhibits Biofilm Formation

ABSTRACT Vibrio vulnificus is a human pathogen that produces lethal septicemia in susceptible persons, and the primary virulence factor for this organism is capsular polysaccharide (CPS). The role of the capsule in V. vulnificus biofilms was examined under a variety of conditions, by using either defined CPS mutants or spontaneous CPS expression phase variants derived from multiple strains. CPS expression was shown to inhibit attachment and biofilm formation, which contrasted with other studies describing polysaccharides as integral to biofilms in related species.
Measuring investors’ perception towards the usefulness of Annual Report: An empirical evidence from Bangladesh

Annual report can be viewed as a formal public document produced by companies largely as a response to the mandatory corporate reporting requirements existing in almost all countries. The basic objective of financial statements is to provide useful information so that users‟ can take proper economic decision. The main aim of this research is to measure the investors‟ perceptions towards the usefulness of annual report. Both the primary and secondary data were used for this study. Two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted with a heterogeneous group (i.e. investor, academician, accounting practitioner, Share Market experts) of 6 participants, led by a trained moderator. On the basis of insights from the focus groups, we simplified the directions, added new ones, eliminated some confusing items, and reworded some others. Data were collected from 100 sample (Non-institutional investors with business graduation) using self-administered questionnaire. First, the items of the annual report were ranked according the investors‟ perception. It was found that 23 items of annual report show a low level of correlation. This indicates there was a high degree of independence among the items of annual report. This finding is important because it supports that the items of annual report are independently chosen by the investors. Finally, it was also found that 23 items of the annual report have significant impact on the investment decision. This resulted in nine factors totaling 23 items. The identified factor presented 73% percent of the total variance.
The regularity analysis of multivariate refinable functions from generalized Bernstein bases and application in remote sensing image compression

In this paper, we investigate the smoothness properties of multivariate refinable functions based on generalized Bernstein bases in terms of the spectral radius of the corresponding transition operator restricted to a suitable finite-dimensional invariant subspace, and present a general algorithm to construct biorthogonal scaling functions φ and with the largest possible regularity. Moreover, a new family of the parameterization of filters with symmetry are constructed. We explore the applicability of the transforms presented in this paper to remote sensing image compression at high compression rates, and the results of the experiments show that the performance is outstanding.
Population evolution on a multiplicative single-peak fitness landscape.

A theory for evolution of either gene sequences or molecular sequences must take into account that a population consists of a finite number of individuals with related sequences. Such a population will not behave in the deterministic way expected for an infinite population, nor will it behave as in adaptive walk models, where the whole of the population is represented by a single sequence. Here we study a model for evolution of population in a fitness landscape with a single fitness peak. This landscape is simple enough for finite size population effects to be studied in detail. Each of the N individuals in the population is represented by a sequence of L genes which may either be advantageous or disadvantageous. The fitness of an individual with k disadvantageous genes is Wk = (1-s)k, where s determines the strength of selection. In the limit L-->infinity, the model reduces to the problem of Muller's Ratchet: the population moves away from the fitness peak at a constant rate due to the accumulation of disadvantageous mutations. For finite length sequences, a population placed initially at the fitness peak will evolve away from the peak until a balance is reached between mutation and selection. From then on the population will wander through a spherical shell in sequence space at a constant mean Hamming distance from the optimum sequence. We give an approximate theory for the way depends on N, L, s, and the mutation rate u. This is found to agree well with numerical simulation. Selection is less effective on small populations, so increases as N decreases. Our simulations also show that the mean overlap between gene sequences separated by a time of t generations is of the form Q(t) = Q infinity + (Q0-Q infinity)exp(-2ut), which means that the rate of evolution within the spherical shell is independent of the selection strength. We give a simplified model which can be solved exactly for which Q(t) has precisely this form. We then consider the limit L-->infinity keeping U = uL constant. We suppose that each mutation may be favourable with probability p, or unfavourable with probability 1-p. We show that for p less than a critical value pc, the population decreases in fitness for all values of U, whereas for pc < p < 1/2, the population increases in fitness for small U and decreases in fitness for large U. In this case there is an optimum non-zero value of U at which the fitness increases most rapidly, and natural selection will favour species with non-zero mutation rates.
Mensuração da Satisfação dos Clientes de uma Agência dos Correios Measurement of Customer Satisfaction of a Post Office Agency

This study aims to assess the causes and consequences of customer satisfaction of a post office agency. Therefore, was developed a PLS-PM model consists of the constructs: image, expectation of clients, perceived quality, perceived value, loyalty and complaints based on the European Consumer Satisfaction Index (ECSI). Data were collected through questionnaires answered by 307 customers from a post office in the city of Santa Maria, RS. Data analysis was made using the PLS-PM method. The results show that the variables, perceived quality, image, perceived value and customer expectations exert impact in the customer satisfaction. Understanding the impact of these variables can help the post office in the adoption of strategies to obtain the competitive advantage necessary to win customer loyalty. The proposed model proved to be consistent and appropriate to measure customers satisfaction of the post office.
Resistive Superconducting Fault Current Limiter AC Loss Measurements and Analysis

Resistive superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs) offer the advantages of low weight and compact structure. Multistrand magnesium diboride (MgB2) wire can be used in the SFCL coil design to increase the transport current capacity. A monofilament 0.36-mm MgB2 wire with a stainlesssteel sheath was used to build three SFCL coils with 3 strands, 16 (9 + 7) strands, and 50 (28 + 22) strands of the MgB2 wire. The quench current level and ac losses in the MgB2 wire are critical design parameters for a resistive SFCL. The experimental results showed that the measured quench current densities reduced as the strand number increased and the ac losses increased as the strand number increased. An axisymmetric 2-D finite-element (FE) model therefore was built to analyze the current distribution and the ac losses in the coil. The multistranded coil FE model showed that proximity effect can modify the current distribution in the strands. This not only reduces the current carrying ability but also increases the ac losses nonlinearly. The FE model confirmed the issues highlighted by the experimental testing. Finally, a winding method for the multistrand coil has been proposed to reduce the impact of these effects.
Kaempferol Inhibits the Primary Attachment Phase of Biofilm Formation in Staphylococcus aureus

The ability to form biofilms on surfaces makes Staphylococcus aureus the main pathogenic factor in implanted medical device infections. The aim of this study was to discover a biofilm inhibitor distinct from the antibiotics used to prevent infections resulting from S. aureus biofilms. Here, we describe kaempferol, a small molecule with anti-biofilm activity that specifically inhibited the formation of S. aureus biofilms. Crystal violet (CV) staining and fluorescence microscopy clearly showed that 64 μg/ml kaempferol inhibited biofilm formation by 80%. Meanwhile, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and growth curve results indicated that kaempferol had no antibacterial activity against the tested bacterial strain. Kaempferol inhibited the primary attachment phase of biofilm formation, as determined by a fibrinogen-binding assay. Moreover, a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay and quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analyses revealed that kaempferol reduced the activity of S. aureus sortaseA (SrtA) and the expression of adhesion-related genes. Based on these results, kaempferol provides a starting point for the development of novel anti-biofilm drugs, which may decrease the risk of bacterial drug resistance, to prevent S. aureus biofilm-related infections.
Predicting Financial Crises

Abstract After the Great Recession, there has been speculation as to whether it is possible to effectively detect systemic risk in the financial sector in order to guide macroprudential policy. This paper explores how aggregate indicators may be significant in forecasting banking crises among and across advanced economies. The paper begins by reviewing financial crisis theory and noteworthy qualitative frameworks and quantitative models for predicting financial crises. Mindful of the literature and models, machine learning techniques are used to assess the significance of 26 indicators in forecasting crises, two years in advance, for 20 high income countries. The classification models per country indicate that domestic credit to the private sector, as a percent of GDP, is the most common significant indicator in forecasting banking crises. When creating classification models inclusive of all countries, which are assumed to be of comparable financial depth, the bank lending-deposit spread becomes the most significant indicator. While the specificity of the models per country were quite high, the specificity dropped dramatically for models across countries. Overall, the results indicate a significant relationship between indicators of financial depth and banking crises, however, more data is needed to build upon these models to ensure their robustness. ABSTRACT After the Great Recession, there has been speculation as to whether it is possible to effectively detect systemic risk in the financial sector in order to guide macroprudential policy. This paper explores how aggregate indicators may be significant in forecasting banking crises among and across advanced economies. The paper begins by reviewing financial crisis theory and noteworthy qualitative frameworks and quantitative models for predicting financial crises. Mindful of the literature and models, machine learning techniques are used to assess the significance of 26 indicators in forecasting crises, two years in advance, for 20 high income countries. The classification models per country indicate that domestic credit to the private sector, as a percent of GDP, is the most common significant indicator in forecasting banking crises. When creating classification models inclusive of all countries, which are assumed to be of comparable financial depth, the bank lending-deposit spread becomes the most significant indicator. While the specificity of the models per country were quite high, the specificity dropped dramatically for models across countries. Overall, the results indicate a significant relationship between indicators of financial depth and banking crises, however, more data is needed to build upon these models to ensure their robustness.
Noise suppression of point spread functions and its influence on deconvolution of three‐dimensional fluorescence microscopy image sets

The point spread function (PSF) is of central importance in the image restoration of three‐dimensional image sets acquired by an epifluorescent microscope. Even though it is well known that an experimental PSF is typically more accurate than a theoretical one, the noise content of the experimental PSF is often an obstacle to its use in deconvolution algorithms. In this paper we apply a recently introduced noise suppression method to achieve an effective noise reduction in experimental PSFs. We show with both simulated and experimental three‐dimensional image sets that a PSF that is smoothed with this method leads to a significant improvement in the performance of deconvolution algorithms, such as the regularized least‐squares algorithm and the accelerated Richardson–Lucy algorithm.
Impact of the Position of a Radiator to Energy Consumption and Thermal Comfort in a Mixed Radiant and Convective Heating System

This paper studies the energy consumption and thermal comfort distribution in a typical office with a mixed radiant and convective heating system for two different locations of radiant heat sources. Accurately estimating the energy consumption in a mixed heating space requires careful consideration of the energy balance on each room surface and the comfort level in the space. A radiant heating system heats the room surfaces first; then the warm surfaces heat room air. The higher surface temperatures will increase the heat loss from the enclosure to the ambient environment for a fixed air temperature. On the other hand, a radiant heating system creates a higher mean radiant temperature in the space. By keeping the same operative temperature as used with a convective heating system, this system can have a lower room air temperature, which usually reduces the energy to heat infiltrating air or ventilation air, and reduces the convective heat transfer between the room air and enclosure surfaces during the heating season. The reduced room air temperature has the potential to reduce the heat loss from the enclosure to ambient environment. This paper compares the energy consumption and comfort level as measured by uniformity of operative temperature for two different layouts of radiators in the same geometric space. It is found that when radiators are close to the window, it may increase heating consumption up to 3.2% compared to 100% convective heating in an underventilated space. In a properly ventilated space, radiant heating can save up to 8% of the heating consumption depending on location of the radiator(s) and the outside air supply rate for the cases simulated. Comfort analysis shows that locating the radiator near the window can improve the comfort level in a space.
On the Bottleneck Concept for Options Discovery: Theoretical Underpinnings and Extension in Continuous State Spaces

The bottleneck concept in reinforcement learning has played a prominent role in automatically finding temporal abstractions from experience. Lacking significant theory, it has however been regarded by some as being merely a trick. This thesis attempts to gain better intuition about this approach using spectral graph theory. A connection to the theory of Nearly Decomposable Markov Chains is also drawn and shows great promise. An options discovery algorithm is proposed and is the first of its kind to be applicable in continuous state spaces. As opposed to other similar approaches, this one has running time O(mn2) rather than O(n3) making it suitable to much larger domains than the typical grid worlds.
Juvenile Myasthenia Gravis: Three Case Reports and a Literature Review

Juvenile myasthenia gravis is a rare disorder acquired in childhood, representing 10% to 15% of all cases of myasthenia gravis. Like the adult form, it is generally characterized by an autoimmune attack on acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction. Most patients present with ptosis, diplopia, and fatigability. More advanced cases may also have bulbar problems and limb weakness. Left untreated, the disease may progress to paralysis of the respiratory muscles. Early recognition of this disease helps avoid unnecessary testing, prevent undue parental anxiety, and stop the progression of symptoms. Here, we relate the clinical course and current status of 3 patients with juvenile myasthenia gravis, discuss the disease in general, and review current treatment modalities.
Spatio-Temporal Data Mining with Event Logs from High Volume Logistics Information

In logistics, software aids for transportation planning and scheduling are often based in approximations and abstractions that do not take into account real-world data. The aim of this work is to provide an analysis and methodology, based on real-world data, on how to obtain probability density functions for prediction of activity duration. Given a large spatio-temporal database of events, where each event consists of the fields event ID, time, location, and event type, the aim is to extract valuable information about activities duration. The process is not straightforward since the log is human-influenced creating uncertainty related with the time at which the events are logged. In order to overcome this, a novel framework is proposed: it uses the spatio-temporal trajectories to identify regions-of-interest based on speed, and builds an ROI activity time-line using the activities extracted from event logs.