Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Data-Driven Optimal Assistance Control of a Lower Limb Exoskeleton for Hemiplegic Patients

More recently, lower limb exoskeletons (LLE) have gained considerable interests in strength augmentation, rehabilitation, and walking assistance scenarios. For walking assistance, the LLE is expected to control the affected leg to track the unaffected leg's motion naturally. A critical issue in this scenario is that the exoskeleton system needs to deal with unpredictable disturbance from the patient, and the controller has the ability to adapt to different wearers. To this end, a novel data-driven optimal control (DDOC) strategy is proposed to adapt different hemiplegic patients with unpredictable disturbances. The interaction relation between two lower limbs of LLE and the leg of patient's unaffected side are modeled in the context of leader-follower framework. Then, the walking assistance control problem is transformed into an optimal control problem. A policy iteration (PI) algorithm is utilized to obtain the optimal controller. To improve the online adaptation to different patients, an actor-critic neural network (AC/NN) structure of the reinforcement learning (RL) is employed to learn the optimal controller on the basis of PI algorithm. Finally, experiments both on a simulation environment and a real LLE system are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed walking assistance control method.
Post-recession policy diffusion: local government adoption of build America bonds

To resolve the limited access to capital by local governments due to the Great Recession, the United States Federal Government responded with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) which included the Build America Bond (BAB) program. The result of this program was considerable interest cost savings to state and local governments, but many local governments chose to issue traditional tax-exempt bonds instead of BABs. Using a policy diffusion framework and hazard model approach, we identify factors that affected the speed of BAB adoption by local governments. Results show that underwriter and financial adviser experience along with the internal characteristics of the local governments played a significant role in adoption. These findings have implications for future fiscal policies targeting local governments for the purpose of timely economic recovery.
Marketing Strategy Formulation for Organic Restaurants in Sanur Tourism Area of Bali

The growth of tourism industry in Sanur Tourism Area has stimulated the growth of restaurant business on this area. Organic food is becoming most people concern for their health and begin as a lifestyle. There were around 7 organic restaurants on the Sanur Tourism Area. The objectives of this research were investigating the strength and threat factors of organic restaurant industry in this area, and developing proper marketing strategy formulation. This research was undertaken between August and November, 2015. The total populations were 7 organic restaurants, meanwhile total number of respondents were 112, who consist of 105 visitors and 7 restaurant managers. The analysis tools utilized in this research were IFE analysis, EFE analysis, Internal-External Matrix Analysis, Position Matrix Analysis, and SWOT Analysis Matrix. The findings of this research were as follows: first, internal marketing variables of restaurant industries consist of 18 strengths and 1 weakness indicators; second, external marketing variables consists of 7 opportunities and 1 threats indicator; third, the combination of Internal-External Matrix and Position Matrix Analysis show that the position was at Cell I (grow and build strategy) and meanwhile Position Matrix Analysis Pointed at Quadran I (Grow and Develop Strategy). Finally, based on the SWOT Analysis Matrix,the proper marketing strategy formulation showed that organic restaurants in Sanur Tourism Area were supposed to implement Grand/ Main Strategy (market penetration, product development, and market development strategy) and Alternatif Strategy (SO, WO, ST, and WT
The concentration of lactate in relation to other components of bovine mammary secretion during premature regression and after resumption of milking

Summary An experiment lasting 42 d was performed in 4 consecutive stages on 6 healthy Friesian cows during mid-lactation. Mean values for the different components of mammary secretion during normal lactation were established. Milking was then suspended on all quarters from d 1–14. The mean values for lactate increased 20- to 30-fold over the mean value for normal lactation. Over the same period the leucocyte count (polymorphonuclear leucocytes and lymphocytes) also increased, whereas the mean values for glucose and the estimated redox potential decreased. From d 15–28 milking was resumed on one half of the udder and from d 29–42 milking was also resumed on the other udder-half. When milking was resumed the above-mentioned changes were reversed, taking 5–7 d to reach values obtained during normal lactation in the udder-half which had not been milked for 14 d, but at least 14 d in the udderhalf which had not been milked for 28 d. The changes in the levels of lactate, glucose, leucocyte count and estimated redox potential are discussed in relation to changes in the secretory activity of the mammary gland (lactose, β-lactoglobulin and epithelial cell count), permeability changes of the mammary epithelium (Na+, K+ and serum albumin) and the immune defence mechanism in the udder (immunoglobulins). The results indicate that lactate is formed during anaerobic glycolysis by the leucocytes in the mammary secretion, most probably due to reduced blood flow to the udder and the accumulation of secretion in the gland and teat cisterns on cessation of milking.
Very small FPGA application-specific instruction processor for AES

This paper presents two low-area designs for the advanced encryption standard on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Both these designs are believed to be the smallest to date. The first design is an 8-bit application-specific instruction processor, which supports key expansion (currently programmed for a 128-bit key), encipher and decipher. The design utilizes less than 60% of the resources of the smallest available Xilinx Spartan II FPGA (XC2S15). The average encipher-decipher throughput is 2.1 Mbps when clocked at 70 MHz. The design has numerous applications where low area and low power are priorities. The second design, using the Xilinx PicoBlaze soft core is included to provide an embedded 8-bit microcontroller comparison baseline.
Construction of Economic Law Litigation System for Corporate Social Responsibility

Based on the theoretical basis and content of corporate social responsibility, this paper demonstrates the innovation of the construction of economic law litigation system of corporate social responsibility from the aspects of plaintiff system, subjective scope system, jurisdiction system, litigation cost system and incentive and restraint system. If the specific procedural system design deviates from the entity's value goal, the program itself loses its value and meaning. The construction of the corporate social responsibility system of economic law has always been consistent with the requirements of economic law entities. Corporate social responsibility economic law litigation system in the economic litigation plaintiff qualification is more extensive, including the workers, enterprises and national ad hoc organs. And the scope of its economic litigation can respond to the adjustment of economic law to a certain extent. At the same time, economic litigation has certain characteristics in the jurisdiction system, litigation cost system and incentive and restraint system.
Joint admission control and provisioning for virtual machines

In current data centers, cloud providers (CPs) need to make decisions on virtual machine (VM) deployment requests that arrive dynamically over time under the constraint of limited physical resources to host VMs. Existing schemes to solve this problem either do not consider the dynamic characteristic of requests when solving the VM provisioning problem or separate admission control and VM provisioning into two independent problems. Both approaches can result in substantially sub-optimal revenue outcomes. In this paper, we propose a joint admission control and VM provisioning scheme based on a Markov Decision Process (MDP) framework to optimize the VM admission and placement decision in an integrated manner to maximize the CP's operating revenue. Because of the large number of physical servers in data centers, the MDP problem is computationally intractable to standard dynamic programming techniques. We propose a simulation-based approximate dynamic programming (ADP) algorithm to effectively solve the problem. Simulation results show that the new joint admission control and VM provisioning algorithm can substantially increase the revenue generated for CPs.
The Impact of the Problems Faced by Online Customers on Ecommerce

The purpose of this study is to identify the behavior of customers in the online environment. We analyzed the evolution, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of this type of commerce, and its implications on the consumers. In order to identify the customers’ behavior online, we selected three variables which are characterized by time intervals of the latest online order, and six variables which analyze the main problems faced by consumers of goods/services bought online (a long shipping time, damaged products, non-compliant products, fraud related issues, underperforming complaint system, technical issues, lack of customer and legal aspects). Online commerce is less developed in the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Ireland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Slovenia and Norway. But, the advantages of ecommerce weigh more for the consumer than the problems they face, for example: online shoppers will continue to make online purchases even if they have experienced delays in delivering goods/services, damaged products, online fraud, technical problems or difficulties in finding information about the warranty of goods/services.
Factors Affecting Revenue Estimates of Tax Compliance Proposals: Working Paper 2016-05

This paper examines various factors that affect estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation of the budgetary savings from tax compliance proposals. Affecting the current law baseline, against which proposed changes are measured, are the size of the tax gap and the amount of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) resources. Other considerations that affect the revenue estimates for either appropriation proposals or changes to the tax code include the distinction between detection and deterrence, the budget scorekeeping guidelines, and
Exploratory analysis of the effect of distraction on driving behaviour through a driving simulator experiment

The objective of this research is the investigation of the effect of different types of distracted driving on driving performance. For this purpose, a driving simulator experiment was carried out at the simulator of the National Technical University of Athens, in which 87 participants were asked to drive under different types of distraction (no distraction, conversation with passenger, mobile phone) and under different traffic conditions (high/low traffic) on urban area. The data collected from the driving simulator experiment include both longitudinal control measures (average speed, headways), lateral control measures (lateral position, standard deviation of lateral position) and the reaction time of the driver at unexpected incidents. In the next step, a descriptive analysis through box plots took place in order to investigate key driving performance parameters. More specifically, participants in the framework of the compensatory behaviour were found to drive at lower speed and with lower speed variability in the distraction trials compared to undistracted driving. Furthermore, regarding the reaction time, results indicate that the distraction mechanism between conversation with the passenger and mobile phone is different and has totally different consequences in the various age groups.
Consumers Preference and Consumers Buying Behavior on Soft Drinks: A Case Study in Northern Province of Sri Lanka

This study focused to find the consumerâ€™s preference effect consumerâ€™s buying behavior of all soft drinks which consumed by ordinary consumers in Northern Province. This study tested by using two main established variables which are consumerâ€™s preference include four sub variable such as perceived product, perceived price, perceived place, perceived promotion and consumerâ€™s buying behavior include four sub variable such as culture, Social factors, personal factors, psychological factors. The main objective was to evaluate the consumerâ€™s preference and buying behavior of soft drinks. This survey has been explored the level of influence of consumerâ€™s buying behavior. customer personal information which consists of gender, location of business, income level, brand, consuming period, preference and advertising media and also through research information which includes the dimensions of all variables. Information collected from 300 samples in the Northern Province for this study.
Venture Capital Networks: An analysis using the exponential random graph model

Applying the exponential random graph model (Robins et al. 2007) to the investment data of Japanese venture capital (VC) firms, we document the relationship between VC performance and the dynamics of their co-investment networks. First, we find that VCs' co-investment network formation is not independent from VC characteristics. Second, VCs' past experiences of co-investments contribute to a higher likelihood of future co-investments among them, not only when VCs gain higher returns from their past co-investments but also when the jointly invested venture business companies (VBs) experience higher growth after an initial public offering (IPO). Third, such positive assortativity in terms of the returns obtained from their co-investment has become significantly weaker after the great financial crisis in 2007-2009. These results suggest that the poor financial market conditions make network structures less stiff. Fourth, somewhat puzzlingly, the positive assortativity in terms of jointly invested VBs' growth has become stronger after the great financial crisis.
Managing quality and customer trust in the e-retailing servicescape

As online consumer shopping continues to grow, so does the importance of a website in a retailer's strategy. In this increasingly competitive environment, building customer loyalty and retaining customers is integral to achieving sustained profitability. While one stream of literature has suggested that e-retailers should concentrate on improving quality, another has recommended the focus should be on building trust with customers. The objective of this study is to synthesise these streams, investigating how the interplay between three forms of quality (information, system, and service) and trust help retain customers in a virtual servicescape. Integrating information systems and marketing research, the results suggest trust mediates the relationship between each type of quality and both satisfaction and repurchase intentions. Furthermore, of the three types of quality, service quality engenders the greatest impact on trust, followed by information then system quality. The paper concludes with a discussion of this model for managers and researchers.
Manipulation of Loss Aversion by Changes in Endowment and Affect : An Integrative Study of Pychophysiology , Personality and Functional Imaging

Institutions: Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology; University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany, Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany, Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India
Cough triggers and their pathophysiology in patients with prolonged or chronic cough.

BACKGROUND The character or timing of chronic cough is considered to be unpredictable for diagnosing its cause. However, the associations of cough triggers with cough pathophysiology remains unknown. METHODS We developed a closed questionnaire listing 18 triggers that were reported by ≥1% of 213 patients in a retrospective survey. Using this questionnaire, patients with cough-predominant or cough-variant asthma (n = 140) and those with non-asthmatic cough (54) were asked whether their cough was induced by the listed triggers. Associations of triggers with causes of cough, airway sensitivity to inhaled methacholine, exhaled nitric oxide (NO) levels, number of sensitizing allergens, and scores from gastroesophageal reflux (GER) questionnaires were examined. Factor analysis was used to categorize variables, including the 12 most common cough triggers, diagnosis of asthmatic cough, airway sensitivity, and exhaled NO levels. RESULTS "Cold air" and "fatigue/stress" induced cough more often in asthmatic coughers than in non-asthmatic coughers. "Spices" and "meals" induced cough more frequently in GER-coughers (n = 19). Patients who marked "cold air" as the trigger were more sensitive to inhaled methacholine and showed higher exhaled NO levels than those who did not mark this trigger. The "post-nasal drip" trigger was associated with elevated exhaled NO levels, and this association was mainly exhibited by patients with cough-predominant asthma. The triggers "pollen" and "mold smell" were associated with a number of sensitizing allergens. The number of triggers was weakly associated with GER scores. By factor analysis, "cold air," "fatigue/stress," asthmatic cough, airway hypersensitivity, and elevated NO levels were categorized into the same factor. CONCLUSIONS Several cough triggers may reflect the pathophysiology of prolonged or chronic cough.
Application of AD8 Questionnaire to Screen Very Mild Dementia in Taiwanese

The AD8 questionnaire developed by Washington University in St Louis is a screening tool with 8 questions to reliably differentiate nondemented from demented individuals even at the very mild stage. We recruited 239 participants, including 114 cognitively normal, 73 very mild dementia, and 52 mild dementia to validate its application in Taiwanese. The cut-off value of AD8 was 2 in discriminating cognitively normal from demented individuals with the area under curve (AUC) = 0.961, sensitivity = 97.6%, specificity = 78.1%, positive likelihood ratio (PLR) = 4.5, and negative likelihood ratio (NLR) = 0.03. The cut-off value also was 2 in discriminating nondemented from very mild dementia with the AUC = 0.948, sensitivity = 95.9%, specificity = 78.1%, PLR = 4.4, and NLR = 0.05. The Chinese AD8 is effective in discriminating individuals with dementia, even at its mildest stages from those without dementia with properties identical to the original English version. The cAD8 is a quick dementia screening tool that can be applied across cultures.
Discerning the Origins of the Negritos, First Sundaland People: Deep Divergence and Archaic Admixture

Abstract Human presence in Southeast Asia dates back to at least 40,000 years ago, when the current islands formed a continental shelf called Sundaland. In the Philippine Islands, Peninsular Malaysia, and Andaman Islands, there exist indigenous groups collectively called Negritos whose ancestry can be traced to the “First Sundaland People. ” To understand the relationship between these Negrito groups and their demographic histories, we generated genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism data in the Philippine Negritos and compared them with existing data from other populations. Phylogenetic tree analyses show that Negritos are basal to other East and Southeast Asians, and that they diverged from West Eurasians at least 38,000 years ago. We also found relatively high traces of Denisovan admixture in the Philippine Negritos, but not in the Malaysian and Andamanese groups, suggesting independent introgression and/or parallel losses involving Denisovan introgressed regions. Shared genetic loci between all three Negrito groups could be related to skin pigmentation, height, facial morphology and malarial resistance. These results show the unique status of Negrito groups as descended from the First Sundaland People.
Single-particle structure of silicon isotopes approaching Si 42

The structure of the neutron-rich silicon isotopes Si36,38,40 was studied by one-neutron and one-proton knockout reactions at intermediate beam energies. We construct level schemes for the knockout residues Si35,37,39 and Al35,37,39 and compare knockout cross sections to the predictions of an eikonal model in conjunction with large-scale shell-model calculations. The agreement of these calculations with the present experiment lends support to the microscopic explanation of the enhanced collectivity in the region of Si42. We also present an empirical method for reproducing the observed low-momentum tails in the parallel momentum distributions of knockout residues.
Design of an Intelligent Car for Searching Track and Avoiding Obstacles

Abstract With the rapid development of informational and intelligent technology, the mobile robot has become an important branch of robot. In this paper, through UP-InnoSTARTM robot kits for the chassis and MultiFLEXTM 2-PXA270 controller for the control core, we design an intelligent car. It uses infrared proximity sensors to detect obstacles and gray-scale sensors to search the track. And the main functions are: autonomously recognizing the trajectory, searching it steadily, making quick judgment and timely responses when meeting obstacles. In addition, a simple laboratory experiments are also proposed to illustrate the practicability of our design.
Infectious Disease Transmission Models to Predict, Evaluate, and Improve Understanding of COVID-19 Trajectory and Interventions

Buchwald et al discuss the use of infectious disease transmission models to predict, evaluate, and improve understanding of COVID-19 trajectory and interventions COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world with devastating consequences Large questions loom about how this epidemic will proceed and what interventions can slow the spread Mathematical models of infectious disease transmission serve a key role in guiding government response;they provide a framework for evaluating the potential impact of different policies on the course of the epidemic and on the expected number of lives lost and whether and when hospital capacity may be exceeded Given the critical role of infectious disease models in the pandemic, it is important to understand their strengths and limitations, as well as why different models may yield conflicting results
Adaptive multilayer perceptrons with long- and short-term memories

Multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) with long- and short-term memories (LASTMs) are proposed for adaptive processing. The activation functions of the output neurons of such a network are linear, and thus the weights in the last layer affect the outputs of the network linearly and are called linear weights. These linear weights constitute the short-term memory and other weights the long-term memory. It is proven that virtually any function f(x, theta) with an environmental parameter theta can be approximated to any accuracy by an MLP with LASTMs whose long-term memory is independent of theta. This independency of theta allows the long-term memory to be determined in an a priori training and allows the online adjustment of only the short-term memory for adapting to the environmental parameter theta. The benefits of using an MLP with LASTMs include less online computation, no poor local extrema to fall into, and much more timely and better adaptation. Numerical examples illustrate that these benefits are realized satisfactorily.