Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Personalized Mood Prediction Over Online Social Networks: Data Analysis on Cyber-Social-Physical Dimensions

We built a personalized system that can predict the upcoming user mood even in days without text-type tweets. We, first, study the correlation of three types of features (cyber, social and physical) with a user mood. Then, we use these features to train a predictive system. The results suggest a statistically significant correlation between user mood and his cyber, social and physical activities distributed among different OSNs, which lead to a low RMSE in our predictive system compared to linguistic-based systems when non-text content is available.
Improving Tax Incentives for Low-Income Savers: The Saver's Credit

The federal tax system provides little incentive for participation in tax-preferred saving plans to households that most need to save more for retirement and whose contributions would most likely represent an actual increase in savings. By contrast, the tax code provides its strongest incentives to those who already are generally better prepared for retirement and who are more likely to use tax-preferred vehicles as a shelter than as an opportunity to increase overall saving. The saver's credit, helps correct this upside-down structure of tax incentives for retirement saving.
Disclosure on Financial Key Performance Indicators, Board Characteristics and Information Asymmetry between Shareholders and Creditors

This paper analyzes the information asymmetry between owners/managers and creditors. More specifically, the research investigates the role of both disclosure on financial key performance indicators (FKPIs) and different corporate governance mechanisms in reducing the agency costs of debt. The findings show that the presence of independent directors sitting on the board mitigates the agency conflicts between borrowers and lenders when the ownership concentration is low. The results also document that the audit committee independence reduces the agency costs of debt. Moreover, the study shows that the board independence and the disclosure on FKPIs act as complementary mechanisms. However, when the ownership concentration is low, the presence of independent directors in the board is considered to be a mechanism alternative to the disclosure on FKPIs. Con-sidered together, previous findings suggest that independent directors are considered to be an useful mechanism in reducing the agency costs of debt, but only when the ownership is diffused. This means that the concentration of power in the hands of few controlling shareholders reduces the effectiveness of the monitoring role played by independent directors, so increasing the information asymmetry between borrowers and lenders.
Resistance to Dihydroartemisinin

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Resistance to dihydroartemisinin. Eric Legrand, Beatrice Volney, Jean-Baptiste Meynard, Philippe Esterre, Odile Mercereau-Puijalon
Shareholders Wealth Effects of Rights and Bonus Issues: Evidence from Sri Lanka

This paper investigates price reaction to announcements of rights and bonus issues by firms listed on Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) during the period 2008-2013. We document that the market reacts negatively to the announcements of rights offerings while bonus issues convey positive signal to the market. The cross-sectional analysis shows that the market reacts more unfavorably to rights issues with lower issue size, higher risk, lower pre-issuance stock run-up, lesser concentrated ownership, lower profitability, and smaller firms. Our empirical result also provides that investors react more favorably to the announcements of bonus issues with higher pre-issuance stock run-up and smaller firm sizes.
Applicability of independent component analysis on high-density microelectrode array recordings.

Emerging complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-based, high-density microelectrode array (HD-MEA) devices provide high spatial resolution at subcellular level and a large number of readout channels. These devices allow for simultaneous recording of extracellular activity of a large number of neurons with every neuron being detected by multiple electrodes. To analyze the recorded signals, spiking events have to be assigned to individual neurons, a process referred to as "spike sorting. " For a set of observed signals, which constitute a linear mixture of a set of source signals, independent component (IC) analysis (ICA) can be used to demix blindly the data and extract the individual source signals. This technique offers great potential to alleviate the problem of spike sorting in HD-MEA recordings, as it represents an unsupervised method to separate the neuronal sources. The separated sources or ICs then constitute estimates of single-neuron signals, and threshold detection on the ICs yields the sorted spike times. However, it is unknown to what extent extracellular neuronal recordings meet the requirements of ICA. In this paper, we evaluate the applicability of ICA to spike sorting of HD-MEA recordings. The analysis of extracellular neuronal signals, recorded at high spatiotemporal resolution, reveals that the recorded data cannot be modeled as a purely linear mixture. As a consequence, ICA fails to separate completely the neuronal signals and cannot be used as a stand-alone method for spike sorting in HD-MEA recordings. We assessed the demixing performance of ICA using simulated data sets and found that the performance strongly depends on neuronal density and spike amplitude. Furthermore, we show how postprocessing techniques can be used to overcome the most severe limitations of ICA. In combination with these postprocessing techniques, ICA represents a viable method to facilitate rapid spike sorting of multidimensional neuronal recordings.
Role Of High Performance Work Systems In SMEs

High Performance Work Practices (HPWP) are part of the High Performance Work Systems (HPWS). The HPWS include Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM), Flexible Working System (FWS), Diversity and Equality System (DES), Workplace Partnership (WP) and Employee Empowerment (EE). This study was designed to assess the contribution of HPWS towards growth and expansion of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as indicated through Enhanced Business Performance (EBP), High Employee Retention Ratio (HERR) and Boost in Workforce Innovation (BIWI). As the Ownership Profile and Characteristics (OPAC) vary from SME to SME, the variable was included as a moderating factor in the implementation of HPWS in an organisation. Hypotheses developed focus on checking the contribution of HPWS on SMEs growth and expansion as a whole and individual interaction of the indicators.The study collected empirical evidence from employers and employees through a questionnaire survey, a first ever study of its kind in Pakistan.Employing a sample of 1061 employers as well as employees, it develops and tests a modified HPWS model within the Pakistani SMEs.Regression as well as step-wise regression is used for data analysis.Regression and Step-wise regression analysis are done using SPSS version 15.0. The results indicate that the modified HPWS model works well in SMEs of Pakistan and findings revealed a positive relationship though weaker one due to lower level of education of the owners and major decision makers in SMEs. Moreover Employee Empowerment factor has a positive but very low contribution towards SMEs performance because of less than 10 employees in 67.4% SMEs.However surprisingly democratic behaviour is found dominant and affected positively towards enhanced business performance and boosting workforce innovation.
[The importance of CA125 immunohistochemical staining in patients with ovarian cancer].

UNLABELLED CA125 has been regarded as a marker for hyperplastic conditions, such as endometriosis or infectious peritonitis. A high serum CA125 level should therefore be carefully evaluated clinically. We measured CA125 levels in sera and ascites as well as the volume of ascites in patients with ovarian cancer, and also performed immunohistochemical staining of their primary tumors for CA125. RESULTS 1. The tumor positive rate for CA125 was 49% immunohistochemically. 2. In the patients whose tumors were positive for CA125, the serum CA125 level was 3,309 U/ml and the ascitic fluid CA125 level was 23,621 U/ml. In the patients whose tumors were negative for CA125 the serum and ascitic fluid levels of CA125 were 264 U/ml and 1,919 U/ml, respectively. Both serum and ascitic fluid CA125 levels were significantly higher in the CA125-positive tumor group than in the CA125-negative tumor group (t-test: both p < 0.05). 3. In both groups, the serum CA125 level increased with advancing stage. 4. There was a positive correlation between the serum CA125 level and the volume of ascites in both groups. CA125-positive tumor group: Y = 1.02X + 0.38, r = 0.90, r2 = 0.81 (p < 0.0001) CA125-negative tumor group: Y = 0.34X + 1.35, r = 0.51, r2 = 0.26 (p < 0.05). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
De novo assembly of a transcriptome from the eggs and early embryos of Astropecten aranciacus

Starfish have been instrumental in many fields of biological and ecological research. Oocytes of Astropecten aranciacus, a common species native to the Mediterranean Sea and the East Atlantic, have long been used as an experimental model to study meiotic maturation, fertilization, intracellular Ca2+ signaling, and cell cycle controls. However, investigation of the underlying molecular mechanisms has often been hampered by the overall lack of DNA or protein sequences for the species. In this study, we have assembled a transcriptome for this species from the oocytes, eggs, zygotes, and early embryos, which are known to have the highest RNA sequence complexity. Annotation of the transcriptome identified over 32,000 transcripts including the ones that encode 13 distinct cyclins and as many cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK), as well as the expected components of intracellular Ca2+ signaling toolkit. Although the mRNAs of cyclin and CDK families did not undergo significant abundance changes through the stages from oocyte to early embryo, as judged by real-time PCR, the transcript encoding Mos, a negative regulator of mitotic cell cycle, was drastically reduced during the period of rapid cleavages. Molecular phylogenetic analysis using the homologous amino acid sequences of cytochrome oxidase subunit I from A. aranciacus and 30 other starfish species indicated that Paxillosida, to which A. aranciacus belongs, is not likely to be the most basal order in Asteroidea. Taken together, the first transcriptome we assembled in this species is expected to enable us to perform comparative studies and to design gene-specific molecular tools with which to tackle long-standing biological questions.
Contribution à la prise en considération du contexte dans la conception de tables interactives sous l'angle de l'IHM, application à des contextes impliquant table interactive RFID et objets tangibles

Cette these s'inscrit dans le domaine de l'Interaction Homme-Machine. Elle vise a prendre en consideration le contexte d'usage pour les nouvelles plateformes de type table interactive. Par la notion de table interactive, on laisse supposer un espace de travail collaboratif et co-localise permettant de faire intervenir plusieurs utilisateurs en meme temps mais egalement de nouvelles interactions melant objets tangibles, virtuels voire tactiles. C'est face a ce constat et a l'engouement accorde a ces nouvelles plateformes que nous avons propose de caracteriser puis de recenser les tables interactives en nous appuyant sur un modele que nous avons propose. Le contexte est une notion utilisee depuis longtemps dans la conception d'applications interactives. Les recherches en Interaction Homme-Machine ont apporte de nombreux elements permettant de le definir et de le qualifier de maniere approfondie. Notre proposition se base sur la prise en consideration du contexte d'usage pour les tables interactives. Pour cela, nous avons dans un premier temps modelise le contexte d'usage tel qu'il peut etre defini dans la litterature puis augmente cette modelisation afin de l'adapter a l'utilisation des tables interactives. Un ensemble de formalismes permettant de definir le contexte et une situation d'utilisation pour les tables interactives sont egalement presentes, ceux-ci nous amenant a proposer un systeme d'adaptation au contexte d'usage puis un ensemble de regles d'adaptation. Nous realisons l'adaptation au contexte d'usage en utilisant la table interactive TangiSense, resultat du projet ANR TTT. Pour cela nous utilisons et implementons nos regles d'adaptation proposees afin de permettre a la table interactive TangiSense de s'adapter en fonction du contexte et des situations d'utilisation. Afin d'evaluer l'ensemble des elements proposes dans cette these, deux etudes ont ete menees : la premiere en laboratoire, la seconde dans un environnement naturel en ecole maternelle. Un ensemble de perspectives de recherche termine le memoire.
Explaining the 'new' wave of outward FDI from developing countries: the case of Taiwan and Korea

This paper examines how the characteristics of outward FDI from some of the Asian NIEs differ from the existing literature on third world MNEs (TWMNEs). Using the framework of the revised investment development path, we contend that (i) the second wave of TWMNE activity represents an intermediate stage between the first wave TWMNEs and ‘conventional’ industrialised country MNE activity; (ii) Such outward FDI activity have been aided by government policies that encouraged the upgrading of L advantages of the home country which in turn helped create O advantages of their firms; and (iii) while these O advantages were initially primarily country-of-origin specific, they have been supplemented through the using of strategic asset-acquiring FDI.
An Empirical Study on Primary Teachers’ Information Technology Learning Difficulties Structure

The purpose of this study is to establish a scale with reliability and validity about information technology learning difficulties through a series of precise analytical procedures. Taking primary teachers as the subject of research and adopting the method of stratification sampling, the author made two questionnaire surveys. First of all, in the pre-examination questionnaire, he altogether sent out 205 questionnaires, and took back 164 effective questionnaires. Through project analysis, reliability test and exploratory factor analysis, the formal questionnaire was formed. Then, he again released 682 questionnaires and took back 473 effective questionnaires, with an effective recovery rate of 69.4%. After confirmatory factor analysis, such three factors as self-competence difficulty, family difficulty and information support difficulty were extracted, and eleven measurement terms were reserved. However, the coefficient ? was all above . 8 at all levels of the scale and the coefficient ? was also above . 9 in the whole scale, which indicated perfect internal consistency. As for the verification mode, after correction, its adaptive degree was proved to be benign be means of confirmatory factor analysis. Since the scale in this study was with benign reliability and validity, subsequent researchers may conduct relevant studies based on the scale established in this study.
The Internal Audit Function : An Integral Part of Organizational Governance

To better understand and position internal audit in the context of contemporary global organizations, a conceptual framework containing several organizational governance issues is introduced. Furthermore, this conceptual framework serves as a road map to key topics presented in the remainder of the monograph. Relevant authoritative standards from the newly issued Professional Practices Framework are cited to support, clarify, or expand upon this new role for internal audit.
An ANN-based method for wind speed forecasting with S-Transform

In this paper, a new method is proposed for wind speed forecasting. The proposed method makes use of RBFN (Radial Basis Function Network) of ANN (Artificial Neural Network) to evaluate one-step ahead wind speed. To improve the performance of RBFN, two techniques are introduced into RBFN. One is to use the prefiltering technique of the S-Transform for the feature extraction of input variables. It plays a key rule to extract the feature in frequency domain with the excellent function. The other is to apply a two-staged forecasting method to wind speed time-series. It is effective for reducing the forecasting model errors. The proposed method is successfully applied to real data of wind speed in Japan.
AEC 2015: Issues and Challenges in Standards and Conformance

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint envisions the transformation of the ASEAN region into a single market and production base through the facilitation of the free flow of goods and services. With tariffs declining to near-zero levels, nontariff barriers are increasingly the focus of coordination efforts by ASEAN member-countries. The ASEAN standards and conformance measures aim to harmonize national standards, technical regulations, and conformity assessment procedures to achieve connectivity among similar regulatory institutions in the region and to facilitate trade. The Mid-Term Review of the AEC Blueprint set out surveys and a scorecard mechanism to assess each country`s progress in the implementation of standards and conformance in eight key areas, including automotive and rubber-based products, electrical and electronic equipment, cosmetics, medical devices, pharmaceutical products, prepared foodstuff, and traditional medicine and health supplement sectors. This paper presents the survey results and includes a background on key national institutions in-charge of standards and conformance. Overall, the survey results show that the Philippines is committed to aligning national standards with international benchmarks and has achieved significant progress in most sectors through measures that include the amendment of the relevant laws and regulations. While the Philippines remains committed to the AEC and the AEC blueprint, challenges to implementation remain, including adequate funding and support. The way forward for standards and conformance in the Philippines lies in capacity building and strengthening regulatory institutions.
Segmentation of infrared images based on improved FCM segmentation algorithm

Aiming at the iterations consuming problem of the fuzzy c-mean clustering segmentation algorithm(FCMCS), a new method of fuzzy clustering segmentation algorithm of the infrared images is proposed. The FCM determines the threshold values of the type of clustering through the iterative optimization of the objective function. The modified algorithm based on the fuzzy entropy constraint gives the derivation process, the new clustering center and membership are also obtained. The results show that the modified algorithm is effective, it has fewer iterations and guarantee the real-time.
Two-Stage Hepatectomy: A Planned Strategy to Treat Irresectable Liver Tumors

ObjectiveTo assess feasibility, risks, and patient outcomes in the treatment of colorectal metastases with two-stage hepatectomy. Summary Background DataSome patients with multiple hepatic colorectal metastases are not candidates for a complete resection by a single hepatectomy, even when downstaged by chemotherapy, after portal embolization, or combined with a locally destructive technique. In two-stage hepatectomy, the highest possible number of tumors is resected in a first, noncurative intervention, and the remaining tumors are resected after a period of liver regeneration. In selected patients with irresectable multiple metastases not amenable to a single hepatectomy procedure, two-stage hepatectomy might offer a chance of long-term remission. MethodsOf consecutive patients with conventionally irresectable colorectal metastases treated by chemotherapy, 16 of 398 (4%) became eligible for curative two-stage hepatectomy combined with chemotherapy and adjuvant nonsurgical interventions as indicated. ResultsTwo-stage hepatectomy was feasible in 13 of 16 patients (81%). There were no surgical deaths. The postoperative death rate (2 months or less) was 0% for the first-stage procedure and 15% for the second-stage one. Postoperative complication rates were 31% and 45%, respectively, with only one complication leading to reoperation. The 3-year survival rate was 35%, with four patients (31%) disease-free at 7, 22, 36, and 54 months. Median survival was 31 months from the second hepatectomy and 44 months from the diagnosis of metastases. ConclusionsTwo-stage hepatectomy combined with chemotherapy may allow a long-term remission in selected patients with irresectable multiple metastases and increases the proportion of patients with resectable disease.
Long-term course of pulmonary arterial pressure in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Ninety-three patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) of the bronchitic (n = 74) or emphysematous type (n = 19), who all had arterial hypoxemia, underwent 2 right cardiac catheterizations in a clinical steady state, with a delay of 5 yr or more between the first and the last catheterization. No patients received long-term O2 therapy or pulmonary vasodilator drugs. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to the initial level of mean pulmonary artery pressure (Pap). Group 1 included 61 patients without initial pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), Pap being less than 20 mmHg; the average delay between the 2 catheterizations was 93.4 +/- 26.8 months. Group 2 included 32 patients with initial PAH (Pap greater than or equal to 20 mmHg), and the average delay was 85.0 +/- 26.0 months. The changes in Pap were small. They ranged from 15.5 +/- 2.4 to 19.6 +/- 7.0 mmHg in Group 1 (p less than 0.001) and from 25.8 +/- 5.6 to 27.8 +/- 9.5 mmHg in Group 2 (NS). The average increase in Pap was 0.65 mmHg/yr in Group 1 and 0.39 mmHg/yr in Group 2 (no statistical difference between the 2 groups). The other hemodynamic parameters (pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, right ventricle filling pressure, cardiac output) did not change. Hemodynamic "worsening," which was defined by an increase in Pap by greater than or equal to 5 mm Hg, was observed in 29% of the patients (n = 27). In these patients, there was a marked worsening of hypoxemia, which was not observed in the remaining 66 patients. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)