Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Expertise, Subversion, and Bureaucratic Discretion

This paper examines a legislature's delegation of policy making authority to an imperfectly controlled, expert bureaucrat. The legislature can reduce the bureaucrat's expertise advantage through costly investigations of its own before delegating. Further, the bureaucrat is granted discretionary bounds by the legislature, but can subvert legislative dictates by stepping beyond them at some cost. I analyze the interaction of preference divergence, investigation cost to the legislature, and subversion cost to the bureaucrat on the decision to delegate. The model shows that, because of the equilibrium effect of subversion on discretion, bureaucrats will want subversion of legislative dictates to be difficult, while legislators want it to be relatively easy. It also highlights an indirect effect between preference divergence and discretion: preference divergence leads the legislature to become more expert on policy matters, which leads it to delegate less.
Astrometric and photometric accuracies in high contrast imaging: The SPHERE speckle calibration tool (SpeCal)

Context. The consortium of the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch installed at the Very Large Telescope (SPHERE/VLT) has been operating its guaranteed observation time (260 nights over five years) since February 2015. The main part of this time (200 nights) is dedicated to the detection and characterization of young and giant exoplanets on wide orbits. Aims. The large amount of data must be uniformly processed so that accurate and homogeneous measurements of photometry and astrometry can be obtained for any source in the field. Methods. To complement the European Southern Observatory pipeline, the SPHERE consortium developed a dedicated piece of software to process the data. First, the software corrects for instrumental artifacts. Then, it uses the speckle calibration tool (SpeCal) to minimize the stellar light halo that prevents us from detecting faint sources like exoplanets or circumstellar disks. SpeCal is meant to extract the astrometry and photometry of detected point-like sources (exoplanets, brown dwarfs, or background sources). SpeCal was intensively tested to ensure the consistency of all reduced images (cADI, Loci, TLoci, PCA, and others) for any SPHERE observing strategy (ADI, SDI, ASDI as well as the accuracy of the astrometry and photometry of detected point-like sources. Results. SpeCal is robust, user friendly, and efficient at detecting and characterizing point-like sources in high contrast images. It is used to process all SPHERE data systematically, and its outputs have been used for most of the SPHERE consortium papers to date. SpeCal is also a useful framework to compare different algorithms using various sets of data (different observing modes and conditions). Finally, our tests show that the extracted astrometry and photometry are accurate and not biased.
SMART GRID CYBER SECURITY ROADMAP

This paper addresses the roadmap to strengthen security at EDP critical information infrastructures, from organizing the security operational services, architectural strengthen and staff awareness at EDP Distribuicao, to the advances of the Portuguese Smart Grids project and the achievements of the InovGrid cyber security working group with focus on the new critical infrastructure, technological vulnerabilities and threats, on the grid reliability and resilience in the context of increased number of sensors, decentralized processing and holistic enterprise data management. Considering the operational efficiency and business competitiveness challenges which result in new architecture evolutions, in particular the integration of cloud computing, it also covers the involvement in international R&D projects, and on the contribution to and adoption of security standards and interoperability guidelines.
Factors affecting entrepreneurial management in Bangladesh: an empirical analysis

Economic growth is considered as an important objective for national governments for which entrepreneurial management is required. This paper introduces issue on the business creation by women and the factors which are instrumental in their success including economics, institutions and infrastructural factors have been taken as major factors. The study used both primary and secondary sources. The study used hypotheses testing considering four factors of entrepreneurial facilities such as male and female entrepreneurs, infrastructural and institutional requirements, and economic factor whether helps to enhance growth of entrepreneurial management of the country. Authors’ observed that the nature of SME activities is less favorable for women entrepreneur than the men entrepreneur. The authors suggested that the number of women entrepreneurs at rural areas should be increased through establishing community banks at a cheaper rate. In the formal sector, financial organizations are being required for developing proper steps to poverty alleviation, public-private and foreign strategic alliances and implementation procedures are required with special emphasis on achieving sustainable development goals (SDGS) of the country.
ARTS, the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator – version 2.2, the planetary toolbox edition

Abstract. This article describes the latest stable release (version 2.2) of the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator (ARTS), a public domain software for radiative transfer simulations in the thermal spectral range (microwave to infrared). The main feature of this release is a planetary toolbox that allows simulations for the planets Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, in addition to Earth. This required considerable model adaptations, most notably in the area of gaseous absorption calculations. Other new features are also described, notably radio link budgets (including the effect of Faraday rotation that changes the polarization state) and the treatment of Zeeman splitting for oxygen spectral lines. The latter is relevant, for example, for the various operational microwave satellite temperature sensors of the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) family.
Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling Monthly Crash Counts on Freeway Segments with Temporal Correlation

As the basis of traffic safety management, crash prediction models have long been a prominent focus in the field of freeway safety research. Studies usually take years or seasons as the observed time units, which may result in heterogeneity in crash frequency. To eliminate that heterogeneity, this study analyzes monthly crash counts and develops Bayesian hierarchical models with random effects, lag-1 autoregression (AR-1), and both (REAR-1) to accommodate the multilevel structure and temporal correlation in crash data. The candidate models are estimated and evaluated in the freeware WinBUGS using a crash dataset obtained from the Kaiyang Freeway in Guangdong Province, China. Significant temporal effects are found in the three models, and Deviance Information Criteria (DIC) results show that taking temporal correlation into account considerably improves the model fit compared with the Poisson model. The hierarchical models also avoid any misidentification of the factors with significant safety effects, because their variances are greater than in the Poisson model. The DIC value of the AR-1 model is substantially lower than that of the random effect model and equivalent to that of the REAR-1 model, which indicates the superiority of the lag-1 autoregressive structure in accounting for the temporal effects in crash frequency.
Economic and Genetic Aspects of Using Sexed Semen in Traditional and Genomic Evaluation of Iranian Holstein Dairy Cattle: A Simulation Study

In recent years, sexed semen has been commercially available. Due to its lower fertility and higher price compared to conventional semen, economic evaluation should be undertaken before recommending the technology to dairy producers in each country. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the sexed semen usage at farm level in economic conditions of Iran based on total net present value (TNPV) and to estimate the impact of sexed semen on the rate of genetic improvement in dairy cattle population with and without using genomic information. Three relative conception rates (RCR) of sexed semen compared to the conventional semen were assumed i.e. 0.80, 0.75, and 0.70. Visual basic 6 and Excel software were used for calculations. The results showed that greater numbers of sexed semen services in heifers resulted in higher TNPV for all assumed RCR s, but for cows in parities 1 and 2, use of two sexed semen services for RCR , 0.80 and 0.75 resulted in the highest TNPV ; while, for RCR = 0.70, the results indicated that using sexed semen was not economical. By using traditional evaluation, genomic evaluation with 3k chip, and genomic evaluation with 50k chip, the additional genetic gains in 305-day milk yield were, respectively, approximately 25, 34, and 38% higher than the current annual genetic progress for this trait in Iran (that is, about 53 kg per year).
Separation of Hydrograph Components Using Stable Isotopes Case Study: The Güvenç Basin, Ankara

In this research, a stable environmental isotope study was carried out from an analysis of water samples collected from rainfall, runoff (total discharge), springs (subsurface flows) and wells (groundwater) between 1996 and 2000. The research site was the Guvenc Basin located near Yenimahalle-Ankara with a drainage area of about 16.125 km2. The aim of the study was to investigate the rainfall-runoff relationship for the Guvenc Basin using the stable isotope method in the separation of hydrographs. Recorded total discharge hydrographs are separated into their components using isotopes (oxygen-18, deuterium) contents. Among these samples, unit hydrographs from 2 single-peaked storm hydrographs were derived using both isotope and graphical (Barnes semi-log) methods and the derived unit hydrographs' peaks were compared. It was found that the contribution of subsurface flow originating from various sublayers of the basin is important in hydrograph separation when using the isotope method of approach.
What determines the attack distance of a stalking predator

Stalking predation has been identified in many different taxa of animals. Although previous studies have identified environmental conditions that affect hunting success, we still lack a theory that explains diverse stalking patterns on the basis of these conditions. Here, I present an optimization model of a stalking hunt based on a predator’s multi-stage decision-making. This incorporates the essential feature of stalking predation: as the predator attacks at a shorter distance and when it attacks before the prey notices it, its hunting success is enhanced. At each step of a hunt, the predator chooses either to shorten the distance by stalking with a risk of being noticed or to attack immediately. Major conclusions are as follows: (1) The predator attains its maximum expected hunting success just by following a simple rule: keep stalking for as long as the merit of proximity exceeds the risk of losing the merit of surprise. (2) The predator attacks at a greater distance as the environmental conditions enhance the risk of losing the merit of surprise compared to the merit of proximity. (3) The optimal attack distance is neither affected by the distance where the predator starts its hunt nor by the previous stalking success as long as the merit of proximity is sufficiently large. This constancy of the optimal attack distance can be used to test if a stalking predator follows the above simple decisionmaking rule.
MMSE joint detection in frequency-selective wireless communication channels for DS-CDMA systems

In digital mobile communication systems, two important problems arise, namely multiple access interference (MAI) and intersymbol interference (ISI). An attractive solution is the use of code division multiple access (CDMA) systems possibly combined with TDMA and FDMA. In CDMA communication systems, the MAI and ISI can be efficiently combated by applying multi-sensor linear joint detection (JD) techniques, in particular, space-time processing methods. In most cases, they are derived from a symbol-level error criterion. However, in some other cases they are obtained from a chip-level viewpoint, also known as chip sequence restoration techniques. In the present paper, a detailed analytical comparison between chip-rate and symbol-rate minimum mean square error (MMSE) block filtering is provided, taking into account also other features such as structured vs. non-structured block filter computation and chip-level vs. symbol-level training sequence. Monte-Carlo simulation results are also given to provide realistic comparisons of the different methods.
Evaluative Study of Detect-Split-Forward Scheme over MIMO Relays

Virtual multi-input multi-output (vMIMO) schemes in wireless communication systems improve coverage, throughput, capacity, and quality of service. In this paper, we propose two uplink vMIMO relaying schemes based on detect-split-andforward (DSF). In addition, we investigate the effect of several physical parameters on the performance of the relaying systems, such as distance, modulation type and number of relays. In addition, we provide analytical tools to evaluate the performance of the proposed vMIMO relaying schemes. Keywords–Virtual MIMO, distributed antenna, relaying, detectsplit-and-forward, STBC, V-BLAST.
Challenges in Counter‐disaster Measures for People with Functional Needs in Times of Disaster Following the Great East Japan Earthquake

This article describes the three major challenges that were identified and their possible solutions are proposed in counter-disaster measures for "people with functional needs in times of disaster (PFND)" following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. First, recent developments in preparedness mea- sures for PFND in Japan have been uncritically relying on the assumption that hazard maps represent "correct" estimates of future hazardous events, which are based on the maximum probable event (MPrE) framework. In reality, however, a maximum possible event (MPoE) has occurred in the Tohoku regions. This has tremendous implications for fundamentally re-thinking the entire hazard estimation process from a MPr Et o MPoE framework. Second, counter-disaster measures for PFND have focused mainly on warning and neighborhood-based evacuation assistance activities. Needs for shelters and temporary housing units that were specially designated for PFND arose following the earthquake. However, their provisions were neither systematic nor universal due to the lack of pre-planning. More detailed guidelines for specially designated shelter and temporary housing operations need to be developed in order to address this issue. Third, people with disabilities (PWD) became invisible in shelters and communities or in the eyes of local government administrators. This was due to the fact that a majority of PWD did not ask for help in evacuation shelters because they felt general shelters were not "barrier free" and were unrespon- sive to their functional needs. Furthermore, many local government administra- tors felt hesitant to release their PFND registry to non-governmental and self-help organizations that were eager to check the whereabouts and current situations of PWD. This was due to the fear of breaking the Personal Information Protection Bylaw despite the fact that the bylaw provided exceptional conditions, where the onset of disaster was clearly one of these exceptional conditions. Further elabo- ration and education on the use of personal information of PFND during a disaster period is needed among public and local government administrators. ijjs_1158 12.20
MULTISENSOR MULTITEMPORAL DATA FUSION USING THE WAVELET TRANSFORM

Interest in data fusion, for remote-sensing applications, continues to grow due to the increasing importance of obtaining data in high resolution both spatially and temporally. Applications that will benefit from data fusion include ecosystem disturbance and recovery assessment, ecological forecasting, and others. This paper introduces a novel spatiotemporal fusion approach, the wavelet-based Spatiotemporal Adaptive Data Fusion Model (WSAD-FM). This new technique is motivated by the popular STARFM tool, which utilizes lower-resolution MODIS imagery to supplement Landsat scenes using a linear model. The novelty of WSAD-FM is twofold. First, unlike STARFM, this technique does not predict an entire new image in one linear step, but instead decomposes input images into separate “approximation” and “detail” parts. The different portions are fed into a prediction model that limits the effects of linear interpolation among images. Low-spatial-frequency components are predicted by a weighted mixture of MODIS images and low-spatial-frequency components of Landsat images that are neighbors in the temporal domain. Meanwhile, high-spatialfrequency components are predicted by a weighted average of high-spatial-frequency components of Landsat images alone. The second novelty is that the method has demonstrated good performance using only one input Landsat image and a pair of MODIS images. The technique has been tested using several Landsat and MODIS images for a study area from Central North Carolina (WRS-2 path/row 16/35 in Landsat and H/V11/5 in MODIS), acquired in 2001. NDVI images that were calculated from the study area were used as input to the algorithm. The technique was tested experimentally by predicting existing Landsat images, and we obtained R values in the range 0.70 to 0.92 for estimated Landsat images in the red band, and 0.62 to 0.89 for estimated NDVI images.
Correlation between the dynamics of polar nanoregions and temperature evolution of central peaks in Pb[(Zn1/3Nb2/3)0.91Ti0.09]O3 ferroelectric relaxors

Acoustic properties of Pb[(Zn1∕3Nb2∕3)0.91Ti0. 09]O3 have been investigated in a wide temperature range. The sound velocity of acoustic phonons showed a deviation from its high-temperature linear behavior at the Burns temperature TB∼730K. Upon cooling, acoustic properties exhibited significant changes at about 550K in polarization state and width of the central peak in addition to changes in frequency and damping of acoustic phonons. This finding suggests that, besides TB, another intermediate characteristic temperature exists in the evolution of relaxor dynamics, which might be related to the formation of long-lived polar nanoregions and associated local strain fields.
Molecular Network and Cancer

Molecular networks dynamically alter in cancer development. Upon epigenetic regulation such as methylation and acetylation, the gene expression changes to activate molecular pathways in and between cells. These regulations trigger the cancer progression and cancer immunity vice versa. In balance between cancer progression and suppression, the molecular pathway networks are modulated. The molecular interactions in a signaling pathway and cross-talks among pathways to generate networks are important issues for the understanding of the cancer mechanisms. The regulation of gene expression by microRNAs makes variations for the network constructions. For cancer treatment, the components in activated molecular pathways can be targets of the therapeutics. The cancer stem cells which exhibit the resistance towards anti-cancer therapeutic, and epithelialmesenchymal transition (EMT) in the cells are also important issues to reveal the cancer mechanism. In cancer stem cells, stem cell molecular networks to self-renew are activated, and transporters for anti-cancer drugs are activated. Cancer cells exhibiting EMT often demonstrate migration and metastasis. The transcription activity and cell adhesion networks may be changed in cancer malignancy. It is essential to investigate the regulation of molecular networks for revealing the cellular alteration and communication in cancer.
The impact of acquisitions on the productivity of inventors At semiconductor firms: a synthesis of knowledge-based and Incentive-based perspectives

We show how knowledge-based and incentive-based perspectives complement each other to explain the effects of acquisitions on the productivity of inventors from acquired firms. Incentive-based theories account for their lower productivity relative to that of inventors at nonacquired firms, and both perspectives jointly explain why their productivity converges with that of inventors from acquiring firms. Higher productivity is achieved when there is greater overlap in routines and moderate overlap in skills, and when the acquired firm is large relative to its acquirer. This study clarifies the subtle manner in which incentives and the knowledge-based view are intertwined.
Cardiac MRI Data Segmentation Using the Partial Differential Equation of Allen-Cahn Type

The work deals with the segmentation of the image data using the algorithm based on the numerical solution of the geometrical evolution partial differential equation of the Allen-Cahn type. This equation has origin in the description of motion by mean curvature and has diffusive character. The diffusion process can be controlled by the input intensity signal, so that edges of the objects or areas can be found. The method is applied to the problem of automated segmentation of the left heart ventricle from the images obtained by magnetic resonance (cardiac MRI). The segmentation is a necessary step for estimation of significant indicators of the myocardial function from dynamic MR images such as the ejection fraction or the kinetic parameters of the wall thickening during the cardiac cycle. These parameters describe clinical situation of the myocardium.
Synthetic environments for skills training and practice

Today’s technologies—from Web 3.0 and beyond to mobile devices to game engines to immersive and augmented virtual systems—offer great potential for students to train and practice the physical and cognitive components of hands-on social interaction skills in safe, diverse, and controllable contexts. Systematic training and practice opportunities in the real world are, at best, difficult to set up in typically resourced educational settings, but for many skills it is critical to validate students before they experience uncontrolled and unseen situations. Synthetic environments (SEs), the term used in this chapter, involve a human– computer interface that facilitates the student interaction with and engagement in computer-generated activities and resources, whatever the platform. SEs offer the potential to deliver systematic learning opportunities with (virtual) objects and people in precisely controlled, dynamic situations. SE paradigms allow for the sophisticated, objective, real-time measurement of students’ behaviors and training outcomes, such as changes in performance or focus of attention (Parsons, 2015a). Continual cost reductions in, and improved capabilities of, SE technologies promise the advancement of more accessible, usable, and relevant SE applications to address an increasingly wider range of physical and cognitive training and practice conditions (Parsons, 2016; Parsons & Phillips, 2016; Bohil et al., 2011). This chapter discusses the development, presentation, and measurement of SEs for training and assessment. We have been involved with the design, implementation, study, and application of many SEs, and, as a result of our experience, we have come to view SEs as supporting a cycle that relates motivation and retention to performance as portrayed in Figure 11.1. The engaging nature of well-designed SEs encourages students to explore the environment and demonstrate behaviors 11