Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New Pricing Models, Same Old Phillips Curves?

We show that, in a broad class of menu cost models, the first-order dynamics of aggregate inflation in response to arbitrary shocks to aggregate costs are nearly the same as in Calvo models with suitably chosen Calvo adjustment frequencies. We first prove that the canonical menu cost model is first-order equivalent to a mixture of two time-dependent models, which reflect the extensive and intensive margins of price adjustment. We then show numerically that, in any plausible parameterization, this mixture is well approximated by a single Calvo model. This close numerical fit carries over to other standard specifications of menu cost models. Thus, for shocks that are not too large, the Phillips curve for a menu cost model looks like the New Keynesian Phillips curve, but with a higher slope.
IMPLEMENTATION OF A ROBUST AND SAFE CYBER SECURITY SYSTEM BY PREVENTING THE INTRUSION OF OUTSIDERS BY FORMULATION OF A NOVEL AND EFFICIENT CYBER LAW ENFORCEMENT POLICY

This research paper focuses the importance of implementing the necessary and mandatory rules and regulations which are responsible for evaluation of the current threats which pose a major challenge towards the world of computers and fast multimedia services. The computer is becoming more important nowadays because of the rapidly growing technology and evolution of Internet and other Multimedia facilities. The human being is benefitted due to the facilities and services which are being provided by the Internet like Social Networking sites such as Face book, Orkut, Twitter, WhatsApp etc.
Behaviour of high strength concrete confined with ferrocement shell in addition to lateral ties

An experimental investigation on the behaviour of high strength concrete confined with a ferrocement shell in addition to rectangular ties under axial compression, by varying the specific surface factor (S f ), which controls the behaviour of ferrocement and Confinement Index (C i ), which controls the behaviour of tie confinement is presented. 216 prisms of size 150 mm x 150 mm x 300 mm were tested. The results indicate that additional confinement in the form of a ferrocement shell improved the ultimate strength, strain at ultimate strength and the ductility of high strength concrete. Prediction equations for ultimate strength, strain at ultimate strength and ductility for high strength concrete confined with a ferrocement shell in addition to ties are presented.
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE SUCCESS OF ADVERTISING A CASE STUDY OF CROWN PAINTS KENYA LIMITED

The main objective of this research study was to establish factors influencing the success of advertising. The study employed a descriptive kind of research design. The target population was Crown Paints Customers operating within Nairobi, Kajiado and Kiambu county. The sample comprised of sixty five respondents. These were obtained from the company’s customer database using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Primary data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. This was first pre-tested before being given to the respondents. Data collected was then analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques, after which it was presented on tables, graphs and pie-charts. The results of the study indicate that Advertising messages and the style of execution have an effect on consumer behavior. This is because customers are more likely to associate with advertisements of those brands which have emotional values and messages. Advertisers can use different advertising media to communicate to customers. The success of each medium will depend on the nature of the product being advertised, the characteristics of the target market, media timing and the frequency of advertising. For advertising to be effective, it needs to blend well with other elements of the marketing mix. This means having a product that best meets the needs of the target market, with the right pricing and readily available. The advertiser also needs to put into
Measuring Road Transport Sustainability Using MCDM-Based Entropy Objective Weighting Method

Road haulage solutions are incredibly adaptable, having the capacity to link domestically and internationally. Road transportation offers a greener, more efficient, and safer future through sophisticated technology. Symmetry and asymmetry exist widely in industrial applications, and logistics and supply chains are no exception. The multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model is considered as a complexity tool to balance the symmetry between goals and conflicting criteria. This study can assist stakeholders in understanding the current state of transportation networks and planning future sustainability measures through the MCDM approach. The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate and compare the sustainable development of existing road transportation systems to determine whether any of them can be effectively developed in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The integrated entropy–CoCoSo approach for evaluating the sustainability of road transportation systems is introduced, and the framework process is proposed. The entropy method defines the weight of the decision criteria based on the real data. The advantage of the entropy method is that it reduces the subjective impact of decision-makers and increases objectivity. The CoCoSo method is applied for ranking the road transportation sustainability performance of OECD countries. Our findings revealed the top three countries’ sustainability performance: Japan, Germany, and France. These are countries with developed infrastructure and transportation services. Iceland, the United States, and Latvia were in the last rank among countries. This approach helps governments, decision-makers, or policyholders review current operation, benchmark the performance of other countries and devise new strategies for road transportation development to achieves better results.
Non-Managed IPv6 Tunnels considered Harmful

IPv6 is ongoing and natively being deployed by a growing community and it is important that the quality perception and traffic flows are as optimal as possible. Ideally it would be as good as the IPv4 perceptive experience. This paper looks into a set of transitional technologies where the actual user has IPv6 connectivity through the means of IPv6-in-IPv4 tunnels. A subset of the available tunnels has the property of being non-managed (i.e. 6to4 [RFC3056] and Teredo [RFC4380] ). While native IPv6 deployments will keep growing it is uncertain or even expected that non-managed IPv6 tunnels will be providing the same user experience and operational quality as managed tunnels or native IPv6 connectivity. This paper will detail some considerations around non-managed tunnels and will document the harmful element of these for the future growth of networks and the Internet.
SMURF: Efficient and Scalable Metadata Access for Distributed Applications

In parallel with big data processing and analysis dominating the usage of distributed and Cloud infrastructures, the demand for distributed metadata access and transfer has increased. The volume of data generated by many application domains exceeds petabytes, while the corresponding metadata amounts to terabytes or even more. This paper proposes a novel solution for efficient and scalable metadata access for distributed applications across wide-area networks, dubbed SMURF. Our solution combines novel pipelining and concurrent transfer mechanisms with reliability, provides distributed continuum caching and semantic locality-aware prefetching strategies to sidestep fetching latency, and achieves scalable and high-performance metadata fetch/prefetch services in the Cloud. We incorporate the phenomenon of semantic locality awareness for increased prefetch prediction rate using real-life application I/O traces from Yahoo! Hadoop audit logs and propose a novel prefetch predictor. By effectively caching and prefetching metadata based on the access patterns, our continuum caching and prefetching mechanism significantly improves the local cache hit rate and reduces the average fetching latency. We replay approximately 20 Million metadata access operations from real audit traces, where SMURF achieves 90% accuracy during prefetch prediction and reduced the average fetch latency by 50% compared to the state-of-the-art mechanisms.
Research on the Characteristic Change in an Inductive‐Coupling‐Type Contactless Power Transformer for a Railway According to the Core Shapes and Misalignment Utilizing a T‐Type Equivalent Circuit

Although an electric railway is an ecological transportation system, there are some obstacles when an electric railway is installed: the high cost for installation and the detrimental effect on the environment. A contactless power transfer system (CPT system) is a solid solution for these obstacles. However, a CPT system for a railway application needs to have a high capacity and a tolerance to the misalignment of the coils. In this paper, inductive power transfer theory, which is able to transfer a greater amount of energy than the electromagnetic resonance method is chosen, and its tolerance to the misalignment is our focus. The authors measure various core shapes, and their coupling coefficients, leakage inductances, and excitation inductances according to the misalignment are obtained with a finite element method (FEM) analysis. By using these parameters, the transmitted power and efficiency are calculated by two equivalent circuits: the S/S circuit and the S/P circuit. Finally, by comparing the parameters and transmitted power of each core shape and circuit, the authors show that the circular core can transfer 100 kW of energy for a misalignment of 300 mm.
The Role of Instagram Influencers’ Credibility on Customer Purchase Intention: A Case of Restaurant Sector Sri Lanka

The higher internet penetration rates and the upward trend in social media subscriptions point towards the higher potential in social media to be utilized as interactive media for marketing purposes. Influencer marketing is one such form of social media marketing. An exploratory pilot survey pointed out that even though consumers prefer referring to Instagram influencers for information on restaurants some Instagram users mentioned having issues regarding making the purchase decision based on influencers’ suggestions later on. Hence the purpose of this study was to find out whether Instagram influencers’ credibility impacts the customers’ purchase intention related to the restaurants promoted by these influencers. Apart from that, it was aimed to find out the credibility dimensions that impact the purchase intention and the most salient dimension/dimensions among those. Survey data suggested that Instagram influencers’ credibility does have an impact on the customer purchase intention related to the restaurants promoted by these influencers.
Sexual Health Assessment Is Vital to Whole Health Models of Care

Sexual health is the state of well-being regarding sexuality. Sexual health is highly valued and associated with overall health. Overall health and well-being are more than the absence of disease or dysfunction. Health care systems adopting whole health models of care need to incorporate a holistic assessment of sexual health. This includes assessing patients’ sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). If health systems, including but not limited to the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), incorporate sexual health into whole health they could enhance preventive care, promote healthy sexual functioning, and optimize overall health and well-being. Assessing sexual health can give providers important information about a patient’s health, well-being, and health goals. Sexual concerns or dysfunction may also signal undiagnosed health conditions. Additionally, collecting SOGI information as part of a sexual health assessment would allow providers to address problems that drive disparities for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and similar minority (LGBTQ+) populations. Health care providers do not routinely assess sexual health in clinical practice. One barrier is a gap in communication between patients and providers. Providers cite beliefs that patients will bring up sexual concerns themselves or might be offended by discussing sexual health. Patients often report an expectation that providers will bring up sexual health and being comfortable discussing sexual health with their providers. Within the VHA, the lack of a sexual health template within the electronic health record (EHR) adds an additional barrier. The VHA’s transition toward whole health and updates to its EHR provide unique opportunities to integrate sexual health assessment into routine care. We highlight system modifications to address this within the VHA. These examples may be helpful for other health care systems interested in moving toward whole health. It will be vital for health care systems integrating a whole health approach to develop both practical and educational interventions to address the communication gap. These interventions will need to target both providers and patients in health care systems that transition to a whole health model of care, not just the VHA. Both the communication gap between providers and patients, and the lack of support within some EHR systems for sexual health assessment are barriers to assessing sexual health in primary care clinics. Routine sexual health assessment would benefit patient well-being and present an opportunity to address health disparities for LGBTQ+ populations. Health care systems (ie, both the VHA and other systems) can overcome these barriers by implementing educational interventions and updating their EHRs and back-end data structures. VHA’s expertise in developing and implementing health education interventions and EHR-based quality improvements may help inform interventions beyond VHA.
Boundary clarifying between integration and validation testing and engineering example

Partitioning of testing phases is a basic problem, and for clarifying the boundary between integration and validation testing, this paper discusses this issue from basic technological boundary and management and control aspect. Meanwhile, discussion about test certificate for validation testing is proposed for suggestion and reference. Without loss of applicability, an engineering application example is given, and how to construct test case respectively for integration testing and validation testing is briefly summarized according to engineering requirement.
The Relationship between 2D Positioning Ability and Realistic Drawing Skill

Realistic drawing ability is a fundamental human trait. However, the cognitive constituents of this ability are poorly understood. This study aims to evaluate the contribution of Two-dimensional (2D) positioning skills in the performance of realistic drawing. 2D positioning refers to an important observation technique employed by artists to locate the correct position of an object in its representation on a blank canvas. Two different types of 2D positioning techniques are considered: absolute positioning (using the canvas boundaries as positioning reference) and relative positioning (using already-drawn components as reference). We used a line-arrangement experimental task to evaluate the positioning abilities of experts and novices; we further measured their realistic drawing ability in a realistic drawing task. Pearson correlation-coefficient analysis showed that both positioning abilities are positively correlated with realistic drawing abilities, but that the two positioning abilities are not correlated. While expert participants were found to be significantly better at absolute positioning than the novice, their relative positioning performance does not differ from that of the novice. These results suggest that absolute and relative positioning are two independent observation techniques, and that experience might improve absolute positioning skills. This implies that absolute positioning is a more advanced technique requiring both training and practice.
An Iterative Optimization and Learning-Based IoT System for Energy Management of Connected Buildings

Buildings account for nearly 40% of primary energy and 36% of greenhouse emissions, which is one of the main factors driving climate change. Reducing energy consumption in buildings toward zero-energy buildings is a vital pillar to ensure that future climate and energy targets are reached. However, due to the high uncertainty of building loads and customer comfort demands, and extremely nonlinear building thermal characteristics, developing an effective zero-energy building energy management (BEM) technology is facing great challenges. This article proposes a novel learning-based and iterative Internet of Things (IoT) system to address these challenges to achieve the zero-energy objective in BEM of connected buildings. First, all buildings in the IoT-based BEM system share their operation data with an aggregator. Second, the aggregator uses these historical data to train a deep reinforcement learning model based on the deep deterministic policy gradient method. The learning model generates precooling or preheating control actions to achieve zero-energy BEM for building heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Third, for solving the coupling problem between HVAC systems and building internal heat gain loads, an iterative optimization algorithm is developed to integrate physics-based and learning-based models to minimize the deviation between the on-site solar photovoltaic generated energy and the actual building energy consumption by properly scheduling building loads, electric vehicle charging cycles, and the energy-storage system. Finally, the optimal load operation scheduling is generated by considering customers’ comfort requirements. All connected buildings then operate their loads based on the load operation schedule issued by the aggregator. The proposed learning-based and iterative IoT system is validated via simulation with real-world building data from the Pecan Street project.
Micropower Class AB Low-Pass Analog Filter Based on the Super-Source Follower

An improved class AB version of the super source follower is used to implement a compact and power-efficient second order analog low-pass filter. The proposed circuit achieves a 41% power reduction as well as an improvement in linearity and pass band gain with respect to its class A counterpart. Measurement results of a test chip prototype fabricated in a 180 nm CMOS technology show a power consumption ranging from 50.3 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to 85.27 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> for cutoff frequencies from 600 kHz to 890 kHz, with a supply voltage of ±0.75 V. A third order intermodulation distortion of −35.34 dB (for an input signal of 0.4 mV<sub>pp</sub> and 350 kHz) and a THD of −69.7 dB (for an input signal of 0.4 mV<sub>pp</sub> and 100 kHz) are measured, which results in an improvement with respect to the conventional class A version of 13.98 dB and 43.6 dB, respectively. The silicon area is 0.0592 mm<sup>2</sup> (using external capacitors).
RE challenges for geographically distributed stakeholders

This paper describes preliminary results of a longitudinal case study of an Irish based automotive aftermarket company engaged in software development with multiple stakeholders that are geographically separated. Due to increased global competition the company were under tremendous pressure to produce more frequent software updates to keep abreast of the latest onboard vehicle diagnostic technology that interfaces with the increasing variety of cars on the market. This paper discusses the challenges they encountered in their requirements engineering (RE) processes for the production of their software updates.
A Framework of “Quantitative ⨂ Fixed Image ⇒ Qualitative” Induced by Contradiction Generation and Meta Synthetic Wisdom Engineering

Due to the past tP and the future tF being divided into a pair of opposing times by the now tN, the generation mechanism of the contradiction is attributed in this paper as the process in which the time increment ∆t and ∆t’ are transmitted from the past tP and the future tF to the present moment tN, respectively, and then reverse each other. The category and topos of time contradictorily constructed by the mechanism is discussed. It is shown that not only can the laws of the “Unification of Opposites”, “Mutual change of Quality and Quantity” and “Negation of negation” of the contradiction be represented in this form of category, but some of classic constructions appearing in the fields of mathematics, physics, logic, life, nerves, thinking, and intelligence can also be considered as morphosmor pattern-induced and emerge via this mechanism as well. On the other hands, a series of concepts, models, and algorithms for noetic science, such as the attribute conjunctive monoid category (ACMC), attribute reasoning lattice category (ARLC), attribute coordinate system (ACS), attribute coordinate analysis method based on the learning of ACS for perception, cognition, and decision-making (ACAM), qualitative (conversion degree) mapping from quantity to quality (QM), attribute grid computer based on qualitative mapping, qualitative criteria transformation (AGC), etc., which have been verified through corresponding experiments, have been proposed, so that not only a set of attribute theory methods from perception to cognition and thinking have been constructed, but the synthetized framework of “Quantitative ⊗ Fixed Image⇒ Qualitative”, called “Framework of Syntenic Three Approaches” (FSTA) can also be induced. It is possible to provide an alternative reference path and technical solution for noetic science and open complex giant systems because FSTA is consistent with the framework of “Quantitative Intelligence ⊗ Fixed Image Intelligence⇒ Qualitative Intelligence (Meta Synthetic Wisdom)”, as proposed by Hsue-shen Tsien.