Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Venture Capital Contracting and the Valuation of High Technology Firms

Venture capitalists are specialized intermediaries that channel capital to firms and professional services to companies that might otherwise be excluded from the corporate debt market and other sources of private finance. Venture capital financing is used to invest mainly in small and medium size firms with good growth and exit potential. Typically, venture capital firms concentrate in industries with a great deal of uncertainty, where the information gaps among entrepreneurs and venture capitalist are commonplace. Venture capital firms are active in sectors with a high informational opacity and agency costs. These ventures are identified as financially constrained. Start-up firms rely on venture capital as one of their main sources of funding. Recent empirical research has found that the effect of venture capital on the success of these ventures is considerable. The value of venture capital investment is borne out by the figures which show that venture capital backed-firms grow on average twice as fast as those not backed by venture capital firms. The debate on the development of an efficient venture capital market has forced us to consider which financial instruments, legal rules, labour laws, contracts, and other institutional structures are necessary to create a venture capital market. The contributions to this book have offered insights on the structure of venture capital fund financial contracts, the screening, monitoring and staging of potential investments, the importance of partnership and other legal business forms for investors and start-up firms, the funding of innovation, the valuation of investments, and the exit routes for venture capitalists. The essays in this volume, which draw upon international evidence and ideas from financial economics and law, contribute to further research on the relationship between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. This collection analyses the main legal and contracting structures in the venture capital cycle. Exploring the differences between the US and European venture capital markets, it focuses on diverse organizational and contractual techniques, such as staged finance, convertible securities, board functions and other forms of control, and the role of exit. Theoretical chapters examine the valuation of entrepreneurial firms and the liquidiation preference in convertible securities. Finally, the book assesses the importance of the IPO market for entrepreneurs, investors and venture capitalists alike. Contributors to this volume - Joseph A. McCahery Luc Renneboog Bernard S. Black Ronald J. Gilson Thomas Hellman Steven N. Kaplan Per Stromberg Dirk Bergemann Ulrich Hege William W. Bratton John Armour Erik P. M. Vermeulen Samuel Kortum Josh Lerner Han T. J. Smit Lenos Trigeorgis John R. M. Hand Enrico Perotti Silvia Rossetto Michael Cooper O. Raghavendra Rau Didier Cossin Benoit Leleux Entela Saliasi Douglas J. Cumming Jeffrey G. MacIntosh Edward B. Rock Susanne Espenlaub Marc Goergen Arif Khurshed Raghuram Rajan Henri Servaes
Free Knot Splines with RJMCMC in Survival Data Analysis

The B-spline representation is a common tool to improve the fitting of smooth nonlinear functions, it offers a fitting as a piecewise polynomial. The regions that define the pieces are separated by a sequence of knots. The main difficulty in this type of modeling is the choice of the number and the locations of these knots. The Reversible Jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo (RJMCMC) algorithm provides a solution to simultaneously select these two parameters by considering the knots as free parameters. This algorithm belongs to the MCMC techniques that allow simulations from target distributions on spaces of varying dimension. The aim of the present investigation is to use this algorithm in the framework of the analysis of survival time, for the Cox model in particular. In fact, the relation between the hazard ratio function and the covariates being assumed to be log-linear, this assumption is too restrictive. Thus, we propose to use the RJMCMC algorithm to model the log hazard ratio function by a B-spline representation with an unknown number of knots at unknown locations. This method is illustrated with two real data sets: the Stanford heart transplant data and lung cancer survival data. Another application of the RJMCMC is selecting the significant covariates, and a simulation study is performed.
Color Image Display with a Limited Palette Size

Many image display devices limit the colors which can be simultaneously displayed to a small set of colors called a color palette. Usually, each element of the color palette can be selected by the user from a wide variety of available colors. Such device restrictions make it particularly difficult to display natural color images since these images usually contain a wide range of colors. The color quantization problem can be considered in two parts: the selection of an optimal color palette and the optimal mapping of each pixel of the image to a color from the palette. This paper applies a hierarchical tree structure to the design of the color palette. The tree structure allows palette colors to be properly allocated to areas of the color space which are densely populated and, in addition, greatly reduces the computational requirements of the palette design and pixel mapping tasks. Methods are presented for incorporating performance measures which reflect subjective evaluations of image quality. Incorporation of these measures into the quantization problem results in significantly improved image quality. The algorithms presented in the paper produce high quality displayed images with minimum artifacts and require far less computation than previously proposed algorithms using unstructured color palettes.
A Low-Profile Dual-Polarized Substrate Integrated Magneto-Electric Dipole MIMO Antenna

A magneto-electric dipole (MED) multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) antenna with low-profile, dual-polarized, and substrate integrated properties is proposed. The antenna element is composed of four fan-shaped patches lying on the radiation plane and four vertical metal vias linking the patches and the ground. Compared with the common MED antennas, the proposed MED antenna element has a lower profile of 0. 1λ. Besides, it is fed by microstrip lines via two orthogonal H-shaped slots, resulting in a broad impedance bandwidth of 40% (3–4.5 GHz) and a steady gain in the entire operational band. The ports isolation is higher than 27 dB, the cross-polarization discrimination is higher than 37 dB, and the measured radiation efficiency is greater than 70%. Furthermore, four antenna elements are utilized to form a MIMO antenna, which can obtain better ports isolation characteristics under the condition that the element spacing is half wavelength. Finally, the MIMO antenna is simulated, fabricated and measured. The results verify the rationality of the design.
Development of a dual-stage tracking servo using oversample technique

The sample rate is one of the main factors limiting the servo bandwidth in HDDs. This paper presents a servo design method using an oversample technique. With this method, the sample rate needed is reduced to half of the normal requirement. The performance of the oversample system remains similar to the single-rate design with twice the sample rate. The technique has been successfully applied to a dual-stage servo design and the implementation results show the applicability of the proposed technique.
Dependence of Limited Growth Rate of High-Quality Gem Diamond on Growth Conditions

The growth rate of diamond has been investigated for a long time and researchers have been attempting to enhance the growth rate of high-quality gem diamond infinitely. However, it has been found according to previous research results that the quality of diamond is debased with the increase of growth rate. Thus, under specific conditions, the growth rate of high-quality diamond cannot exceed a limited value that is called the limited growth rate of diamond. We synthesize a series of type Ib gem diamonds by temperature gradient method under high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) using the as-grown {100} face. The dependence of limited growth rate on growth conditions is studied. The results show that the limited growth rate increases when synthetic temperature decreases, also when growth time is prolonged.
Relation between Loudness and Duration of Tonal Pulses. III. Response in Cases of Abnormal Loudness Function

The previously determined relation between time‐threshold and loudness is investigated in cases of abnormal loudness response.General principles concerning the nature of the altered function are established in pathologic cases with complete recruitment by time‐threshold measurement and by binaural loudness matching with the following results: (1) at a constant level above threshold, the hearing loss in decibels is related to the logarithm of the pathologic degree of loudness increment, as determined by L/I values; (2) for a given hearing loss, the L/I value of the loudness‐increment degree decreases linearly with the logarithmic increase of the level above threshold; (3) the graphic results of time‐threshold determination appear directly continuous with those of loudness matching.Present findings extend the validity of previously determined loudness‐duration relations to abnormal loudness responses. Experimentally induced abnormal loudness response under conditions of masking confirms the results.In cases.
Electroacupuncture Improves Depression-Like Behavior by Regulating the Abundance of Lactobacillus and Staphylococci in Mice.

BACKGROUND Growing evidence suggests that gut microbiota can affect depression-like behavior, and electroacupuncture (EA) can regulate the composition and abundance of gut microbiota. At the same time, not a lot of research has been done on how EA affects gut microbiota to depression-like behavior. The objective of this study was to study the associated mechanisms by which EA exerts antidepressant effects by modulating gut microbiota. METHODS Twenty-four C57BL/6 male mice were randomly divided into three groups, one group (n = 8) was the normal control group (NC). And the other two groups was chronic unpredictable mild stress for modeling + electroacupuncture group (CUMS + EA) (n = 8) and chronic unpredictable mild stress for modeling group (CUMS) (n = 8). Both CUMS and EA groups were subjected to 28 days of CUMS, but only the EA group received an additional 14 days of EA procedure. Behavior tests were used to determine the antidepressant effect of EA. Sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene was applied to examine alterations in the intestinal microbiome between groups. RESULTS The findings were compared to those of the NC group, the sucrose preference rate and the total distance of Open Field Test (OFT) in CUMS group decreased, the abundance of Lactobacillus decreased, while the abundance of staphylococci increased. After the intervention of EA, the sucrose preference index and the total distance of OFT increased, the abundance of Lactobacillus increased, while the abundance of staphylococci decreased. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicated EA may play an antidepressant effect by adjusting the abundance of Lactobacillus and staphylococci.
Experimental Vertical Transmission of Chikungunya Virus by Brazilian and Florida Aedes Albopictus Populations

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a vector-borne alphavirus transmitted by the bites of mosquitoes, specifically infected, female mosquitoes of the invasive Aedes species. In nature, CHIKV can be maintained by vertical transmission, a phenomenon that relates to the transfer of CHIKV from the infected parent to their offspring within the ovary or during oviposition. In the present study, we conducted laboratory experiments to determine vertical transmission with Ae. albopictus populations from Brazil and Florida. Parental Ae. albopictus females were orally infected with the emergent Asian genotype of CHIKV in the first gonotrophic cycle (infectious blood meal) and tested for vertical transmission following the second (non-infectious blood meal) gonotrophic cycle. CHIKV infection and CHIKV viral titer in parental females were significantly related to population origin, with Brazilian Ae. albopictus showing higher viral dissemination and viral titer than the Florida population. Experimental vertical transmission of CHIKV was documented in one pool of female and four pools of male Ae. albopictus from Brazil (minimum infection rate, MIR, of 0.76% and 2.86%, respectively, for females and males). For the Florida population of Ae. albopictus, only one pool of males was positive for CHIKV infection, with an MIR of 1.06%. Our results demonstrate that Ae. albopictus populations from Brazil and Florida show heterogeneous CHIKV dissemination and vertical transmission, which may contribute to the epidemiology of CHIKV and may be particularly relevant to virus survival during inter-epidemic periods.
Adaptive fuzzy controller design with observer for a class of uncertain nonlinear MIMO systems

In this paper, an adaptive fuzzy control approach is proposed to stabilize a class of uncertain nonlinear MIMO systems with the unmeasured states and the external disturbances. The fuzzy logic systems are used to approximate the unknown functions. Because it does not required to assume that the system states are measurable, it needs to design an observer to estimate the system unmeasured states. The considered MIMO systems are more general, i.e. they consist of N subsystems and each subsystem is in the non‐affine form. The stability of the closed‐loop system is verified by using Lyapunov analysis method. Two simulation examples are utilized to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society
Semiparametric spatio‐temporal frailty modeling

Recent developments in GIS have encouraged health science databases to incorporate geographical information about the subjects under study. Such databases have in turn generated interest among statisticians to develop and analyze models that account for spatial clustering and variation. In this article we develop a semiparametric (Cox) hierarchical Bayesian frailty model for capturing spatio‐temporal heterogeneity in the survival patterns of women diagnosed with breast cancer in Iowa. In the absence of appropriate surrogates for standards of treatments and health care for cancer patients in the different counties, epidemiologists and health‐care professionals are interested in discerning spatial patterns in survival from breast cancer that might be present among the counties. In addition, it is naturally of interest to see if the counties show discernible temporal trends over the years. The SEER (Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results) database from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) provides data on a cohort of breast cancer patients observed progressively through time, spanning 26 years. We implement our hierarchical spatio‐temporal models on data extracted from the database for the 99 counties of Iowa. Our results suggest log‐relative hazards that are generally flat initially, but steadily decrease for more recent years. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Academic Self-concept and its Relationship to Academic Achievement among University Students

This research sought to study the academic self-concept and the relationship between the academic self-concept and students’ academic achievement among university Qatari students. Research of the academic self-concept is well documented in Western cultures, but the academic self-concept research is limited among Qatari students. A sample composed of 274 undergraduate university students was utilized in this study. Tools of data collection consisted of demographic characteristics such as gender and age; students’ cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) as academic achievement; and the Academic Self-concept Questionnaire (Byrne, 1996) to measure the academic self-concept, which was composed of 40 items, distributed in 4 subscales namely Maths, Verbal, Academic, and Problem Solving. The result of the study revealed a significant but weak relationship between the academic self-concept and the academic achievement.
Design of a multi-epitope vaccine against six Nocardia species based on reverse vaccinology combined with immunoinformatics

Background Nocardia genus, a complex group of species classified to be aerobic actinomycete, can lead to severe concurrent infection as well as disseminated infection, typically in immunocompromised patients. With the expansion of the susceptible population, the incidence of Nocardia has been gradually growing, accompanied by increased resistance of the pathogen to existing therapeutics. However, there is no effective vaccine against this pathogen yet. In this study, a multi-epitope vaccine was designed against the Nocardia infection using reverse vaccinology combined with immunoinformatics approaches. Methods First, the proteomes of 6 Nocardia subspecies Nocardia subspecies (Nocardia farcinica, Nocardia cyriacigeorgica, Nocardia abscessus, Nocardia otitidiscaviarum, Nocardia brasiliensis and Nocardia nova) were download NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) database on May 1st, 2022 for the target proteins selection. The essential, virulent-associated or resistant-associated, surface-exposed, antigenic, non-toxic, and non-homologous with the human proteome proteins were selected for epitope identification. The shortlisted T-cell and B-cell epitopes were fused with appropriate adjuvants and linkers to construct vaccines. The physicochemical properties of the designed vaccine were predicted using multiple online servers. The Molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation were performed to understand the binding pattern and binding stability between the vaccine candidate and Toll-like receptors (TLRs). The immunogenicity of the designed vaccines was evaluated via immune simulation. Results 3 proteins that are essential, virulent-associated or resistant-associated, surface-exposed, antigenic, non-toxic, and non-homologous with the human proteome were selected from 218 complete proteome sequences of the 6 Nocardia subspecies epitope identification. After screening, only 4 cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes, 6 helper T lymphocyte (HTL) epitopes, and 8 B cell epitopes that were antigenic, non-allergenic, and non-toxic were included in the final vaccine construct. The results of molecular docking and MD simulation showed that the vaccine candidate has a strong affinity for TLR2 and TLR4 of the host and the vaccine-TLR complexes were dynamically stable in the natural environment. The results of the immune simulation indicated that the designed vaccine had the potential to induce strong protective immune responses in the host. The codon optimization and cloned analysis showed that the vaccine was available for mass production. Conclusion The designed vaccine has the potential to stimulate long-lasting immunity in the host, but further studies are required to validate its safety and efficacy.
Research on detection of tunnel peeling off blocks based on 3D laser scanning system

The identification of peeling off blocks is an important part of tunnel disease detection. In order to effectively solve the problem of accuracy of the identification of peeling off blocks in tunnels, this paper focuses on the use of the three-dimensional coordinates of the point cloud data obtained by the laser scanning system to realize the detection of peeling off blocks. A study of automatic detection of blocks. In the proposed automatic detection method for peeling off blocks, the original tunnel point cloud data is first filtered to remove outliers; then, the point cloud data is coordinately transformed to convert the cylindrical point cloud into a rectangular point cloud; the cloud constructs a triangular mesh, and by calculating the area of the triangular mesh and the projected area of the triangular mesh, the specific position of the peeling block can be obtained; finally, the point cloud is converted into an image, and the Hough transform is used to mark the pipeline and tunnel joints and get more intuitive detection results. This paper uses the real tunnel point cloud data to carry out the peeling off block detection experiment, and the results show the effectiveness and feasibility of the method.
Assessing effectiveness in acne clinical trials: steps towards a core outcome measure set

Acne ranks second to dermatitis in terms of global burden of skin disease. As such, it is essential that data on treatment efficacy are generated in a way that maximizes the opportunity for comparison among treatments. Interest in developing core outcome sets for use in clinical trials to standardize data collection in skin disease is surging.
Risk Factors of Glecaprevir/Pibrentasvir-Induced Liver Injury and Efficacy of Ursodeoxycholic Acid

Although glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (GP) therapy is recommended as a first-line treatment for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, serious drug-induced liver injury occasionally develops. The present study aimed to elucidate real-world risk factors for GP-induced liver injury and to evaluate the efficacy of add-on ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) for liver injury. We analyzed 236 HCV patients who received GP therapy. GP-induced liver injury was defined as any elevation to grade ≥ 1 in total bilirubin (TB), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), or γ-glutamyl transferase (γ-GT) during treatment without other cause. The frequency of GP-induced liver injury was 61.9% (146/236). Serious elevation to grade ≥ 3 in TB, AST, ALT, ALP, and γ-GT was identified in 3.8% (9/236), 0%, 0%, 0%, and 0.4% (1/209), respectively. Therapy discontinuation and dose reduction were seen in one patient each. Multivariate analysis revealed age and TB as independent risk factors for GP-induced liver injury. In patients with grade ≥ 2 hyperbilirubinemia, TB after onset significantly decreased in the add-on UDCA group but not in the no UDCA group. Careful attention to GP-induced liver injury is warranted for elderly patients with cirrhosis. Add-on UDCA could suppress the aggravation of GP-induced liver injury.