Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing Service Expectation and Perception of Public Library Users: Towards Development of User Needs and User Satisfaction Measurement Instruments for the National Library Service of Malawi

The research sought to develop user needs assessment and user satisfaction measurement instruments for the National Library Service of Malawi. Using focus group sessions and a questionnaire survey the research determined from a sample of users of the National Library Service their expectation and perception of the service/facility provisions of the National Library Service. Some of the findings from the research on services/facilities that act as indicators of library effectiveness to the sampled users are not evident in the literature. On basis of the findings, user needs assessment and user satisfaction measurement instruments have been developed for the National Library Service. The paper gives suggestions on the effective use of the developed instruments. The paper points out that the user needs assessment and user satisfaction measurement instruments can positively act as management tools that can assist the National Library Service in decision making, long term planning, budgeting, employee training and development in addition to being a mechanism for continually enhancing and improving the relationship between the National Library Service and its users. Keywords: service expectation; service satisfaction; management tools; public libraries; user surveys
Adding learning to cellular genetic algorithms for training recurrent neural networks

This paper proposes a hybrid optimization algorithm which combines the efforts of local search (individual learning) and cellular genetic algorithms (GA's) for training recurrent neural networks (RNN's). Each weight of an RNN is encoded as a floating point number, and a concatenation of the numbers forms a chromosome. Reproduction takes place locally in a square grid with each grid point representing a chromosome. Two approaches, Lamarckian and Baldwinian mechanisms, for combining cellular GA's and learning have been compared. Different hill-climbing algorithms are incorporated into the cellular GA's as learning methods. These include the real-time recurrent learning (RTRL) and its simplified versions, and the delta rule. The RTRL algorithm has been successively simplified by freezing some of the weights to form simplified versions. The delta rule, which is the simplest form of learning, has been implemented by considering the RNN's as feedforward networks during learning. The hybrid algorithms are used to train the RNN's to solve a long-term dependency problem. The results show that Baldwinian learning is inefficient in assisting the cellular GA. It is conjectured that the more difficult it is for genetic operations to produce the genotypic changes that match the phenotypic changes due to learning, the poorer is the convergence of Baldwinian learning. Most of the combinations using the Lamarckian mechanism show an improvement in reducing the number of generations required for an optimum network; however, only a few can reduce the actual time taken. Embedding the delta rule in the cellular GA's has been found to be the fastest method. It is also concluded that learning should not be too extensive if the hybrid algorithm is to be benefit from learning.
Functional Significance of Collateral Blood Flow in Patients With Recent Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Study Using Myocardial Contrast Echocardiography

BackgroundWe hypothesized that myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) can be used to both measure collateral blood flow as well as assess the functional significance of collaterals in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Methods and ResultsMCE was performed in 33 patients with recent AMI (12±7 days) and an occluded infarct-related artery (IRA), both before and after attempted percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). The size of the occluded bed was defined in patients with successful PTCA by injecting contrast directly into the opened IRA and expressed as a percent of the myocardium in the short-axis view. The percent of the perfusion bed supplied by collaterals before PTCA was determined. Transit rates of the microbubbles within the collateralized regions were also measured and were expressed as a percent of the transit rates in the normal adjacent beds. Regional function within the occluded bed was assessed using echocardiography and was graded as 1 (normal) to 5 (dyskinetic). Collaterals were graded on coronary angiography as 0 (none) to 3 (abundant). The perfusion bed size was larger for the left anterior descending (LAD) than for the right (RCA) and left circumflex (LCx) coronary arteries (37±6% versus 27±12% of the myocardium, p=0.02). The percent of the occluded bed supplied by collateral flow was greater for RCA and LCx compared with the LAD (87±301% versus 72±22%, p<0.01). There was poor correlation between MCE-defined percent of occluded bed supplied by collaterals and angiographic collateral grade (r=0.13). Regions supplied by collaterals were less likely to show confluent hypoperfused zones after reperfusion compared with those not supplied by collaterals. Similarly, the percent ofmyocardium not perfused by either anterograde or collateral flow correlated well (r=0.67, p<0.01) with peak creatine kinase levels and was more likely to be associated with Q waves. Finally, although there was poor correlation between angiographic collaterals and regional function (r=0.20), there was a significant negative correlation between MCE-defined spatial extent of collateral flow and regional function (r=−0.57, p<0.01). ConclusionsMCE can be used to measure collateral flow in patients with recent AMI and to assess the functional significance of collaterals in these patients. This technique may be ideally suited for the assessment of collateral perfusion in patients undergoing cardiac catheterization.
Power Control for MIMO Diversity Systems With Nonidentical Rayleigh Fading

We investigate the performance limits and associated power-allocation problems in a multiple-antenna diversity system with statistical channel information available at the transmitter. The channels are assumed to be independent and nonidentically distributed Rayleigh fading. By studying both ergodic mutual information and information outage, we derive two simple and near-optimal power-allocation schemes. Specifically, for ergodic information rate maximization in a system with multiple transmit antennas and a single receive antenna, the proposed power control only depends on the ratios between channel gains and is independent of the total transmit signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Meanwhile, for information outage minimization in a system with an arbitrary number of transmit and receive antennas, the proposed power allocation follows the water-filling principle and pours more power into the transmit antenna with a larger geometric mean of channel gains.
Teaching science with technology: Case studies of science teachers’ development of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge

This study examines the development of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) in four in-service secondary science teachers as they participated in a professional development program focusing on technology integration into K-12 classrooms to support science as inquiry teaching. In the program, probeware, mind-mapping tools (CMaps), and Internet applications ― computer simulations, digital images, and movies — were introduced to the science teachers. A descriptive multicase study design was employed to track teachers’ development over the yearlong program. Data included interviews, surveys, classroom observations, teachers’ technology integration plans, and action research study reports. The program was found to have positive impacts to varying degrees on teachers’ development of TPACK. Contextual factors and teachers’ pedagogical reasoning affected teachers’ ability to enact in their classrooms what they learned in the program. Suggestions for designing effective professional development programs to improve science teachers’ TPACK are discussed.
Social Networks and the Aggregation on Individual Decisions

This paper analyzes individual decisions to participate in an activity and the aggregation of those decisions when individuals gather information about the outcomes and choices of (a few) others in their social network. In this environment, aggregate participation rates are generally inefficient. Increasing the size of social networks does not necessarily increase efficiency and can lead to less efficient long-run outcomes. Both subsidies for participation and penalties for non-participation can increase participation rates, though not necessarily by the same amount. Punishing non-participation has much greater effects on participation rates than rewarding participation when current rates are very low. A program that provides youth with mentors who have participated themselves can increase participation rates, especially when those rates are low. Finally, communities plagued by the flight of successful participants will experience lower short- and long-run participation rates.
Does Limited Attention Constrain Investors’ Acquisition of Firm‐Specific Information?

According to the framework outlined in Peng and Xiong ( ), attention-constrained investors tend to process more market- and sector-level information. We empirically test this theory. We find that firms with higher media coverage have lower contemporaneous stock return synchronicity. Such an effect is robust to analyses within size deciles, inclusion of firm fixed effects, estimation using a matched sample, and a two-stage least squares approach. The effect becomes less pronounced during the financial crisis period when both the quantity and quality of firm-specific information decrease. Further, the attention from media coverage has a spillover effect on the firm's industry peers without media coverage. Finally, investors of firms with higher media coverage are more efficient in incorporating future firm performance into current stock prices. Collectively, our findings support the theory in Peng and Xiong ( ) that investors increase their acquisition of firm-specific information when a firm captures their attention.
Recent advances in sparse linear solver technology for semiconductor device simulation matrices

This paper discusses recent advances in the development of robust direct and iterative sparse linear solvers for general unsymmetric linear systems of equations. The primary focus is on robust methods for semiconductor device simulations matrices, but all methods presented are solely based on the structure of the matrices and can be applied to other application areas e.g. circuit simulation. Reliability, a low memory-footprint, and a short solution time are important demands for the linear solver. Currently, no black-box solver exists that can satisfy all criteria. The linear systems from semiconductor device simulations can be highly ill-conditioned and therefore quite challenging for direct and preconditioned iterative solver. In this paper, it is shown that nonsymmetric permutations and scalings aimed at placing large entries on the diagonal greatly enhance the reliability of direct and iterative methods. The numerical experiments indicate that the overall solution strategy is both reliable and very cost effective. The paper also compares the performance of some common software packages for solving general sparse systems.
Do Firms Time the Equity Market in a Non-Linear Manner? Evidence from the UK

We provide an empirically motivated study to test the market timing theory of capital structure. The objective is to understand how managers in the United Kingdom finance their deficit. In line with the extant literature, we find that managers place greater reliance equity issues to finance deficit during periods of overvaluation and correspondingly increase debt issues when equities are undervalued. We further find that managers time the equity market in a surprisingly unique manner. Managers attempt to time issues in a non-linear manner whereby the increase in reliance on equity issues is only evident when the extent of overvaluation is not excessive. In addition, firms finance deficits with higher proportions of debt when equity prices are acutely suppressed. Our findings raise some important questions, which lead to serious implications on equity market-timing as a viable explanation for capital structure decisions. Furthermore, it poses serious implications questioning the debt-equity ratio preference of managers when resorting to external financing.
A QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF AIRBORNE LASER SCANNER DATA

A Toposys-1 airborne laser scanner (ALS or LIDAR) measurement campaign was arranged in June 2000 (Kalkkinen) and another campaign with helicopter-borne TopEye laser scanner was arranged in September 2002 in southern Finland (Masala, Otaniemi). The Toposys flying altitudes were about 400 and 800 m above ground and for the TopEye, 100, 200, 400 and 550 m flying altitudes were used. Reference measurements on the ground were made with a RTK GPS and a tachymeter. Points on asphalt, grass, gravel and forest ground were measured. Height errors for different surfaces were calculated. The higher the flying altitude, the larger is the height error. All the three comparison methods (ALS mean height in the test circle, height of the nearest laser point and interpolated height) seem to give the similar results for the mean of differences (reference height – ALS height) in the same flight line. There were also quality differences between flight lines. Also height errors as a function of observation angle were determined. Observation angle had an effect on the height accuracy. A systematic error of typically 10 cm was observed due to observation angle changes. Different R-squared values (coefficient of determination in the regression analysis) were obtained for the same surface material at different flying altitudes.
The Problems of Jurisprudence

In this book, one of our country's most distinguished scholar-judges shares with us his vision of the law. For the past two thousand years, the philosophy of law has been dominated by two rival doctrines. One contends that law is more than politics and yields, in the hands of skillful judges, correct answers to even the most difficult legal questions; the other contends that law is politics through and through and that judges wield essentially arbitrary powers. Rejecting these doctrines as too metaphysical in the first instance and too nihilistic in the second, Richard Posner argues for a pragmatic jurisprudence, one that eschews formalism in favor of the factual and the empirical. Laws, he argues, are not abstract, sacred entities, but socially determined goads for shaping behavior to conform with society's values. Examining how judges go about making difficult decisions, Posner argues that they cannot rely on either logic or science, but must fall back on a grab bag of informal methods of reasoning that owe less than one might think to legal training and experience. Indeed, he reminds us, the greatest figures in American law have transcended the traditional conceptions of the lawyer's craft. Robert Jackson did not attend law school and Benjamin Cardozo left before getting a degree. Holmes was neither the most successful of lawyers nor the most lawyerly of judges. Citing these examples, Posner makes a plea for a law that frees itself from excessive insularity and takes all knowledge, practical and theoretical, as grist for its mill. The pragmatism that Posner espouses implies looking at problems concretely, experimentally, without illusions, with an emphasis on keepingdiverse paths of inquiry open, and, above all, with the insistence that social thought and action be evaluated as instruments to desired human goals rather than as ends in themselves. In making his arguments, he discusses notable figures in jurisprudence from Antigonc to Ronald Dworkin as well as recent movements ranging from law and economics to civic republicanism, and feminism to libertarianism. All are subjected to Posner's stringent analysis in a fresh and candid examination of some of the deepest problems presented by the enterprise of law.
The Headscarf Controversy: Secularism and Freedom of Religion

I. Point of Departure Part 1: Turkey II. Nature of the Headscarf Controversy in Turkey: Popular Discourse III. Understanding a Complex History IV. The Role of the European Court of Human Rights Part 2: Europe and the United States V. Anti-Islamic Discourses in the West VI. France VII Germany VIII. The United States IX. Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
Modulation of Fibroblast Growth Factor 19 Expression by Bile Acids, Meal Replacement and Energy Drinks, Milk, and Coffee

Background The enterohepatic pathway involving the fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19) and bile acids (BA) has been linked with the etiology and remission of type 2 diabetes (T2D) following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery. Specifically, diabetic patients had lower FGF19 circulating levels but postoperative FGF19 and BA levels were higher in diabetic patients that experience remission of T2D, as compared to non-diabetic patients and diabetic patients that do not experience remission. It has been proposed that this may be due to the direct flow of digestate-free bile acids into the ileum benefiting mostly T2D patients without severe diabetes. Methods/Results We used a human colorectal cell line (LS174T) that endogenously expresses FGF19, real time PCR, and Elisas for precise quantitation of FGF19 mRNA and secreted protein levels. We report here that BA and fractions of BA stimulated FGF19 in vitro but this effect was partially blocked when BA were pre-incubated with a lipoprotein mix which emulates digested food. In addition, we show that FGF19 mRNA was stimulated by meal replacement drinks (Ensure, Glucerna, SlimFast), non-fat milk, and coffee which has been linked with reduced risk for developing diabetes. Pure caffeine and the 5-hour Energy drink, on the other hand, decreased FGF19 mRNA. Conclusions In summary, FGF19 expression in vitro is modifiable by popular drinks suggesting that such approaches could potentially be used for modulating FGF19 expression in humans.
Serine Protease Activity in M-1 Cortical Collecting Duct Cells

An apical serine protease, channel-activating protease 1 (CAP1), augments sodium transport in A6 cells. Prostasin, a novel serine protease originally purified from seminal fluid, has been proposed to be the mammalian ortholog of CAP1. We have recently found functional evidence for a similar protease activity in the M-1 cortical collecting duct cell line. The purposes of the present studies were to determine whether prostasin (or CAP1) is present in collecting duct cells by use of mouse M-1 cells, to sequence mouse prostasin, and to further characterize the identity of the serine protease activity and additional functional features in M-1 cells. Using mouse expressed sequence tag sequences that are highly homologous to the published human prostasin sequence as templates, reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction and RACE (rapid amplification of cDNA ends) were used to sequence mouse prostasin mRNA, which shows 99% identical to published mouse CAP1 sequence. A single 1800-bp transcript was found by Northern analysis, and this was not altered by aldosterone. Equivalent short-circuit current (Ieq), which represents sodium transport in these cells, dropped to 59±3% of control value within 1 hour of incubation with aprotinin, a serine protease inhibitor. Trypsin increased the Ieq in aprotinin-treated cells to the value of the control group within 5 minutes. Application of aprotinin not only inhibited amiloride sensitive Ieq but also reduced transepithelial resistance (Rte) to 43±2%, an effect not expected with simple inhibition of sodium channels. Trypsin partially reversed the effect of aprotinin on Rte. Another serine protease inhibitor, soybean trypsin inhibitor (STI), decreased Ieq in M-1 cells. STI inhibited Ieq gradually over 6 hours, and the inhibition of Ieq by 2 inhibitors was additive. STI decreased transepithelial resistance much less than did aprotinin. Neither aldosterone nor dexamethasone significantly augmented protease activity or prostasin mRNA levels, and in fact, dexamethasone decreased prostasin mRNA expression. In conclusion, although prostasin is present in M-1 cells and probably augments sodium transport in these cells, serine proteases probably have other effects (eg, resistance) in the collecting duct in addition to effects on sodium channels. Steroids do not alter these effects in M-1 cells. Additional proteases are likely also present in mouse collecting duct cells.
Dopamine Agonist Increases Risk Taking but Blunts Reward-Related Brain Activity

The use of D2/D3 dopaminergic agonists in Parkinson's disease (PD) may lead to pathological gambling. In a placebo-controlled double-blind study in healthy volunteers, we observed riskier choices in a lottery task after administration of the D3 receptor-preferring agonist pramipexole thus mimicking risk-taking behavior in PD. Moreover, we demonstrate decreased activation in the rostral basal ganglia and midbrain, key structures of the reward system, following unexpected high gains and therefore propose that pathological gambling in PD results from the need to seek higher rewards to overcome the blunted response in this system.
A Hybrid Vehicle Detection Method Based on Viola-Jones and HOG + SVM from UAV Images

A new hybrid vehicle detection scheme which integrates the Viola-Jones (V-J) and linear SVM classifier with HOG feature (HOG + SVM) methods is proposed for vehicle detection from low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images. As both V-J and HOG + SVM are sensitive to on-road vehicles’ in-plane rotation, the proposed scheme first adopts a roadway orientation adjustment method, which rotates each UAV image to align the roads with the horizontal direction so the original V-J or HOG + SVM method can be directly applied to achieve fast detection and high accuracy. To address the issue of descending detection speed for V-J and HOG + SVM, the proposed scheme further develops an adaptive switching strategy which sophistically integrates V-J and HOG + SVM methods based on their different descending trends of detection speed to improve detection efficiency. A comprehensive evaluation shows that the switching strategy, combined with the road orientation adjustment method, can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the vehicle detection from UAV images. The results also show that the proposed vehicle detection method is competitive compared with other existing vehicle detection methods. Furthermore, since the proposed vehicle detection method can be performed on videos captured from moving UAV platforms without the need of image registration or additional road database, it has great potentials of field applications. Future research will be focusing on expanding the current method for detecting other transportation modes such as buses, trucks, motors, bicycles, and pedestrians.
Does Risk or Mispricing Explain the Cross-Section of Stock Prices

Most previous research evaluates market efficiency and asset pricing models using average abnormal trading profits on dynamic trading strategies. We measure the ability of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and the efficient-market hypothesis to explain the level of stock prices. First, we find that cash-flow betas (measured by regressing firms' earnings on the market's earnings) explain the prices of value and growth stocks well, with a plausible premium. Second, we use a present-value model to decompose the cross-sectional variance of firms' price-to-book ratios into two components due to risk-adjusted fundamental value and mispricing. When we allow the discount rates to vary as predicted by the CAPM, the variance share of mispricing is negligible.