Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The combined conceptual life cycle model of information quality in user perceptions of IQ on the web

: Presented is the Combined Conceptual Life Cycle (CCLC) Model of Information Quality (IQ). The CCLC conceptualises information/data quality as being a highly relative construct, best understood in terms of sixteen IQ dimensions housed within four broad IQ categories: namely; Intrinsic IQ, Representational IQ, Interactional IQ, and Contextual IQ. The four categories themselves are seen as falling into two information life cycle contexts: that of (1) data/information generation and (2) data/information use. By conceptualising user perceptions of IQ in terms of the information life cycle, the model is able to demonstrate where in the information life cycle users are most likely to engage specific perceptions of IQ, and predict the relative impact those perception might have on the user‟s general perception of IQ. In this way, the model begins to illustrate how users perceptions are able to legitimately vary depending on individual differences between users and information contexts.
Propensity Score Matching in Accounting Research and Rosenbaum Bounds Analysis for Confounding Variables

Propensity score (PS) matching is becoming an increasingly popular method of estimating treatment effects. However, a major limitation relative to two-step Heckman procedures is that it does not control for potential unobserved selection bias. This paper employs a new method - Rosenbaum bounds - which enables researchers to assess the robustness of their PS matched estimates against the effects of potential unobserved ‘confounding’ variables. We provide an evaluation of PS matching and a comprehensive exposition of the Rosenbaum method and illustrate its properties and parameters with reference to auditor premiums for the standard dichotomy of big 4 versus non-big 4 auditors, together with new evidence relating to big 4 versus the next four largest (mid-tier) auditors, and the latter versus smaller auditors. Inter alia, our findings indicate that hidden bias would have to be large and influential in order to account for the big 4 premium generally, but only a comparatively small confounding unobserved covariate is required to negate the premium relative to leading mid-tier auditors. The Rosenbaum method also provided consistent estimates when covariates were omitted which were known ex ante to have either a large or small impact on the outcome. We conclude that the Rosenbaum technique provides researchers with a valuable tool to assess the sensitivity of causal inferences under bounded uncertainty and one which makes explicit the degree of hidden bias required to neutralise treatment effects estimated with the method of PS matching.An extended version of this paper, including simultaneous multi-sample PSM and quantile regression estimates, was published in Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 39(5) & (6), 2012; entitled: Differential Audit Quality, Propensity Score Matching and Rosenbaum Bounds for Confounding Variables.
Will Jews Keep Giving? Prospects for the Jewish Charitable Community

Steven M. Cohen, Ph.D. Queens College, City University of New York Organized mass-based philanthropy (i.e., the United Jewish Appeal and its local affiliates) performs a number of crucial functions for American Jewry. Forecasts by fund-raising practitioners of declining numbers of givers and size of charitable donations, therefore, imply pessimistic views regarding the organizational vitality of American Jewry. Using a secondary analysis of the giving patterns of the Jews in metropolitan Boston, this paper tests the hypothesis that age and charitable behavior are directly related. In so doing, it posits the notion of a community of givers bounded in part by age, but also by income, occupation, and Jewish involvement. The analysis demonstrates that indeed age has both a direct effect on giving and indirect effects through income, occupation, and Jewish involvement. All four factors are major predictors of giving but some are more closely related to the likelihood of giving and others exert a greater impact on the amount given. Insofar as the connection between age and giving can be seen as a cohort rather than a life cycle or temporary effect, the pessimists' argument is validated by these data.
An efficient key distribution scheme for heterogeneous sensor networks

Key distribution refers to the problem of establishing shared secrets on sensor nodes such that secret symmetric keys for communication privacy, integrity and authenticity can be generated. In a wireless sensor network, pre-distribution of secret keys is possibly the most practical approach to protect network communications but it is difficult due to the ad hoc nature, intermittent connectivity, and resource limitations of the sensor networks. In this paper, we propose a key distribution scheme based on random key pre-distribution for heterogeneous sensor network (HSN) to achieve better performance and security as compared to homogeneous network which suffer from high communication overhead, computation overhead, and/or high storage requirements. In a key generation process, instead of generating a large pool of random keys, a key pool is represented by a small number of generation keys. For a given generation key and publicly known seed value, a one-way hash function generates a key chain, and these key chains collectively make a key pool. Each sensor node is assigned a small number of randomly selected generation keys. The proposed scheme reduces the storage requirements while maintaining the same security strength.
C2.8 A comparison of selection mechanisms

The invention relates to a terminating connector for use with individual conductors of a shielded coaxial type flat ribbon cable assembly. A bushing is threaded onto the outer sheath of the individual conductors and holds a drain wire which is connected to a shield of the individual conductors between the bushing threads and the outer sheath of the conductor. The bushing is then secured to a shielding housing by means of a securing assembly with the shielding housing including a central contact in insulative isolation therefrom and contacting the central conductor of the conductor. Locking means serve to engage a like locking assembly of a corresponding connector to provide a tight secure shielded connection between the individual conductors of the flat ribbon cable and equipment or other like individual conductors of flat ribbon cable.
Cleared for Takeoff? A Snapshot of Context for Change in a High-Risk Industry

Civil aviation is a high-risk industry where actors are experiencing increasing focus on economic performance, greater international competition, and growing safety threats that require continual organizational adjustments. In this article, we present the findings of a case study conducted within the Norwegian national air traffic management organization—Avinor, in preparation for a major reorganization initiative. In this study, we mapped the aggregated readiness and positioning for organizational change in the three main air traffic control centers in Norway using a mixed-method approach to person–environment Fit to help organizational leaders better understand each unit’s positioning for change, and more specifically, individual preferences for change styles. The results suggest that participants at the different air traffic control centers had developed distinctly different change preferences at both the group and individual levels, and that each was distinctly different from the other units in their positioning and readiness for change.
Forecasting Economic Fundamentals and Expected Stock Returns Using Equity Market Order Flows: Macro Information in a Micro Measure?

This paper examines the information content of two different measures of aggregate equity-market order flow for future macroeconomic fundamentals and expected stock market returns. The first measure, the cross-sectional average of individual stock order flows, predicts future growth rates for industrial production and real GDP, but not for corporate earnings. The second measure, the difference between the average order flow for big stocks and the average order flow for small stocks, has strong forecast power for industrial production and real GDP, as well as corporate earnings, up to four quarters ahead. The significance of the two order flow-based measures is robust to controls for common equity pricing factors. This suggests a role for aggregate order flows in predicting stock returns. We show that a positive shock to the second factor, the order flow differential, forecasts higher returns for ten size sorted portfolios and greater market and size premiums in the subsequent quarter, even after accounting for a host of variables including the common return factors, experts' earnings growth forecasts, default and term spreads, new equity capital, and marketwide liquidity. These findings are consistent with a world where aggregate order flow brings together dispersed information from heterogeneously informed investors.
Learning Phonemes: How Far Can the Input Take Us?

Many studies on developmental speech perception (e.g. Werker & Tees 1984, Kuhl et al. 1992) have documented changes in speech perception that occur during an infant’s first year of life. These changes are generally understood to reflect the phonemic structure of the native language (Best et al. 1988, Liberman et al. 1957). There is little research, however, on the phonological abstractness of these initial phonetic categories acquired in infancy. One study by Jusczyk and colleagues (1999) found that 9-month-old infants are sensitive to whether or not a set of sounds shares phonological features, indicating that by this young age infants have already developed featural representations. The question we ask in the present research is whether phonetic categories are initially represented as bearing abstract, contrastive features, or whether additional information or experience is required before a learner will develop featural representations. It might be the case that infants represent speech sounds as bearing potentially contrastive features immediately, as soon as they learn a speech sound category. For example, an infant who learns that /d/ and /t/ are contrastive in their language, might immediately assume that in their language voicing is contrastive. This assumption might be helpful in language acquisition, because some speech sounds are more frequent than others. If alveolar sounds are produced more frequently than velar sounds in a given language, then an infant learning that language might have good evidence that /d/ and /t/ are contrastive before they have heard enough examples to know whether /g/ and /k/ are contrastive. Immediately representing speech sound categories in terms of features could enable infants to bootstrap less robust contrasts from those contrasts that are better represented. However, the above assumption might work against an infant, if the language in question has an asymmetrical phoneme inventory. The language might have a voicing contrast for alveolar sounds, while only having voiceless sounds at labial and velar places of articulation. So hypothesizing that voicing is contrastive in such a language would turn out to be misleading. To avoid this garden path, infants might start with a more conservative hypothesis, and not develop abstract, featural representations until they have good evidence that there are multiple analogous contrasts in the language exhibiting the same feature.
Finite Horizon Learning

Incorporating adaptive learning into macroeconomics requires assumptions about how agents incorporate their forecasts into their decision-making. We develop a theory of bounded rationality that we call finite-horizon learning. This approach generalizes the two existing benchmarks in the literature: Eulerequation learning, which assumes that consumption decisions are made to satisfy the one-step-ahead perceived Euler equation; and infinite-horizon learning, in which consumption today is determined optimally from an infinite-horizon optimization problem with given beliefs. In our approach, agents hold a finite forecasting/planning horizon. We find for the Ramsey model that the unique rational expectations equilibrium is E-stable at all horizons. However, transitional dynamics can differ significantly depending upon the horizon.
Distribution pattern of the invasive alien plant Bunias orientalis in Rów Podtatrzański trench, north of the Tatra Mts, Poland

Bunias orientalis is an alien species that has spread greatly in recent decades in Central Europe. This coloniser is particularly well (pre)adapted to anthropogenic disturbances and human-mediated dispersal, allowing it to spread mainly along roads and railways. Here, its distribution and population structure is investigated for the sub-montane region located in the northern foothills of the Tatra Mts. Based on 70 phytosociological samples of invading vegetation, the relationships between B. orientalis cover and species diversity, together with the composition of vegetation, were analysed using regression analysis. Comparison of the current distribution of B. orientalis within the investigated area with published records indicates that the expansion rate of this alien species is not particularly high, despite its increased frequency in anthropogenic habitats and meadows. Meadows invaded by this species revealed that increased B. orientalis cover was accompanied by a significant reduction in the values of the Inverse Simpson diversity index and Pielou’s measure of evenness. Reduced diversity was caused by considerable decrease in cover by species of the Molinio-Arrhenatheretea class. However, for anthropogenic habitats, no statistically significant relationships were found to occur between the abundance of B. orientalis, species diversity and vegetation composition.
The Benefit of Regional Diversification of Cogeneration Investments in Europe: A Mean-Variance Portfolio Analysis

The EU Directive 2004/8/EC, concerning the promotion of cogeneration, established principles on how EU member states can support combined heat and power generation (CHP). Up to now, the implementation of these principles into national law has not been uniform, and has led to the adoption of different promotion schemes for CHP across the EU member states. In this paper, we first give an overview of the promotion schemes for CHP in various European countries. In a next step, we take two standard CHP technologies, combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGT-CHP) and engine-CHP, and apply exemplarily four selected support mechanisms used in the four largest European energy markets: feed-in tariffs in Germany; energy efficiency certificates in Italy; benefits through tax reduction in the UK; and purchase obligations for power from CHP generation in France. For contracting companies, it could be of interest to diversify their investment in new CHP facilities regionally over several countries in order to reduce country and regulatory risk. By applying the Mean-Variance Portfolio (MVP) theory, we derive characteristic return-risk profiles of the selected CHP technologies in different countries. The results show that the returns on CHP investments differ significantly depending on the country, the support scheme, and the selected technology studied. While a regional diversification of investments in CCGT-CHP does not contribute to reducing portfolio risks, a diversification of investments in engine-CHP can decrease the risk exposure.
The Effect of Servant Leadership on Psychological Empowerment and Organizational Identification

Findings – Results of the study assign that there is a significant relationship among servant leadership, psychological empowerment and organizational identification. Furthermore, results also support pre-assumptions suggesting that servant leadership behaviours significantly affect psychological empowerment of employees and their identification process with the organization. Within this context, empowerment and vision sub-dimensions of servant leadership contribute psychological empowerment of hotel employees. Additionally, visionary and humility behaviours of servant leaders increase the organizational identification level of them.
Pyramidal cell communication within local networks in layer 2/3 of rat neocortex

The extent to which neocortical pyramidal cells function as a local network is determined by the strength and probability of their connections. By mapping connections between pyramidal cells we show here that in a local network of about 600 pyramidal cells located within a cylindrical volume of 200 μm × 200 μm of neocortical layer 2/3, an individual pyramidal cell receives synaptic inputs from about 30 other pyramidal neurons, with the majority of EPSP amplitudes in the 0.2–1.0 mV range. The probability of connection decreased from 0.09 to 0.01 with intercell distance (over the range 25–200 μm). Within the same volume, local interneuron (fast‐spiking non‐accomodating interneuron, FS)‐pyramidal cell connections were about 10 times more numerous, with the majority of connections being reciprocal. The probability of excitatory and inhibitory connections between pyramidal cells and FS interneurons decreased only slightly with distance, being in the range 0.5–0.75. Pyramidal cells in the local network received strong synaptic input during stimulation of afferent fibres in layers 1 and 6. Minimal‐like stimulation of layer 1 or layer 6 inputs simultaneously induced postsynaptic potentials in connected pyramidal cells as well as in pyramidal‐FS cell pairs. These inputs readily induced firing of pyramidal cells, although synaptically connected cells displayed different firing patterns. Unitary EPSPs in pyramidal‐pyramidal cell pairs did not detectably alter cell firing. FS interneurons fire simultaneously with pyramidal cells. In pyramidal‐FS cell pairs, both unitary EPSPs and IPSPs efficiently modulated cell firing patterns. We suggest that computation in the local network may proceed not only by direct pyramidal‐pyramidal cell communication but also via local interneurons. With such a high degree of connectivity with surrounding pyramidal cells, local interneurons are ideally poised to both coordinate and expand the local pyramidal cell network via pyramidal‐ interneuron‐ pyramidal communication.
Ownership, control, sponsorship, and trusteeship: Governance relationships within private Catholic religious-sponsored secondary schools in the United States

III SIGNATURE PAGE V DEDICATION VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VIII LIST OF TABLES XVII LIST OF FIGURES XVIII CHAPTER I: THE RESEARCH PROBLEM 1 Statement of the Problem and Need for the Study 1 Purpose of the Study 6 Conceptual Framework 6 Ownership 8 The Civil Conception of Ownership 8 The Canonical Conception of Ownership 9 Control 10 Sponsorship 10 Trusteeship 11 Research Question 12 Limitations 13 Significance 14 Definition of Terms 15 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 23 Introduction 23 History of Catholic Secondary Educational Governance as Related to Religious Congregational Governance and Catholic Tertiary Institutions 24 Religious Congregational Governance 24 Evolution of Secondary Schools 26 Catholic Tertiary Institutions and Board Governance 29
Transient Stability Assessment of Power Systems Based on KPCA and Gaussian Process

This paper presents a new method for transient stability assessment of power systems using kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) and Gaussian process (GP). Considering the possible real-time information provided by PMU, a group of system-level classification features are firstly extracted from the power system operation condition to construct the original feature set. Then KPCA is used to reduce the dimension of input space, and GP is employed to build a TSA model. Furthermore, the classification accuracy and generalization performance of the GP model are improved by combining existing single covariance functions to make new composite ones. The proposed method can overcome the disadvantages that many of the current machine learning methods usually suffer from, such as overfitting, difficulty in parameter selection and prediction with no probability interpretation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by the simulation results on the New England 39-bus test system. Key-Words: Transient stability assessment, KPCA, Gaussian process, composite kernel function, machine learning, phasor measurement unit
Seeing who we hear and hearing who we see

Imagine that you're working in your office and you hear two voices outside in the hallway. Both are familiar. You immediately picture the individuals involved. You walk out to join them and there they are, looking exactly as you'd imagined. Effortlessly and unconsciously you have just performed two actions of great interest to cognitive scientists: cross-modal perception (in this case, by using auditory information to create a visual image) and individual recognition (the identification of a specific person according to a rich, multimodal, and individually distinct set of cues, and the placement of that individual in a society of many others). An article in this issue of PNAS by Proops, McComb, and Reby (1) shows that horses do it, too, and just as routinely, without any special training. The result, although not surprising, is nonetheless the first clear demonstration that a non-human animal recognizes members of its own species across sensory modalities. It raises intriguing questions about the origins of conceptual knowledge and the extent to which brain mechanisms in many species—birds, mammals, as well as humans—are essentially multisensory.
March 2015 Asymmetric Industrial Energy Prices and International Trade

This paper measures the response of bilateral trade flows to differences in industrial energy prices across countries. Using a panel for the period 1996-2011 including 42 countries, 62 sectors and covering 60% of global merchandise trade, we estimate the short-run effects of sector-level energy price asymmetry on trade. We find that changes in relative energy prices have a statistically significant but very small impact on imports. On average, a 10% increase in the energy price difference between two country-sectors increases imports by 0.2%. The impact is larger for energyintensive sectors. Even in these sectors however, the magnitude of the effect is such that changes in energy price differences across time explain less than 0.01% of the variation in trade flows. Simulations based on our model predict that a †40-65/tCO2 price of carbon in the EU ETS would increase Europe’s imports from the rest of the world by less than 0.05% and decrease exports by 0.2%.
Computational Intractability of Dictionary Learning for Sparse Representation

In this paper we consider the dictionary learning problem for sparse representation. We first show that this problem is NP-hard by polynomial time reduction of the densest cut problem. Then, using successive convex approximation strategies, we propose efficient dictionary learning schemes to solve several practical formulations of this problem to stationary points. Unlike many existing algorithms in the literature, such as K-SVD, our proposed dictionary learning scheme is theoretically guaranteed to converge to the set of stationary points under certain mild assumptions. For the image denoising application, the performance and the efficiency of the proposed dictionary learning scheme are comparable to that of K-SVD algorithm in simulation.