Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America

Can a country be a democracy if its government only responds to the preferences of the rich? In an ideal democracy, all citizens should have equal influence on government policy--but as this book demonstrates, America's policymakers respond almost exclusively to the preferences of the economically advantaged. Affluence and Influence definitively explores how political inequality in the United States has evolved over the last several decades and how this growing disparity has been shaped by interest groups, parties, and elections. With sharp analysis and an impressive range of data, Martin Gilens looks at thousands of proposed policy changes, and the degree of support for each among poor, middle-class, and affluent Americans. His findings are staggering: when preferences of low- or middle-income Americans diverge from those of the affluent, there is virtually no relationship between policy outcomes and the desires of less advantaged groups. In contrast, affluent Americans' preferences exhibit a substantial relationship with policy outcomes whether their preferences are shared by lower-income groups or not. Gilens shows that representational inequality is spread widely across different policy domains and time periods. Yet Gilens also shows that under specific circumstances the preferences of the middle class and, to a lesser extent, the poor, do seem to matter. In particular, impending elections--especially presidential elections--and an even partisan division in Congress mitigate representational inequality and boost responsiveness to the preferences of the broader public. At a time when economic and political inequality in the United States only continues to rise, Affluence and Influence raises important questions about whether American democracy is truly responding to the needs of all its citizens.
Device Characterization Techniques Based on Causal Relationships

In this paper, we introduce a novel technique for vector network analyzer (VNA) scattering parameter (S -parameter) device characterization. The presented approach is based on causal relationships that provide a connection between the real and imaginary parts as well as between the magnitude and phase of causal network functions. We discuss the problems encountered in the practical implementation of the dispersion relationships such as numerical evaluation of the singular integrals, finite bandwidth of the experimental data, reconstruction artifacts, and nonuniqueness of dispersion relationships. To reduce these problems, we use the generalized dispersion relationships with reference points (subtractions). We develop integral relationships with subtractions and corresponding estimates for error bounds. We show that an appropriate placement of the reference points can significantly reduce the errors caused by finite spectrum. We analyze the applicability of the developed dispersion relationships to the VNA measurements. We demonstrate that certain parameters can be measured with considerably higher accuracy compared with other parameters and that it is possible to select samples from the measured data that can be used as reference points for dispersive integrals. Based on these observations, we propose a device characterization technique that consists of the causality-constrained reconstruction of the sensitive parameters of the measured devices based on more accurately measured characteristics. The proposed technique allows one to accurately characterize the parameters, like quality factor of a high-quality (high- Q) inductors or loss tangent of low-loss transmission lines, of which direct measurement is normally not possible due to limited sensitivity and dynamic range of the VNA. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique, we reconstruct the resistance and the quality factor of a high-Q inductor from the accurately measured inductance.
TREATMENT OUTCOME IN CLEFT LIP AND PALATE : ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES

In the last 40 years, great progress has been made toward a better understanding of many aspects of the cleft lip and palate defect, but there is still a long way to go before there is agreement on the optimal treatment procedures. With regard to the primary operations, it can be stated, in a somewhat simplified form, that there are two main schools of thought in cleft treatment. One advocates early closure of the lip and palate, a procedure which imparts a high priority to early speech function. The other recommends delayed closure of the hard palate, thereby according a high priority to the growth of the max-illa A number of intercenter and multicenter studies have been carried out recently in an effort to elucidate which procedures give the best result, both esthetically and functionally. The results are ambiguous, and this has led a number of researchers to suggest that the randomized clinical trial is the only way to resolve the ambiguity, The fact that it has proved difficult to identify the optimal procedures in the field of cleft lip and palate treatment need not only be due to a less than optimal research design, a contributory factor might also be the great variability in craniofacial morphology and in the response to treatment in patients who have exactly the same cleft lip and palate diagnosis. Intensive research has made it possible to state categorically that clefts occur due to many different factors in an interplay between genetics and environment. Therefore, it is not likely that a single gene can be responsible for clefting. Since scar tissue presents many problems-for instance, impairment of growth-the reduction or prevention of scar formation has long been a desirable goal. The discovery that a fetus can heal without scar formation has led to many animal experiments. The timing of the surgical intervention on fetuses is critical, since late-gestation fetuses heal with adult-like scarring. There are still many unsolved problems connected with fetal surgery, and at present prenatal surgery for repair of cleft lip and palate is not ethically defensible in humans. On the other hand, it appears that there are considerable possibilities for the reduction of human scarring after surgery with the introduction of various wound-healing medications.
Estimating Earnings Differentials among Military Veterans

This thesis analyzes whether the decision to enter the military offers a different investment in human capital as indicated by the civilian earning of veterans. Using seven one month samples from the Current Population Survey, I run three linear regressions to compare the earnings of veterans by gender, the earnings of female veterans and non-veterans, and the earnings of male veterans and non-veterans. It appears that, between 2005 and 2013, veterans enjoyed a wage premium which existed for both male and female veterans. These results suggest that military service acts as a screening device or a bridge to employment in the civilian labor force. Additionally, female veterans earn less than male veterans in the civilian labor force. Even though female veterans are more successful in the civilian labor force than women with no military experience, they still suffer a gender wage gap.
Credible Termination Threats, Reputation and Private Monitoring. ∗

In repeated principal-agent relationships, termination threats can be an effective way to provide the agent with incentives to sustain high effort. In this paper, we examine the credibility of termination threats in a setting where the principal bases his decision on private (or subjective) performance assessments. We also assume that with small probability, the principal is weak: termination is very costly to him. We show that the principal cannot avoid building a reputation from being a weak type, and as a result, there can be no equilibrium where the threat to terminate is credible, hence no equilibrium where the agent makes high effort.
Assessing the green value chain to improve environmental performance: Evidence from Taiwan's manufacturing industry

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between green management and environmental performance. This was accomplished by considering each operational element, including the supply and acquisition of upstream materials, research and development, manufacturing and packaging, marketing, promotion and education, and recycling activities. Design/methodology/approach - The paper constructs an integral model of the green value chain to reveal the extent to which Taiwanese manufacturing industries are adopting green value chain management and implementing environmentally conscious business practices. Survey data were collected from 118 Taiwanese manufacturers. Findings - The findings indicate a positive relationship between green value chain management and environmental performance. The results suggest that when firms only implement green management in particular areas the effect is insignificant; however, a comprehensive implementation can result in an overall improvement in environmental performance. Originality/value - This paper may serve as a reference for firms mapping out future environmental policies and provide an input of various perspectives and arguments into the discipline of green management.
Dark matter content and internal dynamics of NGC 4697 : NMAGIC particle models from slit data and planetary nebula velocities

We present a dynamical study of NGC 4697, an almost edge-on, intermediate-luminosity, E4 elliptical galaxy, combining new surface brightness photometry, new as well as published long-slit absorption-line kinematic data, and published planetary nebula (PN) velocity data. The combined kinematic data set extends out to � 5 arcmin (� 4.5Re) and allows us to probe the galaxy’s outer halo. For the first time, we model such a data set with the new and flexible χ 2 -made-to-measure particle code NMAGIC. We extend NMAGIC to include seeing effects, introduce an efficient scheme to estimate the mass-to-light ratio, and incorporate a maximum-likelihood technique to account for discrete velocity measurements. For modelling the PN kinematics, we use line-of-sight velocities and velocity dispersions computed on two different spatial grids, and we also use the individual velocity measurements with the likelihood method, in order to make sure that our results are not biased by the way we treat the PN measurements. We generate axisymmetric self-consistent models as well models including various dark matter haloes. These models fit all the mean velocity and velocity dispersion data with χ 2 /N < 1, both in the case with only luminous matter and in potentials including quite massive haloes. The likelihood analysis together with the velocity histograms suggest that models with low-density haloes such that the circular velocity vc � 200 km s −1 at 5Re are not consistent with the data. A range of massive haloes with vc � 250 km s −1 at 5Re fit the PN data best. To derive stronger results would require PN velocities at even larger radii. The best-fitting models are slightly radially anisotropic; the anisotropy parameter β � 0.3 at the centre, increasing to β � 0.5 at radii � 2Re.
Joint Transmitter-Receiver Beamforming in Downlink Cyclic Prefix-Free Spatio-Temporal MC-CDMA

The problem of jointly optimizing the transmitter and receiver beamforming weights in the downlink of a cyclic prefix-free MC-CDMA system over multipath fading channels is addressed in this paper. Both the base station and user terminals are equipped with antenna arrays to leverage on the spatial information provided by the antenna arrays. The precoding and equalization matrices are designed with the aim of minimizing the overall mean-squared-error (MSE) of the system subject to a power constraint for each transmitter antenna, which has the additional benefit of reducing the probability of clipping of the transmitted signals from the transmitter. This is highly favorable for a MC-CDMA system due to the multi-carrier modulation involved. The performance of the optimization process is supported by simulation results.
Evaluation of Shadow Maps for Non-Line-of-Sight Detection in Urban GNSS Vehicle Localization with VANETs - The GAIN Approach

Vehicle localization using satellite navigation systems like GPS is a convenient and achievable solution. In order to solve this problem in dense urban areas, erroneous measurements caused by non-line-of-sight situations need to be handled carefully. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate shadow maps-an efficient representation of satellite reception conditions-for reliable real-time vehicle localization in urban areas. Instead of classical digital 3D maps which need to be installed and kept up-to-date at vehicle level, shadow maps can be exchanged on demand with vehicular ad-hoc networks. The proposed approach-developed within the European research project GAIN-is proven to increase accuracy and integrity of single-frequency GPS receivers in urban areas without additional physical sensors. In addition to the positioning performance, the necessary requirements for the communication channel are derived and compared to available technologies. The evaluated results are generated from different real-world test drives and compared to a high accurate ground truth.
Geostatistical Texture Classification of Tropical Rainforest in Indonesia

Traditional spectral classification of remote sensing data applied on per p ixel basis ignores the potentially useful spatial information between the values of proximate pixels. Although spatial information extrac tion has been greatly explored, there have been limited attempts to enhance classification by combining spectral and spatial inform ati n. This improvement would arise from the hypothesis that a pixel is not independent of its neighbors and, furthermore, that its dependence can be quantified and incorporated into the classifier. This study aims to explore the potential of utilizing texture spatial variability using geostatistics and Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) texture measures. Different texture layers derived from ge ostatistics method, namely fractal dimension, semivariogram, madogram, rodogram, pseudo-cross variogram and pseudo-cross ma dogram, were incorporated for the land cover classification of tropical rainforests in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Texture layers of grey leve l co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) channels, i.e. variance, contrast, dissimilarity, and homogeinity, were also used for the classification. Two cla ssification methods, using Support Vector Machine and Minimum distance were applied for image classification. Landsat 7 ETM images combined with textural information is used for land c over classification of tropical rainforest area. Band 5 of Landsat data was used to compute texture layers using the GLCM and geos tatistic methods. This band was chosen because it has the highest variance of training data compared to other spectral bands. The results were compared to find out how the extra information given by the texture enhances the classification. According to the accuracy assessment using error matrix, combinations of image and te xture data performed better with 81% of accuracy compared to those of image data only with 76% of accuracy.
Using Q Method in Qualitative Research

In this paper the author outlines the features of Q method and assesses its suitability as a qualitative research method. She discusses the process of using the method and its particular approach to researching the range and diversity of subjective understandings, beliefs, and experiences. Q method is particularly suitable for identifying commonality and diversity and has a powerful capacity for thematic identification and analysis. In the author's view, Q method makes a contribution to expanding the repertoire of qualitative research methods.
Improving of colon cancer cells detection based on Haralick's features on segmented histopathological images

Image analysis in cancer pathology applications has evolved considerably in the last years [1]. The areas concerned were particularly those in which the diagnosis was based on the medical image processing and analysis. Few studies have successfully investigated the automatic classification of colonic pathology images if they contain healthy cells or cancerous cells. The objective of this work is the multispectral images classification of healthy and cancerous cells in order to accelerate the operations of classification between different types of cancerous cells. Our detection approach was derived from the "Snake" method but using a progressive division of the dimensions of the image to achieve faster segmentation. The time consumed during segmentation was decreased to more than 50%. We extract several Haralick's coefficients to detect the type of cells were made segmentation are applied to the multispectral image. The experimental results obtained on several multispectral images show that the method is efficient for the classification of cancer cells of type Carcinoma (Ca), Intraepithelial Neoplasia (IN) and Benign Hyperplasia (BH).
A parametric study of part distortions in fused deposition modelling using three-dimensional finite element analysis

A finite element analysis (FEA) model was previously developed by the current authors to simulate the fused deposition modelling (FDM) process. The model considered coupled thermal and mechanical phenomena and incorporated an element activation function to mimic the additive nature of FDM. Due to repetitive heating and cooling in the FDM process, residual stresses accumulate in a part during deposition. In this study, an FEA model is used to evaluate the distortions of a part. A parametric study, with three factors and three levels, is performed to evaluate the effects of the deposition parameters on residual stresses and part distortions. Prototype models with larger sizes are fabricated, measured, and compared with the simulations. The simulation results are summarized as follows. First, the scan speed is the most significant factor affecting part distortions, followed by the layer thickness. Second, the road width alone is insignificant. However, the interaction between the road width and the layer thickness is significant as well. Third, there are other two-way and three-way interactions that are of secondary significance. In general, residual stresses in FDM parts increase with the layer thickness. Residual stresses also increase with the road width, but to a lesser extent, although largely affected by the layer thickness. The FDM part distortions from the experiment show a similar trend as concluded in the simulations, but without quantitative correlation.
The Comovements between Real Activity and Prices at Different Business Cycle Frequencies

In this paper, I present two different methods that can be used to obtain a concise set of descriptive results about the comovement of variables. The statistics are easy to interpret and capture important information about the dynamics in the system that would be lost if one focused only on the unconditional correlation coefficient of detrended data. The methods do not require assumptions about the order of integration. That is, the methods can be used for stationary as well as integrated processes. They do not require the types of assumptions needed for VAR decompositions either. Both methods give similar results. In the postwar period, the comovement between output and prices is positive in the During the same period, the comovement between hours and real wages is negative in the that a model in which demand shocks dominate in the short run and supply shocks dominate in the long run can explain the empirical results, while standard sticky-price models with only demand shocks cannot.
Synaptic Currents in Anatomically Identified CA3 Neurons during Hippocampal Gamma Oscillations In Vitro

Gamma-frequency oscillations are prominent during active network states in the hippocampus. An intrahippocampal gamma generator has been identified in the CA3 region. To better understand the synaptic mechanisms involved in gamma oscillogenesis, we recorded action potentials and synaptic currents in distinct types of anatomically identified CA3 neurons during carbachol-induced (20–25 μm) gamma oscillations in rat hippocampal slices. We wanted to compare and contrast the relationship between excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic currents in pyramidal cells and perisomatic-targeting interneurons, cell types implicated in gamma oscillogenesis, as well as in other interneuron subtypes, and to relate synaptic currents to the firing properties of the cells. We found that phasic synaptic input differed between cell classes. Most strikingly, the dominant phasic input to pyramidal neurons was inhibitory, whereas phase-coupled perisomatic-targeting interneurons often received a strong phasic excitatory input. Differences in synaptic input could account for some of the differences in firing rate, action potential phase precision, and mean action potential phase angle, both between individual cells and between cell types. There was a strong positive correlation between the ratio of phasic synaptic excitation to inhibition and firing rate over all neurons and between the phase precision of excitation and action potentials in interneurons. Moreover, mean action potential phase angle correlated with the phase of the peak of the net-estimated synaptic reversal potential in all phase-coupled neurons. The data support a recurrent mechanism of gamma oscillations, whereby spike timing is controlled primarily by inhibition in pyramidal cells and by excitation in interneurons.
Beltrami operators, non--symmetric elliptic equations and quantitative Jacobian bounds

In recent studies on the G-convergence of Beltrami operators, a number of issues arouse concerning injectivity properties of families of quasiconformal mappings. Bojarski, D'Onofrio, Iwaniec and Sbordone formulated a conjecture based on the existence of a so-called primary pair. Very recently, Bojarski proved the existence of one such pair. We provide a general, constructive, procedure for obtaining a new rich class of such primary pairs. This proof is obtained as a slight adaptation of previous work by the authors concerning the nonvanishing of the Jacobian of pairs of solutions of elliptic equations in divergence form in the plane. It is proven here that the results previously obtained when the coefficient matrix is symmetric also extend to the non-symmetric case. We also prove a much stronger result giving a quantitative bound for the Jacobian determinant of the so-called \emph{periodic} $\sigma$-harmonic sense preserving homeomorphisms of $\mathbb C$ onto itself.
Holding Schools Accountable: A Handbook for Educators and Parents

Sloan explores the varied contours of the educational accountability movement that has swept the United States. He describes the historical origins and underlying assumptions of present day accountability measures, current issues surrounding accountability, relationships between the accountability and the standards movements, and the role of standardized testing in each of these movements, and provides a critical reading of the seemingly divided literature concerning the effects of accountability on public education. This volume also focuses on the implications of accountability measures on parents, families, and communities, including details of the varied efforts by grassroots organizations that have raised concerns over current accountability measures. While there has been a substantial amount of parent and community opposition to both state and national accountability policies, increasingly these organizations are offering suggestions for ways to make accountability measures better and more responsive to both community and student needs. The work concludes by offering valuable suggestions about improving, even strengthening accountability measures in ways that are more responsive and respectful of students, their families, and local communities.