Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES POLITICAL COMPETITION AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE: THEORY AND EVIDENCE FROM THE UNITED STATES

One of the most cherished propositions in economics is that market competition by and large raises consumer welfare. But whether political competition has similarly virtuous consequences is far less discussed. This paper formulates a model to explain why political competition may enhance economic performance and uses the United States as a testing ground for the model’s implications. It finds statistically robust evidence that political competition has quantitatively important effects on state income growth, state policies, and the quality of Governors.
Emphysema index in a cohort of patients with no recognizable lung disease: influence of age.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of age on pulmonary emphysema, based on the values of the emphysema index (EI) in a cohort of patients who had never smoked and who had no recognizable lung disease. METHODS We reviewed the CT scans, reported as normal, of 315 patients. Exclusion criteria were a history of smoking, cardiorespiratory disease, and exposure to drugs that could cause lung disease. From this cohort, we selected 32 patients (16 men and 16 women), matched for gender and body mass index, who were divided equally into two groups by age (< 50 years and > 50 years). We quantified emphysema using a computer program specific to that task. The EI was calculated with a threshold of -950 HU. We also evaluated total lung volume (TLV) and mean lung density (MLD). RESULTS The overall means for TLV, MLD, and EI were 5,027 mL, -827 HU, and 2.54%, respectively. Mean values in the older and younger groups, respectively, were as follows: for TLV, 5,229 mL vs. 4,824 mL (p > 0.05); for MLD, -846 HU vs. -813 HU (p < 0.04); and for EI, 3.30% vs. 1.28% (p < 0.001). Significant correlations were found between EI and age (r = 0.66; p = 0.001), EI and TLV (r = 0.58; p = 0.001), and EI and MLD (r = -0.67; p < 0.001). The predicted EI per age was defined by the regression equation (r² = 0.43): p50(EI) = 0.049 × age - 0.5353. CONCLUSIONS It is important to consider the influence of age when quantifying emphysema in patients over 50 years of age. Based on the regression analysis, EI values of 2.6%, 3.5%, and 4.5% can be considered normal for patients 30, 50, and 70 years of age, respectively.
Fraud Risk Factors and Audit Programme Modifications: Evidence from Jordan

This study explores how audit firms in Jordan deal with the presence of fraud risk factors in audit clients. In doing so, the study seeks to explore which fraud risk factors are more important to Jordanian auditors, and how Jordanian auditors consider modifying their audit programmes when fraud risk factors are present in clients. The study uses a structured questionnaire that was administered to senior level auditors in the largest Jordanian audit firms. The findings show that almost all of the 20 fraud risk factors included in the questionnaire were only slightly important (if not unimportant), a finding that is arguably alarming. The perceived importance of modifying the audit programme in the presence of each fraud risk factor was related to the perceived importance of the fraud risk factor itself. However, changes in the nature and extent of audit procedures were more important than changes in the timing of the procedures or the members of the audit team. The most important fraud risk factors were related to the characteristics of management and its attitude towards the audit, while the least important fraud risk factors were related to the difficulties in the client’s financial performance. Factor analysis found that the fraud risk factors could be classified into four separate groups. Possible interpretations of the findings were discussed, such as considering the Jordanian business environment characteristics, and the findings were compared to those of extant international studies.
The Influence of the Institutions on Entrepreneurship Development: Public Support and Perception of Entrepreneurship Development in the Czech Republic

This article deals with the research of entrepreneurship development in the frame of institutional environment in the Czech Republic. The example of the Czech Republic shows similar problems and specifics of post-transformation economies in Central and Eastern Europe. The goal is to discover the impact of specific institutional barriers on entrepreneurship development from the perspective of entrepreneurs and willingness to start own business. The surveys revealed that institutional barriers have significant impact on business. The influence of public administration and the configuration of the legislative environment are other key factors. Entrepreneurship policies should be more effective and public administration needs to create a better system of support and information transfer for new entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship development.
The relevance of intellectual capital in Serbian ICT industry

Osnovu ekonomije zasnovane na znanju čini prevashodno intelektualni kapital (IK) koji ima ključnu ulogu u procesu stvaranja vrednosti savremenog preduzeća. Glavne komponente IK-a su ljudski, strukturni i relacioni kapital. Supstancu IK čine nematerijalni resursi preduzeća. Brojni su empirijski dokazi koji potvrđuju značajan rast investicija u IK i koji ukazuju na prirodu odnosa između IK i finansijskih performansi. Privredne grane koje se posmatraju kao grane intenzivne znanjem zauzimaju posebno mesto u ovoj oblasti istraživanja. Ovo je i razlog zbog čega je osnovni cilj istraživanja utvrđivanje međuzavisnosti između komponenti IK i finansijskih performansi preduzeća iz industrije informacionokomunikacionih tehnologija (IKT). Predmet istraživanja su 594 preduzeća iz IKT industrije Srbije u vremenskom periodu od pet godina (2009-2013). U radu su testirane tri osnovne hipoteze u vezi sa uticajem ljudskog, strukturnog i fizičkog kapitala na finansijske performanse (izražene neto dobitkom, poslovnim dobitkom, prinosom na sopstveni kapital, prinosom na ukupnu aktivu, profitabilnošću i prinosom na investirani kapital). Rezultati ukazuju na to da ljudski i fizički kapital delimično opredeljuju finansijske performanse, što je u saglasnosti sa rezultatima empirijskih istraživanja u drugim zemljama u razvoju. Kada se IKT industrija uporedi sa drugim industrijama u Srbiji, ona pokazuje veće oslanjanje na ljudski kapital u procesu stvaranja vrednosti.
NoSQL databases: MongoDB vs cassandra

In the past, relational databases were used in a large scope of applications due to their rich set of features, query capabilities and transaction management. However, they are not able to store and process big data effectively and are not very efficient to make transactions and join operations. Recently, emerge a new paradigm, NoSQL databases, to overcome some of these problems, which are more suitable for the usage in web environments. In this paper, we describe NoSQL databases, their characteristics and operational principles. The main focus of this paper is to compare and evaluate two of the most popular NoSQL databases: MongoDB and Cassandra.
The effects of dietary protein concentration on compensatory growth in barrows and gilts.

An experiment using 120 crossbred pigs (60 barrows and 60 gilts) was conducted to determine the effect of dietary protein concentration on the compensatory response in growth after a period of feed restriction. Thirty pigs were allowed ad libitum (AL) access to one of five corn-soybean meal diets (13.1 to 18.4% CP) from approximately 42 to 102 kg BW. Thirty additional pigs were restricted (R) to a maintenance amount of a 14.4% CP diet for 21 d, after which they were allotted to one of the five diets and allowed ad libitum access to feed until they reached 102 kg. Restricted pigs had lower ADFI, ADG, and ADG/ADFI (P < .05) than did AL pigs. During the postrestriction period, R pigs had higher ADFI and ADG (P < .001) and tended to be more efficient (P < .08) than AL pigs. Average backfat thickness was not different (P > .8) between AL and R pigs. Lean percentage (5% fat) was not affected (P > .5) by feeding regimen but increased linearly (P < .1) as protein level increased. Organ weights (expressed as a percentage of empty BW.75) were similar in AL and R pigs. However, kidney and stomach weights differed among protein levels (P < .01), as did liver weight (P < .06), with a linear increase (P < .02) in both kidney and liver weights to dietary protein level. Barrows had higher ADFI and ADG and greater average backfat thickness (P < .02) than gilts. Barrows had smaller LMA, a lower percentage of lean (P < .001), and higher average backfat (P < .005) than gilts. Liver weight was heavier (P < .02) and small intestine weight tended to be heavier (P < .07) for barrows than for gilts. Kidney, spleen, and lungs were heavier (P < .05) in gilts than in barrows. Livers from barrows tended to contain more protein (P < .06) and less fat (P < .05) than livers from gilts. These results indicate that a compensatory growth response occurred during relimentation, and that the effects of dietary protein concentration on growth rate and carcass measurements were similar in both AL and R pigs.
A Hall sensor microsystem with integrated voltage and current references for continuous sensitivity calibration

This paper presents a Hall sensor microsystem with a current output and sensitivity calibration targeting low drift (<;50ppm/°C). The main system novelty is in a circuit-level solution using dedicated on-chip voltage and current references for a continuous measurement and calibration of the sensitivity. The system is fabricated in a 0. 35μm CMOS technology, occupying an area of 11.55mm2. The measurements of the calibrated system show 80ppm/°C on average and 30ppm/°C best-case sensitivity drift over a temperature range from -40°C to 85°C. Compared to the state of the art, the fully integrated system for sensitivity calibration adds no more than 18ppm/°C on average and 30ppm/°C in the worst case for the additional integration of one voltage and one current reference.
Polyurethane Foam Molding Technologies for Improving Total Passenger Compartment Comfort

Improvements in passenger compartment comfort continue to be one of the key needs of the global transportation industry. Since their introduction more than 40 years ago, flexible molded polyurethane foams have successfully contributed to the comfort provided by all forms of transportation seating. Initially required to provide just a wide range of load bearing, seating foams are now being designed for longer service life and better vibration damping and are considered to be a functional part of the overall acoustical package. New performance requirements are being placed on the NVH grade of foams and all interior components of passenger compartments must contribute to a reduction in odor and emissions. To address the ongoing and newer challenges, The Dow Chemical Company has developed several new chemical technologies that will be detailed in this paper. Specific data will be presented to illustrate new foam chemistries that offer low emissions, reduced density, improved vibration management, noise abatement, durability and processing. Attention will be focused on how the choice of polyurethane raw materials impacts foam resilience, mechanical damping and resonance as well as acoustic absorption and noise transmission. The results presented in this paper will help foam producers, seat assemblers, acoustic part manufacturers and OEM interior designers in their efforts to further improve the comfort performance of transportation systems based on flexible molded polyurethane foams.
Lexical Inferencing in Newspaper Columns: An Introspective Study

The significance of vocabulary in second or foreign language cannot be denied. The study explores the knowledge sources used by ESL learners in generating the meanings of the unknown words found in the columns of a daily Dawn. The study also investigates the effect of text length and syntactic property of unknown words in the inferential behaviors of learners. The participants of the study were chosen randomly from BS English, Govt. Emerson College, Multan. The amended taxonomy of knowledge sources and clues given by Bengleil and Paribakht (2004) was used in the study. The inferences verbalized their thoughts while guessing the meanings of the unknown words. The higher group was more successful in their guessing than the lower group. The study also found out that text length and the syntactic property of an unknown word his impact on the process of lexical inferencing. The study recommends the strategy of lexical inferencing as it facilitates reading comprehension and enhances lexical knowledge of learners.
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation dissociates working memory manipulation from retention functions in the prefrontal , but not posterior parietal

& Understanding the contributions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) to working memory is central to understanding the neural bases of high-level cognition. One question that remains controversial is whether the same areas of the dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC) that participate in the manipulation of information in working memory also contribute to its short-term retention (STR). We evaluated this question by first identifying, with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), brain areas involved in manipulation. Next, these areas were targeted with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) while subjects performed tasks requiring only the STR or the STR plus manipulation of information in working memory. fMRI indicated that manipulation-related activity was independent of retention-related activity in both the PFC and superior parietal lobule (SPL). rTMS, however, yielded a different pattern of results. Although rTMS of the dlPFC selectively disrupted manipulation, rTMS of the SPL disrupted manipulation and STR to the same extent. rTMS of the postcentral gyrus (a control region) had no effect on performance. The implications of these results are twofold. In the PFC, they are consistent with the view that this region contributes more importantly to the control of information in working memory than to its STR. In the SPL, they illustrate the importance of supplementing the fundamentally correlational data from neuroimaging with a disruptive method, which affords stronger inference about structure–function relations. &
Cause of death and potentially avoidable deaths in Australian adults with intellectual disability using retrospective linked data

Objectives To investigate mortality and its causes in adults over the age of 20 years with intellectual disability (ID). Design, setting and participants Retrospective population-based standardised mortality of the ID and Comparison cohorts. The ID cohort comprised 42 204 individuals who registered for disability services with ID as a primary or secondary diagnosis from 2005 to 2011 in New South Wales (NSW). The Comparison cohort was obtained from published deaths in NSW from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) from 2005 to 2011. Main outcome measures We measured and compared Age Standardised Mortality Rate (ASMR), Comparative Mortality Figure (CMF), years of productive life lost (YPLL) and proportion of deaths with potentially avoidable causes in an ID cohort with an NSW general population cohort. Results There were 19 362 adults in the ID cohort which experienced 732 (4%) deaths at a median age of 54 years. Age Standardised Mortality Rates increased with age for both cohorts. Overall comparative mortality figure was 1.3, but was substantially higher for the 20–44 (4.0) and 45–64 (2.3) age groups. YPLL was 137/1000 people in the ID cohort and 49 in the comparison cohort. Cause of death in ID cohort was dominated by respiratory, circulatory, neoplasm and nervous system. After recoding deaths previously attributed to the aetiology of the disability, 38% of deaths in the ID cohort and 17% in the comparison cohort were potentially avoidable. Conclusions Adults with ID experience premature mortality and over-representation of potentially avoidable deaths. A national system of reporting of deaths in adults with ID is required. Inclusion in health policy and services development and in health promotion programmes is urgently required to address premature deaths and health inequalities for adults with ID.
Nonbinary spatially-coupled LDPC codes on the binary erasure channel

We analyze the asymptotic performance of non-binary spatially-coupled low-density parity-check (SC-LDPC) codes built on the general linear group, when the transmission takes place over the binary erasure channel. We propose an efficient method to derive an upper bound to the maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) threshold for nonbinary LDPC codes, and observe that the MAP performance of regular LDPC codes improves with the alphabet size. We then consider nonbinary SC-LDPC codes. We show that the same threshold saturation effect experienced by binary SC-LDPC codes occurs for the nonbinary codes, hence we conjecture that the BP threshold for large termination length approaches the MAP threshold of the underlying regular ensemble.
Quality-Specific Hand Vein Recognition System

Vein images generally appear darker with low contrast, which require contrast enhancement during preprocessing to design satisfactory hand vein recognition system. However, the modification introduced by contrast enhancement (CE) is reported to bring side effects through pixel intensity distribution adjustments. Furthermore, the inevitable results of fake vein generation or information loss occur and make nearly all vein recognition systems unconvinced. In this paper, a “CE-free” quality-specific vein recognition system is proposed, and three improvements are involved. First, a high-quality lab-vein capturing device is designed to solve the problem of low contrast from the view of hardware improvement. Then, a high quality lab-made database is established. Second, CFISH score, a fast and effective measurement for vein image quality evaluation, is proposed to obtain quality index of lab-made vein images. Then, unsupervised $K$ -means with optimized initialization and convergence condition is designed with the quality index to obtain the grouping results of the database, namely, low quality (LQ) and high quality (HQ). Finally, discriminative local binary pattern (DLBP) is adopted as the basis for feature extraction. For the HQ image, DLBP is adopted directly for feature extraction, and for the LQ one. CE_DLBP could be utilized for discriminative feature extraction for LQ images. Based on the lab-made database, rigorous experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed system. What is more, an additional experiment with PolyU database illustrates its generalization ability and robustness.
Conv-Block RGB-Block L-Block Out 2 Out 3 Multimodal Transfer Network Style Subnet Enhance Subnet Refine Subnet

Transferring artistic styles onto everyday photographs has become an extremely popular task in both academia and industry. Recently, offline training has replaced online iterative optimization, enabling nearly real-time stylization. When those stylization networks are applied directly to high-resolution images, however, the style of localized regions often appears less similar to the desired artistic style. This is because the transfer process fails to capture small, intricate textures and maintain correct texture scales of the artworks. Here we propose a multimodal convolutional neural network that takes into consideration faithful representations of both color and luminance channels, and performs stylization hierarchically with multiple losses of increasing scales. Compared to state-of-the-art networks, our network can also perform style transfer in nearly realtime by conducting much more sophisticated training offline. By properly handling style and texture cues at multiple scales using several modalities, we can transfer not just large-scale, obvious style cues but also subtle, exquisite ones. That is, our scheme can generate results that are visually pleasing and more similar to multiple desired artistic styles with color and texture cues at multiple scales.
Evolutionary Imprint of Catalytic Domains in Fungal PKS–NRPS Hybrids

Fungal hybrid enzymes consisting of a polyketide synthase (PKS) and a nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) module are involved in the biosynthesis of a vast array of ecologically and medicinally relevant natural products. Whereas a dozen gene clusters could be assigned to the requisite PKS–NRPS pathways, the programming of the multifunctional enzymes is still enigmatic. Through engineering and heterologously expressing a chimera of PKS (lovastatin synthase, LovB) and NRPS (cytochalasin synthase, CheA) in Aspergillus terreus, we noted the potential incompatibility of a fungal highly reducing PKS (hrPKS) with the NRPS component of fungal PKS–NRPS hybrids. To rationalize the unexpected outcome of the gene fusion experiments, we conducted extensive bioinformatic analyses of fungal PKS–NRPS hybrids and LovB‐type PKS. From motif studies and the function of the engineered chimeras, a noncanonical function of C‐terminal condensation (C) domains in truncated PKS–NRPS homologues was inferred. More importantly, sequence alignments and phylogenetic trees revealed an evolutionary imprint of the PKS–NRPS domains, which reflect the evolutionary history of the entire megasynthase. Furthermore, a detailed investigation of C and adenylation (A) domains provides support for a scenario in which not only the A domain but also the C domain participates in amino acid selection. These findings shed new light on the complex code of this emerging class of multifunctional enzymes and will greatly facilitate future combinatorial biosynthesis and pathway engineering approaches towards natural product analogues.
User-generated content (UGC) in tourism: Benefits and concerns of online consumers

This study reports an attempt to enhance our understanding of the reasons behind virtual world usage. By providing a mixture of utilitarian and hedonic value, virtual worlds represent an emerging class of multipurpose information systems (MPIS). Previous research seems to fall short in explaining MPIS adoption, especially since key extrinsic and intrinsic motivators are not considered. Drawing upon IT adoption research, motivation theory and the consumer behavior literature, this research extends available works and provides insight into the influence and roles of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Hypotheses are postulated and tested using a sample of 1627 users of the virtual world Second Life. The results confirm the majority of the hypotheses and support the comprehensive model. The findings indicate instantaneous effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, and highlight reinforcing effects of intrinsic motivation. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
A new model organism among the lower Bilateria and the use of digital microscopy in taxonomy of meiobenthic Platyhelminthes : Macrostomum lignano , n . sp . ( Rhabditophora , Macrostomorpha )

Macrostomum lignano n. sp. is a member of the Macrostomorpha, the basal-most subtaxon of the Platyhelminthes–Rhabditophora. This new species can be easily cultured in the laboratory and has been already the subject of several developmental/evolutionary studies. The small size, with only about 25 000 cells constituting the major bilaterian organ systems, makes this simultaneous hermaphrodite a possible candidate for a new model organism that is phylogenetically more basal than any of the model organisms currently used in such studies within the Bilateria. M. lignano belongs to the largest genus of the Macrostomorpha. Over 100 marine, fresh water and brackish water species are contained in the genusMacrostomum, some of them with worldwide distribution pattern. Within it,M. lignano is a member of theM. tuba-species group, which we have summarized here. In the species description, we have used a novel approach to document such small soft-bodied meiobenthic organisms: we provide extensive digital micrographical documentation, which are deposited as a CD together with the type material.