Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of strategies for the parallel computation of eigenvectors of block tridiagonal matrices

Heutzutage ist es essenziell das Berechnen auf viele Recheneinheiten parallelisieren und neue Hardware und deren neuen Merkmale effizient verwenden zu konnen. Die Algorithmen, welche zum Beispiel in LAPACK verwendet werden, sind fur den sequentiellen Ablauf konstruiert und sind in deren Parallelisierung limitiert. Auserdem ist ScaLAPACK nicht fur gemeinsam genutzten Speicher, wie auch in den Ergebnissen dieser Masterarbeit zu sehen ist, optimiert. Deswegen ist es notwendig andere Algorithmen zu finden bei denen die Arbeit einfacher auf grosen Systemen basierend auf einer multi-core Architektur verteilt werden konnen. Weiters ist es wichtig die Struktur spezieller Probleme auszunutzen. Die twisted block Faktorisierung kann verwendet werden um Eigenvektoren von Block-Tridiagonalen-Matrizen zu berechnen. Aus all diesen Grunden wird dieser Algorithmus, mit der Moglichkeit auf viele unabhangige Operationen, auf aktueller Harware parallelisiert um auch Aspekte von neuen Hardwarearchitekturen zu analysieren. Verschiedene Parallelisierungsstrategien sind entwickelt und implementiert worden um zu evaluieren wie die twisted block Faktorisierung am effizientesten parallelisiert werden kann. Die Evaluierung zeigt das die Parallelisierungsstrategien effizienter sind als die getestete ScaLAPACK-Routine und neue Prozessoreigenschaften konnen den Speedup eines parallelen Programms stark beeinflussen. Auserdem zeigt die detaillierte Analyse der Laufzeit die neue Aufgabe effiziente Funktionen fur multi-core Systeme erstellen zu mussen. Die numerische Genauigkeit ist nicht der Hauptaspekt der Arbeit, aber eine sehr interessante Korrelation zwischen dem Abstand der Eigenwerte und der Orthogonalitat der Eigenvektoren wurde gefunden.
Behavioral Agency Theory

This article describes new micro-foundations for theorizing about executive compensation, drawing on the behavioral economics literature and based on a more realistic set of behavioral assumptions than those that have typically been made by agency theorists. We call these micro-foundations “behavioral agency theory. ” In contrast to the standard agency framework, which focuses on monitoring costs and incentive alignment, behavioral agency theory places agent performance at the center of the agency model, arguing that the interests of shareholders and their agents are most likely to be aligned if executives are motivated to perform to the best of their abilities. We develop a line of argument first advanced by Wiseman and Gomez-Mejia and put the case for a more general reassessment of the behavioral assumptions underpinning agency theory. A model of economic man predicated on bounded rationality is proposed, adopting Wiseman and Gomez-Mejia’s assumptions about risk preferences, but incorporating new assumptions about time discounting, inequity aversion, and the trade-off between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. We argue that behavioral agency theory provides a better framework for theorizing about executive compensation, an enhanced theory of agent behavior, and an improved platform for making recommendations about the design of executive compensation plans.
Capital Structure, Liquidity Position and Their Impact on Profitability: A Study of Listed Telecommunication Firms in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), Sri Lanka

The focus of this study is to find out the significant impact of capital structure (CS) and liquidity position (LP) on profitability and identify the relationship between CS, LP and profitability of listed telecommunication firms in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) from the financial year 2008 to 2012. CS is vital in determining the return on equity (ROE). There are number of studies in the field of CS and profitability also those studies reveal different results. Regression and Correlation analysis were performed in this study; regression results revealed that there is no significant impact of capital structure and liquidity position on the profitability however Dialog Axiata PLC’s capital structure and liquidity position have a significant impact on its profitability. Correlation results confirmed that there is no significant relationship between listed telecommunication firms’ capital structure, liquidity position and profitability but capital structure is negatively correlated with its profitability. Finally as a researcher suggested that Dialog Axiata PLC should heavily focus on its capital structure and liquidity position to enhance its profitability, on the other hand Sri Lanka Telecom should give consideration on other factors which can influence or impact its profitability other than capital structure and liquidity position in the future. Keywords: Capital Structure; Liquidity Position; Profitability; Listed Telecommunication Firms.
Fusion Transcript Discovery in Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Human Breast Cancer Tissues Reveals a Link to Tumor Progression

The identification of gene fusions promises to play an important role in personalized cancer treatment decisions. Many rare gene fusion events have been identified in fresh frozen solid tumors from common cancers employing next-generation sequencing technology. However the ability to detect transcripts from gene fusions in RNA isolated from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor tissues, which exist in very large sample repositories for which disease outcome is known, is still limited due to the low complexity of FFPE libraries and the lack of appropriate bioinformatics methods. We sought to develop a bioinformatics method, named gFuse, to detect fusion transcripts in FFPE tumor tissues. An integrated, cohort based strategy has been used in gFuse to examine single-end 50 base pair (bp) reads generated from FFPE RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) datasets employing two breast cancer cohorts of 136 and 76 patients. In total, 118 fusion events were detected transcriptome-wide at base-pair resolution across the 212 samples. We selected 77 candidate fusions based on their biological relevance to cancer and supported 61% of these using TaqMan assays. Direct sequencing of 19 of the fusion sequences identified by TaqMan confirmed them. Three unique fused gene pairs were recurrent across the 212 patients with 6, 3, 2 individuals harboring these fusions respectively. We show here that a high frequency of fusion transcripts detected at the whole transcriptome level correlates with poor outcome (P<0.0005) in human breast cancer patients. This study demonstrates the ability to detect fusion transcripts as biomarkers from archival FFPE tissues, and the potential prognostic value of the fusion transcripts detected.
An investigation of conflict management in public and private sector universities

The purpose of this paper is to gain an insight into the conflict management in public and private sector universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. To achieve the earlier mentioned purpose, survey method was used with the help of questionnaire. In this research, impact of university type (public and private sector) was examined on the conflict management strategies of the teachers in higher education. Moreover, a systematic approach was adopted to discover existence of conflict, its intensity, types and sources in these two types of universities. Results indicate that conflict was intense in the public sector universities; interpersonal conflict was more prevalent in public sector while task conflict was high in the private sector universities. Findings indicated that faculty in both types of universities used integrating, compromising and avoiding styles simultaneously in case of conflict. There was no significant difference in the conflict management strategies of both types of universities. Finally, it was revealed that there was no formal system in both types of universities to manage conflict. Key words:
Large-scale phylogenetic analyses reveal the causes of high tropical amphibian diversity

Many groups show higher species richness in tropical regions but the underlying causes remain unclear. Despite many competing hypotheses to explain latitudinal diversity gradients, only three processes can directly change species richness across regions: speciation, extinction and dispersal. These processes can be addressed most powerfully using large-scale phylogenetic approaches, but most previous studies have focused on small groups and recent time scales, or did not separate speciation and extinction rates. We investigate the origins of high tropical diversity in amphibians, applying new phylogenetic comparative methods to a tree of 2871 species. Our results show that high tropical diversity is explained by higher speciation in the tropics, higher extinction in temperate regions and limited dispersal out of the tropics compared with colonization of the tropics from temperate regions. These patterns are strongly associated with climate-related variables such as temperature, precipitation and ecosystem energy. Results from models of diversity dependence in speciation rate suggest that temperate clades may have lower carrying capacities and may be more saturated (closer to carrying capacity) than tropical clades. Furthermore, we estimate strikingly low tropical extinction rates over geological time scales, in stark contrast to the dramatic losses of diversity occurring in tropical regions presently.
ApoE4-Driven Accumulation of Intraneuronal Oligomerized Aβ42 following Activation of the Amyloid Cascade In Vivo Is Mediated by a Gain of Function

Activating the amyloid cascade by inhibiting the Aβ-degrading enzyme neprilysin in targeted replacement mice, which express either apoE4 or apoE3, results in the specific accumulation of oligomerized Aβ42 in hippocampal CA1 neurons of the apoE4 mice. We presently investigated the extent to which the apoE4-driven accumulation of Aβ42 and the resulting mitochondrial pathology are due to either gain or loss of function. This revealed that inhibition of neprilysin for one week triggers the accumulation of Aβ42 in hippocampal CA1 neurons of the apoE4 mice but not of either the corresponding apoE3 mice or apoE-deficient mice. At 10 days, Aβ42 also accumulated in the CA1 neurons of the apoE-deficient mice but not in those of the apoE3 mice. Mitochondrial pathology, which in the apoE4 mice is an early pathological consequence following inhibition of neprilyisn, also occurs in the apoE-deficient but not in the apoE3 mice and the magnitude of this effect correlates with the levels of accumulated Aβ42 and oligomerized Aβ42 in these mice. These findings suggest that the rate-limiting step in the pathological effects of apoE4 on CA1 neurons is the accumulation of intracellular oligomerized Aβ42 which is mediated via a gain of function property of apoE4.
Performance Analysis of Interleaving Schemes with the EXIT Chart

The interleaver is widely used in communication and signal processing. Recently it becomes an integral part of the coding and decoding strategy as in turbo code and bit-interleaved coded modulation. The interleaver design is critical to the high performance of bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding (BICM-ID). We use the extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart to analyze the effect of the interleaver design on the performance of BICM-ED. The EXIT chart analysis indicates that the interleaver which gathers more extrinsic information and is closer to the decoder's extrinsic transfer characteristic with the assumption of the Gaussian distributed a priori input has a better performance. This provides a new method for the analysis of the interleaver design. The accuracy of the EXIT chart analysis is verified by the simulation.
How Britain votes

The 1983 General Election. Class and politics. The decline of class voting? Housing. Education and occupation. Neighbourhood, region and vote. Policies. Ideology. Ideological change in the electorate. Ideological change in the parties. Competence and fairness. Conclusions. Appendices. Index.
Money and Monetary Policy Transmission in the Euro Area: Evidence from Favar- and VAR Approaches

This paper investigates the transmission of monetary policy in the euro area based on the factor augmented vector autoregressive approach of Bernanke, Boivin and Eliasz (2005) as well as on a standard VAR model. We focus on the reaction of monetary aggregates to a one-off monetary policy shock. We find that - as theory suggests - money growth is dampened by a restrictive monetary policy stance in the longer term. In the short-run, however, M3 growth may increase due to portfolio shifts caused by the rise in the short-term interest rate. This has consequences for the interpretation of money growth as an input for monetary policy decisions.
Investigation on the Time-Variant Flow in a Single-Blade Centrifugal Pump

Effects of the time-variant flow in a single-blade pump are investigated by numerical and experimental methods. For a numerical approach the three-dimensional, viscous, unsteady flow field in the pump has been achieved by solving the unsteady Navier-Stokes equations (URANS) with a commercial solver. From the obtained periodic flow field the time-variant forces acting at the wetted impeller surface were determined for a complete impeller revolution. To validate the results of the numerical simulations a test stand has been used. The velocity field inside the pump has been measured by using the PIV method. A good comparison to the numerical simulations has been achieved. In a second step the forces acting at the bearings of the pump rotor have been measured. To identify the transient radial forces, the pump has been fitted with special manufactured seats for the roller bearings, which have been equipped with strain gages. The experimental results match the numerical results for the hydrodynamic forces very good. In particular, the good qualitative agreement suggests that predicting the transient flow in (single-blade) centrifugal pumps utilizing a Navier-Stokes solver, is a reliable method to calculate the time-variant hydrodynamic forces. Key-Words: Time-variant flow, centrifugal pump, single-blade impeller
On preserving statistical characteristics of accelerometry data using their empirical cumulative distribution

The majority of activity recognition systems in wearable computing rely on a set of statistical measures, such as means and moments, extracted from short frames of continuous sensor measurements to perform recognition. These features implicitly quantify the distribution of data observed in each frame. However, feature selection remains challenging and labour intensive, rendering a more generic method to quantify distributions in accelerometer data much desired. In this paper we present the ECDF representation, a novel approach to preserve characteristics of arbitrary distributions for feature extraction, which is particularly suitable for embedded applications. In extensive experiments on six publicly available datasets we demonstrate that it outperforms common approaches to feature extraction across a wide variety of tasks.
Disaggregated House Price Indices

This paper estimates and compares methods of constructing disaggregated house price indices from existing house price models using individual sales data for Sydney. Nine alternative house price models are selected to cover the most frequently used methods in the literature: the mean model, median models (standard and stratified), hedonic models (restricted and unrestricted hedonic), repeat-sales models (age-adjusted and Case-Shiller weighted), and a hybrid of the hedonic and repeat-sales model. The unrestricted hedonic model and the hybrid model have an advantage over the other seven models in that they do not require stratification of the data for estimating disaggregated indices. Both models employ the whole sample to estimate implicit prices of house characteristics that are used to construct disaggregated house price indices. These two models eliminate variability arising from small sample sizes and provide more efficient estimates of house price heterogeneity. In addition, house characteristics that are important drivers of the variability of individual house prices are identified in the two models. Disaggregated indices constructed from these two models provide more accurate comparisons with an aggregate house price index. We quantify the extent to which disaggregated house prices indices have significantly more variability than, and differing trends from, the aggregate index.
Confidence in Formal Institutions and Reliance on Informal Institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This article uses survey data to investigate the relationship between citizens’ confidence in formal institutions and reliance on informal institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). We find an endogenous substituting relationship and that the different institutional structures currently existing in the two entities in BiH are significantly linked to respondents’ confidence in formal and reliance on informal institutions. In addition, perceptions of higher indirect costs of institutions and a lack of their improvement are associated with a lower confidence in formal and a greater reliance on informal institutions; the minority ethnic groups in each region are less confident in formal and rely more on informal institutions compared to the majority group; and more reliance on informal institutions is found amongst males and respondents from urban areas.
The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Legitimizing the Post-Apartheid State

List of acronyms and glossary Maps Preface and acknowledgements 1. Human rights and nation-building Part I. Human Rights and Truth: 2. Technologies of truth: the TRC's truth-making machine 3. The politics of truth and human rights Part II. Reconciliation Retribution and Revenge: 4. Reconciliation through truth? 5. Reconciliation in society: religious values and procedural pragmatism 6. Vengeance, revenge and retribution 7. Reconciliation with a vengeance 8. Conclusions: human rights, reconciliation and retribution Notes Bibliography Index.
A Tractable Experimental Model for Study of Human and Animal Scabies

Background Scabies is a parasitic skin infestation caused by the burrowing mite Sarcoptes scabiei. It is common worldwide and spreads rapidly under crowded conditions, such as those found in socially disadvantaged communities of Indigenous populations and in developing countries. Pruritic scabies lesions facilitate opportunistic bacterial infections, particularly Group A streptococci. Streptococcal infections cause significant sequelae and the increased community streptococcal burden has led to extreme levels of acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease in Australia's Indigenous communities. In addition, emerging resistance to currently available therapeutics emphasizes the need to identify potential targets for novel chemotherapeutic and/or immunological intervention. Scabies research has been severely limited by the availability of parasites, and scabies remains a truly neglected infectious disease. We report development of a tractable model for scabies in the pig, Sus domestica. Methodology/Principal Findings Over five years and involving ten independent cohorts, we have developed a protocol for continuous passage of Sarcoptes scabiei var. suis. To increase intensity and duration of infestation without generating animal welfare issues we have optimised an immunosuppression regimen utilising daily oral treatment with 0.2mg/kg dexamethasone. Only mild, controlled side effects are observed, and mange infection can be maintained indefinitely providing large mite numbers (>6000 mites/g skin) for molecular-based research on scabies. In pilot experiments we explore whether any adaptation of the mite population is reflected in genetic changes. Phylogenetic analysis was performed comparing sets of genetic data obtained from pig mites collected from naturally infected pigs with data from pig mites collected from the most recent cohort. Conclusions/Significance A reliable pig/scabies animal model will facilitate in vivo studies on host immune responses to scabies including the relations to the associated bacterial pathogenesis and more detailed studies of molecular evolution and host adaption. It is a most needed tool for the further investigation of this important and widespread parasitic disease.
The Cyclical Behavior of Net Interest Margins : Evidence from the United States Banking Sector

The paper studies the cyclical behavior of net interest margins (NIMs) in the United States banking sector, using time series quarterly data for the period 1979-2005. It documents the countercyclicality of NIMs and offers potential explanations for this behavior. Even controlling for important changes in banking regulation that took place in this period, monetary policy certainly plays a role in explaining the countercyclical behavior. Other determinants are interest rate risk and the economy’s financial depth. At the bank-level, banks liquidity, capital holdings and the share of total assets held by big banks also exert a significant impact on margins over the cycle. These conclusions are consistent across several alternative definitions used for NIMs and three different business cycle indicators. Our results provide support to the bank lending channel of monetary policy and to the hypothesis that the effects of monetary policy are weaker in more concentrated banking sectors. JEL Classification: C32, E32, E44, G21 ∗North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695. raaliaga@ncsu.edu †LeBow College of Business, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104. mpo4@duke.edu
Usability of Online Services: The Role of Technology Readiness and Context

An important prerequisite for the success of any online service is ensuring that customers' experience - via the interface - satisfies both sensory and functional needs. Developing interfaces that are responsive to customers' needs requires a perspective on interface design as well as a deep understanding of the customers themselves. Drawing upon research in consumer behavior concerning consumer beliefs about technology, we deploy an alternative way to describe customers based on psychographic characteristics. Technology readiness (TR), a multidimensional psychographic construct, offers a way to segment online customers based upon underlying positive and negative technology beliefs. The core premise of this study is that the beliefs form the foundation for expectations of how things should work and how specific online service interfaces are evaluated by customers. At the same time, usability evaluations of specific online services might be contingent on contextual factors, specifically the type of site (hedonic vs. utilitarian) and access method (Web vs. wirelessWeb). The aspects of usability examined here are those incorporated into the usability metric and instrument based on the Microsoft Usability Guidelines (MUG). The results of an empirical study with 160 participants indicate that (i) TR customer segments vary in usability requirements and (ii) usability evaluations of specific online service interfaces are influenced by complex interactions among site type, access method, and TR segment membership. As organizations continue to expand their online service offerings, managers must recognize that the interface exists to serve the customers, so their design must be matched to market needs and TR.