Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Eeect of Testing Techniques on Software Reliability Estimates Obtained Using Time-domain Models

Over the past two decades of research in software reliability, researchers have proposed several models to estimate reliability of software as testing progresses. Among these models, the time-domain models, i.e. those which use the notion of \time" between failures or the number of faults within a certain time duration, are the most common. Almost invariably these models assume that (a) testing is carried out using an operational proole and (b) functional testing, also known as black-box testing, is used during the system test phase. The failure data is obtained during the system test phase and used to estimate various model parameters and predict reliability. In this paper we present empirical evidence to show that the testing method used does aaect the reliability estimates obtained using one of these models, namely the Musa execution time model. The evidence presented suggests that reliability models need to take into account additional data, generated during testing, such as some form of code coverage, to obtain accurate reliability estimates. It also suggests that further research is necessary to determine which testing method, or combination thereof, leads to higher reliability. We also present arguments against the notion that the use of coverage measures for large programs is not desirable in reliability estimation due to high cost.
Analysis of the Effects of Pre-Announcement of S&P 500 Index Changes

In this study we attempt to answer the question â€“ does the start of pre-announcing of S&P 500 index changes in October 1989 have an effect on the trading pattern of added or deleted firms? We document that prior to October 1989 the excess returns of added or deleted firms follow a white noise process around the event, whereas after the start of pre-announcing the excess returns can be described as nonstationary. This indicates significant excess profits to be captured around the addition or deletion event after S&P started pre-announcing changes in October 1989 but not prior to that date.
Selective breeding in organic dairy production

Organic dairy farming started to take off in the early 1990s, when the European Union laid down organic standards for animal production. Until now, however, only incidental steps have been taken towards organic breeding and organic farmers mainly use breeding stock from conventional breeding programmes. This thesis focuses on the possibilities for breeding in organic dairy farming. This thesis starts with describing the basic backgrounds of organic dairy farming and the results of a study that was carried out in 1999-2000 on the vision on cattle breeding. The main conclusions are that breeding in organic dairy farming should be in line with the intensions of organic farming and that farmers need animals that fit to their extensive farming system. This study is followed by describing the differences and the magnitude of genotype by environment interaction (G x E) between conventional and organic dairy production. There proved to be significant differences in levels of milk production, percentage of protein in the milk, milk cell count and fertility between Holstein heifers on organic or conventional farms. A fairly large impact of G x E was found indicating that organic dairy farmers might have difficulty with selecting the right animals from the conventional supply of breeding bulls. This effect may be caused by the lower uptake of energy by cows in organic agriculture. After this a study into organic dairy farmers’ breeding aims in relation to their farm management was carried out in 2005. This study shows that, despite differences in farm management, organic farmers had more or less the same breeding aim and many farmers were already experimenting with breeds and crosses in a quest for the most suitable type of cow for their farm. There was, however, no relationship between the farm management system and the breed or cross used, which indicates that although farmers demand suitable animals, they do not know what type of cow this would be. Based on the results of the different studies, three distinct options are formulated for breeding in organic dairy farming: (1) use of adapted conventional breeding, (2) a separate breeding programme and (3) a breeding system based on natural mating. The advantages and disadvantages of each of the three breeding options are described in relation to naturalness, technical breeding issues, societal concerns and costs and benefits. These illustrate the complexity of the breeding issue in both breeding-technology and social terms. Restricting the use of conventional breeding would effectively mean the rejection of a system with a long and successful history, and throw organic dairy breeding back on its own resources. It is concluded that ‘system innovations’ at multiple levels are needed to create new, sustainable breeding systems, stakeholders must join forces to stimulate the development towards appropriate breeding.
Color Emotions for Image Classification and Retrieval

Many content-based image retrieval systems are not takinginto account high level semantic information. In this paperwe describe our attempts to include color-based emotion-relatedproperties of images in the search. We show that using coloremotion metrics in content-based image retrieval leads to interestingmethods for image retrieval and classification based onsemantic concepts. The color emotion metric used is derivedfrom psychophysical experiments and uses three scales: activity,weight and heat. It was originally designed for single-colorcombinations and later extended to include pairs of colors. Weshow that a modified approach for statistical analysis of coloremotions in images, involving transformations of ordinary RGBhistograms,provides a useful tool for image classification andretrieval. The methods used are both very fast in feature extraction,and descriptor vectors are very short. This is essential inour application where we intend to use it for searching huge imagedatabases containing millions or billions of images.
Do Absolute Majorities Spend Less? Evidence from Germany

The number of parties in government is usually considered to increase spending. We show that this is not necessarily the case. Using a new method to detect close election outcomes in multi-party systems, we isolate truly exogenous variation in the type of government. With data from municipalities in the German state of Bavaria, we show in regression discontinuity-type estimations that absolute majorities spend more, not less, and increase the property tax rate. We also find weakly significant results for increases in debt. Politically, our results show that the mayor that heads an absolute majority of his own party gains the most, but the party itself does not.
Effects of hatha yoga exercises on spine flexibility in women over 50 years old

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to access the flexibility of the spine in women practicing yoga as a part of the “University for Health” project. [Subjects and Methods] The study included 56 women ranging in age between 50–79 and attending 90 minutes hatha yoga sessions once a week. The measurements were performed twice-at the beginning of the project and after its completion, i.e., after 20 weeks of classes. The range of spine mobility in three planes was measured using a Rippstein plurimeter. The range of motion in the sagittal and frontal planes was measured in a standing position with the feet hip-width apart. The torsional range of motion of the subjects was measured with the trunk bent at a right angle and the legs apart. The flexibility ranges of the spine and hamstrings were also measured by the toe-touch test in a standing position. [Results] This study showed that the applied yoga exercises increased spinal mobility and flexibility of the hamstring muscles regardless of age. [Conclusion] Yoga exercises should be recommended to the elderly to make their muscles more flexible and to increase the range of motion in the joints, which is particularly important for improving their life quality.
The price and volatility effects of stock option introductions : A Reexamination

This chapter adds to the literature dealing with the effect of derivatives trading on underlying securities by examining option listings from the Netherlands. The effects on both stock returns am' volatility are investigated using three ty/vs of samples, namely, listing of call options alone, simultaneous listing* of both call and put options, and listings of put options alone. A significant decline in stock price is observed with the introduction of option trading. But, no significant effect takes place on the volatility of underlying stocks. Although the evidence is w sharp contrast to the so-called 'established view', it is consistent with went studies.
Targeting Economic Incentives for Environmental Protection

Economists have long argued that environmental regulation should rely less on command and control approaches that employ uniform standards, and more on economic incentives, such as emission charges and marketable emission permits. This book makes a major and original contribution to the "incentives vs. standards" debate by showing how different targets (the points at which incentives are applied) affect the ability of regulation to provide environmental protection at lowest possible cost. In particular, it argues that scholars and regulators both have paid insufficient attention to developing strategies that are sensitive to major variations across plants in the benefits of controlling emissions.The book develops a theory that shows how the choice of target interacts with the charge or standard in determining the net benefits of regulation. This conceptual framework is applied to a case study of proposed regulations for chemical plants that emit benzene, which is a suspected cause of leukemia. It reveals that a charge targeted on exposure would perform much better than an emission standard or the type of uniform emission charge usually advocated by economists.The book is eighth in the Regulation of Economic Activity Series, edited by Richard Schmalensee.
Output Gap Estimation Uncertainty: Extracting the TFP Cycle Using an Aggregated PMI Series

The concepts of potential growth and the output gap are important components in assessing the business cycle and productive capacity of an economy. However, being unobservable, these measures must be estimated. The Fiscal Compact will result in these concepts being used to judge EU Member States adherence to budgetary rules. Therefore, it is vital that the methods applied for their estimation are as accurate as possible. A bivariate Kalman Filter (KF) model using capacity utilisation (CU) as the second series has been proven to produce more reliable estimates of the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) cycle than the Hodrick Prescott (HP) filter methodology formerly used for this task. However, CU data is no longer collected in Ireland. Given the large turning point in the TFP series as a result of the financial crisis, this may no longer be the first-best approach for future TFP cycle estimation. This paper compares the existing method to an approach which uses an aggregated Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) series as the second series in the bivariate KF model. This approach has the advantage that PMI data is collected on an on-going basis. The results show that PMI shares a common cycle with TFP, and that this new approach leads to a reduction in the total estimation error variance and revisions required to TFP cycle estimates.
Are Spectral Estimators Useful for Implementing Long-Run Restrictions in SVARs?

Using count data on the number of bank failures in US states during the 1960 to 2006 period, this paper endeavors to establish how far sources of economic risk (recessions, high interest rates, in ation) or differences in solvency and branching regulation can explain some of the fragility in banking. Assuming that variables are predetermined, lagged values provide instruments to absorb potential endogeneity between the number of bank failures and economic and regulatory conditions. Results suggest that bank failures are not merely self-fulfilling prophecies but relate systematically to inflation as well as to policy changes in banking regulation. Furthermore, in terms of statistical and economic significance, the distribution and development of bankruptcies across US states depends crucially on past bank failures suggesting that contagion provides an important channel through which banking crises emerge.
Meta-Granger Causality Testing

Understanding the (causal) mechanisms at work is important for formulating evidence-based policy. But evidence from observational studies is often inconclusive with many studies finding conflicting results. In small to moderately sized samples, the outcome of Granger causality testing heavily depends on the lag length chosen for the underlying vector autoregressive (VAR) model. Using the Akaike Information Criterion, there is a tendency to overfit the VAR model and these overfitted models show an increased rate of false-positive findings of Granger causality, leaving empirical economists with substantial uncertainty about the validity of inferences. We propose a meta-regression model that explicitly controls for this overfitting bias and we show by means of simulations that, even if the primary literature is dominated by false-positive findings of Granger causality, the meta-regression model correctly identifies the absence of genuine Granger causality. We apply the suggested model to the large literature that tests for Granger causality between energy consumption and economic output. We do not find evidence for a genuine relation in the selected sample, although excess significance is present. Instead, we find evidence that this excess significance is explained by overfitting bias.
Representational Learning for Fault Diagnosis of Wind Turbine Equipment: A Multi-Layered Extreme Learning Machines Approach

Reliable and quick response fault diagnosis is crucial for the wind turbine generator system (WTGS) to avoid unplanned interruption and to reduce the maintenance cost. However, the conditional data generated from WTGS operating in a tough environment is always dynamical and high-dimensional. To address these challenges, we propose a new fault diagnosis scheme which is composed of multiple extreme learning machines (ELM) in a hierarchical structure, where a forwarding list of ELM layers is concatenated and each of them is processed independently for its corresponding role. The framework enables both representational feature learning and fault classification. The multi-layered ELM based representational learning covers functions including data preprocessing, feature extraction and dimension reduction. An ELM based autoencoder is trained to generate a hidden layer output weight matrix, which is then used to transform the input dataset into a new feature representation. Compared with the traditional feature extraction methods which may empirically wipe off some “insignificant’ feature information that in fact conveys certain undiscovered important knowledge, the introduced representational learning method could overcome the loss of information content. The computed output weight matrix projects the high dimensional input vector into a compressed and orthogonally weighted distribution. The last single layer of ELM is applied for fault classification. Unlike the greedy layer wise learning method adopted in back propagation based deep learning (DL), the proposed framework does not need iterative fine-tuning of parameters. To evaluate its experimental performance, comparison tests are carried out on a wind turbine generator simulator. The results show that the proposed diagnostic framework achieves the best performance among the compared approaches in terms of accuracy and efficiency in multiple faults detection of wind turbines.
A Neighboring Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Hidden by the Milky Way

We have obtained VLA and optical follow-up observations of the low-velocity H I source HIZSS 3 discovered by Henning et al. and Rivers in a survey for nearby galaxies hidden by the disk of the Milky Way. Its radio characteristics are consistent with this being a nearby (∼1.8 Mpc) low-mass dwarf irregular galaxy (dIm). Our optical imaging failed to reveal a resolved stellar population but did detect an extended Hα emission region. The location of the Hα source is coincident with a partially resolved H I cloud in the 21 cm map. Spectroscopy confirms that the Hα source has a similar radial velocity to that of the H I emission at this location, and thus we have identified an optical counterpart. The Hα emission (100 pc in diameter and with a luminosity of 1.4 × 1038 ergs s-1) is characteristic of a single H II region containing a modest population of OB stars. The galaxy's radial velocity and distance from the solar apex suggests that it is not a Local Group member, although a more accurate distance is needed to be certain. The properties of HIZSS 3 are comparable to those of GR 8, a nearby dIm with a modest amount of current star formation. Further observations are needed to characterize its stellar population, determine the chemical abundances, and obtain a more reliable distance estimate.
The Impact of EU Membership on Economic Growth and Real Convergence of the Central and Eastern European Countries

In this article, we try to answer the question of whether the membership in the European Union contributed to the acceleration of economic growth of the 11 Central and Eastern European countries (CEE-11), including their real convergence to the development level of Western Europe (EU-15). In the first part of the study, we verify the hypothesis on the existence of convergence of GDP growth paths of the CEE-11 economies toward the EU-15. Our findings show that EU membership contributed significantly to the acceleration of economic growth of the CEE-11 countries. These countries exhibited a clear-cut catching-up process in income levels toward the EU-15. The convergence accelerated after EU enlargement but the results of individual countries were differentiated, partly as a result of the global financial crisis. In the second part of the research, we conduct an econometric analysis of the economic growth factors in order to assess the impact of the variables related with EU membership on GDP growth of the CEE-11 countries.
A Heterobimetallic Anionic 3,6-Connected 2D Coordination Polymer Based on Nitranilate as Ligand

In order to synthesize new coordination polymers with original architectures and interesting magnetic properties, we used the nitranilate ligand (C6O4(NO2)22− = C6N2O82−), derived from the dianionic ligand dhbq2− (2,5-dihydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone = H2C6O42−). The use of this bis-bidentate bridging ligand led to [(DAMS)2{FeNa(C6N2O8)3}·CH3CN]n (1) (DAMS+ = C16H17N2+ = 4-[4-(dimethylamino)-α-styryl]-1-methylpyridinium), a 2D heterometallic coordination polymer presenting an unprecedented structure for any anilato-based compound. This structural type is a 3,6-connected 2D coordination polymer derived from the well-known honeycomb hexagonal structure, where Fe(III) ions alternate with Na+ dimers (as Na2O12 units) in the vertices of the hexagons and with an additional [Fe(C6N2O8)3]3− anion located in the center of the hexagons connecting the three Na+ dimers. The magnetic properties of compound 1 show the presence of paramagnetic isolated high spin Fe(III) complexes with a zero field splitting, |D| = 8.5 cm−1.
Consumption in life transition : How do unemployed consumers behave in the marketplace?

Background: We live in a world where not everyone is employed; numerous people havelost their jobs due to several factors where one of them is the economic crisis. This has hada huge impact on Sweden and the unemployment rate. Previous research has shown thatinflation, unemployment, and high interest rates represent risks to consumer welfare. We all consume daily, or on occasions, but how do unemployed consumers consume, what do they consume and why? In this area, the authors have found a knowledge gap in literature; therefore exploring this phenomenon is of interest. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore and illustrate how consumers who have experienced a life transition, from employment to unemployment, are affected by this and how it has an impact on their consumption. Method: This is an exploratory study performed with a qualitative and an abductive approach, where the authors used primary data collection through semi-structured in-depth interviews in Swedish with 16 unemployed consumers. These unemployed consumers were selected at Arbetsformedlingen, the public employment service, in Jonkoping. Results: By living in unemployment the consumers have been affected psychologically, physically, financially and socially. Their identity has changed for each of them since they have to adapt to the new circumstances in their life. The new life situation has had an impact on the consumer’s well-being where depression, anxiety, and a feeling of being the underdog in the society is present. Their new life situation has implied a change in their consumption behavior since they nowadays have to prioritize the basic needs. Many of the respondents used explicit and implicit shopping-list in order to reduce their impulse buying. The contribution that the authors have done to the theory of resistance is a fourth category called ‘Everyday life resistance’ which explains the behavior of people who live in unemployment, i.e. they always have to think about resisting temptations, wants, desires, and avoiding situations where the result may be unnecessary consumption. The consumers in this study are highly involved in their consumption behavior, which the authors have chosen to call ‘reversed habitual decision making’. This kind of involvement is very high despite the high- or low risk category of the product. Their new life situation has made them more aware of product alternatives, market supply, prices, and also knowledge about their own resistance in the marketplace.
Love and satisfaction drive persistent stickiness: investigating international tourist hotel brands.

Switching resistance loyalty manifests in persistent stickiness to the incumbent brand as the sole choice in the presence of other attractive alternatives. Empirically, it is the crucial determinant of retaining customers for long duration. However, specific drivers of such loyalty in the hospitality and tourism brand categories are still unclear. The current study, integrating the brand love and customer satisfaction paradigms, addresses this issue with a focus on international tourist hotel brands. Brand love proves to be a powerful driver of switching resistance loyalty toward the hotel brand. Noteworthy, overall customer satisfaction serves to reinforce the loyalty-driving effect of brand love. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.