Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trade Policy Inconsistency and Maize Price Volatility: An ARCH Approach in Kenya

The 2007-2008 food crisis and current food price swings led economists to re-evaluate the potential for policy instruments to manage food price volatility. When world prices are unstable, the use of import tariffs in importing countries to stabilize price is theoretically not the first best policy. But in practice many countries use import tariffs with intention to stabilize price - and other reasons-, which sometimes achieve some price stabilization, sometimes not. We address the question why is this policy sometimes a success and sometimes a failure? In the context of Kenya, we show that while domestic price levels are mainly explained by seasonal cycles, pluri-annual cycles, and international prices, domestic price volatility is mainly explained by inconsistent moves of trade policy. Thus, the ability of a policy regime to lower food price volatility does not depend on the nature of the policy instrument only, but also on the government ability to implement it. We define a consistent policy adjustment as a tariff decrease when world price increases and a tariff increase when world price is decreasing. We use an autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic model of price determination in which prices and prices volatility are jointly estimated, using monthly data over the 1994-2009 period in Kenya.
Supporting Everyday Philanthropy: Care Work In Situ and at Scale

Prior research has drawn attention to numerous problems with ICTs designed for philanthropic contexts. Yet, little is known about how to support philanthropic work in its own right, especially as it transcends formal engagements with nonprofit organizations and suffuses everyday life. In this research, we draw on data from a 33-day mobile diary study augmented by follow-up interviews to examine the work of everyday philanthropy. By taking individuals' philanthropic work-rather than a specific technology or its users-as our unit of analysis, we establish an empirical foundation for a new design space for philanthropic informatics. Our research shows that philanthropic work is not just about transactions of money, goods, or services. Instead, we argue that a lens of care work is a more useful framing of everyday philanthropy. We also draw renewed attention to the myriad roles of institutions beyond that of a resource intermediary.
Extrinsic Evaluation of Automatic Metrics for Summarization

This paper describes extrinsic-task evaluation of summarization. We show that it is possible to save time using summaries for relevance assessment without adversely impacting the degree of accuracy that would be possible with full documents. In addition, we demonstrate that the extrinsic task we have selected exhibits a high degree of interannotator agreement, i.e., consistent relevance decisions across subjects. We also conducted a composite experiment that better reflects the actual document selection process and found that using a surrogate improves the processing speed over reading the entire document. Finally, we have found a small yet statistically significant correlation between some of the intrinsic measures and a user's performance in an extrinsic task. The overall conclusion we can draw at this point is that ROUGE-1 does correlate with precision and to a somewhat lesser degree with accuracy, but that it remains to be investigated how stable these correlations are and how differences in ROUGE-1 translate into significant differences in human performance in an extrinsic task.
Entrepreneurial Under-Diversification: Over Optimism and Overconfidence

Our model wants to explain how overconfidence and over optimism lead entrepreneurs to overinvest in their companies, underestimating risks and overestimating expected returns. The entrepreneur has to choose which part of her wealth to invest in her private company and which one in the stock market. Overconfidence and over optimism are parameters in our model, and they bias the entrepreneurâ€™s portfolio allocation. With a simulation analysis, we calculate overconfidence and over optimism levels implicit in the entrepreneurs' observable portfolio, instead of using proxies or indirect measures. Our explicit measure of entrepreneurial under-diversification could be used in empirical analyses.
Age-Related Modulation of the Effects of Obesity on Gene Expression Profiles of Mouse Bone Marrow and Epididymal Adipocytes

This study aimed to characterize and compare the effects of obesity on gene expression profiles in two distinct adipose depots, epididymal and bone marrow, at two different ages in mice. Alterations in gene expression were analyzed in adipocytes isolated from diet-induced obese (DIO) C57BL/6J male mice at 6 and 14 months of age and from leptin deficient mice (ob/ob) at 6 months of age using microarrays. DIO affected gene expression in both depots at 6 and 14 months, but more genes were altered in epididymal than bone marrow adipocytes at each age and younger mice displayed more changes than older animals. In epididymal adipocytes a total of 2789 (9.6%) genes were differentially expressed at 6-months with DIO, whereas 952 (3.3%) were affected at 14-months. In bone marrow adipocytes, 347 (1.2%) genes were differentially expressed at 6-months with DIO, whereas only 189 (0.66%) were changed at 14-months. 133 genes were altered by DIO in both fat depots at 6-months, and 37 genes at 14-months. Only four genes were altered in both depots at both ages with DIO. Bone marrow adipocytes are less responsive to DIO than epididymal adipocytes and the response of both depots to DIO declines with age. This loss of responsiveness with age is likely due to age-associated changes in expression of genes related to adipogenesis, inflammation and mitochondrial function that are similar to and obscure the changes commonly associated with DIO. Patterns of gene expression were generally similar in epididymal adipocytes from ob/ob and DIO mice; however, several genes were differentially expressed in bone marrow adipocytes from ob/ob and DIO mice, perhaps reflecting the importance of leptin signaling for bone metabolism. In conclusion, obesity affects age-associated alterations in gene expression in both epididymal and bone marrow adipocytes regardless of diet or genetic background.
CONNECTIONIST FEATURE EXTRACTION FOR CONVENTIONAL HMM SYSTEMS

Hidden Markov model speech recognition systems typically use Gaussian mixture models to estimate the distributions of decorrelated acoustic feature vectors that correspond to individual subword units. By contrast, hybrid connectionist-HMM systems use discriminatively-trained neural networks to estimate the probability distribution among subword units given the acoustic observations. In this work we show a large improvement in word recognition performance by combining neural-net discriminative feature processing with Gaussian-mixture distribution modeling. By training the network to generate the subword probability posteriors, then using transformations of these estimates as the base features for a conventionally-trained Gaussian-mixture based system, we achieve relative error rate reductions of 35% or more on the multicondition AURORA noisy continuous digits task.
The Effects of Different Media on Shoot Proliferation From the Shoot Tip of Aloe vera L.

Background Aloe vera L. is an important pharmaceutical plant from which several medicinal and cosmetic compounds are extracted. Aloe is naturally propagated through offset, which is a slow and expensive labor cost method with low economical income. Objectives In this study, the effect of different media on shoot proliferation of the shoot tip of Aloe vera L. was investigated. Materials and Methods In vitro techniques are some of the suggested methods for rapid propagation of Aloe. In this experiment, the shoot tips of mother plants were grown in a greenhouse. After surface sterilization of the explants, they were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (1962) (MS) medium containing different concentrations of kinetin and naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). The experiment was carried out in the form of a randomized complete design with three replications. Results The results showed that MS media containing 1.5 mg/L kinetin along with 0.15 or 0.3 mg/L NAA produced the highest percentage of proliferated shoots. In addition, the percentage of proliferated shoots in MS medium containing 2.0 or 2.5 mg/L benzylaminopurine (BAP) + 0.15 mg/L NAA was significantly higher than the other treatments. Conclusions Analysis of the interactive effects of NAA, kinetin and BAP on shoot proliferation showed that most of the proliferated shoots produced in MS medium containing 1.0 mg/L BAP + 1.0 mg/L kinetin + 0.15 mg/L NAA were significantly different from other treatments. Rooting quality was greater in MS media containing 1.0 mg/L IBA than a 1.0 mg/L NAA treatment.
SOM-based methodology for building large text archives

Not only have self-organizing maps (SOMs), such as the WEBSOM, been shown to scale up to very large datasets, these maps also allow for a novel mode of navigating through a large collection of text documents. The entire text collection is presented to a user as a regular map, where each point in the map is associated to a group of documents that are likely to be composed of similar terms and phrases. In addition, the closer two points are in the map, the more similar are their respective associated documents. Thus, once an interesting document is found in the map, the user just has to click around the vicinity of that document to retrieve other similar documents. A major drawback of SOMs, however, is the long training time required, especially for document collections where both the volume and the dimensionality are huge. We demonstrate how the size of the initial text collection is progressively and drastically reduced from the raw document collection to the final SOM-based text archive. We demonstrate this using a widely studied Reuters collection.
Both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism enhance low density lipoprotein oxidation.

Hypothyroidism is frequently associated with hypercholesterolemia and an increased risk for atherosclerosis, whereas hyperthyroidism is known to precipitate angina or myocardial infarction in patients with underlying coronary heart disease. We have shown previously that L-T4 functions as an antioxidant in vitro and inhibits low density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation in a dose-dependent fashion. The present study was designed to evaluate the changes in LDL oxidation in subjects with hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Fasting blood samples for LDL oxidation analyses, lipoprotein determinations, and thyroid function tests were collected at baseline and after the patients were rendered euthyroid. The lag phase (mean +/- SEM hours) of the Cu+2-catalyzed LDL oxidation in the hypothyroid state and the subsequent euthyroid states were 4 +/- 0.0. 65 and 14 +/- 0.68 h, respectively (P < 0.05). The lag phase during the hyperthyroid phase was 6 +/- 0.55 h, and that during the euthyroid phase was 12 +/- 0.66 h (P < 0.05). The total and LDL cholesterol levels were higher in hypothyroidism than in euthyroidism and were lower in hyperthyroidism than in the euthyroid state. We conclude that LDL has more susceptibility to oxidation in both the hypothyroid and hyperthyroid states. Thus, the enhanced LDL oxidation may play a role in the cardiac disease process in both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism.
Comparison of immune responses in patients infected with Vibrio cholerae O139 and O1

Vibrio cholerae O139 has recently emerged as the second etiologic agent of cholera in Asia. A study was carried out to evaluate the induction of specific immune responses to the organism in V. cholerae O139-infected patients. The immune responses to V. cholerae O139 Bengal were studied in patients by measuring antibody-secreting cells (ASC), as well as vibriocidal and antitoxic antibodies in the circulation. These responses were compared with those in patients with V. cholerae O1 disease. Strong immunoglobulin A (IgA) and IgM ASC responses were seen against the homologous lipopolysaccharide or serogroup of V. cholerae. The magnitude and isotype of the responses were similar in O139- and O1-infected patients. Vibriocidal antibody responses were seen against bacteria of the homologous but not heterologous serogroup, and these responses reflect the lack of cross-protection between the infections caused by the two serogroups. The two groups of patients showed comparable cholera toxin-specific ASC responses, with the IgG isotype dominating over the IgA isotype, as well as comparable antitoxic immune responses in plasma. These results suggest that despite having a polysaccharide capsule, V. cholerae O139 induces systemic and intestine-derived ASC responses in peripheral blood comparable to those seen in patients with V. cholerae O1 disease.
A mixed reality approach for interactively blending dynamic models with corresponding physical phenomena

The design, visualization, manipulation, and implementation of models for computer simulation are key parts of the discipline. Models are constructed as a means to understand physical phenomena as state changes occur over time. One issue that arises is the need to correlate models and their components with the phenomena being modeled. For example, a part of an automotive engine needs to be placed into cognitive context with the diagrammatic icon that represents that part's function. A typical solution to this problem is to display a dynamic model of the engine in one window and the engine's CAD model in another. Users are expected to, on their own, mentally blend the dynamic model and the physical phenomenon into the same context. However, this contextualization is not trivial in many applications. Our approach expands upon this form of user interaction by specifying two ways in which dynamic models and the corresponding physical phenomena may be viewed, and experimented with, within the same human interaction space. We present a methodology and implementation of contextualization for diagram-based dynamic models using an anesthesia machine, and then follow up with a human study of its effects on spatial cognition.
Algorithms for selecting parameters of combination of acyclic adjacency graphs in the problem of texture image processing

Nowadays the great interest of researchers in the problem of processing the interrelated data arrays including images is retained. In the modern theory of machine learning, the problem of image processing is often viewed as a problem in the field of graph models. Image pixels constitute a unique array of interrelated elements. The interrelations between array elements are represented by an adjacency graph. The problem of image processing is often solved by minimizing Gibbs energy associated with corresponding adjacency graphs. The crucial disadvantage of Gibbs approach is that it requires empirical specifying of appropriate energy functions on cliques. In the present work, we investigate a simpler, but not less effective model, which is an expansion of the Markov chain theory. Our approach to image processing is based on the idea of replacing the arbitrary adjacency graphs by tree-like (acyclic in general) ones and linearly combining of acyclic Markov models in order to get the best quality of restoration of hidden classes. In this work, we propose algorithms for tuning combination of acyclic adjacency graphs.
Updateable PAT-Tree Approach to Chinese Key PhraseExtraction using Mutual Information: A Linguistic Foundation for Knowledge Management

There has been renewed research interest in using the statistical approach to extraction of key phrases from Chinese documents because existing approaches do not allow online frequency updates after phrases have been extracted. This consequently results in inaccurate, partial extraction. In this paper, we present an updateable PAT-tree approach. In our experiment, we compared our approach with that of Lee-Feng Chien with that showed an improvement in recall from 0.19 to 0.43 and in precision from 0.52 to 0.70. This paper also reviews the requirements for a data structure that facilitates implementation of any statistical approaches to key-phrase extraction, including PATtree, PAT-array and suffix array with semi-infinite strings.
Determinant of Successful Technology Sector

This study uses path dependence and analysis of feedback structures to identify the determinants for developing a successful technology sector in Israel during the 1990s. The four determinants introduced in the study are: Entrepreneurship, Knowledge Base in the form of academy R&D, industry R&D and military R&D, Financial Base in the form of venture capital and exit market and, Government programs that were specifically designed to stimulate the development of entrepreneurial technology sector. We present a Causal model of the development of technology sector in Israel and discuss its generic applicability.
Control of capacitors in distribution networks using neural network based on radial basis function

This paper proposes a method for real-time control of capacitors in a distribution system to reduce the total power loss and to improve the voltage profile. Traditionally, this problem of optimal capacitor switching has been solved through various optimizations techniques. However, as the time taken by these traditional optimization methods are quite significant, these methods may not be much suitable for online application. Artificial neural networks (ANN) are an efficient method for prediction in many systems developed in recent years. The radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) method has the advantages of rapid training, generality and simplicity over feed-forward neural network. It is shown that the proposed network can overcome the drawbacks of conventional methods. The proposed schemes are tested and results verify the effectiveness of this approach.
Food Demand In Urban China: An Application Of A Multi-Stage Censored Demand System

Since its economic reform, China has changed significantly as it makes its transition from a centrally-planned to a consumer-oriented economy and thus has gradually increased household income and changed consumption patterns in urban China. This study attempts to provide an in-depth understanding of heterogeneous consumer patterns in urban China by developing a multi-stage censored demand system using household data. Specifically, this study develops an economic model considering heterogeneous consumption patterns across households and commodity groupings and estimates econometric models of a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QAIDS) using household data. Three methodologies are integrated including constructing a multi-stage demand system, incorporating demographic variables using the 'ordinary budget share scaling and translation' (OBSSAT), and employing a two-step estimator to deal with zero consumption problems. This study covers three provinces in China, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Guangdong, and uses household data from 1998 provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Based on the Chinese food guide pyramid, a three-level utility tree is constructed dividing 18 food items into five subgroups. An empirical analysis is conducted by estimating econometric models to examine the impact of the potential factors, e.g., income and demographic variables, on food demand. The results show the uniqueness of this study in three dimensions. First, using the OBSSAT helps answer the question of "how to break down the heterogeneous consumption patterns in urban China? " In addition, our findings also show that China should be treated as several markets instead of one. Second, the QAIDS has not previously been applied to the study of food demand in urban China. Our results show that the QAIDS is superior to the AIDS; however, the degree of importance for the quadratic term decreases as demographic and censoring effects are considered in a demand system. Finally, 18 food items are broken down into five food subgroups and are estimated by a multi-stage censored QAIDS. Including this large food bundle in a demand system provides us detailed information of the relationship among food items.
Empirical pathloss characterization for Oman

This paper attempts to provide some insight into the nature of radio propagation in that part of the spectrum (UHF) used by experimenters. As we know that the need for high quality and high capacity networks and estimating coverage accurately has become extremely important. Therefore, for more accurate design coverage of modern cellular networks, signal strength measurements must be taken in consideration, in order to provide an efficient and reliable coverage area. This paper addresses the applicability of Okumura-Hata model in Al Khuwair, Oman in GSM frequency band of 890-960 MHz. The study was carried out for urban area only, since measurements provided from local service provider were about the urban areas. The mean square error (MSE) was calculated between measured path loss values and those predicated on basis of Okumura-Hata model for this area. We accomplish the modification of model by investigating the variation in pathloss between the measured and predicted values, according to the Okumura-Hata propagation model for a cell in Al-Khuwair city and then finding the missing experimental data with spline and cubic regression. The selected model was considered the most suitable after initial study of several other models (not the scope of current study). The mean square error (MSE) was calculated between measured path loss values and those predicated on basis of Okumura-Hata model for an urban area. The MSE is up to 6dB, which is an acceptable value for the signal prediction. The obtained experimental data is compared and analyzed further using a cubic regression on the set of the experimental data. Scatter plot of the experimental data on path loss verses distance reveals a third order polynomial trend in the experimental data. Therefore the cubic regression model was fitted using method of least squares which estimates the parameters by minimizing sum of squares of the white noise. The coefficient of determination of this regression suggested that more than 90% variation in path loss can be explained.
The Economics of Uncovered Interest Parity Condition for Emerging Markets: A Survey

Financial account liberalizations since the second half of the 1980s paved way for the burgeoning literature that investigates foreign exchange market efficiency in emerging markets via testing for the uncovered interest parity (UIP) condition. This paper provides a broad and critical survey on this recent literature as well as a general understanding on the topic through reviewing the related literature on developed economies where recent methodological advances in time series econometrics have provided favorable results, questioning the previously documented UIP puzzle. The literature on emerging markets suggests that these countries deserve a special treatment by taking into account the existence of additional types of risk premia, high inflation episodes, financial contagion, peso problem, simultaneity problem, asymmetricity, and the determination of de facto structural breaks.