Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Social Theory of the WTO: Trading Cultures

List of Tables Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction: Trading Traditions: Straw Arguments in North-South Trade Theorizing the Uruguay Round: The Case for Constructivism Rethinking Trade Rules US Trade Policy: Mixed Messages Trading Roles Pro-Trade Policies: Creating Collective Identity Rethinking Power in the Trading Regime India Adopts a New Trading Strategy Conclusion References
The link between export relationship quality, performance and expectation of continuing the relationship

Purpose – The purpose of this study is threefold: to investigate how relationship quality affects export performance; to see if and to what extent export performance affects exporter satisfaction; and to determine whether exporter satisfaction ultimately affects the expectation of continuing the export-import relationship in an emerging market. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports the findings of a survey of 185 respondents from the ready-made garments industry in Bangladesh chosen from a convenience sample. The responding exporters were located in Dhaka city or nearby areas. The data were analyzed using the partial least squares technique. Findings – The results support four out of five hypotheses, indicating that there is a significant relationship between exporter relationship quality and financial and strategic export performance. Additionally, a positive relationship between financial export performance and exporter satisfaction and between exporter satisfaction and the expectation of cont.
The Impact of Earnings on the Pricing of Credit Default Swaps

Low density joint compounds, and methods for their use are disclosed. Joint compounds comprising water, calcium carbonate, a foaming agent, and a rheology modification agent contain a plurality of stable air bubbles. Joint compounds can have densities of about 4 pounds per gallon to about 8 pounds per gallon. A presently prepared composition has a density of about 4.8 pounds per gallon. A presently preferred foaming agent is a polyether siloxane copolymer. A presently preferred rheology modification agent is poly(ethylene oxide). The joint compounds can comprise additional components such as perlite, mica, talc, preservatives, and latex.
Distributed Bayesian Detection in the Presence of Byzantine Data

In this paper, we consider the problem of distributed Bayesian detection in the presence of Byzantines in the network. It is assumed that a fraction of the nodes in the network are compromised and reprogrammed by an adversary to transmit false information to the fusion center (FC) to degrade detection performance. The problem of distributed detection is formulated as a binary hypothesis test at the FC based on 1-bit data sent by the sensors. The expression for minimum attacking power required by the Byzantines to blind the FC is obtained. More specifically, we show that above a certain fraction of Byzantine attackers in the network, the detection scheme becomes completely incapable of utilizing the sensor data for detection. We analyze the problem under different attacking scenarios and derive results for different non-asymptotic cases. It is found that existing asymptotics-based results do not hold under several non-asymptotic scenarios. When the fraction of Byzantines is not sufficient to blind the FC, we also provide closed form expressions for the optimal attacking strategies for the Byzantines that most degrade the detection performance.
Decrease in Vitamin D Status in the Greenlandic Adult Population from 1987–2010

Background Low vitamin D status may be pronounced in Arctic populations due to limited sun exposure and decreasing intake of traditional food. Objective To investigate serum 25(OH)D3 as a measure of vitamin D status among adult Inuit in Greenland, predictors of low serum 25(OH)D3 concentrations and the trend from 1987 to 2005–2010. Design A total of 2877 randomly selected Inuit (≥18 years) from the Inuit Health in Transition study were included. A sub-sample (n = 330) donated a blood sample in 1987 which allowed assessment of time trends in vitamin D status. Results The geometric mean serum 25(OH)D3 (25[OH]D2 concentrations were negligible and not reported) in 2005–2010 was lowest among the 18–29 year old individuals (30.7 nmol/L; 95% CI: 29.7; 31.7) and increased with age. In all age-groups it decreased from 1987 to 2005–2010 (32%–58%). Low 25(OH)D3 concentrations (<50 nmol/L) were present in 77% of the 18–29 year old and decreased with age. A characteristic seasonal variation in 25(OH)D3 concentrations was observed (range 33.2–57.1 nmol/L, p<0.001), with the highest concentrations in August to October. Age (2.0% per year increase; CI: 1.7, 2.2), female gender (7.1%; CI: 2.0; 12.5), alcohol intake (0.2% per increase in drinks/week; 0.0; 0.4), and traditional diet (10.0% per 100 g/d increase; CI: 7.9; 12.1) were associated with increased serum 25(OH)D3, whereas smoking (−11.6%; CI: −16.2; −6.9), BMI (−0.6%; CI: −1.1; −0.2) and latitude (−0.7% per degree increase; CI: −1.3; −0.2) were associated with decreased concentrations. Conclusion We identified a remarkable decrease in vitamin D status from 1987 to 2005–2010 and a presently low vitamin D status among Inuit in Greenland. A change away from a traditional diet may well explain the observed decline. The study argues for the need of increased dietary intake of vitamin D and supplementation might be considered.
Evaluation of the effect of two different occlusal splints on maximum occlusal force in patients with sleep bruxism: a pilot study

PURPOSE The occlusal splint has been used for many years as an effective treatment of sleep bruxism. Several methods have been used to evaluate efficiency of the occlusal splints. However, the effect of the occlusal splints on occlusal force has not been clarified sufficiently. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of occlusal splints on maximum occlusal force in patients with sleep bruxism and compare two type of splints that are Bruxogard-soft splint and canine protected hard stabilization splint. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twelve students with sleep bruxism were participated in the present study. All participants used two different occlusal splints during sleep for 6 weeks. Maximum occlusal force was measured with two miniature strain-gage transducers before, 3 and 6 weeks after insertion of occlusal splints. Clinical examination of temporomandibular disorders was performed for all individuals according to the Craniomandibular Index (CMI) before and 6 weeks after the insertion of splints. The changes in mean occlusal force before, 3 and 6 weeks after insertion of both splints were analysed with paired sample t-test. The Wilcoxon test was used for the comparison of the CMI values before and 6 weeks after the insertion of splints. RESULTS Participants using stabilization splints showed no statistically significant changes in occlusal force before, 3, and 6 weeks after insertion of splint (P>.05) and participants using Bruxogard-soft splint had statistically significant decreased occlusal force 6 weeks after insertion of splint (P<.05). There was statistically significant improvement in the CMI value of the participants in both of the splint groups (P<.05). CONCLUSION Participants who used Bruxogard-soft splint showed decreases in occlusal force 6 weeks after insertion of splint. The use of both splints led to a significant reduction in the clinical symptoms.
The Relation between Homework Compliance and Treatment Outcome for Individuals with Social Phobia

Homework compliance has been identified as a robust predictor of treatment outcome for depression and, to a lesser extent, anxiety disorders, including social phobia. The current study tested the following hypotheses: (1) homework compliance is positively related to ratings of global improvement, (2) homework compliance is negatively related to symptom reduction, (3) the relation between homework compliance and treatment outcome varies according to the nature of the homework exercise, and (4) expectancy is positively related to early homework compliance, in a clinical sample of individuals with social phobia. Results provided limited support for the relation between compliance and ratings of improvement, but did not support a negative relation between compliance and symptom reduction. Further, the results provided limited support for the hypothesis that compliance with exposure versus non-exposure homework would differ significantly in terms of their relation to treatment outcome, but did not support the relation between compliance and expectancy. iv DEDICATION I would like to thank my family and friends for your continued love and encouragement. I have been humbled by the tremendous amount of support that I have received and will be forever grateful. Thank you for all that you have done and all that you will continue to do to help me achieve my dreams, it is only through each and every one of you that these dreams may become a reality. I would also like to dedicate this thesis to the loving memory of two extraordinarily important women, my Mom and my aunt Nang, who both raised and influenced me in so many special ways. Though I am deeply saddened that the two of you cannot be here, with me, now to celebrate this accomplishment, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to share my goals and dreams with each of you as I embarked upon my graduate school journey. I am comforted in knowing that your belief in me never faded. This accomplishment would not have been possible without your unwavering love and encouragement. Thank you both for always believing in me and for giving me the strength and courage to believe in myself. I miss and love you both more than you can imagine.
Amino acid similarity matrices based on force fields

MOTIVATION We propose a general method for deriving amino acid substitution matrices from low resolution force fields. Unlike current popular methods, the approach does not rely on evolutionary arguments or alignment of sequences or structures. Instead, residues are computationally mutated and their contribution to the total energy/score is collected. The average of these values over each position within a set of proteins results in a substitution matrix. RESULTS Example substitution matrices have been calculated from force fields based on different philosophies and their performance compared with conventional substitution matrices. Although this can produce useful substitution matrices, the methodology highlights the virtues, deficiencies and biases of the source force fields. It also allows a rather direct comparison of sequence alignment methods with the score functions underlying protein sequence to structure threading. AVAILABILITY Example substitution matrices are available from http://www.rsc. anu.edu. au/~zsuzsa/suppl/matrices.html. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION The list of proteins used for data collection and the optimized parameters for the alignment are given as supplementary material at http://www.rsc. anu.edu. au/~zsuzsa/suppl/matrices.html.
Snapshots of grammaticalization: Differential electrophysiological responses to grammatical anomalies with increasing L2 exposure

It is frequently observed that second language (L2) learners show significant problems producing inflectional morphology. For example, many researchers have shown that L2 learners in the early stages of acquisition may show no function words or morphemes in their speech (Klein & Perdue, 1997; Vainikka & Young-Scholten, 1996) and that morphological errors may persist even in advanced learners who otherwise have a strong command of the L2’s syntax (Herschensohn, 2001; Lardiere, 2007; White, 2003). While it is clear that acquiring and producing L2 inflectional morphology may present a formidable task to learners, much less is known about how and at what rate learners integrate L2 morphological knowledge into their real-time comprehension and processing system. Furthermore, little is known about the stages learners pass though during acquisition of L2 inflectional morphology. This study therefore investigates the processing of agreement morphology in the early stages of L2 acquisition using event-related potentials (ERPs). In particular, we focus on the processing of subject-verb agreement in beginning and intermediate native English speakers acquiring German as an L2. Subject-verb agreement is a feature present in many Indo-European languages, including both English (I drink beer vs. He drinks beer) and German (Ich trinke Bier vs. Er trinkt Bier). The grammatical features underlying knowledge of such agreement in native speakers is fairly well understood (see e.g., Corbett, 2006) and processing of agreement has been actively studied in the native language speech production (e.g., Bock & Miller, 1991; Vigliocco & Nicol, 1998) and comprehension literature (e.g., Nicol, Forster, & Veres, 1997; Osterhout & Mobley, 1995; Pearlmutter, Garnsey, & Bock, 1999). With regard to processing agreement in comprehension, behavioral measures of processing such as timed reading and eye tracking have shown that agreement mismatches, such as *The key to the cabinets were rusty elicit longer eye fixation and reading times and more regressive eye movements at the offending verb than agreement matches, even when the subjects were asked simply to read for comprehension
Valuing nested names in the Portuguese olive oil market: An exploratory study

The Portuguese olive oil market had a remarkable development in recent years. Production is rising steadily is response to a EU program supporting a renewal of olive groves. Moreover there is a proliferation of national brands and private labels. These are often associated to regional collective labels or to organic production. The aim of our research is to determine how consumers value these nested names or co-brands. We conducted a pilot survey on a convenience sample of 103 consumers in the Oporto and Lisbon metropolitan areas as well in a rural area. Our results reveal some contradictions, for instance while origin is an important purchasing criteria, few PDO olive oils are recognized. Moreover, only 25% of respondents identify organic olive oils sold in the market and this attribute is one of the last purchasing criteria, but organic olive oils have the highest willingness to pay. Finally we find that associating a PDO to private labels increases willingness to pay by 33.3%, but doesn’t affect valuation of national brands. While we can’t take definite conclusions our findings give us interesting cues for future research. Therefore we aim to investigate whether regional identity, alternative usage and health or environmental conscience determine of affect valuation and choices of different olive oils brands and labels.
The CryoLoop facilitates re-vitrification of embryos at four successive stages of development without impairing embryo growth.

BACKGROUND Vitrification has been shown to be an effective method of cryopreservation, but little is known about re-vitrification of embryos. This study investigated the effect of re-vitrification on mouse embryo preimplantation development and viability post-transfer. METHODS Mouse embryos at the 1-cell stage were vitrified using the CryoLoop technique. Embryos were warmed and then re-vitrified successively at the 2-, 8-cell and blastocyst stages. The effects of multiple rounds of vitrification on development, differentiation and viability were assessed and compared with non-vitrified embryos. RESULTS Development to the 8-cell stage on day 3 and blastocyst on day 5 were not affected by re-vitrification. However, better hatching rates were observed in the non-vitrified control group. Total cell number and the number of cells allocated to the inner cell mass (ICM) were not different between treatments. The percentage of ICM development was also not different between treatments. Implantation rate and fetal weights were the same between treatments. However, overall there were fewer fetuses per embryo transferred in the re-vitrified group. CONCLUSION Re-vitrification of mouse embryos has minimal effect on preimplantation embryo development or implantation potential.
Training Agents to Perform Sequential Behavior

This article is concerned with training an agent to perform sequential behavior. In previous work, we have been applying reinforcement learning techniques to control a reactive agent. Obviously, a purely reactive system is limited in the kind of interactions it can learn. In particular, it can learn what we call pseudosequences—that is, sequences of actions in which each action is selected on the basis of current sensory stimuli. It cannot learn proper sequences, in which actions must be selected also on the basis of some internal state. Moreover, it is a result of our research that effective learning of proper sequences is improved by letting the agent and the trainer communicate. First, we consider trainer-to-agent communication, introducing the concept of reinforcement sensor, which lets the learning robot explicitly know whether the last reinforcement was a reward or a punishment. We also show how the use of this sensor makes error recovery rules emerge. Then we introduce agent-to-trainer communication, which is used to disambiguate ambiguous training situations—that is, situations in which the observation of the agent's behavior does not provide the trainer with enough information to decide whether the agent's move is right or wrong. We also show an alternative solution to the problem of ambiguous situations, which involves learning to coordinate behavior in a simpler, unambiguous setting and then transferring what has been learned to a more complex situation. All the design choices we make are discussed and compared by means of experiments in a simulated world.
Functional Traits and Niche-Based Tree Community Assembly in an Amazonian Forest

It is debated whether species-level differences in ecological strategy, which play a key role in much of coexistence theory, are important in structuring highly diverse communities. We examined the co-occurrence patterns of over 1100 tree species in a 25-hectare Amazonian forest plot in relation to field-measured functional traits. Using a null model approach, we show that co-occurring trees are often less ecologically similar than a niche-free (neutral) model predicts. Furthermore, we find evidence for processes that simultaneously drive convergence and divergence in key aspects of plant strategy, suggesting that at least two distinct niche-based processes are occurring. Our results show that strategy differentiation among species contributes to the maintenance of diversity in one of the most diverse tropical forests in the world.
Argus Prime: Modeling Emergent Microstrategies in a Complex, Simulated Task Environment

Cognition, perception, and motor actions weave a tangled web. At times, the three may proceed independently of each other. At other times, they may have complex, sequential dependencies such as, for example, when the decision to click on a button waits for perception to return to cognition the information that the cursor and button objects are co-located. Indeed, much of what is commonly called cognitive workload may have less to do with cognition and more to do with an interface-induced tangle of cognition with perception with motor actions. In this paper, we describe a simulated task environment (Gray, in preparation), Argus Prime, and an approach to modeling the tangled web of interactions induced by its interface.
Non-Visual Effects of Light on Melatonin, Alertness and Cognitive Performance: Can Blue-Enriched Light Keep Us Alert?

Background Light exposure can cascade numerous effects on the human circadian process via the non-imaging forming system, whose spectral relevance is highest in the short-wavelength range. Here we investigated if commercially available compact fluorescent lamps with different colour temperatures can impact on alertness and cognitive performance. Methods Sixteen healthy young men were studied in a balanced cross-over design with light exposure of 3 different light settings (compact fluorescent lamps with light of 40 lux at 6500K and at 2500K and incandescent lamps of 40 lux at 3000K) during 2 h in the evening. Results Exposure to light at 6500K induced greater melatonin suppression, together with enhanced subjective alertness, well-being and visual comfort. With respect to cognitive performance, light at 6500K led to significantly faster reaction times in tasks associated with sustained attention (Psychomotor Vigilance and GO/NOGO Task), but not in tasks associated with executive function (Paced Visual Serial Addition Task). This cognitive improvement was strongly related with attenuated salivary melatonin levels, particularly for the light condition at 6500K. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the sensitivity of the human alerting and cognitive response to polychromatic light at levels as low as 40 lux, is blue-shifted relative to the three-cone visual photopic system. Thus, the selection of commercially available compact fluorescent lights with different colour temperatures significantly impacts on circadian physiology and cognitive performance at home and in the workplace.
The Economic Development of Barbados

In The Economic Development of Barbados, Michael Howard discusses mainly economic factors influencing Barbadian economic development since the Second World War. He provides an interpretation of the role of foreign investment and public policy in the development process, within the conceptual framework of institutional structural analysis. The primary focus of this book is Sir Arthur Lewis's model of industrialization, sometimes known as the Puerto Rican model, which determined the dependent path of the economy after 1960. Howard evaluates the economic consequences of this model with reference to the agricultural, manufacturing, tourism and external sectors of the economy. He also identifies some of the policy issues facing the government in the context of globalization. Howard concludes that although Barbados has achieved a commendable level of development, with the services sector as the main engine of growth, structural weaknesses remain in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. This highly readable text is a valuable addition to the development literature. readers, including development economists, students and policy makers.
Mobilizing Culture, Language, and Educational Practices

In commemorating the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision, this lecture also honors the Mendez v. Westminster case of 1946, a successful challenge to the segregated schooling of Mexican and Mexican American students in California. The author summarizes the Mendez case, its relation to Brown, and its sociocultural aspects, including educational conditions at the time, the collective and intercultural agency of the participants, and the process by which the Méndez family successfully brought the case to fruition. With this case as backdrop, the author then addresses contemporary educational issues and presents educational innovations that, much like Brown and Mendez, seek to mobilize the social, cultural, and linguistic processes of diverse communities as the most important resources for producing positive educational change.