Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Distribution of Social Services in Madagascar, 1993-1999

While a number of benefit incidence studies of public expenditures have been carried out for African countries, there are very few studies that look at how the incidence of such expenditures has been changing over time. We use three rounds of nation-wide household surveys to analyze the distribution of public expenditures on education and health services in Madagascar over the decade of the 90s, a period of little economic growth but significant changes in social sector organization and budgets. Education and health services for the most part are found to be distributed more equally than household expenditures: therefore, they serve to redistribute welfare from the rich to the poor. By stricter standards of progressivity, however, public services do poorly. Few services other than primary schooling accrue disproportionately to the poor in absolute terms. When we further adjust for differences in the numbers of potential beneficiaries in different expenditure quintiles (e.g., school-age children in the case of education), none of the education or health benefits considered appear to target the poor while several target the non-poor. We also find significant disparities in the use of services between rural and urban areas, and by province. On the other hand, for both education and health services, no notable gender differences exist in coverage. With regard to changes over the decade, primary enrollments rose sharply and also become significantly more progressive; since the country experienced little or no growth in household incomes during the period, this apparently reflects supply rather than demand side factors. The improvement in equity in public schooling occurred in part because the enrollment growth was in effect regionally targeted: it occurred only in rural areas, which are poorer.
Indoor determinants of dustborne allergens in Mexican homes

Exposure to indoor allergens represents a significant risk factor for allergies and asthma in several parts of the world. In Mexico, few studies have evaluated indoor allergens, including cat, dog, and mouse allergens and the factors that predict their presence. This study evaluates the main environmental and household predictors of high prenatal allergen levels and multiple allergen exposures in a birth cohort from Mexico City. A cross-sectional study was conducted as part of a birth cohort study of 1094 infants recruited during pregnancy and followed until delivery. We collected dust samples in a subset of 264 homes and assessed environmental factors. Der p 1, Der f 1, dust mite group 2, Fel d 1, Can f 1, Rat n 1, Mus m 1, and Bla g 2 concentrations in dust samples were measured using immunoassays. To define detectable allergen levels, the lowest limits of detection for each allergen were taken as cutoff points. Overall allergen exposure was considered high when four or more allergens exceeded detectable levels in the same household. Logistic regression was used for predictive models. Eighty-five percent of homes had at least one allergen in dust over the detection limit, 52.1% had high exposure (four or more allergens above detectable limits), and 11.7% of homes had detectable levels for more than eight allergens. Der p 1, Der p 2, Mus m 1, and Fel d 1 were the most frequent allergens detected. Each allergen had both common and distinct predictors. The main predictors of a high multiple allergen index were the size of the home, pesticide use, mother's age, mother as homemaker, and season. Increased indoor environmental allergen exposure is mainly related to sociodemographic factors and household cleaning.
Redesigning the Camel

The European Union (EU) implemented the Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)1 in January 2003. It was one of a number of measures whose objectives included imposing extended producer responsibility (EPR), an idea that is naturally appealing to industrial ecologists: promoting closed-loop use of resources by making producers responsible for their own end-of-life (EoL) products so that they have an incentive to design those products for dismantling, with recyclable materials and reusable components. For example, the European Commission’s (EC’s) green paper2 on integrated product policy states that “the concept of producer responsibility . encourages prevention at the design stage and allows consumers to bring back end-of-life products free of charge. ” Costs do not currently provide this encouragement, largely because primary resources are undervalued (Clift and Wright 2000), so that if EPR is to be promoted, it must be done by regulation.
Combined Nodal Method and Finite Volume Method for Flow in Porous Media

This paper describes a numerical solution for two dimensional partial differential equations modeling (or arising from) a fluid flow and transport phenomena. The diffusion equation is discretized by the Nodal methods. The saturation equation is solved by a finite volume method. We start with incompressible single-phase flow and move step-by-step to the black-oil model and compressible two phase flow. Numerical results are presented to see the performance of the method, and seem to be interesting by comparing them with other recent results.
ASIC hardware implementation of the IDEA NXT encryption algorithm

Symmetric-key block ciphers are often used to provide data confidentiality with low complexity, especially in the case of dedicated hardware implementations. IDEA NXT is a novel block cipher family, which has many interesting features and is targeted to multimedia streaming encryption. Different values can be assigned to the hardware architecture parameters in order to scale the security and the performance of the cipher. In this paper, we implement the IDEA NXT algorithm in custom silicon, using a commercial technology library; different optimizations are applied in order to satisfy different constraints in terms of latency and area occupation, maintaining a high level of security. After giving an overview of the IDEA NXT design, a discussion of the implementation choices and trade offs is given, highlighting the similarities and the main differences with regards to other block ciphers. To the authors' knowledge this is the first paper describing such work
The effects of more realistic forms of lead heterogeneity in soil on uptake, biomass and root response of two brassica species

The spatial heterogeneity of soil constituents is known to have significant impacts on plant growth and plant uptake of nutrients and contaminants, yet studies have rarely used patterns of heterogeneity based on those found in the field. Heterogeneity refers to how lumpy materials are distributed in the soil, whilst homogeneity is the uniformity in the distribution of such materials. We identified patterns of lead contamination at historically polluted field sites and conducted pot trials using field–based parameters to determine the pattern of distribution of lead within the pots. We examined plant Pb uptake and growth in simulated low, medium and high heterogeneity environments as well as a control homogeneous treatment. We found a significant effect of Pb spatial heterogeneity on uptake and biomass of two Brassica species (Brassica napus and Brassica juncea), both candidate species for phytoremediation projects. Biomass was 4 to 5 fold lower in the high heterogeneity treatment and total plant Pb uptake as Pb mass in (µg) was 40 to 80% lower, compared to the homogeneous treatment. Plant lead concentration (mg/kg) increased by a factor of 2 with increasing heterogeneity. Peak uptake was observed in low and medium heterogeneity treatments of B. napus and B. juncea respectively. We also explored roots behaviour in the high heterogeneity treatment and found variation in root mass by 20 to 80% between concentric patches with significant (P < 0.05) differences between patches and species. High proportion of roots (40 to 50%) were proliferated in patches of lower Pb concentration. The tap root was a greater proportion of root in B. napus, which was absent in B. juncea. Results suggest that root morphology of this plant species might be a factor influencing the placement of roots in concentric patches and consequently the overall root response to Pb spatial heterogeneity. This is an indication that the root response could be realistic of that experienced by plants in field conditions. Generally result showed that spatial heterogeneity of Pb has a significant effect on plant growth and biomass. This study also demonstrated that the presence and extent of in situ heterogeneity of Pb in soil plays an important role in Pb uptake by plants. This work has implications for improving the phytoremediation of Pb contaminated land, phytomining, the reliability of risk assessment/models of human exposure to Pb and the quality of trace mineral content of agricultural produce.
Technical analysis and the profitability of U.S. foreign exchange intervention

This article reconciles an apparent contradiction found by recent research on U.S. intervention in foreign exchange markets. LeBaron (1996) and Szakmary and Mathur (1997) show that extrapolative technical trading rules trade against U.S. foreign exchange intervention and produce excess returns during intervention periods. Leahy (1995) shows that U.S. intervention itself is profitable over long periods of time. In other words, technical trades make excess returns when they take positions contrary to U.S. intervention - U.S. intervention itself is profitable, however. This article will first present recent research on these subjects. Then it will discuss how differing investment horizons and varying returns and position sizes may reconcile these facts.
From on-Premises to on-demand: Learning from Two Cases of Transformation of Software Companies

The software industry is facing a fundamental change from On-premises to On-demand software. To survive, well-established companies have to adjust strategies and governance. One of the most difficult challenges is to shift the focus from the (still) profitable On-premises market to an, as yet unprofitable, On-demand market. This requires a major rethink for managers as well as for company structuring. Based on our case studies and Christensen’s theory for managing disruptive innovations, we wish to learn from software companies and their transformation strategies to discover to what extent the theory’s recommendations are applicable for software companies. We have seen that a company needs an effective strategy in order to survive market changes. From our two cases we learned that a successful transformation strategy consists of the combination of Christensen’s recommendations, its individual adjustments as well as some additional strategies. We were able to develop seven propositions for software providers to give ideas in order to better cope with the transformation process.
Mutual Fund Capital Gain Distributions and the Tax Reform Act of 1997

This paper studies long-and short-term capital gains distributions around the time of the Tax Reform Act of 1997, which lowered the maximum tax rate on long-term gains. Using a panel of mutual fund data, I find that fund managers appear to tilt their distributions towards the long-term after 1997. This behavior is consistent with the hypothesis that managers are tax-sensitive, and the estimates are robust to the inclusion of fund-level fixed effects and other controls. I also examine fund capital gains patterns in a difference-in-differences framework, comparing actively managed to index funds, to find a lower-bound estimate of funds' response.
Exchange rate volatility and export trade in Nigeria: an empirical investigation

This article seeks to quantitatively assess the impact of exchange rate volatility on nonoil export flows in Nigeria. Theoretically, volatility-trade link is ambiguous, although a strand of studies reported inverse link between export flow and volatility. This article employed fundamental analysis where the flow of nonoil exports from the Nigerian economy is assumed to be predicated on fundamental variables: the naira exchange rate volatility, the US dollar volatility, Nigeria's Terms of Trade (TOT) and Index of Openness (OPN). Empirical results showed the presence of unit root at level; however, the null hypothesis of nonstationarity was rejected at first difference. Cointegration results revealed that a stable long-run equilibrium relationship exists between nonoil exports and the fundamental variables. Using quarterly observations for 20 years, vector cointegration estimate revealed that the naira exchange rate volatility decreased nonoil exports by 3.65%, while the same estimate for the US dollar volatility increased export of nonoil in Nigeria by 5.2% in the year 2003. This article recommends the measures that would promote greater openness of the economy and exchange rate stability in the economy.
Grensoverschrijdend perspectief : een kennismaking tussen en met het Midden-Brabantse- en Kempense bedrijfsleven

• A submitted manuscript is the author's version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.
Automatic removal of eye-blink artifacts based on ICA and peak detection algorithm

In this study a novel technique is proposed to automatically remove eye-blink artifacts from EEG signals. EEG signal is decomposed into independent components by independent component analysis (ICA) method. First, we demonstrate that feature-extraction method is not very suitable for identifying eye-blink artifacts components. Hence a peak detection algorithm of independent component is proposed to identify eye-blink artifacts components. Finally, the proposed artifact removal method is evaluated on some contaminated EEG signals, and the results show that it is able to effectively remove eye-blink artifacts from EEG signals with little distortion of underlying brain signals.
KAJIAN YIELD TO MATURITY (YTM) OBLIGASI PADA PERUSAHAAN KORPORASI

Tujuan dari penelitian ini untuk mengetahui pengaruh GCG, Ukuran Perusahaan, DER terhadap Yield to Maturity Obligasi. Pengambilan sampel menggunakan teknik purposive sampling yaitu pemilihan sampel dengan kriteria tertentu , sehingga didapat sampel dalam penelitian ini sebanyak 41 perusahaan. Metode analisis data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini yaitu analisis deskriptif, uji asumsi klasik, dan analisis regresi linier berganda dengan pengujian hipotesis menggunakan program SPSS 19 for Windows . Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa GCG, Ukuran Perusahaan, DER secara bersama-sama berpengaruh secara simultan terhadap Yield to Maturity obligasi. Pengujian secara parsial menunjukkan GCG tidak berpengaruh signifikan terhadap Yield to Maturity obligasi, sedangkan Ukuran Perusahaan dan DER berpengaruh signifikan terhadap Yield to Maturity obligasi. Simpulan dari penelitian ini, bahwa GCG tidak berpengaruh signifikan terhadap Yield to Maturity obligasi, sedangkan Ukuran Perusahaan dan DER berpengaruh signifikan terhadap Yield to Maturity obligasi. Abstract The purpose of this study to determine the effect of GCG, Company Size, DER Against Yield to Maturity Bonds. Sampling using purposive sampling is the selection of the sample with certain criteria, so that the sample obtained in this study were 41 companies. Data analysis method used in this research is descriptive analysis, classical assumption test, and multiple linear regression analysis to test the hypothesis using SPSS 19 for Windows. The results showed that the GCG, Company Size, DER jointly influence simultaneously on Yield to Maturity bonds. Tests showed partial GCG had no significant effect Yield to Maturity bond, while the size of the Company and the DER significantly influence the Yield to Maturity bonds. Conclusions from this research, that the GCG had no significant effect Yield to Maturity bond, while the size of the Company and the DER significantly influence the Yield to Maturity bonds.
Effect of a 12-week walking exercise program on body composition and immune cell count in patients with breast cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a 12-week walking exercise program on body composition and immune cell count in patients with breast cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy. Methods Twenty patients (age, 47.8 ± 3.12) participated in the study. Body composition (weight, body mass index, muscle weight, body fat mass, and percent body fat) and the cell counts for immune cells (white blood corpuscles, lymphocytes, helper T cells, cytotoxic T cells, natural killer cells, and natural killer T cells) were measured before and after the 12-week walking exercise program. SPSS 17.0 statistical software was used. The two-way repeated ANOVA with post hoc was used to determine the difference between time and interaction. Results There were significant reductions in the weight (p < .05), BMI (p < .01), and percent body fat (p < .05) after the 12-week walking exercise program. However, the immune cell counts did not change significantly. Conclusion These results indicated that the 12-week walking exercise program had an effect on the balances among weight, BMI and percent body fat in patients with breast cancer.
Time variant power control in cellular networks

We study the transmission power control in a cellular network where users' mobility results in a time varying gain matrix. A framework for evaluating the channel quality is specified, and an asymptotic representation of the link gain evolution in time is obtained. Then, a time variant distributed constrained power control (TVPC) which copes with user mobility is derived. The algorithm is compared to a classical distributed constrained power control (DCPC), as well as to a constant-received power control and constant-transmitted power. The comparison reveals that the classical DCPC exhibits an outage probability close to one, unless some counter-measures are taken. The TVPC algorithm however, copes well with users' mobility and provides a close to optimal scale up factor for the signal to interference ratio (SIR) target.
A heuristic approach for secured transfer of image based on Bezier curve over Galois field GF (pm)

In Public key cryptosystem a pair of related keys is used by the sender and the receiver. In either the public key or secret key cryptosystem the plain text is considered as an integer number that leads to poor security. In this paper we propose an Quartic Bezier curve based public key cryptosystem over Galois field GF(nm). The plain text is considered as a (x, y) coordinate over the Bezier curve elements. These values are then encrypted and decrypted using the proposed algorithm. For a secured transmission of image, the pixels are concealed in the curve elements. These are encrypted and decrypted using the proposed algorithm.
Governing Board Interlocks and Probability of an IPO

Using comprehensive data of Japanese firms, including small-sized and unlisted firms, this paper empirically analyzes the relationship of initial public offerings (IPOs) and the governing boards. The results show that board size, interlocks with other firms, and interlocks with other listed firms are all positively related to the probability of an IPO. These results imply that a firm's intention to conduct an IPO can be estimated by the size and interlocks of the firm's board, and that knowledge diffusion of an IPO occurs among firms.
Brief report: an intervention program for parents of pediatric cancer patients: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate a psychoeducational intervention program for parents of pediatric cancer patients, using cognitive and behavioral techniques. METHODS Parents were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 39) and a control condition (n = 42). Baseline assessment took place at diagnosis. Short-term effects were measured immediately after the intervention, long-term effects six months later. Control parents received standard care. Intervention parents received, in addition, a manual-guided program during the first six months following the diagnosis. RESULTS With time all parents became significantly less psychologically distressed. However, no between-group differences were noted in psychological functioning, satisfaction with support, and intensity of emotions immediately postintervention and six months later. CONCLUSIONS Although the clinical evaluation of the intervention was positive, it appeared that a structured intervention program as described in this study was not any more effective than standard care.
Rebuilding communities in a refugee settlement: a casebook from Uganda.

This book gives a critical account of a complex and ambitious refugee-settlement programme in support of 55,000 refugees who fled in 1993 from armed conflict in south Sudan into a remote and insecure region of north-west Uganda. In helping refugees to rebuild self-reliant, sustainable communities, Oxfam's vision was to treat them "as people with their own capacities and dignity". This book relates how structures were established to ensure the representation of all groups, particularly the most vulnerable. It considers the questions of integration with the local host population; site-suitability and the impact of refugee settlements on their physical environment; the problems of "donor fatigue"; and the internal stresses created when a disaster-relief operation evolves into a community-development programme in a still-turbulent context.
Board Hierarchy, Independent Directors, and Firm Value: Evidence from China

While US companies mainly list their board of directors alphabetically, this is not the case for Chinese companies, most of which list their independent directors last. We interpret the listing order of Chinese directors as board hierarchy, reflecting power allocation within the board. Based on extant evidence that independent directors contribute to firm value and that empowered individuals have more influence in group decision making, we expect independent-director rankings to be positively associated with firm value and find evidence consistent with this prediction. In our supplementary analyses we explore the mechanisms through which empowered independent directors enhance firm value. We find that independent directors who are ranked higher are more likely to vote against the management, especially on financial reporting issues. Further, higher independent-director rankings are associated with less earnings management. Our study suggests that empowering independent directors increases firm value.