Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discussion: One-step sparse estimates in nonconcave penalized likelihood models

Penalized methods are commonly used for selecting variables and fitting high-dimensional data. It is well known that the LASSO is biased and thus cannot attain the estimation efficiency of the oracle selector. Recent studies [6, 7, 8, 10, 11] showed that due to the interference of the bias, the LASSO requires quite strong conditions for consistent variable selection. Since the l1 penalty has the smallest bias among all convex penalty functions with selection features, these studies naturally draw our attention to methodologies based on concave penalties, or equivalently, nonconcave penalized likelihood. Frank and Friedman [5] considered the l� penalty for general α ≥ 0, which is strictly concave for α < 1. Their main interest was to use α as a hyperparameter to “bridge” between the subset selection with α = 0 and the ridge regression with α = 2. Important progresses were made by Fan and Li [3], who advocated the unbiasedness and continuity as essential for variable selectors and carefully developed the SCAD method. In the theoretical front, Fan and Peng [4] proved that the SCAD has the oracle property when the number of variables is a certain fraction power of the sample size. However, nonconcave penalized likelihood methods are still commonly viewed as computationally limited and poorly understood, especially when the number of variables exceeds the number of data points. Zou and Li made two significant contributions by addressing both the computational and efficiency issues. They developed a fast iterative algorithm for minimizing nonconcave penalized likelihood and proposed a simple one-step method with the oracle property for full rank designs. We congratulate them on this important work. In what follows we relate our work to theirs through discussions on continuity, computational strategies, selection consistency and oracle efficiency.
Financial Innovations and Corporate Insolvency

In this paper we develop a corporate-finance oriented theory of financial innovations. The theory is motivated by the different corporate insolvency procedures in England and America. In the paper’s empirical section we show that these procedures have emerged from different innovation regimes. English law was innovated by lenders and borrowers exercising their right to contract freely, while American law was innovated by judges and legislators whose intervention often violated pre-contractual agreements. In the paper’s theoretical section we develop a formal model that analyzes the potential advantages and disadvantages of the two innovation regimes. The freedom of contracting regime preserves the ex ante outlook of the parties. Its disadvantage is that the innovating parties fail to internalize all the benefits of the innovation to other parties, and as a result under innovation occurs. Legislative intervention attempts to solve this externality, but once in control of the innovation process, judges and legislators may place their political objectives above those of the parties. Our analysis is much affected by the notion that corporate law is a set of contractual standards.
Are You a Zaman-Now Teacher? The correlation between work experience and meaning of work with the accuracy of selecting learning methods in early childhood education

At the present time, the role of early childhood teachers is not just as teachers but also lesson designers. The current phenomenon shows that the accuracy of selecting a learning method is supported by work experience and work interpretation. The purpose of this research is to explore the phenomenon and test the correlation. From 129 teachers, it was obtained a result that the phenomenon was correlated with F value 1.667, R2 0.256 (25.6%). Meanwhile, the partial correlation of work experience was 0.444 and the work interpretation was 0.392. Based on the results of this study, the teachers are expected to join the training consistently and periodically in the appropriation of the working length and also construct self-discipline in running their role as teachers. Such a way will give positive effects on the quality of work performance and improvement of work effort, that can be seen from the satisfaction and loyalty bond to always become a teacher. Keywords-Work Experience; Meaning of Work; Early Childhood; Learning Method
The role of intermediaries in electronic marketplaces: developing a contingency model

Abstract. Early research in electronic markets seemed to suggest that e- commerce transactions would result in decreased costs for buyers and sellers alike, and would therefore ultimately lead to the elimination of intermediaries from electronic value chains. However, a careful analysis of the structure and functions of electronic marketplaces reveals a different picture. Intermediaries provide many value-adding functions that cannot be easily substituted or ‘internalized’ through direct supplier–buyer dealings, and hence mediating parties may continue to play a significant role in the e-commerce world. In this paper we provide an analysis of the potential roles of intermediaries in electronic markets and we articulate a number of hypotheses for the future of intermediation in such markets. Three main scenarios are discussed: the disintermediation scenario, in which market dynamics will favour direct buyer–seller transactions; the reintermediation scenario, in which traditional intermediaries will be forced to differentiate themselves and re-emerge in the electronic marketplace; and the cybermediation scenario, in which wholly new markets for intermediaries will be created. The analysis suggests that the likelihood of each scenario dominating a given market is primarily dependent on the exact functions that intermediaries play in each case. A detailed discussion of such functions is presented in the paper, together with an analysis of likely outcomes in the form of a contingency model for intermediation in electronic markets.
Primary Sjögren's syndrome: current and emergent aetiopathogenic concepts.

Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) is a systemic autoimmune disease that mainly affects the exocrine glands and usually presents as persistent dryness of the mouth and eyes due to functional impairment of the salivary and lacrimal glands [1, 2]. The common histolopathological feature of all organs affected is a potentially progressive lymphocytic infiltration. Salivary glands are the most studied organs because they are affected in almost all patients and are easily accessible. Microscopic examination of the salivary glands reveals a benign lymphoepithelial lesion, characterized by lymphocytic replacement of the salivary epithelium and the presence of epimyoepithelial islands composed of keratin-containing epithelial cells. The predominant cells in the minor labial salivary gland infiltrates are T cells, with a bias towards CD4þ cells rather than CD8þ suppressor cells (CD4/CD8 ratio of 3:1–5:1). B cells constitute approximately 20% of the total infiltrating population, while natural killer (NK) cells are observed less often (5%) [3]. The aetiopathogenesis of primary SS is probably a sequential, multistep process that leads to selective damage of the exocrine glands, with consequent target organ dysfunction. Although the exact mechanisms involved in this aetiopathogenic process are not well known, the autoimmune origin of the disease (autoimmune epithelitis [4]) is probably the aetiopathogenic hypothesis most commonly postulated in primary SS. In this review we have summarized the current concepts on autoimmune aetiopathogenesis of primary SS and reviewed alternative aetiopathogenic mechanisms that have recently been postulated.
Input Versus Output Queueing on a Space-Division Packet Switch

Two simple models of queueing on an N \times N space-division packet switch are examined. The switch operates synchronously with fixed-length packets; during each time slot, packets may arrive on any inputs addressed to any outputs. Because packet arrivals to the switch are unscheduled, more than one packet may arrive for the same output during the same time slot, making queueing unavoidable. Mean queue lengths are always greater for queueing on inputs than for queueing on outputs, and the output queues saturate only as the utilization approaches unity. Input queues, on the other hand, saturate at a utilization that depends on N , but is approximately (2 -\sqrt{2}) = 0.586 when N is large. If output trunk utilization is the primary consideration, it is possible to slightly increase utilization of the output trunks-upto (1 - e^{-1}) = 0.632 as N \rightarrow \infty -by dropping interfering packets at the end of each time slot, rather than storing them in the input queues. This improvement is possible, however, only when the utilization of the input trunks exceeds a second critical threshold-approximately ln (1 +\sqrt{2}) = 0.881 for large N .
Examining the effect of green management on firm efficiency: Evidence from Jordanian oil and gas industry

Article history: Received: July 26, 2018 Received in revised format: August 29, 2018 Accepted: September 25, 2018 Available online: September 25, 2018 Green management is fundamentally referred to the environmental practices and the implementation of the appropriate eco-friendly activities, which improve the level of people’s awareness about the environmental protection. Such green management practices have been investigated namely, redesigning of operation and production processes, innovation and R&D functions, use of technology to save energy and reduce waste, environmental awareness of stakeholders through seminars and training, investment in equipment and technology, and improvement in products or services towards improving firm efficiency in Oil and Gas industry in Jordan. The design of this study has a quantitative approach. Three hypotheses have been developed through literature review and tested using descriptive statistical analysis performed by SPSS. The number of population was 250 employees from different departments that include HR, environment, operation, maintenance, and marketing, a total of 208 completed questionnaires were analyzed as a final sample. The results show a moderate implementation of Green management practices, redesigning of operation and production processes indicated the strongest influence, while innovation and R&D functions indicated the weakest influence. Statistical positive association also was indicated between green management practices and firm efficiency. This study contributes to support the literature of Green management and environment protection that is little in developing countries like Jordan. And it urges firm management to develop effective green innovation culture to improve the implementation level of Green management which may in turn create a high level of environmental efficiency outcome in the medium and long run. Also, it’s very significant for firm management to invest more money in green innovation and R&D functions in order to improve the level of efficiency/ performance.
Temperature responses to spectral solar variability on decadal time scales

Two scenarios of spectral solar forcing, namely Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM)‐based out‐of‐phase variations and conventional in‐phase variations, are input to a time‐dependent radiative‐convective model (RCM), and to the GISS modelE. Both scenarios and models give maximum temperature responses in the upper stratosphere, decreasing to the surface. Upper stratospheric peak‐to‐peak responses to out‐of‐phase forcing are ∼0.6 K and ∼0.9 K in RCM and modelE, ∼5 times larger than responses to in‐phase forcing. Stratospheric responses are in‐phase with TSI and UV variations, and resemble HALOE observed 11‐year temperature variations. For in‐phase forcing, ocean mixed layer response lags surface air response by ∼2 years, and is ∼0.06 K compared to ∼0.14 K for atmosphere. For out‐of‐phase forcing, lags are similar, but surface responses are significantly smaller. For both scenarios, modelE surface responses are less than 0.1 K in the tropics, and display similar patterns over oceanic regions, but complex responses over land.
Containers or Hypervisors: Which Is Better for Database Consolidation?

Database management systems (DBMS) is a common service in clouds. Cloud platforms use virtualization to consolidate servers for efficient resource utilization and to isolate collocated users' workloads. The underlying virtualization technologies have critical impact on the performance and isolation, especially in disk I/O, in DBMS. There are two major virtualization approaches: the hypervisor-based (virtual machines) and the operating-system-level virtualization (containers). Containers are widely believed to outperform virtual machines because of negligible virtualization overheads, while virtual machines are expected to provide stronger performance isolation. This paper argues against the above beliefs by investigating MySQL I/O performance and isolation in KVM and LXC. Contrary to the general belief, our results show that KVM outperforms LXC by up to 86% without compromising the isolation. Our analysis reveals that file system journaling has negative impact on both the performance and isolation in LXC. Since containers share a journaling mechanism unlike virtual machines, journaling activities are serialized and bundled with each other, resulting in inferior performance and isolation.
Assessment of patient preference in allocation and observation of anti-tuberculosis medication in three districts in Tanzania

Background The new tuberculosis (TB) treatment in Tanzania contains rifampicin for six months. Direct observation of drug intake at the health facility for this period is not feasible. Methods Patients and health staff in three districts were interviewed to assess the burden of the current treatment strategy, and opinions on a proposed new strategy where patients are able to choose the place of treatment and the treatment supervisor, and receive treatment as a daily combination tablet. Results The study included 343 patients in 42 facilities. Daily collection of drugs was perceived as burdensome irrespective of distance needed to travel. Eighty percent of patients viewed medication taken at home or at a closer health facility as an improvement in TB-services. The proposed new treatment strategy was rated favorably by 85% of patients and 75% of health staff. Fifty-three percent of patients would opt for home-based treatment, and 75% would choose a family member or the spouse as treatment supporter. Conclusion Home-based supervision of TB treatment with fewer drugs is an expressed preference of TB patients in Tanzania. Such a strategy is now being assessed in a pilot study. If effective and feasible, the strategy will contribute to an improved TB control strategy.
The effect of agricultural traffic and tillage on soil physical properties and crop yields

The future productivity of global soils is directly threatened by soil compaction. Conventional agricultural production systems can expose up to 86% of a field to traffic-induced soil compaction, which can be minimised using low ground pressure technologies, including tracks and tyres, and traffic management systems, namely controlled traffic farming. A reduction in both traffic and tillage intensity, using shallow and zero tillage systems , not only reduces the amount of in - field traffic, and thus the cost of crop establishment , but has been shown to have a positive impact on soil properties and crop yields. The influence of traffic and tillage on soil properties has been studied worldwide, although there is a lack of replicated field study data. An experiment, therefore, was carried out at Harper Adams University, UK to determine the effect of three traffic systems being random traffic farming at standard and low tyre inflation pressures , and controlled traffic farming, with three tillage systems being deep, shallow and zero tillage on soil physical properties and winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum ) and winter barley ( Hordeum vulgare ) yields . Soil compaction was removed , and the site was assessed for uniformity prior to the design and application of treatments. Traffic treatments were evaluated prior to their use in the field experiment. A reduction in tyre inflation pressure reduced soil pressure and soil bulk density. Under tyres at low inflation pressure, penetration resistance and yield ranged between - 7% to 13% and - 2% to 4% respectively compared to standard inflation pressure . The use of low ground pressure specific tyres and tracks increased soil compaction. Tracks reduced winter barley yields by 30% compared to tyres . The removal of traffic , using a controlled traffic farming system, reduced soil bulk density and penetration resistance by 15% and 27% and increased yields between 28% to 46% compared to random traffic farming. A reduction in tillage intensity, using zero tillage, increased soil bulk density and penetration resistance, and resulted in yield differences between - 9% to 1% compared to deep tillage. This research, conducted on a uniform field site, indicates that soil compaction should be minimised in commercial agricultural operations by reducing tyre inflation pressures of standard agricultural tyres, or using controlled traffic farming, in combination with reduced tillage systems.
Clinical Features and Associated Abnormalities in Children and Adolescents With Corpus Callosal Anomalies

Callosal anomalies are frequently associated with other central nervous system (CNS) and/or somatic anomalies. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical features of corpus callosal agenesis/hypoplasia accompanying other CNS and/or somatic anomalies. We reviewed the imaging and clinical information of patients who underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging in our hospital, between 2005 and 2012. Callosal anomalies were isolated in 13 patients, accompanied by other CNS anomalies in 10 patients, associated with only non-CNS somatic anomalies in four patients, and with both CNS and non-CNS abnormalities in four patients. Out of 31 patients, four developed normally, without impairments in motor or cognitive functions. Five of nine patients with cerebral palsy were accompanied by other CNS and/or somatic anomalies, and showed worse Gross Motor Function Classification System scores, compared with the other four patients with isolated callosal anomaly. In addition, patients with other CNS anomalies also had a higher seizure risk.
Regional Variation in Receptive Field Properties of Tectal Neurons in Pigeons

The present study provides the first electrophysiological evidence for dorsoventral variation in the receptive field properties of tectal cells in pigeons. According to their receptive field organization, visual response properties and laminar locations, 95 tectal neurons recorded in the present study could be categorized into two groups: (1) Fifty-five DL-neurons were recorded in the dorsal, dorso-lateral, lateral and ventro-lateral tectum and characterized by an excitatory receptive field surrounded by an inhibitory receptive field. Most of them almost equally responded to white and black objects, but did not respond to switch-on and -off of a light spot. (2) Forty VC-neurons were recorded in the ventral tectum and characterized by an excitatory receptive field alone. Their responses to switch-on of a light spot and to a white object were significantly stronger than those to light-off and to a black object, respectively. DL-neurons preferred higher velocity, whereas VC-neurons preferred lower velocity. The recording sites of 53 of 95 cells (56%) examined were marked with pontamine sky blue, showing that DL-neurons were located in tectal layers I–IV, predominantly in layer II, whereas VC-neurons were mainly concentrated in sublayer IIc. The receptive fields of VC-neurons were located within the rostroventral visual field possibly corresponding to the red field of the pigeon retina, suggesting that they might be associated with visual food-foraging behaviors.
Goodness-of-fit tests for high-dimensional Gaussian linear models

Let $(Y,(X_i)_{i\in\mathcal{I}})$ be a zero mean Gaussian vector and $V$ be a subset of $\mathcal{I}$. Suppose we are given $n$ i.i. d. replications of the vector $(Y,X)$. We propose a new test for testing that $Y$ is independent of $(X_i)_{i\in \mathcal{I}\backslash V}$ conditionally to $(X_i)_{i\in V}$ against the general alternative that it is not. This procedure does not depend on any prior information on the covariance of $X$ or the variance of $Y$ and applies in a high-dimensional setting. It straightforwardly extends to test the neighbourhood of a Gaussian graphical model. The procedure is based on a model of Gaussian regression with random Gaussian covariates. We give non asymptotic properties of the test and we prove that it is rate optimal (up to a possible $\log(n)$ factor) over various classes of alternatives under some additional assumptions. Besides, it allows us to derive non asymptotic minimax rates of testing in this setting. Finally, we carry out a simulation study in order to evaluate the performance of our procedure.
Una visión de alumnos universitarios sobre la relación de sus padres como pareja

When a couple starts a new family, both members share expectations based on what they have learned from their experience in their respective families of origin, in such a way that their offspring will repeat the same patterns in the future. If children perceive a healthy appropriate relationship between their parents, chances are that they too will have a good relationship when they start their own families. However, children will have a different perception when their parents go through a separation or divorce. Based on these facts, the aim of this article was to analyze university students’ perception regarding their parents’ relationship as a couple within their family environment, taking into consideration whether their parents lived together or separately. A target group comprised of 566 university students of which 345 were women and 221 were men participated in the study. The instrument used was the measurement questionnaire “Dinámica de la Familia Nuclear Mexicana” [The Mexican Family Dynamics] (Vásquez, et al., 2003). In this study the only area addressed was “Parents and their relationship as a couple”. The statistical difference between groups was obtained using the Mann-Whitney U test. The results showed significant statistical differences between university students’ perception of their parents depending on whether they live together or separately. A conclusion was reached on the existence of different factors that affect the family environment, which has a differential influence on each family member’s perception.
The Implications of Unverifiable Fair-Value Accounting: Evidence from the Political Economy of Goodwill Accounting

I study the evolution of SFAS 142, which uses unverifiable fair-value estimates to account for acquired goodwill. I find evidence consistent with the FASB issuing SFAS 142 in response to political pressure over its proposal to abolish pooling accounting. The result is interesting given this proposal was due in part to SEC concerns over pooling misuse. I also find evidence consistent with lobbying support for SFAS 142 increasing in firms' discretion under the standard. Agency theory predicts such unverifiable discretion can be used opportunistically.