Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Upskilling: Do Employers Demand Greater Skill When Skilled Workers Are Plentiful?

The Great Recession and subsequent recovery have been particularly painful for low-skilled workers. From 2007 to 2012, the unemployment rate rose by 6.4 percentage points for noncollege workers while it rose by only 2.3 percentage points for the college educated. This differential impact was evident within occupations as well. One explanation for the differential impact may be the ability of highly skilled workers to take middle- and low-skilled jobs. Indeed, over this period the share of workers with a college degree in traditionally middle-skill occupations increased rapidly. Such growth in skill requirements within occupations has become known colloquially as "upskilling. " It is not clear from employment outcomes alone whether the increasing share of high-skilled workers in middle- and low-skill occupations reflects changing behavior by employers. Few researchers have been able to quantify rising employer requirements due to the difficulty in isolating labor demand from labor supply. In this paper, using a novel dataset of online job vacancy postings, the authors tackle the question of whether the education and experience requirements for job postings have risen between 2007 and 2012, and if so, whether this rise was driven by the state of the local labor market.
The Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm Applied to Benchmark Problems An Analysis

The multiobjective genetic algorithm (MOGA) has been applied to various real-world problems in a variety of fields, most prominently in control systems engineering, with considerable success. However, a recent empirical analysis of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEA's) has suggested that a MOGA-based algorithm performed poorly across a diverse set of two-objective test problems. In this report, it is shown that a conventional MOGA with standard settings can provide improved performance, but this still compares unfavourably to the best-performing contemporary MOEA, the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA). The importance of the MOEA, as a framework is stressed and consequently, a real-coded MOGA for real-parameter multi-criterion problems is developed using modern gudelines for the design of evolutionary algorithms. This MOGA is shown to outperform the "best" MOEA, rather that a considered implementation of the methodology is required in order to reap full rewards. This study also questions the effectiveness of the traditional fitness sharing method of niching, with respect to the current set of multiobjective benchmark problems.
Compiler Transformations for High-Performance

In the last three decades a large number of compiler transformations for optimizing programs have been implemented. Most optimizations for uniprocessors reduce the number of instructions executed by the program using transformations based on the analysis of scalar quantities and data-ow techniques. In contrast, optimizations for high-performance superscalar, vector, and parallel processors maximize parallelism and memory locality with transformations that rely on tracking the properties of arrays using loop dependence analysis. This survey is a comprehensive overview of the important high-level program restructuring techniques for imperative languages such as C and Fortran. Transformations for both sequential and various types of parallel architectures are covered in depth. We describe the purpose of each transformation, explain how to determine if it is legal, and give an example of its application. Programmers wishing to enhance the performance of their code can use this survey to improve their understanding of the optimizations that compilers can perform, or as a reference for techniques to be applied manually. Students can obtain an overview of optimizing compiler technology. Compiler writers can use this survey as a reference for most of the important optimizations developed to date, and as a bibliographic reference for the details of each optimization. Readers are expected to be familiar with modern computer architecture and basic program compilation techniques. INTRODUCTION Optimizing compilers have become an essential component of modern high-performance computer systems. In addition to translating the input program into machine language, they analyze it and apply various transformations to reduce its running time or its size. As optimizing compilers become more eeec-tive, programmers can become less concerned about the details of the underlying machine architecture and can employ higher-level, more succinct, and more intuitive programming constructs and program organizations. Simultaneously , hardware designers are able to employ designs that yield greatly improved performance because they need only concern themselves with the suitability of the design as a compiler target, not with its suitability as a direct programmer interface. In this survey we describe transformations that optimize programs written in imperative languages such as Fortran and C for high-performance architectures, including su-perscalar, vector, and various classes of multi-processor machines. Most of the transformations we describe can be applied to any of the Algol-family languages;
The Systematic Search for Entrepreneurial Discoveries

The Essential Role of Discovery in Entrepreneurship Toward a Theory of Entrepreneurship The Informational Economics of Discovery The Impact of Competitive Structure on Discovery Entrepreneurial Competence as Knowledge Deciding How Entrepreneurs Can Search for Discoveries Discovery as Either the Result of Accidental Alertness or Systematic Search The Promise of Systematic Search for Aspiring Entrepreneurs The Pedagogy of Entrepreneurship Theory Opportunities for Future Research Index
Combining Economic and Ecological Indicators to Prioritize Salt Marsh Restoration Actions

Restoration of damaged or degraded ecosystems often represents an important component of environmental management (National Research Council). However, funds are typically insufficient to restore all candidate sites. This paper summarizes an ecological-economic model designed to assist managers in prioritizing salt marsh restoration actions. The model integrates information concerning both the production (supply) and value (demand) of wetland habitat functions. Although the project focuses on salt marshes in Narragansett Bay (RI), the approach is more generally applicable to assessing habitat restoration actions. Ecological production relationships determine links between salt marsh attributes and associated habitat functions. Although there is an extensive ecological literature on these relationships, considerable judgment is needed to interpret the literature in order to quantify how restoration actions would contribute to habitat for a range of species (e.g., Burdick et al., Able and Hagan, Wigand et al.). For this reason, we developed a survey of wetlands professionals to identify a consensus of expert opinion on production relationships among physical marsh attributes and particular habitat or ecological functions. While habitat functions are determined by ecological (physical) relationships, social values for these functions are determined by
An Exploration of Pre-Service Teacher Perceptions of Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom.

This study examined the perceptions of preservice teachers tutoring non-native English speakers in a local public school. A group of 14 predominantly female preservice teachers participated, nine white and five Hispanic. Participants completed interviews asking about their tutoring experiences. Results found two common themes: most participants were led to the profession through strong, passionate desires to help others, and most shared the belief that their tutees were remarkably bright. Hispanic and white participants had clearly different perspectives on how they related to their tutees, their expectations for them, and their suggestions for intervening on their behalf. They sought to connect with their tutees through different channels. Hispanic participants were able to relate their own struggles in school with those facing their tutees. White participants were impotent when it came to assessing their tutees' needs and defining a plan to help them. They also had trouble separating language skill and cultural knowledge from ability to succeed in school. Hispanic participants held higher expectations for their Hispanic students than did their white counterparts and a more sophisticated understanding of their tutees' academic, social, and language situations. Every white participant expected their Hispanic tutee to drop out of school. (Contains 40 references.) (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. An Exploration of Pre-Service Teacher Perceptions of Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom Sherry Marx University of Texas at Austin 1207 Ridgehaven Drive Austin, TX 78723
Pay One or Pay All: Random Selection of One Choice for Payment

It has become increasingly common in economics experiments to elicit a series of choices from participants, and then pay for only one, selected at random, after all have been made. This allows the researcher to observe a large number of individual decisions, and to increase payoffs for each decision since only one of them will be used for payment. It has not been demonstrated, however, whether subjects behave as if each of these choices involves the stated payoffs, or if subjects scale-down payoffs to account for the random selection that is made. This paper reports an experiment that tests this directly. In an environment where payoff scale effects have been demonstrated to matter, three treatments are conducted: pay for one of 10 choices under low payoffs, pay for all 10 choices under low payoffs, and pay for 1 of 10 choices under 10x the low payoff level. Increasing payoff scale has a significant effect on choices compared with the low payoff treatments where all 10 decisions are paid, or where one decision is paid. However, there is no significant difference in choices between paying for one or all 10 decisions at the low payoff level. This supports the validity of using the random-choice payment method.
Assessment of the Gender Gap in Sudan

This paper examines the gender gap in education and investigates the related implications on the labour market and returns to education in Sudan. Our results confirm two stylized facts: first, the incidence of significant gender gap in education in Sudan and second, the incidence of gender inequalities and gap in skill level, share of women in economic activities, labour force participation rate, employment and returns to education can be interpreted in relation to the incidence of gender gap in education. We fill the gap in the Sudanese literature by addressing the gender gap in education and related implications in labour market and returns to education, since these issues are not adequately discussed in the Sudanese literature. A novel element in our analysis is that we use new primary survey data at the micro level to show the gap and differences in returns to education and correlation between wage and education, experience and its square defined by gender in Sudan. Our findings at the micro level imply that the slight gender gap or difference in the rate of return to education in favour of women is only 0.2 which is not very noticeable. These findings indicate the importance of enhancing educational attainment for women to facilitate improvement of return to education for women. We find that in general women are likely to be more unemployed than men. The major policy implications and recommendations from our analysis are that Sudan needs to reduce the gender gap in education and related implication in the labour market. By investing large amounts of resources in increasing women's educational attainment, improving economic participation, increasing employment opportunities and improving equal and fair returns to education for Sudanese women to better integrate Sudanese women into the economy to reap the benefits of investment in empowerment of women.
Demand for Electronic Legal Information at the University of Botswana

The advent of technology has changed the way legal research is conducted. The study looks at the availability of electronic legal information at the University of Botswana, perceptions of the university legal community about such information, challenges affecting access to electronic legal information and recommended solutions to those challenges. The paper also looks at the contribution that the library can make in alleviating the challenges and addressing the different perceptions by the legal community.
A spatially adaptive nonparametric regression image deblurring

We propose a novel nonparametric regression method for deblurring noisy images. The method is based on the local polynomial approximation (LPA) of the image and the paradigm of intersecting confidence intervals (ICI) that is applied to define the adaptive varying scales (window sizes) of the LPA estimators. The LPA-ICI algorithm is nonlinear and spatially adaptive with respect to smoothness and irregularities of the image corrupted by additive noise. Multiresolution wavelet algorithms produce estimates which are combined from different scale projections. In contrast to them, the proposed ICI algorithm gives a varying scale adaptive estimate defining a single best scale for each pixel. In the new algorithm, the actual filtering is performed in signal domain while frequency domain Fourier transform operations are applied only for calculation of convolutions. The regularized inverse and Wiener inverse filters serve as deblurring operators used jointly with the LPA-design directional kernel filters. Experiments demonstrate the state-of-art performance of the new estimators which visually and quantitatively outperform some of the best existing methods.
CADEM: calculate X-ray diffraction of epitaxial multilayers

This article presents a powerful yet simple program, based on the general one-dimensional kinematic X-ray diffraction (XRD) theory, which calculates the XRD patterns of tailor-made multilayers and thus enables quantitative comparison of measured and calculated XRD data. As the multilayers are constructed layer by layer, the final material stack can be entirely arbitrary.
Bending forces plastically deform growing bacterial cell walls

Significance Regulation of cell wall growth is a process of fundamental importance in cell biology. In this paper, to our knowledge, we demonstrate for the first time that mechanical stress directly influences cell wall synthesis of bacteria. In a series of simple experiments, we elastically and plastically deform cell walls as they grow by applying anisotropic mechanical stresses to bacteria. Using a theory of dislocation-mediated growth, we explain how growth and form of the cell walls are quantitatively related to one another in bacteria. Cell walls define a cell’s shape in bacteria. The walls are rigid to resist large internal pressures, but remarkably plastic to adapt to a wide range of external forces and geometric constraints. Currently, it is unknown how bacteria maintain their shape. In this paper, we develop experimental and theoretical approaches and show that mechanical stresses regulate bacterial cell wall growth. By applying a precisely controllable hydrodynamic force to growing rod-shaped Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis cells, we demonstrate that the cells can exhibit two fundamentally different modes of deformation. The cells behave like elastic rods when subjected to transient forces, but deform plastically when significant cell wall synthesis occurs while the force is applied. The deformed cells always recover their shape. The experimental results are in quantitative agreement with the predictions of the theory of dislocation-mediated growth. In particular, we find that a single dimensionless parameter, which depends on a combination of independently measured physical properties of the cell, can describe the cell’s responses under various experimental conditions. These findings provide insight into how living cells robustly maintain their shape under varying physical environments.
Dysregulation of Iron Metabolism in Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Dysregulation of iron metabolism has been observed in patients with neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). Utilization of several importers and exporters for iron transport in brain cells helps maintain iron homeostasis. Dysregulation of iron homeostasis leads to the production of neurotoxic substances and reactive oxygen species, resulting in iron-induced oxidative stress. In Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD), circumstantial evidence has shown that dysregulation of brain iron homeostasis leads to abnormal iron accumulation. Several genetic studies have revealed mutations in genes associated with increased iron uptake, increased oxidative stress, and an altered inflammatory response in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Here, we review the recent findings on brain iron metabolism in common NDs, such as AD, PD, and ALS. We also summarize the conventional and novel types of iron chelators, which can successfully decrease excess iron accumulation in brain lesions. For example, iron-chelating drugs have neuroprotective effects, preventing neural apoptosis, and activate cellular protective pathways against oxidative stress. Glial cells also protect neurons by secreting antioxidants and antiapoptotic substances. These new findings of experimental and clinical studies may provide a scientific foundation for advances in drug development for NDs.
The Mass Spectra of Giant Molecular Clouds in the Local Group

We reanalyze the catalogs of molecular clouds in the Local Group to determine the parameters of their mass distributions in a uniform manner. The analysis uses the error‐in‐variables method of parameter estimation, which accounts not only for the variance of the sample when drawn from a parent distribution, but also for errors in the mass measurements. Testing the method shows that it recovers the underlying properties of cumulative mass distribution without bias while accurately reflecting uncertainties in the parameters. Clouds in the inner disk of the Milky Way follow a truncated power‐law distribution with index γ = -1.5 ± 0.1 and maximum mass of 106.5 M⊙. The distributions of cloud mass for the outer Milky Way and M33 show significantly steeper indices (γOMW = -2.1 ± 0.2 and γM33 = -2.9 ± 0.4, respectively), with no evidence of a cutoff. The mass distribution of clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud has a marginally steeper distribution than the inner disk of the Milky Way (γ = -1.7 ± 0.2) and also shows evidence of a truncation, with a maximum mass of 106.5 M⊙. The mass distributions of molecular clouds vary dramatically across the Local Group, even after accounting for the systematic errors that arise in comparing heterogeneous data and catalogs. These differences should be accounted for in studies that aim to reproduce the molecular cloud mass distributions, or in studies that use the mass spectrum as a parameter in a model.
The Role of KNOX Genes in the Evolution of Morphological Novelty in Streptocarpusw⃞

The genus Streptocarpus comprises species with diverse body plans. Caulescent species produce leaves from a conventional shoot apical meristem (SAM), whereas acaulescent species lack a conventional SAM and produce only a single leaf (the unifoliate form) or clusters of leaves from the base of more mature leaves (the rosulate form). These distinct morphologies reflect fundamental differences in the role of the SAM and the process of leaf specification. A subfamily of KNOTTED-like homeobox (KNOX) genes are known to be important in regulating meristem function and leaf development in model species with conventional morphologies. To test the involvement of KNOX genes in Streptocarpus evolution, two parologous KNOX genes (SSTM1 and SSTM2) were isolated from species with different growth forms. Their phylogenetic analysis suggested a gene duplication before the subgeneric split of Streptocarpus and resolved species relationships, supporting multiple evolutionary origins of the rosulate and unifoliate morphologies. In S. saxorum, a caulescent species with a conventional SAM, KNOX proteins were expressed in the SAM and transiently downregulated in incipient leaf primordia. The ability of acaulescent species to initiate leaves from existing leaves was found to correlate with SSTM1 expression and KNOX protein accumulation in leaves and to reflect genetic differences at two loci. Neither locus corresponded to SSTM1, suggesting that cis-acting differences in SSTM1 regulation were not responsible for evolution of the rosulate and unifoliate forms. However, the involvement of KNOX proteins in leaf formation in rosulate species suggests that they have played an indirect role in the development of morphological diversity in Streptocarpus.
Diverse Effects of FDI in Regional Innovation Systems: Synergy Measurement, Complexity Theory, and Entropy Statistics

The aim of this study is to show regional differences as local effects of foreign investments in the dual economy of Hungary. We first introduce three knowledge functions (knowledge exploitation, knowledge exploration, and organizational control) of innovation systems. These functions are operationalized using entropy statistics. Regional innovation systems can then be expected to self-organize in terms of a synergy — that is, reduction of uncertainty — among these functions. Analyzing one-, two-, three-, and four-dimensional entropies of high-tech and medium-tech firms, and knowledge-intensive services, we measure the synergy among the distributions of geographical addresses, organizational size (number of employees), and technologies (NACE codes of the OECD). Synergy is defined as mutual information among these three dimensions; the fourth dimension is used to bring internationalization into the model. Our results show that regional innovation systems in Hungary are self-organized differently, in relation to a small set of foreign firms that have an overwhelming positive effect in regions between the Hungarian capital and the Austrian border. Foreign direct investment, however, has negative effects on local economies and disturbs the domestic synergy in the lagging Eastern and Southern provinces of the country.
Assessing the E ff ects of Fiscal Shocks ∗

This paper investigates the response of real wages and hours worked to fiscal policy shocks in the U.S. during the post World War II era. We identify these shocks with exogenous changes in military purchases and argue that they lead to (i) a persistent increase in government purchases and in tax rates on capital and labor income, and (ii) a persistent rise in aggregate hours worked as well as declines in real wages. We describe and implement a methodology for assessing whether standard neoclassical models can account for the response of hours worked and real wages to a fiscal policy shock. Our main finding is that this class of model is able to account for the qualitative effects of a fiscal shock. From a quantitative point of view, the model can account for the magnitude, but not the timing of how hours worked responds. The model does less well with respect to real wages ∗We would like to thank Lawrence J. Christiano and Lars Hansen for helpful conversations. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Federal Reserve System or the World Bank. Martin Eichenbaum gratefully acknowledges the financial support of a grant from the National Science Foundation to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Craig Burnside gratefully acknowledges the support of a National Fellowship from the Hoover Institution. †The World Bank ‡ Northwestern University, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, NBER §Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago