Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modelling Social Infrastructure and Growth

This paper examines the impact of social infrastructure on economic growth by endogenously modelling its provision by a public sector in the context of a multi-sector growth model. Our model shows that not only is social infrastructure positively correlated with output per worker, countries that are more efficient in providing the infrastructure are able to limit the level of diversion while those that are not are unable to do so. Next, we augment the model with human capital which is endogenously determined by the education sector. The extended model indicates a positive link between the education and public sectors such that a shock to one of these sectors affects not only the immediate sector but the other as well. We also show that favourable social infrastructure can have positive long-term growth effects when the Lucas (1988) specification for the accumulation of human capital is adopted. Our results suggest that emphasis should be placed on raising the efficiency level of the public sector and productivity level of the education sector. Finally, the best way of combating diversion is to encourage individuals to adopt a higher degree of aversion to it.
A Comparative Study of Tuning of PID Controller using Evolutionary Algorithms

This paper presents modern optimization methods for determining the optimal values of proportional- integral-derivative (PID) controller parameters for an unstable system. The main objective is to obtain a fast and stable system by tuning of the PID controller using Genetic Algorithm and Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm. The simulation is done using MATLAB. The result is compared in terms of system transient characteristics and performance index. The obtained results using Evolutionary algorithms are also compared with PID tuning using conventional method like Ziegler Nichols tuning method. The results shows that tuning the PID controller using Evolutionary tuning methods provides fast and stable system with low overshoot and reduces the performance index (ISE). Keywords—GA, ISE, PID, PSO, ZN
Conflicts of Interests in the Financial Analysis Industry : Why Did Europeans Get MAD ?

In an attempt to mitigate the conflicts of interest stemming from the interdependence of equity research and investment banking departments of brokerage houses, the European Commission has enacted the Market Abuse Directive (MAD) in 2003. We document that this reform was by and large inadequate and may have triggered counterproductive consequences. In particular, we first demonstrate that conflicts of interest were of minor importance in Europe. Also, we show that the scope of MAD appears narrow and leaves some potential conflicts largely unaddressed. More importantly, we find that investors were not materially affected by conflicted equity research. Indeed, they are sophisticated enough to see through biased research and internalize conflicted advises. Finally, we uncover that the passage of MAD reduced significantly the coverage that European firms receive. This loss of attention may lead to a damaging increase of their cost of capital.
The Contribution of the IMF and the World Bank to Economic Freedom

We analyse the effect of IMF and World Bank policies on the composite index of economic freedom by Gwartney et al. (2000) as well as its sub- indexes, using a panel of 85 countries observed between 1970 and 1997. With respect to the Bank, we find that the number of projects has a positive impact on overall economic freedom, while the effect of the amount of World Bank credits is negative. These effects are stronger during the 1990s than in earlier periods. There is no clear relationship between credits and programs of the IMF and economic freedom.
Feedforward carrier recovery via pilot-aided transmission for single-carrier systems with arbitrary M-QAM constellations.

We exploit pilot-aided (PA) transmission enabled by single-sideband (SSB) subcarrier modulation of both quadrature signals in the DSP domain to achieve fully feedforward carrier recovery (FFCR) in single-carrier (SC) coherent systems with arbitrary M-QAM constellations. A thorough mathematical description of the proposed PA-FFCR is presented, its linewidth tolerance is assessed by simulations and compared to other FFCR schemes in literature. Also, implementation and complexity issues of PA-FFCR are presented and briefly compared with other CR schemes. Simulation results show that PA-FFCR performs close to the best known CR technique in the literature with less computation complexity. Quantitatively, for 1 dB optical-signal-to-noise-ratio (OSNR) penalty at BER = 3.8 × 10(-3), PA-FFCR tolerates linewidth-symbol-duration products (Δf.Ts) of 1.5 × 10(-4) (4-QAM), 4 × 10(-5) (16-QAM) and 1 × 10(-5) (64-QAM). Finally, we propose the use of maximum likelihood (ML) phase estimation next to pilot phase compensation. This significantly improves tolerable Δf. Ts values to 7.5 × 10(-4) (4-QAM), 1.8 × 10(-4) (16-QAM) and 3.5 × 10(-5) (64-QAM). It turns out that PA-FFCR with ML always performs better or at least the same compared to other CR techniques known in literature with lower complexity in addition to the fact that pilot information can be as well exploited for tasks other than CR e.g., fiber nonlinearity compensation, with no extra complexity.
The Conscription of Wealth: Mass Warfare and the Demand for Progressive Taxation

Abstract The dominant narrative of the politics of redistribution in political science and economics highlights the signature role of the rise of electoral democracy and the development of political parties that mobilize working-class groups. We argue in this article that this narrative ignores the critical role played by mass warfare in the development of redistributive public policies. Focusing attention on the determinants of progressive taxation, we argue that mobilization for mass warfare led to demands for increased taxation of the wealthy to more fairly distribute the burden for the war effort. We then show empirically that during the past century, mass mobilization for war has been associated with a notable increase in tax progressivity. In the absence of war, neither the establishment of universal suffrage, nor the arrival of political control by parties of the left is systematically associated with large increases in tax progressivity. In making these arguments, we devote particular attention to a “difference-in-differences” comparison of participants and nonparticipants in World War I.
A Contribution to the Empirics of Development and Globalization

There are arguably few topics in current global economic policy as intensely debated as the impact of different facets of globalization on human development. Given that the concept of globalization reflects a multitude of economic and societal transformations, the scope of these discussions needs to be equally nuanced. This dissertation sheds light on some of the channels through which less researched facets of globalization affect human lives. Specifically, the first essay scrutinizes the role of informational globalization, characterized by the exchange of information. It focuses on the spread of modern information and telecommunication technologies, such as the internet, and how this development has the potential to shape concerns about relative status and people’s perception of happiness. The second essay deals with the implications of environmental globalization - more precisely, with climate change as its most perceptible phenomenon and the consequential increased prevalence of extreme weather events in many parts of the world. Focusing on the impact of drought conditions on health outcomes in the agrarian economy of Vietnam, the results reveal one component of the costs of environmental globalization for a population vulnerable to poverty. Emanating from the long-debated question whether development aid is effective in increasing economic growth, the third essay is concerned with the role of the World Bank as one key player of political globalization in alleviating poverty and fostering development and the role of cross-border official capital flows in the form of development aid. It also has a methodological focus through bringing the aid-effectiveness literature to the subnational level. Being grounded on economic theory, a unifying feature of all essays in this dissertation is an evidence-based approach to economic problems. Their research method is the use of empirical data in order to draw quantitative conclusions on the effects of different aspects of globalization on human development.
Circulating Levels of Endothelial Adhesion Molecules and Risk of Diabetes in an Ethnically Diverse Cohort of Women

Elevated circulating levels of soluble adhesion molecules as markers of endothelial dysfunction have been related to insulin resistance and its associated metabolic abnormalities. However, their associations with type 2 diabetes remain inconclusive. We conducted a prospective nested case-control study to examine the associations between plasma levels of E-selectin, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and diabetes risk among 82,069 initially healthy women aged 50–79 years from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study. During a median follow-up of 5.9 years, 1,584 incident diabetes case subjects were matched with 2,198 control subjects by age, ethnicity, clinical center, time of blood draw, and follow-up time. Baseline median levels of the biomarkers were each significantly higher among case subjects than among control subjects (E-selectin, 49 vs. 37 ng/ml; ICAM-1, 324 vs. 280 ng/ml; and VCAM-1, 765 vs. 696 ng/ml [all P values <0.001]). After adjustment for risk factors, the relative risks of diabetes among women in the highest quartile versus those in the lowest quartile were 3.46 for E-selectin (95% CI 2.56–4.68; P for trend <0.0001), 2.34 for ICAM-1 (1.75–3.13; P for trend <0.0001), and 1.48 for VCAM-1 (1.07–2.04; P for trend = 0.009). E-selectin and ICAM-1 remain significant in each ethnic group. In conclusion, higher levels of E-selectin and ICAM-1 were consistently associated with increased diabetes risk in a multiethnic cohort of U.S. postmenopausal women, implicating an etiological role of endothelial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes.
Asnc Imaging Guidelines for Nuclear Cardiology Procedures Stress Protocols and Tracers

Exercise is the preferred stress modality in patients who are able to exercise to an adequate workload (at least 85% of age-adjusted maximal predicted heart rate and five metabolic equivalents). Exercise Modalities 1. Treadmill exercise is the most widely used stress modality. Several treadmill exercise protocols are described which differ in the speed and grade of treadmill inclination and may be more appropriate for specific patient populations. The Bruce and modified Bruce protocosls are the most widely used exercise protocols. 2. Upright bicycle exercise is commonly used in Europe. This is preferable if dynamic first-pass imaging is planned during exercise. Supine or semi-supine exercise is relatively suboptimal and should only be used while performing exercise radionuclide angiocardiography. Indications Indications for an exercise stress test are: 1. Detection of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) in the following: (a) Patients with an intermediate pretest probability of CAD based on age, gender, and symptoms. (b) Patients with high-risk factors for CAD (e.g., diabetes mellitus, peripheral, or cerebral vascular disease). 2. Risk stratification of post-myocardial infarction patients before discharge (submaximal test at 4-6 days), and early (symptom-limited at 14-21 days) or late (symptom-limited at 3-6 weeks) after discharge. 3. Risk stratification of patients with chronic stable CAD into a low-risk category that can be managed medically or into a high-risk category that should be considered for coronary revascularization. 4. Risk stratification of low-risk acute coronary syndrome patients (without active ischemia and/or heart failure 6-12 hours after presentation) and of intermediate risk acute coronary syndrome patients 1-3 days after presentation (without active ischemia and/or heart failure symptoms). 5. Risk stratification before noncardiac surgery in patients with known CAD or those with high-risk factors for CAD. 6. To evaluate the efficacy of therapeutic interventions (anti-ischemic drug therapy or coronary revascular-ization) and in tracking subsequent risk based on serial changes in myocardial perfusion in patients with known CAD. Absolute Contraindications Absolute contraindications for exercise stress testing include: 1. High-risk unstable angina. However, patients with chest pain syndromes at presentation, who are otherwise stable and pain-free, can undergo exercise stress testing. 2. Decompensated or inadequately controlled conges-tive heart failure. 3. Uncontrolled hypertension (blood pressure [200/ 110 mm Hg). 4. Uncontrolled cardiac arrhythmias (causing symptoms or hemodynamic compromise).
Galactic Cosmic Rays from Supernova Remnants. II. Shock Acceleration of Gas and Dust

We present a quantitative model of Galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) origin and acceleration, wherein a mixture of interstellar and/or circumstellar gas and dust is accelerated by a supernova remnant blast wave. The gas and dust are accelerated simultaneously, but differences in how each component is treated by the shock leave a distinctive signature, which we believe exists in the cosmic-ray composition data. A reexamination of the detailed GCR elemental composition, presented in a companion paper, has led us to abandon the long-held assumption that GCR abundances are somehow determined by first ionization potential. Instead, volatility and mass (presumably mass-to-charge ratio) seem to better organize the data: among the volatile elements, the abundance enhancements relative to solar increase with mass (except for the slightly high H/He ratio); the more refractory elements seem systematically overabundant relative to the more volatile ones in a quasi-mass-independent fashion. If this is the case, material locked in grains in the interstellar medium must be accelerated to cosmic-ray energies more efficiently than interstellar gas-phase ions. Here we present results from a nonlinear shock model that includes (1) the direct acceleration of interstellar gas-phase ions, (2) a simplified model for the direct acceleration of weakly charged grains to ~100 keV amu-1 energies, simultaneously with the acceleration of the gas ions, (3) the energy losses of grains colliding with the ambient gas, (4) the sputtering of grains, and (5) the simultaneous acceleration of the sputtered ions to GeV and TeV energies. We show that the model produces GCR source abundance enhancements of the volatile, gas-phase elements that are an increasing function of mass, as well as a net, mass-independent enhancement of the refractory, grain elements over protons, consistent with cosmic-ray observations. We also investigate the implications of the slightly high H/He ratio. The GCR22Ne excess may also be accounted for in terms of the acceleration of 22Ne-enriched presupernova Wolf-Rayet star wind material surrounding the most massive supernovae. We also show that cosmic-ray source spectra, at least below ~1014 eV, are well matched by the model.
Making sense of learning at secondary school: an exploration by teachers with students

Within New Zealand in recent years there has been a growing sense of dissatisfaction with current secondary school structures and processes. While teachers, students, parents, and politicians seem variously (although, it must be said, quite differently) disenchanted with many current secondary school practices, most of what is reported in the media is built on idiosyncratic experience and anecdote, not on evidence-based research.
CLAASIC: a Cortex-Inspired Hardware Accelerator

This work explores the feasibility of specialized hardware implementing the Cortical Learning Algorithm (CLA) in order to fully exploit its inherent advantages. This algorithm, which is inspired in the current understanding of the mammalian neo-cortex, is the basis of the Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM). In contrast to other machine learning (ML) approaches, the structure is not application dependent and relies on fully unsupervised continuous learning. We hypothesize that a hardware implementation will be able not only to extend the already practical uses of these ideas to broader scenarios but also to exploit the hardware-friendly CLA characteristics. The architecture proposed will enable an unfeasible scalability for software solutions and will fully capitalize on one of the many CLA advantages: low computational requirements and reduced storage utilization. Compared to a state-of-the-art CLA software implementation it could be possible to improve by 4 orders of magnitude in performance and up to 8 orders of magnitude in energy efficiency. We propose to use a packet-switched network to tackle this. The paper addresses the fundamental issues of such an approach, proposing solutions to achieve scalable solutions. We will analyze cost and performance when using well-known architecture techniques and tools. The results obtained suggest that even with CMOS technology, under constrained cost, it might be possible to implement a large-scale system. We found that the proposed solutions enable a saving of 90% of the original communication costs running either synthetic or realistic workloads.
GRB 990712: First Indication of Polarization Variability in a Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow

We report the detection of significant polarization in the optical afterglow of GRB 990712 on three instances: 0.44, 0.70, and 1.45 days after the gamma-ray burst, with (P, θ) being (2.9% ± 0.4%, 121.°1 ± 3.°5), (1.2% ± 0.4%, 116.°2 ± 10.°1), and (2.2% ± 0.7%, 139.°2 ± 10.°4), respectively. The polarization is intrinsic to the afterglow. The degree of polarization is not constant and is smallest at the second measurement. The polarization angle does not vary significantly during these observations. We find that none of the existing models predict such polarization variations at a constant polarization angle; we suggest ways in which these models might be modified to accommodate the observed behavior of this afterglow.
The 2007 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America Physical Markers at Young Age and Survival to 100 A study of a new historical data resource ( the US WWI draft cards )

This study explored whether people living to 100 and beyond were any different from their peers at their middle age (30 years) in terms of their physical characteristics (height and ‘build’). An individual’s height at young adult age seems to be a good indicator of person’s early nutritional and infectious disease history at least in historical data. The study took advantage of a new unique data resource – the US WWI Civilian Draft Registration Cards collected in 1917-1918, which covers 98% (24 millions) of the entire US male population at draft ages of 18-45 years. The US WWI draft cards were linked to exceptional longevity records obtained from the Social Security Administration database. The linked data were analyzed using a conditional multiple regression model for matched case-control studies to find out what combinations of the middle-life predictor variables are conductive for exceptional longevity in the United States. Introduction Centenarians (persons living to age 100 and over) represent a population, which could be useful in identifying factors leading to long life and avoidance of fatal diseases. Even if some middle-life factors have a moderate protective effect on risk of death, persons with this trait/condition would be accumulated among long-lived individuals. Thus, study of centenarians may be a sensitive way to find genetic, familial, environmental, and life-course factors associated with lower mortality and better survival. Incorporation of physical characteristics into demographic analysis of mortality widens a scope of explanatory variables in biodemographic research on health outcomes (Crimmins and Seeman 2000). This study investigates the effects of the physical traits – height and ‘build’ at young age on the chances of survival to age 100. Height is an important indicator of childhood nutritional status and exposure to early infections. An individual’s height at young adult age seems to be a good indicator of person’s nutritional and infectious disease history at least in historical data (Elo and Preston 1992; Alter 2004; Alter, Neven et al. 2004). Most studies, starting with Waaler’s pioneer work, found a negative relationship between body height and mortality later in life (Waaler 1984; Elo and Preston 1992). A study of Union Army veterans found that the relationship between height and subsequent mortality was negative (Costa 1993; Fogel and Costa 1997; Costa and Lahey 2005), findings similar to a study of modern Norwegian males (Costa 1993; Costa 1993; Fogel and Costa 1997; Costa and Lahey 2005). Infectious diseases (and diarrhoeal diseases in particular) can result in growth retardation leading to shorter adult height. For example, conscripts from high-mortality districts of antebellum New York were shorter than those from healthier districts (Haines, Craig et al. 2003).
Minimal representation for the control of Gough-Stewart platforms via leg observation considering a hidden robot model

This paper presents new insights about the sensor-based control of Gough-Stewart (GS) platforms. Previous works have shown that it was possible to control the GS platform by observing its legs directions instead of using the encoders values or the measurement of the platform pose. It was demonstrated that observing only three legs directions was enough for the control but no physical explanations were given. Moreover, sometimes, the GS platform was not converging to the desired pose and the reasons of these divergences were not disclosed. This paper aims at answering to this two opened problems. It is shown that observing three leg directions involves controlling the displacement of a hidden robot whose models differs from those of the usual GS platform. This robot has assembly modes and singular configurations different from those of the GS platform. This involves that the legs to observe should be chosen carefully in order to avoid inaccuracy problems. In this sense, the accuracy analysis of the new robot is performed to show the importance of the leg selection. All these results are validated on a GS platform simulator created using ADAMS/Controls and interfaced with Matlab/Simulink.
Feasibility Aspects of AMP Performance Evaluation in a Fluid Simulation Environment

In order to address the problem of intra-domain IP traffic engineering efficiently, we have recently proposed Adaptive Multi-Path routing (AMP) as a dynamic algorithmic solution based on a local view of the network. For two real ISP topologies we have demonstrated that our scheme significantly improves network performance while generating only minimal signaling overhead. However, our performance evaluations have been accomplished by packet-level simulation, which has turned out to be a rather slow method as soon as realistic network sizes and traffic scenarios are considered, and thus prevents a deeper analysis of the algorithm. Therefore, we are currently developing a simulation environment which is based on the fluid model, i.e., focusing on flow aggregates instead of single packet events and connections, which makes it much faster than packet-level simulation. In this paper we describe the basic concepts of fluid models and evaluate the feasibility of fluid-based simulation of AMP, particularly concentrating on computational efficiency.