Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Talk Without Borders: Why Political Discussion Makes Latin Americans With Relatives Abroad More Critical of Their Democracies

Mulling over politics with others can change citizens’ political beliefs and choices. Is the effect of interpersonal political discussion different when one of the interlocutors has a family member living abroad—that is, is a “transnational household member” (THM)? Using data from 20 Latin American countries in the 2006-2008 AmericasBarometer, we show that talking about politics makes THMs less satisfied with their democracies and less proud of their political systems than non-THMs. When THMs engage in cross-border political discussions with relatives abroad, they gain new information and perspectives that cast their own democracy in a different light. Even absent cross-border communication, though, political discussion with peers at home can make THMs more critical by emphasizing their government’s transnational governance obligations—and highlighting failures to live up to these heightened expectations. Our study thus adds to a growing body of research on emigration’s impact on sending country politics.
Principal Component Analysis and Effective K-Means Clustering

The widely adopted K-means clustering algorithm uses a sum of squared error objective function. A detailed analysis shows the close relationship between K-means clustering and principal component analysis (PCA) which is extensively utilized in unsupervised dimension reduction. We prove that the continuous solutions of the discrete K-means clustering membership indicators are the data projections on the principal directions (principal eigenvectors of the covariance matrix). New lower bounds for K-means objective function are derived, which relate directly to the eigenvalues of the covariance matrix. Experiments on Internet newsgroups indicate that the new bounds are within 0.5-1.5% of the optimal values, and that PCA provides an effective solution for the K-means clustering. 1 Principal Component Analysis Principal component analysis (PCA)[5] in multivariate statistics is widely adopted as an effective unsupervised dimension reduction method and is extended in many different directions. The main justification of dimension reduction is that PCA uses singular value decomposition (SVD) which gives the best low rank approximation to original data in L2 norm due to Eckart-Young theorem. However, this essentially noise reduction perspective alone is inadequate to explain the effectiveness of PCA. In this paper, we provide a new perspective of PCA based on its close relationship with the K-means clustering algorithm. We show that the principal components are actually relaxed cluster membership indicators. Some background on PCA. The original n data points in m-dimensional space is contained in the data matrix (x1, · · · ,xn) = X. In general data is not centered around the origin. We define the centered data matrix Y = (y1, · · · ,yn), where yi = xi − x̄ and x̄ = ∑ i xi/n. The covarance matrix is given by S = ∑ i(xi − x̄)(xi − x̄)T = Y Y . The principal eigenvectors uk of Y Y T are the principal directions of the data Y . The principal eigenvectors vk of the Gram matrix Y T Y are the principal components; entries of each vk are the projected values of data points on the principal direction uk. vk and uk are related via: vk = Y T uk/λ 1/2 k . where λk is the eigenvalue of the covarance matrix Y Y . 2 K-means clustering The popular K-means algorithm [3] is an error minimization algorithm where the objective function is the sum of error squared,
Effects of competitive standard, team formation and playing position on match running performance of Brazilian professional soccer players

Abstract This study examined the effects of competitive standard, team formation and playing position on match running performance in a Brazilian professional soccer team. Performance was investigated in 36 players in 48 matches at 3 competitive standards: 1st São Paulo State Championship; 3rd and 4th Brazilian leagues. Global Positioning System technology was used to determine total distance covered (TD), maximal running speed (MRS), mean speed (SMEAN) and frequency of high-intensity activities (HIA). Data were compared across competitive standards, team formations and playing positions. Magnitude-based inferences showed greater values for TD, SMEAN and HIA (likely to almost certain) in the lower national (3rd, 4th Brazilian) vs. the top state division (1st São Paulo). Higher values for all variables were reported for the 1–4–3–3 vs. the 1–4–4–2 formation (likely to almost certain). External defenders/midfielders and forwards reported greater values (likely to almost certain) vs. central defenders/midfielders, especially in HIA. Linear regression analyses showed that playing position demonstrated a higher relative contribution to the variance in MRS (24%) and HIA (29%) compared to team formation (16 and 25%, respectively). In a Brazilian professional soccer team, match running performance was dependent upon competitive standard, playing formation and playing position.
A Comparison of Techniques for Coupling Porous Flow and Geomechanics

Summary This paper compares three techniques for coupling multiphase porous flow and geomechanics. Sample simulations are presented to highlight the similarities and differences in the techniques. One technique uses an explicit algorithm to couple porous flow and displacements in which flow calculations are performed every timestep and displacements are calculated only during selected timesteps. A second technique uses an iteratively coupled algorithm in which flow calculations and displacement calculations are performed sequentially for the nonlinear iterations during each timestep. The third technique uses a fully coupled approach in which the program’s linear solver must solve simultaneously for fluid-flow variables and displacement variables. The techniques for coupling porous flow with displacements are described and comparison problems are presented for single-phase and threephase flow problems involving poroelastic deformations. All problems in this paper are described in detail, so the results presented here may be used for comparison with other geomechanical/ porous-flow simulators.
A Classification of Unimodular Lattice Wiretap Codes in Small Dimensions

Lattice coding over a Gaussian wiretap channel, where an eavesdropper listens to transmissions between a transmitter and a legitimate receiver, is considered. A new lattice invariant called the secrecy gain is used as a code design criterion for wiretap lattice codes since it was shown to characterize the confusion that a chosen lattice can cause at the eavesdropper: the higher the secrecy gain of the lattice, the more confusion. In this paper, secrecy gains of extremal odd unimodular lattices as well as unimodular lattices in dimension n, 16 ≤ n ≤ 23, are computed, covering the four extremal odd unimodular lattices and all the 111 nonextremal unimodular lattices (both odd and even), providing thus a classification of the best wiretap lattice codes coming from unimodular lattices in dimension n, 8 <; n ≤ 23. Finally, to permit lattice encoding via Construction A, the corresponding error correction codes of the best lattices are determined.
A Political Space for Children?: The Age Order and Children’s Right to Participation

This article discusses how adulthood is naturalized and how adulthood norms set limits on the possibilities of including children in democratic processes and understanding them as political subjects. The article examines the kind of resistance children and youth can meet when participating in democratic processes, with examples of speech acts from the Gothenburg Youth Council. It also discusses the theoretic concept of childism (Wall, 2008, 2010) and how childism can be a way to escape the dominance of adulthood norms. The concept of childism means addressing children’s experiences by transforming understandings and practices for all humans, not only for non-adults. How is it possible to create a political space for children and involve children in defining what should count as politically important?
Influence of cross-interferences on blocked loops: a case study with matrix-vector multiply

State-of-the art data locality optimizing algorithms are targeted for local memories rather than for cache memories. Recent work on cache interferences seems to indicate that these phenomena can severely affect blocked algorithms cache performance. Because of cache conflicts, it is not possible to know the precise gain brought by blocking. It is even difficult to determine for which problem sizes blocking is useful. Computing the actual optimal block size is difficult because cache conflicts are highly irregular. In this article, we illustrate the issue of precisely evaluating cross-interferences in blocked loops with blocked matrix-vector multiply. Most significant interference phenomena are captured because unusual parameters such as array base addresses are being considered. The techniques used allow us to compute the precise improvement due to blocking and the threshold value of problem parameters for which the blocked loop should be preferred. It is also possible to derive an expression of the optimal block size as a function of problem parameters. Finally, it is shown that a precise rather than an approximate evaluation of cache conflicts is sometimes necessary to obtain near-optimal performance.
¡Con Ganas! Fostering Latina Students’ Active Participation in Science Classrooms through Their Involvement in Cogenerative Dialogues

This study explores cogenerative dialogues as potential spaces for supporting active participation among Latina students in science courses. I collaborated with two high school science teachers to enact cogenerative dialogues with five Latina students, each of whom had previously self-identified as reluctant class participants. Using a framework grounded in educación concepts of care, personalismo, and confianza, I found that, as the students took greater part in cogenerative dialogues, their active participation within in-class activities grew in parallel. This increase in participation was mediated by several conditions of cogenerative dialogues, which collectively fostered a spirit of community, agency, and science identity.
Evaluating Smoking Cessation Interventions and Cessation Rates in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background. Tobacco smoking cessation interventions in the oncology population are an important part of comprehensive treatment plan. Objectives. To evaluate through a systematic review smoking cessation interventions and cessation rates in cancer patients. Search Strategy. The literature was searched using Medline, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library (inception to November 2010) by three independent review authors. Selection Criteria. Studies were included if tobacco smoking cessation interventions were evaluated and patients were randomized to usual care or an intervention. The primary outcome measure was cessation rates. Data Collection and Analysis. Two authors extracted data independently for each paper, with disagreements resolved by consensus. Main Results. The systematic review found eight RCTs investigating smoking cessation interventions in the oncology patient population. Pooled relative risks were calculated from two groups of RCTs of smoking cessation interventions based on followup duration. In both groups, the pooled relative risk did not suggest a statistically significant improvement in tobacco cessation compared to usual care. Conclusions. Our review demonstrates that recent interventions in the last decade which are a combination of non-pharmacological and pharmacological approaches yield a statistically significant improvement in smoking cessation rates compared to usual care.
Nutritional Iron Deficiency Anemia: Magnitude and Its Predictors among School Age Children, Southwest Ethiopia: A Community Based Cross-Sectional Study

Background Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a global public health problem among school age children, which retards psychomotor development and impairs cognitive performance. There is limited data on prevalence and risk factors for IDA. Objective The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, severity, and predictors of nutritional IDA in school age children in Southwest Ethiopia. Methodology A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia from April to July 2013. A total of 616 school children aged 6 to 12 years were included in the study using multistage sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic data. Five milliliter venous blood was collected from each child for hematological examinations. Anemia was defined as a hemoglobin level lower than 11.5 g/dl and 12 g/dl for age group of 5–11 years and 12–15 years, respectively. Iron deficiency anemia was defined when serum iron and ferritin levels are below 10 µmol/l and 15 µg/dl, respectively. Moreover, fresh stool specimen was collected for diagnosis of intestinal parasitic infection. Stained thick and thin blood films were examined for detection of Plasmodium infection and study of red blood cell morphology. Dietary patterns of the study subjects were assessed using food frequency questionnaire and anthropometric measurements were done. Data were analyzed using SPSS V-20.0 for windows. Result Overall, prevalence of anemia was 43.7%, and that of IDA was 37.4%. Not-consuming protein source foods [AOR = 2.30, 95%CI(1.04,5.14)], not-consuming dairy products [AOR = 1.83, 95%CI(1.14,5.14)], not-consuming discretionary calories [AOR = 2.77, 95%CI(1.42,5.40)], low family income [AOR = 6.14, 95%CI(2.90,12.9)] and intestinal parasitic infections [AOR = 1.45, 95%CI(1.23, 5. 27)] were predictors of IDA. Conclusion Iron deficiency anemia is a moderate public health problem in the study site. Dietary deficiencies and intestinal parasitic infections were predictors of IDA. Therefore, emphasis should be given to the strategies for the prevention of risk factors for IDA.
Optimal portfolio policies with borrowing and shortsale constraints

We characterize optimal intertemporal portfolio policies for investors with CRRA utility facing either a borrowing constraint, or shortsale restrictions, or both. The optimal constrained portfolios are identi"ed as optimal unconstrained portfolios for a higher riskless rate, or for a subset of the risky assets, or for a combination of the two settings. Our characterization is based on duality results in CvitanicH and Karatzas (1992, Annals of Applied Probability 2, 767}818) for optimal portfolio investment when portfolio values are more generally constrained to a closed, convex, nonempty subset of Rn. ( 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classixcation: G11
Gender effects and third-party punishment in social dilemma games

This paper investigates whether altruistic punishment when cooperation norms are violated is sensitive to gender effects. Our framework is a one-shot social dilemma game with third-party punishment in which subjects are informed of the others’ gender within their group. This allows us to test whether third-party punishment depends on the punisher’s as well as on the contributors’ gender. We include treatments where the contributors have either the same or different gender from that of the third-party punishers. Our findings indicate that the assignment of altruistic punishment is gender sensitive. While third-party punishment is assigned similarly when contributors have the same gender as third-party punishers, this is not the case when the gender of the contributors and third-party punishers is different. Third-party male punishers sanction significantly harsher female contributors and earn significantly less relative to third-party female punishers when matched with male contributors. Overall, our results have important implications for the design of teams in the presence of free-riding incentives.
Patient values and preferences for antithrombotic therapy in atrial fibrillation

Summary Guidelines recommend that patients’ values and preferences should be considered when selecting stroke prevention therapy for atrial fibrillation (SPAF). However, doing so is difficult, and tools to assist clinicians are sparse. We performed a narrative systematic review to provide clinicians with insights into the values and preferences of AF patients for SPAF antithrombotic therapy. Narrative systematic review of published literature from database inception. Research questions: 1) What are patients’ AF and SPAF therapy values and preferences? 2) How are SPAF therapy values and preferences affected by patient factors? 3) How does conveying risk information affect SPAF therapy preferences? and 4) What is known about patient values and preferences regarding novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) for SPAF? Twenty-five studies were included. Overall study quality was moderate. Severe stroke was associated with the greatest disutility among AF outcomes and most patients value the stroke prevention efficacy of therapy more than other attributes. Utilities, values, and preferences about other outcomes and attributes of therapy are heterogeneous and unpredictable. Patients’ therapy preferences usually align with their values when individualised risk information is presented, although divergence from this is common. Patients value the attributes of NOACs but frequently do not prefer NOACs over warfarin when all therapy-related attributes are considered. In conclusion, patients’ values and preferences for SPAF antithrombotic therapy are heterogeneous and there is no substitute for directly clarifying patients’ individual values and preferences. Research using choice modelling and tools to help clinicians and patients clarify their SPAF therapy values and preferences are needed. Supplementary Material to this article is available online at www.thrombosis-online.com.
Service Discovery for Support of Real-time Multimedia SIP Applications over OLSR MANETs

Support for real-time multimedia session services, such as real-time interactive voice-and-video-over-IP applications, is highly desirable in a mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET). This paper presents a service discovery mechanism as an extension of the proactive OLSR (Optimized Link State Routing) protocol, enabling real-time interactive multimedia session applications using the Internet Engineering Task Force’s (IETF) standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) in MANET. Effectively applying the crosslayer design between the networking and the application layer, a unified SIP service location distribution mechanism is proposed which can discover SIP service capabilities and server locations. Performance analysis and simulation results of the proposed scheme as applied to SIP MANETs running on OLSR are presented.
RAPter

With the proliferation of acquisition devices, gathering massive volumes of 3D data is now easy. Processing such large masses of pointclouds, however, remains a challenge. This is particularly a problem for raw scans with missing data, noise, and varying sampling density. In this work, we present a simple, scalable, yet powerful data reconstruction algorithm. We focus on reconstruction of man-made scenes as regular arrangements of planes (RAP), thereby selecting both local plane-based approximations along with their global inter-plane relations. We propose a novel selection formulation to directly balance between data fitting and the simplicity of the resulting arrangement of extracted planes. The main technical contribution is a formulation that allows less-dominant orientations to still retain their internal regularity, and not become overwhelmed and regularized by the dominant scene orientations. We evaluate our approach on a variety of complex 2D and 3D pointclouds, and demonstrate the advantages over existing alternative methods.
The Causes and Consequences of Nominal and Real Wage Rigidity : a Sectoral Approach

This paper presents estimates based on individual data of downward nominal and real wage rigidities for thirteen sectors in Belgium, Denmark, Spain and Portugal in order to examine the causes and consequences of rigid wages. Our methodology follows the approach recently developed for the International Wage Flexibility Project (IWFP), whereby resistance to nominal and real wage cuts is measured through departures of observed individual wage change histograms from an estimated counterfactual wage change distribution that would have prevailed in the absence of rigidity. We evaluate the role of wage bargaining institutions and worker and firm characteristics in shaping both types of rigidities as well as their consequences for the determination of employment, productivity and the dispersion of wage changes. Preliminary results indicate higher real wage rigidity for prime-age workers and white collars. Real wage rigidity decreases if firms apply firm-level wage agreements, whereas nominal wage rigidity is limited by the use of flexible pay instruments. Nominal and real rigidity have a negative impact on employment, while only nominal rigidity affects labour productivity. These findings can be related to standard labour market theories.
Middle School Teachers' Perceptions of Long-Term English Language Learners

Middle School Teachers’ Perceptions of Long-Term English Language Learners by Rachel O. Butiko MA, Dominican University, 2010 BEd, Kenyatta University, 2003 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Walden University October 2017 Abstract Increasing numbers of English-language learners (ELLs) with limited literacy skills in middle schools have resulted in a high percentage of long-term English-language learners (LTELLs). The problem of LTELLs, ELLs who have attended school in the United States for more than 6 years and have not met the state ESL exit criteria, is addressed in this study. Cummins’ concept of second language acquisition and Vygotsky’s zone ofIncreasing numbers of English-language learners (ELLs) with limited literacy skills in middle schools have resulted in a high percentage of long-term English-language learners (LTELLs). The problem of LTELLs, ELLs who have attended school in the United States for more than 6 years and have not met the state ESL exit criteria, is addressed in this study. Cummins’ concept of second language acquisition and Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development theoretical frameworks were used in this qualitative case study to explore the perceptions of 6 Title I middle school teachers. The purpose of this study was to explore middle school teachers’ perceptions of LTELLs and their impact on classroom instruction. The research questions investigated how middle school teachers perceived the limited literacy skills among LTELLs and respectively how middle school teachers perceived the effect of LTELLs on their classroom instruction. Data were collected through interviews and document analysis, and analyzed with descriptive analytical techniques Findings from the data indicated that middle school teachers’ misconceptions about LTELLs, a lack of knowledge of LTELL and second language acquisition, and a lack of linguistic support, contributed to the limited literacy skills among LTELLs. The resulting project, a white paper, focused on recommendations for the stakeholders on how to address the issue of limited literacy skills among LTELLs. This study’s contribution to social change includes a better understanding of LTELLs and their learning needs, as well as addressing teachers’ misconceptions about LTELLs and second language acquisition. The results and recommendations provide suggestions that, if implemented, may improve ELLs’ academic achievement and reduce the number of LTELLs. Middle School Teachers’ Perceptions of Long-Term English Language Learners by Rachel O. Butiko MA, Dominican University, 2010 BEd, Kenyatta University, 2003 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of