Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bank of Canada Banque du Canada Working Paper 967 / Document de travail 967 An Econometric Examination of the Trend Unemployment Rate in Canada

This paper attempts to identify the trend unemployment rate, an empirical concept, using cointegration theory. The authors examine whether there is a cointegrating relationship between the observed unemployment rate and various structural factors, focussing neither on the non-accelerating-inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) nor on the natural rate of unemployment, but rather on the trend unemployment rate, which they define in terms of cointegration. They show that, given the non stationary nature of the data, cointegration represents a necessary condition for analysing the NAIRU and the natural rate but not a sufficient condition for defining them. The main finding of the study is that two structural factors — the degree of unionization of the labour force and payroll taxes — can best account for the stochastic trend in the Canadian unemployment rate from 1955 to 1994. Accordingly, deviations of the observed unemployment rate from the trend unemployment rate during that period are treated as containing information relevant for measuring the output gap within the multivariate filter. RÉSUMÉ L'objectif des auteurs est de parvenir à identifier le taux de chômage tendanciel, concept de nature empirique, au moyen de la théorie de la cointégration. Les auteurs cherchent à établir s’il existe une relation de cointégration entre le taux de chômage et les différents déterminants structurels qui sont mis en avant dans la littérature. Leur recherche ne porte pas sur le taux de chômage non accélérationniste (TCNA) ni sur le taux de chômage naturel mais plutôt sur le chômage tendanciel défini dans le cadre de la théorie de la cointégration. Étant donné le caractère non stationnaire des données, l’hypothèse de cointégration représente une condition nécessaire à l’analyse du TCNA et du taux de chômage naturel mais non suffisante. Le résultat principal de l’étude indique que les déterminants structurels qui expliquent le mieux la tendance stochastique du taux de chômage au Canada au cours de la période 1955-1994 sont le taux de syndicalisation de la population active et les cotisations sociales des employeurs en proportion du total des salaires et traitements. Ainsi, les écarts du taux de chômage observé par rapport au taux tendanciel renferment de l'information susceptible de servir à mesurer l'écart de production dans le cadre du filtre à plusieurs variables ou filtre multivarié.
Videoing Supervision: Messages for Probation Practice

This paper reports on a PhD study, investigating the supervision of women service users (WSUs), by probation officers (POs) based on video data of one-to-one supervision sessions. The research identifies competing agendas of probation in England and Wales – one side emphasises punishment, whilst the other encourages humanistic, relationship-based practices. POs, routinely juggling these opposing expectations, appreciate traditional probation values of giving the WSU a voice and embracing psychodynamic approaches, to provide structure and support in confronting the complexities of officer/service user interactions. However, the data show that driven by managerialist enforcement requirements, it is the punitive discourse which is more frequently translated into practice. Organisational pressures, feelings about the person opposite, the offence or the individual’s background can manifest as conscious or unconscious micro-messages or masking messages. Just as SUs put on masks to disguise negative emotions or feel powerful, so too do POs; POs recognise masks and deceptions in SUs and, similarly, SUs are aware of this dynamic with POs. The research identifies practitioner ambivalence to certain narratives, particularly sexual abuse or poor mental health and, it is argued, reflective supervision is needed to deconstruct difficult personal and professional issues.
A Strip Cell in Pyroelectric Devices

The pyroelectric effect affords the opportunity to convert temporal temperature fluctuations into usable electrical energy in order to develop abundantly available waste heat. A strip pyroelectric cell, used to enhance temperature variation rates by lateral temperature gradients and to reduce cell capacitance to further promote the induced voltage, is described as a means of improving pyroelectric energy transformation. A precision dicing saw was successfully applied in fabricating the pyroelectric cell with a strip form. The strip pyroelectric cell with a high-narrow cross section is able to greatly absorb thermal energy via the side walls of the strips, thereby inducing lateral temperature gradients and increasing temperature variation rates in a thicker pyroelectric cell. Both simulation and experimentation show that the strip pyroelectric cell improves the electrical outputs of pyroelectric cells and enhances the efficiency of pyroelectric harvesters. The strip-type pyroelectric cell has a larger temperature variation when compared to the trenched electrode and the original type, by about 1.9 and 2.4 times, respectively. The measured electrical output of the strip type demonstrates a conspicuous increase in stored energy as compared to the trenched electrode and the original type, by of about 15.6 and 19.8 times, respectively.
The Effect of Communicative Activities on EFL Learners’ Motivation: A Case of Students in the Amazon Region of Ecuador

This study sought to shed light on the relationship between communicative activities and their impact on students’ motivation to learn English as a Foreign Language (EFL). A total of 180 senior high school learners (86 male and 94 female) and 8 EFL teachers in a town of the Amazon region of Ecuador completed a questionnaire. A sample of these students and all of the teachers participated in a face-to-face interview. Both instruments were applied to obtain data concerned with use of communicative activities in the classroom and their relation with motivation. The data gathered was analyzed using a mixed-method approach, which comprised quantitative and qualitative methods. The results showed that students and teachers believe that communicative activities are motivating. Furthermore, students feel highly motivated when participating in interactive activities because these enhance their fluency, pronunciation and performance in the use of English in a realistic and enjoyable way.
Perceiving One’s Own Limb Movements with Conflicting Sensory Feedback: The Role of Mode of Movement Control and Age

Previous studies have demonstrated a great uncertainty in evaluating one’s own voluntary actions when visual feedback is suspended. We now compare these limitations in younger and older adults during active or passive limb movements. Participants put their dominant hand on a robot arm and performed movements actively or the relaxed limb was moved passively. Either a distorted visual feedback or no visual feedback at all was provided during the movement. Perception of limb movements was attenuated through visual feedback. This effect was more pronounced in older adults. However, no difference between active and passive movements was found. The results provide evidence for the limited awareness of body effects, even in the absence of voluntary actions.
A single-centre comparison of the clinical outcomes at 6 months of renal transplant recipients administered Adoport® or Prograf® preparations of tacrolimus

Background The use of generic formulations of immunosuppressive drugs in place of brand name drugs offers considerable cost savings. Brand name tacrolimus (Prograf®) came off patent in April 2008. However, published evidence supporting therapeutic equivalence of generic formulations of tacrolimus in solid organ transplantation is lacking. The South West Transplant Centre switched from administering Prograf® to a generic formulation (Adoport®) for de novo transplant recipients in November 2010. This study sought to compare the clinical outcomes of renal transplant recipients administered Prograf® with those receiving Adoport®. Methods Data regarding patient characteristics and clinical outcomes were collected retrospectively for all patients undergoing renal transplantation at the South West Transplant Centre between 8 November 2009 and 8 November 2011 to whom tacrolimus was prescribed. Results A total of 48 patients received Prograf® and 51 received Adoport®. At 6 months, no statistically significant differences were identified in the rates of patient survival, graft survival, acute allograft rejection, delayed graft function, calcineurin inhibitor toxicity or cytomegalovirus infection occurring within the two groups. Conclusions This is the first study to compare the clinical outcomes of patients receiving Adoport® with those receiving brand name tacrolimus. We report comparable clinical outcomes at 6 months in patients receiving either Prograf® or Adoport® from the time of renal transplantation. These early outcome data therefore support the use of Adoport® in place of Prograf® as a potential cost-saving measure.
The meaning of empowerment

What does the word 'empowerment' mean when applied to women's position, rights and development? The Pathways of Women's Empowerment Research programme set out to map out the processes that have contributed to women's empowerment. Was that made possible by women's greater participation in paid work, or in political processes? If so, when does paid work become empowering, or how do we facilitate women's entry into political arenas? The research is part of an international consortium, based in various universities in Egypt, Ghana and Brazil. The Bangladesh project is based in BRAC University. In order to understand what works for women, we widened our parameters to look at the cultural construction of women. Who is this woman who is struggling to garner more power for herself and how does she understand empowerment?
Taylor Terms, Constraint Satisfaction and the Complexity of Polynomial Equations over Finite Algebras

We study the algorithmic complexity of determining whether a system of polynomial equations over a finite algebra admits a solution. We characterize, within various families of algebras, which of them give rise to an NP-complete problem and which yield a problem solvable in polynomial time. In particular, we prove a dichotomy result which encompasses the cases of lattices, rings, modules, quasigroups and also generalizes a result of Goldmann and Russell for groups [15].
Modular and rapid testing of SOCs with unwrapped logic blocks

Extensive research has been carried out for test planning of core-based system-on-a-chip devices. Most of the prior work assumes that all of the embedded cores are wrapped for test purpose. However, some designs may contain user-defined logic or cores that cannot be wrapped due to area constraints or timing violations. This paper discusses how these unwrapped logic blocks can be tested rapidly by adapting the TestRail architecture, which uses only the test control mechanism and the test instructions available through the IEEE 1500 standard for embedded core test. A new test scheduling algorithm, which facilitates a concurrent test of both unwrapped logic blocks and IEEE 1500-wrapped cores, is proposed, and experiments show that it outperforms a previous approach when the available number of tester channels and/or the number of unwrapped logic blocks are small.
EFFICIENT DIVISION OF PROFITS FROM COMPLEMENTARY INNOVATIONS June 2007

Many productsincluding microprocessors, telecommunications devices, and online auction servicesmake use of multiple technologies, each of which is essential to make or sell the product. This paper examines how alternative intellectual property regimes and legal institutions affect investment in the R&D necessary to develop these complex technologies. We posit several reasonable properties for an innovation reward scheme and show that any scheme possessing all of these properties cannot support the first-best R&D levels. We show that it is feasible to support efficient investment as a private equilibrium if one or more of these properties are relaxed. We also analyze the effects of a simple regime in which payoffs are proportional to patent holdings, and the regime that arises when any one intellectual property owner can obtain an injunction to block sale of the product.
Personality Traits, Sedentariness, and Personal Dilemma as the Dynamic Predictors of Intention to Use Public Transportation in Greater Jakarta

The management of mass public transportation requires the psychology of transportation in order to design and operate a transportation system which suits the social psychology dimension of urban citizens. The aim of this research is to examine the role of personality traits, sedentariness, and personal dilemma in predicting the intention of a particular group of urban citizens to switch from using private cars to using mass public transportation. This research uses the predictive correlational design, while the research data are analyzed using the multiple linear regression technique in order to identify the main effects and interaction effects of variables which may serve as the predictors of intention. This research involves 280 university students (111 males and 169 females, with M age = 20.90 years old and SD age = 1.943 years old) who live in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, and its surrounding urban areas as samples. The research finds that, among the Big Five personality traits, conscientiousness is the only trait which can significantly predict the intention of private car users, while sedentariness is not capable of predicting such intention. The research also finds that losses in terms of time and safety incurred from the use of private cars can lead to a much stronger intention to switch to mass public transportation. The implications of this research on the development of policies regarding transportation are elaborated in the final section of this paper.
Drug and Pharmacodiagnostic Co-development Statistical Considerations

Developments in genomics and biotechnology provide unprecedented opportunities for the development of effective therapeutics and companion diagnostics for matching the right drug to the right patient. Effective co-development entails many new challenges however, including development of an appropriate diagnostic, its analytical validation, clinical validation and utilization in pivotal trials that evaluate the medical utility of the new treatment. The pivotal treatment trials are of increased complexity and require careful prospective planning. Randomized clinical trials continue to be important for evaluating the effectiveness of new treatments but the utilization of the diagnostic in the design and analysis plan should be prospectively detailed. Clear separation of the data used for developing the diagnostic, including it’s threshold of positivity, from the data used for evaluating treatment effectiveness in subsets determined by the diagnostic is usually essential. We review a variety of clinical trial designs for the co-development of new treatments and companion diagnostics. These include enrichment designs in which the diagnostic is used to restrict eligibility, several prospectively defined analysis plans for designs that include both test positive and test negative patients, and adaptive designs in which data from the pivotal trial is used to both refine the diagnostic and evaluate the new treatment in a manner that preserves the overall type I error level of the study.
Adaptation in Dynamic Environments: A Case Study in Mission Planning

Many random events usually are associated with executions of operational plans at various companies and organizations. For example, some tasks might be delayed and/or executed earlier. Some operational constraints can be introduced due to new regulations or business rules. In some cases, there might be a shift in the relative importance of objectives associated with these plans. All these potential modifications create a huge pressure on planning staff for generating plans that can adapt quickly to changes in environment during execution. In this paper, we address adaptation in dynamic environments. Many researchers in evolutionary community addressed the problem of optimization in dynamic environments. Through an overview on applying evolutionary algorithms for solving dynamic optimization problems, we classify the paper into two main categories: 1) finding/tracking optima, and 2) adaptation and we discuss their relevance for solving planning problems. Based on this discussion, we propose a computational approach to adaptation within the context of planning. This approach models the dynamic planning problem as a multiobjective optimization problem and an evolutionary mechanism is incorporated; this adapts the current solution to new situations when a change occurs. As the multiobjective model is used, the proposed approach produces a set of non-dominated solutions after each planning cycle. This set of solutions can be perceived as an information-rich data set which can be used to support the adaptation process against the effect of changes. The main question is how to exploit this set efficiently. In this paper, we propose a method based on the concept of centroids over a number of changing-time steps; at each step we obtain a set of non-dominated solutions. We carried out a case study on this proposed approach. Mission planning was used for our experiments and experimental analysis. We selected mission planning as our test environment because battlefields are always highly dynamic and uncertain and can be conveniently used to demonstrate different types of changes, especially time-varying constraints. The obtained results support the significance of our centroid-based approach.
Building Brands

W marketing strategies are most effective for introducing new brands? This paper sheds light on this question by ascribing growth performance to firms’ postlaunch marketing choices. We decompose the success of a new brand into its ultimate market potential and the rate at which it achieves this potential. To achieve this aim we formulate a Bayesian dynamic linear model (DLM) of repeat purchase diffusion wherein growth and market potential are directly linked to the new brand’s long-term advertising, promotion, distribution, and product strategy. We perform the analysis on 225 new-brand introductions across 22 repeat-purchase product categories over five years to develop generalized findings about the correlates of new-brand success. We find that access to distribution breadth plays the greatest role in the success of a new brand, and that investments in distribution and product innovation lead to greater marginal increases in sales for new brands than either discounting, feature/display, or advertising. Moreover, distribution interacts with other strategies to enhance their effectiveness. These findings underscore the utility of extending marketing mix models of new-brand performance to include product and distribution decisions.
A Second-order Approximated Map for the Voltage-controlled Buck converter

An approximated map for a voltage-controlled dc-dc buck converter working in continuous conduction mode is deduced. The model fits the exponential and trigonometric functions in the solutions of thexact differential equations by their second-order approximations, following a similar argument to that in [1], and thus the switching instants between the two circuit topologies can be analytically computed. This allows easy and fast computations in order to obtain the asymptotic dynamics. Results are compared with theexact differential equations which are extensively known in the specialized literature [2].
Misleading patterns in correlation maps

[1] We point out the pitfall of using spatial patterns of correlation coefficients obtained from filtered data to infer physical mechanisms. Filtering is often used to emphasize a signal of interest by removing unrelated variability, but it alters subsequent correlation maps when the removed variance contains spatial structure, as is most often the case in geophysical applications. This then results in misleading patterns of correlation. In the case where filtering involves the removal of independent signals, we show that the resulting increase in correlation is entirely due to the removed signal. We include a short discussion of alternative methods that can be used to generate more consistent maps of statistical relationships.
F eb 2 00 3 Electron-impact broadening of the 3 s − 3 p lines in low-Z Li-like ions

The collisional electron-impact line widths of the 3s − 3p transitions in Li-like ions from B III to Ne VIII are calculated with the convergent close-coupling (CCC) method from the atomic collision theory. The elastic and inelastic contributions to the line broadening and their Z-scaling are discussed in detail, and comparisons with recent experimental and theoretical results are also presented. It is found that similar to our previous study of line broadening in Be-like ions, the difference between experimental and CCC results monotonically increases with the spectroscopic charge of an ion. ∗ Corresponding author. Present address: Atomic Physics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8422 Email address: yuri.ralchenko@nist.gov (Yu. V. Ralchenko). Preprint submitted to Elsevier Science 9 February 2008
A cluster-based strategy for scheduling task on heterogeneous processors

Efficient task scheduling is fundamental for parallel applications to achieve good performance on distributed systems. While extensive work exists for scheduling tasks on homogeneous processors, fewer algorithms exist for the more common problem of scheduling in heterogeneous processor environments. In this paper, we propose coupling a replication-based clustering heuristic for homogeneous processors, with a mechanism to map the generated clusters to the heterogeneous environment. Experimental results show that this strategy compares favourably in terms of the makespan with traditional list scheduling approaches to this problem, particularly when communication costs are high.
Increase in Quantitative Variation After Exposure to Environmental Stresses and/or Introduction of a Major Mutation: G × E Interaction and Epistasis or Canalization?

Why does phenotypic variation increase upon exposure of the population to environmental stresses or introduction of a major mutation? It has usually been interpreted as evidence of canalization (or robustness) of the wild-type genotype; but an alternative population genetic theory has been suggested by J. Hermisson and G. Wagner: “the release of hidden genetic variation is a generic property of models with epistasis or genotype–environment interaction. ” In this note we expand their model to include a pleiotropic fitness effect and a direct effect on residual variance of mutant alleles. We show that both the genetic and environmental variances increase after the genetic or environmental change, but these increases could be very limited if there is strong pleiotropic selection. On the basis of more realistic selection models, our analysis lends further support to the genetic theory of Hermisson and Wagner as an interpretation of hidden variance.