Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Financial Profile of the Terrorism of Al-Qaeda and its Affiliates

This working document offers an analysis of the sources of financing of the Al-Qaeda network including some of its affiliated groups. The development of Al-Qaeda's financing has been similar to the evolution of its operational structure. The organization is currently under significant financial pressure. However, the number and magnitude of terrorist attacks attributed to Al-Qaeda in a number of countries implies that the network continues to have access to substantial financial resources to support its activities. The international community has so far not succeeded in cutting off many of Al-Qaeda's sources of financing; the organisation continues to access funding from wealthy benefactors, legitimate business and criminal activities.
A dynamic procedure with propagation delay analysis for performance optimization in WDM networks

This paper presents a synchronous transmission WDMA protocol for passive star topology. The network architecture adopts the multi-channel control architecture (MCA) [2] to exchange control information. In our analysis, we exploit the effect of propagation delay latency to improve the system utilization by dynamically dividing the MCA into two groups of channels based on the knowledge of the stations status (free or backlogged). Also, the combination with the access algorithm introduced in [3] that avoids data channel collisions gives optimum results improving even more the performance. An analytic Morkovian model for finite population is developed considering the effect of receiver collisions to performance measures evaluation.
Selective Industrial and Trade Policies in Developing Countries: Theoretical and Empirical Issues.

This paper analyses the case for selective industrial and trade policies in Africa, drawing upon the lessons of East Asia. It reviews the theoretical arguments for government intervention in the context of technological learning, and relates this to the new environment of rapid technical change and globalisation of production. It also considers the risks of government failure in mounting selective policies, and concludes that the degree of selectivity has to be much less than in East Asia. The case for selective policies nevertheless remains strong, if Africa is to make any industrial progress. August
Trinocular Spherical Stereo Vision for Indoor Surveillance

Stereo vision based sensors are widely used for indoor surveillance applications. Besides the demand for increasing performance the reduction of the overall number of sensors is the crucial issue. The central goal is the reduction of complexity and overall cost of the system. One opportunity is to use wide angle view based or even Omni directional stereo vision sensors. We present a powerful approach which uses three Omni directional cameras in order to compute full hemispherical depth information. By employing this, we can cover a complete room using only one sensor.
Corporate Governance and its Effect on Firm Value and Stock Returns of Listed Companies on the Athens Stock Exchange

Recent researches have worked on the relationship between Corporate Governance and expected rates on return as well as historical returns. Firstly, we construct an Index of Corporate Governance (CGQL) that measures the quality implementation of Corporate Governance of the enlisted firms on the Athens Stock Exchange distinguishing the firms into Democracies and Dictatorships. An investment strategy that buys Democracies and shorts Dictatorships earns abnormal returns of around 18% annually during the sample period. In this paper we investigate if Corporate Governance matters in investorsâ€™ decisions. We try to observe if Corporate Governance is a proxy for firm valuation, a factor of creating and altering abnormal returns, or a risk factor, which can be a â€œsubstituteâ€ for market risk (beta), using uni- and multi-variate analyses. The conclusions call into question the utility of Corporate Governance upon firm attractiveness.
Weakly Supervised Change Detection in a Pair of Images

Conventional change detection methods require a large number of images to learn background models. The few recent approaches that attempt change detection between two images either use handcrafted features or depend strongly on tedious pixel-level labeling by humans. In this paper, we present a weakly supervised approach that needs only image-level labels to simultaneously detect and localize changes in a pair of images. To this end, we employ a deep neural network with DAG topology to { learn patterns of change} from image-level labeled training data. On top of the initial CNN activations, we define a CRF model to incorporate the local differences and the dense connections between individual pixels. We apply a constrained mean-field algorithm to estimate the pixel-level labels, and use the estimated labels to update the parameters of the CNN in an iterative EM framework. This enables imposing global constraints on the observed foreground probability mass function. Our evaluations on four large benchmark datasets demonstrate superior detection and localization performance.
The Economics of Patents and Copyright Foreword: a Primer for Free the Economics of Patents and Copyright

issues on intellectual property: e.g., the extension of patents to software and business models, the lengthening of copyright protection, the compulsory licensing of pharmaceutical products or the legal suits against music downloaders. Economics is also a powerful instrument to improve public policy. It helps to design the appropriate reform to adapt intellectual property law to the 21st century. That is why we wrote this book and decided to deliver it for free. Our aim is not to defend an opinion _ otherwise we would have written an essay or a manifesto instead of a textbook. We want to shed the light of economic analysis on major patent and copyright issues and, therefore, help our readers to make up their own minds. We thus describe and discuss the rationale of intellectual property law, its economic advantages and drawbacks and how to fine-tune them. Consistent with this approach, the book has been written to reach a wide public of both economists and non economist readers. In particular, it should also help lawyers, engineers and scientists to become more familiar with economic analysis of intellectual property. We have chosen to use the internet to share our conviction on usefulness of economics to the larger number of people. As we argue in one of our chapters, the development of the world-wide-web along with the digitalization of contents text, music, or video have opened new possibilities of diffusion which we have decided to experience with this book. Virtual books, as any digital content, can be copied and transmitted nearly for free. This may be a nightmare for those authors and producers who lose the economic incentives to invest in new creations. This may also be a unique opportunity for those _ like us _ whose prime aim is to diffuse knowledge and information. In return for free access to this book, we expect two benefits: useful feedback and further diffusion. A digital book can easily be updated and evolve as readers express new needs. We will thus welcome any suggestion (to meniere@cerna.ensmp.fr) that would be worth adding to the book. We especially encourage graduate students and instructors using this textbook to suggest addenda and exercises. We also encourage you to post the weblink to our book (www.cerna.ensmp.fr/PrimerForFree.html) on your website. This is exactly how the internet is useful! So enjoy the reading, and please diffuse this book!
Local feedback mechanisms of the shallow water region around the Maritime Continent

The focus of this study is the local-scale air-sea feedback mechanisms over the shallow shelf water region (water depth <200 m) of the Maritime Continent (MC). MC was selected as a pilot study site for its extensive shallow water coverage, geographic complexity, and importance in the global climate system. To identify the local-scale air-sea feedback processes, we ran numerical experiments with perturbed surface layer water temperature using a coupled ocean-atmosphere model and an uncoupled ocean model. By examining the responses of the coupled and uncoupled models to the water temperature perturbation, we identify that, at a local-scale, a negative feedback process through the coupled dynamics that tends to restore the SST from its perturbation could dominate the shallow water region of the MC at a short time scale of several days. The energy budget shows that 38% of initial perturbation-induced heat energy was adjusted through the air-sea feedback mechanisms within 2 weeks, of which 58% is directly transferred into the atmosphere by the adjustment of latent heat flux due to the evaporative cooling mechanism. The increased inputs of heat and moisture into the lower atmosphere then modifies its thermal structure and increases the formation of low-level clouds, which act as a shield preventing incoming solar radiation from reaching the sea surface, accounts for 38% of the total adjustment of surface heat fluxes, serving as the second mechanism for the negative feedback process. The adjustment of sensible heat flux and net longwave radiation play a secondary role. The response of the coupled system to the SST perturbation suggests a response time scale of the coupled feedback process of about 3–5 days. The two-way air-sea feedback tightly links the surface heat fluxes, clouds and SST, and can play an important role in regulating the short-term variability of the SST over the shallow shelf water regions.
Will an Appreciation of the Renminbi Rebalance the Global Economy? A Dynamic Financial CGE Analysis

We use a dynamic CGE model of China with a financial module and sectoral detail to examine the real and nominal impacts of a nominal exchange rate appreciation alone, fiscal policy alone and a combined fiscal and monetary package to redress China's external imbalance. The exchange rate policy alone is ineffective in both the short run and long run at reducing China's current account surplus. Fiscal policy is less effective than a combination of fiscal and monetary policy in reducing the surplus.
Evolution of sexual dimorphism in bill size and shape of hermit hummingbirds (Phaethornithinae): a role for ecological causation

Unambiguous examples of ecological causation of sexual dimorphism are rare, and the best evidence involves sexual differences in trophic morphology. We show that moderate female-biased sexual dimorphism in bill curvature is the ancestral condition in hermit hummingbirds (Phaethornithinae), and that it is greatly amplified in species such as Glaucis hirsutus and Phaethornis guy, where bills of females are 60 per cent more curved than bills of males. In contrast, bill curvature dimorphism is lost or reduced in a lineage of short-billed hermit species and in specialist Eutoxeres sicklebill hermits. In the hermits, males tend to be larger than females in the majority of species, although size dimorphism is typically small. Consistent with earlier studies of hummingbird feeding performance, both raw regressions of traits and phylogenetic independent contrasts supported the prediction that dimorphism in bill curvature of hermits is associated with longer bills. Some evidence indicates that differences between sexes of hermit hummingbirds are associated with differences in the use of food plants. We suggest that some hermit hummingbirds provide model organisms for studies of ecological causation of sexual dimorphism because their sexual dimorphism in bill curvature provides a diagnostic clue for the food plants that need to be monitored for studies of sexual differences in resource use.
Commodity Price Volatility: The Impact of Commodity Index Traders

Over the years, critics have argued that futures market prices have been either too low or too high. Speculators have often been the target for the wrath of those feeling the futures price does not properly reflect market fundamentals. Recently, the criticism has been vented toward a new type of speculator that has been blamed for the dramatic changes in agricultural commodity prices experienced over the last several years. Commodity index traders (CITs) and other large institutional traders are commonly accused of exerting a destabilizing influence on commodity prices. The intensity of the debate over the role of CITs appeared to wane with the reduction in commodity prices since 2008 but the recent release of a well-publicized OECD report on the issue by Irwin and Sanders (2010) along with the doubling of wheat prices and the claim by von Braun (2010) and others that the rise was due to speculative activity has renewed the debate.
The Franchise Relationship

This paper reports on work conducted at the University of Westminster, England, in addressing the issue of the status of the franchisee in terms of his or her claims to being considered an entrepreneur rather than a manager or quasi-employee. The research evidence indicates that, overall, relatively high levels of independence were reported by franchisees and that, when examining the issue of franchisee freedom, the formal contract was often a poor guide to the world of operational reality.
How Unequally Has Equal Pay Progressed since the 1970s? A Study of Two British Cohorts

This paper compares the gender gap in the pay of British, full-time workers from two cohorts, born in 1946 and 1958 and observed in their early thirties in 1978 and 1991 respectively. These dates are separated by 13 years of Equal Pay Legislation coupled with active labor market deregulation. Although women's human capital endowments had improved on average more than men's, there may have been little improvement in the differential treatment of the average woman in full-time employment. When the whole distribution of female earnings was considered, a general improvement in the treatment of women became apparent.
Conceptual Priming and Familiarity: Different Expressions of Memory during Recognition Testing with Distinct Neurophysiological Correlates

Familiarity and recollection are qualitatively different explicit-memory phenomena evident during recognition testing. Investigations of the neurocognitive substrates of familiarity and recollection, however, have typically disregarded implicit-memory processes likely to be engaged during recognition tests. We reasoned that differential neural responses to old and new items in a recognition test may reflect either explicit or implicit memory. Putative neural correlates of familiarity in prior experiments, for example, may actually reflect contamination by implicit memory. In two experiments, we used obscure words that subjects could not formally define to tease apart electrophysiological correlates of familiarity and one form of implicit memory, conceptual priming. In Experiment 1, conceptual priming was observed for words only if they elicited meaningful associations. In Experiment 2, two distinct neural signals were observed in conjunction with familiarity-based recognition: late posterior potentials for words that both did and did not elicit meaningful associations and FN400 potentials only for the former. Given that symbolic meaning is a prerequisite for conceptual priming, the combined results specifically link late posterior potentials and FN400 potentials with familiarity and conceptual priming, respectively. These findings contradict previous interpretations of FN400 potentials as generic signals of familiarity and show that repeated stimuli in recognition tests can engender facilitated processing of conceptual information in addition to retrieval processing that leads to the awareness of memory retrieval. The different characteristics of the electrical markers of these two types of process further underscore the biological validity of the distinction between implicit memory and explicit memory.
Some Improvements for the Fast Sweeping Method

In this paper, we outline two improvements to the fast sweeping method to improve the speed of the method in general and more specifically in cases where the speed is changing rapidly. The conventional wisdom is that fast sweeping works best when the speed changes slowly, and fast marching is the algorithm of choice when the speed changes rapidly. The goal here is to achieve run times for the fast sweeping method that are at least as fast, or faster, than competitive methods, e.g. fast marching, in the case where the speed is changing rapidly. The first improvement, which we call the locking method, dynamically keeps track of grid points that have either already had the solution successfully calculated at that grid point or for which the solution cannot be successfully calculated during the current iteration. These locked points can quickly be skipped over during the fast sweeping iterations, avoiding many time-consuming calculations. The second improvement, which we call the two queue method, keeps all of the unlocked points in a data structure so that the locked points no longer need to be visited at all. Unfortunately, it is not possible to insert new points into the data structure while maintaining the fast sweeping ordering without at least occasionally sorting. Instead, we segregate the grid points into those with small predicted solutions and those with large predicted solutions using two queues. We give two ways of performing this segregation. This method is a label correcting (iterative) method like the fast sweeping method, but it tends to operate near the front like the fast marching method. It is reminiscent of the threshold method for finding the shortest path on a network, [F. Glover, D. Klingman, and N. Phillips, Oper. Res., 33 (1985), pp. 65-73]. We demonstrate the numerical efficiency of the improved methods on a number of examples.
Bosentan therapy for inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.

STUDY OBJECTIVES We performed an open-label multicenter study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the dual endothelin receptor antagonist bosentan in patients with inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). PATIENTS Nineteen patients with inoperable CTEPH were enrolled. MEASUREMENTS The primary end point was a change in pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). Secondary end points included 6-min walk test, peak oxygen uptake (V(O2)), New York Heart Association functional class, serum levels of N-terminal-pro brain natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP), and various other hemodynamic parameters. RESULTS After 3 months of treatment with bosentan, PVR decreased from 914 +/- 329 to 611 +/- 220 dyne.s. cm(-5) (p < 0.001). Functional class and peak V(O2) remained unchanged, but 6-min walk distance increased from 340 +/- 102 to 413 +/- 130 m (p = 0.009), and serum NT-pro BNP levels improved from 2,895 +/- 2,620 to 2,179 +/- 2,301 (p = 0.027). One patient died, presumably from influenza A infection, and another patient experienced progressive fluid retention despite reduction of PVR. Other than that, treatment was well tolerated by all patients. CONCLUSIONS This open-label pilot trial suggests that bosentan may offer a therapeutic option for patients with inoperable CTEPH. Randomized controlled trials are warranted to confirm these findings.
The Price Puzzle and Indeterminacy

This paper re-examines the empirical evidence on the price puzzle and proposes a new theoretical interpretation. Using structural VARs and two different identification strategies based on zero restrictions and sign restrictions, we find that the positive response of price to a monetary policy shock is historically limited to the sub-samples associated with a weak central bank response to inflation. These sub-samples correspond to the pre-Volcker period for the US and the pre-inflation targeting regime for the UK. Using a micro-founded DSGE sticky price model of the US economy, we then show that the structural VARs are capable of reproducing the price puzzle on artificial data only when monetary policy is passive and hence multiple equilibria arise. In contrast, the DSGE model never generates on impact a positive inflation response to a policy shock. The omission in the VARs of a variable capturing the high persistence of expected inflation under indeterminacy is found to account for the price puzzle observed on actual data.
Whole body imaging in blunt multisystem trauma patients without obvious signs of injury: results of a prospective study.

HYPOTHESIS The use of liberal whole body imaging (pan scan) in patients based on mechanism is warranted, even in evaluable patients with no obvious signs of chest or abdominal injury. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING Academic level I trauma center. PATIENTS All patients admitted following blunt multisystem trauma. INTERVENTION Pan scan, including computed tomography (CT) of the head, cervical spine, chest, abdomen, and pelvis, with the following inclusion criteria: (1) no visible evidence of chest or abdominal injury, (2) hemodynamically stable, (3) normal abdominal examination results in a neurologically intact patient or unevaluable abdominal examination results secondary to a depressed level of consciousness, and (4) significant mechanisms of injury. Radiological findings and changes in treatment based on these findings were recorded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Any alteration in the normal treatment plan as a direct result of CT scan findings. These alterations include early hospital discharge, admission for observation, operative intervention, and additional diagnostic studies or interventions. RESULTS One thousand patients underwent pan scan during the 18-month observation period, of which 592 were evaluable patients with no obvious signs of abdominal injury. Clinically significant abnormalities were found in 3.5% of head CT scans, 5.1% of cervical spine CT scans, 19.6% of chest CT scans, and 7.1% of abdominal CT scans. Overall treatment was changed in 18.9% of patients based on abnormal CT scan findings. CONCLUSIONS The use of pan scan based on mechanism in awake, evaluable patients is warranted. Clinically significant abnormalities are not uncommon, resulting in a change in treatment in nearly 19% of patients.