Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Les leçons du mariage entre les modèles d’équilibre général calculable et la nouvelle théorie du commerce international

The new trade theory shows that taking into account imperfect competition and economies of scale can drastically modify our predictions concerning the impact of trade policy. However, despite the apparent importance of these phenomena and the extent of current trade liberalization in developing countries, there are extremely few empirical trade analyses which consider them. Further, we find that the principal exception to this rule is a study that contains a modelling inconsistency leading to a considerable overestimation of the pro-competitive effects of trade liberalization. We present in detail the theoretical foundations and the procedure to follow in consistently modelling imperfect competition in a traditional computable general equilibrium trade model. An illustration is then provided through an analysis of Tunisian trade policy options which indicates that very limited pro-competitive effects are to be expected from trade liberalization. La nouvelle theorie du commerce international demontre que la presence de concurrence imparfaite et d’economies d’echelle peut modifier de maniere radicale les impacts de politiques commerciales. Toutefois, malgre l’ampleur apparente de ces deux phenomenes dans les pays en developpement et les reformes commerciales qui y sont presentement appliquees, tres rares sont les etudes empiriques qui en tiennent compte. De plus, nous montrons que la principale etude qui fait exception contient une incoherence de modelisation qui mene a une surestimation considerable de l’effet dit procompetitif de la liberalisation commerciale. Nous presentons en detail les fondements theoriques et la procedure a suivre pour une integration coherente de la concurrence imparfaite dans un modele traditionnel d’equilibre general calculable. Le fonctionnement du modele est ensuite illustre a travers une application a la Tunisie, application qui indique que l’effet procompetitif a esperer de la liberalisation commerciale y est faible.
CMC-1 Surfaces in Hyperbolic 3-space using the Bianchi-Calo method

In this note we present a method for constructing CMC-1 surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space $\bfH^3(-1)$ in terms of holomorphic data first introduced in Bianchi's Lezioni di Geometria Differenziale of 1927, therefore predating by many years the modern approaches due to Bryant, Small and others. Besides its obvious historical interest, this note aims to complement Bianchi's analysis by deriving explicit formulae for CMC-1 surfaces and comparing the various approaches encountered in the literature.
Cortical and thalamic axon pathfinding defects in Tbr1, Gbx2, and Pax6 mutant mice: Evidence that cortical and thalamic axons interact and guide each other

During development, cortical areas establish precise reciprocal projections with corresponding thalamic nuclei. Pioneer axons from the cortex and thalamus first meet in the intermediate zone of the subcortical telencephalon (subpallium). Their close interactions in the subpallium suggest that they may use each other for guidance. To test this hypothesis, the development of corticothalamic and thalamocortical connections was studied in mice with mutations of transcription factor genes expressed specifically in the cortex (Tbr1), the dorsal thalamus (Gbx2), or both (Pax6). In Tbr1 mutants, cortical pioneer axons entered the subpallium at the appropriate time, but most stopped growing without entering the diencephalon. Surprisingly, thalamic axons (which do not express Tbr1) deviated into the external capsule and amygdala regions, without entering the cortex. Conversely, in most Gbx2 mutants, thalamic axons were reduced in number and grew no farther than the subpallium. Cortical axons (which do not express Gbx2) grew into the subpallium but did not enter the diencephalon. In one Gbx2– /– case, sparse thalamocortical and corticothalamic projections both developed, but in no case did one projection reach its target and not the other. In Pax6 mutants, neither corticothalamic nor thalamocortical axons reached their targets. These results suggest that thalamocortical and corticothalamic projections may not form independently. After reaching the subpallium, each projection may require a molecularly intact reciprocal projection for further guidance. This type of mechanism ensures that thalamocortical and corticothalamic axons project reciprocally. However, the exact nature of the interaction between cortical and thalamic pioneer axons remains to be elucidated. J. Comp. Neurol. 447:8–17, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Physical Activity and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease—A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies

In order to update and improve available evidence on associations of physical activity (PA) with cardiovascular disease (CVD) by applying meta-analytic random effects modeling to data from prospective cohort studies, using high quality criteria of study selection, we searched the PubMed database from January 1980 to December 2010 for prospective cohort studies of PA and incident CVD, distinguishing occupational PA and leisure time PA, coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke, respectively. Inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed English papers with original data, studies with large sample size (n ≥ 1,000) and substantial follow-up (≥5 years), available data on major confounders and on estimates of relative risk (RR) or hazard ratio (HR), with 95% confidence intervals (CI). We included 21 prospective studies in the overall analysis, with a sample size of more than 650,000 adults who were initially free from CVD, and with some 20,000 incident cases documented during follow-up. Among men, RR of overall CVD in the group with the high level of leisure time PA was 0.76 (95% CI 0.70–0.82, p < 0.001), compared to the reference group with low leisure time PA, with obvious dose-response relationship. A similar effect was observed among women (RR = 0.73, 95% CI 0.68–0.78, p < 0.001). A strong protective effect of occupational PA was observed for moderate level in both men (RR = 0.89, 95% CI 0.82–0.97, p = 0.008) and women (RR = 0.83, 95% CI 0.67–1.03, p = 0.089). No publication bias was observed. Our findings suggest that high level of leisure time PA and moderate level of occupational PA have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular health by reducing the overall risk of incident coronary heart disease and stroke among men and women by 20 to 30 percent and 10 to 20 percent, respectively. This evidence from high quality studies supports efforts of primary and secondary prevention of CVD in economically advanced as well as in rapidly developing countries.
Do socioeconomic mortality differences decrease with rising age

The impact of SES on mortality is an established finding in mortality research. I examine, whether this impact decreases with age. Most research finds evidence for this decrease but it is unknown whether the decline is due to mortality selection. My data come from the US-HRS Study and includes 9376 persons aged 59+, which are followed over 8 years. The variables allow a time varying measurement of SES, health and behavior. Event-history-analysis is applied to analyze mortality differentials. My results show that socioeconomic mortality differences are stable across ages whereas they decline clearly with decreasing health. The first finding that health rather than age is the equalizer combined with the second finding of unequally distributed health leads to the conclusion that in old age, the impact of SES is transferred to health and is stable across ages.
A Tutorial Introduction to Supervisory Hybrid Systems

Supervisory hybrid systems are systems generating a mixture of continuous-valued and discrete-valued signals. These systems provide convenient models for a wide range of complex engineering applications ranging from small real-time embedded systems to large-scale traffic control and manufacturing facilities. In recent years there has been considerable interest in using hybrid systems theory to develop a systematic framework for the analysis and design of complex engineering systems. This paper provides an introduction to some of the concepts and trends in hybrid dynamical systems theory.
Beat and Downbeat Tracking Based on Rhythmic Patterns Applied to the Uruguayan Candombe Drumming

Computational analysis of the rhythmic/metrical structure of music from recorded audio is a hot research topic in music information retrieval. Recent research has explored the explicit modeling of characteristic rhythmic patterns as a way to improve upon existing beat-tracking algorithms, which typically fail on dealing with syncopated or poly-rhythmic music. This work takes the Uruguayan Candombe drumming (an afro-rooted rhythm from Latin America) as a case study. After analyzing the aspects that make this music genre troublesome for usual algorithmic approaches and describing its basic rhythmic patterns, the paper proposes a supervised scheme for rhythmic pattern tracking that aims at ﬁnding the metric structure from a Candombe recording, including beat and downbeat phases. Then it evaluates and compares the performance of the method with those of general-purpose beat-tracking algorithms through a set of experiments involving a database of annotated recordings totaling over two hours of audio. The results of this work reinforce the advantages of tracking rhythmic patterns (possibly learned from annotated music) when it comes to automatically following complex rhythms. A software implementation of the proposal as well as the annotated database utilized are available to the research community with the publication of this paper.
Working Paper 78 - Trade Policy and Performance in Sub - Saharan Africa since the 1980s

This paper reviews trade policy reform and performance in Africa since the 1980s. African countries have implemented significant trade liberalisation in this period, in particular reducing tariffs. This has usually resulted in an increase in imports, but export growth has often been sluggish so that in many countries the trade deficit has increased. The paper documents trends and performance and reviews the explanations for poor export response. While trade policy reform has been beneficial, the impact has not been as great as expected and the core challenge facing African countries is how to diversify and increase exports.
Relationship between neuronal architecture and variability in cortical circuits

The connectivity of cortical neuronal networks is complex, exhibiting clustered network motifs and ensembles of neurons with high connection probability. However, the significance of these connectivity properties for computation and dynamics in cortex is unclear. In this thesis, I present several studies concerning the behavior of model cortical neurons receiving input from a surrounding network. I begin by studying pairs of neurons, investigating how overlapping excitatory and inhibitory inputs control the statistics of their outputs. I then study fully recurrent networks of neurons with nonuniform connection structures in the form of highly connected neuronal assemblies. These assemblies represent functionally related subsets of neurons, and I investigate their collective behavior in both spontaneously generated activity and evoked conditions. I show that the presence of assembly structure in recurrently coupled, balanced excitatory-inhibitory networks introduces slow timescales in the networks’ dynamics and relate these modeling results to the experimental literature. Next, I present results on how these assemblies form and are maintained with realistic models of synaptic plasticity. In total, these results represent a step toward understanding how connectivity can be modified by sensory experience, and how these changes in turn shape cortical dynamics.
Simulation for light power distribution of 3D InGaN/GaN MQW LED with textured surface

In this paper, we introduce a full 3D simulation for light power distribution of an InGaN/GaN MQW LED with a textured surface. Device simulation was performed with the APSYS software to get power distribution of light sources inside the LED. Based on this, ray tracing simulation was carried out to get light power distribution outside the LED. During the process of ray tracing, the textured surface was treated as a special material interface whose reflectivity, transmittance and refraction angle are obtained with a Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method instead of using the usual Fresnel formulas for normal material interfaces. By comparing the ray tracing results with and without the textured surface, we found that the textured surface yields a smoother transmitted power distribution and greatly improved power extraction efficiency, which are comparable to experiment. These effects may be further improved by optimizing the texture geometry.
Age and premorbid intelligence suppress complaint–performance congruency in raw score measures of memory

ABSTRACT Background: We aimed to examine the role of age and premorbid intelligence (IQ) in suppressing the relationship between subjective memory complaints (SMCs) and raw score memory performance. Methods: We used a community sample of older adults aged 66–90 years (N = 121) to test whether the inclusion of age and a premorbid IQ measure in multiple regression analyses increased semipartial correlations of raw score memory performance in predicting SMCs. Rank contrast correlations were also carried out to observe how age and premorbid IQ are related to complaint–performance congruency. Measures utilized in the study included the Memory Functioning Questionnaire (for SMCs), Visual Reproduction and Logical Memory Subtests (memory performance), and the National Adult Reading Test (premorbid IQ). Results: Inclusion of age and premorbid IQ in the multiple regression analyses increased semipartial correlations for all raw score measures of memory. Both age and premorbid IQ were significantly related to complaint–performance congruency, whereby older participants and those with lower premorbid IQ scores rated their memory abilities more leniently than younger and higher premorbid IQ participants. Conclusion: The results suggest differences in age and premorbid IQ play a small role in suppressing the relationship between SMCs and memory performance when utilizing raw score measures of memory.
Single-Bit Oversampled A/D Conversion With Exponential Accuracy in the Bit Rate

A scheme for simple oversampled analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion using single-bit quantization is presented. The scheme is based on recording positions of zero-crossings of the input signal added to a deterministic dither function. This information can be represented in a manner such that the bit rate increases only logarithmically with the oversampling factor r. The input band-limited signal can be reconstructed from this information locally with O(1/r) pointwise error, resulting in an exponentially decaying distortion-rate characteristic. In the course of studying the accuracy of the proposed A/D conversion scheme, some new results are established about reconstruction of band-limited signals from irregular samples using linear combination of functions with fast decay. Schemes for local interpolation of band-limited signals from quantized irregular samples are also proposed.
Recognizing user activity based on accelerometer data from a mobile phone

Activity recognition refers to the ability of a machine/device to recognize the activity of users. This area of research has attracted many works especially related to the context aware and ubiquitous computing area. Wearable accelerometers have been explored for this activity recognition purpose; however the impracticality of attaching accelerometers to the user presents significant issues. Accelerometers today are embedded in many mobile devices. This paper explores the potential and possibility of using these accelerometer data to determine user activity recognition. The initial experiments show encouraging results with a very good accuracy rate of 92%. A simple prototype developed supports the implementation of the recognition process conducted.
Nuclear medicine imaging of gastro-entero-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. The key role of cellular differentiation and tumor grade: from theory to clinical practice

Abstract Nuclear medicine imaging is a powerful diagnostic tool for the management of patients with gastro-entero-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, mainly developed considering some cellular characteristics that are specific to the neuroendocrine phenotype. Hence, overexpression of specific trans membrane receptors as well as the cellular ability to take up, accumulate, and decarboxylate amine precursors have been considered for diagnostic radiotracer development. Moreover, the glycolytic metabolism, which is not a specific energetic pathway of neuroendocrine tumors, has been proposed for radionuclide imaging of neuroendocrine tumors. The results of scintigraphic examinations reflect the pathologic features and tumor metabolic properties, allowing the in vivo characterization of the disease. In this article, the influence of both cellular differentiation and tumor grade in the scintigraphic pattern is reviewed according to the literature data. The relationship between nuclear imaging results and prognosis is also discussed. Despite the existence of a relationship between the results of scintigraphic imaging and cellular differentiation, tumor grade and patient outcome, the mechanism explaining the variability of the results needs further investigation.
Personal intelligence in collective goals: A bottom-up approach from PKM to OKM

This paper investigates the PKM processes of knowledge workers in order to develop an agent-mediated PKM framework and how this mediation could collectively manifest an OKM framework from the bottom-up approach in PKM. We propose a conceptual model for agent-mediated PKM to show the emergence of a collective personal intelligence towards achieving the organisational goal.
The Masses, Ancestors, and Descendants of Extremely Red Objects: Constraints from Spatial Clustering

Wide-field near-infrared (IR) surveys have revealed a population of galaxies with very red optical-IR colors, which have been termed "extremely red objects" (EROs). Modeling suggests that such red colors (R-K > 5) could be produced by galaxies at z ≳ 1 with either very old stellar populations or very high dust extinction. Recently, it has been discovered that EROs are strongly clustered. Are these objects the high-redshift progenitors of present-day giant ellipticals (gEs)? Are they already massive at this epoch? Are they the descendants of the z ~ 3 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs), which have also been identified as possible high-redshift progenitors of gEs? We address these questions within the framework of the cold dark matter paradigm, using an analytic model that connects the number density and clustering, or bias, of an observed population with the halo occupation function (the number of observed galaxies per halo of a given mass). We find that EROs reside in massive dark matter halos, with average mass > 1013 h M☉. The occupation function that we derive for EROs is very similar to the one we derive for z = 0, L > L*, early-type galaxies, whereas the occupation function for LBGs is skewed toward much smaller host halo masses ( ≈ 1011-1012 h M☉). We then use the derived occupation function parameters to explore the possible evolutionary connections between these three populations.
Altruistic and Status Minded Public Workers: Evidence of the Influence of Government Effectiveness

We empirically explore whether workers in the public sector are more intrinsically motivated by altruism and status concerns than their private counterparts and look for the influence of an effective government. We base our findings on a large scale survey conducted in 51 countries. We use logistic regression to estimate the influence on the odds of working in the public sector. We find that altruistic workers are strongly attracted to the public sector and even more so to an effective government. The effects of status concerns seem ambiguous. However, we do find that highly status minded employees avoid a very effective government. We find that these effects are stronger for higher levels of altruism and status concerns. Keywords:
The Economic Psychology of Entrepreneurship and Family Business

This paper studies the attitudes of entrepreneurs, both how they differ as a group from others in the economy, as well as how they differ from one another according to the mode of entry into entrepreneurship and whether or not the firm is a family business. We use data from the Survey of Consumer Finance to measure and isolate the enjoyment of private benefits, attitudes toward risk, and optimism for these groups. Entrepreneurs are more optimistic and enjoy the nonpecuniary benefits of work more than wage earners. They embrace risk, but perhaps less so than commonly believed, as their risk‐bearing is tempered by longer planning horizons. Family business owners share optimism and nonpecuniary benefits with other entrepreneurs; their tolerance for risk is not different than wage earners. In contrast, those who inherit businesses are significantly less risk tolerant than nonentrepreneurs, are no more optimistic than nonentrepreneurs, but seem to derive more nonpecuniary benefits from work than others. Simply possessing these entrepreneurial traits translate into actions, increasing the amount of time spent at work, even among those who are not entrepreneurs.
Demonstration of quasi-contentionless flexible ROADM based on a multiport WXC

Colorless, directionless, and contentionless (CDC) are considered to be three important features for next-generation reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) nodes. However, CDC-ROADMs have not been widely deployed due to their relatively higher cost and complexity. In this paper, a compact and multiport wavelength cross connect (WXC) is proposed and demonstrated. Based on the developed WXC, we introduce two novel quasi-contentionless ROADM architectures, which provide considerable reduction of traffic blocking ratio when compared with colorless/directionless (CD)-ROADM architectures. Meanwhile, compared to conventional CDC-ROADMs, the proposed architectures show advantages on cost, intrafiber connection, and system complexity. Experiments are carried out to demonstrate the ability to add/drop two or more identical wavelengths simultaneously in a static network and the flex-grid wavelength routing characteristic of the proposed ROADM nodes. These results indicate that the proposed ROADM solution is a practical and promising trade-off for future elastic optical networks.