Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthesizing Statistical Knowledge from Incomplete Mixed-Mode Data

The difficulties in analyzing and clustering (synthesizing) multivariate data of the mixed type (discrete and continuous) are largely due to: 1) nonuniform scaling in different coordinates, 2) the lack of order in nominal data, and 3) the lack of a suitable similarity measure. This paper presents a new approach which bypasses these difficulties and can acquire statistical knowledge from incomplete mixed-mode data. The proposed method adopts an event-covering approach which covers a subset of statistically relevant outcomes in the outcome space of variable-pairs. And once the covered event patterns are acquired, subsequent analysis tasks such as probabilistic inference, cluster analysis, and detection of event patterns for each cluster based on the incomplete probability scheme can be performed. There are four phases in our method: 1) the discretization of the continuous components based on a maximum entropy criterion so that the data can be treated as n-tuples of discrete-valued features; 2) the estimation of the missing values using our newly developed inference procedure; 3) the initial formation of clusters by analyzing the nearest-neighbor distance on subsets of selected samples; and 4) the reclassification of the n-tuples into more reliable clusters based on the detected interdependence relationships. For performance evaluation, experiments have been conducted using both simulated and real life data.
Interfirm Mobility, Wages and the Returns to Seniority and Experience in the United States

In this paper, we expand on the seminal work of Altonji and Shakotko (1987) and Topel (1991) and reinvestigate the returns to seniority in the United States. We begin with the same wage equation as in previous studies. We extend the model of Hyslop (1999) and explicitly model the participation/employment and inter-firm mobility decisions, which, in turn, define the individual's experience and seniority. We introduce into the wage equation a summary of the workers' entire career path. The three-equation system is estimated simultaneously using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). We find that for each of the three education groups studied the returns to seniority are larger than those previously found in the literature. Copyright , Wiley-Blackwell.
Organizational Slack and Firm Performance During Economic Transitions: Two Studies from an Emerging Economy

How does organizational slack affect firm performance? Organization theory posits that slack, despite its costs, has a positive impact on firm performance. In contrast, agency theory suggests that slack breeds inefficiency and inhibits performance. The empirical evidence, largely from developed economies, has been inconclusive. Moreover, little effort has been made to empirically test whether such an impact (positive or negative) is linear or curvilinear. This article joins the debate by extending empirical work to the largely unexplored context of economic transitions. Specifically, two studies, based on survey and archival data (N = 57 and 1532 firms, respectively), are undertaken in China’s emerging economy. Our results suggest (1) that organization theory generates stronger predictions when dealing with unabsorbed slack, and (2) that agency theory yields stronger validity when focusing on absorbed slack. Furthermore, we also find that the impact of slack on performance is curvilinear, which resembles inverse U-shaped curves. Overall, our findings call for a contingency perspective to specify the nature of slack when discussing its impact on firm performance.
Remarks on the Abstract Theory of Additive and Multiplicative Schwarz Algorithms

We propose a modiied approach to the abstract convergence theory of the additive and multiplicative Schwarz iterative methods associated with a subspace splitting for solving symmetric positive deenit linear problems. In particular, we obtain a satisfactory bound for the convergence rate of the appropriately scaled multiplicative Schwarz method directly in terms of the condition number of the corresponding additive Schwarz operator. The results may be viewed as an appendix to the recent surveys X, Y]. and multiplicative Schwarz methods.
Uncovering Our Self-Imposed Limits: Changes in Loan-to-Value and The Mortgage Market

We analyze the possible effects of eventual changes in regulatory limits to the loan-to-value ratio (LTV) for residential mortgage loans in Chile. In Chile there are three major types of mortgage loans, but the market is concentrated in the type without regulatory limits to the LTV. However, most mortgage loans are still granted in the 80%-90% LTV range, suggesting that a “no money down” credit policy is infrequent in residential mortgages. Our analysis allows us to infer that a nonnegligible fraction of mortgage loans are paired with an unsecured consumer loan to finance their down payment. This implies not only to a higher effective interest rate, but also a significantly higher financial burden during the first few years of the mortgage. Thus, imposing such a constraint on the LTV ratio could prove riskier than expected. Given that even in the absence of restrictions we encounter these unsecured bridge loans, this practice may be exacerbated upon imposing regulatory limitations. Finally, assuming an inelastic supply for residential mortgage loans we estimate that imposing an 80% LTV ceiling would increase the cost of credit by 17-26 basis points and weaken the loan growth rate by 40 basis points, approximately. Complementing LTV restrictions with policies that restrict the use of bridge loans is important if this tool is to be used to limit the buildup of financial risk.
Measurement on the lunar surface of impact-produced plasma clouds.

Simultaneous enhancements of low-energy ions and negative-particle fluxes due to the impact of the Apollo 14 lunar module were observed by the lunar-based charged-particle lunar-environment experiment (CPLEE). The impact occurred 66 km away from CPLEE, and the time delay between impact and flux onset was approximately 1 min. It is argued that the observed charged particles could not have energized at the instant of impact but rather that the impact produced expanding gas clouds and that constituents of these clouds were ionized and accelerated by some continuously active acceleration mechanism. It is further shown that the acceleration mechanism could not have been a static electric field but rather is possibly a consequence of interaction between the solar wind and the gas cloud.
STANDARD MODELS UNDER POLYNOMIAL POSITIVITY CONDITIONS

We develop standard models for commuting tuples of bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space under certain polynomial positivity con- ditions, generalizing the work of V. Muller and F. -H. Vasilescu in (6), (14). As a consequence of the model, we prove a von Neumann-type inequal- ity for such tuples. Up to similarity, we obtain the existence of in a certain sense "unitary" dilations.
Retrieving documents with mathematical content

Many documents with mathematical content are published on the Web, but conventional search engines that rely on keyword search only cannot fully exploit their mathematical information. In particular, keyword search is insufficient when expressions in a document are not annotated with natural keywords or the user cannot describe her query with keywords. Retrieving documents by querying their mathematical content directly is very appealing in various domains such as education, digital libraries, engineering, patent documents, medical sciences, etc. Capturing the relevance of mathematical expressions also greatly enhances document classification in such domains. Unlike text retrieval, where keywords carry enough semantics to distinguish text documents and rank them, math symbols do not contain much semantic information on their own. In fact, mathematical expressions typically consist of few alphabetical symbols organized in rather complex structures. Hence, the structure of an expression, which describes the way such symbols are combined, should also be considered. Unfortunately, there is no standard testbed with which to evaluate the effectiveness of a mathematics retrieval algorithm. In this paper we study the fundamental and challenging problems in mathematics retrieval, that is how to capture the relevance of mathematical expressions, how to query them, and how to evaluate the results. We describe various search paradigms and propose retrieval systems accordingly. We discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each approach, and further compare them through an extensive empirical study.
The Impact of Physical Disturbance and Increased Sand Burial on Clonal Growth and Spatial Colonization of Sporobolus virginicus in a Coastal Dune System

Dune plants are subjected to disturbance and environmental stresses, but little is known about the possible combined effects of such factors on growth and spatial colonization. We investigated how clones of Sporobolus virginicus , a widespread dune species, responded to the independent and interactive effects of breakage of rhizomes, breakage position and burial regime. Horizontal rhizomes were severed at three different internode positions relative to the apex to span the range of damage by disturbance naturally observed or left intact, and apical portions exposed to two burial scenarios (ambient vs. increased frequency) for three months in the field. The performance of both parts of severed rhizomes, the apical portion and the remaining basal portion connected to clone containing four consecutive ramets, was compared with that of equivalent parts in intact rhizomes. Apical portions severed proximal to the third internode did not survive and their removal did not enhance branching on their respective basal portions. Severing the sixth or twelfth internode did not affect survival and rhizome extension of apical portions, but suppressed ramet production and reduced total biomass and specific shoot length. Their removal enhanced branching and ramet production on basal portions and changed the original rhizome growth trajectory. However, the gain in number of ramets in basal portions never compensated for the reduction in ramet number in apical portions. Recurrent burial increased biomass allocation to root tissues. Burial also stimulated rhizome extension only in intact rhizomes, indicating that disturbance interacts with, and counteracts, the positive burial effect. These results suggest that disturbance and recurrent burial in combination reduces the regeneration success and spread capacity of S . virginucus . Since global change leads to increasingly severe or frequent storms, the impact of disturbance and burial on clones could be greater in future and possibly prevent colonization of mobile dunes by the species.
Stereotypes and Madrassas: Experimental Evidence from Pakistan

Madrassas (Islamic religious seminaries) have been alleged to be responsible for fostering Islamic extremism and violence, and for indoctrinating their students in narrow worldviews. However, very little is known about the behavior of Madrassa students, and how other groups in their communities interact with them. To investigate this, the authors use unique experimental and survey data that they collected in Madrassas and other educational institutions in Pakistan. They randomly match male students from institutions of three distinct religious tendencies and socioeconomic backgroundâ€”Madrassas, Islamic Universities, and Liberal Universitiesâ€”and observe their actions in several experiments of economic decision-making. First, they find a high level of trust among all groups, with students enrolled at Madrassas being the most trusting and exhibiting the highest level of unconditional other-regarding behavior. Second, within each group, they fail to find evidence of in-group bias or systematic out-group bias either in trust or tastes. These findings cast doubt on the general perception that Madrassas teach hatred and narrow worldviews. Third, they find that students of Liberal Universities underestimate the trustworthiness of Madrassa students, suggesting that an important segment of the society has mistaken stereotypes about students in religious seminaries.
Impact of different mortality forecasting methods and explicit assumptions on projected future life expectancy: The case of the Netherlands

Background: With the rapid aging of the population, mortality forecasting becomes increasingly important, especially for the insurance and pension industries. However, a wide variety of projection methods are in use, both between and within countries, that produce different outcomes. Objective: We review the different mortality forecasting methods and their assumptions in Europe, and assess their impact on projections of future life expectancy for the Netherlands. Methods: For the Netherlands, we assess the projections of life expectancy at birth (e0) and at age 65 (e65) up to 2050 resulting from different methods using similar explicit assumptions regarding the historical period and the jump-off rates. We compare direct linear extrapolation, the Lee-Carter model, the Li-Lee model, a cohort model, separate projections of smoking- and non-smoking-related mortality, and the official forecast. Results: In predicting mortality, statistical offices in Europe mostly use simple linear extrapolation methods. Countries with less linear trends employ other approaches or different assumptions. The approaches used in the Netherlands include explanatory models, the separate projection of smoking- and non-smoking-related mortality, and the projection of the age profile of mortality. There are clear differences in the explicit assumptions used, including assumptions regarding the historical period. The resulting e0 in 2050 varies by approximately six years. Using the same historical period (1970-2009) and the observed jump-off rates, the findings generated by different methods result in a range of 2.1 years for women and of 1.8 years for men. For e65, the range is 1.4 and 1.9 years, respectively. Conclusions: As the choice of the explicit assumptions proved to be more important than the choice of the forecasting method, the assumptions should be carefully considered when forecasting mortality.
Neuroimaging the self ?

1 Attention & Performance 2006 Sensorimotor foundations of higher cognition The concept of self lacks of clear definition and boundaries and is still widely debated in the philosophical community. Positions oscillate between an elimination of the notion of self and the extension of the list of different forms of self. Following Strawson, one can easily quote up to 25 forms of self: "it is difficult to know where to begin, because there are many different notions of the self. Among those I have recently come across are the cognitive self, the conceptual self, the contextualized self, the core self, the dialogic self, the ecological self, the embodied self, the emergent self, the empirical self, the existential self, the extended self, the fictional self, the full-gown self, the interpersonal self, the material self, the narrative self, the philosophical self, the physical self, the private self, the representational self, the rock bottom essential self, the semiotic self, the social self, the transparent self, and the verbal self" It is important to note that whether "the self" is eliminated or multiplied, it remains under-specified since the following questions remain unanswered: What is it that has to be eliminated? Or what is it that is common to all phenomena referred to as "self", despite their diversity? In either case, one needs a criterion to determine what a "self" is, to justify its elimination or the categorization of different phenomena as a form of "self" (Legrand 2004). Therefore, the question is to determine such a criterion. It is the reason why the question we will tackle in this paper is the following: what is self-specific ? Answering this question is a prerequisite to understand what the self is. In order to answer this question, we will start with a review of neuroimaging studies which investigated the cerebral correlates of the " self " , the " other " , the resting state, reasoning and memory recall. This merging of results from these various domains of research will lead to a reinterpretion of the brain activations found in studies which investigated the self in cognitive neuroscience. On the basis of the conclusions of this review, we will then elaborate a 2 Attention & Performance 2006 Sensorimotor foundations of higher cognition theoretical framework allowing the understanding of self-specificity as a self-specifying sensorimotor process. We will conclude by considering the consequence of our approach for the very possibility …
Bottlenose dolphins can use learned vocal labels to address each other

In animal communication research, vocal labeling refers to incidents in which an animal consistently uses a specific acoustic signal when presented with a specific object or class of objects. Labeling with learned signals is a foundation of human language but is notably rare in nonhuman communication systems. In natural animal systems, labeling often occurs with signals that are not influenced by learning, such as in alarm and food calling. There is a suggestion, however, that some species use learned signals to label conspecific individuals in their own communication system when mimicking individually distinctive calls. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are a promising animal for exploration in this area because they are capable of vocal production learning and can learn to use arbitrary signals to report the presence or absence of objects. Bottlenose dolphins develop their own unique identity signal, the signature whistle. This whistle encodes individual identity independently of voice features. The copying of signature whistles may therefore allow animals to label or address one another. Here, we show that wild bottlenose dolphins respond to hearing a copy of their own signature whistle by calling back. Animals did not respond to whistles that were not their own signature. This study provides compelling evidence that a dolphin’s learned identity signal is used as a label when addressing conspecifics. Bottlenose dolphins therefore appear to be unique as nonhuman mammals to use learned signals as individually specific labels for different social companions in their own natural communication system.
Independent associations of maternal education and household wealth with malaria risk in children

Despite evidence that they play similar but independent roles, maternal education and household wealth are usually conflated in studies of the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on malaria risk. Demographic and Health Survey and Malaria Indicator Survey data from nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa were used to explore the relationship of malaria parasitemia in children with SES factors at individual and cluster scales, controlling for urban/rural residence and other important covariates. In multilevel logistic regression modeling, completion of six years of maternal schooling was associated with significantly lower odds of infection in children (OR = 0.73), as was a household wealth index at the 40th percentile compared to the lowest percentile (OR = 0.48). These relationships were nonlinear, with significant quadratic terms for both education and wealth. Cluster-level wealth index was also associated with a reduction in risk (OR = 0.984 for a one percentile increase in mean wealth index), as was urban residence (OR = 0.59). Among other covariates, increasing child’s age and household size category were positively correlated with infection, and sleeping under an insecticidetreated bednet the previous night (OR = 0.80) was associated with a moderate reduction in risk. Considerable variation in parameter estimates was observed among country-specific models. Future work should clearly distinguish between maternal education and household resources in assessing malaria risk, and malaria prevention and control efforts should be aware of the potential benefits of supporting the development of human capital.
Moving Cast Shadow Detection by Energy Minimization

Moving cast shadow causes serious problem while segmenting and extracting true foreground from image sequences, due to the misclassification of moving shadow as foreground. This paper proposes a novel approach for moving cast shadow detection. Firstly, the color and texture information of moving cast shadow is employed with the temporal-spatial coherence of shadow and foreground in a probability framework; afier that, the maximization of posterior probability can be converted to energy minimization problem through Gibbs energy; finally, moving cast shadow and foreground can be segmented accurately through graph cut. Results show that the proposed method excels classical method both in indoor and outdoor scene.
Good Policy Can Lower Violent Crime: Evidence from Fixed Effects Estimation in a Cross-National Panel of Homicide Rates, 1980-97

This article provides empirical evidence that good governance and good economic policies can lower homicide rates. Violent crime is therefore not simply determined by modernization, population characteristics and cultural factors. This result follows from rigorous econometric testing of a cross-national panel of homicide data from up to 125 countries over the period 1980 to 1997. Contrary to most existing studies, which have applied ordinary least squares on data drawn from one time period only, we use a fixed-effects estimator with fully robust standard errors. A fixed-effects estimator elegantly controls for time-invariant determinants, such as cultural factors, and allows the pooling of homicide data from otherwise incompatible sources. Our results suggest that economic growth, higher income levels, respect for human rights and the abolition of the death penalty are all associated with lower homicide rates. The same is true for democracy at high levels of democracy. The transition from autocracy to democracy is likely to be accompanied by a rising homicide rate, however, until full democracy has been reached. We also find that policies aimed at improving equity have no effect on violent crime. Our results are strikingly similar to those found for the causes of civil war.
Improving the Measurement of Food Security

Although food security measurement has been substantially expanded in recent decades, there persists significant dissatisfaction with existing measurement systems, especially in the wake of the global food and financial crisis. In this paper we first set out a list of criteria that an ideal food security measurement system should satisfy. We then benchmark existing indicators and measurement systems against those criteria as a means of systematically identifying their relative strengths and weaknesses. Our concluding section outlines possible steps for improving food security measurement through a mixture of extension, coordination, and innovation.
Layered encoding for low complexity detection of high-order modulations in MIMO channels

Mobile receiver complexity persists as one of the key areas of concern in the adoption of MIMO technologies for systems such as high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) in UMTS. This is particularly the case for high-order modulation schemes such as 16-QAM and 64-QAM, where optimum a posteriori probability (APP) detection becomes too complex, and sub-optimal detection based on serial or parallel interference cancellation performs poorly. The above issues are successfully tackled by introducing a judicious layered encoding process at the transmitter, which once appropriately exploited at the receiver, allows considerable reductions in computational complexity in addition to improvements in performance.