Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structures of opposition induced by relations-The Boolean and the gradual cases

The paper shows that a cube of opposition, a structure that generalizes the square of opposition invented in ancient logic, can be generated from the composition of a binary relation with a subset, by the effect of set complementation on the subset, on the relation, or on the result of the composition. Since the composition of relations is encountered in many areas, the structure of opposition exhibited by the cube of opposition has a universal flavor. In particular, it applies to information processing-oriented settings such as rough set theory, possibility theory, or formal concept analysis. We then discuss how this structure extends to a fuzzy relation and a fuzzy subset, and the graded cube of opposition thus obtained provides an organized view of the different existing compositions of fuzzy relations. The paper concludes by pointing out areas of research where the cube of opposition, or its graded version are of interest.
MEASURING TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY AND TECHNOLOGICAL GAPS OF BEEF FARMERS IN THREE REGIONS OF BOTSWANA : AN APPLICATION OF META-FRONTIER

Differences in resource endowment between regions influence the technologies used in livestock production and cause location-specific effects on production and technical change. Access to technologies may differ within regions due to different farm characteristics. Against this background, the study applied a stochastic metafrontier model followed by a Tobit regression to estimate technical efficiency and meta-technology ratios and assess factors influencing efficiency of beef farms across three regions in Botswana. Results show that the average technical efficiency level is 0.496 for the whole sample and 0.194, 0.331 and 0.318 for beef farms in South East, Central and Chobe regions, respectively. Considerable scope is identified for improving beef production in Botswana, and targeting is enabled by the differential results across the farm types. Policy analysis using models that assume different beef farm types operate under similar technology present a misleading picture. Considering the importance of livestock sector in poverty reduction, there is a need for appropriate and targeted policies directed towards enhancing efficiency. Especially, such policies should be targeted on provision of technologyrelated services such as controlled breeding methods.
CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIÓN Y DOCENCIA ECONÓMICAS, A.C. INSIGHTS ON FUELWOOD COLLECTION SOURCES BY LAND TENURE IN MEXICO TESINA QUE PARA OBTENER EL GRADO DE MAESTRO EN ECONOMÍA AMBIENTAL PRESENTA PABLO DAVID CAMPOVERDE VARELA

Fuelwood collection in Mexico is a fundamental activity for rural livelihoods because it used on a daily basis for cooking, heating and boiling water. Fuelwood use can generate health and environmental problems which have been addressed poorly by public policy. This study analyzes how different household and resource attributes relate with the selection of the land where this resource is collected, whether is extracted from their own private land, neighboring private land or federal/communal land. This study applies a multinomial probit model where the site of collection differentiated by land tenure is the outcome variable. Results show that education and wealth are correlated with extracting from private land reducing the pressure of communal/federal forests and that permits could help enforce property rights.
Factors Associated with Maternal Health Service Utilization in Cote d’Ivoire: Analysis of the 2011 Ivorian Demographic and Health Survey

Adequate and timely utilization of maternal health services, namely antenatal care and skilled birth attendants, represents a significant intervention for reducing maternal deaths. In Cote d'Ivoire, despite a very high maternal mortality ratio, these services are poorly used. Understanding the factors influencing such poor utilization is critical in designing effective strategies to address this problem. The objective of this study was to analyze factors associated with the use of ANC and Skilled Births Attendants in Cote d’Ivoire. Using data from the 2011 Ivorian Demographic and Health Survey, multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to explore determinants of ANC attendance and Skilled Births Attendants at delivery, among 15-49 years old women. Results showed that the coverage of at least 4 ANC and SBA at delivery were low, 43,4% and 59,1% respectively. Factors associated with the use of these services were women's and partner's education, household wealth index, media exposure, women's autonomy in health-related decision making and parity. Besides, utilization of at least 4 ANC was also positively associated with the presence of a skilled attendant at birth. These results imply that the determinants of maternal health service utilization are multi-sectoral and thus, need a multi-sectoral approach to tackle it. Policy makers, program managers, and researchers should also explore effective ways of increasing service utilization among less educated women, women from poor households, multipara, and those who are not achieving ANC.
Financial development and economic growth in

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial development and economic growth. In particular, the authors examine the impact of financial development on the growth of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in China. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) multiple regressions are applied on a set of data from China for the period 1978 to 2013 to determine the effects of financial development on economic growth, while controlling for other macroeconomic variables, namely labor force, capital growth, inflation rate and export growth. The empirical results show that financial development has a negative effect on economic growth in general, but on the growth of the tertiary industry in particular. By contrast, it is found that financial development has no significant effect on the primary and secondary industries. The findings offer policymakers some useful insights that more attention may need to be paid on developing capital markets and providing more investment choices/opportunities for Chinese households. This paper is different from most of the previous studies as it uses up-to-date data (1978-2013) from China capturing the effects of financial development on economic growth in addition to other macroeconomic factors.
Report on Integrated stochastic models evaluating the impact of global change at the catchment- scale

Revision [draft, 1] Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006) Dissemination Level (tick appropriate box) PU Public X PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services) RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services) CO Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)
Distribution Transformer's Loss of Life Considering Residential Prosumers Owning Solar Shingles, High-Power Fast Chargers and Second-Generation Battery Energy Storage

In this study, the effect of the electric vehicle high-power fast chargers in the residential sector on the aging of distribution transformers is probabilistically quantified. This work takes into consideration the presence of the traditional rooftop solar photovoltaic panels and the most recent technology namely rooftop solar shingles used in residential prosumers (power producers and consumers). Moreover, the effectiveness of the second-generation residential home and community battery energy storage, installed in the residential prosumers and in the electric utilities’ premises, in preserving the distribution transformer's lifetime is discussed and conclusions are drawn.
ON DRIED FISH PROCESSING AND MARKETING IN THE COASTAL REGION OF BANGLADESH

SSOP Traditional Processing Market Sun-drying Sun drying of fish is an important method of fish preservation throughout the world. Due to its availability and product specific flavor and texture, dried fish has become an important part in the diet of people living particularly in the coastal region of many Asian countries including Bangladesh. Product type is considerably wide depending on the season, availability of fish, infrastructure and technical know-how of the processors. These are mainly processed from marine fishes that are caught by the artisanal fishermen and marketed throughout the country by multistep marketing channel up to reaching to the consumer. Due to the importance of the product in terms of market volume as well as its major role in the socio-economic condition of millions of people of the country, the sector needs proper attention by appropriate authorities to ensure quality and safety of the product produced and marketed. In this paper, different methods of sun drying practiced traditionally in the coastal region of Bangladesh and associated marketing systems are reviewed. It is expected that training of processors on Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures and monitoring by appropriate government body would be necessary to improve quality and simultaneously ensure safety of sun-dried fish produced in the coastal region of Bangladesh.
HISTOARCHITECTURE AND HISTOCHEMISTRY OF DUODENUM AND JEJUNUM OF THE GOAT ( CAPRA HIRCUS )

The tissues from duodenum and jejunum were collected from six young goats and processed for light microscopy. The villi of the duodenum and jejunum varied in shape and size. These were lined by simple columnar epithelium with few goblet cells. The intestinal glands were simple tubulo-acinar type having simple cuboidal to low columnar epithelium. Lamina muscularis mucosa was uniform in thickness. The submucosa was having loose irregular connective tissue and Brunner’s glands in duodenum and Peyer’s patches in caudal part of jejunum. Tunica muscularis had inner circular and outer longitudinal layers of smooth muscles. Histochemical studies revealed the presence of glycogen and acidic and neutral mucopolysaccharides in the intestinal glands.
Capital Structure-Firm Performance Relationship : Empirical Evidence from African Countries

Extensive studies on the relationship between capital structure and firm performance had been carried out in Nigeria with diverse Techniques of Analysis; but relatively few studies of this nature were reviewed and conducted in SubSaharan Africa. Hence, the need for the study. This study explores literature as well as the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) for its analysis. From the review of literature beyond Nigeria, it was revealed that both positive and negative relationship exists between capital structure and firms’ performance across African countries, with relatively high Agency costs among the firms. The results of the Generalized Method of Moments using data from Nigerian Stock Exchange, Fact Book between 1996 and 2014 on the Return on Assets (ROA), Returns on Equity(ROE), Earnings Per Share (EPS) and Tobin’s Q as measures of firm performance; and Debt Ratio (DR) as a measure of capital structure also showed that capital structure has a negative and significant relationship with firms’ performance in Nigeria. The study concluded that the agency costs among African firms are relatively high which is usually responsible for their negative performances; and also a mixed relationship was identified between Capital Structure and firms’ performance across African countries _________________________________________________________________________________________
Myelin Gene Expression and Axon Ensheathment through Modulation of P 13 K / Akt / mTor Signaling X

Myelin, which ensheaths and insulates axons, is a specialized membrane highly enriched with cholesterol. During myelin formation, cholesterol influences membrane fluidity, associates with myelin proteins such as myelin proteolipid protein, and assembles lipid-rich microdomains within membranes. Surprisingly, cholesterol also is required by oligodendrocytes, glial cells that make myelin, to express myelin genes and wrap axons. How cholesterol mediates these distinct features of oligodendrocyte development is not known. One possibility is that cholesterol promotes myelination by facilitating signal transduction within the cell, because lipid-rich microdomains function as assembly points for signaling molecules. Signaling cascades that localize to cholesterol-rich regions of the plasma membrane include the PI3K/Akt pathway, which acts upstream of mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), a major driver of myelination. Through manipulation of cholesterol levels and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling in zebrafish, we discovered that mTOR kinase activity in oligodendrocytes requires cholesterol. Drawing on a combination of pharmacological and rescue experiments, we provide evidence that mTOR kinase activity is required for cholesterol-mediated myelin gene expression. On the other hand, cholesterol-dependent axon ensheathment is mediated by Akt signaling, independent of mTOR kinase activity. Our data reveal that cholesterol-dependent myelin gene expression and axon ensheathment are facilitated by distinct signaling cascades downstream of Akt. Because mTOR promotes cholesterol synthesis, our data raise the possibility that cholesterol synthesis and mTOR signaling engage in positive feedback to promote the formation of myelin membrane.
Impact of Predisposing Factors on Academic Stress among Pre-Service Teachers

Background: Many studies have been done on stress among educators. Teachers, lecturers, and tutors all over the world has been brought into attention when it comes to stress related issues. Our purpose was to investigate the level of academic stress among pre-service teachers in a teaching education institution in Perak, Malaysia. Methods: In this study a cross-sectional comparative survey study was conducted on pre-service teachers from a teacher education institution. The variables that was tested and correlated throughout the study are age, gender, and marital status, and medical history, influence of medications, exercise and social lifestyle. Data was collected through questionnaires to find out the outcome. Descriptive data analysis was used to describe the socio-demographic data. Correlation analysis was used to determine the significant relation between the variables. P<0.05 was considered as significant of the study. Results: Majority of the students, 78.4% represent the severe category of distress according to the Kessler scale. The remaining 13.6% were recorded as being under mild and 7.6% (n=19) under moderate category of distress. Regrettably, less than 1% (n=1) of the pre-service teachers were from the well category. Exercise was found to be significantly associated with the prevalence of severe psychological distress. Simple logistic regressions showed that pre-service teachers who exercised had a significant 91% reduced risk for psychological distress (OR=0.09; 95% CI=0.02, 0.35) compared to those who doesn’t exercise. Conclusion: At the end of this study, a better understanding on the predisposing factors of academic stress among pre-service teachers was determined and therefore interventions on coping with stress can be made simple. Various physiotherapy interventions on preventive and corrective measures were suggested with reference to the results.
Operating Performance and Stock Returns of Global Depository Receipt Issuers from Taiwan

This paper analyzes the long-run operating performance and stock returns of global depositary receipt issuers from Taiwan. Our sample includes 54 Taiwanese firms that issued deposit receipts for the first time in the U.S., the U.K. and Luxemburg from 1992 to 2007. We find the long-run operating performance and stock returns of DR issuers deteriorate and under-perform their benchmarks after issue. These findings do not support the market segmentation hypothesis of cross-border listing, which predicts that the performance of DR issuers will improve in the post-issue period. Our findings are consistent with the prediction of capital structure decision models of Miller and Rock (1985), and Myers and Majluf (1984), as well as the window of opportunity hypothesis. The results suggest that firms time their DR issues during periods of relatively strong operating performance and future decline of operating performance of DR issuers is anticipated at the time of issue.
An Analog Neural Network for Wideband Predistortion of Pico-cell Power Amplifiers

Pico-cell base-station power amplifiers (PA) generally generate less than 2W of power and operate at peak efficiency. This implies that to meet stringent wideband wireless standards, said amplifiers require linearization. The complexity and consequently power consumption of the linearizer is proportional to the power amplifiers efficiency and independent of output power. As a consequence, standard linearizers used in high PAs become unfeasible for use with pico-cell PAs as they are power intensive thus degrading the efficiency of the linearizer-PA combination. Feedback linearizers are only valid for narrowband stimuli while feedforward linearizers also suffer from the same total efficiency degradation due to the power consumption of the auxiliary amplifier. This leaves predistortion as the only viable option provided the algorithm/architecture is tailored to provide the same linearity benefit for high PAs as pico-cell PAs but with lower power consumption. The choice of neural networks as a predistortion algorithm compared to others such as Weiner, and Hammerstein stems from their ability to provide a suitable tradeoff between ACPR and EVM metrics. This thesis introduces an efficient dynamic neural network implementation which is specifically tailored for PA linearization. The focus and novelty of this work lies in the system inversion of measured PA non-linearity with a custom training algorithm as well as circuit design and hardware implementation of analog networks. Analog circuits are chosen to eliminate the power dependence of digital circuits on data rates; an effect which is most keenly felt for wideband stimuli. The implementation challenges include circuit design for large signal synaptic weights, wideband active delay elements, and an activation function. The aforementioned challenges have been tackled to yield a weight-limited algorithm which trains a neural network predistorter to improve the ACPR and EVM of the pico-cell power amplifier by at least 13.5dB and 8.7% respectively. Furthermore, the implemented analog neural network predistorter circuits have a bandwidth and linearity of 50MHz and 5 bits respectively with suggested improvements to increase the performance to 120MHz and 7 bits respectively.
The Impact of Parental Health on Children's Schooling and Labour Force Participation: Evidence from Vietnam

This paper investigates the relationship between parental health shocks and children's engagement in education and labour market, using a panel data survey of Vietnamese families, interviewed between 2004 and 2008. While there is substantial evidence showing the intergenerational transmission of health, the literature investigating the impact of parental health on children's educational and labour market outcomes is limited, especially in developing countries. We use child fixed effects and control for a detailed set of household and local area characteristics. Our main findings show that maternal illness substantially decreases chances of being enrolled in school for children between 10 and 23 years old and, at the same time, increases the children's likelihood of entering the labour market and working more hours for children aged 10-15 years old. The effect is particularly pronounced for girls, who seem to experience worst adverse consequences in terms of education and labour market engagement.
Global Models on the Acceptance of Faculty Members for Technology in Education : A Review of the Literature

In this article, the researcher reviews some studie s that tend to apply the Unified Theory in the Use and Acceptance of Technology (UTAUT) in the acc eptance of technology for faculty members of universities. Because of the paucity of hese studies, the researcher has used some of the studies that applied this model in general educ ation and the teachers of faculty members of universities. This is a comprehensive review of li terature that deals with the acceptance and use of technology in schools, universities, and institu tions, and how this influences them. Some recommendations will be proposed to enhance using t echnology in education. Therefore, in this paper, we compare and contrast studies that focused on the utility of modified versions of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model in higher education in a developing country and evaluate the impacts of the UTAUT factors on behavioural intention and other domains to adopt technology in higher educati on.
A quantitative model of the language familiarity effect in infancy

Human listeners are better at telling apart speakers of their native language than speakers of other languages, a phenomenon known as the language familiarity effect. The recent observation of such an effect in infants as young as 4.5 months of age (Fecher & Johnson, in press) has led to new difficulties for theories of the effect. On the one hand, retaining classical accounts—which rely on sophisticated knowledge of the native language (Goggin, Thompson, Strube, & Simental, 1991)–requires an explanation of how infants could acquire this knowledge so early. On the other hand, letting go of these accounts requires an explanation of how the effect could arise in the absence of such knowledge. In this paper, we build on algorithms from unsupervised machine learning and zero-resource speech technology to propose, for the first time, a feasible acquisition mechanism for the language familiarity effect in infants. Our results show how, without relying on sophisticated linguistic knowledge, infants could develop a language familiarity effect through statistical modeling at multiple time-scales of the acoustics of the speech signal to which they are exposed.
Beyond the feedforward sweep: feedback computations in the visual cortex

Visual perception involves the rapid formation of a coarse image representation at the onset of visual processing, which is iteratively refined by late computational processes. These early versus late time windows approximately map onto feedforward and feedback processes, respectively. State‐of‐the‐art convolutional neural networks, the main engine behind recent machine vision successes, are feedforward architectures. Their successes and limitations provide critical information regarding which visual tasks can be solved by purely feedforward processes and which require feedback mechanisms. We provide an overview of recent work in cognitive neuroscience and machine vision that highlights the possible role of feedback processes for both visual recognition and beyond. We conclude by discussing important open questions for future research.
School of Chemical Technology Degree Programme of Chemical Technology Gerard Viader Riera CATALYTIC WET OXIDATION OF BLACK LIQUOR

The major aspects of wet air oxidation and catalytic wet air oxidation have been reviewed in this work paying special attention to the reaction mechanisms, kinetics and the industrial process. In the experimental section a set of heterogeneous catalysts have been tested in the wet oxidation of non-wood black liquor. The oxidation runs were performed batchwise in a laboratory-scale mechanically stirred slurry reactor for 1 h at a temperature of 170°C and total pressure of 12 bar. Pure oxygen was used as oxidant agent. Results showed that Fe/AC, AC and CuO promote the formation of acids, whereas CeO2 was found to be effective for the complete oxidation of black liquor. It was also observed that highly concentrated streams cause catalyst deactivation due to active sites blockage.