Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Growth Effects of Non-Devolved Government Expenditure: Evidence from ARDL Approach to Co integration

Although it is theoretically expected that fiscal decentralization leads to efficient provision of local public services and induces economic growth, there is a mixed outcome of the non-devolved and devolved effect on economic expansion across earlier empirical studies. This could be due to non growth-enhancing expenditures that crowd-out outlays that are meant to boost economic growth. Further, devolved allocation is small, about 15 % of total revenue, to full stimulate economic growth in Kenya. However, national government spends a substantial amount in counties to complement devolved expenditure. Therefore, the issue of which non-devolved expenditure by national government can foster permanent movements in county economic growth becomes core. The panel ARDL and Kao co integration technique were used to test the linkage between non-devolved expenditure and economic growth in Kenya during the period, 2013-2017. The panel ARDL regression results revealed that the effect of non-devolved expenditure on economic growth was positive and significant in both long-run and short-run. The findings provide a basis for recommendation on the need for national government to increase budget allocation and execution in counties to complement devolved expenditure and also stimulate county economic growth in long-run. Keywords: Non-devolved, Economic growth, Kenya, ARDL, Expenditure, Panel DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-14-12 Publication date :July 31 st 2019
Professional identity and the adoption of learning management systems

ABSTRACT Universities implement Learning Management Systems (LMSs) with the aspiration of improving educational practice. However, LMS adoption by academics within universities vary and frequently falls short of institutional aspirations. In this study, we propose an integrated and adopter–centred professional identity perspective of LMS adoption and empirically validate such a perspective at a New Zealand university where a LMS was implemented. We surveyed 204 academic staff and analysed questionnaire data using structural equation modelling. Results indicate that the adoption of the LMS was associated with professional identity. Variations in aspects of professional identity not only shaped the extent of LMS usage, but was also predictive of qualitatively different ways of using the LMS for teaching. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed based on the research findings.
Psychometric Evaluation of the Mating Intelligence Scale in Iran

The cognitive abilities that are necessary to make mating interactions effectively have been described as “Mating Intelligence. ” This is an evolutionary construct that has just recently initiated to receive practical consideration. This research work investigated the psychometric properties of the Persian translation of the Mating Intelligence Scale in Iran. A total of 760 male and female heterosexual participants (380 for each sex) were recruited from colleges. Participants completed a self-reported questionnaire and they also reported some demographic information such as age and their qualification degrees and major. The male and female version of the Geher and Kaufman Mating Intelligence Scale were used to gather data. We performed a confirmatory factor analysis to confirm the structure of the original version of both scales. The values of fitness indicators show that in both samples, the model benefits from good fitness. The results show that the scale and its subscales in both samples have proper reliability coefficients. In general, the use of the mating intelligence questionnaire is appropriate regarding the Iranian population due to the excellent validity and reliability and can be used in screening and therapeutic and educational situations.
The Culmination of an Oblique Time‐Transgressive Arc Continent Collision: The Pollino Massif Between Calabria and the Southern Apennines, Italy

The Pollino Massif is the most southeastern outcrop of the Apennine core. It marks the transition between Apenninic shortening and extension, respectively, SE and NW of the massif and is also the cusp of a southeastward plunge that characterizes the submerged Apennines. The SE limit of NE‐SW extension merges with the east limit of Tyrrhenian extension in Calabria. This strategic position is expected to transition southeastward in the progressive oblique collision of the Calabrian forearc and Apulia. We test this hypothesis using published results and new field data. The time‐transgressive emergence of basins on the Apennine thrust wedge is quantitatively consistent with the ESE rollback of the Calabrian arc. Specifically, a thrust‐normal slip reversal on a SW dipping fault is responsible for the tectonic collapse that lead to the Mercure Basin along strike NW of the Pollino Massif and to an east‐to‐west reversal of drainage. This reversal is timed by an intermediate stage of trapped internal drainage with Mid‐Pleistocene lacustrine sedimentation, but it may young to SE as the normal displacement on the border fault decreases gradually to SE and vanishes near the apex of the massif. On the SE side of the massif, contractional tectonics persists at least into the Mid‐Pleistocene and likely later, while NE‐SW extension is absent. Prominent normal faults in that area accommodate range‐parallel extension and are coupled with the thrust faults. The combination of longitudinal extension with a counterclockwise rotation of hanging‐wall units and thrust directivity can account for the final setting in the Apennines.
The Effects of Static and Dynamic Visual Representations as Aids for Primary School Children in Tasks of Auditory Discrimination of Sound Patterns. An Intervention-based Study

It has been proposed that non-conventional presentations of visual information could be very useful as a scaffolding strategy in the learning of Western music notation. As a result, this study has attempted to determine if there is any effect of static and dynamic presentation modes of visual information in the recognition of sound patterns. An intervention-based quasi-experimental design was adopted with two groups of fifth-grade students in a Spanish city. Students did tasks involving discrimination, auditory recognition and symbolic association of the sound patterns with non-musical representations, either static images (S group), or dynamic images (D group). The results showed neither statistically significant differences in the scores of D and S, nor influence of the covariates on the dependent variable, although statistically significant intra-group differences were found for both groups. This suggests that both types of graphic formats could be effective as digital learning mediators in the learning of Western musical notation.
Near crises in world politics: A new dataset

Crisis escalation to war is a subject of longstanding interest. Case studies, formal models and statistical analysis offer compelling explanations for why some crises escalate to war while others do not. Much less can be said in answer to the following question: where do crises come from in the first place? In this paper, we first introduce the concept of a near crisis following the approach taken over the course of more than four decades by the International Crisis Behavior (ICB) Project. A near crisis is just below a crisis as defined by ICB with regard to intensity, as it lacks one essential condition for a crisis—higher likelihood of military hostilities. Second, we present a newly developed dataset that contains information on 86 cases in which actors perceived a threat to one or more basic values, along with an awareness of finite time for response to the value threat. We also present simple statistical models comparing (a) near crisis to crisis and (b) crisis to war that show that analyses based on the Near Crisis dataset will contribute to advancement of knowledge.
Convolutional Neural Network Training incorporating Rotation-Based Generated Patterns and Handwritten Numeral Recognition of Major Indian Scripts

ABSTRACT Handwritten numeral recognition has gained much interest in recent times because of its diverse application potentials. Bangla and Hindi are the two major languages in Indian subcontinent and a large number of population in vast land scape uses Bangla and Devnagari numeral scripts of these two languages. Well-performed handwritten numeral recognition system for Bangla and Devnagari is challenging because of similar shaped numerals in both scripts; few numerals differ from their similar ones with a very few variation even in printed form. In this study, convolutional neural network (CNN) based two different methods have been investigated for better recognition of Bangla and Devnagari handwritten numerals. Both the methods use rotation-based generated patterns along with ordinary patterns to train CNN but in two different modes. In multiple CNN case, three different training sets (one with ordinary patterns and two with clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation-based generated patterns) are prepared; three different CNNs are trained individually with each of these training sets; and their decisions are combined for final system decision. On the other hand, in the case of single CNN, combination of above three training sets is used to train one CNN. A moderated pre-processing is also employed while generating patterns from the scanned images. The proposed methods have been tested on prominent benchmark handwritten numeral datasets and have achieved remarkable recognition accuracies. The achieved recognition accuracies are found better than reported recognition accuracies of prominent existing methods; and such outperformance mounted proposed methods as better recognition systems. Moreover, CNN's performance improvement due to use of generated patterns has also been clearly identified from the presented experimental results.
The impacts of spatially targeted programmes: evidence from Guangdong

ABSTRACT Spatially targeted policies have been a crucial component of the development strategy pursued by the Chinese government. This paper provides novel empirical evidence in the debate on place-based policy by testing whether the presence of economic development zones is associated with higher values of industrial output and their impact is heterogeneous across territories in the counties/districts in Guangdong province during the period 2000–14. The results show that the level of industrial output is positively correlated with the presence of economic development zones and offer support to the idea that place-based policies have heterogeneous effects across territories.
Culture, Selves and Time: Theories of Personal Persistence in Native and non-Native Youth

Before it finishes, this chapter will end up as a short summary of a rather long research undertaking aimed at detailing the different procedural means exploited by culturally mainstream and Aboriginal (or “First Nations”) youth in their efforts to understand their own and others’, personal persistence or “selfcontinuity” in the face of those wholesale personal changes that time and development inevitably hold in store. What was it, we wanted to know from each of them, that, “in the contemplation of their lives, links the parts to the whole” (Dilthey, 1962, p. 201)? Before coming to an account of their diverse answers to such questions, however, it is important to first attempt to get clear about what we, as well as a whole graveyard full of intellectual ancestors, have intended by the notion personal persistence, and why understanding oneself and
Multiphysics analysis of electrochemical and electromagnetic system addressing lithium-ion battery and permanent magnet motor

Lithium-ion batteries are the leading energy storage technology in the electronic-driven society. With the need for portable, long-life electronics the demand for lithium batteries has escalated over the decade. Lithium-ion batteries show remarkable electrochemical characteristics, including but not limited to, long cycle-life, high cut-off voltages and high energy-density. However, lithium-ion cells are problematic to design due to their inherent thermal and/or mechanical instability. The objective of the current research framework is to establish the criteria causing thermo-mechanical failure of the battery systems, material properties effecting the performance, and model cycle-life degradation due to electrolyte loss by solid electrolyte interface (SEI) formation. An extension of this thermo-mechanical analysis was performed on electromagnetic system. A FEM was performed for a 20W BLDC motor to predict the electromagnetic and thermo-mechanical performance under steady state operating conditions. In our present research, we have studied the mechanical and thermal aspect of lithium battery electrodes. The first and second project encapsulated the material selection aspect for thermo-mechanically stable lithium battery electrodes. The objective of these projects was to develop a set of material indices (five for mechanical and five for thermal) which compare the performance of electrode materials based on heat generation, diffusion and mechanical strength and toughness. A mathematical model was formulated to determine particle deformation and stress fields based upon an elastic-perfectly plastic constitutive response. Mechanical deformation was computed by combining the stress equilibrium equations with the electrochemical diffusion of lithium ions into the electrode particle. The result provided a time developing stress field which shifts from purely elastic to partially plastic deformation as the lithium-ion diffuses into the particle. For the mechanical integrity, the materials were tested for strength, and toughness under elastic and plastic deformation. The model was used to derive
Pliocene Warmth Consistent With Greenhouse Gas Forcing

With CO2 concentrations similar to today (410 ppm), the Pliocene Epoch offers insights into climate changes under a moderately warmer world. Previous work suggested a low zonal sea surface temperature (SST) gradient in the tropical Pacific during the Pliocene, the so‐called “permanent El Niño. ” Here, we recalculate SSTs using the alkenone proxy and find moderate reductions in both the zonal and meridional SST gradients during the mid‐Piacenzian warm period. These reductions are captured by coupled climate model simulations of the Pliocene, especially those that simulate weaker Walker circulation. We also produce a spatial reconstruction of mid‐Piacenzian warm period Pacific SSTs that closely resembles both Pliocene and future, low‐emissions simulations, a pattern that is, to a first order, diagnostic of weaker Walker circulation. Therefore, Pliocene warmth does not require drastic changes in the climate system—rather, it supports the expectation that the Walker circulation will weaken in the future under higher CO2.
Bias is Behavior A Functional-Cognitive Perspective on Implicit Bias

Implicit bias is often viewed as a hidden force inside people that makes them perform inappropriate actions. This perspective can induce resistance against the idea that people are implicitly biased and complicates research on implicit bias. I put forward an alternative perspective that views implicit bias as a behavioral phenomenon, more specifically, as behavior that is automatically influenced by cues indicative of the social group to which others belong. This behavioral perspective is less likely to evoke resistance because implicit bias is seen as something that people do rather than possess and because it clearly separates the behavioral phenomenon from its normative implications. Moreover, performance on experimental tasks such as the Implicit Association Test is seen an instance of implicitly biased behavior rather than a proxy of hidden mental biases. Because these tasks allow for experimental control, they provide ideal tools to study the automatic impact of social cues on behavior, to predict other instances of biased behavior, and to educate people about implicitly biased behavior. The behavioral perspective not only changes the way we think about implicit bias but also shifts the aims of implicit bias research and reveals links with other behavioral approaches such as network modeling.
Making Steppingstones out of Stumbling Blocks: A Bayesian Model Evidence Estimator with Application to Groundwater Transport Model Selection

Bayesian model evidence (BME) is a measure of the average fit of a model to observation data given all the parameter values that the model can assume. By accounting for the trade-off between goodness-of-fit and model complexity, BME is used for model selection and model averaging purposes. For strict Bayesian computation, the theoretically unbiased Monte Carlo based numerical estimators are preferred over semi-analytical solutions. This study examines five BME numerical estimators and asks how accurate estimation of the BME is important for penalizing model complexity. The limiting cases for numerical BME estimators are the prior sampling arithmetic mean estimator (AM) and the posterior sampling harmonic mean (HM) estimator, which are straightforward to implement, yet they result in underestimation and overestimation, respectively. We also consider the path sampling methods of thermodynamic integration (TI) and steppingstone sampling (SS) that sample multiple intermediate distributions that link the prior and the posterior. Although TI and SS are theoretically unbiased estimators, they could have a bias in practice arising from numerical implementation. For example, sampling errors of some intermediate distributions can introduce bias. We propose a variant of SS, namely the multiple one-steppingstone sampling (MOSS) that is less sensitive to sampling errors. We evaluate these five estimators using a groundwater transport model selection problem. SS and MOSS give the least biased BME estimation at an efficient computational cost. If the estimated BME has a bias that covariates with the true BME, this would not be a problem because we are interested in BME ratios and not their absolute values. On the contrary, the results show that BME estimation bias can be a function of model complexity. Thus, biased BME estimation results in inaccurate penalization of more complex models, which changes the model ranking. This was less observed with SS and MOSS as with the three other methods.
Institutional quality, investment efficiency, and the choice of public–private partnerships

We examine a sample of 625 public–private partnership (PPP) firms from 1980 to 2015 that straddle nine countries with varying degrees of economic development and PPP markets. We find that the motivations of the firms that undertake PPP investments vary. While private sector firms in economies with low institutional quality choose to engage in PPPs to alleviate capital constraints attributed to underinvestment, those in economies with high institutional quality participate in PPPs to solve the problem of overinvestment due to an abundant cash flow. In the long run, the benefits of lower capital constraints through PPP investments are more pronounced in economies with high institutional quality.
The attenuation of sunlight by airborne dust particles on Earth and Mars

This thesis details an investigation into how dust and ice aerosols in the atmosphere of Earth and Mars affect the solar spectrum from the ultraviolet to the near infrared, allowing the characterisation of the aerosols using broad band surface measurements. A Monte Carlo Light Scattering Model (MCLSM) was developed to predict the optical signature of terrestrial and martian dust devils. The MCLSM was applied to measurements taken in the Eldorado Valley, U.S.A. Transit signatures were found to be dependent on the method of observation. The transit signature measured in scattered light depends on the dust concentration and distribution in contrast to the total light transit signature, which depends primarily on the column-integrated dust optical depth. On Mars the high diffuse irradiance provides better definition of the vortex interior within the transit signature, with wavelengths between 600-750 nm optimal for detecting a transit. To determine the vortex size and dust concentration, both the total and the scattered light must be measured. Retrieval of the dust optical properties showed that spectral measurements and the calculated mass concentration were sensitive to the presence of small particles (0.5-5.0 μm). A comparison of the downward irradiance for two distinct dust components suggests that dust with a higher absorption at visible wavelengths causes increased heating at higher altitudes, leading to a more statically-stable atmosphere, which may result in more rapid decay of large-scale dust storms. The investigations have also shown that variations in single scattering properties can lead to -20% difference in the daily UV-C dose. A method was devised to distinguish compositional changes in the ubiquitous martian dust haze and validated against wind tunnel experiments. This technique is applicable to determine the size of water-ice crystals in clouds and the optical depth of the dust haze at the time of the cloud passage.
The Influence of Online Shopping Values and Web Atmospheric Cues on E-Loyalty: Mediating Role of E-Satisfaction

An exponential growth in the Indian e-commerce sector has attracted many national and international online retailers. Besides, price and promotional schemes, these e-retailers use website features - informativeness, entertainment and effectiveness of content, to differentiate from other players. This paper attempts to decipher the influence of hedonic and utilitarian shopping values and web atmospheric cues on e-satisfaction. From the survey findings, it is observed that web cues have greater influence in shaping e-satisfaction. Further, within the input variables effectiveness of information content has the largest influence on e-satisfaction. The study also highlights the importance of mediating role of e-satisfaction between shopping values, website features and e-loyalty. The paper suggests select marketing strategies for e-retailers.
Macro-economic determinant and interdependence of the stock markets

This study examines the time-varying long-term stock market interdependence between china and the ten emerging economies, using Johansen co-integration and Dynamic Conditional Correlation-Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (DCC GARCH) model. It analyses the dynamic association between the equity markets and the macroeconomic determinants using panel regression analysis. Findings/originality : The results indicate that the Chinese stock market are co-integrated with the stock market of the other emerging markets. It confirms that the relationship between china and the other emerging economies has been increasing over time. It concludes that there is long run interdependence between the Chinese and the other emerging economies. In addition, the results of the panel regression show that macroeconomic determinants have no significant effect on the equity market correlations between China and the ten emerging economies.
Code Switching in Critical Eleven Novel

The objectives of this research are to find the types of code switching used in the novel and to describe the reasons influencing the use of code switching in the novel. This research used descriptive qualitative method; this method used to describe clearly about the fact of code switching weather the form and the reasons based on the data that gained through reading the whole contain of the novel. Analysis focused on three types of code swtiching (inter-sentential switching, intra-sentential switching and tag-switching) and the reasons of code switching. The results of the analysis revealed that mostly inter-sentential switching of utterance used in this novel.