Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Face Recognition - Algorithmic Approach For Large Datasets And 3D Based Point Clouds

This work proposes solutions for two different scenarios in face recognition and verification. The first scenario involves large scale unconstrained unsupervised face recognition. The proposed system for this scenario is a complete face recognition framework. The proposed system first studies the performance of unsupervised face recognition for frontalized captured faces in the wild under the effect of a single image super-resolution algorithm. The system also introduces new high dimensional features based on LBP and SURF that perform better than the state-of-the-art features for unconstrained unsupervised face recognition. To solve the large scale recognition process, a new algorithm has been designed to manipulate face images in the dataset. This new algorithm represents all training face images as a fully connected graph. The algorithm then divides the fully connected graph into simpler sub-graphs to enhance the overall recognition rate. The sub-graphs are generated dynamically, and a comparison between different sub-graph selection techniques including minimizing edge weight sums, random selection, and maximizing sum of edge weights inside the sub-graph is provided. Results show that the optimized hierarchical dynamic technique developed with sub-graphs selection increases the recognition rate in large benchmark image dataset by more than 40% for rank 1 recognition rate compared to the original single large graph method. The approach developed in this research is tested on different datasets, especially if the number of images per person in the
The changes in social and demographic structure of large housing estates in post-socialist Poland and their main determinants

Large pre-fabricated housing estates were erected all over Europe, however the political and ideological factors conspired to ensure that they developed on the largest scale in communist countries. Today, they continue to provide some 30–40% of the housing stock in this part of Europe. The present paper discusses the transformations of large housing estates in Poland 25 years after of the collapse of communism. The main purpose of the study was to identify the social and demographic changes in Polish large housing estates and to clarify the crucial factors underpinning them. The key questions were: (1) How the social and demographic structures of the large housing estates in Poland have changed since the collapse of communism? (2) What are the main determinants of these processes? (3) Whether the processes occurring in large housing estates reproduce the negative phenomena of social degradation observed in many Western European countries? The study is based on a review of the available literature concerning transformations of large housing estates in several of the large Polish cities and the results of the author’s own investigations conducted within Łodź – one of the largest cities in the country.
Electricity Markets and Environmental Policy

I use a supply function equilibrium framework to show how increased renewable generation can increase electricity generators’ incentive to withhold capacity. As a result, strategic behavior from conventional generators attenuates the impact of low marginal cost generation on the market price. Taking advantage of detailed data on one of the largest wholesale electricity market in the United States, I provide direct evidence that horizontally integrated firms that own wind turbines and conventional generation will withhold their conventional generation when their own wind turbines are generating electricity. As a result, over 30% of wind generation is replacing withheld units suggesting a decrease in potential consumer surplus of 3.3 billion US Dollars from 2014 to 2016. JEL classification codes: L13, Q42, D44
Intra-market commonality in liquidity: new evidence from the Polish stock exchange

Research background: Empirical market microstructure research has recently shifted its focus from the examination of liquidity of individual securities towards analyses of the common determinants and components of liquidity. The identification of commonality in liquidity emerged as a new and fast growing strand of the literature on liquidity. However, the results around the world are ambiguous and rather depend on a specific stock market. Purpose of the article: The aim of this study is to explore intra-market commonality in liquidity on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) by using daily proxies of six liquidity estimates: percentage relative spread, percentage realized spread, percentage price impact, percentage order ratio, modified turnover, and modified version of the Amihud measure. The sample covers a period from January 2005 to December 2016. The database contains the group of eighty-six WSE-listed companies. Methods: The research hypothesis that there is commonality in liquidity on the Polish stock market is tested. The OLS with the HAC covariance matrix estimation and the GARCH-type models are employed to infer the patterns of liquidity co-movements on the WSE. Moreover, because the sample period is quite long, the stability of the empirical results by time period is examined. Seven 6-year time windows are utilized in the study. Findings & Value added: The regression results reveal weak evidence of co-movements in liquidity on the WSE, regardless of the choice of the liquidity proxy. Furthermore, the robustness tests based on the time rolling-window approach do not unambiguously support the research hypothesis that there is commonality in liquidity on the Polish stock market. To the best of the author’s knowledge, the empirical findings presented here are novel and have not been reported in the literature thus far.
External Labour Market Competitions and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from Exposures to Competitor CEOs’ Award-Winning Events

This study examines whether external labour market competitions affect managers’ bad news hoarding and the resultant stock price crashes. Using CEOs’ exposure to the prestigious media-award-winning events of competitor CEOs, we document a significant increase in stock crash risk for firms with award-exposed CEOs, compared with firms without such CEOs, and this treatment effect is more pronounced for firms with lower external monitoring, lower information environment quality and CEOs with higher career concerns. We also demonstrate that such award exposure can increase the asymmetric market reaction to bad versus good news disclosures. Our results are robust to controlling for firm fixed effects and to the use of various matching methods, including using a sample of control firms matched based on a battery of firm characteristics and a sample of control firms who are the competitors of the predicted “counterfactual awarding-winning CEOs”. Overall, our results are consistent with our conjecture that the award-winning events arising from external labour market competitions could provide non-award-winning CEOs a levelling-up motivation through upward social comparison, which incentivises CEOs to hoard bad news, thereby resulting in higher crash risks. However, these adverse effects are mitigated when CEOs’ incentives and/or ability to hoard bad news are more constrained.
The indemnity principle in cargo insurance in multimodal transport : a comparative study of English and Chinese law

This thesis is protected by copyright, with all rights reserved. By reading and using the thesis, the reader understands and agrees to the following terms: 1. The reader will abide by the rules and legal ordinances governing copyright regarding the use of the thesis. 2. The reader will use the thesis for the purpose of research or private study only and not for distribution or further reproduction or any other purpose. 3. The reader agrees to indemnify and hold the University harmless from and against any loss, damage, cost, liability or expenses arising from copyright infringement or unauthorized usage.
Does Public Service Motivation Matter to Employees’ Performance and Organizational Commitment in Sub-district Offices?

Many studies on Public Service Motivation (PSM) were conducted extensively in the developed countries, including US and Western Europe. In addition, some research on PSM has been conducted in Eastern Asia, all which affirm the positive role that plays in in shaping the public sector. That said, studies on PSM in developing countries, including Indonesia is still limited. This is despite the fact that previous research associate PSM with improving public sector performance. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between public service motivation, organizational commitment, and individual performance in Magelang Municipality, which is one of the high performing local govern,ents in Indonesia. The data was drawn from 70 government employees in 3 Magelang Municipality sub-district Offices. Meanhwile, to to test the research hypothesises. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used. Resulst of the study validated the previous research findings that indicate positive influence of PSM on organizational commitment and individual performance. The result of this study has a practical implication for human resource development policy in Indonesian public sector. To that end, Public managers should take into account PSM in their managerial practices as it influences employee performance.
Writer Identification Method using Inter and Intra-Stroke Information

— Most research in the field of writer identification currently uses positional data to identify the writer. But there is no writer identification method that is suitable for practical use so far. So, we newly devise two algorithms to raise accuracy rate and find some parameters that have beneficial effects on writer identification. One algorithm is “Block Type Model” which is a method to analyze positional relation and shapes of Chinese characters. The other algorithm is “Hidden feature analysis” which is an algorithm that identifies the writer using multi-parameters with all the strokes. As a result, any eight Chinese characters were enough to achieve over 99.9% accuracy rate. Additionally, we discovered that there are personal attributes in the speed of each stroke. With the new algorithm, we raised accuracy rate and found out that parameters have beneficial effects on writer identification.
L'ORIENTATION MARCHANDE EST-ELLE UN FACTEUR PREDOMINANT A L'ADOPTION DES INNOVATIONS AGRICOLES ?

Depuis plusieurs annees, le Cameroun a mis sur le marche differentes varietes ameliorees de mais pour augmenter sa production. Mais, le Cameroun continue a importer de grande quantite de mais. Pourquoi le Cameroun continue a importer le mais alors que la recherche a mis sur pied plusieurs varietes qui sont supposees impulser la production ? Les agriculteurs ont-ils vraiment adopte ces semences ameliorees ? Sinon, quels sont les freins a cette adoption ? En utilisant les donnees d'enquete de 2007, nous trouvons que l'orientation marchande est un facteur determinant de l'adoption de l'innovation agricole. Plus les agriculteurs s'apercoivent qu'il existe une rente dans la maisiculture, plus ils adopteront les nouvelles varietes ameliorees de mais. De plus, le fait de passer des femmes aux hommes a un impact positif sur l'adoption de l'innovation ; en effet, les hommes s'interessent de plus en plus aux cultures vivrieres telles que le mais. Par contre, le fait d'appartenir a une organisation paysanne n'influe pas sur le comportement d'adoption des innovations agricoles. En outre, plus la superficie emblavee augmente, moins les agriculteurs adopteront la nouvelle variete de mais. (Resume d'auteur)
Performance and complexity optimization in heterogeneous multiprocessors system on chip

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Performance and complexity optimization in heterogeneous multiprocessors system on chip Bouthaina Dammak Masmoudi
Marketing Management and Optimism of Afghan Female Entrepreneurs

Purpose For the present generation of entrepreneurs, the operating environment in Afghanistan has been among the most tenuous in the world. Numerous regime changes, civil unrest and war have created tremendous uncertainty, making civilian business planning difficult. These challenges incrementally impact female entrepreneurs. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between one aspect of entrepreneurial psychological capital – optimism regarding enterprise success of Afghan female entrepreneurs – and aspects of the marketing function. Design/methodology/approach Primary data collection was used for this study. A total of 248 women business owners were surveyed via telephone from five provinces of Afghanistan. Over half (133) of respondents were from the Afghan capital, Kabul. A total of 49 respondents were obtained from Herat, 44 from Mazar, 12 from Nangarhar and ten were obtained from Kandahar. Findings We find that a focus on marketing positively and significantly impacts reported optimism by female Afghan entrepreneurs, as do marketing planning efforts. However, self-reliance and orientation toward the outside world do not impact the perceived success of the entrepreneurial venture. Research limitations/implications Like other empirical studies, this research has its own limitation. First, we would have liked a larger sample size, but date collection in a war-torn country and from female business women in a male-dominated society is proofed very challenging task. Also, some cities had less representation due to security concerns especially Kandahar province. Practical implications Our results have significant relevance for economic development policymakers, non-governmental organizations and entrepreneurs throughout the developing world. What drives the psychological capital of these entrepreneurs under these extreme conditions should be of interest not only from the perspective of the entrepreneurship literature, but also for policymakers who are often uninformed regarding on the ground conditions under which individuals in the environment function. Social implications It is our hope that our results inform those in a position of power so that they support the development of human capital of Afghan women who are or who seek to be entrepreneurs. We also hope to raise questions for other researchers related to the importance of human capital investment and the business functions for entrepreneurs in other less developed, conflict-prone environments with low mean educational levels. Originality/value This paper is the first to use proprietary, hand collected survey data from Afghani female entrepreneurs to collect, analyze and draw conclusions and recommendations from a sample of 248 women-owned businesses regarding the relationship between the marketing function and one aspect of psychological capital – perceived optimism – in five Afghan cities.
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES ACCOUNTING FOR THE RISE IN C-SECTIONS: EVIDENCE FROM POPULATION LEVEL DATA

Drawing on administrative records of nearly 4 million births in Canada as well as macro data from the US and Australia, we provide a comprehensive account of rising C-section rates. We explicitly consider the contributions of the changing characteristics of mothers, births, and physicians as well as changing financial incentives for C-section deliveries. These factors account for at most one-half of the increase in C-section rates. The majority of the remaining increase in C-sections over the period 1994-2011 occurred in the early 2000s. We overview the relative contributions that the Hannah Breech Trial and technological change may have played in this development. Sara Allin University of Toronto 14 Queens Park Cres W Toronto, ON M5S 3K9 Canada sara.allin@utoronto.ca Michael Baker Department of Economics University of Toronto 150 St. George Street Toronto, ON M5S 3G7 CANADA and NBER baker@chass.utoronto.ca Maripier Isabelle Department of Economics University of Toronto 150 St. George Street Toronto, ON Canada maripier.isabelle@mail.utoronto.ca Mark Stabile INSEAD Boulevard de Constance 77305 Fontainebleau Europe mark.stabile@insead.edu
Female Directors, Mechanisms for Corporate Governance and Agency Cost

This paper aims to investigate the effect of the presence of female board directors and corporate governance mechanisms on agency cost focusing on board of directors’ and audit committee’s characteristics. The samples used in this study consisted of 150 companies listed on Bursa Malaysia in trade and services sector from 2010 until 2013. The dependent variable in this research is agency cost. Based on the extensive literature review, this study applied two agency cost proxies, which are asset utilisation ratio (AUR) and expense ratio (ER). Meanwhile, there are seven independent variable which are female board directors, board size, CEO duality, independent directors, size of the audit committee, audit committee meeting and audit quality. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and linear regression. The empirical result reveals that female board directors, board size, CEO duality, independent directors, and audit quality have a significantly negative relationship with agency cost using asset utilisation ratio (AUR) as the proxy. Meanwhile, for expense ratio (ER) proxy, the result shows that female board directors, the size of the audit committee, and audit quality have a significantly negative relationship with agency cost. Besides that, with these research findings, the corporate companies could have a better and thorough understanding about corporate governance which would help them decrease their agency cost from time to time. The findings also could be used as the reference and guidance in establishing company policies or finance policies in decreasing the company’s agency cost. Plus, these findings enrich the literature in corporate companies, thus help future researchers. Finally, the researcher presented some suggestions and recommendations for future studies to diversify the sectors of the selected companies so that the data obtained will be wider and larger. Besides, future researchers may extend the data period from four years up to 10 years.
The effect of customer participation on employee innovative behavior

This thesis is protected by copyright, with all rights reserved. By reading and using the thesis, the reader understands and agrees to the following terms: 1. The reader will abide by the rules and legal ordinances governing copyright regarding the use of the thesis. 2. The reader will use the thesis for the purpose of research or private study only and not for distribution or further reproduction or any other purpose. 3. The reader agrees to indemnify and hold the University harmless from and against any loss, damage, cost, liability or expenses arising from copyright infringement or unauthorized usage.
Testing the Empirical Relevance of the ‘Saving for a Rainy Day’ Hypothesis in US Metro Areas

The joint implication of the consumption Euler equation and cointegration between income and consumption is that savings predict future income declines, the ‘saving for a rainy day’ hypothesis. The empirical relevance of this hypothesis plays a key role in discussions of fiscal policy multipliers, and it holds under the null that the permanent income hypothesis is true. We find little support for this hypothesis using time series data for the 100 largest US Metropolitan Statistical Areas for the period 1980q1–2015q4. Our approach is to test for cointegration and weak exogeneity between income and consumption, and by exploring the direction of Granger causality between the two time series. We find that income more often predicts consumption and saving than the converse. We also give evidence that house price changes played a role in US income and consumption dynamics, before, during and after the Great Recession.
Immigration and the economic performance of countries

Using a global dataset of over 100 developed and developing countries, we attempt to identify the nexus between immigration and the economic performance of countries, as proxied by export sophistication. To isolate causal effects, we use instruments obtained from a pseudo-gravity model of bilateral immigration in the spirit of Frankel and Rose (2002). Employing an extensive set of institutional, demographic, climate and disease controls, we find that countries with high immigrant concentrations tend to exhibit lower performance.
The Economic Growth–Inflation–Shadow Economy Trilogy: Developed Versus Developing Countries

This study investigates the nexus among the economic growth–inflation–shadow economy trilogy by including the role of political stability for a sample of 33 developed and 14 developing countries over the 2005–2016 period. For the OECD countries, our results showed a bidirectional nexus among economic growth and the size of the shadow economy while the causality running from economic growth to inflation, on the one hand, and from inflation to the informal economy, on the other hand, is unidirectional. As for the MENA panel, the relationship between inflation and the underground economy remains bidirectional, while the relationship running from inflation to economic growth, on the one hand, and from the informal economy to economic growth, on the other hand, is unidirectional. With the introduction of political stability, the nexus among the informal economy and the inflation in the OECD countries becomes unidirectional running from inflation to the shadow economy. However, in the case of MENA countries, controlling for political stability reduces the magnitude of the coefficient of the shadow economy on inflation. We note that with a low level of political stability, countries facing the large size of the informal sector will shift their financing from taxes to seigniorage.