Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Poor State, Rich State: Understanding the Variability of Poverty Rates across U.S. States

According to the Supplemental Poverty Measure, state-level poverty rates range from a low of less than 10 percent in Iowa to a high of more than 20 percent in California. We seek to account for these differences using a theoretical framework proposed by Brady, Finnigan, and Hubgen (2017), which emphasizes the prevalence of poverty risk factors as well as poverty penalties associated with each risk factor. We estimate state-specific penalties and prevalences associated with single motherhood, low education, young households, and joblessness. We also consider state variation in the poverty risks associated with living in a black household and a Hispanic immigrant household. Brady et al. (2017) find that country-level differences in poverty rates are more closely tied to penalties than prevalences. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we find that the opposite is true for state-level differences in poverty rates. Although we find that state poverty differences are closely tied to the prevalence of high-risk populations, our results do not suggest that state-level antipoverty policy should be solely focused on changing 'risky' behavior. Based on our findings, we conclude that state policies should take into account cost-of-living penalties as well as the state-specific relationship between poverty, prevalences, and penalties.
Contribution of Credit on Performance of Women Owned Small Enterprises: Evidence from Opportunity International in Moshi Municipality, Tanzania

Women owned small enterprises contribute greatly to job creation and growth of economies of different countries. However, they face several constraints including lack of credit. Despite of the large volume of literature on women owned small enterprises; little consideration has been addressed in assessing contribution of credit on their performance. The objective of this study therefore was to assess contribution of credit on performance of women owned small enterprises with special emphasis on Opportunity International (OI). The study was carried out in Moshi Municipality where a case study design was selected purposively. Fifty (50) main respondents were selected randomly from the group of women who had received credit from OI while 10 key informants were selected purposively. Data for the study were collected using questionnaires, interviews and documentary reviews. Performance of women owned small enterprises was measured using effectiveness, efficient, productivity and profitability. It was concluded that all the five types of women owned small enterprises were effective but only food business was efficient. Rates of productivity for women owned small enterprises with the exception of mobile banking were high. In terms of profitability, only food businesses, retail shops, and selling second hand clothes were profitable. Performance of women owned small enterprises was influenced by: level of education possessed by women entrepreneurs; use of credit from OI; size of households; and number of children in the households. Keywords : Women owned small enterprise, performances, Opportunity International, Moshi Municipality
Compigne 1 PROPOSAL FOR A MODIFIED THOR LOWER ABDOMEN INCLUDING ABDOMINAL PRESSURE TWIN SENSORS

This paper presents the evaluation of a modified THOR-NT lower abdomen which includes two abdominal pressure twin sensors (APTS®) as replacement for the displacement measurements. Further small changes such as the addition of small masses in front of the abdomen have also been made to better mimic the response of the PMHSs under seat belt loading. As a result, the biofidelity of the prototype abdomen was improved compared to THOR-NT standard abdomen. The addition of the small masses succeeded in increasing the initial peak force of the force-penetration response under seat belt tests. In rigid bar impacts, the prototype force-deflection response stayed longer in the corridor. The pressure measurement was repeatable and discriminated the various impact speeds as well as the impact direction. The pressure peaks were proportional to force and penetration peaks. This study demonstrates the feasibility of introducing the APTSs into THOR lower abdomen and makes proposals for further biofidelity enhancements.
The WARP Code: Modeling High Intensity Ion Beams

The Warp code, developed for heavy‐ion driven inertial fusion energy studies, is used to model high intensity ion (and electron) beams. Significant capability has been incorporated in Warp, allowing nearly all sections of an accelerator to be modeled, beginning with the source. Warp has as its core an explicit, three‐dimensional, particle‐in‐cell model. Alongside this is a rich set of tools for describing the applied fields of the accelerator lattice, and embedded conducting surfaces (which are captured at sub‐grid resolution). Also incorporated are models with reduced dimensionality: an axisymmetric model and a transverse “slice” model. The code takes advantage of modern programming techniques, including object orientation, parallelism, and scripting (via Python). It is at the forefront in the use of the computational technique of adaptive mesh refinement, which has been particularly successful in the area of diode and injector modeling, both steady‐state and time‐dependent. In the presentation, some of .
Post-Moratorium EU Regulation of Genetically Modified Products: Triffid Flax

The regulatory regime for contamination permits the imposition of import bans with neither a scientific justification nor a risk assessment. No scientific assessment of Triffid flax was done prior to the import ban. The import regime put in place to deal with the contamination of flax with the GM-flax CDC Triffid provides no rationale for the thresholds of safety established for the testing regime. The EU is consistently pushing for commercial, economic and social considerations to be included, along with science, in decision-making. Such considerations are often perceived as avenues for economic protection to creep into EU decision-making. Such considerations can, however, cut both ways. The Canada-EU testing regime for Triffid makes provision for, but does not necessarily require, the testing of cargoes when they reach European ports (Western Producer, 2010). The risks associated with inspection upon arrival made exports to Europe too risky. By only requiring the passing of the tests prior to product leaving Canada, flexibility to find alternative markets for contaminated cargoes has been gained. Thus, while costly, the testing regime for flax exports to the EU has allowed for the resumption of Canadian flax exports to the EU. Of course, the import Protocol negotiated between the EU and Canada was a one off. In a future case, economic and commercial considerations could be used to bolster economic protection. This is why science was agreed upon as the arbitrator of SPS-based trade barriers by the Member States of the WTO, including the EU. Thus, the EU regulatory regime for GM-products would seem open to a new challenge at the WTO. Of course, the political consequences of such a challenge would have to be carefully weighed.
Ju n 20 14 USTC-ICTS-1405 The Statistics of Vacuum Geometry

We investigate the vacuum moduli space of supersymmetric gauge theories en masse by probing the space of such vacua from a statistical standpoint. Using quiver gauge theories with N = 1 supersymmetry as a testing ground, we sample over a large number of vacua as algebraic varieties, computing explicitly their dimension, degree and Hilbert series. We study the distribution of these geometrical quantities, and also address the question of how likely it is for the moduli space to be Calabi-Yau. Email: m.duncan@maths.oxon. org Email: guwei@mail.ustc. edu.cn Email: hey@maths.ox. ac.uk Email: zhouda@mail.ustc. edu.cn
Can Schools Make a Difference? "Income Equal" Schools in ESL Reading Comprehension

Background: Poverty is widely recognised to have a huge impact on the outcome of learning. In many cases, however, the learning environment provided by the particular schools is proven to be able to make a difference in the academic achievement of low-income students. Aims: This study is aimed at the investigation of this function of schools in the domain of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL), on the basis of a large data obtained by an ESL reading evaluation from Malaysian secondary schools. Sample: The sample consists of the ESL reading comprehension test results of 3,567 secondary school students. Sampling was done by choosing 47 public secondary schools randomly throughout Penang state of Malaysia. Method: Income equality in education is defined here as the equal attainment of a basic level of the competence according to the curriculum standard, while the impact of income status on academic excellence is excluded from the observation. Based on the above concept, we identified a number of schools in our sample, which proved to be “income equal” in terms of teaching ESL reading skills. Results: By exploring the characteristics of this group of schools, we found that the income and gender composition of the schools, along with the motivation patterns of their students are among the various factors that can make a difference in the impact of income status on academic achievement. Conclusion: While the gender and social composition of a school is usually determined by external conditions out of its scope of authority, the motivation of students undoubtedly provides an opportunity for each and every school to mitigate income inequality, irrespectively of its social, political and financial background.
Uncovering the Hidden Costs of Offshoring: The Interplay of Complexity, Organizational Design, and Experience

This study investigates estimation errors due to hidden costs—the costs of implementation that are neglected in strategic decision-making processes—in the context of services offshoring. Based on data from the Offshoring Research Network, we find that decision makers are more likely to make cost-estimation errors given increasing configuration and task complexity in captive offshoring and offshore outsourcing, respectively. Moreover, we show that experience and a strong orientation toward organizational design in the offshoring strategy reduce the cost-estimation errors that follow from complexity. Our findings contribute to research on the effectiveness of sourcing and global strategies by stressing the importance of organizational design and experience in dealing with increasing complexity.
Re: Short applications of very low-magnitude vibrations attenuate expansion of the intervertebral discduring extended bed rest

[1] Guyer RD, McAfee PC, Banco RJ, et al. Prospective, randomized, multicenter Food and Drug Administration investigational device exemption study of lumbar total disc replacement with the CHARITE artificial disc versus lumbar fusion: five-year follow-up. Spine J 2009;9:374–86. [2] Weiner BK. Evidence & methods: a new addition to The Spine Journal. Spine J 2009;9:433. [3] Mirza SK. Point of view: commentary on the research reports that led to Food and Drug Administration approval of an artificial disc. Spine 2005;30:1561–4. [4] Chou R, Loeser JD, Owens DK, et alAmerican Pain Society Low Back Pain Guideline Panel. Interventional therapies, surgery, and interdisciplinary rehabilitation for low back pain: an evidence-based clinical practice guideline from the American Pain Society. Spine 2009;34:1066–77. [5] Carragee EJ. Clinical practice. Persistent low back pain. N Engl J Med 2005;352:1891–8. [6] Department of Health and Human Services. PMA/FDA MEMORANDUM: DePuy Spine Charité artificial disc. P040006. Available at: http://www.fda. gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/04/briefing/4049b1_03_Clinical%20Review%20Memo%20MAY.pdf. Accessed December 19, 2009. [7] Burkus JK, Gornet MF, Schuler TC, et al. Six-year outcomes of anterior lumbar interbody arthrodesis with use of interbody fusion cages and recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2. J Bone Joint Surg Am 2009;91:1181–9. [8] Angell M. The truth about the drug companies: how they deceive us and what to do about it. New York, NY: Random House; 2004. [9] Angell M. Industry-sponsored clinical research: a broken system. JAMA 2008;300:1069–71. [10] Blumenthal S, McAfee PC, Guyer RD, et al. A prospective, randomized, multicenter Food and Drug Administration investigational device exemptions study of lumbar total disc replacement with the CHARITE artificial disc versus lumbar fusion: part I: evaluation of clinical outcomes. Spine 2005;30:1565–75. discussion E387–91. [11] DeAngelis CD, Fontanarosa PB. Impugning the integrity of medical science: the adverse effects of industry influence. JAMA 2008;299: 1833–5. [12] Bekelman JE, Li Y, Gross CP. Scope and impact of financial conflicts of interest in biomedical research: a systematic review. JAMA 2003;289:454–65. [13] Campbell EG, Weissman JS, Ehringhaus S, et al. Institutional academic-industry relationships. JAMA 2007;298:1779–86. [14] Turner EH, Matthews AM, Linardatos E, et al. Selective publication of antidepressant trials and its influence on apparent efficacy. N Engl J Med 2008;358:252–60.
Evaluation of the Effects of Factors Affecting Women Representation Using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) Regression

In this study we tested the impact of seven explanatory variables such as political rights, civil liberty, election system type, quota, female's enrolment at college, female's labor force participation rate, female's life expectancy at birth in (years) and real GDP per capita in US dollars at current price on women representation using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression. Thirty years annual time series data were collected from different sources including Inter Parliamentary Union PARLINE data base, 2010; Freedom House, 2010; World Development Indicators, 2010; Penn World Table 6.3 and various economic surveys of Pakistan. Using SPSS version 12.00, we examine the determinants of women representation in Pakistan. The results confirm that the model is perfectly fit for explaining variation in women representation. Quota, female's Life expectancy at birth and GDP per capita are the three significant predictors, which explain 84% variation in women representation.
Honey bee age-dependent resistance against American foulbrood

American foulbrood is a fatal disease of honeybee larvae. Larvae become infected by swal- lowing spores of P. larvae larvae that contaminate their food. Adult bees who transfer the spores and have close contact with larvae never become infected. Resistance to this bacterium was investi- gated in various larval stages and in adults of different ages. Substances inhibiting the growth of P. larvae larvae could be demonstrated in 4 day old larvae and, to a lesser extent, in 1 day old larvae. No such substances could be shown in 6 day old larvae. Extracts of midguts of adult bees generally showed a stronger ability to inhibit growth of the bacteria than did extracts of larvae. It was discov- ered that the midguts of 8 day old adult bees show a higher growth-inhibiting potential against P. lar- vae larvae than midguts of freshly emerged adult bees or foragers. Apis mellifera / Paenibacillus larvae larvae / age-dependent resistance / honeybee larvae
Effect of Productivity on Export: New Evidence from Iranâs Manufacturing Industries

Based on the recent literature of heterogeneous firms, productive firms self select themselves into foreign markets. In this framework, there is a productivity rise prior to exporting. On the other words, different export performance across firms is linked to their heterogeneity. The main purpose of the present paper is to examine the so-called hypothesis of heterogeneous firm in Iran. For this, we have used the last Iranian manufacturing industries data at 4 digit aggregation of ISIC classification during 2000-2010 and examined the hypothesis by using generalized method of moments. The obtained results show that productivity has a relationship with export in both short and long run. So, productivity enhances the competitiveness of the firms in international markets and then firms with high productivity enter global market and consequently export increases. Based on the results, the hypothesis is verified. Regarding to the importance of export in economic development, we suggest that it should be paid more attention to productivity in industrial development policies.
Factors Influencing Knowledge Level of Muga Farmers about Improved Technologies

: A study was undertaken in Golaghat district of Assam, India to assess the knowledge level of muga farmers on improved technologies. The study also focused on the relationship of personal and socioeconomic variables of the respondents with knowledge of muga culture technologies. The study revealed that majority of the muga farmers (40.0%) have high level of knowledge followed by 32.5 percent and 27.5 percent as medium and low level respectively. The knowledge possessed by the muga farmers was signiﬁcantly high in case of the technologies like spacing of host plants (89.5%), inter cropping (87.0%), early stage rearing (86.5%), pruning schedule (81.5%), lahdoi (81.0%) and application of FYM & NPK (64.5%). On the other hand low level of knowledge possessed in case of mother moth examination (24.5%), egg surface sterilization (33.5) and biological control uzi fly (39.5%). The relationship between personal and socio-economic variables of muga farmer and their knowledge level about the improved technologies showed that age, experience and extension participation had positive relationship at 1 percent level and land holding at 5 percent level of significance whereas education and seri income had although having positive relationship but not significant. On the other hand, : A study was undertaken in Golaghat district of Assam, India to assess the knowledge level of muga farmers on improved technologies. The study also focused on the relationship of personal and socioeconomic variables of the respondents with knowledge of muga culture technologies. The study revealed that majority of the muga farmers (40.0%) have high level of knowledge followed by 32.5 percent and 27.5 percent as medium and low level respectively. The knowledge possessed by the muga farmers was signiﬁcantly high in case of the technologies like spacing of host plants (89.5%), inter cropping (87.0%), early stage rearing (86.5%), pruning schedule (81.5%), lahdoi (81.0%) and application of FYM & NPK (64.5%). On the other hand low level of knowledge possessed in case of mother moth examination (24.5%), egg surface sterilization (33.5) and biological control uzi fly (39.5%). The relationship between personal and socio-economic variables of muga farmer and their knowledge level about the improved technologies showed that age, experience and extension participation had positive relationship at 1 percent level and land holding at 5 percent level of significance whereas education and seri income had although having positive relationship but not significant. On the other hand, family size and mass media participation had negative relationship. family size and mass media participation had negative relationship.
Is There a Correlation between Academic Achievement and Behavior in Mainland Chinese Students

Academic achievement and behavior have been demonstrated to be clearly associated in the western literature. However, few studies concerning these relationships have been conducted in Asian contexts. This study attempts to provide empirical evidence from the east to complement the wealth of research in the west and examine whether the findings in the west can be generalized to Asian cultures. Data were collected from 636 students in year 11 at four Chinese high schools. Students’ academic achievement was assessed using their grade point average (GPA). Behavior was assessed from students’ reports and three aspects: truancy; substance use and antisocial behavior were focused on. Correlation analysis indicated that some problematic behaviors (e.g., truancy, stealing, receiving, and vandalism) were not related to GPA and some problematic behaviors (e.g., drinking, smoking and violence) were weakly, negatively but significantly related to students’ GPA. Moreover, high academic achievement was negatively but weakly related to a number of problematic behaviors. There was also no statistically significant difference in the strength of the relationship for males and females.
An Effective Color Quantization Method Using Color Importance-Based Self-Organizing Maps

Color quantization is an important process for image processing and various applications. Up to now, many color quantization methods have been proposed. The self-organizing maps (SOM) method is one of the most effective color quantization methods, which gives excellent color quantization results. However, it is slow, so it is not suitable for real-time applications. In this paper, we present a color importance{based SOM color quantization method. The proposed method dynamically adjusts the learning rate and the radius of the neighborhood using color importance. This makes the proposed method faster than the conventional SOM-based color quantization method. We compare the proposed method to 10 well-known color quantization methods to evaluate performance. The methods are compared by measuring mean absolute error (MAE), mean square error (MSE), and processing time. The experimental results show that the proposed method is effective and excellent for color quantization. Not only does the proposed method provide the best results compared to the other methods, but it uses only 67.18% of the processing time of the conventional SOM method.
Using a data synthesis approach to generate novel results for ecosystem recovery in deer-affected forests

Overgrazing by white-tailed deer (O. virginianus) has been an ongoing problem in Rondeau Provincial Park since the turn of the century. Since the recent reintroduction of annual culls by park officials, deer densities have declined but the extent to which this control has been effective in restoring plant communities remains to be seen. Such research may only be conducted by synthesizing long-term data sets, dating back to the establishment of artificial exclosures in the park and commencement of culls, and producing novel information. It was determined that T. grandiflorum populations within the park are still in the process of recovery, even following eighteen years of experimental exclosures. Thus, recovery from recently reduced deer populations is still underway and occurring at a slow rate. It is also believed that high deer herbivory aids in the spread of invasive species, however this was not found to be the case in Rondeau. Spread of invasive A. petiolata is diminishing in intensity and was found to have little effect on species richness in affected areas. These results illustrate the utility of data synthesis principles and practices in long-term ecological studies and stress the importance of process metadata and digital data repositories in furthering such a field.