Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-product firms , markup adjustment and import competition

This paper studies the pro-competitive effects of increased import competition on product-level markups, using highly disaggregated data on Danish manufacturing firms in the period 1999-2012. In the past 20 years, import shares have gradually increased across time, sectors and trading partners of Denmark, especially after China’s the accession in the WTO in 2001 and deeper integration of the member states in the EU. Denmark has also experienced increasing imports from other European countries as well further contributing to a more competitive landscape for Danish manufacturing firms on the domestic market. Previously, the literature has studied firm-level outcomes of import competition without taking into account the potential heterogeneity in markup responses and product level adjustments across multi-product firms. More than half of all Danish manufacturing firms produce more than one product and these are responsible for the majority of industrial output. Thus, studying the within firm markup effects stemming from intensified import competition has important policy implications as firms adopt different strategies along the product ladder. The results suggest that import competition has a differential impact across products within a firm and is negatively correlated with product level markups, lending strong support for pro-competitive effects even at the product level. On average, an increase by 10% points in the Danish manufacturing sector during the sample period, leads to a reduction of markups by 3-6% on average and after instrumenting by up to 16-20%. Following an increase in import competition, firms adjust the markups of their core products more relative to their peripheral products. These observations are consistent with theoretical models of multi-product firms with variable markups where core products have the highest markup and thus have greater room for adjustment relative to peripheral products. These findings uncover a previously unexplored layer of within firm heterogeneity and informs about have crucial policy implications as they suggest that import competition has heterogeneous effects not only across firms but also within firms. JEL: L10, L15
Comparative evaluation of antioxidant potential of extracts of Vitex negundo , Vitex trifolia , Terminalia bellerica , Terminalia chebula , Embelica officinalis and Asparagus racemosus

The antioxidant potential of six important Indian medicinal plants V. negundo, V. trifolia, T. bellerica, T. chebula, E. officinalis and A. racemosus were evaluated. Extracts prepared using solvents of varying polarity were screened for their free radical scavenging and reducing capacity by chemical assays. Total phenolic content was determined in order to assess its effect on the antioxidant activity of the extract. The properties of extracting solvents affected the measured total phenolic content and antioxidant activity. Extracts of all the six medicinal plants exhibited antioxidant potential but T. bellerica , T. chebula, E. officinalis proved more active. The presence of antioxidant activity in the extracts showed that these plants have the potential to be an alternate source of natural antioxidants. In vivo study is needed for successful commercialization and to benefit the food and pharmaceutical industries.
Characterization of Fracture Plane Heterogeneity Using Variogram Models

In geothermal reservoirs, where fractures are the main conduits for flow, the accurate modeling of flow through fractures is important in maximizing energy production. It is often assumed that the aperture is constant within the fracture. Though this is a good approximation, it does not take fracture roughness into account. Flow experiments in rough fractures have demonstrated that flow channeling can occur in fractures with heterogeneous aperture and permeability distributions. Flow channeling can impact geothermal energy production because it reduces the surface area available for heat conduction from the surrounding rock matrix. Characterization of the fracture aperture is important because aperture is directly related to permeability. In this study, the main goal was to present a structure for the characterization of fracture aperture distribution of different rock samples and pairing configurations. Variogram models and frequency distribution plots were used to characterize the roughness of fracture planes. Geostatistical techniques were used to analyze the spatial distribution of aperture values within the fracture plane. The best fit variogram models for fracture surfaces generated with a shear offset showed higher spatial continuity in the direction perpendicular to the direction of the shear offset. In contrast, the variogram models for mated fracture surfaces created artificially with a wedge exhibited no preferential orientation. Future work will include flow simulations to correlate characterization parameters to flow channeling effects.
Caractérisation de texture pour annotation, classification et recherche d’images médicales par le contenu.

It is evident that the particular medical imaging is being phenomenal growth either for the technologies used or for the huge number of produced images. This development has put the medical professionals such as radiologists in a difficult situation characterized by at least two difficult tasks namely: search images and diagnosis of cases represented by the images. This situation has necessarily generate at the so-called professionals need to use CBIR (Content Based Image Retrieval) systems and CAD (Computer AidedDiagnosis) providing these two very important tasks. In this thesis, we have developed a complete system of medical image retrieval by content, which, in addition to looking for images similar to a query image, make an annotation of the database images. The search engine aims to look for the similar medical images to a given query from different classes such as the cranium, hand, thoracic cage, vertebrae and mammography. Whereas, for the annotation part, mammographic images are specially analyzed in relation to cancer disease in order to aid in the diagnosis. To do this, we have proposed two approaches. The first is for medical image retrieval by content and the second is for the annotation of mammographic images. The goal of the first approach is to combine between a research phase and a classification process. In the research phase, each image was divided into four equitable areas; a frequency processing texture was applied using successively the fast version of the method Bidimensional Emipirical Mode Decomposition (BEMD) and the Gabor filter. We have chosen the mean and standard deviation to characterize the images as well as the Euclidean distance to measure the similarity between them and the query image. We added a second classification phase using the type LVQ (Learning Vector Quantization) neural networks in order to improve the results. For the annotation task, we have chosen a statistical processing of the texture by calculating the co-occurrence matrix for the whole image. In the identification step, the matrix of the region of interest (ROI) of the image classified as abnormal is calculated. In both steps, the attributes of homogeneity, energy, contrast and correlation were calculated and passed as input to the LVQ classifier that is supposed to give the belonging decision of the image to normal or abnormal class for the detection step. As for the identification step, the classifier must decide if the tumor is malignant or benign. Finally, our approach has been tested on two image samples formed separately from the base 'mini-MIAS' [MIAS] and the base 'Digital Database for Screening Mammography' [DDSM]. The rates of 95%, 85% and 80% were respectively achieved for the image search, detection and identification of anomalies. These results are encouraging compared to what is done in the literature and reflect the effectiveness of our proposals.
Yield Prediction in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) using Spectral Reflectance Indices

Influence of nitrogen on vegetative growth of wheat is significant, and can be monitored and assessed using vegetation indices derived from canopy reflectance at different phenological growth stages. The aim of the present work was to establish a regression model for yield prediction of wheat using spectral reflectance indices (SRIs), normalized difference nitrogen index (NDNI), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference water index (NDWI) and soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) for selected phenological growth stages of wheat. The canopy spectral reflectance was recorded during three winter seasons (2014–2017) for irrigated wheat. A hyperspectral library of canopy reflectance was developed, which enables the study of spectra independent of different nitrogen management practices. It indicated that the precise level of nitrogen for irrigated wheat may be 90 kg ha in vertisols under agro-climatic of central India. Coefficient of variation (CV) was determined based on significance test between eight levels of nitrogen and SRI values. On the basis of CV, NDVI and NDWI were selected among the four spectral indices for the study of correlation between grain and biomass yields and nitrogen levels for four growth stages, viz. tillering, booting, heading and milking. A regression model was developed to find the best representative stage for yield prediction among the four stages. The regression model indicated that the relations of NDVI with grain and biomass yields were stronger in the heading stage, and it resulted in 96% accurate estimation of grain and biomass yields in irrigated wheat.
The Impacts of Rhetorical Schema on English Majors ’ Listening Comprehension in Academic Situations at University of Technology and Education HCMC

Listening is a basic language skill which involves the interaction of diverse factors affecting learners’ listening comprehension. Learners often encounter various difficulties in listening to an oral text with a little knowledge of the reasons why it occurs. However, teachers mainly pay more attention to it as a product rather than as a process. Normally, listening comprehension problems originate from factors which are divided into two main groups: internal and external (Hedge, 2005; Luchini, 2009). The factors about listening strategies have been under-researched although they play a significant role in guiding learners through what to listen to and how to listen to it effectively. This study sought to investigate the effects of rhetorical schema including note-taking and four listening strategies, and the extent to which students change as regards strategy use and listening achievement in academic settings. 40 second-year EFL students from the two listening classes, one treated as the experimental group (EG) and the other as the control group (CG), at the Faculty of Foreign Language of the University of Technology and Education Ho Chi Minh City (HCM UTE) were invited to participate in the study. Data were collected from questionnaire sent to EG and listening tests taken from IELTS listening part 4 to both EG and CG. The findings substantiated that EG students are more open to use the strategies introduced so rhetorical schema positively enhance their listening comprehension. Notably, the scores of the rank high of distinction appeared for the first time albeit its small percentage in EG. Students also express their significant attitudinal changes towards rhetorical strategies in terms of more awareness of its importance, more frequent use, and confidence in listening to lectures in the future.
AXENIC SEED CULTURE AND IN VITRO MASS PROPAGATION OF MALAYSIAN WILD ORCHID CYMBIDIUM FINLAYSONIANUM LINDL

Under this study an efficient protocol on mass propagation of Cymbidium finlaysonianum an epiphytic Malaysian wild orchid has been established using axenic culture. To obtain an axenic seed culture, it is important to perform an adequate a disinfection procedure in tissue culture. Four nutrient media viz. MS, 1⁄2MS, KC and VW were evaluated on In vitro seed germination with callus initiation. The maximum seed germination with callus initiation (100%) was recorded in MS basal medium with a short span of time (40 days after culture). After 45 days of callus initiation the effect of eight different treatments (T1-T8) on callus size and nature were also studied. The experiment revealed that in T3 (MS + 2.0 mgl BAP + 0.5 mgl NAA) was found to be the best for callus development (1.98 cm length and 1.01 cm breadth). The effect of different concentration of BAP was evaluated on protocorm formation and its proliferation. Maximum number (7.75) and percentage (81.40) of PLBs was recorded in MS medium supplemented with 1.5 mgl BAP. Very good PLBs development was recorded also in MS + BAP 1.0 mgl + NAA 0.5 mgl. The highest elongation of shoot (3.80 cm) was observed in MS + 1.0 mgl BAP + 0.50 mgl NAA. For root induction 1.0 mgl NAA has proven to the best in 1⁄2MS medium. The In vitro developed seedlings were finally transferred to pots by successive phases of acclimatization.
British-English versus Polish " shame " and " guilt " : an individualistic-collectivistic perspective

On the basis of the relatively more individualistic British culture versus the relatively more collectivistic Polish culture (Hofstede 1980), the conceptualisations of British English shame and guilt were compared with those of their respective Polish counterparts wstyd and wina to determine whether the former showed a pattern that conformed to what is normally found in individualistic cultures and the latter to collectivistic cultures. The results from the GRID instrument (Scherer 2005) were consistent with these expectations despite the reservations that were raised concerning conceptual and methodological criticisms of individualism and collectivism, and whether Polish culture had been particularly exposed to external influences in recent years following the fall of communism that might have increased its individualism. There was a trend showing that norm transgression was conceptualised by the British participants more as guilt and by the Polish participants more as shame. Other findings showed that shame had a higher outward action and focus than wstyd and that there was a greater distinction between wstyd and wina than between shame and guilt in terms of outward action versus withdrawal. Pearson correlation performed on the complete profile of 144 GRID features supported the relatively greater similarity of shame and guilt. These results are consistent with the relatively greater salience of guilt in British culture and of shame in Polish culture.
Software-Defined Computational Offloading for Mobile Edge Computing

Computational offloading advances the deployment of Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) in the next generation communication networks. However, the distributed nature of the mobile users and the complex applications make it challenging to schedule the tasks reasonably among multiple devices. Therefore, by leveraging the idea of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Service Composition (SC), we propose a Software-Defined Service Composition model (SDSC). In this model, the SDSC controller is deployed at the edge of the network and composes service in a centralized manner to reduce the latency of the task execution and the traffic on the access links by satisfying the user-specific requirement. We formulate the low latency service composition as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) to make it a user-centric approach. With the advent of the SDN, the global view and the control of the entire network are made available to the network controller which is further leveraged by our SDSC approach. Furthermore, the service discovery and the offloading of tasks are designed for MEC environment so that the users can have a complex and robust system. Moreover, this approach performs the task execution in a distributed manner. We also define the QoS model which provides the composition rule that forms the best possible service composition at the time of need. Moreover, we have extended our SDSC model to involve the constant mobility of the mobile devices. To solve the mobility issue, we propose a mobility model and a mobilityaware QoS approach enabled in the SDSC model. The experimental simulation results demonstrate that our approach can obtain better performance than the energy saving greedy algorithm and the random offloading approach in a mobile environment.
ADAPTIVE FULL-SPECTRUM SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEMS CROSS-CUTTING R&D ON ADAPTIVE FULL-SPECTRUM SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEMS FOR MORE EFFICIENT AND AFFORDABLE USE OF SOLAR ENERGY IN BUILDINGS AND HYBRID PHOTOBIOREACTORS

This RD&D project is a three year team effort to develop a hybrid solar lighting (HSL) system that transports day light from a paraboloidal dish concentrator to a luminaire via a large core polymer fiber optic. The luminaire can be a device to distribute sunlight into a space for the production of algae or it can be a device that is a combination of day lighting and fluorescent lighting for office lighting. In this project, the sunlight is collected using a one-meter paraboloidal concentrator dish with two-axis tracking. The secondary mirror consists of eight planar-segmented mirrors that direct the visible part of the spectrum to eight fibers (receiver) and subsequently to eight luminaires. This results in about 8,200 lumens incident at each fiber tip. Each fiber can illuminate about 16.7 m{sup 2} (180 ft{sup 2}) of office space. The IR spectrum is directed to a thermophotovoltaic array to produce electricity. This report describes several investigations of various aspects of the system. Taken as a whole, they confirm significant progress towards the technical feasibility of this technology.
Documento de Trabajo Working Paper N ° 351 N ° 351 FUNDAMENTAL ECONOMIC SHOCKS AND THE MACROECONOMY

Recently there has been renewed interest in assessing economic models in the context of specific, empirically identified economic shocks. Typically, these shocks are identified one-at-a-time, ignoring potential correlations across shocks, or are identified in the context of a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) using zero restrictions only loosely tied to economic theory. In this paper, we develop an alternative approach that utilizes measures of economic shocks explicitly derived from economic models to identify multiple orthogonal structural impulses. We use this approach to identify technology shocks, marginal-rate-of-substitution (labor supply) shocks, and monetary policy shocks in the context of a Factor Augmented VAR. We then examine the Bayesian posterior distribution for the responses of a large number of endogenous macroeconomic and financial variables to these three shocks. The shocks account for the preponderance of output, productivity and price fluctuations. Technology shocks have a permanent impact on measures of economic activity, whereas the other shocks are more transitory. Labor inputs have little initial response to technology shocks, with the response building steadily over the 5 year period. Consumption’s sluggish response to the technology shock is inconsistent with a simple formulation of the permanent income hypothesis, but would be consistent with a model of habit formation. Monetary policy has a rather small response to technology shocks, but responds “leans against the wind” in response to the more cyclical labor supply shock. This more cyclical shock has the biggest impact on interest rates. Stock prices respond to all three shocks. A number of other empirical implications of our approach are discussed. ________________ Document presented at the First Monetary Policy Research Workshop in Latin America and the Caribbean on Monetary Policy Response to Supply and Asset Price Shocks, Santiago, Chile, November 17-18, 2005. The opinions in this paper are those of the authors, and do not reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago or the Federal Reserve System. Email: david.marshall@chi.frb. org.
THERMAL CHARACTERIZATION OF LaRC PETI-5 AS A POTENTIAL HIGH TEMPERATURE SIZING MATERIAL

The glass transition, melting behavior, cure behavior, and thermal stability of LaRC PETI-5 have been extensively studied utilizing differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in this publication. The data show that the thermal history for the imidization reaction may influence the extent of cure for the partially cured LaRC PETI-5. The reaction of the C≡C bonds in the phenylethynyl groups located in the imide polymer chain ends is completed to produce a fully cured LaRC PETI-5 within one hour at 350C in air. This study also demonstrates that no reaction takes place above 350C prior to degradation. LaRC PETI-5 with a molecular weight of 2500 g/mol has excellent thermal stability up to 550C and no significant loss of its integrity for extended periods of time below 450C as long as it is fully imidized. Microscopic observations suggest that LaRC PETI-5 resin is useful as a high temperature sizing material, providing uniform fiber surface and good wettability to carbon fiber.
Broad Cross-license Negotiations 1

In many industries, broad cross-license agreements are considered a useful method to obtain freedom to operate and to avoid patent litigation. In this paper I study firm incentives to sign a broad cross-license as well as the duration of broad cross-license negotiations. I develop a model of bargaining with learning, which predicts that two firms will enter a broad crosslicense agreement only if their capital intensities are large enough. The model also predicts faster negotiations when firms have high capital intensities and when the frequency of future disputes is low. I confirm these predictions empirically using a novel dataset on cross-licensing and litigation in the U.S. semiconductor industry.
Investigation of Three-Dimensional Upward and Downward Directed Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Bubbly Flows

Upward and downward directed disperse bubbly flows through horizontal pipeline and 180 o pipe bend have been predicted using the Eulerian multiphase flow model of CFX-5 (CFX, 2004) and taking into account Grace drag, Tomiyama lift, Tomiyama wall lubrication and FAD turbulent dispersion forces (see Frank et al., 2004). Starting from the investigation of the single phase water flow using SST and algebraic Reynolds stress (EARSM) turbulence models, good agreement between the CFD solution and the experimental data provided by Takamasa & Kondo (1995) could be obtained for the primary and secondary single phase fluid motion in the pipe bend. Further upward and downward directed gas-liquid two-phase flows have been predicted using the CFX-5 multiphase flow model. The results were compared to the measured gas volume fraction distributions in five defined measurement cross sections C1-C5 in the pipe bend. Again the numerical results were found in qualitatively good agreement with the experimental data published by Takamasa & Kondo (1995) showing the applicability and level of accuracy of the multiphase flow models for disperse bubbly flows in complex geometries.