Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the Impact of Digital Procurement via Mobile Phone on the Agribusiness of Rural Bangladesh: A Decision-analytic Approach

The research assesses the impact of a digital procurement (e-purjee) system for sugarcane growers in Bangladesh. The system itself is simple, transmitting purchase orders to local farmers via SMS text notifi cation. It replaces a traditional paper-based system fraught with low reliability and delivery delays. Applying expected value theory, and using decision tree representations to depict growers’ decision-making complexity in an information-asymmetric environment, we compute outcomes for the strategies and sub-strategies of ICT vs. traditional paper-based order management from the sugarcane growers’ perspective. The study results show that the digital procurement system outperforms the paper-based system by tangibly reducing growers’ economic losses. The digital system also appears to benefit growers non-monetarily, because of reduced uncertainty and a higher level of perceived fairness. Sugarcane growers appear to value the non-monetary benefi ts even higher than the economic advantages of the e-purjee system.
How Transfeminine TikTok Creators Navigate the Algorithmic Trap of Visibility Via Folk Theorization

Social platforms open important doors to visibility for transgender people, through which they can pursue key goals such as broader recognition and normalization. However, each door is also potentially a trap, filled with risks and consequences - especially for those whose goals require visibility. Via a grounded theory interview study with 17 transfeminine content creators on TikTok, I find that, in an algorithmically mediated environment such as TikTok, users navigate potential doors to visibility and their associated traps via folk theorization. Moreover, I find that transfeminine creators employ multiple complex and overlapping folk theories, with actionable theories guiding the careful navigation of doors to visibility, and demotivational theories alerting creators to traps that are too risky to spring. I introduce five novel folk theories of TikTok spanning both the For You Page and content moderation systems which creators use to guide their decision making, and discuss how two cross-cutting issues, perceived algorithmic paternalism and decontextualization, illustrate major issues for transfeminine creators and opportunities for more supportive design.
Social Robots in Aged Care: Care Staff Experiences and Perspectives on Robot Benefits and Challenges

Social robots have the potential to augment the care provided to older adults in residential aged care homes. However, social robots can only be valuable in aged care if care staff successfully incorporate them into their ongoing care practices beyond a limited research period. This study examines the benefits and challenges of using different types of social robots in real-world practices from care staff perspectives. We conducted semi-structured interviews with eleven staff members who have first-hand experience of employing robots in their work. Our findings highlight the entangled relationships among the actors in the older adult/carer/robot triad. We discuss the role of robots in supporting a mutually beneficial relationship between care staff and older adults, and how robopets and humanoid robots impact care staff in different ways. Finally, we offer recommendations for the future deployment of robots. We argue that sustainable deployment of robots in care practice might involve recognizing and promoting positive impacts for both human parties in the triad, and that the practice of using robots needs to align with the needs and interests of both caregivers and care recipients.
Managing the Transition to Online Freelance Platforms: Self-Directed Socialization

Individuals increasingly turn to online freelance platforms to find flexible, remote, knowledge-based work. Yet we have only begun to understand the challenges new freelancers face with limited formal resources to orient themselves to this career. To inform design and policy to support new freelancers, we conducted a qualitative interview study on transitions to online freelance platforms with 27 freelancers working on the Upwork and Fiverr platforms. We found that new freelancers engage in self-directed socialization as they proactively seek support not directly provided by the platform or their clients. This support helps them resolve professional identity ambiguity, learn platform work self-management, build credibility, and overcome self-doubt in their new careers. Our findings suggest opportunities to support new forms of socialization and mentorship to address disparities in access to networks, resources, and knowledge needed to successfully begin an online freelance career.
Multi-Objective Personalization in Multi-Stakeholder Organizational Bulk E-mail

Bulk email is often used in organizations to communicate "important-to-organization'' messages such as policy changes, organizational plans, and administrative updates. However, normal employees may prefer messages more relevant to their jobs or interests. Organizations face the challenge of balancing prioritizing the messages they prefer employees to know (tactical goals) while maintaining employees' positive experiences with these bulk emails, then they continue to read these emails in the future (strategic goals). Could personalization help organizations achieve these tactical and strategic goals? In an 8-week field experiment with a university newsletter, we implemented a 4x5x5 factorial design on personalizing subject lines, top news, and message order based on both the employees' and the organization's preferences. We measured these designs' influences on the open/interest/recognition/read-in-detail rate of the whole newsletter and the single messages within it. We found that ''important-to-organization'' messages only got higher recognition rates when being put on subject lines / top news (tactical goal). Mixing them with employee-preferred messages in top news did not bring further improvement to their own recognition rates but could improve the whole newsletter's recognition rate. Only when the top news solely contained the employee-preferred messages were the employees slightly more interested in the newsletter (strategic goal). We further analyze on which topics the employees and the organization's preferences conflicted. Finally, we discuss the design suggestions for organizational bulk email.
Credit Default Swaps and Corporate Bond Trading

Using regulatory data on CDS holdings and corporate bond transactions, I provide evidence for a liquidity spillover effect from CDS to bond markets. Bond trading volumes are larger for investors with CDS positions written on the debt issuer, in particular around rating downgrades. I use a quasi-natural experiment to validate these findings. I also provide causal evidence that CDS mark-to-market losses lead to fire sales in the bond market. I instrument for the prevalence of mark-to-market losses with the fraction of non-centrally cleared CDS contracts of an individual counterparty. The monthly corporate bond sell volumes of investors exposed to large mark-to-market losses are three times higher than those of unexposed counterparties. Returns decrease by more than 100 bps for bonds sold by exposed investors, compared to same-issuer bonds sold by unexposed investors. My findings underline the risk of a liquidity spiral in the credit market.
Random, Scattered and Asymmetric Distribution of Fixational Eye Movement - Experimental Evidence

How to determine the test chart is very important in fixational eye movement (or microsaccades) experiment, in this paper, the selected test image can provide important information about cognitive psychology and visual information processing, especially including a random dot stereogram as a test image to test the eye movement trajectory of the subjects. According to the computer vision and image feature analysis, we can predict and determine the obvious feature region in the test chart, then, compared with the eye movement trajectory of the subjects. There is a big difference between the eye movement trajectories of each participant, and the distribution of the fixation points is very random, scattered and asymmetric, which cannot be attributed to a certain statistical distribution and cannot determine their statistical parameters, and for this reason this paper suggests that the significant test for eye movement should be an interval estimation, and the specific interval estimates are given, and also points out that the microsaccade is equivalent to the conversion between the frames of visual images; the blinks of eyes are the conversion between the various primitives in visual images. These novel results are valuable for the study of cognitive psychology and vision information processing.
Scattered Land, Scattered Risks? Harvest Variations on Open Fields and Enclosed Land in Southern Sweden C. 1750–1850

This chapter presents farm-level harvest variation series, including observations from both types of land. It is based on tithe records of 1,700 farms in Southern Sweden from 1715–1860. Results show that scattering had a limited effect on agricultural risk. The system did protect against small-scale local crop failures. It was less efficient, however, when it came to the large-scale regional harvest disasters that constituted a much more serious threat to peasants of the time. From this perspective, the inner logic of the open-field system is taken up for renewed consideration.
FEATURE-BASED SOFTWARE ASSET MODELING WITH DOMAIN SPECIFIC KITS

FEATURE-BASED SOFTWARE ASSET MODELING WITH DOMAIN SPECIFIC KITS Altıntaş, Nesip İlker Ph.D., Department of Computer Engineering Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali H. Doğru Co-Supervisor: Dr. Semih Çetin August 2007, 172 pages This study proposes an industrialization model, Software Factory Automation, for establishing software product lines. Major contributions of this thesis are the conceptualization of Domain Specific Kits (DSKs) and a domain design model for software product lines based on DSKs. The concept of DSK has been inspired by the way other industries have been successfully realizing factory automation for decades. DSKs, as fundamental building blocks, have been deeply elaborated with their characteristic properties and with several examples. The constructed domain design model has two major activities: first, building the product line reference architecture using DSK abstraction; and second, constructing reusable asset model again based on DSK concept. Both activities depend on outputs of feature-oriented analysis of product line domain. The outcome of these coupled modeling activities is the reference architecture and asset model of the product line. The approach has been validated by constructing software product lines for two product families. The reusability of DSKs and software assets has also been discussed with examples. Finally, the constructed model has been evaluated in terms of quality improvements, and it has been compared with other software product line engineering approaches.
A Summary of Multicast Routing Algorithms in Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) presents us a key emerging technology which can construct the next generation wireless multi-hop network. It combines the advantages of both mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) and traditional fixed network. The applications of WMNs also attract significant industrial and academic attentions. As a vital function of network communication, multicast is normally applied to transmit data for high-definition video and gaming in WMNs. Therefore, the multicast routing algorithms are very important to the performance of group communication in WMNs. In this paper, we review a list of existing multicast routing algorithms in WMNs. Based on the findings, we also point out the open issues of multicast routing algorithms.
Three Essays on Corporate Liquidity, Financial Crisis, and Real Estate

THREE ESSAYS ON CORPORATE LIQUIDITY, FINANCIAL CRISIS, AND REAL ESTATE Kimberly Fowler Luchtenberg Old Dominion University, 2013 Co-Directors: Dr. John Doukas Dr. Michael Seiler The first essay examines why firms with access to lines of credit (LOC) have different drawdowns and their implications for asset pricing, investment and profitability. Utilizing a hand-collected LOC dataset that extends the sample of Sufi (2009) to 2010, our principal finding is that firms with greater LOC usage are more financially constrained than firms with lower LOC usage. We also document that high users o f credit lines have higher risk-adjusted returns, less investment in capital expenditures and employment, and lower profitability than low LOC users. An interesting implication o f our evidence is that high LOC drawdowns could serve as an alternative financial constraint measure. The second essay shows that firms are unable to utilize credit lines to prevent decreases in investment during the 2008 financial crisis. Theory predicts that credit lines provide liquidity insurance that allows firms to invest during periods o f limited credit availability; however, we do not find evidence in support o f the theoretical predictions. To the contrary, we find strong evidence that credit lines do not enable firms to maintain investment during the crisis. With a unique dataset that includes bank line o f credit drawdowns and hedging data, we study the relationship between credit line usage and corporate investment. Our results suggest that credit lines may be unable to provide adequate liquidity insurance to allow firms to continue investment during tough economic environments. In the third essay, we examine linkages between the real estate and stock markets before and after the delisting o f Lehman Brothers to determine if the 2008 financial crisis had an effect on the degree of integration between these two markets. Using several different models, we find that real estate returns subsequently influence stock market returns, a unique result when compared to past financial crises, but consistent with recent findings o f increased systematic risk in REITs. These tests were made possible through the employment o f a new daily transaction-based commercial real estate return series. This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother, Professor Blanche Raiford, who showed me the love o f life-long learning.
Birth Outcomes among Diabetic Mothers Who Delivered in Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Introduction Diabetes develops in 4% of all the pregnancies worldwide, and its prevalence ranges from 1 to 14%, and 7% are complicated and results in prenatal morbidity and mortality. The disease affects women and their babies during pregnancy, labor, and delivery. However, little is known about its prevalence, birth outcomes, and associated factors in the study setting. Method A facility-based retrospective cross-sectional study was done on all deliveries attended from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2017, to determine the prevalence of diabetes and birth outcome. The mothers who had complete data record were identified and consecutively reviewed. The data were entered in EpiData Version 4.2 and exported to SPSS Version 23.0 for analysis. Results Of the 14039 women who gave birth during the study period, 2.6% of them had diabetes mellitus, and from reviewed data, 54.6% had gestational diabetes and 45.4% had pregestational diabetes. Out of the diabetic mothers, 57.8% delivered by cesarean section, 39.9% by spontaneous vaginal delivery, and 26% of the pregnancies ended up with pregnancy-induced hypertension. Regarding the fetal outcome, 17.9% were preterm delivery, 17.6% macrocosmic, 9.2% respiratory distress, 10.1% low birth weight, and 65% admitted to neonatal intensive care unit. Class I obesity and history of PIH were associated with adverse maternal outcomes at aOR = 95%CI 3.8 (1.29, 8.319) and aOR = 95%CI 2.1 (1.03, 4.399), respectively. Being a house wife and preterm deliveries were associated with adverse fetal outcomes at aOR = 95%CI 2.117 (1.315, 3.405) and aOR = 95%CI 9.763 (4.560, 20.902), respectively. Conclusion The prevalence of diabetes mellitus delivered in the hospital was 2.6%. Class I obesity and previous history of pregnancy-induced hypertension were significantly associated with adverse maternal outcomes, whereas preterm delivery and being housewife were associated with adverse fetal outcome.
In or out? : exploring selection processes of farmers in cocoa sustainability standards and certification programmes in Ghana

The sustainability of the global cocoa sector is currently being tested by acute deforestation, rampant poverty among cocoa farmers and fears of future cocoa supply shortages. Cocoa Sustainability Standards and their subsequent Certifications (SSC) are seen as a win-win solution to these challenges for both farmers and the industry. Nevertheless, questions regarding who is able to participate and potentially benefit from such interventions and, just as importantly, who is not, remain under-researched. Taking Ghana, the world’s second-largest producer of certified cocoa, as a case study, this thesis draws on actor and network approaches (Long, 1989; Latour, 1987), theory-based evaluation (Weiss, 1997; Pawson and Tilley, 2004) and the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods framework (Scoones, 1998) to unpack selection processes. It uses primary qualitative data from industry informants and farmers from the Brong Ahafo region, as well as national level secondary quantitative survey data to understand how farmers are externally selected, through programme placement and participant targeting, and self selected into SSC programmes. Findings suggest that SSC placement is business-oriented when programmes are driven by SSC implementing actors, with farmer-centered criteria gaining influence when funding and certifying actors are involved. In terms of targeting, farmers lacking land entitlements, like sharecroppers and their wives, tend to be left out of SSC related activities and the distribution of benefits, even when producing certified cocoa. Further,farmers’ dependence on credit determines their selling strategies and therefore their self selection in or out of SSC programmes, when participation is conditional on selling to a particular buyer. In the absence of selling conditionality, selection is shaped by the farmers’ ability and willingness to adopt the standards. Overall, better-off farmers are more likely to participate in SSC programmes, while landless, credit-dependent and isolated farmers tend to be left out, suggesting that if SSC are to advance the interests of both farmers and industry, issues of inclusiveness need to be addressed both at the policy and implementation level.
Interpretation of Natural-language Robot Instructions: Probabilistic Knowledge Representation, Learning, and Reasoning (Interpretation Natürlichsprachlicher Roboterinstruktionen : Repräsentieren, Lernen und Schlussfolgern von Probabilistischem Wissen)

A robot that can be simply told in natural language what to do – this has been one of the ultimate long-standing goals in both Artificial Intelligence and Robotics research. In near-future applications, robotic assistants and companions will have to understand and perform commands such as “set the table for dinner”, “make pancakes for breakfast”, or “cut the pizza into 8 pieces. ” Although such instructions are only vaguely formulated, complex sequences of sophisticated and accurate manipulation activities need to be carried out in order to accomplish the respective tasks. The acquisition of knowledge about how to perform these activities from huge collections of natural-language instructions from the Internet has garnered a lot of attention within the last decade. However, natural language is typically massively unspecific, incomplete, ambiguous and vague and thus requires powerful means for interpretation. This work presents PRAC – Probabilistic Action Cores – an interpreter for naturallanguage instructions which is able to resolve vagueness and ambiguity in natural language and infer missing information pieces that are required to render an instruction executable by a robot. To this end, PRAC formulates the problem of instruction interpretation as a reasoning problem in first-order probabilistic knowledge bases. In particular, the system uses Markov logic networks as a carrier formalism for encoding uncertain knowledge. A novel framework for reasoning about unmodeled symbolic concepts is introduced, which incorporates ontological knowledge from taxonomies and exploits semantically similar relational structures in a domain of discourse. The resulting reasoning framework thus enables more compact representations of knowledge and exhibits strong generalization performance when being learnt from very sparse data. Furthermore, a novel approach for completing directives is presented, which applies semantic analogical reasoning to transfer knowledge collected from thousands of natural-language instruction sheets to new situations. In addition, a cohesive processing pipeline is described that transforms vague and incomplete task formulations into sequences of formally specified robot plans. The system is connected to a plan executive that is able to execute the computed plans in a simulator. Experiments conducted in a publicly accessible, browser-based web interface showcase that PRAC is capable of closing the loop from natural-language instructions to their execution by a robot.
Potential of community capacity building for ecotourism purposes in Tg.Piai, Johore

This paper seeks to examine Tg. Piai as a potential site for community capacity building for ecotourism development. The research is done by reviewing and comparing, literatures on the ecological and sociological aspect of tourism in the area. Also through on-ground observations and experience from a past research done for “Final Report on Habitat and Ecological Research After Wavebreaker Project at Tg. Piai”. Referring to the existing natural tourism, cultural tourism attractions, and an encouraging number of local participations in the tourism industry, there are already positive signs of potential for ecotourism development. Assessment of data gathered, further strengthens the viability, with results of positive attitudes projected by the locals toward tourism development in the area. However, upon further review, the research found that there has been problem with past top-down governance style of the tourism development in the area and it shows on the ground as well. There is a need for a more sustainable development for ecotourism that focuses on the participation of the local community. As a conclusion however, it is proven in many ecotourism development with local community, the involvement of the locals is a crucial part of creating a working ecotourism destination. Fortunately, there are indicators that show willingness of the locals to support a community capacity building project to develop ecotourism in the area. Thus, the research suggests that the stakeholder take this opportunity to create a new cooperation with the local, through community capacity building, using the bottom-up approach to develop ecotourism products that can sustainably benefit both the stakeholder and the local community. This review paper is a continuation from the “Final Report on Habitat and Ecological Research After Wavebreaker Project at Tg. Piai”. Authored by the Centre of Research-Sustainable Uses of Natural Resources (COR-SUNR), UTHM.