Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On fluctuations of global and mesoscopic linear statistics of generalized Wigner matrices

We consider an $N$ by $N$ real or complex generalized Wigner matrix $H_N$, whose entries are independent centered random variables with uniformly bounded moments. We assume that the variance profile, $s_{ij}:=\mathbb{E} |H_{ij}|^2$, satisfies $\sum_{i=1}^Ns_{ij}=1$, for all $1 \leq j \leq N$ and $c^{-1} \leq N s_{ij} \leq c$ for all $ 1 \leq i,j \leq N$ with some constant $c \geq 1$. We establish Gaussian fluctuations for the linear eigenvalue statistics of $H_N$ on global scales, as well as on all mesoscopic scales up to the spectral edges, with the expectation and variance formulated in terms of the variance profile. We subsequently obtain the universal mesoscopic central limit theorems for the linear eigenvalue statistics inside the bulk and at the edges respectively.
The impact of CAGE institutional distances and Market-seeking, Resource-seeking and Strategic asset-seeking motives on the Brazilian foreign direct investment outflows

The analysis of institutional environments and how they impact an array of firms‘ decisions is a major stream of research in international business and strategy. In this study we focus on the impact of the institutional distance on the Brazilian outward FDI (OFDI) based on Ghemawat‘s (2001) CAGE taxonomy which classifies distances in four dimensions: cultural, administrative, geographic and economic. Institutional distance is the extent of similarity or dissimilarity between the institutional environments of two countries. Moreover, we posit that not only will institutional distance negative impact the Brazilian FDI but also that we must attend to the strategic motives underlying those foreign investments, that we classify in market-seeking, resource-seeking, and strategic-asset seeking (Dunning, 1993). Methodologically, we propose a set of seven hypotheses to test the direct and moderating effects using secondary data collected from multiple sources. Results show that cultural and geographic distances have negative and significant impact on FDI from Brazil. The association between the administrative and economic distances and FDI were not significant. In relation to the strategic-seeking motives, Market-seking and Strategic Asset-seeking motives showed a positive and significative influence on Brazilian OFDI. In regard to the interactions between distances and motives only the Strategic Assetseeking motive exerts a positive influence on the relationship between Administrative distance and FDI, such that FDI flows will be less sensitive to the Administrative distance when a strategy based on seeking new strategic assets is present. This study contributes to better understand the institutional and strategic foundations presiding to the investments from emerging economies firms and opens up the discussion on other motivations that could be drive emerging countries overseas investment decisions.
The Aggregate Impact of Trade and Migration on Economic Growth and its Components: Evidence from Emerging Economies

The study examines the combined effects as well as separate effects of trade openness and net migration on economic growth and the components of economic growth viz capital-labor ratio, total factor productivity, and labor employment ratio over the period 1960-2017 for the selected emerging economies. The study used two-stage least squares (2SLS) technique. The results reveal that trade openness positively related to economic growth while net migration is negatively related to economic growth. Moreover, the study discovered that trade openness positively impacts capital-labor ratio and total factor productivity and it is negatively related to labor employment ratio whereas net migration is negatively associated with capital-labor ratio, total factor productivity, and positively related to employment ratio. Overall, the study concludes that the flow of migrants hurts economic growth while trade openness aids economic growth in emerging economies. The findings may provide a better understanding and some guidance on policies about trade openness, net migration, and economic growth.
Polyethyleneimine Supported Mesoporous Silica for CO2 Capture: Adsorption Kinetics and Degradation Problems

Polyethyleneimine supported mesoporous silica (PEI-MPS) has widely been investigated as solid sorbents for CO2 adsorption in laboratory. However, the adsorption kinetics of CO2 on this sorbent is still a disputed problem and the sorbent degradation could be a cause that hinders the sorbent from industrial application. In this study, the PEI-MPS sorbent was prepared by impregnating PEI onto mesoporous silica and then the adsorption kinetics was investigated using the pseudofirst order model, pseudo-second order model and intraparticle diffusion model. Results indicated that the CO2 adsorption kinetics on the sorbent occurred in a 2 stage process. In early stage, it is well fitted by the pseudo-first order model, but in later stage, it is well fitted by the intraparticle diffusion model. The pseudo second-order model proved to be the most suitable one to describe the adsorption of CO2 on the sorbent for the whole adsorption period with less than 5% absolute deviation. The sorbent with a CO2 adsorption capacity of 144.9 mg/g was calculated based on the fitting of the pseudosecond order model. The major degradation issues and their potential effects on the CO2 capture process were also discussed. The degradation significantly impacts on the performance and efficiency of CO2 capture process. The chemical degradation, however, can be considerably minimized by humidification.
Patient Experience of Primary Health Care Users in KwaZulu-Natal

This study was conducted to evaluate Patient Experience in primary health clinics in the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). A quantitative study approach included 280 participants. The descriptive cross sectional study utilised a self-administered questionnaire as the research instrument, which was distributed to the target population of primary health care (PHC) users. The overall Patient Experience-Satisfaction showed that more than half of the respondents were not satisfied with the current Patient Experience in the primary health clinic. There was a significant association with age and the overall Patient Experience-Satisfaction (p<0.05). Older patients indicate a favourable Patient Experience when compared to younger patients, who are more critical of the Patient Experience elicited in primary health clinics. The results showed that gender did not significantly affect the overall Patient Experience-Satisfaction (p=0.957). Race significantly affected Patient Experience (p value = 0.011) with black respondents having a significantly lower mean rank of Patient Experience when compared to Indian respondents. There was an overall negative perception toward the Patient Experience elicited in users. There is an urgent need to review the service delivery of clinics. The need for a Patient Experience Model is highlighted for the health sector in South Africa.
IMPACT OF INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS ON GROWTH OF DOMINANT TREE SPECIES OF ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN

Heavy industrialization has resulted in water pollution and environmental degradation. Ever-increasing pollution adversely affected living organisms on the Earth. The present study was focused on analyzing industrial effluents originating from industrial estate Islamabad (the capital city of Pakistan). Dominant tree-species of Islamabad such as Acacia modesta, Grevillea robusta, Bauhinia variegate (L.), Cassia fistula (L.), Albizia lebbeck (L.) Benth. , Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels, Terminalia arjuna (Roxburgh), Pongamia pinnata (L.), and Melia azedarach (L.) were selected to examine the tolerance of these tree-species against industrial effluents. One year old uniform saplings of nine selected species were transplanted into soil filled polythene tubes for the experiment. The collected samples of effluents were analyzed for water quality parameters such as electrical conductivity, pH, total dissolved solids, and heavy metals concentration. The pH of effluent sample was low (acidic) whereas electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids were higher than described FAO standards for irrigation water. Results also indicated higher concentration of heavy metals (Mn, Pb, Cr, Zn, Cd, Ni and Mg) in the industrial effluents. Saplings were irrigated with assorted water treatments and their effects on shoot and leaf growth was observed. Analysis of the data indicated decline in growth of all tree species irrigated with effluent based treatments. However, Acacia modesta, Albizia lebbeck, Melia azedarach, Syzygium cumini, and Terminalia arjuna relatively performed better and showed tolerance against industrial effluents.
Towards Engineering Complex Socio-Technical Systems Using Network Motifs: A Case Study on Bike-Sharing Systems

The socio-technical system (STS) is an important topic in Systems Engineering and Design Science. Its performance is not only affected by social aspects but also influenced by various technical factors. To understand the relationships and interactions among different components and subsystems in STS, many studies have been done either at individual agent level or at the system level, yet few studies were conducted at the local structural level in such systems. Motivated by this research gap, we developed an approach to analyzing STS based on the network motif theory. In this study, we apply this approach to three bike-sharing systems (BSS) to validate its feasibility. We focus on studying the size-3 motif, the most basic building block of complex networks, and its correlations to a BSS’s rebalancing performance in three different cities, i.e., NYC, Chicago, and Los Angeles. This paper reaches three conclusions. First, both seasonal and city effects play a significant role in affecting BSS’s network structure and its local motif characteristics. Second, the rebalancing issue, i.e., the imbalance between bike returns and rentals, happened at the local transit level can be different from that observed at the system level, and vice versa. Third, the average geographical distance of size-3 trip motifs follows strong patters correlated to the motif structures as well as the number of directed links in a motif. Compared with previous studies, these insights would be beneficial to guiding system designers in engineering STS, particularly from a bottom-up manner (e.g., using mechanisms or incentives), to achieve desired system-level performance. This study also provides an in-depth understanding of the relations between local system structures and system-level performance in an STS, therefore contributes to both the design theory of complex systems and the BSS research community from a new network motif-based perspective.
Minimal Repair Processes Under a Step-Stress Test

We consider the sequence of failure times of a technical system in the sens of minimal repair. In such a scheme, with respect to just one component, upon failure, this component will instantaneously b e repaired, and by this, put into the condition immediately prior to its failure. The times to repair are considered to be low and so are neglected. Minimal repair times possess the same joint distribution as corresponding record values as w ell as epoch times of some non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) (see Gupta and Kirmani (1988)). Another interpreta tion of minimal repair consists of saying that, successively, the failed component is replaced by a component of equal age in contra st to the model of a renewal process (cf. Ascher and Feingold (1984)). A different way of viewing a minimal repair proc ess is to consider iterations of the so-called relevation transform (see Krakowski (1973) and Cramer and Kamps (2003)) . Hence, the model of record values, the analysis of occurrence times of some NHPP, the iterative use of the relevation transform as well as the minimal repair model are all distributionally equivalent. Results derived for any of these models may therefore be used for the situation under consideration. Considering successive minimal repair of just one particular component within a sys tem may not be a practical situation. In the NHPPsetting, a modelling may be appropriate when considering successive re pairs of a system when only a very small fraction of components is either repaired or replaced by new components. In these cases, it is reasonable to assume that, upon restart, the reliability of the (complex) system after some (minimal) repair is approxim ately the same as it was immediately prior to its failure (see Ascher and Feingold (1984)). We consider a minimal rep ir process under a simple step-stress experiment in order to reduce experimental time; a single experiment is terminated as so on a ther-th failure is observed for some r. For step-stress experiments we refer, e.g., to Bagdonavicius and Nikulin ( 2002) and Balakrishnan (2009). Moreover, aiming at increasing precision of inferential procedures, we combine differen t st p-stress experiments, which might have been conducted at different locations or at different times or even under different te sting conditions. By assuming an underlying cumulative exposure model or a tampered failure rate model, we discuss paramete estimation in the oneand the multi-sample situation, and show some properties of respective estimators (see Balakrishnan et al. (2009), Kateri and Kamps (2015)).
The Impact of Source Effects on the Evaluation of Music for Advertising

When choosing music for advertisements, professionals are influenced by a large number of factors that could impair their judgment. This research examined source effects in the evaluation of advertising music by professionals and nonprofessionals. Results showed that advertising professionals gave significantly more favorable evaluations—higher in quality, authenticity, and expected cost—when they thought the music was sourced from performing artists compared with less credible and attractive sources. In contrast, nonprofessionals were not affected by source cues at all. The interplay between professionals’ and nonprofessionals’ perceptions of advertising music and the potential financial impact for brands are discussed.
Paying the energetic costs of reproduction: reliance on postpartum foraging and stored reserves

Lay Summary Most female mammals increase their food intake to fuel the increased energy demands of offspring production and care. However, stored body reserves also play a role. In wild European rabbits, our study shows that a higher body mass supports mothers’ reproductive performance. Feeding behavior is markedly higher in lactating females compared with pregnant or nonreproducing ones. Finally, mothers’ feeding effort during lactation is gradually increased by a higher reproductive effort, but decreased in females with higher initial body mass.
Effect of exogenously applied growth regulators on morpho-physiological and biochemical attributes of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

In the present investigation, a field experiment with nine treatments and three replications of each treatments was conducted with Randomised Block Design (RBD) to ascertain the effect of exogenously applied plant growth regulators on wheat morpho-physiological and biochemical attributes. Wheat plants were sprayed with growth regulators at tillering and before anthesis stage. The treatments were subjected to Indole 3 Acetic Acid (IAA) 25 ppm and 50 ppm, Gibberellins (GA3) 20 ppm and 40 ppm, Cytokinin (Kinetin) 5 ppm and 10 ppm, Alar 1000 ppm and 2000 ppm. Results shows that exogenous application of plant growth regulator helpful in improving plants growth traits such as plants height (cm), number of tillers plant-1, leaf area plant-1 (cm2), total dry matter plant-1 (g), relative growth rate (mg g-1 day-1) and Chlorophyll content (SPAD Value). All the parameters were significantly influenced by plant growth regulators in respect to control.
Online Convex Optimization in the Random Order Model

Online Convex Optimization (OCO) is a powerful framework for sequential prediction, portraying the natural uncertainty inherent in data-streams as though the data were generated by an almost omniscient adversary. However, this view, which is often too pessimistic for real-world data, comes with a price. The complexity of solving many important online tasks in this adversarial framework becomes much worse than that of their ofﬂine and even stochastic counterparts. In this work we consider a natural random-order version of the OCO model, in which the adversary can choose the set of loss functions, but does not get to choose the order in which they are supplied to the learner; Instead, they are observed in uniformly random order. Focusing on two important families of on-line tasks, one which includes online linear regression, and the other being online k -PCA, we show that under standard well-conditioned-data assumptions, standard online gradient descent (OGD) methods become much more efﬁcient in the random-order model. In particular, for the ﬁrst group of tasks OGD guarantees poly-logarithmic regret (this result holds even without assuming convexity of individual loss functions). In the case of online k -PCA, OGD guarantees sublinear regret using only a rank-k SVD on each iteration and memory linear in the size of the solution.
Innovation and Competition in a Mixed Oligopoly

espanolConsideramos un oligopolio mixto donde las empresas deciden las cantidades que produciran y donde las empresas pueden innovar para reducir su coste marginal de produccion. Ademas, las empresas privadas tambien pueden reducir la competencia en la produccion a traves de un acuerdo colusorio. En este contexto, obtenemos que los incentivos de colusion son mas debiles debido a las actividades de I + D. Tambien investigamos dos medidas reguladoras diferentes; privatizacion (posiblemente parcial) y un subsidio a la produccion. En el ultimo caso, obtenemos que cuando las empresas innovan, el conocido resultado de la neutralidad de la privatizacion no se cumple. Ademas, una politica adecuada deberia incluir una privatizacion parcial donde la menor competencia entre las empresas privadas exige un esquema de privatizacion mas debil. EnglishWe consider a mixed quantity-setting oligopoly where frms can innovate to reduce their marginal cost of production. Besides, private frms may also reduce output competition through a collusive agreement. In this context, we obtain that collusion incentives are weaker due to RD (possibly partial) privatization and an output subsidy. In the latter case, we obtain that when frms innovate, the privatization neutrality result is not satisfed. Furthermore, a proper policy should include a partial privation where less competition between private frms calls for a weaker privatization scheme.
REGULATION OF FAT METABOLISM DURING EXERCISE

• Fat is the dominant energy source at low aerobic power outputs (< 40% VO 2 max) and provides ~50% of the required energy during moderate intensity exercise (~40-65% VO 2 max). The contribution from fat decreases at higher power outputs as CHO becomes the main fuel. • Fat oxidation also contributes energy during recovery from a single bout of exercise, and in the rest or low power output recovery periods between intense exercise bouts common to stop-and-go sports. • The regulation of fat metabolism in skeletal muscle during exercise is complex and involves many sites of control. Activation of fat oxidation at the onset of exercise is slower than CHO and is designed for long-term low to moderate intensity exercise. • The decrease in fat oxidation with intense aerobic exercise occurs at several regulatory sites inside and outside skeletal muscle. REGULATION OF FAT METABOLISM DURING EXERCISE
Canonical X-Ray Fluorescence Line Intensities as Column Density Indicators

X-ray line fluorescence is ubiquitous around powerful accretion sources, namely, active galactic nuclei and X-ray binaries. The brightest and best-studied line is the Fe Kα line at λ = 1.937 Å(6.4 keV). This paper presents a survey of all well-measured Chandra/HETG grating spectra featuring several Kα fluorescence lines from elements between Mg and Ni. Despite the variety of sources and physical conditions, we identify a common trend that dictates the Kα line intensity ratios between elements. For the most part, the line intensities are well described by a simple, plane-parallel approximation of a near-neutral, solar-abundance, high column density (N H > 1024 cm−2) medium. This approximation gives canonical photon-intensity line ratios for the Kα fluorescence of all elements, e.g., 0.104:0.069:1.0:0.043 for Si:S:Fe:Ni, respectively. Deviations from these ratios are shown to be primarily due to excess column density along the line of sight beyond the Galactic column. Therefore, measured fluorescence line ratios provide an independent estimate of N H and insight into the environment of accretion sources. Residual discrepancies with the canonical ratios could be due to a variety of effects such as a fluorescing medium with N H < 1024 cm−2, a non-neutral medium, variations in the illuminating spectrum, nonsolar abundances, or an irregular source geometry. However, evidently and perhaps surprisingly, these are uncommon, and their effect remains minor.
Smoothed analysis of the condition number under low-rank perturbations

Let $M$ be an arbitrary $n$ by $n$ matrix of rank $n-k$. We study the condition number of $M$ plus a \emph{low rank} perturbation $UV^T$ where $U, V$ are $n$ by $k$ random Gaussian matrices. Under some necessary assumptions, it is shown that $M+UV^T$ is unlikely to have a large condition number. The main advantages of this kind of perturbation over the well-studied dense Gaussian perturbation where every entry is independently perturbed is the $O(nk)$ cost to store $U,V$ and the $O(nk)$ increase in time complexity for performing the matrix-vector multiplication $(M+UV^T)x$. This improves the $\Omega(n^2)$ space and time complexity increase required by a dense perturbation, which is especially burdensome if $M$ is originally sparse. We experimentally validate our approach and consider generalizations to symmetric and complex settings. Lastly, we show barriers in applying our low rank model to other problems studied in the smoothed analysis framework.
Firmware Over-the-air Programming Techniques for IoT Networks - A Survey

The devices forming Internet of Things (IoT) networks need to be re-programmed over the air, so that new features are added, software bugs or security vulnerabilities are resolved, and their applications can be re-purposed. The limitations of IoT devices, such as installation in locations with limited physical access, resource-constrained nature, large scale, and high heterogeneity, should be taken into consideration for designing an efficient and reliable pipeline for over-the-air programming (OTAP). In this work, we present a survey of OTAP techniques, which can be applied to IoT networks. We highlight the main challenges and limitations of OTAP for IoT devices and analyze the essential steps of the firmware update process, along with different approaches and techniques that implement them. In addition, we discuss schemes that focus on securing the OTAP process. Finally, we present a collection of state-of-the-art open-source and commercial platforms that integrate secure and reliable OTAP.