Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reconsidering the Neighborhood Effect Does Exposure to Residential Unemployment Influence Voters' Perceptions of the National Economy?

The state of the national economy often directs voting. But how do citizens form perceptions of a complex and abstract macroeconomy? This study examines whether exposure to unemployment in citizens ’ immediate residential surroundings shapes their perceptions of the national economy. Using novel data tapping the of ﬁ cial proportion of unemployed people residing within radii between 80 and 2,500 meters of an individual ’ s place of residence, we confront common methodological and theoretical challenges in existing work. Findings show that citizens do rely on cues from their residential microcontexts when forming perceptions of the national economy. Furthermore, we provide evidence that measures of unemployment in more aggregate contexts are not only poor re ﬂ ections of what individuals are likely to experience in their immediate neighborhood but also seem to capture a different mechanism related to local media exposure
Exploring Soil Exchangeable Cations and Auditing the Potential of Phoenix dactylifera and Mangifera indica in CO 2 Sequestration into Soil Biomass in Naturally occurring tree patches

: Background: e experiment investigated soil Exchangeable Cations (EC) and audited the potential of Phoenix dactylifera and Mangifera indica in CO 2 sequestration into soil biomass in other acts as remediating-factor for the sustainability of agriculture. Methodology : e study utilized to a stratiﬁed sampling research design where Infrared Gas Analyzer (IRGA) was utilized to sample stratiﬁed locations within the experimental landmass for CO 2 captured in the soil biomass within a ﬁve (5) month period. Sorensen’s Species Similarity Index was applied in the study to x-ray and validate the performance of the two tree species for CO 2 sequestration potential similarity performance. Results : Results indicated that there exists a potential for the two tree species to sequester atmospheric CO 2 at a value of 1.25± 0.13 and 0.47±0.19 for Phoenix dactylifera and Mangifera indica respectively at a ﬁve (5) monthly interval. Conclusions : e distribution of exchangeable cation of Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , K + , and Na + indicated that there exist an increase of the exchangeable cations in the soil solution at the end of the ﬁve (5) months with a Coeﬃcient of Variation (CV=101%). An increase was observed in the Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) of the soil from 7.3 cmolkg -1 at the start of the experiment to 7.47 cmolkg -1 at the end of the experiment, indicating increased fertility status of the soils.
University of Birmingham Looking for novelty in search-based software product line testing

—Testing software product lines (SPLs) is difﬁcult due to a huge number of possible products to be tested. Recently, there has been a growing interest in similarity-based testing of SPLs, where similarity is used as a surrogate metric for the t -wise coverage. In this context, one of the primary goals is to sample, by optimizing similarity metrics using search-based algorithms, a small subset of test cases (i.e., products) as dissimilar as possible, thus potentially making more t -wise combinations covered. Prior work has shown, by means of empirical studies, the great potential of current similarity-based testing approaches. However, the rationale of this testing technique deserves a more rigorous exploration. To this end, we perform correlation analyses to investigate how similarity metrics are correlated with the t -wise coverage. We ﬁnd that similarity metrics generally have signiﬁcantly positive correlations with the t -wise coverage. This well explains why similarity-based testing works, as the improvement on similarity metrics will potentially increase the t -wise coverage. Moreover, we explore, for the ﬁrst time, the use of the novelty search (NS) algorithm for similarity-based SPL testing. The algorithm rewards “novel” individuals, i.e., those being different from individuals discovered previously, and this well matches the goal of similarity-based SPL testing. We ﬁnd that the novelty score used in NS has (much) stronger positive correlations with the t -wise coverage than previous approaches relying on a genetic algorithm (GA) with a similarity-based ﬁtness function. Experimental results on 31 software product lines validate the superiority of NS over GA, as well as other state-of-the-art approaches, concerning both t -wise coverage and fault detection capacity. Finally, we investigate whether it is useful to combine two satisﬁability solvers when generating new individuals in NS, and how the performance of NS is affected by its key parameters. In summary, looking for novelty provides a promising way of sampling diverse test cases for SPLs.
EVALUATION OF SOIL CHEMICAL PROPERTIES VARIABILITY USING GIS TECHNIQUE IN WADI SAIDA AREA-ASWAN-EGYPT

Accurate evaluating of soil properties is an important factor for assessing soil fertility, especially in newly reclaimed lands. Wadi El-Saida region (24° 57ʹ and 25° 06ʹ N latitude and 32° 39ʹ and 32° 48ʹ) is regarded one of the most important agricultural investment areas adopted by the Egyptian government in order to achieve the goals of sustainable agricultural development in Aswan governorate. For this purpose, An 87 soil samples were collected positions from the surface and subsurface layers using GIS. Our findings obtained indicated that the soil pH ranged between 7.18 (slightly) and 9.05 (strongly alkaline). While, ECe (2.23-281.10 dSm − 1 ) and CaCO 3 (0.09 – 13.57%) indicated that the soil under study was varied among slight to very strongly saline (281.10 dS m -1 ) and non-calcareous to strongly calcareous, respectively. Meanwhile, the cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) ranged from 8.22 to 53.51 Cmol c kg -1 and 0.50 to 93.49%, respectively. Furthermore, their content of soil organic matter (SOM), as their values did not exceed 2.91%. The correlation coefficient for all studied traits ranged between positive and negative, especially that the positive correlation of ECe has a positive correlation with ESP. In short, the studied area needs
Comptes Rendus Mécanique

The paper describes a study of wet foams in microgravity whose bubble size distribution evolves due to di ff usive gas exchange. We focus on the comparison between the size of bubbles determined from images of the foam surface and the size of bubbles in the bulk foam, determined from Di ff use Transmission Spectroscopy (DTS). Extracting the bubble size distribution from images of a foam surface is di ffi cult so we have used three di ff erent procedures: manual analysis, automatic analysis with a customized Python script and machine learning analysis. Once various pitfalls were identified and taken into account, all the three procedures yield identical results within error bars. DTS only allows the determination of an average bubble radius which is proportional to the photon transport mean free path ℓ ∗ . The relation between the measured di ff use transmitted light intensity and ℓ ∗ previously derived for slab-shaped samples of infinite lateral extent does not apply to the cuboid geometry of the cells used in the microgravity experiment. A new more general expression of the di ff use intensity transmitted with specific optical boundary conditions has been derived and applied to determine the average bubble radius. The temporal evolution of the average bubble radii deduced from DTS and of the same average radii of the bubbles measured at the sample surface is the same (to a factor probably close to one) throughout the coarsening. Finally, ground experiments were performed
Aid, Catastrophes and the Samaritan's Dilemma

This paper discusses the impact of foreign aid on the recipient country’s preparedness against natural disasters. The theoretical model shows that foreign aid can have two opposing eects on a country’s level of mitigating activities. In order to test the theoretical propositions we analyse the eect of foreign aid dependence on ex-ante riskmanagement activity proxied by the death toll from major storms, floods and earthquakes occurring worldwide between 1980 and 2002. We find evidence that the crowding-out eect of foreign aid outweighs the preventive eect in the case of storms, while there is mixed evidence in the case of floods and earthquakes.
Working Papers in Economics and Statistics Information Sharing Networks in Oligopoly Information Sharing Networks in Oligopoly

We study the incentives of oligopolistic firms to share private information on demand parameters. Differently from previous studies, we consider bilateral sharing agreements, by which firms commit at the ex-ante stage to truthfully share information. We show that if signals are i.i. d. , then pairwise stable networks of sharing agreements are either empty or made of fully connected components of increasing size. When linking is costly, non complete components may emerge, and components with larger size are less densely connected than components with smaller size. When signals have different variances, incomplete and irregular network can be stable, with firms observing high variance signals acting as " critical nodes ". Finally, when signals are correlated, the empty network may not be pairwise stable when the number of firms and/or correlation are large enough.
ScholarWorks@CWU ScholarWorks@CWU

As we move to developing object-oriented programs, the complexity traditionally found in functions and procedures is moving to the connections among components. Different faults occur when components are integrated to form higher level structures that aggregate behavior and state. Consequently, we need to place more effort on testing the connections among components. Although object-oriented technologies provide abstraction mechanisms for building components that can then be integrated to form applications, it also adds new compositional relations that can contain faults. This paper describes techniques for analyzing and testing the polymorphic relationships that occur in object-oriented software. The techniques adapt traditional data ﬂow coverage criteria to consider deﬁnitions and uses among state variables of classes, particularly in the presence of inheritance, dynamic binding, and polymorphic over-riding of state variables and methods. The application of these techniques can result in an increased ability to ﬁnd faults and to create overall higher quality software.
Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching

Knowledge of derivational morphology is considered an important aspect of vocabulary knowledge both in L1 (mother tongue) and L2 (second or foreign language) English language learning. However, it is still not clear whether different derivational affixes vary in their (learning) difficulty. The present study examines whether Bauer and Nation’s (1993) teaching order of L2 English affixes can account for the difficulty learners have with recognising the affixes. The participants in the study were L1 Estonian and Russian learners of English at uppersecondary schools in Estonia (n = 62). Their performance was measured on a word segmentation task. There were significant differences in the number of affixes the learners were able to successfully recognise at different levels, as classified by Bauer and Nation (1993). By and large, with the exception of no significant difference between Level 5 and Level 6 affixes, the higher the affix level was, the less likely the learners were to recognise the affixes at this level. I argue that these results can support the order proposed by Bauer and Nation. The implications of the finding for teaching and further research are also discussed.
Fluctuating Water Levels in Reservoirs: An Annotated Bibliography on Environmental Effects and Management for Fisheries.

Abstract : This report contains 367 annotations describing the effects of fluctuating reservoir water levels on fish. Citations on phytoplankton, zooplankton, and water quality that pertain to reservoir fisheries are also included. An index to facilitate location of references dealing with specific topic areas is included as an appendix. (Author)
CHAPTER 11 Pongamia as a potential biofuel crop Oil content of Pongamia pinnata from the best provenance in Java, Indonesia

: Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre is a fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species. It grows on degraded and marginal land in South and Southeast Asia. It produces non-edible seeds, the oil of which is a potential biofuel. In Indonesia, pongamia is widely found on all islands, but mostly to the west of the Wallace Line, in Banten, East Java, South Sumatra and West Java provinces. The economic viability of pongamia depends on the number of seeds per tree and the oil content of seeds. Studies on pongamia in Indonesia, with oil extracted using a simple mechanical expeller press, revealed that trees growing in Ujung Kulon National Park in Banten Province produce seeds with a higher oil content (15.59%) than those growing in the provinces of East and West Java. In this study, the oil content of 48 individual trees from Ujung Kulon National Park were analysed using a solvent extraction method. As a control, bulk seed was extracted using two different methods: 1) a Fabricant mechanical screw expeller press; and 2) solvent extraction. The results showed highly significant variance in oil content. Oil production of individual trees processed using the solvent extraction method reached 44% (varying from 26.61% to 44.68%), substantially higher than those using mechanical pressing at only 15% to 19%. Findings show that genetic factors, extraction machines and method of extraction can all influence pongamia oil production. The quality and genetic diversity of the seed source is also extremely important for industrial plantation forest programmes for bioenergy and land restoration in Indonesia.
Wordnet Consistency Checking via Crowdsourcing

Velke ontologie a semanticke sitě představuji komplexni viceurovňove struktury, ktere nelze snadno ověřit běžnými metodami kontroly. Automaticke kontroly konzistence mohou odhalit systemove chyby, např. chybějici odkazy, ale nalezt chybějici význam slova je obtižne. Běžna řeseni spolehaji na postupne konzultace mnoha informacnich zdrojů při postupnem recenznim řizeni. V clanku je popsan nový přistup pro ověřeni a rozsiřovani dat wordnetu pomoci zapojeni uživatelů. Tento přistup zajisťuje brzke vydani plne datove sady pro použiti cilovou skupinou s pozdějsimi neustalými upravami podle navrhů veřejných uživatelů a kontrolou těchto navrhů experty. Tým expertů ma k dispozici navrhy oprav v přehledne agregovane podobě, a take podporou revizi a editace.
Deformation mechanics in inclined , brittle-ductile transpression zones : 1 insights from 3 D finite element modelling

3 Seyed Tohid Nabavi 4 Faculty of Earth Sciences, Department of Geology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran, 5 Tel. : +989112914581, E-mail: tohidnabavi@gmail.com; T_nabavi@sbu.ac. ir 6 Seyed Ahmad Alavi 7 Faculty of Earth Sciences, Department of Geology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran 8 Manuel Díaz-Azpiroz 9 Departamento Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Crtra, 10 Utrera, km 1, 41013, Seville, Spain 11 Soheil Mohammadi 12 High Performance Computing Laboratory, School of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, 13 Tehran, Iran 14 Mohammad Reza Ghassemi 15 Research Institute for Earth Sciences, Geological Survey of Iran, Tehran, Iran 16 Carlos Fernández 17 Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Huelva, Campus de El Carmen, 21071, 18 Huelva, Spain 19 Leticia Barcos 20 Departamento Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Crtra, 21 Utrera, km 1, 41013, Seville, Spain 22 Marcel Frehner 23 Zurich University of Teacher Education (PHZH), Zurich, Switzerland 24
AGN Heating, Thermal Conduction, and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect in Galaxy Groups and Clusters

We investigate in detail the role of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the physical state of the gas in galaxy groups and clusters, and the implications for anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. We have recently shown that AGNs can significantly change the entropy of the intracluster medium (ICM) and explain the observations of excess entropy in groups and clusters. AGNs are assumed to deposit energy via buoyant bubbles that expand as they rise in the cluster atmosphere and do P dV work on the ICM. Here we include the effect of thermal conduction and find that the resulting profiles of temperature and entropy are consistent with observations. Unlike previously proposed models, our model predicts that isentropic cores are not an inevitable consequence of preheating. The model also reproduces the observational trend for the density profiles to flatten in lower mass systems. We deduce the energy (Eagn) required to explain the entropy observations as a function of mass of groups and clusters (Mcluster) and show that Eagn ∝ M with α ~ 1.5. We demonstrate that the entropy measurements, in conjunction with our model, can be translated into constraints on the cluster-black hole mass relation. The inferred relation is nonlinear and has the form Mbh ∝ M. This scaling is an analog and extension of a similar relation between the black hole mass and the galactic halo mass that holds on smaller scales. In addition, we study the implications of these results for the thermal SZ effect. We show that the central decrement of the CMB temperature is reduced due to the enhanced entropy of the ICM and that the decrement predicted from the plausible range of energy input from the AGN is consistent with available data on the SZ decrement. We also estimate the Poisson contribution to the angular power spectrum of the CMB from the SZ effect due to AGN heating. We show that AGN heating, combined with the observational constraints on entropy, leads to suppression of higher multipole moments in the power spectrum, and we find that this effect is stronger than previously thought. The suppression in the power spectrum in our model is due to depletion of gas from the central regions that is more efficient in low-mass clusters and groups than in massive clusters.
Direct Measurements of the Stellar Continua and Balmer/4000 Å Breaks of Red z > 2 Galaxies: Redshifts and Improved Constraints on Stellar Populations

We use near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy obtained with the GNIRS on Gemini, NIRSPEC on the Keck, and ISAAC on the VLT to study the rest-frame optical continua of three "distant red galaxies" (with Js - Ks > 2.3) at z > 2. All three galaxy spectra show the Balmer/4000 Å break in the rest-frame optical. The spectra allow us to determine spectroscopic redshifts from the continuum with an estimated accuracy of Δz/(1 + z) ~ 0.001-0.04. These redshifts agree well with the emission-line redshifts for the two galaxies with Hα emission. This technique is particularly important for galaxies that are faint in the rest-frame UV, as they are underrepresented in high-redshift samples selected in optical surveys and are too faint for optical spectroscopy. Furthermore, we use the break, continuum shape, and equivalent width of Hα, together with evolutionary synthesis models, to constrain the age, star formation timescale, dust content, stellar mass, and star formation rate of the galaxies. Inclusion of the NIR spectra in the stellar population fits greatly reduces the range of possible solutions for stellar population properties. We find that the stellar populations differ greatly among the three galaxies, ranging from a young dusty starburst with a small break and strong emission lines to an evolved galaxy with a strong break and no detected line emission. The dusty starburst galaxy has an age of 0.3 Gyr and a stellar mass of 1 × 1011 M☉. The spectra of the two most evolved galaxies imply ages of 1.3-1.4 Gyr and stellar masses of 4 × 1011 M☉. This large range of properties strengthens our previous, more uncertain results from broadband photometry. Larger samples are required to determine the relative frequency of dusty starbursts and (nearly) passively evolving galaxies at z ~ 2.5.
The impact of ECB's conventional and unconventional monetary policies on stock markets

Using an event study method, we examine how stock markets respond to the policies of the European Central Bank during 1999–2015. We use market prices of futures (government bonds) to identify surprises in (un)conventional monetary policy. Our results suggest that especially unconventional monetary policy surprises affect the EURO STOXX 50 index. We also ﬁnd evidence for the credit channel, notably for unconventional monetary policy surprises. Our results also suggest that value and past loser stocks show a larger reaction to monetary policy surprises. These results are conﬁrmed if identiﬁcation of monetary policy surprises is based on the Rigobon–Sack heteroscedasticity approach.
Verification of the Jenkins and FIA sapling biomass equations for hardwood species in Maine

In 2009, the Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA) updated its biomass estimation protocols by switching to the component ratio method to estimate biomass of medium and large trees. Additionally, FIA switched from using regional equations to the current FIA aboveground sapling biomass equations that predict woody sapling (2.5 to 12.4 cm d.b.h.) biomass using the Jenkins et al. (2003) equations (Forest Science 49 (1): 12-35) and then multiplying predictions by species-specific adjustment factors. The new equations have not been verified for saplings in Maine where sapling-dominated stands make up nearly 24 percent of the forest land. We verified the FIA sapling equations and Jenkins et al. (2003) equations for naturally regenerated hardwood species from an experiment in eastern Maine. Results demonstrate the FIA sapling equations underestimated observed aboveground woody biomass by between 15 and 37 percent. Our results suggest that the current species-specific sapling adjustment factors were inadequate for the trees in this study, and we propose a new set of adjustment factors based on the observed data.
Capital structures in an emerging market: a duration analysis of the time interval between IPO and SEO in China

We model the durations between firms’ ‘Initial Public Offerings’ (IPOs) and their subsequent ‘Seasoned Equity Offerings’ (SEOs) in China between 2001 and 2006. Our results have important implications for the capital structure in emerging markets. Our evidence on financing decisions in China contradicts the predictions of both the trade-off and pecking order theories. Firms do not issue equity after debt financing to offset the deviation from the target leverage ratio. Profitability is negatively related to debt ratios. Limited access to the corporate bond market and the privilege of the low effective tax rate that local governments give to firms have increased the cost of debt and decreased the benefit of debt, and make firms in China under-utilize the tax shield of debt. Surprisingly, profitability is positively related to the conditional probability of equity financing, and market timing is an important consideration when Chinese firms undertake equity financing.
Assessment and Treatment of Obstructed Defecation Syndrome

Fecal incontinence is not a rare clinical pathology in general population. Although it is more common in geriatric population, fecal incontinence should not be underestimated in younger genders. Obstructive defecation syndrome (ODS) has become a well-known syndrome with different clinical etiology and symptoms. The main symptom is inability of proper rectal emptying, but it can also overlap with symptoms of incontinence. In this chapter, we emphasize on the assessment of ODS, focusing on the coexistence and clinical relation to fecal incontinence. Anorectal studies are of great importance for the evaluation of the symptoms. Biofeedback is the key to the proper management of patients with ODS, showing significant improvement in incontinence as well. Surgical treatment of anatomic deformities that cause ODS is also important.