Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of transaction costs on the participation of smallholder farmers and intermediaries in the banana markets of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda

Agriculture is considered a critical sector in attaining economic growth for most economies in Africa. However, for the sector to play its role, it needs to be commercialised to enable smallholder farmers to participate in markets and, hence, improve their incomes and livelihoods. In most developing economies, smallholder farmers find it difficult to participate in markets because of the numerous constraints and barriers mostly reflected in the transaction costs that make access to input and output markets difficult. When analysing the effects of transaction costs on market participation, much attention has been accorded to farmers while ignoring middlemen/traders who are also part of the marketing system. Furthermore, studies on the effect of transaction costs on market participation tend to focus on grains and cereals while ignoring agrocommodities that are more perishable. The purpose of this study was to holistically examine the effects of transaction costs on participation of smallholder farmers and middlemen in banana markets of the Great Lakes region in central Africa. The study adopted a non-separable household model which incorporated fixed and proportional transaction costs in the function of maximising utility subject to resource constraints. The Heckman procedure was used to determine the factors affecting the
Real-Time Relative Positioning with WSN

This paper addresses a scenario where a wireless sensor network (WSN) is used to implement a real-time relative positioning system. Its goal is to obtain relative coordinates of objects (the WSN nodes) in which the nodes are generally moving relatively to each other. To accomplish this, the distance among nodes is measured and its relative position is computed allowing the representation of their spatial distribution. The test platform uses Crossbow's motes to which special ultrasound (US) boards have been adapted. The US is thus the process used to measure distances in this system. Some of the issues addressed by this work are: precise time-synchronization between nodes, distance measurement procedure, positioning algorithms and its implementation on the TinyOS, operating system used in the Crossbow's motes. Test shave shown that object positioning could be obtained with errors below 2% and using a computing time of about 1s per network node, on average.
Towards A System-Based Model For Overall Performance Evaluation In A Supply Chain Context

The paper deals with the wide issue of overall performance expression of a system made of interacting entities. Formal aspects of overall performance expression are considered as a first step of this reflection in the context of supply chains (SC's). Indeed, a SC being a network of interconnected business entities, it is proposed to consider it as a system of systems. Because system behavior depends on process dynamics, the performance of any company of the SC highly depends on the performance of its processes. However, while process performance is clearly defined in the literature, performance of complex systems or systems of systems is more difficult to assess due to process interactions. The overall performance concept is usually unsatisfactory either for each company or for the whole SC. To express such performance in SC's, recent proposals have focused on the performance of the prime manufacturer. This performance being linked to the ones of the suppliers, the impact of supplier performances on the prime manufacturer performance has to be integrated. It is therefore proposed to respectively use the SCOR model for describing the involved sub-system processes and, from a computational point of view, to use the MAUT (Multi Attribute Utility Theory) MACBETH methodology to consistently compute the expected performances. More specifically, the Choquet integral is used as the aggregation opera- tor to handle interactions between systems and processes. The case of a bearings manufacturer is used to illustrate the pro- posal for a supplier selection problem.
DEFINING AND COMPARING MEMORY CONSISTENCY MODELS

Because multiprocessors implement sophisticated memory structures in order to enhance performance, processes can have inconsistent views of memory which may result in unexpected program outcomes. A memory consistency model is a set of guarantees that describes constraints on the outcome of sequences of in-terleaved and simultaneous operations in a multipro-cessor. In this paper, we present a unifying framework to describe, understand, and compare memory consistency models. The framework is used to redeene and compare several widely used consistency models.
Here's looking at you, kid: attention to infant emotional faces in mothers and non-mothers

Infant facial cues play a critical role in eliciting care and nurturance from an adult caregiver. Using an attentional capture paradigm we investigated attentional processing of adult and infant emotional facial expressions in a sample of mothers (n = 29) and non-mothers (n = 37) to determine whether infant faces were associated with greater task interference. Responses to infant target stimuli were slower than adult target stimuli in both groups. This effect was modulated by parental status, such that mothers compared to non-mothers showed longer response times to infant compared to adult faces. Both groups also responded more slowly to emotional faces, an effect that was more marked for infant emotional faces. Finally, it was found that greater levels of mothers' self-reported parental distress was associated with less task interference when processing infant faces. These findings indicate that for adult women, infant faces in general and emotional infant faces in particular, preferentially engage attention compared to adult faces. However, for mothers, infant faces appear to be more salient in general. Therefore, infant faces may constitute a special class of social stimuli. We suggest that alterations in attentional processing in motherhood may constitute an adaptive behavioural change associated with becoming a parent.
Three-dimensional mapping of hippocampal anatomy in adolescents with bipolar disorder.

OBJECTIVE Early-onset bipolar disorder is thought to be a particularly severe variant of the illness. Continuity with the adult form of illness remains unresolved, but preliminary evidence suggests similar biological underpinnings. Recently, we observed localized hippocampal decreases in unmedicated adults with bipolar disorder that were not detectable with conventional volumetric measures. Using the same three-dimensional mapping methods, we sought to investigate whether a similar pattern exists in adolescents with bipolar disorder. METHOD High-resolution brain magnetic resonance images were acquired from 16 adolescents meeting DSM-IV criteria for bipolar disorder (mean age 15.5 +/- 3.4 years, 50% female) and 20 demographically matched, typically developing control subjects. Three-dimensional parametric mesh models of the hippocampus were created from manual tracings of the hippocampal formation. RESULTS Controlling for total brain volume, total hippocampal volume was significantly smaller in adolescent patients with bipolar disorder relative to controls (by 9.2%). Statistical mapping results, confirmed by permutation testing, revealed significant localized deformations in the head and tail of the left hippocampus in adolescents with bipolar disorder, relative to normal controls. In addition, there was a significant positive correlation between hippocampal size and age in patients with bipolar disorder, whereas healthy controls showed an inverse relation. DISCUSSION Localized hippocampal deficits in adolescent patients with bipolar disorder suggest a possible neural correlate for memory deficits observed in this illness. Moreover, age-related increases in hippocampal size in patients with bipolar disorder, not observed in healthy controls, may reflect abnormal developmental mechanisms in bipolar disorder. This possibility must be confirmed by longitudinal studies.
Digital to Analog Converter Design using Single Electron Transistors

(ABSTRACT) CMOS Technology has advanced for decades under the rule of Moore's law. But all good things must come to an end. Researchers estimate that CMOS will reach a lower limit on feature size within the next 10 to 15 years. In order to assure further progress in the field, new computing architectures must be investigated. These nanoscale architectures are many and varied. It remains to be seen if any will become a legitimate successor to CMOS. Single electron tunneling is a process by which electrons can be transported (tunnel) across a thin insulating surface. A conducting island separated by a pair of quantum tunnel junctions creates a Single Electron Transistor (SET). SETs exhibit higher functionality than traditional MOSFETs, and function best at very small feature sizes, in the neighborhood of 1nm. Many circuits must be developed before SETs can be considered a viable contender to CMOS technology. One important circuit is the Digital to Analog Converter (DAC). DACs are present on many microprocessors and microcontrollers in use today and are necessary in many situations. While other SET circuits have been proposed, including ADCs, no DAC design exists in open literature. We propose three possible SET DAC designs and characterize them with an HSPICE SET simulation model. The first design is a charge scaling architecture similar to what is frequently used in CMOS. The second two designs are based on a current steering architecture, but are unique in their implementation with SETs. Acknowledgments I'm going to be serious for a moment. First and foremost I have to thank my parents. Without their love and support I would never have been able to come this far. Mom and Dad, thank you for helping me become the person I am today. I must also thank the faculty at Virginia Tech. I've learned an incredible amount since I first set foot in Blacksburg, a week before my eighteenth birthday. Thank you, Dr. Ha, for allowing me such freedom in picking this topic and thank you for your help guiding me toward this thesis. I appreciate the help from Dr. Shukla and Dr. Heflin, who were both willing to serve on my committee with nothing but a request. A special thanks goes out to Dr. Kim, for allowing me to use and helping me with the SPICE model his group developed. I also need to mention Dr. Abbott, for whom I've worked for almost …
Computational Investigations of Flow Algorithms by Ravindra

The maximum flow algorithm is distinguished by the long line of successive contributions researchers have made in obtaining algorithms with incrementally better worst-case complexity. Some, but not all, of these theoretical improvements have produced improvements in practice. The purpose of this paper is to test some of the major algorithmic ideas developed in the recent years and to assess their utility on the empirical front. However, our study differs from previous studies in several ways. Whereas previous studies focus primarily on CPU time analysis, our analysis goes further and provides detailed insight into algorithmic behavior. It not only observes how algorithms behave but also tries to explain why algorithms behave that way. We have limited our study to the best previous maximum flow algorithms and some of the recent algorithms that are likely to be efficient in practice. Our study encompasses ten maximum flow algorithms and five classes of networks. The augmenting path algorithms tested by us include Dinic's algorithm, the shortest augmenting path algorithm, and the capacity scaling algorithm. The preflow-push algorithms tested by us include Karzanov's algorithm, three implementations of Goldberg-Tarjan algorithm, and three versions of Ahuja-Orlin-Tarjan excess-scaling algorithms. Among many findings, our study concludes that the preflow-push algorithms are substantially faster than other classes of algorithms, and the highest-label preflow-push algorithm is the fastest maximum flow algorithm for which the growth rate in the computational time is O(n1 5) on four out of five of our problem classes. Further, in contrast to the results of the worst-case analysis of maximum flow algorithms, our study finds that the time to perform relabel operations (or constructing the layered networks) takes at least as much computation time as that taken by augmentations and/or pushes.
Channel and Noise Models for Nonlinear Molecular Communication Systems

Recently, a tabletop molecular communication platform has been developed for transmitting short text messages across a room. The end-to-end system impulse response for this platform does not follow previously published theoretical works because of imperfect receiver, transmitter, and turbulent flows. Moreover, it is observed that this platform resembles a nonlinear system, which makes the rich body of theoretical work that has been developed by communication engineers not applicable to this platform. In this work, we first introduce corrections to the previous theoretical models of the end-to-end system impulse response based on the observed data from experimentation. Using the corrected impulse response models, we then formulate the nonlinearity of the system as noise and show that through simplifying assumptions it can be represented as Gaussian noise. Through formulating the system's nonlinearity as the output a linear system corrupted by noise, the rich toolbox of mathematical models of communication systems, most of which are based on linearity assumption, can be applied to this platform.
INTER-FIRM RIVALRY AND FIRM-SPECIFIC PRICE ELASTICITIES IN DEREGULATED AIRLINE MARKETS.

Since deregulation in 1978 the US airline industry has undergone major structural changes. A series of mergers and hub-and-spoke network development have increased market concentration at major airports as well as at industry level. The industry is still being consolidated. Analysts express concern regarding the increasing market power of a few airlines, especially in route markets connected to major hub airports. There is clear evidence that major US airlines attempt to solidify their market power by intensif ying hub and-spoke networks, offering commission overrides to travel agents (a system that rewards agents for directing a high proportion of their business to an airline), using skilful dynamic pricing and seat allocation techniques (scientific yield management) and frequent-flyer bonus programmes for rewarding brand-loyal customers. A large number of routes are served by three or fewer airlines, indicating that a small numbers oligopoly is the dominant market structure in the industry, particularly on the routes directly connected to major hubs. Furthermore, recent evidence shows that dominant airlines at hub airports have sustained higher average fares for the local traffic than their competitors (see Borenstein,1989, 1990; and Berry, 1992). This suggests the importance of understanding competitive interaction among airlines in order to explain their pricing behaviour and price differentials between airlines serving the same route markets.
Association between the XRCC1 Arg399Gln Polymorphism and Risk of Cancer: Evidence from 297 Case–Control Studies

Background The Arg399Gln polymorphism in the X-ray cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1) had been implicated in cancer susceptibility. The previous published data on the association between XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism and cancer risk remained controversial. Methodology/Principal Findings To derive a more precise estimation of the association between the XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism and overall cancer risk, we performed a meta-analysis of 297 case-control studies, in which a total of 93,941 cases and 121,480 controls were included. Overall, significantly increased cancer risk was observed in any genetic model (dominant model: odds ration [OR] = 1.04, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.01–1.07; recessive model: OR = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.03–1.13; additive model: OR = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.04–1.14) when all eligible studies were pooled into the meta-analysis. In further stratified and sensitivity analyses, significantly elevated hepatocellular and breast cancers risk were observed in Asians (dominant model: OR = 1.39, 95% CI = 1.06–1.84) and in Indians (dominant model: OR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.31–2.04; recessive model: OR = 1.94, 95% CI = 1.09–3.47; additive model: OR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.50–2.84), respectively. Conclusions/Significance This meta-analysis suggests the participation of XRCC1 Arg399Gln is a genetic susceptibility for hepatocellular cancer in Asians and breast cancer in Indians. Moreover, our work also points out the importance of new studies for Arg399Gln association in some cancer types, such as glioma, gastric cancer, and oral cancer, where at least some of the covariates responsible for heterogeneity could be controlled, to obtain a more conclusive understanding about the function of the XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism in cancer development.
Office of Trade and Labor Affairs Contract Research Program Working Conditions and Product Quality: Evidence from Carpet Industry in Pakistan, India, and Nepal (dolb119k32541)

The opinions expressed are those of the author(s). They are offered for the purpose of discussion and contribution to research. They are not statements of official Department of Labor or Bureau of International Labor Affairs policy. Executive Summary US trade agreements and preference programs require adherence to internationally recognized labor rights, and substantial policy attention is devoted to promoting improved working conditions in US trading partners. Many observers have noticed that better quality products tend to come from establishments with nicer working conditions. These anecdotes have raised hope of a virtuous circle where improvements in working conditions are self-sustaining and lead to improvements in product quality. This study considers the relationship between product quality and working conditions in the handmade, export-oriented carpet industry in India, Nepal, and Pakistan. By focusing on a specific sector, we directly observe detailed, meaningful measures of product quality that are rare in the existing literature. Our focus on the Indian subcontinent is driven by an unusual dataset with these better quality measures and detailed data describing working conditions. The most common measure of working conditions in the current literature is the unit wage (total labor bill divided by total workers). International labor standards emphasize many aspects of the work environment beyond the wage. We find little relationship between other core labor standards and unit wages. Unit wages are only one aspect of working conditions, and findings on unit wages cannot be assumed to generalize to other working conditions. Unit product prices (total revenue divided by total sales) are the most prevalent measure of product quality. We observe that product quality is multi-dimensional. In addition to unit prices, we observe the actual price of the most recently completed carpet, its size, and its weight. These different aspects of product quality are not perfectly correlated. Findings on how one type of working condition impacts one aspect of product quality may not generalize to all aspects of product quality. We also raise concerns about the use of unit prices as a measure of quality, because unit prices can be driven by other firm attributes correlated with the work environment. In considering the link between 14 different aspects of working conditions and 5 different product quality related outcomes, we illustrate potential pitfalls from relying on bivariate relationships and anecdotal evidence in assessing the causal link between working conditions and product quality. Better working conditions are associated with better quality …
Opportunistic wireless Network Coding based on small-time scale Traffic Prediction

Focusing on the weakness of the traditional network coding, such as latency and high packet loss rate, this paper presents an approach ONTP (Opportunistic Network Coding based on Traffic Prediction), which is based on ARMA (Autoregressive-Moving Average) algorithm. The algorithm is trying to predict the next packet's arriving time, and then use it to determine whether waiting for network coding opportunity. Results show that the algorithm improves the throughput, and effectively reduces network latency, achieves a balance between coding efficiency and user experience.
Molecular Dynamics Simulations Suggest Ligand’s Binding to Nicotinamidase/Pyrazinamidase

The research on the binding process of ligand to pyrazinamidase (PncA) is crucial for elucidating the inherent relationship between resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and PncA’s activity. In the present study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation methods were performed to investigate the unbinding process of nicotinamide (NAM) from two PncA enzymes, which is the reverse of the corresponding binding process. The calculated potential of mean force (PMF) based on the steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations sheds light on an optimal binding/unbinding pathway of the ligand. The comparative analyses between two PncAs clearly exhibit the consistency of the binding/unbinding pathway in the two enzymes, implying the universality of the pathway in all kinds of PncAs. Several important residues dominating the pathway were also determined by the calculation of interaction energies. The structural change of the proteins induced by NAM’s unbinding or binding shows the great extent interior motion in some homologous region adjacent to the active sites of the two PncAs. The structure comparison substantiates that this region should be very important for the ligand’s binding in all PncAs. Additionally, MD simulations also show that the coordination position of the ligand is displaced by one water molecule in the unliganded enzymes. These results could provide the more penetrating understanding of drug resistance of M. tuberculosis and be helpful for the development of new antituberculosis drugs.
Implementing fuzzy modeling of decision support for crop planting management

This paper reports the empirical results that provide high return in planting material breeders in agriculture industry through effective policies of decision making. The analytical data about the rainfall pattern, soil structure of the planting crop will partition data by taking full advantage of the incomplete information to achieve better performance. Ignoring uncertain and vague nature of real world will undoubtedly eliminate substantial information. In order to handle the attribute of incomplete information, several fuzzy modeling approach has been proposed, which support the fuzziness at the attribute level. Then, we generalize decision algorithms that provide simpler and more understandable classifier to optimally retrieve the information based on user interaction. The proposed method leads to smaller decision tree and as a consequence better test performance in planting material classification.