Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A mixture model approach to utilizing published decision rules

Decision rules for classification problem are requested to be open for public inspection to ensure the fairness. We may construct a more effective and useful classifier by combining the rules published by different organizations and companies with rules induced from our own dataset. However, few studies have devoted to the combination of the published rules with rules induced from individually owned dataset. In this paper, we propose a mixture model approach to constructing an effective binary classifier by combining the published rules and individually owned rules. We apply the idea of the mixture model to combine two score distributions over classes obtained from the published rules and individually owned rules. In order to obtain score distributions, we apply LERS algorithm to each of published and individually owned rulesets. LERS algorithm evaluates the score showing to what extent the object is in each class. We normalize the scores. EM algorithm is then used for optimizing the mixture ratios for constructing a classifier. Numerical experiments are conducted to examine the performance of the proposed approach. Our approach is compared with four conceivable methods in four real datasets. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by the numerical experiments.
Beyond Ricardian Model: An Optimal Commodity Distribution Based on Absolute Advantage for Multi-Country Multi-Commodity

Ricardo’s comparative advantage model asserts that international trade will make every single participantcountry better off if they traded goods in which they have comparative advantage. Tian (2008) has generalizedand expanded this Ricardo's 2-country, 2-commodity comparative advantage into a multi-country,multi-commodity model. His methodology, however, occasionally fails to achieve optimal commoditydistribution or to facilitate international trade even if it succeeds in optimal distribution, for it results in a highdegree of difference in countries’ commodity prices. This paper proposes an algorithm that selects countries’comparatively advantageous goods for multi-country, multi-commodity model based on their absolute advantage.The proposed algorithm simply selects a commodity with the maximum absolute advantage - the minimum price- from each country and reassigns commodities of over-assigned countries to under-assigned countries. Thisabsolute advantage model (AAA) is found to be much simpler than Tian’s comparative advantage method and toyield superior results.
A Winning Proposition: The Economic Impact of Successful National Football League Franchises

"Research has demonstrated that a Super Bowl victory increases the personal income of the individuals in the metropolitan area from which the winning teams come. We argue that the economic benefits should extend beyond just the championship team's city to the cities of teams that experience seasonal success, and thus, the winning percentages of National Football League teams were included in our model. When controlling for sources of bias, winning percentage of the local professional football team had a significant positive effect on real per capita personal income. Explanations for these conclusions are offered from a psychological perspective. " ("JEL" L83, R19) Copyright (c) 2008 Western Economic Association International.
Determining The Income Elasticity Of Demand For Health Expenditure : An Empirical Analysis

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the long-run relationship between public health care expenditure and income in Malaysia. There are many factors that affect health care expenditure positively such as income per head, population, the ageing population and national saving. The public health care is essential for economic growth and hence needs greater government involvement. The results of the unit root test indicated that all variables involved are stationary. The Johansen cointegration test can be preceded in the purpose to determine the existence of long-run relationship between variables. The precedence showed at least one cointegration vector for aggregate data models in Malaysia. Through the VECM, the aspect of goods of health care can be determined whether they are of luxury, normal or inferior levels. Different country has different health care. The results showed that Malaysia considered health care as inferior goods. Finally, there is granger causality between variables in Malaysia. Government should take steps to stabilize the economy and ensure health care is considered as normal goods. To conclude, the public health care expenditure has not only affected by the income, but also other economic variables which play significant roles towards public health care expenditure in Malaysia.
Experiences in applying formal methods to the analysis of software and system requirements

In an effort to improve the quality of software and system requirements, formal methods (FM) is being investigated by NASA because evidence existed that FM is useful in creating consistent and verifiable specifications. This investigation of FM consists of trial projects that are used to gather data on FM's cost-effectiveness and to demonstrate this effectiveness to prospective users. These trial projects were specifically constructed to maximize the likelihood that requirements analysts will recognize the benefits of FM and integrate it into their existing approaches. A key aspect of these trial-projects is the make-up of the teams which influenced the planning, execution, and evaluation of results. Through these projects, much has been learned about the use of FM and its potential for being accepted as a viable way to improve requirements analysis.
Determinants of Selected Agricultural Export Crops in Nigeria: An Ecm Approach

This study examines the factors that determine the export performance of three major agricultural exportable commodities of cocoa, rubber and palm-kernel in the context of liberalization. Using time series data covering thirty three years and to avoid spurious result, error correction model was applied in the analysis. The unit root test is in line with the a priori expectation that macroeconomic variables are not stationary at their level. Virtually all the variables tested were differenced once before attaining stationarity. Each of the three equations indicated that the dependent variables cointegrated with their arguments at 1 percent level. There is the existence of short term and long term equilibrium relationships between the dependent variables and their determinants. The results of the parsimonious error correction specifications showed that the previous year’s output and the net value of world trade negatively affect cocoa exports at 1 percent level while the previous year’s GDP positively contributes to cocoa exports at 5 percent. The lagged price ratio reduces rubber exports significantly at 5 percent but the real exchange rate significantly increases the export performance of rubber at 10 percent level. The previous year’s exports of palm kernel and the real GDP contributed positively to palm-kernel exports at 5 percent level while the lagged premium and palm kernel output negatively contributed to its export at 5 percent and 10 percent respectively. Promotion of agricultural exports is essential to reduce the burden of dependence on oil exports
Valuing Australia's protected areas: A life satisfaction approach

This paper uses the life satisfaction approach to value Australia's protected areas, grouped by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) categories. We find significant positive life satisfaction effects of living in close proximity to protected areas in three of the seven categories. These life satisfaction effects correspond to implicit willingness-to-pays, in terms of annual household income, ranging from AUD$2950 to AUD$9650 for a 1% increase in the extent of that category of protected area within an individual's local area. This study therefore provides insights for policy makers in estimating the benefits of non-market goods provision.
Predicting Stakeholder Support for Fishery Policies

Fisheries management has been used to address declining fisheries and threats to livelihood and food security. Past research suggests that public support for fishery policies is a necessary component for sustaining the long-term success of fisheries management. This study predicted public support by examining fishers’ perspectives on co-management and fish catch since the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs), a commonly employed fisheries management tool. Data were obtained from onsite surveys (n = 505) with fishers from three municipalities in Cebu, Philippines: Oslob, Santander, and Samboan. Structural path analyses revealed that beliefs about co-management and fish catch predicted support for fishery policies (R2 = 59%). Separate path analyses for each municipality showed that co-management had greater influence in predicting public support for fishery policies in Oslob and Santander. Fish catch was a better predictor for public support for fishery policies in Samboan. Results can help local governments, non-governmental organizations, and fishery managers to prioritize, plan, and improve fisheries management in municipal waters.
Methionine oxidation within the cerebroside‐sulfate activator protein (CSAct or Saposin B)

The cerebroside‐sulfate activator protein (CSAct or Saposin B) is a small water‐soluble glycoprotein that plays an essential role in the metabolism of certain glycosphingolipids, especially sulfatide. Deficiency of CSAct in humans leads to sulfatide accumulation and neurodegenerative disease. CSAct activity can be measured in vitro by assay of its ability to activate sulfatide‐sulfate hydrolysis by arylsulfatase A. CSAct has seven methionine residues and a mass of 8,845 Da when deglycosylated. Mildly oxidized, deglycosylated CSAct (+16 Da), separated from nonoxidized CSAct by reversed‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography (RP‐HPLC), showed significant modulation of the in vitro activity. Because oxidation partially protected against CNBr cleavage and could largely be reversed by treatment with dithio‐threitol, it was concluded that the major modification was conversion of a single methionine to its sulfoxide. Highresolution RP‐HPLC separated mildly oxidized CSAct into seven or more different components with shorter retention times than nonoxidized CSAct. Mass spectrometry showed these components to have identical mass (+16 Da). The shorter retention times are consistent with increased polarity accompanying oxidation of surface‐exposed methionyl side chains, in general accordance with the existing molecular model. A mass‐spectrometric CNBr mapping protocol allowed identification of five of the seven possible methionine‐sulfoxide CSAct oxoforms. The most dramatic suppression of activity occurred upon oxidation of Met61 (26% of control) with other residues in the Q60MMMHMQ66 motif falling in the 30‐50% activity range. Under conditions of oxidative stress, accumulation of minimally oxidized CSAct protein in vivo could perturb metabolism of sulfatide and other glycosphingolipids. This, in turn, could contribute to the onset and progression of neurodegenerative disease, especially in situations where the catabolism of these materials is marginal.
After Columbus: Explaining Europe's overseas trade boom, 1500-1800

This study documents the boom in Europe's imports from Asia and the Americas between 1500 and 1800 and explores its causes. There was no commodity-price convergence between continents, suggesting that declining trade barriers were not the cause of the boom. Thus, it must have been caused by some combination of European import demand and foreign export supply. The behavior of the relative price of foreign importables in European cities should tell us which mattered most and when: we provide the evidence and offer a model which is used to decompose the sources of Europe's overseas trade boom.
Asymptotic controllability of discrete-time systems with disturbances

This paper demonstrates that the existence of a smooth control Lyapunov function for discrete-time systems with disturbances is equivalent to the system is uniformly globally asymptotic controllability with respect to a closed set. It is obtained that this control Lyapunov function may be used to construct a feedback law to stabilize the closed-loop system. In addition, it is shown that for periodic discrete systems, the resulted control Lyapunov functions are also time periodic.
Personnel Decisions, Wage Profiles and Investment in Firms

An investment model where firms mitigate adverse hold‐up effects using hiring and personnel policies is theoretically investigated and empirically scrutinized. While no evidence for the prediction of differing worker characteristics, other than gender, across firms is found, demand (firm) side factors are evident in the hiring process. Evidence on other personnel policies is consistent with theory, which predicts firms with high‐investment expenditures resist unions, utilize more temporary and shift‐time workers and conduct more multitask training. Wages in high‐investment firms are higher, more sensitive to unemployment and experience variables that exhibit greater effects than in low‐investment firms.
Full ZVS-Range Transient Current Buildup Half-Bridge Converter With Different ZVS Operations to Load Variation

A full zero voltage switching (ZVS) range transient current buildup half-bridge converter is proposed. The proposed converter controls the secondary synchronous switches to build up the current for the ZVS operation. In addition, the blocking capacitor in the secondary side of the transformer is used to make the different current buildups and different ZVS operations with the load variation. Furthermore, it eliminates the DC offset of the magnetizing current. Therefore, the considerably effective ZVS characteristics can be ensured in the full-load ranges without any additional conduction losses.
Blocking in Healthcare Operations: A New Heuristic and an Application

We consider the problem of optimal capacity allocation in a hospital setting, where patients pass through a set of units, for example intensive care and acute care (AC), or AC and post‐acute care. If the second stage is full, a patient whose service at the first stage is complete is blocked and cannot leave the first stage. We develop a new heuristic for tandem systems to efficiently evaluate the effects of such blocking on system performance and we demonstrate that this heuristic performs well when compared with exact solutions and other approaches presented in the literature. In addition, we show how our tandem heuristic can be used as a building block to model more complex multi‐stage hospital systems with arbitrary patient routing, and we derive insights and actionable capacity strategies for a real hospital system where such blocking occurs between units.
The Price of Government Bond Volatility

Treasury price volatility comoves with equity volatility quite heterogeneously over time, with correlations ranging from negative to positive, and marked by periods of rapid movement. What is the price of Treasury volatility? How can we express this price in a model-free format? Despite the success of the CBOE equity VIX, no counterparts exist for US Treasuries and other government bond markets. Pricing Treasury price volatility in a model-free manner is a delicate issue for two reasons. First, volatility is referenced to an asset with finite maturity, a case where standard spanning arguments might fail to apply. Second, the markets we are interested in this paper obviously relate to contexts where interest rates are random, which requires tilting the basis assets we wish to price the volatility of. We develop contract designs for variance swaps applying to government bonds, and derive model-free indexes of government bond price expected volatility, based on the fair value of the contracts expressed in terms of option prices. We follow market practice and consider both percentage and basis point expected volatility. Basis point volatility can be priced in a model-free format even in the presence of jumps. We provide two algorithms to calculate the indexes through the use of American future options.
Maternal metabolic adaptations to pregnancy among young women in Cebu, Philippines

Evidence that fetal development has long‐term impacts on health has increased interest in maternal‐fetal nutrient exchange. Although maternal metabolism is known to change during gestation to accommodate fetal nutrient demands, little is known about these modifications outside of a Western, clinical context. This study characterizes maternal metabolic adaptations to pregnancy, and their associations with offspring birth weight (BW), among women living in the Philippines.
First-order versus second-order single-layer recurrent neural networks

We examine the representational capabilities of first-order and second-order single-layer recurrent neural networks (SLRNN's) with hard-limiting neurons. We show that a second-order SLRNN is strictly more powerful than a first-order SLRNN. However, if the first-order SLRNN is augmented with output layers of feedforward neurons, it can implement any finite-state recognizer, but only if state-splitting is employed. When a state is split, it is divided into two equivalent states. The judicious use of state-splitting allows for efficient implementation of finite-state recognizers using augmented first-order SLRNN's.
Military expenditure and employment in Turkey

Even though the military expenditure - economic growth relationship has been intensively investigated in the defence economics literature, few studies have been devoted to investigate the nature of military expenditure related employment in armed forces, civil service and in the industries that supply defence material. In the literature, there is no general agreement concerning the effects of military expenditure on employment. Military spending would increase employment, as vast numbers of workers are employed either directly by military-related operations or in a variety of service or supporting roles, or spending on the armed forces may generate increased demand in the economy. However, military expenditure devoted to high-technology labour saving weapon systems can be expected to increase unemployment. The purpose of this study is to assess the importance of military expenditure, among other things, in determining the level of employment in Turkey. Employment equation is specified using a CES production function and modelled employing ARDL technique. Our findings indicate that military expenditure negatively effects employment in Turkey.
Strategic Approaches to Regeneration of a Damaged Central Nervous System

It has long been believed that a damaged central nervous system (CNS) is difficult to regenerate; however, as a result of the rapid progress in biomedical science, including stem cell biology, there has been a renewed and an increasing interest in developing regenerative therapies for the CNS. Driving this interest has been the discovery of neural stem cells in the adult mammalian CNS, including the human CNS, and the finding that neurogenesis occurs in the adult brain. To achieve regeneration of a damaged CNS, our main strategies encompass: (1) axonal regeneration, (2) replenishment of lost neural cells, and (3) functional recovery. In this review, achievements using these approaches will be outlined.
Integer Programming (IP) formulation for minimizing sediment delivery in a watershed by reforestation of optimal sites

Several approaches exist to model the production, transport and delivery of water and sediment flows in watersheds but none of these are dealing with spatial optimality requirements. However, policy and decision makers dealing with environmental conservation and land use planning often require identifying potential sites for contributing to minimize sediment flow reaching riverbeds. This is the case of reforestation initiatives, which can have sediment flow minimization among their objectives. This paper proposes an Integer Programming (IP) formulation for selecting a predefined number of locations to minimize sediment load at a watershed outlet. Although the core structure of the IP model can be applied for different sorts of flow, the formulation is targeted to minimization of sediment delivery. Several experiments are performed for two watersheds in South Dakota in the USA. The results are in agreement with expert assessments of erosion levels, slopes and distances to the riverbeds, which in turn allows concluding that this approach is suitable for minimizing sediment flow.
EFFECTS OF NON-ENZYMATIC GLYCATION ON CANCELLOUS BONE FRAGILITY

*Tang, S Y; *Zeenath, U; +*Vashishith, D *Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. +vashid@rpi.edu INTRODUCTION: Collagen crosslinking by post-translation modifications, including nonenzymatic glycation (NEG), is known to accumulate with age in collagenous tissues and increase their propensity to fracture [1-4]. NEG occurs through the presence of extracellular sugars causing the formation of intraand interfibrillar collagen crosslinks. While it has been shown that the accumulation of NEG-induced crosslinks leads to an increased propensity of cortical bone fracture [5-7], the role of NEG in altering the mechanical properties of aging cancellous bone is not well understood. Such information is essential to determine whether factors other than bone mineral density including NEG-mediated changes in tissue matrix properties can alter the fracture behavior of cancellous bone. The objective of this study is to determine the role of NEG in increasing the propensity of aging cancellous bone to fracture.
Decentralisation when Land and Resource Rights are Deeply Contested: A Case Study of the Mkambati Eco-Tourism Project on the Wild Coast of South Africa

A failed eco-tourism project in South Africa illustrates the weakness of decentralisations that place insufficient emphasis on democracy. The project promoted ‘empowerment’ of local communities (and entrepreneurs) and government facilitation of community ‘partnerships’ with private-sector investors. However, the devolution of effective powers and the accountability of local bodies to community were both neglected. Project planning failed to promote local participation, which would have allowed a clear understanding of local livelihoods and deep-seated land and resource tensions. An entrepreneurial elite attempted to capture project benefits, ordinary community members resisted. Severe conflicts erupted, stalling the project. To overcome such dynamics, democratic decentralisation requires a strong central state to provide resources for land-tenure reform and to promote the devolution of powers and the accountability of local bodies.
Counter-urbanisation, planning and house prices: an analysis of the Aberdeen Housing Market Area, 1984-2010

Counter-urbanisation has been a continuing trend within the UK since the 1970s. This presents challenges for both urban and rural planners. The paper considers potential interdependences between spatial housing submarkets associated with counter-urbanisation, and highlights the economic factors which will influence the pattern of price effects across the market system. Empirical analysis focuses on the Aberdeen housing market area, split to distinguish between the city centre, suburb and accessible rural areas where the latter are within commuting distance of the city. A vector error correction model is used to identify the long-run interdependencies between each submarket. We find evidence of spatial price transmission between housing submarkets consistent with a direct city to rural rather than cascading counter-urbanisation process. The prices in the suburb area are found to adjust most rapidly should prices diverge from the long-run equilibrium. The results confirm the importance of planning framework.