Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Working Paper 196 - Uses and Abuses of Per-diems in Africa- A Political Economy of Travel Allowances

An increasing amount of publicspending in Africa is allocated toper-diems as acore instrument ofthe incentive structure. These aremainly given to provide financialincentives to employees in order toincrease their motivation to attendmeetingsor travel for workmissions. Anecdotal as well assystematic evidence from manycountries and projects suggeststhat abuse of per-diemsisbecomingtherule rather thantheexception;whichdistorts the impact ofdevelopment efforts. At a time whenthe efficiency and effectiveness ofpublic spending features high onthe political and developmentagendas, improving the efficiency ofthe management of per-diems couldhaveamajor impact on publicfinances andonattainment ofdevelopment goals. Unfortunatelythis topic has been largelyunexplored and little has beenwritten on the subject. Thispaperexamines the political economy ofper-diems in the African context. Itrevisits the conception of per-diemson the continent, scans the extent towhich per-diems are used andabused, and proposes a conceptualframework that could help tomodelingthe mechanism throughwhich the per-diems paymentinfluences motivations andbehaviors.The paper argues that although perdiems are in many cases justifiedpayment, the current practices aremoving from being part of thesolution to becoming part of theproblem. The analysis illustrateshow the possibilities of earning per-diems negatively influencesprojects and programs design,management decisions, and howemployees spend their time. Allthese have a powerful distortingimpact on development efforts.We propose a conceptualframework which demonstrates thelimits of per-diems as a motivationalfactor for travel missions and drawsimplications for economic theoryand policy. The framework showshow intrinsic motivation is partiallydestroyed when large per-diems arepaid. As the amount of per-diemincreases, the incentive ofintrinsically motivated individualsdecreases while the incentive ofextrinsically motivated onesincreases; explaining for examplewhy paying high per-diem rates fora meeting will increase theprobability of having inappropriatepeople attending. Where publicspirit prevails (intrinsic motivation),using large per-diems incentives toincrease motivation to attendmeeting/workshop comes at ahigher price than suggested bystandard economic theory. That isespecially the case as suchincentives tend to crowd out themost suitable participants. Thepaper concludes by warning againstgeneralized use of per-diems asmotivational factor, and exploresalternatives for a more efficient per-diemssystem.
Giving Back to the World, the Nation and the Family: Cosmopolitan Meaning-making and Notions of Solidarity Among Young Elite Students

This article addresses debates on the relationship between elite cosmopolitanism and localism through the study of young elite cosmopolitans’ rationales in the context of talking about their future lives. Drawing on interviews with 24 students at an elite university, the article delineates three types of cosmopolitan meaning-making. Students embracing the first type talked about their cosmopolitanism in terms of individually chosen actions. They said they did not feel obliged to their nation but to their family; most of them had sought a career abroad. Students embracing the idea of ‘rooted cosmopolitanism’ (second type) stated that they wanted to make their home country a better place, not least because of their family’s mediating influence. They said they wanted to return home, as did those students who combined a sense of solidarity with humans around the globe with a longing for familiarity (third type). Implications for cosmopolitanism and youth studies are discussed.
An Improvement of AdaBoost for Face-Detection with Motion and Color Information

An essential component of new advanced intelligent video surveillance systems is the possibility to perform non-cooperative people detection and identification. Nowadays Face Detection and Recognition are used in access control systems where the human being is willing to help the system, but the task is much more complex in other unconstrained situations. The paper refers some results of a preliminary study to investigate the most promising approach for face detection in noncooperative conditions with the main objective to reduce as much as possible the number of false alarms working on video-rate processing speed. The proposed solution has been developed around the AdaBoost approach, using the open-CV library, with an integration of motion and colour segmentation. The primary scope of the paper is to refer some experimental results to show the potential improvements in terms of reduction of false positives and a significant decrease of the execution time.
Impact of Dendrimer Terminal Group Chemistry on Blockage of the Anthrax Toxin Channel: A Single Molecule Study

Nearly all the cationic molecules tested so far have been shown to reversibly block K+ current through the cation-selective PA63 channels of anthrax toxin in a wide nM–mM range of effective concentrations. A significant increase in channel-blocking activity of the cationic compounds was achieved when multiple copies of positively charged ligands were covalently linked to multivalent scaffolds, such as cyclodextrins and dendrimers. Even though multivalent binding can be strong when the individual bonds are relatively weak, for drug discovery purposes we often strive to design multivalent compounds with high individual functional group affinity toward the respective binding site on a multivalent target. Keeping this requirement in mind, here we perform a single-channel/single-molecule study to investigate kinetic parameters of anthrax toxin PA63 channel blockage by second-generation (G2) poly(amido amine) (PAMAM) dendrimers functionalized with different surface ligands, including G2-NH2, G2-OH, G2-succinamate, and G2-COONa. We found that the previously reported difference in IC50 values of the G2-OH/PA63 and G2-NH2/PA63 binding was determined by both on- and off-rates of the reversible dendrimer/channel binding reaction. In 1 M KCl, we observed a decrease of about three folds in kon and a decrease of only about ten times in tres with G2-OH compared to G2-NH2. At the same time for both blockers, kon and tres increased dramatically with transmembrane voltage increase. PAMAM dendrimers functionalized with negatively charged succinamate, but not carboxyl surface groups, still had some residual activity in inhibiting the anthrax toxin channels. At 100 mV, the on-rate of the G2-succinamate binding was comparable with that of G2-OH but showed weaker voltage dependence when compared to G2-OH and G2-NH2. The residence time of G2-succinamate in the channel exhibited opposite voltage dependence compared to G2-OH and G2-NH2, increasing with the cis-negative voltage increase. We also describe kinetics of the PA63 ion current modulation by two different types of the “imperfect” PAMAM dendrimers, the mixed-surface G2 75% OH 25% NH2 dendrimer and G3-NH2 dendron. At low voltages, both “imperfect” dendrimers show similar rate constants but significantly weaker voltage sensitivity when compared with the intact G2-NH2 PAMAM dendrimer.
Process Improvement within an Educational Environment

Process improvement is difficult to teach as it requires a firm basis in terms of a welldefined process and systematic measurement. In our large-scale software development course we are teaching process improvement using an experience base. The main improvement objective of the course is to teach improvement in terms of improved effort predictability. This also forms the basis to teach process improvement in more general terms. This paper outlines our large-scale software development course and describes how an experience factory can be implemented incrementally in an educational environment. The experience factory provides the baseline and the experience data to enable us to evaluate if we have improved or not. A Personal Software Process (PSP) course has recently been launched at the department, and it will form another perspective on process improvement. Thus, together the courses provide a comprehensive view of process improvement in software engineering. It is our belief that process improvement must be practised and the combination of a course in large-scale software development, the PSP course and the experience base provide an excellent starting point to teach software process improvement.
Reinforcement fuzzy-neural adaptive iterative learning control for nonlinear systems

This paper proposes a new fuzzy neural network based reinforcement adaptive iterative learning controller for a class of nonlinear systems. Different from some existing reinforcement learning schemes, the reinforcement adaptive iterative learning controller has the advantages of rigorous proofs without using an approximation of the plant Jacobian. The critic is appended into the reinforcement adaptive iterative learning controller to generate the reinforcement signal, which provides a degree of satisfaction about the tracking performance. In addition, the reinforcement signal can be further applied in the weight adaptation rules. Iterative learning components of the reinforcement adaptive iterative learning controller are designed to compensate for the uncertainties of plant nonlinearities. The overall adaptive scheme guarantees all adjustable parameters and the internal signals remain bounded for all iterations. Moreover, the norm of tracking error vector at each time instant will asymptotically converge to a tunable residual set as iteration goes to infinity even the initial state error exists. Finally, a simulation result is given to demonstrate the learning performance of the fuzzy neural network based reinforcement adaptive iterative learning controller.
Fossil leaf economics quantified: calibration, Eocene case study, and implications

Abstract Leaf mass per area (MA) is a central ecological trait that is intercorrelated with leaf life span, photosynthetic rate, nutrient concentration, and palatability to herbivores. These coordinated variables form a globally convergent leaf economics spectrum, which represents a general continuum running from rapid resource acquisition to maximized resource retention. Leaf economics are little studied in ancient ecosystems because they cannot be directly measured from leaf fossils. Here we use a large extant data set (65 sites; 667 species-site pairs) to develop a new, easily measured scaling relationship between petiole width and leaf mass, normalized for leaf area; this enables MA estimation for fossil leaves from petiole width and leaf area, two variables that are commonly measurable in leaf compression floras. The calibration data are restricted to woody angiosperms exclusive of monocots, but a preliminary data set (25 species) suggests that broad-leaved gymnosperms exhibit a similar scaling. Application to two well-studied, classic Eocene floras demonstrates that MA can be quantified in fossil assemblages. First, our results are consistent with predictions from paleobotanical and paleoclimatic studies of these floras. We found exclusively low-MA species from Republic (Washington, U.S.A., 49 Ma), a humid, warm-temperate flora with a strong deciduous component among the angiosperms, and a wide MA range in a seasonally dry, warm-temperate flora from the Green River Formation at Bonanza (Utah, U.S.A, 47 Ma), presumed to comprise a mix of short and long leaf life spans. Second, reconstructed MA in the fossil species is negatively correlated with levels of insect herbivory, whether measured as the proportion of leaves with insect damage, the proportion of leaf area removed by herbivores, or the diversity of insect-damage morphotypes. These correlations are consistent with herbivory observations in extant floras and they reflect fundamental trade-offs in plant-herbivore associations. Our results indicate that several key aspects of plant and plant-animal ecology can now be quantified in the fossil record and demonstrate that herbivory has helped shape the evolution of leaf structure for millions of years.
How stimulation speed affects Event-Related Potentials and BCI performance

In most paradigms for Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) that are based on Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), stimuli are presented with a pre-defined and constant speed. In order to boost BCI performance by optimizing the parameters of stimulation, this offline study investigates the impact of the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) on ERPs and the resulting classification accuracy. The SOA is defined as the time between the onsets of two consecutive stimuli, which represents a measure for stimulation speed. A simple auditory oddball paradigm was tested in 14 SOA conditions with a SOA between 50 ms and 1000 ms. Based on an offline ERP analysis, the BCI performance (quantified by the Information Transfer Rate, ITR in bits/min) was simulated. A great variability in the simulated BCI performance was observed within subjects (N=11). This indicates a potential increase in BCI performance (≥ 1.6 bits/min) for ERP-based paradigms, if the stimulation speed is specified for each user individually.
The LRU Rover for Autonomous Planetary Exploration and Its Success in the SpaceBotCamp Challenge

The task of planetary exploration poses many challenges for a robot system, from weight and size constraints to sensors and actuators suitable for extraterrestrial environment conditions. In this work, we present the Light Weight Rover Unit (LRU), a small and agile rover prototype that we designed for the challenges of planetary exploration. Its locomotion system with individually steered wheels allows for high maneuverability in rough terrain and the application of stereo cameras as its main sensor ensures the applicability to space missions. We implemented software components for self-localization in GPS-denied environments, environment mapping, object search and localization and for the autonomous pickup and assembly of objects with its arm. Additional high-level mission control components facilitate both autonomous behavior and remote monitoring of the system state over a delayed communication link. We successfully demonstrated the autonomous capabilities of our LRU at the SpaceBotCamp challenge, a national robotics contest with focus on autonomous planetary exploration. A robot had to autonomously explore a moon-like rough-terrain environment, locate and collect two objects and assemble them after transport to a third object - which the LRU did on its first try, in half of the time and fully autonomous.
Does Size Matter? Finding the Profitability and Marketability Benchmark of Financial Holding Companies

The aim of this paper is to explore the efficiency and the benchmarks of financial holding companies (FHCs) for a small open economy, Taiwan. We employ a two-stage production process including profitability and marketability performance using a non-parametric frontier method — data envelopment analysis (DEA). Furthermore, the factor-specific measure and BCC (Banker–Charnes–Cooper) model are combined together not only to identify the inputs/outputs that are most important but also to distinguish those FHCs which can be treated as benchmarks. Our empirical result shows that (1) big-sized FHCs are generally more efficient than small-sized ones; (2) FHCs with the main body of insurance averagely perform better than the other two types (banks and securities); (3) while small efficient FHCs are easily to become benchmarks, big efficient FHCs are deemed as competitive niche players; (4) further mergers and acquisitions among FHCs should be considered so as to achieve economies of scale. The profitability/marketability matrix of FHCs is also presented.
Hormones and the hippocampus.

Hippocampal lesions produce memory deficits, but the exact function of the hippocampus remains obscure. Evidence is presented that its role in memory may be ancillary to physiological regulation. Molecular studies demonstrate that the hippocampus is a primary target for ligands that reflect body physiology, including ion balance and blood pressure, immunity, pain, reproductive status, satiety and stress. Hippocampal receptors are functional, probably accessible to their ligands, and mediate physiological and cognitive changes. This argues that an early role of the hippocampus may have been in sensing soluble molecules (termed here 'enteroception') in blood and cerebrospinal fluid, perhaps reflecting a common evolutionary origin with the olfactory system ('exteroception'). Functionally, hippocampal enteroception may reflect feedback control; evidence is reviewed that the hippocampus modulates body physiology, including the activity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, blood pressure, immunity, and reproductive function. It is suggested that the hippocampus operates, in parallel with the amygdala, to modulate body physiology in response to cognitive stimuli. Hippocampal outputs are predominantly inhibitory on downstream neuroendocrine activity; increased synaptic efficacy in the hippocampus (e.g. long-term potentiation) could facilitate throughput inhibition. This may have implications for the role of the hippocampus and long-term potentiation in memory.
Study of chemical equilibrium in nucleus-nucleus collisions at AGS and SPS energies

We present a detailed study of chemical freeze-out in nucleus-nucleus collisions at beam energies of 11.6, 30, 40, 80 and 158A GeV. By analyzing hadronic multiplicities within the statistical hadronization approach, we have studied the strangeness production as a function of centre of mass energy and of the parameters of the source. We have tested and compared different versions of the statistical model, with special emphasis on possible explanations of the observed strangeness hadronic phase space under-saturation. We show that, in this energy range, the use of hadron yields at midrapidity instead of in full phase space artificially enhances strangeness production and could lead to incorrect conclusions as far as the occurrence of full chemical equilibrium is concerned. In addition to the basic model with an extra strange quark non-equilibrium parameter, we have tested three more schemes: a two-component model superimposing hadrons coming out of single nucleon-nucleon interactions to those emerging from large fireballs at equilibrium, a model with local strangeness neutrality and a model with strange and light quark non-equilibrium parameters. The behaviour of the source parameters as a function of colliding system and collision energy is studied. The description of strangeness production entails a non-monotonic energy dependence of strangeness saturation parameter gamma_S with a maximum around 30A GeV. We also present predictions of the production rates of still unmeasured hadrons including the newly discovered Theta^+(1540) pentaquark baryon.
Temperature-sensitive poliovirus mutant fails to cleave VP0 and accumulates provirions

A temperature-sensitive mutant of poliovirus, VP2-103, was isolated and characterized. A single nucleotide change, resulting in the substitution of glutamine for arginine at amino acid 76 of the capsid protein VP2, prevented the maturation of virions at the nonpermissive temperature. Particles indistinguishable from the previously elusive provirions were observed; these particles have been proposed to be penultimate in virion morphogenesis. Cleavage of VP0 into VP2 and VP4, the products found in mature virions, was not observed in VP2-103-infected cells at the nonpermissive temperature. The cleavage of VP0 in wild-type poliovirus-infected cells is dependent on RNA packaging; this reaction has been postulated to be autocatalytic. The existence of RNA-containing provirionlike particles in VP2-103-infected cells shows that RNA packaging can be uncoupled from VP0 cleavage.
A 2.4 GHz energy-efficient 18-Mbps FSK transmitter in 0.18 μm CMOS

This paper presents a 2.4 GHz energy-efficient phase-locked loop (PLL)-based transmitter (TX) integrated in 0.18-μm CMOS technology. By using Twin-VCO transmission scheme, the data rate of the transmitter is free of loop bandwidth of PLL with stable carrier frequency. The frequency presetting technique is adopted to not only reduce the lock-in time of the PLL but also minimize the VCO gain (KVCO) variation. Measured results show that the frequency precision of the Twin-VCO relative to center carrier is less than 21 ppm. The lock-in time of the PLL is less than 7 μs. The TX dissipates 11.6 mW when the output power is 0 dBm at a data rate of 18 Mbps and achieves an energy efficiency less than 0.64 nJ/bit.
A DSGE Model for China’s Monetary and Macroprudential Policies

This paper develops a calibrated DSGE model for simulating China’s monetary policy and macroprudential policy. The empirical results show, first, that the interest rate is a better instrument for China’s monetary policy than the required reserve ratio when the central bank is solely concerned by the price stability; second, that the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is a very useful macroprudential tool for China’s financial stability, and the required reserve ratio could be used as an instrument for both objectives. Whether macroprudential policy complements or conflicts with monetary policy depends upon the instruments choices of two policies. Our policy experiments suggest three combination choices of instruments for China’s monetary and macroprudential policies.
Multi-Mode Electromagnetic Ultrasonic Lamb Wave Tomography Imaging for Variable-Depth Defects in Metal Plates

This paper proposes a new cross-hole tomography imaging (CTI) method for variable-depth defects in metal plates based on multi-mode electromagnetic ultrasonic Lamb waves (LWs). The dispersion characteristics determine that different modes of LWs are sensitive to different thicknesses of metal plates. In this work, the sensitivities to thickness variation of A0- and S0-mode LWs are theoretically studied. The principles and procedures for the cooperation of A0- and S0-mode LW CTI are proposed. Moreover, the experimental LW imaging system on an aluminum plate with a variable-depth defect is set up, based on A0- and S0-mode EMAT (electromagnetic acoustic transducer) arrays. For comparison, the traditional single-mode LW CTI method is used in the same experimental platform. The imaging results show that the computed thickness distribution by the proposed multi-mode method more accurately reflects the actual thickness variation of the defect, while neither the S0 nor the A0 single-mode method was able to distinguish thickness variation in the defect region. Moreover, the quantification of the defect’s thickness variation is more accurate with the multi-mode method. Therefore, theoretical and practical results prove that the variable-depth defect in metal plates can be successfully quantified and visualized by the proposed multi-mode electromagnetic ultrasonic LW CTI method.
Failure is an Option: Impediments to Short Selling and Options Prices

Regulations allow market makers to short sell without borrowing stock, and the transactions of a major options market maker show that in most hard-to-borrow situations, it chooses not to borrow and instead fails to deliver stock to its buyers. A part of the value of failing passes through to options prices: when failing is cheaper than borrowing, the relation between borrowing costs and options prices is significantly weaker. The remaining value is profit to the market maker, and its ability to profit despite competition between market makers appears to result from the cost advantage of larger market makers. , Oxford University Press.