Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender-based differences in employment conditions of local and expatriate workers in the GCC context: Empirical evidence from the United Arab Emirates

Purpose - – The labor force participation rates of females have been increasing steadily over the past few decades in the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and are expected to continue to increase due to increasing levels of education and social change. While, there is a substantive amount of literature on the issues of gender gap in wages and employment conditions in Western developed economies, the evidence from developing economies – especially in the Middle East – remains very scant. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to bridging this gap by examining gender-based differences in employment conditions for local and expatriate workers in the context of the GCC region. Design/methodology/approach - – The authors utilize a data set from the 2007 cross-section Dubai Labor Market Survey which covers a stratified random sample of employees in the UAE labor market. In addition to descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations of the data by workers’ gender, nationality, and various characteristics of their employment conditions, two empirical models intended to investigate factors that influence access to employment and wage determination of male and female workers in the UAE labor market were estimated. Findings - – The findings of the study reveal that there are gender-based differences and inequity in employment in the UAE labor market. The authors highlight specific impacts of contextual factors on the employment conditions of women compared to men. The gender gap in the UAE context is compounded by nationality effects; whereby gender-based differences become less apparent in the case of foreign workers compared to UAE nationals. Originality/value - – This paper is one of very few studies that addressed the gender gap in employment conditions in the Arab Middle Eastern or GCC context. The paper uses quantitative data from a large random sample of workers in the UAE.
Modeling Opinion Dynamics in Diffusion Networks

Social media and social networking sites have become a global pinboard for exposition and discussion of news, topics, and ideas, where social media users increasingly form their opinion about a particular topic by learning information about it from her peers. In this context, whenever a user posts a message about a topic, we observe a noisy estimate of her current opinion about it but the influence the user may have on other users' opinions is hidden. In this paper, we introduce a probabilistic modeling framework of opinion dynamics, which allows the underlying opinion of a user to be modulated by those expressed by her neighbors over time. We then identify a set of conditions under which users' opinions converge to a steady state, find a linear relation between the initial opinions and the opinions in the steady state, and develop an efficient estimation method to fit the parameters of the model from historical fine-grained opinion and information diffusion event data. Experiments on data gathered from Twitter, Reddit and Amazon show that our model provides a good fit to the data and more accurate predictions than alternatives.
XISL: a development tool for construction of implicit surfaces

This paper presents the XISL (XML based scripting of Implicit Surfaces) package aimed to develop applications based on implicit surfaces. First, we demonstrate our implicit surface library written in C++. The system of implicit primitives includes analytic, geometric, convolution and other special implicit objects. The operations comprise unary, binary and their generalization---n-ary operations. Second, we propose an XML based language to script arbitrary implicit surfaces. The simple API syntax allows developers easily include XISL to their applications. Moreover, the XISL package contains tools for processing and converting of our XML implicit surfaces to other formats.
An Empirical Investigation of Trends in the Absolute and Relative Use of Earnings in Determining Cash Compensation of CEOS

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence on whether there have been changes over time in the compensation-earnings relation. We investigate whether there is a trend during the period 1971-95 in the sensitivity of executive pay to reported earnings and in the importance of earnings relative to other information in explaining executive pay. As addressed in Gjesdal [1981] and in the model we develop, the relevance of a performance measure for valuing the firm may not be the same as its relevance for the purpose of inferring managers' contributions to firm value. Whether the decline in the value-relevance of earnings documented in recent research is accompanied by a decline in the stewardship relevance of earnings is an empirical issue that is the focus of this paper. We estimate pooled regressions of the pay-earnings relation allowing intercepts and slopes to vary by year and industry. While we find significant positive correlation between the sensitivities of firm value and executive pay to earnings, our results fail to detect a general trend in the sensitivity of executive pay to reported earnings. We also conduct similar pooled estimations of the pay-performance relation incorporating non-earnings information reflected in stock prices to assess the importance of earnings relative to other information. Our results suggest that there has been a general decline during the last 25 years in the importance of earnings in explaining cash compensation relative to other information reflected in stock returns. We further analyze our results indicating a decline in pay-earnings sensitivity relative to information in stock returns in the context of insights gained from existing studies of trends in the value relevance of earnings. We analyze changes in the sensitivity of earnings relative to accounting performance measures that explicitly incorporate balance sheet information. We find that, in contrast to price-earnings studies, the documented decline in relative pay-earnings sensitivity is not attributable to a shift from earnings to balance sheet-based measures. Finally, we examine whether factors capturing aspects of the quality of earnings and firm size that explain the shift in the value relevance from earnings to book values also explain shifts in the relative stewardship relevance of earnings. We find that changes over time in the proportion of intangible-intensive firms, the average magnitude of special items included in earnings and the frequency of negative earnings appear to explain much of the trend in relative pay-earnings sensitivity over the sample period.
On-line Self-Checking of Microprogram Control Units

The paper introduces a new approach for designing of self-checking Microprogram Control Units (MCU). Using a Finite State Machine (FSM) as a form of MCU representation leads to its PLAimplementation having a system of product terms which are orthogonal and complete. An additional important property of MCU is related to a limited total number of possible code-words. These features can be used for construction of self-checking PLAs with relatively small overheads.
Mobile Robots Navigation in Industrial Environments

Autonomous mobile robots need the capability to explore and navigate in dynamic or unknown environments in order to be useful in a wide range of industrial applications. In the past two decades, a number of different approaches have been proposed to develop flexible and efficient navigation systems.Despite the potentials of the approaches and algorithms developed by the robotics community, industrial applications of autonomous mobile robots are not yet widespread. This paper reflects the efforts made by our work group to have useful navigation systems in industrial applications.
Selective CB2 Receptor Agonism Protects Central Neurons from Remote Axotomy-Induced Apoptosis through the PI3K/Akt Pathway

Endocannabinoids are neuroprotective in vivo and in vitro, but the mechanisms by which they act are largely unknown. The present study addressed the role of cannabinoid receptors during remote cell death of central neurons in a model that is based on cerebellar lesions. A lesion in one cerebellar hemisphere induced remote cell death and type 2 cannabinoid receptor (CB2R) expression in contralateral precerebellar neurons. Of the selective agonists and antagonists that modulated cannabinoid receptor activity, we found that the CB2R agonist JWH-015 reduced neuronal loss and cytochrome-c release, leading to neurological recovery; these effects were reversed by the selective CB2R antagonist SR144528. Analysis of CB2R-triggered signal transduction demonstrated that in axotomized neurons, CB2R regulated Akt and JNK phosphorylation through a PI3K-dependent pathway, whereas other major signaling routes that are dependent on CB2R, such as ERK1/2 and p38, were not involved. This result was corroborated by the observation that the selective PI3K inhibitor LY294002 blocked the CB2R stimulation effects on neuronal survival as well as Akt and JNK phosphorylation levels. Together, these data demonstrate that axonal damage induces CB2R expression in central neurons and that stimulation of this receptor has a neuroprotective effect that is achieved through PI3K/Akt signaling.
THE ECONOMIC COSTS OF ROAD ACCIDENTS IN AUSTRALIA: SOME ISSUES IN ESTIMATION, CONCEPT AND APPLICATION

The paper is mainly concerned with the usefulness of ex post or "loss accounting" estimates of accident costs to society, especially the "value of life" component, as parameters in accident evaluation and transport planning evaluation techniques. A set of estimated road accident costs for Australia in 1978 is outlined, and the estimation methodology and social cost framework are reviewed. The basis of valuation of fatality costs is examined, notably the foregone income approach. Problems considered include those arising from the concept of income chosen (net or gross, etc); the treatment of those not earning (e.g. housewives), the significant effects of the age distribution of the group under study, and also the role of the discount rate. Data shortcomings associated with vehicle damage estimates are discussed. The significance of the skewed distributions of accident costs is indicated, and a method is proposed to allow estimation of these costs by injury severity level for medical and vehicle damage costs. Finally, the relevance to these accident cost studies of the recent debate on the economics of the value of life is investigated, in which the ex ante approach, or measure of willingness to pay for reductions in risk of death, is recognised as the correct valuation concept. Recent empirical studies using this concept appear to produce plausible results, and a connection between willingness to pay valuations of life and the foregone income method is also suggested (a). The number of the covering abstract of the conference is TRIS no. 368448. (TRRL)
Ultra-low voltage, organic thin film transistors fabricated on plastic substrates by a highly reproducible process

Organic thin film transistors have been fabricated on plastic substrates using a combination of two ultrathin insulating films, namely a 6 nm Al2O3 film (grown by UV-Ozone treatment of a pre-deposited aluminium film) and a 25 nm parylene C film deposited by vapour phase, as gate dielectric. They show a very low leakage current density, around 2 × 10−9 A/cm2, and, most importantly, can be operated at voltages below 1 V. We demonstrate that this low-cost technique is highly reproducible and represents a step forward for the routine fabrication of ultra-low voltage plastic electronics.
Pulsed Azidohomoalanine Labeling in Mammals (PALM) Detects Changes in Liver-Specific LKB1 Knockout Mice

Quantification of proteomes by mass spectrometry has proven to be useful to study human pathology recapitulated in cellular or animal models of disease. Enriching and quantifying newly synthesized proteins (NSPs) at set time points by mass spectrometry has the potential to identify important early regulatory or expression changes associated with disease states or perturbations. NSP can be enriched from proteomes by employing pulsed introduction of the noncanonical amino acid, azidohomoalanine (AHA). We demonstrate that pulsed introduction of AHA in the feed of mice can label and identify NSP from multiple tissues. Furthermore, we quantitate differences in new protein expression resulting from CRE-LOX initiated knockout of LKB1 in mouse livers. Overall, the PALM strategy allows for the first time in vivo labeling of mouse tissues to differentiate protein synthesis rates at discrete time points.
The Effects of Crop Generic Resources and Biodiversity on Agricultural Production: An Empirical Study on Rice Farming

This paper has investigated the effects of crop biodiversity on the mean and the variance of yield in rice production. It used panel data from 22 research stations of Rural Development Administration in Korea during 1997-2004. We found evidence that yield risk is positively related with crop biodiversity measured as a Herfindahl concentration index of varietal diversity. In other words, crop biodiversity is found to be a risk-decreasing input.
Optimal Fiscal Action in an Economy with Sovereign Premia and Without Monetary Independence: An Application to Italy

We welfare rank various tax-spending policies. The setup is a New Keynesian model of a semi-small open economy featuring sovereign risk premia and loss of monetary policy independence. The model is calibrated to match data from the Italian economy 2001-2011. We compute various optimized state-contingent tax-spending policy rules when the policy aim is shock stabilization and/or debt consolidation.
An Image Inpainting Method for Stereoscopic Images Based on Filling Route

This paper proposes a image inpainting method for stereoscopic images based on filling route. The stereoscopic image pairs and their depth map images are generated by left and right shifting the original image according to its corresponding depth information. The generated left and right image may have disocclued areas or holes in the image after shifting operation. In this paper, disocclued areas or holes are classified into three type, gradient, clear-cut and layer and three different filling routes and filling methods are adopted according to these three types of holes. From the experimental results, it is proved that holes maybe mistakenly filled have been in painted with better corrections, in the meantime, in painted image becomes more natural and closer to the reality when it is viewed.
Ranking medical jargon in electronic health record notes by adapted distant supervision

Objective: Allowing patients to access their own electronic health record (EHR) notes through online patient portals has the potential to improve patient-centered care. However, medical jargon, which abounds in EHR notes, has been shown to be a barrier for patient EHR comprehension. Existing knowledge bases that link medical jargon to lay terms or definitions play an important role in alleviating this problem but have low coverage of medical jargon in EHRs. We developed a data-driven approach that mines EHRs to identify and rank medical jargon based on its importance to patients, to support the building of EHR-centric lay language resources. Methods: We developed an innovative adapted distant supervision (ADS) model based on support vector machines to rank medical jargon from EHRs. For distant supervision, we utilized the open-access, collaborative consumer health vocabulary, a large, publicly available resource that links lay terms to medical jargon. We explored both knowledge-based features from the Unified Medical Language System and distributed word representations learned from unlabeled large corpora. We evaluated the ADS model using physician-identified important medical terms. Results: Our ADS model significantly surpassed two state-of-the-art automatic term recognition methods, TF*IDF and C-Value, yielding 0.810 ROC-AUC versus 0.710 and 0.667, respectively. Our model identified 10K important medical jargon terms after ranking over 100K candidate terms mined from over 7,500 EHR narratives. Conclusion: Our work is an important step towards enriching lexical resources that link medical jargon to lay terms/definitions to support patient EHR comprehension. The identified medical jargon terms and their rankings are available upon request.
Making Make-throughs: Supporting Young Makers Sharing Design Process

This paper introduces the concept of make-throughs , a documentation format in which Makers share their design process throughout the development of a design project. Make-throughs capture the rich, iterative nature of a design process in which a project is constantly revised and reﬁned over time. In contrast to tutorials, make-through documentation is shared throughout the design process (rather than after a project is complete), and incorporates iteration (rather than a ﬁnalized list of instructions). A personal narrative of the accomplishments and struggles in developing a project, make-throughs are expressive rather than eﬃcient . I begin with a deﬁnition of make-throughs and share examples of process-oriented documentation in domains outside of the Maker community. I then describe four examples of make-throughs shared on the online community Build in Progress. From these examples, I discuss four emergent themes that suggest the potential for make-through documentation: facilitating feedback, creating expressive documentation, representing eﬀort, and documenting-in-action. Finally, I end by describing several future directions for supporting rich opportunities around make-through documentation practices.
Peroneus longus stretch reflex amplitude increases after ankle brace application

Background: The use of external ankle support is widespread throughout sports medicine. However, the application of ankle bracing to a healthy ankle over a long period has been scrutinised because of possible neuromuscular adaptations resulting in diminished dynamic support offered by the peroneus longus. Objective: To investigate the immediate and chronic effects of ankle brace application on the amplitude of peroneus longus stretch reflex. Methods: Twenty physically active college students (mean (SD) age 23.6 (1.7) years, height 168.7 (8.4) cm, and mass 69.9 (12.0) kg) who had been free from lower extremity pathology for the 12 months preceding the study served as subjects. None had been involved in a strength training or conditioning programme in the six months preceding the study. A 3 × 3 × 2 (test condition × treatment condition × time) design with repeated measures on the first and third factor was used. The peroneus longus stretch reflex (% of maximum amplitude) during sudden foot inversion was evaluated under three ankle brace conditions (control, lace up, and semi-rigid) before and after eight weeks of ankle brace use. Results: A 3 × 3 × 2 repeated measures analysis of variance showed that peroneus longus stretch reflex amplitude increased immediately after application of a lace up brace (67.1 (4.4)) compared with the semi-rigid (57.9 (4.3)) and control (59.0 (5.2)) conditions (p<0.05). Peroneus longus stretch reflex also increased after eight weeks of use of the semi-rigid brace compared with the lace up and control conditions (p<0.05). Conclusions: Initial application of a lace up style ankle brace and chronic use of a semi-rigid brace facilitates the amplitude of the peroneus longus stretch reflex. It appears that initial and long term ankle brace use does not diminish the magnitude of this stretch reflex in the healthy ankle.
A Contractarian Paradigm for Applying Economic Theory

The object for economists' research is "the economy," which is, by definition, a social organization, an interaction among separate choosing entities. I return deliberately to this element in our primer, because I think that it has been too often overlooked. By direct implication, the ultimate object of our study is not itself a choosing, maximizing entity. "The economy" does not maximize, and we may substitute "the polity" here without change in my emphasis. No one could quarrel with these simplistic statements. The inference must be, however, that there exists no one person, no single chooser, who maximizes for the economy, for the polity. To impose a maximizing construction on the models that are designed to be helpful in policy is to insure sterility in results. Where did economics, as a discipline, take the wrong turn? My own suggestion is that Lionel Robbins marks a turning point. His book defined "the economic problem" as the location of maxima and minima. Almost simultaneously with this, the Edward H. Chamberlin and Joan Robinson books marked a turning inward, so to speak, a shift toward the maximizing problem of a specific decision-making entity. The economics of the firm was born, to be followed by the Hicksian elaboration of the economics of consumer choice. Paul Samuelson put this all together in his Foundations of Economic Analysis. Importantly, he extended the maximizing construction to welfare economics, extolling the virtues of A. Bergson's social welfare function as the tool through which such extension was made possible. For a quarter of a century, we have witnessed many variations on this theme, with economists hither and yon maximizing objective functions subject to specific constraints. I should not imply that the maximizing models have held monolithic dominance. The institutional economists, and their successors, have continued their sometimes inarticulate critique of economic theory. Frank Knight, and some of his students, continued to lay stress on the social-organization aspects of the discipline. Game theory, in its solution rather than its strategy search, offered partial redirection of emphasis. More importantly for my purposes, public choice theory emerged as the positive theory of politics, a theory that necessarily treats individual decision takers as participants in a complex interaction that generates political outcomes. But let me return to mainstream efforts of economists in the years since World * University Professor and General Director, Center for Study of Public Choice, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The author is indebted to Amoz Kats and Gordon Tullock for helpful comments.
Alternative translation initiation augments the human mitochondrial proteome

Alternative translation initiation (ATI) is a mechanism of producing multiple proteins from a single transcript, which in some cases regulates trafficking of proteins to different cellular compartments, including mitochondria. Application of a genome-wide computational screen predicts a cryptic mitochondrial targeting signal for 126 proteins in mouse and man that is revealed when an AUG codon located downstream from the canonical initiator methionine codon is used as a translation start site, which we term downstream ATI (dATI). Experimental evidence in support of dATI is provided by immunoblotting of endogenous truncated proteins enriched in mitochondrial cell fractions or of co-localization with mitochondria using immunocytochemistry. More detailed cellular localization studies establish mitochondrial targeting of a member of the cytosolic poly(A) binding protein family, PABPC5, and of the RNA/DNA helicase PIF1α. The mitochondrial isoform of PABPC5 co-immunoprecipitates with the mitochondrial poly(A) polymerase, and is markedly reduced in abundance when mitochondrial DNA and RNA are depleted, suggesting it plays a role in RNA metabolism in the organelle. Like PABPC5 and PIF1α, most of the candidates identified by the screen are not currently annotated as mitochondrial proteins, and so dATI expands the human mitochondrial proteome.