Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
European Economy European Commission Directorate-general for Economic and Financial Affairs

To be or not to be in the euro? Benefits and costs of monetary unification as perceived by voters in the Swedish euro referendum 2003 Economic Papers are written by the Staff of the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, or by experts working in association with them. The "Papers" are intended to increase awareness of the technical work being done by the staff and to seek comments and suggestions for further analyses. Views expressed represent exclusively the positions of the author and do not necessarily correspond to those of the European Commission. Comments and enquiries should be addressed to the: To be or not to be in the euro? Benefits and costs of monetary unification as perceived by voters in the Swedish euro referendum 2003 Abstract The Swedish referendum in September 2003 on adopting the euro or keeping the domestic currency, the krona, represents a unique event to examine the public's perceptions of the benefits and costs of monetary unification. The voters chose between the two polar cases of exchange rate regimes: either a freely floating exchange rate or membership in a monetary union. Three major conclusions emerge from the analysis of the exit poll surveys gathered on the day of the referendum. First, the optimum currency area theory proves to be a constructive framework to predict voting behaviour across socioeconomic groups and regions in Sweden, assuming voters behave in their self-interest. Second, the distribution of the expected benefits and costs across groups was a major determinant of their voting behavior. As predicted by theory, the Yes-vote was strongest among voters employed in the tradable sector, in high growth regions as well as among high-income earners and well educated. The No-vote was strongest among voters employed in the non-tradable sector, in particular in the public sector, and among low-income earners, the unemployed and the less educated – in short, among groups dependent on public-sector transfers to maintain their living standards in the event of adverse economic shocks. Third, political attitudes towards the European integration process heavily influenced the views of the voters towards the euro. The opinions expressed here are those of the author. They do not represent the views of DG ECFIN. 2 To be or not to be in the euro? Benefits and costs of monetary unification as perceived by voters in the Swedish euro referendum 2003
Factors and Evaluation of Refinding Behaviors

In this paper we describe difficulties involved in studying PIM behaviors and factors that can affect how people approach the refinding process. Factors that have been studied in the context of information seeking behaviors are summarized and their application to PIM and refinding are discussed. Finally, we note the importance of task in evaluating information refinding and reuse behaviors and discuss several task taxonomies that have been proposed that have applicability to the evaluation of PIM.
An estimate of the time variation of the O/H radial gradient from planetary nebulae

Radial abundance gradients are a common feature of spiral galaxies, and in the case of the Galaxy both the magnitude of the gradients and their variations are among the most important constraints of chemical evolution models. Planetary nebulae (PN) are particularly interesting objects to study the gradients and their variations. Owing to their bright emission spectra, they can be observed even at large galactocentric distances, and the derived abundances are relatively accurate, with uncertainties of about 0.1 to 0.2 dex, particularly for the elements that are not synthesized in their progenitor stars. On the other hand, as the offspring of intermediate mass stars, with main sequence masses in the interval of 1 to 8 solar masses, they are representative of objects with a reasonable age span. In this paper, we present an estimate of the time variation of the O/H radial gradient in a sample containing over 200 nebulae with accurate abundances. Our results are consistent with a flattening of the O/H gradient roughly from −0.11 dex/kpc to −0.06 dex/kpc during the last 9 Gyr, or from −0.08 dex/kpc to −0.06 dex/kpc during the last 5 Gyr.
The Sponsor’s Fight for Audience: How General Foods Promoted Listenership for the Byrd Expedition Broadcasts

This study examines stunting, gimmickry, and the use of guest appearances to attract, keep, and rebuild an audience for the Byrd Expedition broadcasts, aired on CBS, between 1933 and 1935. The sponsor worked to maximize the benefit its product received through program association by attracting the largest audience possible. This research suggests a reconsideration of where rivalry existed in the sponsorship era of broadcasting. It finds that hype through stunts and gimmicks helped keep the expedition exciting during low exploring times. Notable guests were included in the program when convenient but not necessarily during times of low levels of adventure.
Using a weakly supervised approach and lexical patterns for the KBP slot filling task

We present in this article the system we developed for participating to the slot filling task in the Knowledge Base Population (KBP) track of the 2011 Text Analysis Conference (TAC). This system is based on a weakly supervised approach and lexical patterns. In this participation, we tested more specifically the integration of an additional unsupervised relation identification component dedicated to the filtering of candidate relations.
Regulation of growth cone behavior by calcium

Few structures within the nervous system have received more attention than the neuronal growth cone. Initially named by Ramon y Cajal (1890) who recognized its dynamics and importance in histological sections, the growth cone plays essential roles in the development, repair, and modification of neuronal circuitry. Growth cones have a diverse repertoire of behaviors (Fig. 1). These behaviors underlie the more complex processes of neurite elongation, pathfinding, and selective synaptogenesis. Thus, a fundamental concern of developmental neurobiology is the definition of environmental and intracellular cues that regulate growth cone behavior. In this essay, we will consider the role of intracellular calcium in the regulation of growth cone behaviors. The impetus for envisaging such a role was provided by the elucidation of the calcium hypothesis of the control of secretion (Douglas, 1974, 1976) and synaptic transmission (Katz and Miledi, 1965; Katz, 1969; Llinas, 1979). Accordingly, we put forward a working hypothesis that stated, “if [intracellular] calcium falls below an optimal level, or rises significantly above it, growth cone motility and neurite outgrowth are inhibited” (Rater et al., 1988a).
Analysis and Modelling of No-Reference Video Quality Assessment

Video processing system may introduce some amounts of distortions in the video signal. It is crucial to measure the video quality blindly for most image processing applications which could not obtain the original image. Different Video Quality Assessment (VQA) methods are analysis in this paper. A state of art in the field of No-Reference (NR) VQA is presented. Finally, an ideal NR VQA model is proposed.
Differential sperm expenditure reveals a possible role for post-copulatory sexual selection in a lekking moth

Male reproductive success in the lesser wax moth Achroia grisella is strongly determined by pre-copulatory mate choice, during which females choose among males aggregated in small leks based on the attractiveness of ultrasonic songs. Nothing is known about the potential of post-copulatory mechanisms to affect male reproductive success. However, there is evidence that females at least occasionally remate with a second male and that males are unable to produce ejaculates quickly after a previous copulation. Here we investigated the effects of mating history on ejaculate size and demonstrate that the number of transferred sperm significantly decreased from first (i.e., virgin) to second (i.e., nonvirgin) copulation within individual males. For males of identical age, the number of sperm transferred was higher in virgin than in nonvirgin copulations, too, demonstrating that mating history, is responsible for the decrease in sperm numbers transferred and not the concomitant age difference. Furthermore, the number of transferred sperm was significantly repeatable within males. The demonstrated variation in ejaculate size both between subsequent copulations as well as among individuals suggests that there is allocation of a possibly limited amount of sperm. Because female fecundity is not limited by sperm availability in this system, post-copulatory mechanisms, in particular sperm competition, may play a previously underappreciated role in the lesser wax moth mating system.
Robust Face Recognition via Minimum Error Entropy-Based Atomic Representation

Representation-based classifiers (RCs) have attracted considerable attention in face recognition in recent years. However, most existing RCs use the mean square error (MSE) criterion as the cost function, which relies on the Gaussianity assumption of the error distribution and is sensitive to non-Gaussian noise. This may severely degrade the performance of MSE-based RCs in recognizing facial images with random occlusion and corruption. In this paper, we present a minimum error entropy-based atomic representation (MEEAR) framework for face recognition. Unlike existing MSE-based RCs, our framework is based on the minimum error entropy criterion, which is not dependent on the error distribution and shown to be more robust to noise. In particular, MEEAR can produce discriminative representation vector by minimizing the atomic norm regularized Renyi's entropy of the reconstruction error. The optimality conditions are provided for general atomic representation model. As a general framework, MEEAR can also be used as a platform to develop new classifiers. Two effective MEE-based RCs are proposed by defining appropriate atomic sets. The experimental results on popular face databases show that MEEAR can improve both the recognition accuracy and the reconstructed results compared with the state-of-the-art MSE-based RCs.
Turbulent Shear Stress in Heterogeneous Sediment‐Laden Flows

This analysis of turbulent shear stress in steady-uniform sediment-laden flows with heterogeneous sediment size distributions is applicable when yield, viscous, and dispersive shear stresses are negligible compared to turbulent shear stress. The Reynolds averaging method is applied to a graded mixture of sediments in suspension assuming that the velocity fluctuations of sediment particles are identical to the fluid velocity fluctuations. The resulting relationship τ = -ρm u′v′ is similar to that of clear water flows except that the mass density of the mixture ρm is used instead of the mass density of the fluid. This relationship is valid without any restriction on the triple correlation. Shear stress is found to be independent of the fall velocity and gradation of sediment particles.
Effects of chemical chaperones on partially retarded NaCl cotransporter mutants associated with Gitelman's syndrome in a mouse cortical collecting duct cell line.

BACKGROUND Epithelial cells lining the distal convoluted tubule express the thiazide-sensitive Na-Cl cotransporter (NCC) that is responsible for the reabsorption of 5-10% of the filtered load of Na(+) and Cl(-). Mutations in NCC cause the autosomal recessive renal disorder Gitelman's syndrome (GS). GS mutations give rise to mutant transporters that are either fully (class I) or partially (class II) retarded. Recent evidence indicates that class II mutations do not alter the intrinsic transport activity of NCC. These findings suggest that in GS caused by class II NCC mutations, pharmacological chaperones may be useful in treatment. METHODS Initial attempts using 4-phenylbutyrate and glycerol to increase Na(+) uptake in Xenopus laevis oocytes expressing the class II mutant L215P were unsuccessful. To study the effect of the chaperones in a more physiological setting, we next expressed hNCC in the polarized epithelial cell line of distal tubular origin, mpkCCD. RESULTS mpkCCD cells readily expressed the class II mutant R955Q, but not the class I mutant G741R. Wild-type hNCC was predominantly present in the approximately 120-1403 kD complex glycosylated form. In contrast, the R955Q mutant was predominantly present in a lower molecular weight form of approximately 100 kD. Pretreatment of R955Q expressing cells with 4-phenylbutyrate (5 mM, 16 h), but not thapsigargin (1 microM, 90 min), dimethyl sulfoxide (1%, 16 h) or glycerol (4%, 16 h), increased the expression of the complex glycosylated form and in parallel the number of hNCC positive cells. CONCLUSIONS Taken together, the data indicate that 4-phenylbutyrate is a promising candidate for rescuing partially retarded but otherwise functional class II GS mutants.
What It Means to (Not) Belong: A Case Study of How Boundary Perceptions Affect Second‐Generation Immigrants’ Attachments to the Nation

Across Europe, the symbolic boundaries drawn against Muslim/Middle Eastern immigrants and their children are increasingly rigid and exclusive. While there is broad agreement in the literature that external symbolic boundaries matter for individuals’ self-identifications, the process by which boundaries translate into experiences of (not) belonging is theoretically underdeveloped and empirically understudied. Through inductive analysis of in-depth interviews with second-generation immigrants of Middle Eastern descent in Denmark, this study contributes to the literature by examining boundary perceptions as the mediating link between externally drawn boundaries and subjectively felt belonging. The analysis demonstrates widespread agreement in interviewees’ perception of a bright boundary. At the same time, however, there is variation in the degree of belonging, which is explained by the interviewees’ perceptions of their own position in relation to 1 Financial support for this project was received from the Aarhus University Research Fund. I would like to thank the participants at the Workshop on Social Exclusion and Inclusion at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University for helpful comments on an early draft of this article. Also thanks to Karen A. Cerulo and three anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments. Cite as: Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær (2018). What It Means to (Not) Belong: A Case Study of How Boundary Perceptions Affect Second-Generation Immigrants’ Attachments to the Nation. Sociological Forum, 33(1), 118-138. doi:10.1111/socf.12402
The Design of Nonuniform Lapped Transforms

We propose a new method for designing nonuniform lapped transforms. The proposed method provides a simple yet effective way of designing lapped transforms with nonuniform frequency resolution and good time localization. This method is a generalization of an approach proposed by Princen, where the nonuniform filter bank is obtained by joining uniform cosine-modulated filter banks using transition filters. In the proposed approach, we use several transition filters to obtain a near perfect-reconstruction nonuniform lapped transform with significantly reduced overall distortion. This method has several advantages over existing ones, especially in producing nonuniform filter banks with good stopband attenuation and short filters; the resulting reduced delay makes the proposed method preferable for applications such as real-time audio coding. Microsoft Research One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 http://research.microsoft. com
Maximizing Efficiency of Wireless Power Transfer with Resonant Inductive Coupling

Wireless power transfer has been a dream sought after ever since the discovery of electricity. Beginning with electromagnetic induction, physicists and engineers have attempted to increase the efficiency with which electrical power can be transferred through the air. Recently, a team of scientists at MIT found that by adding a capacitor in parallel with the coil used to transmit the energy, the efficiency of the wireless power transfer could be increased dramatically. Two resonant circuits, one transmitting, one receiving, could be configured such that both have the same resonant frequency, and the ringing of one circuit with a sinusoid would cause the other to “pick up” the oscillations and begin ringing as well. This is called resonant inductive coupling. In this experiment, I investigated the relationship between the resonant frequency used by the system and the efficiency of the power transfer between the transmitting and receiving circuits. Two identical resonant circuits were constructed and the frequencies of both varied by changing the capacitors used. I measured efficiency by deriving the power input and power output using measurements from a digital multimeter and an oscilloscope. A function generator tuned to the resonant frequency that was being tested supplied the sinusoidal waveform. This experiment investigated the 20 – 600 kilohertz range of resonant frequencies. Results showed that as resonant frequency increases, efficiency increases proportionally, though with a slower and slower rate as frequencies got higher and higher. I also established that there is a maximum limit for efficiency, which is achieved by an infinitely high frequency. However, I also showed that by a certain frequency, it is pointless to attempt to increase frequency even more for higher efficiency, as the increase in efficiency is minimal and insignificant.
Computationally efficient equalization of room impulse responses robust to system estimation errors

Equalization techniques for room impulse responses (RIRs) are important in acoustic signal processing applications such as speech dereverberation. In practice, only approximate estimates of the RIRs are available and the inverse filters designed from these estimates may cause significant distortion in the equalized signal. A second issue is that existing equalizer design algorithms are computationally expensive. We here propose regularized subband equalizer design algorithm. Both the computational complexity and the robustness of the equalizer design to system estimation errors are improved. An analysis of the computational complexity and simulation examples are provided to support our study.
Specifying and detecting composite events in content-based publish/subscribe systems

Content-based publish/subscribe systems mediate between publishers of information and subscribers who sign up to receive information, by routing messages across the network from their source of publication to the point of subscription using the message content. The routing information is derived from the subscriptions. One particular problem faced by content-based publish/subscribe systems is how to turn the specification of complex subscriptions into routing information that can be distributed across the network. In this paper we describe a new declarative language for specifying composite events based on the typed /spl lambda/-calculus. Composite events are represented in this language by curried functional expressions, i.e., functions that can be called with less arguments than parameters and which return as a result an updated version of the function with the remaining parameters. Events which are components of the composite event are passed as arguments to such expressions, and the resulting evaluation produces a functional expression which represents the current state of the composite event. A property of this language, derived from a property of the /spl lambda/-calculus, is that results can be converted back to the expressions from which they were produced. We exploit this property to show how an expression representing a composite event can be converted into an expression from which routing information can be derived.
Unbiased residual echo power estimation for hands-free telephony

Residual echo arises in hands-free telephony equipment due to insufficient echo canceler convergence, but can be suppressed using a postfilter. The most important control parameter for postfilter adaptation is therefore the residual echo power spectral density (PSD). In this contribution we present and compare residual echo PSD estimation techniques. We introduce a new partitioned block-adaptive estimator delivering unbiased residual echo PSD estimates in strongly reverberant and noisy acoustic environments.
Effect of randomness and anisotropy on turing patterns in reaction-diffusion systems

We study the effect of randomness and anisotropy on Turing patterns in reaction-diffusion systems. For this purpose, the Gierer-Meinhardt model of pattern formation is considered. The cases we study are (i) randomness in the underlying lattice structure; (ii) the case in which there is a probability p that at a lattice site both reaction and diffusion occur, otherwise there is only diffusion; and finally, the effect of (iii) anisotropic and (iv) random diffusion coefficients on the formation of Turing patterns. The general conclusion is that the Turing mechanism of pattern formation is fairly robust in the presence of randomness and anisotropy.
Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference Cut-Points in Multi-Ethnic Populations from the UK and India: The ADDITION-Leicester, Jaipur Heart Watch and New Delhi Cross-Sectional Studies

Aims To derive cut-points for body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) for minority ethnic groups that are risk equivalent based on endogenous glucose levels to cut-points for white Europeans (BMI 30 kg/m2; WC men 102 cm; WC women 88 cm). Materials and Methods Cross-sectional data from participants aged 40–75 years: 4,672 white and 1,348 migrant South Asian participants from ADDITION-Leicester (UK) and 985 indigenous South Asians from Jaipur Heart Watch/New Delhi studies (India). Cut-points were derived using fractional polynomial models with fasting and 2-hour glucose as outcomes, and ethnicity, objectively-measured BMI/WC, their interaction and age as covariates. Results Based on fasting glucose, obesity cut-points were 25 kg/m2 (95% Confidence Interval: 24, 26) for migrant South Asian, and 18 kg/m2 (16, 20) for indigenous South Asian populations. For men, WC cut-points were 90 cm (85, 95) for migrant South Asian, and 87 cm (82, 91) for indigenous South Asian populations. For women, WC cut-points were 77 cm (71, 82) for migrant South Asian, and 54 cm (20, 63) for indigenous South Asian populations. Cut-points based on 2-hour glucose were lower than these. Conclusions These findings strengthen evidence that health interventions are required at a lower BMI and WC for South Asian individuals. Based on our data and the existing literature, we suggest an obesity threshold of 25 kg/m2 for South Asian individuals, and a very high WC threshold of 90 cm for South Asian men and 77 cm for South Asian women. Further work is required to determine whether lower cut-points are required for indigenous, than migrant, South Asians.
Design and performance of dynamic trust management for secure routing protocol

In this paper, for secure routing optimization we are introducing dynamic trust management protocol in information centric network and delay tolerant network (DTN) environments. In the existing system, dynamic trust management for DTN is used to deal with the detection of the selfish, malicious misbehaving nodes and genuine loss nodes. To disrupt DTN operations, malicious nodes performing trust-related assaults. Human conveying message devices in a DTN are communally egotistic to outsiders but altruistic to friends. The proposed system is designed to identify the malicious node and selfish node based on checking the node energy level and buffer level using multi-hop forwarding algorithm. But it is time consuming process. In the Proposed System, we implement ICN for validating the node history based on payoff calculation of node. It provides security and less time consumption. Before data transmission, ICN identifies the malicious node and selfish node based on Repetitive Trust Management and Adversary Detection scheme.