Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pay for Performance : Environmental Risk-Taking and Disasters ∗

We explore the relationship between equity compensation and the failure of risky projects, finding a non-monotonic relationship. However, for those settings where failures are high-stakes– e.g., environmental disasters and accounting scandals– the relationship is positive. We test these predictions for environmental and financial accounting failures of large US firms and find that changing CEO equity compensation from 100% stocks to 100% options can increases law breaking and incidence rates 50-80% and the magnitude of events by over 100%. The effectiveness of policies such as Sarbanes-Oxley and FAS123R are also analyzed. ∗I would like to thank Jennifer Brown, Georgy Egorov, Mitchell Hoffman, David Matsa and Max Schanzenbach for their helpful comments. Also thanked are the participants at the CRES workshop (Washington University, St. Louis), Institutions and Innovation conference (Harvard Business School), and Natural Experiments Workshop (Munich) and seminar participants at the Kellogg School of Management and Northwestern Law School. I thank Jared Petravicius for his excellent research assistance and the Ford Center for Global Citizenship for financial support of the project.
Recent trends in automatic information retrieval

Substantial successes were achieved in the early years in automatic indexing and retrieval using single term indexing theories with term weight assignments based on frequency considerations. The development of more refined indexing systems using thesaurus aids and automatically constructed term association maps changed the retrieval effectiveness only slightly. The recent introduction of the relevance concept in the form of probabilistic retrieval models provided a firm basis for term weighting and document ranking practices. However, the probabilistic methods were not helpful in substantially enhancing the retrieval effectiveness. At the present time, attempts are made to add artificial intelligence concepts to the document retrieval environment in the form of fancy graphics interfaces, learning systems for query and document indexing and for collection searching, extended logic models relating documents and information requests, and analysis methods based on the use of semantic maps and other kinds of knowledge structures. Using the earlier developments and evaluation results as guidelines, an attempt is made to outline the information retrieval environment of the future and to assess the usefulness of some of the currently proposed search and retrieval methods.
Least Squares Fitting Technical Note: Review of Methods for Linear Least-squares Fitting of Data and Application to Atmospheric Chemistry Problems Least Squares Fitting

Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures ◭ ◮ ◭ ◮ Back Close Full Screen / Esc Abstract Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures ◭ ◮ ◭ ◮ Back Close Full Screen / Esc Abstract The representation of data, whether geophysical observations, numerical model output or laboratory results, by a best fit straight line is a routine practice in the geosciences and other fields. While the literature is full of detailed analyses of procedures for fitting straight lines to values with uncertainties, a surprising number of scientists blindly 5 use the standard least squares method, such as found on calculators and in spread-sheet programs, that assumes no uncertainties in the x values. Here, the available procedures for estimating the best fit straight line to data, including those applicable to situations for uncertainties present in both the x and y variables, are reviewed. Representative methods that are presented in the literature for bivariate weighted fits 10 are compared using several sample data sets, and guidance is presented as to when the somewhat more involved iterative methods are required, or when the standard least-squares procedure would be expected to be satisfactory. A spreadsheet-based template is made available that employs one method for bivariate fitting.
p16 Translation Suppressed by miR-24

Background: Expression of the tumor suppressor p16 increases during aging and replicative senescence. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here, we report that the microRNA miR-24 suppresses p16 expression in human diploid fibroblasts and cervical carcinoma cells. Increased p16 expression with replicative senescence was associated with decreased levels of miR-24, a microRNA that was predicted to associate with the p16 mRNA coding and 39-untranslated regions. Ectopic miR-24 overexpression reduced p16 protein but not p16 mRNA levels. Conversely, introduction of antisense (AS)-miR-24 blocked miR-24 expression and markedly enhanced p16 protein levels, p16 translation, and the production of EGFP-p16 reporter bearing the miR-24 target recognition sites. Conclusions/Significance: Together, our results suggest that miR-24 represses the initiation and elongation phases of p16 translation. Citation: Lal A, Kim HH, Abdelmohsen K, Kuwano Y, Pullmann R, et al. (2008) p16 Translation Suppressed by miR-24. PLoS ONE 3(3): e1864. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone. 0001864 Editor: Thomas Preiss, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Australia Received January 23, 2008; Accepted February 21, 2008; Published March 26, 2008 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. Funding: National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: alal@cbrinstitute.org (AL); myriam-gorospe@nih.gov (MG)
Delta Mush: smoothing deformations while preserving detail

Delta Mush is a Voodoo deformer, developed by Rhythm & Hues, which smooths arbitrary deformation of a polygonal mesh without smoothing the original detail of the model. Delta Mush does not require meticulous up-front tuning: it easily accommodates model and rig changes; and it has proven to be versatile far beyond cleanup. It has been used in all character rigs at R&H since it was developed in 2010. By making bad deformations good, Delta Mush helps facilitate an efficient character workflow: riggers can use simpler binds and coarser deformers; animators have access to interactive, realtime rigs; and crowds can incorporate hero-quality deformations globally because they are so lightweight.
Efficient preconditioning of laplacian matrices for computer graphics

We present a new multi-level preconditioning scheme for discrete Poisson equations that arise in various computer graphics applications such as colorization, edge-preserving decomposition for two-dimensional images, and geodesic distances and diffusion on three-dimensional meshes. Our approach interleaves the selection of fine-and coarse-level variables with the removal of weak connections between potential fine-level variables (sparsification) and the compensation for these changes by strengthening nearby connections. By applying these operations before each elimination step and repeating the procedure recursively on the resulting smaller systems, we obtain a highly efficient multi-level preconditioning scheme with linear time and memory requirements. Our experiments demonstrate that our new scheme outperforms or is comparable with other state-of-the-art methods, both in terms of operation count and wall-clock time. This speedup is achieved by the new method's ability to reduce the condition number of irregular Laplacian matrices as well as homogeneous systems. It can therefore be used for a wide variety of computational photography problems, as well as several 3D mesh processing tasks, without the need to carefully match the algorithm to the problem characteristics.
Feedforward Loss Control of Three-Level Active NPC Converters

The three-level neutral-point-clamped voltage-source converter (NPC VSC) is widely used in high-power medium-voltage (MV) applications. To overcome its major drawback - the unequal loss distribution among the semiconductors - the use of active NPC (ANPC) switches was previously proposed. In this paper, a simple feedforward loss-control scheme for the ANPC converter is presented. The principle of operation of the ANPC VSC is experimentally verified for the first time. Electrical measurements on a low-voltage test bench prove the proper function of the ANPC converter. Infrared junction temperature measurements confirm the improved loss distribution using the new loss-control scheme. Finally, the authors demonstrate the superior performance of the loss-controlled ANPC converter in various MV applications.
The assessment of regional pulse wave velocity accuracy of carotid arteries estimated by using cross-correlation of ultrasound beams

Regional pulse wave velocity (PWV) is the preferred index for quantitative evaluation of arterial stiffness locally, and has shown to be high clinical importance for effective prevention and early diagnosis of cardiovascular events. However, there have been far less systematic studies on the accurate performance of the regional PWV measurement along a segment of carotid artery and relevant influence factors. In this paper, an ultrasound simulation model for pulse wave propagation is proposed to investigate the accurate performance of PWV measurement and the influence factors such as beam density and frame rate of ultrasound scanning systemically. 30 sets of B-scan ultrasonic sequence images of carotid artery at different frame rates are simulated for obtaining the corresponding RF ultrasound signals, and then the delay time of pulse wave transit at different locations along the artery segment is calculated by two cross-correlation-based data processes. Finally, the average PWV is calculated from a linear fitting algorithm applied to time-distance relationship of pulse wave. The results show that the estimated PWV of carotid artery based on ultrasound RF signals suffers from errors ranged from 7 % to 11 % The frame rates of ultrasound imaging decreased from 1127 Hz to 376 Hz do not significantly affect the accuracy of PWV measurements, but decreased to 226 Hz would result in much larger measurement errors. Moreover, the accuracy is higher by the linear fitting algorithm based on the pulse wave transiting time from beam positions apart far away.
The Relation between Sports Participation and Academic Achievement: The Mediating Role of Parental Support and Self-Esteem

Sports participation reported in a positive relationship with health and academic achievement. Sports participation may improve cognitive health leading to improved academic achievement. Some other factors may also be involved in this regard including parental support and self-esteem. In this study, we examined the relationship between sports participation, parental support, self-esteem and academic achievement due to concern about reduced education level of students and serious lack of research regarding this issue in Pakistan. We hypothesized that sports participation would influence students’ academic achievement. We further conceptualized a mediation model in which sports participation enhanced academic achievement through enhancing parental support and self-esteem. 248 students from three universities of Pakistan (male = 188; mean age = 17.5, SD = 1.15; female = 60; mean age =17.3, SD = 1.18) participated in the study, in which questionnaires were used to measure parental support, sports participation, and self-esteem. Two scales were used to measure parental support (school based parental support and sports participation based parental support). Sports participation level was measured using an adapted version of The Physical Activity Index (PAI) Scale consisting of 3 items. Rosenberg self-esteem scale assessed self-esteem. Data analysis was performed using the structural equation modelling.We found no direct relationship between sports participation and academic achievement. We found parental support and self-esteem as mediators in the relationship between sports participation and academic achievement. The mediational models suggested focus on vital role of parental support and self-esteem to have better academic performance.
An overview on text coherence methods

The increasing availability of texts generated in many aria and online information has necessitated intensive research in the area of automatic text coherence identification within the Natural Language Processing (NLP) community. Over the past two decades, the problem has been addressed from many different perspectives, in varying domains and using various paradigms such as text summarization, text simplification, text generation and machine translation. This survey intends to investigate some of the most relevant approaches both in the areas of semantic and syntactic text coherence recognition methods, giving special emphasis to empirical methods and syntactic techniques. Special attention is devoted to categorize and classify of proposed methods, as future research on coherence and cohesion of texts is strongly dependent on progress in this area.
Presence of Observers Increases One Repetition Maximum in College-age Males and Females

Purpose To determine if the presence of observers affects muscular strength performance in college-age males and females. Methods Twenty-five women and 24 men participated in the study. Two counter-balanced trials were performed in which participants completed 1-RM tests in bench press and leg press. During one trial, two members of the opposite gender observed the 1-RM tests. During the other trial there were no observers, other than the tester. Results 1-RM for females increased 3.4±0.8 lbs on bench press (p<.001) and increased 9.2±3.8 lbs on leg press (p=.025) when observers were present. 1-RM for males increased 4.2±1.1 lbs on bench press (p=.001) and increased 18.8±5.2 lbs on leg press (p=.002) with observers present. There was no difference in the percent increase in 1-RM between males and females for either leg press (p=.71) or bench press (p=.08). Conclusion College-age males and females lifted more weight during a 1-RM test when observers were present.
A COMPARISON OF MARCHING-ON IN TIME METHOD WITH MARCHING-ON IN DEGREE METHOD FOR THE TDIE SOLVER

One of the most popular methods to solve a time domain electric field integral equation (TD-EFIE) is the marching-on-in-time(MOT) method. Recently, a new method called marching-on-in- degree(MOD) that uses Laguerre polynomials as temporal basis functions has been developed to eliminate the late time instability of the MOT method. A comparison is presented between these two methods from the standpoint of formulation, stability, cost and accuracy. Numerical results are presented to illustrate these features in the comparison.
A cortex-like model for animal recognition based on texture using feature-selective hashing

Building a model that can mimic the brain's cortex has always been a major goal, because the human brain recognizes objects in terms of speed, reliability and flexibility that are always unique pattern for machine vision systems. In this paper, we are inspired by neuroscience and computer science that have designed a framework that can be fast and accurate emulation of the inferior temporal cortex with feature selective hashing to recognize animals. We worked on KTH database containing 1239 images in 13 classes that took photos from animals in wild.
A Coverage Control Algorithm Based on Probability Model for Three-Dimensional Wireless Sensor Networks

The main study of traditional probability coverage problem in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is aiming at two-dimensional space, however, most practical applications of wireless sensor network is placed in a three-dimensional sensor networks. Therefore, probability model is introduced for three-dimensional WSNs. This paper presents a method that using Voronoi divide to control the Scheduling of the probability model nodes in the target area. Also, a coverage control algorithm based on probability model (PMCCA) is proposed. We verify the effectiveness and the practice of PMCCA algorithm by comparing PMCCA algorithm to another algorithm in simulation experiment.
Low Bound of Energy-Latency Trade-Off of Opportunistic Routing in Multi-Hop Networks

During the last decade, many works were devoted to improving the performance of relaying techniques in ad hoc networks. One promising approach consists in allowing the relay nodes to cooperate, thus using spatial diversity to increase the capacity of the system. However, this approach introduces an overhead in terms of information exchange, increasing the complexity of the receivers. A simpler way of exploiting spatial diversity is referred to as opportunistic routing. In this scheme, a cluster of nodes still serves as relay candidates but only a single node in the cluster forwards the packet. This paper proposes a thorough analysis of opportunistic routing efficiency under different realistic radio channel conditions. The study aims at finding the best trade-off between two objectives: energy and latency minimizations, under a hard reliability constraint. We derive an optimal bound, namely, the Pareto front of the related optimization problem, which offers a good insight into the benefits of opportunistic routing compared with classical multi-hop routing.
Applicability Of Interference Processing To DTH Reception

Today fixed satellite broadcast reception has to compete efficiently with other means of broadcast content delivery to end-users. The ease of reception is essential to maintain a high penetration rate under more competitive conditions. The introduction of DVB-S2 increases efficiency and allows for a higher throughput or a reduction of the reception equipment requirements. This means that a robust broadcast reception is conceivable with a reduced direct-to-home (DTH) antenna size. The current interference situation at common geostationary broadcast positions dictates the spatial discrimination requirements of common direct-to-home (DTH) reception antennas. A more robust coding rate or a relaxation of the frequency coordination constraints would obviously relax the requirements on the reception front-end but only at the expense of a reduced aggregate efficiency. The use of known interference processing schemes for DTH reception has been investigated under dual reception path scenarios, see [1]. The present work extends the concept by introducing linear pre-processing (LPP) to combine coherent reception paths. These mechanisms will only be practical if the transmitted broadcast signals are compliant with established standards (ie. DVB-S [5] or DVB-S2 [4]). The maximization of the efficiency is a main objective under given reception environments. We show how multi-user detection techniques can increase efficiency and allow reduced antenna size under realistic conditions.
Multi Criteria ABC Analysis using Artificial-Intelligence-based Classification Techniques - Case Study of a Pharmaceutical Company

ABC analysis is a popular and effective method used to classify inventory items into specific categories that can be managed and controlled separately. In traditional ABC analysis the inventory items are categorized in to A ,B and C classes based on the annual dollar usage. The annual dollar usage is determined as the product of unit cost of each item and its annual demand. The items are arranged in the descending order of annual dollar usage. In traditional ABC analysis annual demand and Unit cost are the only criteria for classification. Researchers have been developing multi – criteria ABC classification models to include criteria such as criticality, Lead time and ordering cost etc. Several classification methods have been proposed in the literature like Analytical Hierarchy process (AHP), Data Envelopment analysis (DEA) and TOPSIS, etc. In this paper the authors have applied artificial-intelligence –based classification methods for the inventory classification of a pharmaceutical manufacturing company. The AI methods proposed in this paper are Back-propagation (BP) artificial neural network, Support Vector Machines (SVM), K-Nearest neighbor and Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA). Out of the above methods SVM enables higher classification accuracy than the others. This finding suggests the possibility of implementing AI – based techniques for multi-criteria ABC analysis in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
Interpolation of low resolution images for improved accuracy in human face recognition

This paper presents the effect of interpolation schemes, namely, nearest-neighbor, bilinear, and bicubic, when applied to low-resolution images as a preprocessing step for improving the recognition rate in human face recognition system. Three feature extraction methods are used, namely, Local Binary Pattern, Discrete Wavelet Transform, and Block-Based Discrete Cosine Transform, with and without interpolation for comparison purpose. The experiments are conducted on the ORL database. Bicubic and bilinear improve the recognition rate of low resolution images considerably.
Data Augmentation for the Bayesian Analysis of Multinomial Logit Models

This article introduces a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method for sampling the parameters of a multinomial logit model from their posterior distribution. Let yi ∈ {0, . , M} denote the categorical response of subject i with covariates xi = (xi1, . . . , xip) T . Let X = (x1, . . . ,xn) T denote the design matrix, and let y = (y1, . . . , yn) T . Multinomial logit models relate yi to xi through
Integrating formalism and pragmatism: architectural security

Two major schools have dominated computer security research and thinking for the last twenty to twenty-five years - formalism and pragmatism. In spite of all their work, progress has been limited, system designers do not incorporate security principles and security is seen as a detriment to functionality. This paper suggests that an architectural approach, fostered by better communication among security researchers and between the security and operational communities, may yield more practical and effective security solutions. These axhitectural solutions are not totally general, but they have a structure and are applicable to large classes of problems.
Trust in health care encounters and systems: a case study of British pensioners living in Spain

Research on trust in health care faces two enduring challenges. Firstly, there are conceptual ambiguities in distinguishing trust from related concepts, such as confidence or dependence. Second, the tacit understandings which underpin the ‘faith’ element of trust are difficult to explicate. A case study of British pensioners who have moved to Spain provides an opportunity to explore trust in a setting where they often have a choice of where to access health care (UK or Spain), and are therefore not in a state of dependence, and in which the ‘differences’ of a new field generates reflection on their tacit expectations of providers and systems. In accounting for decisions to use (or not to use) Spanish health care, British pensioners cited experiential knowledge of symbolic indicators of trustworthy institutions (they were hygienic, modern, efficient), which contributed to background confidence in the system, and interpersonal qualities of practitioners (respect for older people, embodied empathy and reciprocity) which evoked familiar relations, within which faith is implicit. In contrast, with limited recent access to the British system, their background confidence had been compromised by reports of poor performance, with few opportunities to rebuild the interrelational bases of trust.