Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
This Version : April 10 , 2008 Does Corporate Governance Risk at Home Affect Investment Choices Abroad ?

Disparity between control and ownership rights gives rise to the risk of tunneling by the controlling shareholder. This disparity is prevalent in many emerging market economies and present in some developed countries. At the same time, international investors come from different countries whose home markets are characterized by varying degrees of control-ownership disparity. This paper studies whether this difference in investors’ home countries affects their portfolio choice in an emerging market. It combines two unique data sets on ownership and control in business groups, and investor-stock level foreign investment in Korea. A key finding is that, investors from low-disparity countries disfavor highdisparity stocks in Korea, but investors from high-disparity countries are indifferent. Moreover, investors from low-disparity countries became averse to disparity only after the Asian financial crisis. These results suggest that the nature of corporate governance in international investors’ home countries affects their portfolio choice abroad, and therefore that these investors should not be lumped together in analyses of their portfolio choice.
Storm flow response to road building and partial cutting in small streams of northern California

To assess the influence of road building and logging on storm flow response, a pair of watersheds were studied at Caspar Creek near Fort Bragg in northern California from 1963 to 1975. Selection cutting and tractor yarding of 85-year-old second-growth redwood and Douglas-fir forest did not significantly affect large peak streamflows. The first streamflow peaks in the fall, however, were increased about 300% after logging. These early fall storms produced small peaks, which had little, if any, hydraulic consequence. The effect of logging on peak flow was best predicted by a variable representing the percentage of the area logged divided by the sequential storm number within the year. velop between logged and unlogged watersheds during the summer. The soil begins to be recharged with moisture in fall with the onset of the rainy season, a period that also corre- sponds to the beginning of vegetative dormancy. In Oregon, Rothacher (1971, 1973) reported that the first storms of the fall produced streamflow peaks from a 96-ha clear-cut watershed in the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest that ranged from 40% to 200% larger than those predicted from the prelogging relationship. In the Alsea watersheds near the Oregon coast, Harris ( 1977) found no statistically significant change in the mean peak flow after clear-cutting a 71-ha watershed or patch-cutting 25% of an adjacent 303-ha watershed. When Harr et al. ( 1975) included an additional 30 smaller early win- ter runoff events, a significant increase in peak flow was found after clear-cutting. These smaller runoff events reduced the size of the average peak used in Harris' study by about one half. Average peak flow was increased 30%, and average fall peak flow was increased 122% (Harr, 1976). Large peak flows, which tend to damage stream channels and transport most of the sediment, were not significantly affected by logging in ei- ther the H. J. Andrews (Rothacher, 1973) or Alsea (Harr, 1976) studies. Few studies have evaluated the effect of partially logging a watershed on hydrograph response. When 20% of a 43-ha Pennsylvania watershed was clear-cut, average peak discharge during the growing season rose by 351%, from 0.11 to 0.50 (m 3 /s)/km 2 (Partridge and Sopper, 1973). When 25% of a 101- ha watershed in the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest was clear-cut in patches, Rothacher (1973) found no significant change in the slope of the before-logging and after-logging re- gressions. The adjusted mean peak flow, however, increased 10% from 0.30 to 0.33 (m 3 /s)/km 2 , after logging. This in- crease was highly significant. Harr et al. (1979) reported sub- stantial peak flow increases after shelterwood harvesting a 69- ha watershed and clear-cutting a 50-ha watershed in south- western Oregon. No significant change in peak discharge was found, however, after patch-cutting 30% of an adjacent 68-ha watershed. Only 14 peaks were used to calibrate these Coyote Creek watersheds, none of which exceeded a discharge of 0.64 (m 3 /s)/km 2 .
UML-Based Based Development of Rich Internet Applications

Rich Internet Applications provide users with facilities in web applications that are similar to desktop applications. This class of applications imposes new challenges on software design. In this paper, we propose a new method for designing rich internet applications. The design process uses results from an objectoriented analysis and employs interaction spaces as the basic abstraction mechanism for user interface design. State diagrams are employed as refinements of interaction spaces and task models to specify synchronization events and follow up actions on the client and server side. The notation is based on UML. The use of the method is illustrated with a case study of the design of an interactive web application for furniture configuration. This application features recommendation of furniture items according to the interaction of a user and advanced customization features for furniture placement to show the main advantages.
Work-Conserving In-Sequence Striping in Multi-Band Wireless Backhaul Systems

Link aggregation, or multi-band striping, has been used in wireless backhaul systems to overcome the limitations of bandwidth and transmission range. Work-conserving and in-sequence delivery are essential but conflicting requirements in multi-band striping systems. Previous schemes can achieve one or the other, but not both. The heterogeneous channel and time varying data rate in multi-band wireless backhaul systems present additional challenges. We aim at designing a multi-band striping algorithm to achieve both work-conserving and in-sequence delivery in the heterogeneous time-varying multi-band wireless backhaul system. We propose a parallel processing architecture for multi-band aggregation, and derive the necessary conditions for such system to achieve sequence preserving and work conserving. An optimum set of timing controls is developed and proved to provide the best performance. We design a work-conserving in-sequence striping algorithm and prove it to be sequence preserving and work conserving. The algorithm is then extended to practical data granularity. Performance analysis and simulation results demonstrate that our designs are able to preserve data sequence, reduce delay, and achieve 100% channel utilization.
Video Quality Estimation for Mobile Streaming Applications with Neuronal Networks

The provision of mobile multimedia streaming ap- plications becomes essential for emerging 3G networks. The crucial point of successful deployment of multimedia mobile services is the user satisfaction level, since the perceptual video quality for such low bit rates, frame rates and resolutions is limited. Depending on the content character of a video sequence, the compression and network settings, maximizing the subjective perceptual quality also differs. The complexity of quality estimation and maximizing perceptual quality for mobile streaming application is still high if only the most significant influence factors are taken into account. Aim of this work is to design an artificial neural network with low complexity for the estimation of visual perceptual quality, based on a combination of a possibly small set of the most important objective parameters (compression settings and content features). To achieve this, the neural network was trained with a set of objective and subjective parameters, obtained by an extensive survey. Moreover, estima- tions with neural networks do not require any knowledge about the original sequence. The achieved correlation with the data set is as good as if the more the complex human vision based estimation is applied.
Haematology and Plasma Biochemistry of Wild Black Flying-Foxes, (Pteropus alecto) in Queensland, Australia

This paper establishes reference ranges for hematologic and plasma biochemistry values in wild Black flying-foxes (Pteropus alecto) captured in South East Queensland, Australia. Values were found to be consistent with those of other Pteropus species. Four hundred and forty-seven animals were sampled over 12 months and significant differences were found between age, sex, reproductive and body condition cohorts in the sample population. Mean values for each cohort fell within the determined normal adult reference range, with the exception of elevated levels of alkaline phosphatase in juvenile animals. Hematologic and biochemistry parameters of injured animals showed little or no deviation from the normal reference values for minor injuries, while two animals with more severe injury or abscessation showed leucocytosis, anaemia, thrombocytosis, hyperglobulinemia and hypoalbuminemia.
Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) Precentral Corticospinal System Asymmetry and Handedness: A Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Background Most humans are right handed, and most humans exhibit left-right asymmetries of the precentral corticospinal system. Recent studies indicate that chimpanzees also show a population-level right-handed bias, although it is less strong than in humans. Methodology/Principal Findings We used in vivo diffusion-weighted and T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the relationship between the corticospinal tract (CST) and handedness in 36 adult female chimpanzees. Chimpanzees exhibited a hemispheric bias in fractional anisotropy (FA, left>right) and mean diffusivity (MD, right>left) of the CST, and the left CST was centered more posteriorly than the right. Handedness correlated with central sulcus depth, but not with FA or MD. Conclusions/Significance These anatomical results are qualitatively similar to those reported in humans, despite the differences in handedness. The existence of a left>right FA, right>left MD bias in the corticospinal tract that does not correlate with handedness, a result also reported in some human studies, suggests that at least some of the structural asymmetries of the corticospinal system are not exclusively related to laterality of hand preference.
oftware ecosystems – A systematic literature review

A software ecosystem is the interaction of a set of actors on top of a common technological platform that results in a number of software solutions or services. Arguably, software ecosystems are gaining importance with the advent of, e.g., the Google Android, Apache, and Salesforce.com ecosystems. However, there exists no systematic overview of the research done on software ecosystems from a software
Temporal distortions in H.265/HEVC

In the newly established video coding standard H.265/High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), temporal distortions are introduced under certain coding configurations, which are perceptually annoying at medium and low bitrates. In this paper, two typical temporal distortions due to temporal quality fluctuations in HEVC, i.e., temporal flicker artifact (TFA) and temporal pumping artifact (TPA) are explored in terms of their perception. The coding parameters influencing the perception of TPA and TFA are analysed. The related work in this paper is useful for understanding the fundamental reasons of temporal distortions in HEVC and for HEVC coding to alleviate, or even eliminate the TPA and TFA.
Glial Growth Factor/Neuregulin Inhibits Schwann Cell Myelination and Induces Demyelination

During development, neuregulin-1 promotes Schwann cell proliferation and survival; its role in later events of Schwann cell differentiation, including myelination, is poorly understood. Accordingly, we have examined the effects of neuregulin-1 on myelination in neuron-Schwann cell cocultures. Glial growth factor (GGF), a neuregulin-1 isoform, significantly inhibited myelination by preventing axonal segregation and ensheathment. Basal lamina formation was not affected. Treatment of established myelinated cultures with GGF resulted in striking demyelination that frequently began at the paranodes and progressed to the internode. Demyelination was dose dependent and accompanied by dedifferentiation of Schwann cells to a promyelinating stage, as evidenced by reexpression of the transcription factor suppressed cAMP-inducible POU; a significant proportion of cells with extensive demyelination also proliferated. Two other Schwann cell mitogens, fibroblast growth factor-2 and transforming growth factor-β, inhibited myelination but did not cause demyelination, suggesting this effect is specific to the neuregulins. The neuregulin receptor proteins, erbB2 and erbB3, are expressed on ensheathing and myelinating Schwann cells and rapidly phosphorylated with GGF treatment. GGF treatment of myelinating cultures also induced phosphorylation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, mitogen-activated protein kinase, and a 120-kD protein. These results suggest that neuronal mitogens, including the neuregulins, may inhibit myelination during development and that activation of mitogen signaling pathways may contribute to the initial demyelination and subsequent Schwann cell proliferation observed in various pathologic conditions.
Dispersion law of edge waves in the quantum Hall effect.

We present a microscopic description of edge excitations in the quantum Hall effect which is analogous to Feynman's theory of superfluids. Analytic expressions for the excitation energies are derived in finite dots at integer filling. Our predictions are in excellent agreement with the results of a recent numerical diagonalization. In the limit of large N, where N is the number of electrons, the dispersion law is proportional from log. For short range interactions it instead behaves as ${\mathit{q}}^{3}$. The same results are also derived using hydrodynamic theory of incompressible liquids.
Differential predictors of intimate partner sexual coercion versus physical assault perpetration

ABSTRACT The current study attempted to strengthen existing literature regarding predictors of perpetrating intimate partner sexual violence to determine if there are unique predictors of sexual violence that differentiate it from physical abuse. It was hypothesised that men’s controlling, dominant and jealousy behaviours, and verbal aggression would significantly predict increased intimate partner sexual coercion and physical assault perpetration. These predictors were expected to be more predictive of sexual coercion than physical assault perpetration. Couples were recruited from the community (N = 159) in a cross-sectional study recruiting couples with a violent male partner. Results demonstrated that men’s controlling behaviour was a significant predictor of sexual coercion and physical assault perpetration and behavioural jealousy was a significant predictor of sexual coercion perpetration. No predictors studied better predicted sexual coercion more than physical assault perpetration. These findings suggest that sexual coercion may be another type of physical assault without unique predictors.
The Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule and Heart Development : What is NCAM Doing in the Heart ?

The neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) may be as important in the heart as it is in the nervous system. NCAM is a cell surface glycoprotein which manifests great diversity in polypeptide isoform and glycosylation throughout cardiogenesis as well as neurogenesis. It is expressed on cardiac myocytes in the myocardium and on epicardial and endocardial cells as well as on the components that innervate the heart. The patterns of its expression suggest that it could be modulating a number of events including cardiomyocyte interactions from initial epithelialization and tubular heart stages, interactions of the developing His-Pukinje fiber myocytes, endocardial mesenchymal transformation, and neural crest cell migration into the heart. Approaches that can be pursued to support these hypotheses include taking advantage of transgenic mouse lines and utilizing the information available about NCAM function from studies of the nervous system and skeletal muscle. The challenge still remains to determine why a neural adhesion molecule such as NCAM would be needed in such abundance and with such a widespread expression in the developing, adult, and diseased heart.
Building Schools, Building People: The School Principal's Role in Leading a Learning Community

This article describes the work of the school principal in building a vibrant learning community for staff and students. The descriptions emerged from a series of investigations into teaching, learning, and leading practices within schools that have high capacity for effective teaching and learning. These investigations demonstrated that the direct and consistent involvement of the school principal is essential for building a culture of learning for staff and students. In successful schools, principals serve four broad functions: center, holder of the vision, builder, and role model. These roles yield cultures and structures that sustain, energize, and vitalize teaching and learning.
A Detailed Stylometric Investigation of the İnce Memed Tetralogy

We analyze four Ince Memed novels of Yasar Kemal using six style markers: “most frequent words,” “syllable counts,” “word type -or part of speech- information,” “sentence length in terms of words,” “word length in text,” and “word length in vocabulary. ” For analysis we divide each novel into five thousand word text blocks and count the frequencies of each style marker in these blocks. The principal component analysis results show clear separation between the first two and the last two volumes; the blocks of the first two novels are also distinguishable from each other. The blocks of the last two volumes are intermixed. This parallels the fact that the author planned the last two volumes as three separate novels, but later condensed them into two. The style markers showing the best separation are “most frequent words” and “sentence length”. We use stepwise discriminant analysis to determine the best discriminators of each style marker and then use them in cross validation. The related results concur with the principal component analysis results. For example, the cross validation results obtained by “most frequent words” and “sentence length,” respectively, provide 87% and 81% correct classification of the text blocks to their corresponding volumes. Further investigation based on multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) reveals how the attributes of each style marker group distinguish among the volumes.
Persistent Hemispheric Differences in the Perceptual Selection of Spatial Frequencies

Previous research has shown that the right hemisphere processes low spatial frequencies more efficiently than the left hemisphere, which preferentially processes high spatial frequencies. These studies have typically measured RTs to single, briefly flashed gratings and/or have directed observers to attend to a particular spatial frequency immediately before making a judgment about a subsequently presented stimulus. Thus, it is unclear whether the hemispheres differ in perceptual selection from multiple spatial frequencies that are simultaneously present in the environment, without bias from selective attention. Moreover, the time course of hemispheric asymmetry in spatial frequency processing is unknown. We addressed both of these questions with binocular rivalry, a measure of perceptual selection from competing alternatives over time. Participants viewed a pair of rivalrous orthogonal gratings with different spatial frequencies, presented either to the left or right of central fixation, and continuously reported which grating they perceived. At the beginning of a trial, the low spatial frequency grating was perceptually selected more often when presented in the left hemifield (right hemisphere) than in the right hemifield (left hemisphere), whereas the high spatial frequency grating showed the opposite pattern of results. This hemispheric asymmetry in perceptual selection persisted for the entire 30-sec stimulus presentation, continuing long after stimulus onset. These results indicate stable differences in the resolution of ambiguity across spatial locations and demonstrate the importance of considering sustained differences in perceptual selection across space when characterizing conscious representations of complex scenes.
Regret Minimization in Nonstationary Markov Decision Processes

We consider decision-making problems in Markov decision processes where both the rewards and the transition probabilities vary in an arbitrary ( e.g., nonstationary) fashion to some extent. We propose online learning algorithms and provide guarantees on their performance evaluated in retrospect against stationary policies. Unlike previous works, the gu arantees depend critically on the variability of the uncertainty in the transition probabilities, but hol d regardless of arbitrary changes in rewards and transition probabilities. First, we use an approach bas ed on robust dynamic programming and extend it to the case where reward observation is limited to the actual state-action trajectory. Next, we present a computationally efficient simulation-based Q-learning style algorithm that requires neither prior knowledge nor estimation of the transition probabilities. We show both probabilistic performance guarantees and deterministic guarantees on the expected performance 1 .
Procedural Silhouette Edge Drawing

In the development of computer graphics, non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) technology has been a focus of research in recent years. In comparison with photo-realistic rendering which simulates realistic natural images, NPR provides more concise and humanistic expressiveness in images. Among the many types of workflow in NPR technology, the procedural type provides the user an easier and simplified workflow. However, procedural NPR algorithms usually produce uniform and non-humanistic images due to a lack of interaction with the user. Since silhouettes are an important feature of edges for expressing the shape of an object, our work takes silhouettes as examples to propose a stroke construction workflow based on edge topology wherein users can combine pure stroke elements according to user-defined rules for their formation. Thus, more humanistic expressions can be added to the resulting silhouettes. First, the procedural NPR framework for stroke generation is outlined. Then, the mainstream NPR techniques and their respective theorems are discussed, followed by an introduction to the framework and algorithm of the proposed system and a discussion thereof. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed framework is illustrated by a sample algorithm, after which pertinent research results are presented.
Learning Functional Object-Categories from a Relational Spatio-Temporal Representation

We propose a framework that learns functional object-categories from spatio-temporal data sets such as those abstracted from video. The data is represented as one activity graph that encodes qualitative spatio-temporal patterns of interaction between objects. Event classes are induced by statistical generalization, the instances of which encode similar patterns of spatio-temporal relationships between objects. Equivalence classes of objects are discovered on the basis of their similar role in multiple event instantiations. Objects are represented in a multidimensional space that captures their role in all the events. Unsupervised learning in this space results in functional object-categories. Experiments in the domain of food preparation suggest that our techniques represent a significant step in unsupervised learning of functional object categories from spatio-temporal patterns of object interaction.