Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Money Matter? An Artificial Intelligence Approach

This paper provides the most complete evidence to date on the importance of monetary aggregates as a policy tool in an inflation forecasting experiment. Every possible definition of 'money' in the USA is being considered for the full data period (1960 -2006), in addition to two different approaches to constructing the benchmark asset, using the most sophisticated non-linear artificial intelligence techniques available, namely, recurrent neural networks, evolutionary strategies and kernel methods. Three top computer scientists in three top UK universities (Dr Peter Tino at the University of Birmingham, Dr Graham Kendall at the University of Nottingham and Dr Jonathan Tepper at Nottingham Trent University) are competing to find the best fitting US inflation forecasting models using their own specialist artificial intelligence techniques. Results will be evaluated using standard forecasting evaluation criteria and compared to forecasts from traditional econometric models produced by Dr Binner. This paper therefore addresses not only the most controversial questions in monetary economics -exactly how to construct monetary aggregates and to what level of aggregation, but also addresses the ever increasing role of artificial intelligence techniques in economics and how these methods can improve upon traditional econometric modelling techniques. Lessons learned from the experiment will have direct relevance for monetary policymakers around the world and econometricians/forecasters alike. Given the multidisciplinary nature of this work, the results will also add value to the existing knowledge of computer scientists in particular and more generally speaking, any scientist using artificial intelligence techniques.
Institute for Numerical and Computational Analysis Dublin , Ireland A Mixed Finite Element Method for the Stationary Semiconductor Continuity Equations

1. Introduction The stationary behaviour of semiconductor devices is governed by a set of nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations. This includes a nonlinear Poisson equation and two nonlinear continuity equations. Using Gummel's method [2] we can decouple the nonlinear elliptic system so that at each step we solve an equation of the form
The Unbearable Lightness of Grouping : Problems of introducing computer support for cooperative work

Introduction of computer support for cooperative work (CSCW) is often reported as failures, and a number of studies have aimed to explain the mistakes. Many refer to lack of understanding the technological possibilities due to bad information and training. This article aims to discuss “failures of CSCW use” by other characteristics than lack of training or badly planned introduction processes by referring to the mutual interaction between technology and organisation. The discussion is based on findings from a series of studies of use and development of Lotus Notes applications in Norwegian organisations. The article tries to argue that some aspects of CSCW are inherent in the way that the technology is used because of its technological possibilities, and that these can be expected to be present in any organisation. These aspects are discussed as contradictions: individual/collective, (collective) tool/(individual) work task, management/performance, and tradition/development. On the basis of the contradictions, three problems that have to do with the process of mutual interaction or adjustment between technology and organisation are discussed: Defining the collective, The individual becomes more important, and The process of “grouping”. The process of transforming individually oriented work to cooperative work that fits the technology is hard and contradictory, even if it seems to be easy and nice to start cooperating and sharing with each other.
Kerberos Assisted Authentication in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks

An ad-hoc network comprises mobile nodes that cooperate with each other using wireless connections to route both data and control packets within the network. As the low transmission power of each node limits its communication range, the nodes must assist and trust each other in forwarding packets from one node to another. However, this implied trust relationship can be threatened by malicious nodes that may fabricate, modify or disrupt the orderly exchange of packets. Security demands that all packets be authenticated before being used.In this paper we present Kaman, Kerberos assisted Authentication in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks, a new pure-managed authentication service for mobile ad-hoc networks. Kaman is based on the time-tested and widely deployed Kerberos protocol, and provides secure extensions to support the more challenging demands of ad-hoc networks. Kaman migrates a number of features from the traditional, wired Kerberos environments to the ad-hoc environment, including the prevention of node identity forgery, the detection of replay attacks, establishment of secure channels, mutual endpoint authentication, and the secure distribution of provisional session keys amongst replicated servers. Kaman has been specifically designed for hostile environments, in which the presence of malicious nodes and the likelihood of physical node capture is relatively high.
Foreign Investment, Outsourcing and Relative Wages

In this paper we examine the reduction in the relative employment and wages of unskilled workers in the U.S. during the 1980's. We argue that a contributing factor to this decline was rising imports reflecting the outsourcing of production activities. In a theoretical model, we show that any increase in the Southern capital stock relative to that of the North, or neutral technological progress in the South, will increase the relative wage of skilled workers in both countries due to a shift in production activities to the South. Corresponding to this change in the relative wage is an increase in the price index of Northern activities within each industry, relative to that of the South. We confirm that this change in relative prices occurred for the U.S. and other industrialized countries relative to their trading partners. We also estimate that 15-33% of the increase in the relative wage of nonproduction (or skilled) workers in the U.S. during the 1980's is explained by rising imports.
Common Effects in Imbalances and Returns: Style-Based Comovement and Flight-to-Quality

This paper examines common effects in monthly imbalances for New York Stock Exchange stocks over the period 1988 through 2004. Order imbalances for both individual stocks and portfolios display size and book-to-market based commonality that transcends marketwide effects. The three common factors in imbalances account for more than one-third of the explanatory power of the three-factor model of Fama and French (1993) and display predictable variation over the business cycle. Specifically, an improvement (deterioration) in economic conditions is associated with an increase (decline) in buying pressure for stocks in general, with the effects being stronger for small stocks than big stocks and for value stocks than growth stocks. These results are consistent with flight-to-quality patterns in trading and support a state variable interpretation of the size and value premiums in returns.
Periodontal Treatment by Local Drug Delivery Using Resorbable Base Material

The effects of local drug delivery to the subgingival plaque flora using resorbable base material were evaluated by the study of microbial composition in periodontal pockets and clinical manifestations of disease. In vitro, the drug used in this study was released within 24 hr from the hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) strips. In vivo release of the drug from strips was also measured in nine patients who had, contralaterally, deep pockets of more than 5 mm. A tetracycline (TC)-containing HPC strip was inserted in one pocket, and a blank strip without TC was inserted in the other pocket. The amount of TC in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) 24 hr after insertion of the strip was significantly higher than that of the control. Ten subjects, who had at least three pockets greater than 4 mm in depth, were selected from 50 volunteers after an initial examination. HPC strips containing TC, chlorhexidine (CH), and control (base material) were inserted into each pocket three times a week. Clinical and microbiological changes ascertained by darkfield microscopy were monitored over three weeks. Reduction of both probing depth and bleeding-on-probing was observed only in the pockets in which TC was administered. Changes of microbial composition of subgingival plaque were, however, found in both TC- and CH-treated pockets. The percentages of spirochetes and motile rods were remarkably reduced in these pockets.
A Graph-Partitioning Framework for Aligning Hierarchical Topic Structures to Presentations

This paper studies the problem of imposing an existing hierarchical semantic structure onto a corresponding spoken document in which the structures are embedded, with the goal of indexing such documents for easier access. We propose a graph-partitioning framework to solve a semantic tree-to-string alignment problem through optimizing a normalized-cut criterion. We present models with different modeling capabilities and time complexities in this framework and provide experimental evidence of their performance. We relate graph partitioning to conventional dynamic time warping (DTW) as it applies to this problem, and show that the proposed framework can naturally include topic segmentation to accommodate cohesion constraints.
The pivotal role of corporate social responsibility perception on consumer behavior

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an increasingly important construct in academia, as well as a pressing item on the practical corporate agenda. Many firms do not recognize CSR activities as investments in improving company values both internally and in the eyes of consumers. This study examines how the perceived fit between consumers' point of view (i.e., their values and lifestyles) and CSR activities influences consumer loyalty through such mediating variables as consumer perception of CSR activities and C–C (consumer–company) identification. The empirical findings inform the suggestion that perceived consumer fit influences consumer perception of CSR activities and, consequently, on C–C identification and consumer loyalty.
SentiML ++: an extension of the SentiML sentiment annotation scheme

ABSTRACT The amount of opinionated data on the web has exponentially increased especially after the emergence of online social networks. To deal with these huge deluge of data, we need to have robust mechanisms that can help identify all aspects of opinion segment and support the automatic processing of opinion data. Recently, there have been a few developments made in this direction, and different sentiment annotation schemes have been proposed such as the SentiML, OpinionMiningML, and EmotionML. In this work, we propose SentiML++, an extension of SentiML with a focus on annotating opinions, and further answering aspects of the general question “who has what opinion about whom in which context? ”. A detailed comparison with SentiML and other existing annotation schemes is also presented. The data collection annotated with SentiML has been annotated with SentiML++ and is available for download for further research purposes. Experiments with data collections annotated with SentiML and SentiML++ proves that SentiML++ is a significant and valuable addition to SentiML.
Selected Malaysia stock predictions using artificial neural network

Stock market prediction is one of the fascinating issues of stock market research. Accurate stock prediction becomes the biggest challenge in investment industry because the distribution of stock data is changing over the time. In this study, the feedforward backpropagation neural network with Levenberg-Marquardt training algorithm is used. Selected Malaysian stocks, namely Maybank and Tenaga, were modeled and simulated for trading using four trading strategies. The results show that ANN provide a highly accurate model for the stocks also realises profitable systems using all four trading strategies.
Lifetime trauma, emotional support, and life satisfaction among older adults.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among lifetime exposure to traumatic events, emotional support, and life satisfaction in three cohorts of older adults. DESIGN AND METHODS Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a nationwide sample of 1,518 older people in 2003. Approximately 500 elders were interviewed in each of the following age cohorts: Young-old (age 65-74), old-old (75-84), and oldest-old (85 and older). RESULTS The findings suggest that exposure to lifetime trauma is associated with less life satisfaction in all three age cohorts. The data further reveal that emotional support offsets the effects of trauma on feelings of life satisfaction in the old-old and the oldest-old. The stress buffering properties of emotional support were especially evident in the oldest-old cohort. IMPLICATIONS The findings underscore the need to develop interventions that help older people deal more effectively with lifetime trauma. Moreover, the results suggest that interventions providing emotional support may be especially helpful for the oldest-old.
Non-farm rural activities in a peasant economy: the case of the North Peruvian Sierra

The paper investigates the prospects of a non-farm, labour-intensive, rural activity (hat making) with strong linkages to an agriculturally backward economy. Hat making employs exclusively family labour, the main input (straw, paja de palma) is purchased from Ecuador, and consumers are concentrated in villages and small towns in rural areas. Following the presentation of a simple theoretical model of the market for hats, attention turns to an empirical analysis of the demand for hats and of the labour returns in hat supply. Primary data from four villages of the Peruvian North Sierra have been used. Demand and supply constraints to the expansion of the hat making activity are identified and important differences in the value of labour's marginal product across the sample are found. It is concluded that growth based on local demand will not be feasible given falling incomes of consumers-mainly farmers-and expected changes in consumer preferences. The growth motor for non-farm rural activity will have to rely more on market expansion and product diversification to urban consumers. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Cohort Profile: The Migration and Health in Malawi (MHM) Study

The Migration and Health in Malawi (MHM) Study focuses on a key challenge in migration research: although it has long been established that migration and health are closely linked, identifying the effect of migration on various health outcomes is complicated by methodological challenges. To address these challenges, the MHM Study was designed to measure or control for important characteristics that affect both migration and health outcomes. This approach is particularly well-suited for distinguishing between the effect of migration on health and the selection of individuals of differing health status into migration classes (migrant versus non-migrant). Data are available for two waves of MHM, which took place in 2007 and 2013, and include extensive information on migration history, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, sexual behaviors, marriage, household/family structure, risk perceptions, social networks and social capital, intergenerational relations, HIV/AIDS and other dimensions of health. The MHM public use data can be requested by contacting the Principal Investigator (Philip Anglewicz, panglewi@tulane.edu).
A Factor-Augmented Vector Autoregression Analysis of Business Cycle Synchronization in East Asia and Implications for a Regional Currency Union

Debate continues over whether a monetary or currency union will be a viable alternative to the current exchange arrangements in East Asia. This paper adds to the literature by assessing the level of business cycle synchronization among 10 major East Asian economies which is considered a key precondition for a regional currency union. Unlike previous studies, this paper employs a factor-augmented vector autoregression model that characterizes a large set of 62 foreign and domestic variables simultaneously. Five common shocks are identified, and we examine how and to what extent these shocks affect each economy in the region. Empirical results indicate that the majority of East Asian economies exhibit similar responses to world and regional shocks. Of particular importance is the finding that individual gross domestic products (GDPs) are well synchronized in response to the two major determinants of world and regional GDP shocks. Overall, the evidence presents positively for consideration of a regional currency union in East Asia. Some suggestions are offered concerning steps to build a foundation towards the establishment of an East Asian currency union.
A Pressure-Based Analysis of the Historical Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Intensity Record

AbstractThe western North Pacific Ocean is the most active tropical cyclone (TC) basin. However, recent studies are not conclusive on whether the TC activity is increasing or decreasing, at least when calculations are based on maximum sustained winds. For this study, TC minimum central pressure data are analyzed in an effort to better understand historical typhoons. Best-track pressure reports are compared with aircraft reconnaissance observations; little bias is observed. An analysis of wind and pressure relationships suggests changes in data and practices at numerous agencies over the historical record. New estimates of maximum sustained winds are calculated using recent wind–pressure relationships and parameters from International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) data. The result suggests potential reclassification of numerous typhoons based on these pressure-based lifetime maximum intensities. Historical documentation supports these new intensities in many cases. In short, wind rep.
Color constancy from multispectral images

This paper describes a computational method for estimating the body reflectance function of color surfaces. The experimental apparatus consists of a vision system having seven spectral channels whose wavelength sensitivities cover the visible spectrum. The estimation of the spectral-reflectance function is based on finite-dimensional linear models. In order to use digitized imaged data to evaluate the surface reflectance, a procedure for bypassing the problem of unknown illuminant spectral-power distribution was devised. For the simple objects utilized (color checker charts), it is found that an accuracy greater than 97% can be achieved.
Public spending composition and public sector efficiency: Implications for growth and poverty reduction in Uganda

The paper examines the interrelationships between public spending composition and Uganda's development goals including economic growth and poverty reduction. We utilize a dynamic CGE model to study these interrelationships. This paper demonstrates that public spending composition does indeed influence economic growth and poverty reduction. In particular, this study shows that improved public sector efficiency coupled with re-allocation of public expenditure away from the unproductive sectors such as public administration and security to the productive sectors including agriculture, energy, water and health leads to higher GDP growth rates and accelerates poverty reduction. Moreover, the rate of poverty is faster in rural households relative to the urban households. A major contribution of this paper is that investments in agriculture particularly with a view of promoting value addition and investing in complementary infrastructure including roads and affordable energy contributes to higher economic growth rates and also accelerates the rate of poverty reduction.
Thickness Influence on In Vitro Biocompatibility of Titanium Nitride Thin Films Synthesized by Pulsed Laser Deposition

We report a study on the biocompatibility vs. thickness in the case of titanium nitride (TiN) films synthesized on 410 medical grade stainless steel substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The films were grown in a nitrogen atmosphere, and their in vitro cytotoxicity was assessed according to ISO 10993-5 [1]. Extensive physical-chemical analyses have been carried out on the deposited structures with various thicknesses in order to explain the differences in biological behavior: profilometry, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction and surface energy measurements. XPS revealed the presence of titanium oxynitride beside TiN in amounts that vary with the film thickness. The cytocompatibility of films seems to be influenced by their TiN surface content. The thinner films seem to be more suitable for medical applications, due to the combined high values of bonding strength and superior cytocompatibility.
Analyzing the genomic variation of microbial cell factories in the era of “New Biotechnology”

The application of genome-scale technologies, both experimental and in silico, to industrial biotechnology has allowed improving the conversion of biomass-derived feedstocks to chemicals, materials and fuels through microbial fermentation. In particular, due to rapidly decreasing costs and its suitability for identifying the genetic determinants of a phenotypic trait of interest, whole genome sequencing is expected to be one of the major driving forces in industrial biotechnology in the coming years. We present some of the recent studies that have successfully applied high-throughput sequencing technologies for finding the underlying molecular mechanisms for (a) improved carbon source utilization, (b) increased product formation, and (c) stress tolerance. We also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different strategies for mapping industrially relevant genotype-to-phenotype links including exploiting natural diversity in natural isolates or crosses between isolates, classical mutagenesis and evolutionary engineering.
Study of a Slice at +9° to +15° of Declination. I. The Neutral Hydrogen Content of Galaxies in Loose Groups

We examine the H I content of spiral galaxies in groups by using a catalog of loose groups of galaxies identified in a magnitude-limited sample (mZ ≤ 15.7) spanning the range 8h ≤ α ≤ 18h in right ascension and +9° ≤ δ ≤ +15° in declination. The redshift completeness of the galaxy sample is approximately 95%. No significant effect of H I depletion is found, although there may be a hint that the earliest type spirals are slightly deficient.