Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk and the CEO Market: Why Do Some Large Firms Hire Highly-Paid, Low-Talent CEOS?

This paper presents a market equilibrium model of CEO assignment, pay and incentives under risk aversion and heterogeneous moral hazard. Each of the three outcomes can be summarized by a single closed-form equation. In assignment models without moral hazard, allocation depends only on firm size and the equilibrium is efficient. Here, talent assignment is distorted by the agency problem as firms involving higher risk or disutility choose less talented CEOs. Such firms also pay higher salaries in the cross-section, but economy-wide increases in risk or the disutility of being a CEO (e.g. due to regulation) do not affect pay. The strength of incentives depends only on the disutility of effort and is independent of risk and risk aversion. If the CEO affects the volatility as well as mean of firm returns, incentives rise and are increasing in risk and risk aversion. We calibrate the efficiency losses from various forms of poor corporate governance, such as failures in monitoring and inefficiencies in CEO assignment. The losses from misallocation of talent are orders of magnitude higher than from inefficient risk-sharing.
Green Building Literacy in the School Building: A Study of Five Middle Schools in the United States

Abstract:“Teaching Green School Buildings” are places where architects and educators have aspired to use the school building to amplify student understanding of environmental sustainability. Educational outcomes in these buildings, however, have not been well examined in empirical research. 399 middle school students across five U.S. schools, with a range of green to non-green buildings, took a green building literacy survey that focused on green building knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Results from regression models show that green building knowledge is predicted by an array of personal, socio-cultural, and physical environment factors; however, there is yet much unexplained variance in green building knowledge. Environmentally responsible behaviors at school are dominantly predicted by contextual factors in the school environment, where the model presented here is a fairly good fit for the dependent variable of environmentally responsible behaviors. Environmentalism at home is a strong predictor of both knowledge and behavior.
The Case For Merging Execution- and Language-level Determinism with MELD

Nondeterminism is a key contributor to the difficulty of parallel programming. Many research projects have shown how to provide deterministic parallelism, but with unfortunate trade-offs. Deterministic execution enforces determinism for arbitrary programs but with significant runtime cost, while deterministic languages enforce determinism statically (without runtime overhead) but only for fork-join programs expressible in their static type systems. MELD unifies these approaches. We explain the requirements for soundly integrating a deterministic language into a deterministic execution system, and describe a simple qualifier-based type checker that ensures isolation for code written in a deterministic language. We also extend MELD to incorporate nondeterministic operations without compromising the determinism of the rest of the program. Our experiments with benchmarks from the SPLASH2 and PARSEC suites show that a small number of annotations can accelerate the performance of deterministic versions of these programs by 2-6x.
Modeling of Hydraulic Systems for Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation: A Methodology Proposal

The present paper proposes a methodology to organize model libraries of electro-hydraulic components. This methodology holds in the association of an object oriented modeling, equation based, language for model structure description, with a graphical formalism suitable for the dynamic behavior description of reactive hybrid systems. That is, a recent general purpose language for physical modeling, called Modelica, is used to develop object-oriented libraries of models for different physical domains; the hierarchical description of the dynamic behavior of each model is obtained by means of the Statecharts formalism. With the method proposed, complex models are built by model interconnection schemes; it is possible to organize the models for different complexity levels adapting them for distinct simulations (real-time or off-line), by refining their behavior using the Statecharts graphical formalism. The developed hydraulic models, once compiled into C-code, are assembled as a whole application, and executed by a digital signal processing card (DSP). The simulation task is based on hardware-in-the-loop techniques in such a way that the “virtual” hydraulic application is controlled by real hardware.
A Repository of Data and Evaluation Resources for Natural Language Generation

Starting in 2007, the field of natural language generation (NLG) has organised shared-task evaluation events every year, under the Generation Challenges umbrella. In the course of these shared tasks, a wealth of data has been created, along with associated task definitions and evaluation regimes. In other contexts too, sharable NLG data is now being created. In this paper, we describe the online repository that we have created as a one-stop resource for obtaining NLG task materials, both from Generation Challenges tasks and from other sources, where the set of materials provided for each task consists of (i) task definition, (ii) input and output data, (iii) evaluation software, (iv) documentation, and (v) publications reporting previous results.
Comparative Analysis of Coaches’ Self-Efficacy and Parents’ Perception of Coaches’ Efficacy

Coaches influence children’s experiences in sports and have a significant impact on the psychosocial development of young athletes. It is important to understand the coaching-related components of youth sports, including game strategy, motivation, teaching technique, and character building. Coaching efficacy is multidimensional, has a number of sources, and highlights relationships that exist between the coach, athlete, and team. In the present study, parents and coaches’ perceptions of coaching efficacy were examined to see what variables may affect their responses. Coaches’ character-building efficacy was influenced by previous playing experience. Parents’ perceptions of coaches’ efficacy were collectively influenced by parents’ previous playing and coaching experience, attendance at sport-specific educational sessions, and the perceived ability of their child’s team.
Sensory capacity of reinnervated skin after redirection of amputated upper limb nerves to the chest

Targeted reinnervation is a new neural-machine interface that has been developed to help improve the function of new-generation prosthetic limbs. Targeted reinnervation is a surgical procedure that takes the nerves that once innervated a severed limb and redirects them to proximal muscle and skin sites. The sensory afferents of the redirected nerves reinnervate the skin overlying the transfer site. This creates a sensory expression of the missing limb in the amputee's reinnervated skin. When these individuals are touched on this reinnervated skin they feel as though they are being touched on their missing limb. Targeted reinnervation takes nerves that once served the hand, a skin region of high functional importance, and redirects them to less functionally relevant skin areas adjacent to the amputation site. In an effort to better understand the sensory capacity of the reinnervated target skin following this procedure, we examined grating orientation thresholds and point localization thresholds on two amputees who had undergone the targeted reinnervation surgery. Grating orientation thresholds and point localization thresholds were also measured on the contralateral normal skin of the targeted reinnervation amputees and on analogous sites in able-bodied controls. Grating orientation thresholds for the reinnervated skin of the targeted reinnervation amputees were found to be similar to normal ranges for both the amputees’ contralateral skin and also for the control population. Point localization thresholds for these amputees were found to be lower for their reinnervated skin than for their contralateral skin. Reinnervated point localization thresholds values were also lower in comparison to homologous chest sites on the control population. Mechanisms appear to be in place to maximize re-established touch input in targeted reinnervation amputees. It seems that sound sensory function is provided to the denervated skin of the residual limb when connected to afferent pathways once serving highly functionally relevant regions of the brain. This suggests that tactile interface devices could be used to give a physiologically appropriate sense of touch to a prosthetic limb, which would likely help with better functional utilization of the prosthetic device and possibly help to more effectively integrate the device with the user's self-image.
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Introducing RDTs for Malaria Diagnosis as Compared to Microscopy and Presumptive Diagnosis in Central and Peripheral Public Health Facilities in Ghana

Cost-effectiveness information on where malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) should be introduced is limited. We developed incremental cost-effectiveness analyses with data from rural health facilities in Ghana with and without microscopy. In the latter, where diagnosis had been presumptive, the introduction of RDTs increased the proportion of patients who were correctly treated in relation to treatment with antimalarials, from 42% to 65% at an incremental societal cost of Ghana cedis (GHS)12.2 (US$8.3) per additional correctly treated patients. In the “microscopy setting” there was no advantage to replacing microscopy by RDT as the cost and proportion of correctly treated patients were similar. Results were sensitive to a decrease in the cost of RDTs, which cost GHS1.72 (US$1.17) per test at the time of the study and to improvements in adherence to negative tests that was just above 50% for both RDTs and microscopy.
Effects of designed PLLA and 50:50 PLGA scaffold architectures on bone formation in vivo

Biodegradable porous scaffolds have been investigated as an alternative approach to current metal, ceramic, and polymer bone graft substitutes for lost or damaged bone tissues. Although there have been many studies investigating the effects of scaffold architecture on bone formation, many of these scaffolds were fabricated using conventional methods such as salt leaching and phase separation, and were constructed without designed architecture. To study the effects of both designed architecture and material on bone formation, this study designed and fabricated three types of porous scaffold architecture from two biodegradable materials, poly (L‐lactic acid) (PLLA) and 50:50 Poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) (PLGA), using image based design and indirect solid freeform fabrication techniques, seeded them with bone morphogenetic protein‐7 transduced human gingival fibroblasts, and implanted them subcutaneously into mice for 4 and 8 weeks. Micro‐computed tomography data confirmed that the fabricated porous scaffolds replicated the designed architectures. Histological analysis revealed that the 50:50 PLGA scaffolds degraded but did not maintain their architecture after 4 weeks implantation. However, PLLA scaffolds maintained their architecture at both time points and showed improved bone ingrowth, which followed the internal architecture of the scaffolds. Mechanical properties of both PLLA and 50:50 PLGA scaffolds decreased but PLLA scaffolds maintained greater mechanical properties than 50:50 PLGA after implantation. The increase of mineralized tissue helped support the mechanical properties of bone tissue and scaffold constructs between 4–8 weeks. The results indicate the importance of choice of scaffold materials and computationally designed scaffolds to control tissue formation and mechanical properties for desired bone tissue regeneration. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Towards a Foundation for Knowledge Management: Multimedia Interpretation as Abduction

In this work we present an approach to interpret information extracted from multimedia documents through Abox abduction, which we consider as a new type of non-standard retrieval inference service in Description Logics (DLs). We discuss how abduction can be adopted to interpret multimedia content through explanations. In particular, we present a framework to generate explanations, and introduce a preference measure for selecting ‘preferred’ explanations.
Healthcare consultation and sick leave before and after neck injury: a cohort study with matched population-based references

Objectives Recent studies based on self-assessed data on exposure and outcome suggest a negative association between poor health before neck injury and recovery. Our aim was to study actual healthcare consultation and work disability before and after neck injury (whiplash). Design Cohort study with matched references studied prospectively and retrospectively via regional and national held registers. Setting Population-based study in Region Skåne, Sweden (population=1.21 million) including all levels of healthcare. Participants 1443 participants aged ≥18 (54% women) with acute neck injury, Whiplash, (International Classification of Diseases-10-SE code S13.4*) in 2007 or 2008 and no such diagnosis since 1998. Each patient with a neck injury was assigned four randomly selected population references matched for age, sex and area of residence (97% of the patients and 94% of the references were followed during the whole study period). Primary and secondary outcome measures We studied changes in healthcare consultations 3 years before to 3 years after diagnosis as well as sick leave episodes. Analyses were also stratified by preinjury frequency of consultation. Results Before the injury, the mean number of total consultations over 36 months among the neck injured (n=1443) and references (n=5772) was 9.3 vs 7.2 (p<0.0001) and postneck injury 12.7 vs 7.8 (p<0.0001). In the group of high-frequent consulters, there were more women compared with frequent and low-frequent consulters (70.6% vs 32.8%; p<0.0001). Among low-frequent and frequent consulters preinjury (n=967, 67% of the cohort), 16% became high-frequent consulters attributable to the injury. The number of days of sick leave preinjury was correlated with the number of preinjury and postinjury consultations (r=0.47 (99% CI 0.38 to 0.49), r=0.32 (99% CI 0.25 to 0.37)). Conclusions People with a neck injury constitute a heterogeneous group. The preinjury level of healthcare consultation is associated with the postinjury level of consultation.
Cascade boosting LBP feature based classifiers for face recognition

Local Binary Pattern (LBP) is a powerful means of texture description that has achieved great success in face analysis area. In this paper, we propose a face recognition approach using boosted LBP-feature based classifiers.The multi-class problem of face recognition is transformed into a two-class one of intra- and extra-class by classifying every pair of face image as intra-class or extra-class ones. The cascade framework, is used to overcome the problem of overwhelmingly large number of samples and grossly imbalance of the positive and negative samples. By boot-strapping negative examples, sub-training spaces (random subsets) are randomly generated, and then weak classifiers are learned using every sub-training space (random subset). The weak classifiers are combined into a strong one by improving recognition accuracy. Experimental results on FERET database show competitive performance.
Computerizing Clinical Pathways: Ontology-Based Modeling and Execution

Clinical Pathways (CP) stipulate an evidence-based patient care workflow for a specific disease within a localized setting. We present an ontology-based approach for computerizing CP so that they can be executed at the point-of-care. We present our CP modeling approach that features the integration of multiple localized CP to realize a unified disease-specific CP. The execution of the ontological CP model is achieved by our property abstraction method that assigns functional behaviors to existing semantic properties to facilitate their execution. Using our methods we have developed a prostate cancer management system.
On automorphic L-functions

PREFACE This article follows the format of five lectures that we gave on automorphic Lfunctions. The lectures were intended to be a brief introduction for number theorists to some of the main ideas in the subject. Three of the lectures concerned the general properties of automorphic L-functions, with particular reference to questions of spectral decomposition. We have grouped these together as Part I. While many of the expected properties of automorphic Lfunctions remain conjectural, a significant number have now been established. The remaining two lectures were focused on the techniques which have been used to establish such properties. These lectures form Part I1 of the article.
Quote Setting and Price Formation in an Order Driven Market

This paper models quote setting and price formation in a non-intermediated, order driven market where trading occurs because investors differ in their share valuations and the advent of news that is not common knowledge, and tests the model using transaction data on individual stocks in the ParisBourse CAC40 index. As an extension of Foucault (1999), we show that the size of the spread is a function of the differences in valuation among investors and of adverse selection. Both GMM estimation of the model parameters and empirical evidence on spread behavior as the relative proportion of buyers and sellers in the market changes, provide strong support for the model. Our analysis yields further insight into the dynamic process of price formation and into the market clearing process in an order driven market.
Author ' s personal copy Mechanical properties of graphyne

Carbon nanotubes and graphene have paved the way for the next step in the evolution of carbon materials. Among the novel forms of carbon allotropes is graphyne – a two-dimensional lattice of sp–sp-hybridized carbon atoms similar to graphene for which recent progress has been made in synthesizing dehydrobenzoannulene precursors that form subunits of graphyne. Here, we characterize the mechanical properties of single-atomiclayer graphyne sheets by full atomistic first-principles-based ReaxFF molecular dynamics. Atomistic modeling is carried out to determine its mechanical properties for both in-plane and bending deformation including material failure, as well as intersheet adhesion. Unlike graphene, the fracture strain and stress of graphyne depends strongly on the direction of the applied strain and the alignment with carbon triple-bond linkages, ranging from 48.2 to 107.5 GPa with ultimate strains of 8.2–13.2%. The intersheet adhesion and out-of-plane bending stiffnesses are comparable to graphene, despite the density of graphyne being only one-half of that of graphene. Unlike graphene, the sparser carbon arrangement in graphyne combined with the directional dependence on the acetylenic groups results in internal stiffening dependent on the direction of applied loading, leading to a nonlinear stress–
Balancing Control of AIT Leg Exoskeleton Using ZMP based FLC

This paper is focused on the use of Zero Moment Point (ZMP) concept for balancing control of the Asian Institute of Technology Leg EXoskeleton-I (ALEX-I). ALEX-I has been developed to assist patients who suffer from paraplegia or immobility due to the loss of power on lower limbs. The balanced posture set-points (joint trajectories) under ZMP criterion are generated offline. The ZMP based set points are provided as the desired postures to ALEX-I. Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) determines the modified set points based on postures balancing sensed by loadcells. Ground Contact Point (GCP) is used to find the “ZMP-like in real time”. GCP data is obtained by placing 4 loadcells forming a force plate on each foot of ALEX-I. This GCP data is then compared with the reference ZMP. Uncertainties of the model parameters, backlash, and joint tolerance are considered as disturbance. The differences of ZMP and GCP on x-z plane are used as the inputs to the FLC. The 4 outputs from FLC are the compensated angles of left and right ankles joints in roll and pitch axes that make the actual ZMP locate in the convex hull of the supporting area.
Proposal of a validation framework for a new measurement model and its application to the export performance construct

This paper presents a comprehensive and integrated set of validation procedures to assess the satisfac toriness of measurement models of multifaceted constructs. The validation framework is then applied to a new measurement model of the economic domain of export performance, a construct for which agreement has not yet been r eached in the literature concerning the appropriate repres entation of its complex nature. A sample of 414 lar ge Brazilian exporters of manufactured products was collected, a nd five competing measurement models of the construct were proposed and comparatively assessed. Insights into the nature and structure of the construct are drawn. In the best fitting of the five tested models, export (venture) performance is represented as a two-dimen sional construct ‐ past export revenues and their growth, and past export profitability, with four and two op erational indicators, respectively. The set of final indicato rs provides a reasonable coverage of several concep tual aspects of the phenomenon, namely absolute and relative measures as well as static and dynamic orientations. T here is a thorough discussion of validation steps. The valida tion framework advanced here is generic and comprehensive enough to be employed for modeling other multifaceted constructs in the social sciences.
Beneficial effect of Boswellia serrata gum resin on spatial learning and the dendritic tree of dentate gyrus granule cells in aged rats

Objective: The hippocampal formation, particularly the dentate gyrus (DG), shows age-related morphological changes that could cause memory decline. It is indicated that Boswellia resins attenuates memory deficits and the major component of Boswellia serrata (Bs) gum resin, beta boswellic acid increased neurite outgrowth and branching in hippocampal neurons. This study was designed to investigate the effect of Boswellia treatment on spatial learning performance and the morphology of dentate granule cells in aged rats. Materials and Methods: Sixteen male Wistar rats (24 months old) were divided into experimental and control groups. Experimental group was intragastrically administered with the aqueous extract of Bs (100 mg/kg/d for 8 weeks) and control group received a similar volume of water. Spatial learning performance of rats was tested using Morris water maze task. At the end of experiment, the brain was removed and the right hippocampus was serially sectioned for morphometric analysis. The Cavalieri principle was employed to estimate the volume of the DG. A quantitative Golgi study was used to analyze the dendritic trees of dentate granule cells. Results: Chronic treatment with Bs improved spatial learning capability during the three acquisition days. Comparisons also revealed that Bs-treated aged rat had greater DG with increased dendritic complexity in the dentate granule cells than control rats. Hippocampal granule cells of Bs-treated aged rats had more dendritic segments, larger arbors, more numerical branching density and more dendritic spines in comparison to control animals. Conclusion: This study provided a neuro-anatomical basis for memory improvement due to chronic treatment with Bs.