Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Colombia: Ending the Forever War?

Is the world’s longest active civil war finally coming to an end? In November 2012 the Colombian government and the left-wing guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) began full-fledged peace negotiations in Havana, Cuba. But the mood in Bogota is ambivalent, with a yearning for peace tempered by a deep-seated distrust of FARC and its negotiating tactics.Developments over the past decade have brought Colombia to a point where the prospects for peace are better than at any previous time during its 48 years of conflict. Since 2002, FARC has been steadily weakened; it has lost five members of its seven-person Secretariat, a majority of its foot soldiers and a substantial proportion of its vital, experienced mid-level commanders. The group may now have decided that it is time to seek a dignified exit rather than face a seemingly inevitable decline and further deaths on the battlefield. And the international dynamics of the conflict are shifting as well. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez seems to finally have tired of playing informal host to the group, potentially depriving FARC of a crucial safe haven and its senior commanders of the possibility of keeping out of harm’s way. Meanwhile, political pressure on Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has led to greater action against FARC in that country. And if the current peace negotiations falter, it seems likely that Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos would be replaced in the 2014 elections by a far-right candidate, who would not be inclined to negotiate further. This may thus be FARC’s best chance to seek a negotiated exit, and any concessions the group is able to obtain should be considered a bonus, given how weak it has become.But the Colombian civil war is the quintessential intractable conflict, making the coming negotiations profoundly challenging. Structurally, Colombia’s illegal markets, large inaccessible territory, vast inequality and weak state institutions in peripheral regions make any outright military victory against FARC highly improbable. This is also the fourth attempt at peace negotiations during the conflict and FARC has used previous episodes to buy time and gain publicity. No one has forgotten the last round of talks in Caguan in 1999–2002, when FARC used a demilitarised zone it was granted as a base to plan attacks against the Colombian military in other regions, increase coca cultivation and recruit extensively, fully believing that with more fighters they could take over the country.But even if FARC is negotiating in earnest this time, several challenges to reaching a mutually acceptable agreement remain. Firstly, mutual distrust between the negotiating parties is strong and deeply seated. Secondly, FARC seems to be trying to expand the issues under consideration beyond those agreed upon in preliminary discussions. Thirdly, while FARC has announced a one-sided ceasefire, the government has continued military operations, creating a risk that military confrontations will impede progress at the negotiating table.
Illegal Drug Use and Employment

This article investigates the relationship between employment and the use of marijuana and cocaine for males in National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data from 1984 and 1988. Previous studies yielding mixed evidence may have inadequately accounted for the simultaneity between drug consumption and employment. I implement an instrumental variable procedure that identifies drug use with variables that are empirically unrelated to employment, including the regional cocaine price and a state marijuana decriminalization indicator. Results indicate that the use of each drug substantially reduces the likelihood of employment. Exogeneity tests reveal that standard probit estimates are severely biased toward zero.
Do Accruals Drive Stock Returns? A Variance Decomposition Analysis

This paper extends the variance decomposition framework of Campbell (1991), Campbell and Ammer (1993) and Vuolteenhao (2002) to address the relative value relevance of accruals news, cash flow news and expected return news in driving firm-level equity returns. The extension is based on the Feltham-Ohlson (1995, 1996) clean surplus relations. Accruals news is found to significantly dominate expected-return news in driving firm-level stock returns. Operating income news is also found to significantly dominate both expected-return news and free cash flow news in driving firm-level stock returns. Furthermore, after splitting net income into cash flow and accrual earnings components in the Vuolteenhao (2000) model, accrual earnings news is found to significantly dominate both expected-return news and cash flow earnings news in driving firm-level stock returns. Overall, these three results indicate that changes in expected future accruals are the primary driver of current stock returns rather than changes in expected future cash flows or future discount rates.
A Matricial Algorithm for Polynomial Refinement

AbstractIn order to have a multiresolution analysis, the scaling function must be reﬁnable. That is,it must be the linear combination of 2-dilation, Z-translates of itself. Reﬁnable functions usedin connection with wavelets are typically compactly supported. In 2002, David Larson posedthe question in his REU site, “Are all polynomials (of a single variable) ﬁnitely reﬁnable? ” Thatsummer the author proved that the answer indeed was true using basic linear algebra. Theresult was presented in a number of talks but had not been typed up until now. The purposeof this short note is to record that particular proof. Polynomial Reﬁnement A scaling function for a multiresolution analysis must be be 2-reﬁnable, but not all reﬁnablefunctions can be a scaling function. Deﬁnition 1. A function f : R→ Cis (2-)reﬁnable if there exists a sequence α ∈ l ∞ (Z) suchthatf(·) =X l∈Z α l f(2· −l). (1)If α is ﬁnitely supported, we say that f is ﬁnitely (2-)reﬁnable. When 2 is replaced by a 6= 0 in(1), we say that f is a-reﬁnable. The focus on a = 2 is due to the early connection of reﬁnability with wavelet theory. Inapproximation theory and signal processing the α in (1) is called the mask or low pass ﬁltersequence, respectively.Theorem 2. Let p : R→ Cbe a polynomial of degree n. Let {l
What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters

This book is the most comprehensive analysis ever written about the American public's factual knowledge of politics. Drawing on extensive survey data, including much that is original, two experts in public opinion and political behavior find that many citizens are remarkably well informed about the details of politics, while equally large numbers are nearly ignorant of political facts. And despite dramatic changes in American society and politics, citizens appear no more or less informed today than half a century ago. Michael X. Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter demonstrate that informed persons are more likely to participate, better able to discern their own interests, and more likely to advocate those interests through political actions. Who, then, is politically informed? The authors provide compelling evidence that whites, men, and older, financially secure citizens have substantially more knowledge about national politics than do blacks, women, young adults, and financially less-well-off citizens. Thus citizens who are most disadvantaged socially and economically are least able to redress their grievances politically. Yet the authors believe that a broader and more equitably informed populace is possible. The challenge to America, they conclude, lies in providing an environment in which the benefits of being informed are clearer, the tools for gaining information more accessible, and the opportunities to learn about politics more frequent, timely, and equitable.
Permeability and Magnetic Properties of Ferromagnetic NiFe/FeCoBSi Bilayers for High-Frequency Applications

In order to adjust the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) frequency of thin NiFe films, ferromagnetic polycrystalline/amorphous NiFe/FeCoBSi bilayers using radio frequency magnetron sputtering were produced. Herein, the higher anisotropy field Hk of a ferromagnetic FeCoBSi was used to shift the FMR-frequency of the bilayer. Static and dynamic magnetic properties of the films were investigated by quasi-static magnetometry and by high frequency permeability measurements, respectively. The dynamic anisotropy field Hkdyn calculated from the FMR frequency of a single 100-nm NiFe-layer is shifted from mu0Hkdyn=0.5 mT to mu0Hkdyn=2.8 mT in a FeCoBSi(80 nm)/NiFe(20 nm) bilayer; whereas, the FMR frequency is congruently enhanced from 0.9 to 2.0 GHz. The permeability decreased from mu=2000 to mu=500. A linear dependence for the adjustment of the relevant magnetic parameters with NiFe:FeCoBSi ratio is demonstrated, opening the possibility to individually tailor magnetic properties of magnetic films for high-frequency applications
A dual-band 180° hybrid coupler with a filter response

This study presents a dual-band 180° hybrid coupler with a filter response. The hybrid coupler consisting of four coupled stepped-impedance resonators has a second-order Chebyshev filter response. A 2.45/5.8-GHz filtering 180° hybrid coupler has been designed and fabricated on a Rogers RO4003C substrate for WLAN applications. The insertion loss 1/|S21| is about 3+1.2/3+1.5 dB, and isolation are better than 24 dB. The proposed design can be used for dual-band and multifunctional applications.
Situating Adaptive Environmental Governance: Non-governmental Actors in the Protection of Nanjing’s Qinhuai River

ii Acknowledgments . iv List of Tables . viii List of Figures . ix List of Acronyms . x Note on Use of Chinese Characters and Pinyin . xi Chapter 1: Context and Research Problem . 1 1.1 Context . 1 1.2 Problem Statement . 3 1.3 Thesis Structure . 4 Chapter 2: Social-Ecological Systems, Adaptive Governance and Political Ecology . 6 2.1 Urbanization and the Environment . 6 2.2 Social-Ecological Systems, Adaptive Governance and Political Ecology . 7 2.2.1 Social-Ecological Systems . 7 2.2.2 Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems . 8 2.2. 3 Adaptive Governance . 10 2.2. 4 Political Ecology and Adaptive Governance . 13 Chapter 3: Urban Governance, Power Relations, and Social Networks in China . 17 3.1 The Context of China . 17 3.2 Urban Governance Structures . 18 3.3 Government and Environment in China . 24 3.4 Emergence of Power Relations . 26 Chapter 4: Research Design and Methodology . 32 4.1 Research Questions . 32 4.2 Conceptual Model . 34 4.3 Research Justification and Objectives . 36 4.4 Social Network Analysis . 38 4.5 Research Design . 40 4.6 Site Selection and Case Study . 44 4.7 Sample Selection and Data Collection . 48 vi 4.7.1 ENGOs . 49 4.7.2 Urban Fishers . 51 4.7.3 District Environmental Protection Bureau Official. 53 Chapter 5: The Activity of Organized and Disorganized Civil Society . 54 5.1 Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations . 54 5.1.1 ENGO Profiles . 54 5.1.2 Generation of Ecological Information . 57 5.1.3 ENGO Information Sharing and Partnerships . 61 5.1. 4 Overall ENGO Networks . 66 5.1. 5 Government Contacts and Important Actors . 68 5.1. 6 Perception of Government Actors . 70 5.1. 7 Government Contacts and Overall Network Structure . 73 5.1. 8 ENGOs, Ecological Information, and Government Contacts . 75 5. 2 Urban Fishers . 79 5.2.1 Urban Fishers and Local Ecological Knowledge . 79 5.2.2 Perception of Governance Actors Among Fishers . 86 5.2. 3 Use of Environmental Hotline . 89 5.3 EPB Official . 92 Chapter 6: Discussion and Analysis . 95 6.1 Adaptive Governance in the Case of the Qinhuai River . 95 6.1.1 Do social actors generate unique ecological knowledge regarding the Qinhuai River? 96 6.1.2 What is the structure of networks between ENGOs, and to whom are they linked? 98 6.1.3 Is there opportunity to share ecological knowledge with the government? 100 6.2 Facing Power Relations in Adaptive Governance . 102 6.3 Fragmented Environmental Knowledge and the Political Ecology of Adaptive Governance . 104 6.4 Bringing the Ecology “Back In” . 107 Chapter 7: Conclusions . 111 7.1 Review of the Findings . 111 7.2 Lessons and Contributions: The Qinhuai River and Adaptive Governance . 114 7.3 Limitations and Future Directions . 117 References . 120 Appendix I . 129 vii Appendix II . 141 Appendix III . 145 Appendix IV . 147
Commitment in marketing research services: two alternative models

Abstract The paper aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on client commitment in business-to-business professional services by developing and testing two alternative models: one based on the Relationship Marketing (RM) approach and the second on the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group (IMP) approach. Both models include the same mediators (components of commitment) and consequences (attitudinal and behavioral loyalty), yet they differ in the antecedents of commitment. By using SEM, both models are tested and compared on a sample of 150 firms. The results show that affective commitment is the only component of commitment that influences both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. In the RM model affective commitment is positively influenced by trust, social bonds and satisfaction, while in the IMP model it is positively influenced by trust and knowledge transfers. Although differences in the sizes of effects can be found, the two models perform comparably well in terms of the model fit and their e.
The Retirement Expectations of Middle-Aged Australians

We use HILDA data to examine the retirement plans of middle-aged Australians. We find that approximately two-thirds of men and more than half of women report a numeric expected retirement age which we refer to as having a standard retirement plan. Still, one in five individuals seem to have delayed their retirement planning and approximately 1 in 11 either does not know when he or she expects to retire or expects to never retire. Retirement plans are closely related to current labour market position, with workers in jobs with well-defined superannuation benefits more likely to report numeric expected retirement ages.
Social Capital Modeling in Virtual Communities: Bayesian Belief Network Approaches

Throughout history, the permeation of new technologies have assisted communities in their aim to collectively work together in addressing shared problems for the attainment of specific goals and outcomes. Social Capital Modeling in Virtual Communities: Bayesian Belief Network Approaches broadly examines what constitutes social capital in geographical communities and offers an in-depth description of its potential in virtual communities. Providing the latest findings for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers and academicians involved with virtual communities and social capital, this book draws upon insights from interdisciplinary fields such as artificial intelligence, human computer interaction, educational technology, and economics and sociology.
Uninvited U.S. Investors? Economic Consequences of Involuntary Cross-Listings

We study the economic consequences of a recent Securities and Exchange Commission securities regulation change that grants foreign firms trading on the U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) market an automatic exemption from the reporting requirements of the 1934 Securities Act. We document that the number of voluntary (sponsored) OTC cross-listings did not increase following the regulation change, suggesting that it did not achieve its intended purpose of increasing voluntary OTC cross-listings through a reduction in compliance costs. We do find that the design of the regulation allowed financial intermediaries to create an unprecedented number of involuntary (unsponsored) OTC ADRs: 1,700 unsponsored ADR programs for 920 firms were created for companies that had previously chosen not to cross-list in the United States. Our difference-in-differences analysis based on a matched sample approach documents that foreign firms forced into the U.S. capital markets experience a significant decrease in firm value, and we further show that the decrease in firm value is related to an increase in U.S. litigation risk. We also find that depositary banks’ propensity to involuntarily cross-list firms is positively related to banks’ expected fee revenue, and that banks chose firms that incur high costs when involuntarily cross-listed. Our results provide evidence that securities regulation can be exploited for private gain and result in costly unintended consequences.
Investment and Arbitrage Opportunities with Short Sales Constraints

In this paper we consider a family of investment projects defined by their deterministic cash flows. We assume stationarity—that is, projects available today are the same as those available in the past. In this framework, we prove that the absence of arbitrage opportunities is equivalent to the existence of a discount rate such that the net present value of all projects is nonpositive if the projects cannot be sold short and is equal to zero otherwise. Our result allows for an infinite number of projects and for continuous as well as discrete cash flows, generalizing similar results established by Cantor and Lippman (1983, 1995) and Adler and Gale (1997) in a discrete time framework and for a finite number of projects.
Do Economic Incentives Promote Physical Activity? Evaluating the Impact of the London Congestion Charge on Active Commuting and Health

We investigate the role of economic incentives for health behaviour by estimating the impacts of the London Congestion Charge, a major transportation policy which increases the cost of car use within the central London area, on travel-related physical activity and health. Individuals living inside the charging zone are eligible for a 90% discount of the charge. Using a geographical information system (GIS), we analyse full-digit post code information to precisely identify the eligibility of the discount for survey participants in the London Travel Demand Survey 2005-2011. We employ a boundary regression-discontinuity design, and find no evidence that the financial incentive promotes active commuting (cycling and walking) or improves general health status around the border of the congestion charging zone. The result rejects the high aspirations expressed in the social epidemiology and public health literature.
Effects of government spending on private investment

This paper investigates the effects of military and non-military public expenditures on gross private investment using cointegration and error-correction analysis. The latter type of public spending is disagreggated into expenditures of infrastructure, consumption and other general government expenditures. The empirical evidence from four emerging European countries namely, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain suggests that in some cases public capital spending stimulates investment, while in others it depresses it. Also, the results tentatively indicate that defence spending exerts no influence on private investment, thus adding to the ongoing controversy of the economic effects of military spending.
Interaction Retrieval by Spacetime Proximity Graphs

In this paper, we propose a new method to index and retrieve animation scenes in which multiple characters closely interact with one another. Such a technique can be an important tool for animators when they want to automatically extract the desired scene from a large database of animation sequence. Existing methods for single character movements do not scale well for multiple characters as they do not take into account the interaction of different body parts. In this paper, we propose a new distance function that computes the similarity of two‐character interations using the spatial relationship of the body parts. For each interaction, we produce a time‐varying graph structure based on the proximity of different joints, and compute the similarity of interactions by comparing the topology and Laplacian coordinates of the time‐varying graph. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms previous methods which are based on the kinematics of individual characters. The top retrieved samples are found similar in high level semantics while containing style variations.
Decomposition Analysis of Finnish Material Flows: 1960–1996

To the extent that environmental impacts are the consequence of the magnitude of total material input into production in an economy, they can be lessened by reducing the use of materials—by concentrating on what has been called qualitative growth. This article presents a summary of Finnish resource use over the period 1960–1996 as a means of evaluating the trends in material use and providing a basis for assessments of sustainability. It adapts the technique of decomposition analysis developed in the field of energy studies to distinguish the effects of changes in aggregate economic activity (“activity effect”), composition of industrial activity (“structural effect”) and materials intensity of use (“intensity effect”) on a sectoral basis.p
The Effects of Flap Ischemia on Normal and Diabetic Progenitor Cell Function

Background: Endothelial progenitor cells play an important role in neovascularization of ischemic flaps, a process that is significantly impaired in diabetes. This is the first investigation into the effects of flap ischemia on circulating and bone marrow–derived endothelial progenitor cells. Potential mechanisms for impaired vasculogenesis in diabetes are also investigated. Methods: Circulating and bone marrow–derived endothelial progenitor cells were isolated from wild-type (n = 24) and diabetic mice (n = 24) with ischemic flaps (days 0, 1, 3, and 7). The number and vasculogenic function of primitive and definitive endothelial progenitor cells were determined by fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis, culture assay, and vasculogenic colony-forming assay. Results: Ischemia mobilized endothelial progenitor cells (25 ± 0.5 cells per high-power field at day 7 versus 9.0 ± 0.6 cells per high-power field, p < 0.01) and enhanced the vasculogenic potential of circulating primitive endothelial progenitor cells (23 ± 3.2 at day 3 versus 14 ± 0.8, p < 0.01) relative to baseline. In the bone marrow, endothelial progenitor cell number and vasculogenic potential peaked at day 3 (2.1 ± 0.3 × 105 cells versus 1.3 ± 0.1 × 105 cells, p < 0.05; 36 ± 1.9 versus 27 ± 1.6, p < 0.05, respectively). In diabetes, circulating endothelial progenitor cell mobilization (5.8 ± 0.4 cells per high-power field versus 9.0 ± 0.6 cells per high-power field, p < 0.01) and vasculogenic potential (36 ± 1.7 versus 43 ± 2.6, p < 0.05) were impaired relative to the wild-type animals. Bone marrow–derived endothelial progenitor cell number was normal in diabetic animals, but the vasculogenic potential of these cells was significantly impaired (5.7 ± 0.8 day 1 versus 13.4 ± 2.5, p < 0.05). Conclusions: Flap ischemia induces phenotypic changes in bone marrow–derived endothelial progenitor cells that subsequently traffic through the circulation. The vasculogenic potential of endothelial progenitor cells at various stages of differentiation is impaired in diabetes and thus may account for impaired ischemia-induced vasculogenesis observed clinically.
Women in the Labour Force: How Well is Europe Doing ?

Women have made important advances in labour markets. The distinctions between the activities of single and married women are not as sharp as they used to be, and ambition to do well in a job is no longer restricted to men. Have we done enough to exploit the economic potential in our nations’ women and are our labour markets as good towards women as they are towards men? Are women satisfied with their opportunities and outcomes in the labour market? And are other demographic groups benefiting or hurt from the competition for jobs from more women? (.).