Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aid, Conditionality and Debt in Africa

This paper presents a diagnosis of the current dysfunctionalities of the aid, conditionality and debt regime in Africa. It is argued that the key feature of the current system is that of aid dependence, which is characterized as an unhealthy process of interaction which afflicts donors and recipients alike. Until this dependence is addressed through institutional reforms, which may lead to or require lower volumes of aid, and which need to be framed in the context of deep debt relief, aid effectiveness will lag far behind expectations in Africa. * T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs and Professor of Economics, Cornell University. The perspectives set out in this paper arise largely as the result of my experiences as the World Bank’s Resident Representative in Ghana, 1992-1994, and then as Chief Economist of the Africa Region of the World Bank, 1994-1996, during which time I also served on the joint World Bank/IMF task force which developed the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative. I am indebted to Kwesi Botchwey, former Finance Minister of Ghana, for discussion and debate over many years on these topics--I have benefited greatly from our discussions, even when we have disagreed. The ideas in this paper were presented to seminars at Cornell University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Vermont and Vanderbilt University during academic year 1997-98. The paper is part of a broader project on the future of multilateral development assistance, which is being conducted under the auspices of the Overseas Development Council. I am grateful to Raji Jayaraman and David Pottebaum for research assistance.
Analysis and Automatic Detection of Breath Sounds in Unaccompanied Singing Voice

This paper presents a dual approach to the study of breath sounds in singing, consisting of an acoustic analysis of breath sounds, and developmentofanautomaticbreathdetectionsystem. Previousworkonautomatic breath detection were based on relatively simple features that were postulated to be relevant to the detection. In contrast, this study starts with a detailed acoustic analysis of breath sounds, with the aim to explore novel characteristics. The obtained results can be used to enhance the capability of automatic breath detection. The acoustic analysis used singing voice recordings of 18 singers with a total length of 128 mins (1488 breath events). The results of the analysis show that the spectral envelope of breath sounds remain similar within the same song, and their long-term average spectra have a notable spectral peak at about 1.6kHz for male singers and 1.7kHz for female singers. A prototype version of a breath detection system was implemented, using HMM based on MFCC, ΔMFCC, and Δpower as acoustic features. In an evaluation experiment with 27 unaccompanied song samples, the system achieved an overall recall/precision rate of 97.5%/77.7% for breath sound detection.
Expression of nitrous oxide reductase from Pseudomonas stutzeri in transgenic tobacco roots using the root-specific rolD promoter from Agrobacterium rhizogenes

The nitrous oxide (N2O) reduction pathway from a soil bacterium, Pseudomonas stutzeri, was engineered in plants to reduce N2O emissions. As a proof of principle, transgenic plants expressing nitrous oxide reductase (N2OR) from P. stutzeri, encoded by the nosZ gene, and other transgenic plants expressing N2OR along with the more complete operon from P. stutzeri, encoded by nosFLZDY, were generated. Gene constructs were engineered under the control of a root-specific promoter and with a secretion signal peptide. Expression and rhizosecretion of the transgene protein were achieved, and N2OR from transgenic Nicotiana tabacum proved functional using the methyl viologen assay. Transgenic plant line 1.10 showed the highest specific activity of 16.7 µmol N2O reduced min−1 g−1 root protein. Another event, plant line 1.9, also demonstrated high specific activity of N2OR, 13.2 µmol N2O reduced min−1 g−1 root protein. The availability now of these transgenic seed stocks may enable canopy studies in field test plots to monitor whole rhizosphere N flux. By incorporating one bacterial gene into genetically modified organism (GMO) crops (e.g., cotton, corn, and soybean) in this way, it may be possible to reduce the atmospheric concentration of N2O that has continued to increase linearly (about 0.26% year−1) over the past half-century.
Characterization of Class 1 Integrons from Pseudomonas aeruginosa That Contain the blaVIM-2Carbapenem-Hydrolyzing β-Lactamase Gene and of Two Novel Aminoglycoside Resistance Gene Cassettes

ABSTRACT Two clonally unrelated Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical strains, RON-1 and RON-2, were isolated in 1997 and 1998 from patients hospitalized in a suburb of Paris, France. Both isolates expressed the class B carbapenem-hydrolyzing β-lactamase VIM-2 previously identified in Marseilles in the French Riviera. In both isolates, theblaVIM-2 cassette was part of a class 1 integron that also encoded aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes. In one case, two novel aminoglycoside resistance gene cassettes,aacA29a and aacA29b, were located at the 5′ and 3′ end of the blaVIM-2 gene cassette, respectively. The aacA29a and aacA29b gene cassettes were fused upstream with a 101-bp part of the 5′ end of theqacE cassette. The deduced amino acid sequence AAC(6′)-29a protein shared 96% identity with AAC(6′)-29b but only 34% identity with the aacA7-encoded AAC(6′)-I1, the closest relative of the AAC(6′)-I family enzymes. These aminoglycoside acetyltransferases had amino acid sequences much shorter (131 amino acids) than the other AAC(6′)-I enzymes (144 to 153 amino acids). They conferred resistance to amikacin, isepamicin, kanamycin, and tobramycin but not to gentamicin, netilmicin, and sisomicin.
Bundled Gap Filling: A New Paradigm for Unambiguous Cloze Exercises

Cloze tests, also known as gap-ﬁll exercises, are a popular tool for acquiring and evaluating language proﬁciency. A major challenge in the way of automating scoring of cloze tests is the yet unsolved problem of gap ﬁller ambiguity. To address this challenge, we present the concept of bundled gap ﬁlling , along with (1) an efﬁcient computational model for automatically generating unambiguous gap bundle exercises, and (2) a disambiguation measure for guiding the construction of the exercises and validating their level of ambiguity. Our evaluation shows that our proposed exercises achieve a dramatic reduction in gap ﬁller ambiguity, while our disambiguation measure can be effectively used to discard exercises that are nevertheless too ambiguous.
GamaSlicer: an online laboratory for program verification and analysis

In this paper we present the GamaSlicer tool, which is primarily a semantics-based program slicer that also offers formal verification (generation of verification conditions) and program visualization functionality. The tool allows users to obtain slices using a number of different families of slicing algorithms (precondition-based, postcondition-based, and specification-based), from a correct software component annotated with pre and postconditions (contracts written in JML-annotated Java). Each family in turn contains algorithms of different precision (with more precise algorithms being asymptotically slower). A novelty of our work at the theoretical level is the inclusion of a new, much more effective algorithm for specification-based slicing, and in fact other current work at this level is being progressively incorporated in the tool. The tool also generates (in a step-by-step fashion) a set of verification conditions (as formulas written in the SMT-lib language, which enables the use of different automatic SMT provers). This allows to establish the initial correctness of the code with respect to their contracts.
Transmission Power Control in IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power Wireless Network: Poster Abstract

We present a transmission power control scheme for RPL, the IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-power lossy network [9], that controls the routing topology to achieve load balancing in a low-power multihop wireless network. We show that higher-than-required transmission power results in congestion and load balancing problems under heavy traffic, and transmission power cannot be optimized for reliable packet delivery when equal power is used by all nodes. To address these issues, we propose an adaptive and non-uniform transmission power controlled RPL, called PC-RPL, that significantly improves the end-to-end packet delivery performance compared to the standard RPL.
Assessing the Impact of News on Volatility Using the News Impact Curve of EGARCH

The news impact curve of EGARCH captures the asymmetric impact of negative news on volatility. It also captures the impact of large shocks, negative and positive. The interpretation of the curve is complicated by its composition, making it difficult to interpret its coefficients and the information in its terms. An attempt is made to simplify the interpretation of the coefficients of the EGARCH in order to capture the information in the specification. An example is used to illustrate the interpretation.
Assessment of rotamer library for protein structure prediction

Side chain packing is a crucial step for protein structure prediction. And the quality of rotamer library has important implications in side chain packing. This paper assess dunbrack rotamer libraries and simple sampling rotamer libraries for certain structures by comparing the native structure and solutions come from rotamer libraries. Results of eleven hard targets in CASP9 show that the best solution is near to the native structure. Otherwise, there is no native structure in protein structure prediction.We compare the best solutions which choosing by lower RMSD and energy, it shows that the best solution which choosing by lower energy is near to the best solution which choosing by low RMSD. So, in the case of unknown native structure, the energy guided choosing is necessary, but it must adopt some other method such as clustering to select the best solution.
A conformable dual-band antenna equipped with AMC for WBAN applications

A novel dual-band antenna is investigated for wireless body area network (WBAN) applications. The design begins with a ring-shaped printed monopole antenna, operating in the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands of 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz. To reduce the backward scattering wave towards the human body, the monopole antenna is set above a circular-shaped Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC) structure. The configuration of the AMC-integrated antenna is low profile with a thickness of 3.7 mm and compact with the area of 102 × 102 mm2. Due to introducing flexible substrate, it can be conformal to the human body. Simulated results show that the proposed antenna combined with AMC has an average gain of 11.8 dBi in lower band, 8 dBi in upper band, and the front-to-back ratio of 10 dB, when placed on the phantom. Compared to conventional monopole antennas, the radiation characteristics are improved, making it a good candidate for WBAN applications.
Instance Selection by Identifying Relevant Events Using Domain Knowledge and Minimal Human Involvement

Billions of events (image, video, tweet, purchase, delivery, or failure) are captured in the era of Big Data and used as training data in business analytic models. But, the event relevance and the consequent effect on a target variable are difficult to ascertain. Contemporaneous events, and not specified market latencies, might lead to a fuzzily defined training data set and poor classification results. Instance selection (IS) methods aim to choose relevant training examples, while reducing a training set, to a subset. Both goals contribute in Big Data projects. But, traditional approaches identified by a literature review are only heuristic and do not consider fuzzy effects and therefore fail. Thus, relevant instances must classified by experts. But, the content of events changes quickly and manual assignment to maintain a realistic model is time and cost intensive. We propose an alternative approach. Here, the relevance of an event is deduced from the effect it causes on a target variable after its publication. Such additional business domain knowledge can be expected to allow a more precise selection of instances and thus a successful prediction. An application in the natural gas market is presented that identified more relevant tickers than other approaches. This approach contributes to a scientific discussion by integrating domain knowledge into IS. Until now, only a few approaches have been introduced, all of which demand human involvement and are expensive. Our approach is automatic, thereby saving analysts' time and expense.
Semantic Support for Log Analysis of Safety-Critical Embedded Systems

Testing is a relevant activity for the development life-cycle of Safety Critical Embedded systems. In particular, much effort is spent for analysis and classification of test logs from SCADA subsystems, especially when failures occur. The human expertise is needful to understand the reasons of failures, for tracing back the errors, as well as to understand which requirements are affected by errors and which ones will be affected by eventual changes in the system design. Semantic techniques and full text search are used to support human experts for the analysis and classification of test logs, in order to speedup and improve the diagnosis phase. Moreover, retrieval of tests and requirements, which can be related to the current failure, is supported in order to allow the discovery of available alternatives and solutions for a better and faster investigation of the problem.
Learning to collaborate by collaborating: a face-to-face collaborative activity for measuring and learning basics about teamwork

In today's fast-changing business environment, teams have emerged as a requirement for business success. However, in schools and universities, students are usually not taught teamwork skills. In this paper, we introduce learning to collaborate by collaborating, a process that enables collaboration and teamwork skills to be taught and measured through face-to-face collaborative work and class-wide activities supported by wirelessly connected hand-held devices. Following a description of learning to collaborate by collaborating, we present an experimental study whose results demonstrate that participants in the process displayed improved teamwork performance. We conclude that it is possible to effectively teach collaboration skills through the use of immediate feedback provided by a supporting technology.
Three‐Dimensional Photonic Crystal Laser‐Driven Accelerator Structures

We discuss simulated photonic crystal structure designs for laser‐driven particle acceleration, focusing on three‐dimensional planar structures based on the so‐called “woodpile” lattice. We describe guiding of a speed‐of‐light accelerating mode by a defect in the photonic crystal lattice and discuss the properties of this mode, including particle beam dynamics and potential coupling methods for the structure. We also discuss possible materials and power sources for this structure and their effects on performance parameters, as well as possible manufacturing techniques and the required tolerances. In addition we describe the computational technique and possible improvements in numerical modeling that would aid development of photonic crystal structures.
Disruption of sitting balance after stroke: influence of spoken output

Objectives: To identify the extent of dual task interference between cognitive and motor tasks, (cognitive motor interference (CMI)) in sitting balance during recovery from stroke; to compare CMI in sitting balance between stroke and non-stroke groups; and to record any changes to CMI during sitting that correlate with functional recovery. Method: 36 patients from stroke rehabilitation settings in three NHS trusts. Healthy control group: 21 older volunteers. Measures of seated postural sway were taken in unsupported sitting positions, alone, or concurrently with either a repetitive utterance task or an oral word category generation task. Outcome measures were variability of sway area, path length of sway, and the number of valid words generated. Results: Stroke patients were generally less stable than controls during unsupported sitting tasks. They showed greater sway during repetitive speech compared with quiet sitting, but did not show increased instability to posture between repetitive speech and word category generation. When compared with controls, stroke patients experienced greater dual task interferences during repetitive utterance but not during word generation. Sway during repetitive speech was negatively correlated with concurrent function on the Barthel ADL index. Conclusions: The stroke patients showed postural instability and poor word generation skills. The results of this study show that the effort of verbal utterances alone was sufficient to disturb postural control early after stroke, and the extent of this instability correlated with concomitant Barthel ADL function.
Functional KV10.1 Channels Localize to the Inner Nuclear Membrane

Ectopically expressed human KV10.1 channels are relevant players in tumor biology. However, their function as ion channels at the plasma membrane does not totally explain their crucial role in tumors. Both in native and heterologous systems, it has been observed that a majority of KV10.1 channels remain at intracellular locations. In this study we investigated the localization and possible roles of perinuclear KV10.1. We show that KV10.1 is expressed at the inner nuclear membrane in both human and rat models; it co-purifies with established inner nuclear membrane markers, shows resistance to detergent extraction and restricted mobility, all of them typical features of proteins at the inner nuclear membrane. KV10.1 channels at the inner nuclear membrane are not all transported directly from the ER but rather have been exposed to the extracellular milieu. Patch clamp experiments on nuclei devoid of external nuclear membrane reveal the existence of channel activity compatible with KV10.1. We hypothesize that KV10.1 channels at the nuclear envelope might participate in the homeostasis of nuclear K+, or indirectly interact with heterochromatin, both factors known to affect gene expression.
Effects of Economic Freedom on Economic Growth and the Environment-The relevance of cross-country regressions

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relevance of cross-country analysis of the link between specific economic freedom categories and welfare, both in terms of economic growth and the environment. First, the quality and objectivity of the economic freedom data are discussed. Second, a number of empirical conditions are identified that are needed to be aware of for a fruitful analysis. It is a presentation of econometric issues that are especially important for cross-country regressions including different economic freedom categories, and issues that are often ignored in this context. This is done on the basis of theoretical discussions of the links between economic freedom and economic growth, and between economic freedom and the environment. The theoretical insights will prove to be crucial for the choice of empirical consideration to apply in practice. Moreover, sensitivity tests should play a central role in these kinds of cross-country regressions, since the complexity of the institutional questions makes it impossible to identify all relevant variables. Theoretically well-based and robust results of cross-country regression are important, but should mainly serve as an indication of where more country specific analysis, such as CGE modelling, time series analysis and case studies, should be directed.
Investigations into user rating information and predictive accuracy in a collaborative filtering domain

The work described in this paper extracts user rating information from collaborative filtering datasets, and for each dataset uses a supervised machine learning approach to identify if there is an underlying relationship between rating information in the dataset and the expected accuracy of recommendations returned by the system. The underlying relationship is represented by decision tree rules. The rules can be used to indicate the predictive accuracy of the system for users of the system. Thus a user can know in advance of recommendation the level of accuracy to expect from the collaborative filtering system and may have more (or less) confidence in the recommendations produced. The experiment outlined in this paper aims to test the accuracy of the rules produced using three different datasets. Results show good accuracy can be found for all three datasets.
Differential Regulation of Bone Marrow-Derived Endothelial Progenitor Cells and Endothelial Outgrowth Cells by the Notch Signaling Pathway

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are heterogeneous populations of cells that participate in vasculogenesis and promote tissue regeneration. However the different roles of EPC populations in vasculogenesis and tissue regeneration, as well as their regulation and mechanisms remain elusive. In the present study, we cultured bone marrow (BM)-derived early EPCs (EEPCs) and endothelial outgrowth cells (EOCs), and investigated their roles in liver regeneration and their regulation by the Notch signaling pathway. We found that Notch signaling exhibited different effects on the proliferation and migration of EEPCs and EOCs. Our results also showed that while EEPCs failed to form vessel-like structures in a three dimensional sprouting model in vitro, EOCs could sprout and form endothelial cords, and this was regulated by the Notch signaling. We further showed that, by using a conditional knockout model of RBP-J (the critical transcription factor mediating Notch signaling), Notch signaling differentially regulates EEPCs and EOCs. In a partial hepatectomy (PHx) model, EEPCs Notch-dependently benefitted liver regeneration with respect to liver function and hepatocyte proliferation and apoptosis. In contrast, EOCs appeared not directly involved in the recovery of liver function and the increase of hepatocytes. These data suggested that the RBP-J-mediated Notch signaling differentially regulated the two types of EPCs, which showed different roles in liver regeneration.
Correlation analysis of neuronal morphology reveals specificity of wiring mechanisms

Study of developmental wiring mechanisms in complex neuropil requires quantitative characterization of specificity in neuronal connectivity. To this end we propose a new method that detects short-range (few microns) correlations between axonal and dendritic branches in 3D reconstructions of neuronal pairs. This method is based on counting how often axonal branches are present in the vicinity (correlation scale) of dendritic branches and comparing these counts with what would be expected by chance. By using the data from rat neocortex we discover: i) A significant correlation between interneuron axons and pyramidal dendrites at two correlation scales around 0.4 m µ and 1.83. 0 m µ − ; ii) A significant correlation between interneuron axons and interneuron dendrites at the correlation scale of 0.20. 6 m µ − ; iii) No significant correlation between pyramidal axons and either pyramidal or interneuron dendrites. These results are essential for the study of developmental wiring mechanisms and understanding respective roles of randomness and specificity in cortical micro-circuits. Pre-preprint Please do not cite or circulate 2 Introduction