Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography # 12 . 07 The trilogy of knowledge spillovers in French regions : a history of nature , channels and boundaries

We suggest three theoretical propositions on the nature, channels and boundaries of knowledge spillovers, and we test them with knowledge production functions estimated on French NUTS 3 regions over 2002–2008. Several novelties are introduced. First, we quantify external R&D to complement the usual internal R&D variable and assess the effect of knowledge nature on knowledge spillovers. Second, we construct several measures of the quantity and quality of regional knowledge diffusion channels and introduce them in our knowledge production functions. Third, we test several spatial panel specifications to assess robustness and evaluate the geographical boundaries of various types of knowledge spillovers. All methods converge to provide evidence for the following: 1) spillovers from internal R&D are larger than spillovers from external R&D; 2) the quantity and quality of regional knowledge transmission channels are important determinants of regional innovation; and 3) industrial and technological diversity produce positive knowledge externalities, not only locally but also in the neighbourhood of
Seasonal trends of dry and bulk concentration of nitrogen compounds over a rain forest in Ghana

African tropical forests of the equatorial belt might receive significant input of extra nitrogen derived from biomass burning occurring in the north savanna belt and transported equatorward by northeastern winds. In order to test this hypothesis an experiment was set up in a tropical rain forest in the Ankasa Game Reserve and Nini-Suhien National Park (Ghana) aimed at quantifying magnitude and seasonal variability of concentrations of N compounds, present as gas and aerosol (dry nitrogen) or in the rainfall (bulk nitrogen), over the studied forest; and relating their seasonal variability to trends of local and regional winds and rainfall and to variations of fire events in the region. Three DELTA systems, implemented for monthly measurements of NO 2 , were mounted over a tower at 45 m height, 20 m above forest canopy to sample gas (NH 3 , NO 2 , HNO 3 , HCl, SO 2 ) and aerosol (NH 4 + , NO 3 − , and several ions), together with three tanks for bulk rainfall collection (to analyze NH 4 + , NO 3 − and ion concentration). The tower was provided with a sonic anemometer to estimate local wind data. The experiment started in October 2011 and data up to October 2012 are presented. To interpret the observed seasonal trends of measured compounds, local and regional meteo data and regional satellite fire data were analyzed. The concentration of N compounds significantly increased from December to April, during the drier period, peaking from December to February when NE winds (the Harmattan) were moving dry air masses over the west-central African region, and the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) was at its minimum latitude over the Equator. This period also coincided with fire peaks in the whole region. On the contrary, N concentration in gas, aerosol and rain decreased from May to October when prevalent winds arrived from the sea (southeast), during the monsoon period. Both ionic compositions of rain and analysis of local wind direction showed a significant and continuous presence of see breeze at site. The ionic composition of rainwater resulted much closer to seawater and poorer in N compounds from May to October.
Exploitation and habitat degradation as agents of change within coral reef fish communities

Over‐exploitation and habitat degradation are the two major drivers of global environmental change and are responsible for local extinctions and declining ecosystem services. Here we compare the top‐down effect of exploitation by fishing with the bottom‐up influence of habitat loss on fish communities in the most diverse of ecological systems, coral reefs. Using a combination of multivariate techniques and path analyses, we illustrate that the relative importance of coral cover and fishing in controlling fish abundance on remote Fijian reefs varies between species and functional groups. A decline in branching Acropora coral is strongly associated with a decline in abundance of coral‐feeding species, and a decrease in coral‐associated habitat complexity, which has indirectly contributed to reduced abundance of small‐bodied damselfish. In contrast, reduced fishing pressure, brought about by declining human populations and a shift to alternate livelihoods, is associated with increased abundance of some piscivores and fisheries target species. However, availability of prey is controlled by coral‐associated habitat complexity and appears to be a more important driver of total piscivore abundance compared with fishing pressure. Effects of both fishing and coral loss are stronger on individual species than functional groups, as variation in the relative importance of fishing or coral loss among species within the same functional group attenuated the impact of either of these potential drivers at the functional level. Overall, fishing continues to have an influence on Fijian fish communities; however, habitat loss is currently the overriding agent of change. The importance of coral loss mediated by climate change is expected to have an increasing contribution to fish community dynamics, particularly in remote locations or where the influence of fishing is waning.
Design of a Cascade Controlled Boost-Power-Stage Converter for Photovoltaic Application

TAMPERE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Master’s Degree Programme in Electrical Engineering MIKKO NIKU: Design of a Cascade Controlled Boost-Power-Stage Converter for Photovoltaic Application Master of Science Thesis, 53 pages, 6 Appendix pages September 2014 Major: Switched-mode converter design Examiner: Prof. Teuvo Suntio
Banking and the Financial Sector in Transition and Emerging Market Economies

Using data from 1996 to 2000, we investigate the effect of extensive foreign ownership on the banking sectors in general and bank efficiency in particular for eleven transition countries. Our unbalanced panel consists of 220 banks and 830 observations. Using stochastic frontier estimation procedures, we compute profit and cost efficiency scores. From these raw scores, we calculate efficiency scores for a bank relative to the mean score of other banks in the same country. We use these four efficiency scores and a financial indicator, return on assets, as dependent variables in a set of regressions having ownership type, year, and bank size as explanatory variables. To check for robustness, we include GDP growth to control for country-specific effects in both types of regressions and balance sheet financial data in return-to-asset regressions only. Our results indicate that banking sectors in these countries became more efficient and more competitive toward the end of the 1990s. We find that ownership matters; government banks are less efficient than their private counterparts and majority foreign ownership generate higher efficiency scores. Moreover, we find that the participation by international institutional investors in foreign-owned banks, which occurs in about 10% of our observations, has an additional significant impact. Such banks earn higher returns on assets and are more efficient by the profit measure; however, these banks are not significantly more cost efficient. Hence, international institutional investors appear to be more interested in cherry-picking the best banks for their portfolios rather than in facilitating the transfer of know-how and modern technology to banks in transition countries.
Piecewise perturbation method (PPM) simulation of electrostatically actuated beam with uncertain stiffness

We present a new approach to the simulation of uncertainties in micro-electromechanical systems, based on the same principle as perturbation methods. This approach is valid for large variations of the uncertainties and requires much less simulations than a Monte-Carlo method. An implementation in the case of an electrostatically actuated beam with uncertain stiffness is presented and compared with obtained with Monte-Carlo.
Modeling CO2 sources, sinks, and fluxes within a forest canopy

A practical method to infer CO2 sources, sinks, and fluxes from measured mean concentration profiles is proposed and field-tested in a uniform pine forest using eddy covariance measurements. The proposed method computes the velocity statistics from a second-order closure model and uses these statistics to infer profiles of scalar fluxes using a scalar-flux budget. The model input requirements are leaf area density profile, mean shear stress at the canopy top, and measured concentration profiles within and just above the canopy. In contrast to the localized near-field (LNF) theory the model does not assume zero vertical velocity skewness, negligible advective effects, and local vertical homogeneity in the near-field concentration. The model results compared well with eddy covariance CO2 flux measurements inside the canopy and reproduced qualitatively much of the physiologically known daytime evolution of the CO2 source-sink profile.
Algebraic growth in a Blasius boundary layer: optimal and robust control by mean suction in the nonlinear regime

Optimal and robust control for the three-dimensional algebraically growing instability of a Blasius boundary layer is studied in the nonlinear regime. First, adjoint-based optimization is used to determine an optimal control in the form of a spanwise-uniform wall suction that attenuates the transient growth of a given initial disturbance, chosen to be the optimal perturbation of the uncontrolled flow. Secondly, a robust control is sought and computed simultaneously with the most disrupting initial perturbation for the controlled flow itself. Results for both optimal and robust control show that the optimal suction velocity peaks near the leading edge. In the robust-control case, however, the peak value is smaller, located farther downstream from the leading edge, and the suction profile is much less dependent on the control energy than in the optimal-control case.
Basics and some applications of the mortar element method

We describe the main characteristics of the mortar element method, together with the usual arguments for its numerical analysis in an abstract framework. We illustrate this presentation by focussing on mortar spectral element and mortar finite element methods. We give three examples of recent applications, concerning the treatment of non homogeneous media, eddy currents in moving conductors, and finite element mesh adaptivity. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
The Arrangement of Endosperm Cells and Development of Starch Granules Are Associated With the Occurrence of Grain Chalkiness in Japonica Varieties

The endosperm chalkiness in grains is one of the most important traits in rice grain qualities, and grain chalkiness directly determines grain quality and market price. Therefore, the endosperm chalkiness reduction is an important goal of breeding scientist in rice. However, little is known about the relationship of the formation of rice endosperm chalkiness and the morphological structure and development in fragrant japonica and conventional japonica varieties. In this study, we have mainly investigated the chalkiness characters such as degree of endosperm chalkiness (DEC), chalkiness rate (CR) and chalkiness area (CA) in 12 fragrant japonica varieties and 9 conventional japonica varieties. Furthermore, the endosperm structure and starch granules of rice grains were also observed with scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results indicated that the 21 varieties including the different fragrant japonica and conventional japonica varieties has a linear relationship between the DEC and the CR (P < 0.05). Among the fragrant japonica and conventional japonica varieties, the biggest difference is the CR, follow by CA and DEC. In addition, there is a certain correlation between the arrangement of endosperm cells, the distribution of starch granules and the occurrence of chalkiness characters in the different fragrant japonica and conventional japonica varieties. For the same fragrant japonica or conventional japonica variety, there is no significant difference between the starch granules from the transparent parts of chalkiness and non-chalky, while the starch granules of grains between chalky and non-chalky has obvious difference. Our results would provide important references for high quality rice breeding.
Role of the DBP Gene in the Regulation of Circadian and Cyclic Hematopoiesis: A Case for Potential Linkages

Abstract D-site albumin promoter binding protein (DBP) is a member of the PAR leucine zipper family of transcription factors and is known to be a clock controlled gene (CCG) hardwired back to the core clock components. Genetic loss of function studies in mice with DBP have shown that DBP null mice exhibit 0.5hr shorter circadian rhythms and altered locomoter activity. However, it is not known whether DBP plays any role in the regulation of hematopoiesis. This review presents the evidences from the literature which point out a role for DBP in the regulation of hematopoiesis. Further, the evidences also suggest that DBP may be associated with the etiology of the myeloproliferative disorder polycythemia vera (PV).
Corporate Governance and Islamic Social Responsibility Disclosure In Kuwaiti Shariah Compliant Financial Institutions

This study examines the relationship between corporate governance characteristics and the extent of Islamic social responsibility disclosure in Kuwait. The annual reports of 40 Shariah-compliant financial institutions listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange in 2010 are examined. Four major corporate governance characteristics are investigated: 1) the existence of a Shariah supervisory board; 2) the number of board members; 3) the proportion of non-executive directors to the total number of directors on the board; and 4) role duality. The extent of Islamic social responsibility disclosure is measured using a self-constructed index. The index consists of 46 Islamic information items. Multivariate regression analyses are used to examine the relationships between these characteristics and the level of Islamic social responsibility disclosure. The results show that Shariah-compliant financial institutions disclosed 18% on average of the possible voluntary disclosure items. The findings report that Islamic social responsibility disclosure increases with the presence of a Shariah supervisory board, but decreases with role duality. Other corporate governance characteristics were found not to be significant in the study.
Conflict Interpretation: A Comparison of Canadian and Italian Aggressive and Non-Aggressive Youth.

The imp act of persistent aggression on youths’ social and psychological well being is well documented. What is less well understood is the shaping effe ct of cultural diffe rences on how such confl ict is experienced and responded to. In this study, we asked youth to write a story about a confl ict they experienced and describe their associated feelings. Participants included Canadian and Italian girls and boys from grades 4 and 7 who
The adequacy of an inter-organizational information system model for domotics service innovation in the building sector Adecuación de un modelo de sistema de información interorganizacional para la innovación de servicios domóticos en el sector de la edificación

The flexibility of SMEs that largely constitute the building sector is one of the key elements to enable the building in- dustry to address the financial crisis that began in 2007. Therefore, in order to achieve a recovery in the sector, this study based on empirical research analyzes the factors that allow adaptation of interorganizational information systems (IOIS) for domotics service innovation in the building sector. The main findings from this study allow us to conclude four ways in which the IOIS might contribute to service innovation in the building sector. The final purpose is to improve management in the interrelations between different agents to undertake more complex building projects, contributing in particular to improve the quality of housing.
Constructive Induction Machines for Data Mining

"Learning Hardware" approach involves creating a computational network based on feed­ back from the environment (for instance, positive and negative examples from the trainer), and realizing this network in an array of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Compu­ tational networks can be built based on incremental supervised learning (Neural Net training) or global construction (Decision Tree design). Here we advocate the approach to Learning Hardware based on Constructive Induction methods of Machine Learning (ML) using multi­ valued functions. This is contrasted with the Evolvable Hardware (EHW) approach in which learning/evolution is based on the genetic algorithm only. Various approaches to supervised inductive learning for Data Mining and Machine Learning applications require fast operations on complex logic expressions and solving some NP-complete problems such as graph-coloring or set covering. They should be realized therefore in hardware to obtain the necessary speed-ups. Using a fast prototyping tool; the DEC-PERLE-l board based on an array of Xilinx FPGAs, we are developing virtual processors that accelerate the design and optimization of decomposed networks of arbitrary logic blocks.
Maternal Employment Considerations in Measuring In Measuring Intergenerational Income Elasticity

This paper adds maternal employment and income to a traditional intergenerational income elasticity model to measure mothers’ effects on transmission of economic status from parents to children. Assuming that mothers have a specific role in perpetuating the human capital and income-generating behavior of a family, I examine the intergenerational transmission of economic status using regression analysis in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics on individuals born between 1950 and 1974. My results suggest that while the income of fathers is very important in accounting for sons’ and daughters’ future outcomes, the amount of time parents stay at home or are unemployed also affects intergenerational transmission of economic status for daughters. Specifically, daughters experience a positive role model effect on their future income if mothers are employed during their childhood while fathers’ time spent employed negatively impacts daughter’s income. The interaction model testing maternal employment on transmission of income from father to daughter does have tentative positive results. When examining economic mobility for cohorts, I find that there are no significant changes in mobility for sons or daughters.
Quality service in the hotel industry: Evidence from Alisa hotel Ghana

The delivery of high quality services is one of the most important and most difficult tasks that any service organization faces due to its unique characteristics such as intangibility, Perishability, variability, inseparability and its labour intense nature. In most cases, service quality is judged by customers and as such it is the customers’ perception of how well a service meets or exceeds their expectations that define service quality. Service quality leads to customer loyalty and higher profitability when other factors have been considered. It is against the back ground that the study was undertaken to assess quality service delivery in the hotel industry. The research therefore used SERVQUAL Model to assess service quality in the hotel industry using customers of the hotel as respondents. Primary data for the research was collected using a modified pretested questionnaire developed around the SERVQUAL model. Respondents assessed service quality on a Non-comparative Scaling Techniques (ranging from Extremely Good, Very Good, Good, Bad, Very Bad, and Extremely Bad) based on tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The findings from the study depict various concerns from customers as to their expectation and experiences. However, customers overall assessment of the service quality of the hotel depicted that, 30% rate service quality as excellent, 36% as very good, 27% as good while 7% rated their service as average. This is an indication that service quality was acceptable by customers who patron.
A Methodology for Urdu Word Segmentation using Ligature and Word Probabilities

This paper introduce a technique for Word segmentation for the handwritten recognition of Urdu script. Word segmentation or word tokenization is a primary technique for understanding the sentences written in Urdu language. Several techniques are available for word segmentation in other languages but not much work has been done for word segmentation of Urdu Optical Character Recognition (OCR) System. A method is proposed for word segmentation in this paper. It finds the boundaries of words in a sequence of ligatures using probabilistic formulas, by utilizing the knowledge of collocation of ligatures and words in the corpus. The word identification rate using this technique is 97.10% with 66.63% unknown words identification rate.
Compact Source Detection in Multichannel Microwave Surveys: From SZ Clusters to Polarized Sources

We describe the state-of-the art status of multifrequency detection techniques for compact sources in microwave astronomy. From the simplest cases where the spectral behaviour is well known (i.e., thermal SZ clusters) to the more complex cases where there is little a priori information (i.e., polarized radio sources) we will review the main advances and the most recent results in the detection problem.
Starting Point of Cluster-Derived Silicon Nanowires

The assembly of medium-sized silicon nanoclusters was simulated to study the starting point of the formation of cluster-derived silicon nanowires (CDSiNWs). Hydrogen-terminated clusters were found repulsing each other and inter-connecting through the hydrogen bonds, thus could not form a stable silicon nanowire (SiNW). Between the pristine silicon clusters without hydrogen saturation, the assembly takes place automatically. An orientation priority in cluster assembly is obtained, as silicon clusters Si29 are more possibly adhered along direction than the other directions. Such an assembly may be the starting point of the SiNW growth along direction. Moreover, it indicates the possibility of silicon tetrapods or zigzag wires formation, besides straight SiNWs.
Can immigrant remittances support development finance

Immigrant remittances are a significant source of income and finance for developing economies, representing about three timesâ€™ official development assistance and over half of foreign direct investment annually received. Major motivations to send remittances are for improving food, health, and education spending of families at home as well as for investing in entrepreneurial ventures. Economic policies to channel remittances into development finance should translate these motivations into measures to boost social investment and local and regional production, linking remittances policies to broader fiscal, financial and institutional policies. A national development bank can be a catalyser of public and private interests by supporting the scale up of remittances investment programmes and by building partnerships with regional and multilateral development institutions.