Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lurking in the shadows : Effects of poverty on the shadow economy

While the literature has identified institutional factors such as high taxes and burdensome regulations among the determinants of the shadow economy, whether and to what extent economic factors such as the prevalence of poverty drive the shadow economy are less forthcoming. We contribute to this literature by examining the impact of poverty on the size of the shadow economy using cross-country panel data for over 100 countries for the period 1991-2015. The results show that poverty has a positive and significant effect on the size of the shadow economy and these results withstand a battery of robustness checks. Furthermore, we find that poverty has the largest effect on the size of the shadow economy when government quality is the lowest and the size of the government is the largest.
An update of the genetic study on stock structure of the Antarctic minke whale based on JARPAII samples (SC/65b/J28Rev)

This paper is a revised version of paper SC/F14/J28, which took into consideration some recommendations from the JARPAII Review Workshop. The additional analyses conducted in respond to the recommendations did not change the main conclusions of SC/F14/J28. Previous JARPA analyses on stock structure of the Antarctic minke whale based on mtDNA RFLP, microsatellite DNA and morphometric suggested significant differences between whales in the most eastern and western sectors of the research area, and less differentiation in the central sectors. Those results were consistent with the occurrence of at least two stocks and an area of mixing in the central sectors (involving mainly sector VW). The areal and temporal pattern of stocks mixing, which is one of the objectives of JARPAII, is studied in detail in a separated document (SC/F14/J29). In this study genetic samples obtained during surveys of the JARPAII (2005/06-2010/11) were examined using mtDNA control region sequencing and microsatellite DNA to test the previous hypothesis on stock structure derived from JARPA research. A total of 2,278 samples were considered in the mtDNA analysis (IIIE= 491; IVW= 669; IVE= 50; VW= 271; VE= 418 and VIW= 379), and 2,551 in the microsatellite analysis (IIIE= 564; IVW= 734; IVE= 74; VW= 297; VE= 478 and VIW= 404). The hypothesized mixing Area VW was not considered in the analysis. The statistical analysis of heterogeneity followed a step-wise fashion: first, for each annual survey Areas IIIE, IVW and IVE were compared in the western sector, and Areas VE and VIW were compared in the eastern sector. Next the yearly variation in the western and eastern sectors was investigated. Finally a comparison between western and eastern sectors of the JARPAII research area was conducted. This was done for female, males and both sexes combined. For mitochondrial and nuclear markers, significant statistical genetic differences were found between whales from the western and eastern sectors, for females, males and total samples in the case of the mtDNA, and for females and total samples in the case of microsatellites. Furthermore yearly variation was found for females and total samples, mainly in the western sector, in the case of the microsatellites. Therefore genetic results based on JARPAII samples were consistent with the previous hypothesis of at least two stocks in the research area, one in the most western part and the other in the most eastern part, which have been called previously as I (Eastern Indian Ocean) and P (Western South Pacific) stocks for convenience. Furthermore microsatellite analyses suggested substantial yearly variation mainly within the I stock and especially for females. These yearly differences can be explained by the dynamics of the I and P stocks, which mix with each other in different proportions in different years in part of the western sector (see also SC/F14/J29), or by the sporadic intrusion of an unknown third stock occurring in the western part of Area III.
LinpackR: An Implementation of the Linpack Benchmark for the R Programming Language

The popularity of R as a programming language has increased substantially over the past few years. Despite this rising popularity, there has been little systematic evaluation of the performance of R execution environments. To help initiate this evaluation process, this work introduces LinpackR, which is a port to the R language of the popular Linpack benchmark program. The use of this new benchmark program is demonstrated by comparing the standard R execution environment with an R environment that has been enhanced with Intel’s Math Kernel Library (MKL), and with an optimized Fortran version of Linpack. Performance tests on a Xeon-based server show that the MKL enhancements increase the maximum performance of R execution up to 13.9 times, from 3.0 to 41.8 GFLOPS, when using a single thread of execution. Increasing the number of threads to twenty increases the performance 4.6 times to a maximum of 192.5 GFLOPS. Its maximum performance is still 40 percent below the maximum performance of optimized Fortran code at 321 GFLOPS, however. Additional tests on a two-core Pentium-based system show that the performance of the LinpackR benchmark increases approximately proportionally to increases in the clock rate, and that the choice of operating systems, either Ubuntu Linux or Windows 10, has no significant effect on performance.
Monte Carlo Simulation for Scanner Design and Correction Methods in PET and PET/MRI

This work deals with the utilisation of Monte Carlo simulation for the optimisation of instrumentation and correction methods in PET and PET/MR imaging. A development pipeline is presented which allows to mimic the entire PET imaging process from the generation of the annihilation photons through the simulation of the measurement process to reconstructed images. This pipeline is applied in a scanner design study for an MR-compatible small animal PET insert. In order to overcome the problem of the long simulation times for realistic results, an implementation of a full PET Monte Carlo simulation for graphical processing units was developed and validated. Based on this implementation, a correction procedure for the eect of Compton scatter could be implemented. The new procedure was applied and validated in phantom and patient studies with a hybrid MR-BrainPET scanner. The results indicate improved contrast and quantication for the new approach compared to the current standard approach.
Large-scale distributional patterns of the encrusting and excavating sponge Cliona delitrix Pang on Florida Keys coral substrates

While encrusting and excavating sponges of the genus Cliona are important bioeroders on Caribbean reefs, relatively little information exists on large-scale distributional patterns and environmental correlates. A survey encompassing 181 Florida Keys coral reef and hard-bottom sites sampled C. delitrix Pang density and size to explore relationships with habitat-related characteristics such as depth, distance from shore, and coral density and cover. Nine habitats were surveyed across the continental shelf representing a range in depth (1-27 m), cross-shelf position, topographic complexity, and coral abundance. A stratified random sampling design used replicate 8-m x 1-m transects per site to survey 2,896 m2 of coral reef and hard-bottom habitat. Sixty of the 181 sites yielded 189 individuals of C. delitrix. The distribution of C. delitrix was not proportional to the sampling effort, with four of the nine habitats accounting for ~83% of all sightings. Mean sponge density (no. per m2) ranged from 0.01 to 0.24 and differed significantly among habitats. Shallower (< 6 m) and more wave-exposed habitats on the platform margin had statistically lower C. delitrix densities, while densities on the deeper fore reef slope were up to 18 times greater. Cliona delitrix area per m2 and mean size were similarly patterned to density, with significantly greater mean values on patch reef and deeper (> 10 m) fore reef slope habitats. Regression analysis indicated that greater C. delitrix densities were found at greater depths, while larger C. delitrix sponges were found closer to shore in areas of higher coral abundance. Patterns of coral colonization relative to coral availability suggest that C. delitrix occupied ~23% of the coral taxa preferentially relative to availability, especially coral species confined to relatively few habitats or those most abundant on patch reefs or the deeper fore reef slope.
Installation and development of a substrate conformal imprint lithography technology

The patterning of material surfaces in the micro and nanometer range is essential for various applications in electronics, optics and sensors. As for the efficiency of electrical devices smaller and smaller structures are required, more complex systems are always necessary to increase the resolution. For example, UV light can be used, but therefor complex optics are required, increasing the manufacturing cost. Alternatively, the electron beam lithography is used for a higher resolution. A great disadvantage of this is however, that this method is a direct-writing method, so that only serial structure transfer is possible and the throughput is limited. In order to combine the advantages of high resolution in the nanometer range, parallel structuring and low cost as possible, the nanoimprint lithography might be used. It is an embossing process in which a stamp is used with a specific surface topography as the structuring element. This allows structures with lateral resolution to be less than 10 nm and a vertical resolution down to <1 nm. In this article, we focus on a new Nanoimprint technology which enables to produce a 2-inch nanostructured silicon substrate as a template. This template can be used to replicate more PDMS stamps with the same pattern as an original PDMS stamp. The results have shown that the process can be achieved with high uniformity over large areas (2-inch) and nanostructures could be transferred with high accuracy (Deviation < 1,2 nm).
INFORMATION DENSITY AND VOWEL DISPERSION IN THE PRODUCTIONS OF BULGARIAN L2 SPEAKERS OF GERMAN

We investigated the influence of information density (ID) on vowel space size in L2. Vowel dispersion was measured for the stressed tense vowels /i:, o:, a:/ and their lax counterpart /I, O, a/ in read speech from six German speakers, six advanced and six intermediate Bulgarian speakers of German. The Euclidean distance between center of the vowel space and formant values for each speaker was used as a measure for vowel dispersion. ID was calculated as the surprisal of the triphone of the preceding context. We found a significant positive correlation between surprisal and vowel dispersion in German native speakers. The advanced L2 speakers showed a significant positive relationship between these two measures, while this was not observed in intermediate L2 vowel productions. The intermediate speakers raised their vowel space, reflecting native Bulgarian vowel raising in unstressed positions.
Title Blind Estimation of Sparse Broadband Massive MIMO Channels With Ideal and One-bit ADCs Permalink

We study the maximum likelihood problem for the blind estimation of massive mmWave MIMO channels while taking into account their underlying sparse structure, the temporal shifts across antennas in the broadband regime, and ultimately one-bit quantization at the receiver. The sparsity in the angular domain is exploited as a key property to enable the unambiguous blind separation between user’s channels. The main advantage of this approach is the fact that the overhead due to pilot sequences can be dramatically reduced especially when operating at low SNR per antenna. In addition, as sparsity is the only assumption made about the channel, the proposed method is robust with respect to the statistical properties of the channel and data and allows the channel estimation and the separation of interfering users from adjacent base stations to be performed in rapidly time-varying scenarios. For the case of one-bit receivers, a blind channel estimation is proposed that relies on the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. Additionally, performance limits are derived based on the clairvoyant Cramér Rao lower bound. Simulation results demonstrate that this maximum likelihood formulation yields superior estimation accuracy in the narrowband as well as the wideband regime with reasonable computational complexity and limited model assumptions.
The prevalence of the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in permanent and temporary ponds

3 Introduction . 3 Material and methods . 6 Study design and sampling . 6 Survey species . 6 Study sites . 6 Sample collection . 8 Variables measured . 9 Analysis of Bd infection state . 10 Statistical analysis . 10 Results . 12 Pelophylax spp. 12 Ichthyosaura alpestris . 14 Discussion . 17 Acknowledgements . 21 References . 22 Appendix . 27 Appendix A – Additional information on methods . 27 Appendix B – Data summary of Pelophylax spp. and I. alpestris . 28
Predictions Of The Unsteady Acoustic Source And Self-Noise Of A Katana

Recently Roger [3] has studied a Katana blade. The latter is the name of the traditional single-edge, slightly curved sword used in Japanese martial arts for which different configurations of the backedge exist, with and without grooves. The bluntness is responsible for the acoustic signature referred as the vortex-shedding and the grooves are adding high-frequency sound (cavity-tones). Lately, Roger made acoustic measurements on several Katana configurations with a wind tunnel jet velocity varying from 12 to 35 m/s yielding both low Reynolds and Mach numbers. The present work is a first attempt at deciphering the various noise mechanisms at hand observed in the above measurements achieved by M. Roger. It focuses on the comparison between two configurations of the Katana blade at a single incidence of 0° and 35 m/s: a case with two symmetric grooves and another one with a single groove. In a first step, we used Fluent 6.3 with a k-ω SST turbulence model to make a complete modeling of the small ECL anechoic wind tunnel in a RANS simulation. Then, a 3D mesh has been generated and a full 3-D LES is performed on the blade, using the boundary conditions extracted from the RANS calculation. From the LES solution we proved that a numerical LES approach to simulate the flow over a katana blade is possible and that the obtained PSD were coherent with the previous noise measurements.
Models of Statistic Distributions of Nonparametric Goodness-offit Tests in Composite Hypotheses Testing in Case of Double Exponential Law

In this paper are presented more precise results (tables of percentage points and statistic distribution models) for the nonparametric goodness-of-fit tests in testing composite hypotheses using the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) for double exponential distribution law. Statistic distributions of the nonparametric goodness-offit tests are investigated by the methods of statistical simulation.
Současné a budoucí strategie katetrizační ablace fi brilace síní ( Current status and future catheter ablation strategies in atrial fi brillation )

Catheter ablation of atrial fi brillation (AF) is a highly effective therapy to achieve freedom of recurrent arrhythmia and relief from symptomatic AF. Transmural ablation of atrial tissue is crucial for success. Thus steerable sheaths and catheter design with contact measurement as additional feature have been developed to increase success rates. New 3 dimentional (3D) mapping technologies engage clinical routine to reduce fl uoroscopy time and radiation dose for patients and medical staff to a minimum. To unmask dormant pulmonary vein reconduction and to avoid early pulmonary vein reconduction administration of adenosine is useful. Future approaches aim at individualized ablation strategies taking clinical and electrophysiologic characteristics of the individual patient into account. Klíčová slova:
Revisiting Money-Price Relationship in Nepal Following a New Methodological Framework

Information on the pattern of money-price relationship is crucial for formulating appropriate monetary policy and implementing it effectively. This paper re-examines the money-price relationship in Nepal following a new methodological framework for time series data analysis. Test results show that money supply significantly affects domestic price in Nepal. Indian inflation is the major factor that has largest impact on the price situation in Nepal. However, exchange rate is not found to be associated with the changes in price level in Nepal. Test results also show that money-price relationship in Nepal has become much stronger in the recent times in terms of the magnitude of impact.
The Geneva stellar evolution code EGGENBERGER

This paper presents the Geneva stellar evolution code with special emphasis on the modeling of solar-type stars. The basic input physics used in the Geneva code as well as the modeling of atomic diffusion is first discussed. The physical description of rotation is then presented. Finally, the modeling of magnetic instabilities and transport of angular momentum by internal gravity waves is briefly summarized. EGGENBERGER, Patrick, et al. The Geneva stellar evolution code. Astrophysics and Space Science, 2008, vol. 316, no. 1-4, p. 43-54 DOI : 10.1007/s10509-007-9511-y
Effect of Social Support on Quality Of Life , CD 4 + T-Cell Count and Viral Load of People Living With HIV / AIDS

Background: Social support is an information leading the subject to believe that is cared, esteemed, and is member of a network of mutual obligations. Studies showed that absence of social support could increase vulnerability to diseases. The purpose of study was to analyze the effect of social support on quality of life (QOL), CD4+ T-cell count and viral load of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in ambulatorial service.
SUBJECTIVE PROBABILITY AND ACTION GUIDANCE

In the Bayesian approach to subjective probability proposed by e.g. Ramsey (1926), de Finetti (1931), and Savage (1954), probability is defined in terms of preferences over uncertain prospects. However, according to a non-Bayesian approach seldom or never discussed by philosophers, subjective probability can be defined without referring to preferences over uncertain prospects. This article argues that Bayesian theories of subjective probability are inapplicable to practical decision making, since Bayesians put the cart before the horse from the point of view of the deliberating agent: Bayesians define subjective probability and utility in terms of preferences over uncertain prospects; therefore, those probability and utility numbers cannot figure as reasons for forming new preferences over the same set of gambles. An additional aim of the article is to show that the non-Bayesian approach to subjective probability is applicable, at least in principle, to practical decision making. This aim is achieved by developing a new non-Bayesian axiomatization of subjective probability, which draws on the work of DeGroot (1970).
Global durum wheat diversity : structure and origin revealed by means of the gliadin markers

Genetic diversity for the alleles of gliadin-coding loci was studied within 563 durum wheat cultivars from 42 countries and in 98 Bulgarian durum wheat landraces. In total 116 alleles for 4 gliadin-coding loci were identiied. The highest genetic diversity was revealed for durum wheat cultivars having origin from Middle East, Trans Caucasia, the Pyrenean Peninsula, and the Balkans countries. Ward’s clustering analysis based on gliadin-calculated Euclidian distances among cultivars from different countries divided the collection on three separate groups. The groups signiicantly differed in the gliadin alleles frequencies. Two groups were proposed be formed by ancient genetic branches of durum wheat. A “Southern” branch included mostly durum wheats from the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, and Transcaucasia. A “Northern” branch included Russian and Ukrainian cultivars as well as cultivars bred on their basis in North America, China and some other countries. An additional group included durum wheat cultivars that had been bred in several past decades on the basis of the material of the International Agricultural Research Institutes, viz.,CIMMYT and ICARDA. This group displayed low genetic diversity. The results made it possible to emphasize the factors forming present global durum wheat genetic diversity: climatic conditions and historical factors in the areas of cultivation on one hand and an international breeding trend on the other hand.
The Market Orientation and Its Influence on Firms ́ Competitiveness

The banking sector is marked through deep structural changes as the result of the economic changes. On this ground the research of this market orientation is taken in consideration and conducted. It is an actual survey based on quality review of literature and empirical investigation with using of questionnaire. The aim of this paper is to compare market orientation of Swiss and Czech companies in banking sector and to examine statistically the degree of influence it has on competitiveness of these institutions. These objectives were fulfilled in the work. The method to achieve the goal is quantification of market orientation by constructing its indices, based on “industry-standard”, existing scales. The data obtained this way are compared with appropriate competitiveness measures. The paper presents findings and their interpretation. Statistical analysis led to the conclusion that Czech banks are statistically less market-oriented than Swiss banks. This work provides a basic framework for evaluation of effectiveness of the classical approaches in measuring market orientation, when applied to a banking sector. The results may serve as a new proof for existence of a relationship between market orientation and their competitiveness on mature markets. Key-Words: Market Orientation, Customer, Interfunctional Coordination, Competitiveness, Marketing, Banking Sector, Measurement, International Comparison
POLYCYSTIC OVARIAN DISEASE (PCO) AND INFERTILITY

Insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia and chronic inflammation are considered as the most important etiopathological underlying mechanism of PCOS. There are often other associated features of metabolic dysfunctions like dyslipidemia, dysglycemia and hypertension in these young women. It is thus imperative to screen women with PCOS for features of metabolic syndrome and underlying insulin resistance prior to and during addressing their fertility management.