Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Revisiting the finance‐growth nexus: A socioeconomic approach

Despite the fact that financial development is recognised as a vital determinant of countries’ economic growth path, many empirical studies fail to further isolate the role of socioeconomic indicators on accelerating growth. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining the statistical significance and the behavior of several socioeconomic indicators on economic growth. We apply parametric (System GMM estimators) and semi-parametric techniques along the lines of Baltagi and Li (2002) on a panel data set of 19 EU countries over the period 1995-2017. We test for nonlinear effects on economic growth for three banking indicators (domestic credit, non-performing loans and banking capitalization). In contrast to the related literature, our findings provide sufficient evidence of nonlinear relationships between several aspects of financial development and economic growth. Our results imply significant policy implications for policy makers and regulators in their effort of balancing banking development with a resurgence in economic growth within the EU periphery.
Venue Preference and Earthquake Mitigation Policy: Expanding the Micro‐Model of Policy Choice

Seismologists have reported that a majority of recent earthquakes in Oklahoma have been triggered by the activities of oil and gas companies. Despite this fact, there is evidence of strong opposition toward earthquake mitigation policy. In this article, we argue that how individuals define issues affect their policy choice. Furthermore, we incorporate the concept of venue shopping from the literature on macro theories of the policy process to investigate the effect of problem definition in shaping individual venue preference for policy choice. Using unique survey data, we find that problem definition, particularly issue causality and issue image, is strongly related to individual support for earthquake mitigation policy. However, a more nuanced relationship between individual problem definition and venue preference is observed. Our findings contribute to scholarly endeavors to understand the politics of problem definition at an individual level, which may be the precursor of understanding policy choices at the institutional level.
Pore Scale Methods to Enhance Understanding of Geochemical Reaction Rates in Porous Media

Geochemical reactions play an important role in subsurface systems such as in contaminant fate and transport, chemical weathering and geologic carbon sequestration. These reactions, mainly dissolution/precipitation, will potentially alter formation properties including porosity and permeability. The rate and extent of these dissolution/precipitation reactions depends on the properties of the porous media such as mineral distribution, reactive surface area, flow rate, and the pore network structure. However, there is a large gap between observed field and laboratory or simulated reactions rates. This is in part due to the over/under estimation of parameters such as mineral accessible surface area, differences in reaction conditions chemical impurities and coupled reactions. Understanding the importance of these parameters is largely attributed to the heterogeneity of the samples particularly at the pore scale. This thesis explores two methods to improve understanding, and thus estimation, of reaction rates in porous media systems in the context of prospective geologic CO2 storage in the Paluxy formation in Kemper County, MS (Project ECO2S). First, additive manufacturing or 3D printing with custom reactive filaments is explored as a means to mimic the reactive properties of real rocks. Filaments are used to fabricate synthetic rocks based on the pore structure of a sandstone sample obtained from a 3D X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) image. The distribution and accessibility of the reactive minerals in the printed samples is then evaluated using 2D and 3D imaging. Second, direct numerical simulation is used to simulate three-dimensional flow and transport of ions at the pore scale using OpenFOAM in the pore-mesh of a sandstone sample obtained from a 3D X-ray CT images. The Navier-Stokes and continuity equations are used for simulating flow and the transport of ions is simulated using the advection-diffusion equation. The simulation results, along with a new library to calculate rates of reaction and mesh motion as well as relaxation, will form the basis of a dynamic, multi-mineralic pore-scale reactive transport model.
Modernity and Hybridity: Nature, Regeneracionismo, and the Production of the Spanish Waterscape, 1890–1930

Spain is arguably the European country where the water crisis has become most acute in recent years. The political and ecological importance of water is not, however, only a recent development in Spain. Throughout this century, water politics, economics, culture, and engineering have infused and embodied the myriad tensions and conflicts that drove and still drive Spanish society. And although the significance of water on the Iberian peninsula has attracted considerable scholarly and other attention, the central role of water politics, water culture, and water engineering in shaping Spanish society on the one hand, and the contemporary water geography and ecology of Spain as the product of centuries of socioecological interaction on the other, have remained largely unexplored. The hybrid character of the water landscape, or “waterscape,” comes to the fore in Spain in a clear and unambiguous manner. The socionatural production of Spanish society can be illustrated by excavating the central role of water po.
SfM-MVS Photogrammetry for Rockfall Analysis and Hazard Assessment Along the Ancient Roman Via Flaminia Road at the Furlo Gorge (Italy)

Rockfall events represent significant hazards for areas characterized by high and steep slopes and therefore effective mitigation controls are essential to control their effect. There are a lot of examples all over the world of anthropic areas at risk because of their proximity to a rock slope. A rockfall runout analysis is a typical 3D problem, but for many years, because of the lack of specific software, powerful computers, and economic reasons, a 2D approach was normally adopted. However, in recent years the use of 3D software has become quite widespread and different runout working approaches have been developed. The contribution and potential use of photogrammetry in this context is undoubtedly great. This paper describes the application of a 3D hybrid working approach, which considers the integrated use of traditional geological methods, Terrestrial Laser Scanning, and drone based Digital Photogrammetry. Such approach was undertaken in order to perform the study of rockfall runout and geological hazard in a natural slope in Italy in correspondence of an archaeological area. Results show the rockfall hazard in the study area and highlights the importance of using photogrammetry for the correct and complete geometrical reconstruction of slope, joints, and block geometries, which is essential for the analysis and design of proper remediation measures.
Fahien reconsidered: Pleistocene exploitation of wild bananas and Holocene introduction of Musa cultivars to Sri Lanka

A recent publication on the phytolith assemblage at Fahien rockshelter, Sri Lanka (Premathilake and Hunt) is argued to represent: the exploitation of wild Musa acuminata and M. balbisiana during the Late Pleistocene; the introduction of edible diploid cultivars from the Southeast Asia–New Guinea region during the early to mid‐Holocene; the generation and cultivation of triploid banana hybrids on Sri Lanka before 6194–5994 cal bp; and the subsequent spread of derived triploid cultivars to mainland India and westward to Africa. A careful review of the archaeobotanical research presented by Premathilake and Hunt, in the context of broader multidisciplinary evidence (agronomy, archaeobotany, genetics and linguistics) for the domestication and spread of banana cultivars, indicates that three main aspects of their argument are problematic: the lack of clarity in the characterization of banana domestication in the past; the methods used to discriminate phytoliths into banana taxa; and the promotion of Sri Lanka as a source region rather than a recipient of banana cultivars. Following reconsideration, the Fahien evidence is consistent with previous interpretations for the origins of diploid and significant triploid cultivars outside of Sri Lanka and dispersal to that island. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Search for accurate RSM metamodels for structural engineering

With rapid advancement in computing power and development of numerical tools and scientific theories in fields like structural engineering, simple experiments can now be carried out in-silico. However, simulating many real-life phenomena in analytical fields still remains largely intractable or requires huge computational resources. A number of researchers have developed suitable metamodels to reduce the computational time needed to solve complex structural problems. As such, response surface method has become quite popular due to its versatility and ability to reduce even the most hard-to-model engineering problems into a simple polynomial form. The number and type of sampling points needed for building the response surface approximation are selected by design of experimentation techniques like Box–Behnken design, central composite design, D-optimal design, etc. One design may be appropriate for some particular problems, while a different design would perform better on others. To assess the performance of such metamodels, statistical measures like R 2 and error-based metrics like root-mean-squared error have been commonly used by researchers. In this paper, extensive numerical experiments are performed to gauge the performance of Box–Behnken design, central composite design and D-optimal designs as a metamodeling tool in structural engineering. The insufficiency of classical statistical accuracy measures like R 2 , R 2 adj and R 2 pred is demonstrated, and the need for measures based on external test data such as Q F 1 2 , Q F 2 2 or Q F 3 2 is stressed. Subsequently, some recommendations are also made on building metamodels for structural engineering problems.
Advances in computational Bayesian statistics and the approximation of Gibbs measures

Ce memoire de these regroupe plusieurs methodes de calcul d'estimateur en statistiques bayesiennes. Plusieurs approches d'estimation seront considerees dans ce manuscrit. D'abord en estimation nous considererons une approche standard dans le paradigme bayesien en utilisant des estimateurs sous la forme d'integrales par rapport a des lois \textit{a posteriori}. Dans un deuxieme temps nous relâcherons les hypotheses faites dans la phase de modelisation. Nous nous interesserons alors a l'etude d'estimateurs repliquant les proprietes statistiques du minimiseur du risque de classification ou de ranking theorique et ceci sans modelisation du processus generatif des donnees. Dans les deux approches, et ce malgre leur dissemblance, le calcul numerique des estimateurs necessite celui d'integrales de grande dimension. La plus grande partie de cette these est consacree au developpement de telles methodes dans quelques contextes specifiques.
CoFiF: A Corpus of Financial Reports in French Language

In an era when machine learning and artificial intelligence have huge momentum, the data demand to train and test models is steadily growing. We introduce CoFiF, the first corpus comprising company reports in the French language. It contains over 188 million tokens in 2655 reports, covering reference documents, annual, semestrial and trimestrial reports. Our main focus is on the 60 largest French companies listed in France’s main stock indices CAC40 and CAC Next 20. The corpus spans over 20 years, ranging from 1995 to 2018. To evaluate this novel collection of organizational writing, we use CoFiF to generate two character-level language models, a forward and a backward one, which we use to demonstrate the corpus potential on business, economics, and management research in the French language. The corpus is accessible on Github 1.
Experimental study of the effect of length and width of the partial and full collars on reduction of scouring and sedimentation patterns around bridge abutments

ABSTRACT The occurrence of local scour around bridge piers or abutments is one of the major reasons for the destruction of bridges. Therefore, this phenomenon should be prevented or at least minimized using some methods, namely using collars in recent years. In the present paper, by proposing a new approach and developing an experimental model of partial collars (collars not fully encircling the abutment), the effect of length and width of collars on reducing scouring and sedimentation pattern around the bridge abutments with vertical walls were investigated under different conditions. Moreover, the obtained results were compared with the results of models with full collars. The results revealed that collar dimensions could have a great impact on its efficiency. In partial collars, if only the upstream face of the abutment is protected and there is no protrusion toward the downstream, there will be no high and acceptable efficiency. However, increasing length and width, its positive efficiency will be enhanced. Although increasing the length of a collar of this type to more than 0.6 times the length of the abutment diminishes the scouring around the bridge abutment, increasing its width not only does reduce the scour depth but also produces a much greater effect on the location of the scouring hole to be farther away from the downstream of the abutment. Furthermore, the efficiency of full collars is also enhanced as their length and width increase. Comparison of the results shows that the efficiency of full collars is less than that of partial collars, despite their greater cross-sectional area. Therefore, partial collars are more cost-effective than full collars due to their lower cross-sectional areas. The average percentage of scour depth reduction for all four flows for different models in the erodible bed and at the base point ranged from 24 to 68% and 24 to 97%, respectively.
Prehistoric and Modern Ecological Dynamics in Southern South American Marine Food Webs

Author(s): Nye, Jonathan | Advisor(s): Fogel, Marilyn L | Abstract: Marine food webs in coastal southern South America are thought to have been impacted over time in response to humans in the late Holocene to the Anthropocene. Archaeological sites on the coast of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, provide a biogeochemical record that can potentially inform us about ecological dynamics over this time period. This record appears as bone collagen from Otariids, southern fur seals (Arctocephalus australis) and sea lions (Otaria flavescens), high trophic level predators. To quantify ecological relationships, we measured bulk and compound specific stable isotope ratios from organic tissues in Otariids and several other associated animals, several of which were potential otariid prey and basal food web resources. Variations in bulk stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen are linked to potential dietary differences and habitat specialization (coastal areas or open ocean) in populations ranging in age from 7000 cal. years BP to the modern day. We observed increases in the variability of these isotopic compositions over time, which suggests a diversity in the diets and habitats of Otariids. Shifts in marine food webs occurred during the transition from subsistence hunting of Otariids to industrial hunting and expanded human influence. δ13C ratios of amino acids suggest shifts from coastal to offshore foraging in otariids from past to present, while δ15N in amino acids showed little change in overall ecological baseline shifts but large variation in trophic level and foraging location in individual otariids. δ2H dynamics in amino acids largely corroborated results found in δ13C and δ15N amino acids. We conclude that direct human influences, such as hunting and habitat alteration, were the major drivers of ecological change in southern South American marine ecosystems rather than climate change.
Comment on “Anisotropic s-wave superconductivity: Comparison with experiments on MgB2” by A. I. Posazhennikova et al.

An analytical result for the renormalization of the jump of the heat capacity ΔC/CN by the anisotropy of the order parameter is derived within the framework of the very recent model proposed by Posazhennikova, Dahm and Maki (Europhys. Lett., 60 (2002) 134), for both oblate and prolate anisotropy. The graph of ΔC/CN vs. the ratio of the gaps on the equator and the pole of the Fermi surface, Δe/Δp, allows a direct determination of the gap anisotropy parameter Δe/Δp by fitting data from specific-heat measurements ΔC/CN. Using the experimental value ΔC/CN = 0.82 ± 10% by Wang, Plackowski, and Junod (Physica C 355 (2001) 179) we find Δe/Δp ≈ 4.0.
A real-time method for breast cancer diagnosis using optical flow

Most conventional methods of breast cancer diagnosis such as X-ray, Ultrasound (US) and MRI have some issues ranging from weaknesses associated with tumour detection or classification to high cost. In this study, we propose a breast elastography technique based on 3D US. This technique is fast, expected to be cost effective and more sensitive and specific compared to US imaging. Unlike current elastography techniques that image relative elastic modulus, this technique is capable of imaging absolute Young's modulus (YM). In this technique, tissue displacements and surface forces used to mechanically stimulate the tissue are acquired and used as input to reconstruct the tissue YM distribution. For the displacements acquisition, we use a modified optical flow technique to estimate the displacement of each node from 3D US pre- and post-compression images. A force sensor is used to measure forces on the surface of the breast. These forces are input into an analytical model to estimate tissue stress distribution. By combining the stress field with the strain field calculated from the estimated displacements using Hooke's law, the YM can be reconstructed efficiently. Also, we adapted a micromechanics based model developed for strain distribution estimation in heterogeneous medium to update the reconstructed YM value of tumor more accurately.
KARİYER KARARLILIĞI ÖLÇEĞİ: TÜRKÇEYE UYARLAMA, GEÇERLİK VE GÜVENİRLİK ÇALIŞMASI

Bu arastirmanin amaci “Kariyer Kararliligi Olcegi”ni (Lounsbury vd., 1999) Turkceye uyarlamak ve gecerlik, guvenirlik analizlerini yapmaktir. Arastirmanin orneklemini, Suleyman Demirel Universitesi Iktisadi ve Idari Bilimler Fakultesi ogrencileri olusturmaktadir. Bu kapsamda 779 ogrenci calismaya katilmistir. Yapilan acimlayici faktor analizi sonucunda, toplam varyansin %51.8’ini aciklayan, 6 madde ve tek boyuttan olusan bir olcme araci elde edilmistir. Dogrulayici faktor analizi sonucu ise modelin iyi seviyede uyum verdigini gostermistir. Olcegin ic tutarlik guvenirlik katsayisi . 80 olarak hesaplanmistir. Test-tekrar test analizi sonucunda uygulamalar arasi . 73 seviyesinde iliski tespit edilmistir. Tum bulgularin isiginda, “Kariyer Kararliligi Olcegi”nin, Turk kulturune uygun, gecerli ve guvenilir bir olcme araci oldugu sonucuna varilmistir.
Building the Application to Identify Incorrect Capital Letters Writing in Bahasa Indonesia

Ejaan Bahasa Indonesia (EBI) is a set of writing rules in Bahasa Indonesia which is implemented since 2015 according to the government rule Peraturan Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia Nomor 5 Tahun 2015. This new set of rules replaces previously implemented rules which are known as Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan (EYD). The capital letter rule is one of the elements of EBI. According to the official dictionary of Bahasa Indonesia, the capital letter is a letter which has a bigger size and particular form than the common letter. This research yields an application to identify the incorrect capital letter writing in Bahasa Indonesia based on the user input. The application implements Part of Speech Tagging (POS), Named Entity Recognition (NER), N-Gram and set of rules based on EBI. As the conclusion, the application is able to check 81.57% words that should be written in capital form.
Assessment of the Impact of Transactions M&A on Innovative Indicators of the Company

M&A on expenses R&D the method the difference of differences (DID – Difference-in-Difference) which founder Meyer B is considered is applied to assessment of the impact of transactions. [1995]. The ideas of this method comparison of the companies with various characteristics of expenses R&D before and after the transaction M&A lies. However, at simple comparison of these characteristics will not give effective impact assessments M&A. To avoid influence of other factors on change of expenses R&D, such as economic instability in the country, world shocks of supply and demand and others, besides the main group of the observed companies, to be entered control group. Each company from the main group the company analog from control group is selected so that the company of an analog had no transactions during the period in which the company had a transaction from the main group. Thus, the DID method compares a difference of results of the acquisitions and no acquisitions firms before acquisition. For this method it is necessary to prove the choice of control group – the companies which did not undergo acquisition process. The trial and error method of control group on index of coincidence (PSM – Propensity Score Matching) Assessment of the Impact of Transactions M&A on Innovative Indicators of the Company http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/index.asp 1086 editor@iaeme.com [by The Central role . , was for this purpose applied 1983 Rosenbaum P.]. Selection on the basis of mark assessment allows to define control group which on the main characteristics would not differ from group of the acquainted firms
Performance Objective Extraction of Optimal Controllers: A Hippocampal Learning Approach

Intention inference of autonomous vehicles is crucial to guarantee safety and to mitigate risk. This paper reports a performance objective extraction from expert’s data trajectories for experience transference and to uncover the hidden cost associated to the intent. The algorithm is inspired in the hippocampus learning system for experience exploitation that exhibits the human brain. The hippocampus is responsible of memory and to store past experiences to enable transfer learning and fast convergence.The proposed algorithm extracts, from expert’s data, the performance matrices associated to a hidden utility function using a complementary approach based on an off-policy policy iteration and a matrix extraction inverse reinforcement learning algorithms. Exact performance extraction is obtained by adding a constraint in terms of the measurements of the utility function in a batch-least squares algorithm. Convergence of the proposed approach is verified using Lyapunov recursions. Simulation studies are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.