Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A quality adjusted price index for discrete goods

This paper discusses the construction and computation of a quality adjusted price index when the commodities are differentiated products, such as different brands of automobiles and refrigerators. The method we focus on is an extension of Trajtenberg’s approach. A key result obtained in the paper is that the evolution of the quality adjusted price index depends crucially on the fraction of consumers that do not purchase a variant of the product. The method is applied to data on automobile demand in Norway from 1994 to 2002. Both the Laspeyres index and the index based on hedonic regression yield lower estimates of the pricees from 1999 to 2002 than does the quality adjusted price index. This is mainly due to variations in the fraction of persons who purchase new automobiles.
Influence of monodisperse Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticle size on electrical properties of vegetable oil-based nanofluids

Insulating oil modified by nanoparticles (often called nanofluids) has recently drawn considerable attention, especially concerning the improvement of electrical breakdown and thermal conductivity of the nanofluids. In this paper, three sized monodisperse Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared and subsequently dispersed into insulating vegetable oil to achieve nanofluids. The dispersion stability of nanoparticles in nanofluids was examined by natural sedimentation and zeta potential measurement. The electrical breakdown strength, space charge distribution, and several dielectric characteristics, for example, permittivity, dielectric loss, and volume resistivity of these nanofluids, were comparatively investigated. Experimental results show that the monodisperse Fe3O4 nanoparticles not only enhance the dielectric strength but also uniform the electric field of the nanofluids. The depth of electrical potential well of insulating vegetable oils and nanofluids were analyzed to clarify the influence of nanoparticles on electron trapping and on insulation improvement of the vegetable oil.
Annihilating the cohomology of group schemes

Our goal in this note is to show that cohomology classes with coefficients in finite flat group schemes can be killed by finite covers of the base scheme, and similarly for abelian schemes with “finite covers” replaced by “proper covers. ” We apply this result to commutative algebra by giving a new and more conceptual proof of Hochster-Huneke’s theorem on the existence of big Cohen-Macaulay algebras in positive characteristic; all previous proofs of this result were equational or cocycle-theoretic in nature.
Phylogenetic Principal Components Analysis and Geometric Morphometrics

Phylogenetic Principal Components Analysis (pPCA) is a recently proposed method for ordinating multivariatedatainawaythattakesintoaccountthephylogeneticnon-independenceamongspecies means. We review this method in terms of geometric morphometric shape analysis and compare its properties to ordinary principal components analysis (PCA). We find that pPCA produces a shape space that preserves the Procrustes distances between objects, that allows shape models to be constructed, and that produces scores that can be used as shape variables for most purposes. Unlike ordinary PCA scores, however, the scores on pPC axes are correlated with one another and their variances do not correspond to the eigenvalues of the phylogenetically corrected axes. The pPC axes are oriented by the non-phylogenetic component of shape variation, but the positioning of the scores in the space retains phylogenetic covariance making the visual information presented in plots a hybrid of non-phylogenetic and phylogenetic. Presuming that all pPCA scores are used as shape variables, there is no dierence between them and PCA scores for the construction of distance-based trees (such as UPGMA), for morphological disparity, or for ordinary multivariate statistical analyses (so long as the algorithms are suitable for correlated variables). pPCA scores yielddierenttrait-basedtrees(suchasmaximumlikelihoodtreesforcontinuoustraits)becausethe scores are correlated and because the pPC axes dier from PC axes. pPCA eigenvalues represent the residual shape variance once the phylogenetic covariance has been removed (though there are scalingissues),andassuchtheyprovideinformationoncovariancethatisindependentofphylogeny. Tests for modularity on pPCA eigenvalues will therefore yield dierent results than ordinary PCA eigenvalues. pPCA can be considered another tool in the kit of geometric morphometrics, but one whose properties are more dicult to interpret than ordinary PCA.
Honesty and Relational Contracts

We study the economic consequences of opportunities for dishonesty in an environment where efficiency relevant behaviour is not contractible, but rather incentivized by informal agreements in an ongoing relationship. We document the repeated interaction between a principal and an agent who, within our main treatment, was privately informed about the costs of effort provision being either high or low. At the beginning of the interaction, an agent could either truthfully report the cost type to the principal or choose to lie about it. We find that a substantial fraction of low cost agents decided to signal high costs. Dishonest low cost and honest high cost agents pool on the complete information outcome with high costs, as measured in our control treatment. The outcome of such pooling is less efficient than for honest low cost agents. Moreover, principals who face dishonest agents earn substantially less profits than those facing honest agents. Our evidence therefore suggests that informal agreements in a repeated interaction generate less efficient outcomes if dishonesty is possible but, at the same time, are robust to substantial degrees of deception. We furthermore show that our experimental findings can be organized using the logic of repeated games.
Submarine volcanic morphology of the western Galápagos based on EM300 bathymetry and MR1 side‐scan sonar

A compilation of high‐resolution EM300 multibeam bathymetric and existing MR1 side‐scan sonar data was used to investigate the volcanic morphology of the flanks of the western Galápagos Islands. The data portray an assortment of constructional volcanic features on the shallow to deep submarine flanks of Fernandina, Isabela, and Santiago Islands, including rift zones and groups of cones that are considered to be the primary elements in constructing the archipelagic apron. Ten submarine rift zones were mapped, ranging in length from 5 to 20 km, comparable in length to western Canary Island rift zones but significantly shorter than Hawaiian submarine rift zones. A detailed analysis of the northwestern Fernandina submarine rift, including calculated magnetization from a surface‐towed magnetic study, suggests that the most recent volcanism has focused at the shallow end of the rift. Small submarine volcanic cones with various morphologies (e.g., pointed, cratered, and occasionally breached) are common in the submarine western Galápagos both on rift zones and on the island flanks where no rifts are present. At depths greater than ∼3000 m, large lava flow fields in regions of low bathymetric relief have been previously identified as a common seafloor feature in the western Galápagos by Geist et al. (2006); however, their source(s) remained enigmatic. The new EM300 data show that a number of the deep lava flows originate from small cones along the mid‐lower portion of the NW submarine rift of Fernandina, suggesting that the deep flows owe their origin, at least in part, to submarine rift zone volcanism.
Multi-state UWB circular patch antenna based on WiMAX and WLAN notch filters operation

This paper presents a multi-state reconfigurable UWB circular patch antenna with two notch filters. The two notch filters can be implemented using U-shaped and J-shaped slots embedded on the patch for WiMAX and WLAN frequency bands rejection. In order to add reconfigurable characteristics to the patch antenna, two copper strips are placed on the slots to represent the ON or OFF switching state of an ideal Pin diode. By using this simple switching technique, the current distribution of the patch changes and enables the antenna to have four modes of operation. The achieved results demonstrate that the antenna can function over the entire UWB working frequency range (3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz) in one of the switching configurations. On the other hand, it rejects one or both WiMAX (3.13 – 3.7 GHz) and WLAN (5.15-5.85 GHz) frequency bands in the other three switching configurations. The antenna is simulated using electromagnetic simulation software CST Studio Suite. The obtained results were experimentally validated and good agreement was observed.
Greenfield investments and acquisitions of Turkish multinationals: trends, motivations and strategies

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Comprehending Software Architecture using a Single-View Visualization

Software is among the most complex human artifacts, and visualization is widely acknowledged as important to understanding software. In this paper, we consider the problem of understanding a software system's architecture through visualization. Whereas traditional visualizations use multiple stakeholder-specific views to present different kinds of task-specific information, we propose an additional visualization technique that unifies the presentation of various kinds of architecture-level information, thereby allowing a variety of stakeholders to quickly see and communicate current development, quality, and costs of a software system. For future empirical evaluation of multi-aspect, single-view architectural visualizations, we have implemented our idea in an existing visualization tool, Vizz3D. Our implementation includes techniques, such as the use of a city metaphor, that reduce visual complexity in order to support single-view visualizations of large-scale programs.
23 Machine Learning for Video Repeat Mining

An incommensurable amount of digital audiovisual information is becoming available in digital archives, on the World Wide Web, in broadcast data streams and in personal and professional databases, and this amount is only growing. Mining short video repeats is just providing an effective way to extract useful information from fast growing video data and exploit the reuse value of video archives. Short video clips, ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes, are widely used in many types of video production, including news video, sports video, education program where they serve as program logo, station logo, sports reply flying logo or as commercials. These short video clips are repeated many times in these video programs because of the nature of their usages in video production. Identifying these short video repeats based on their contents has great value in many media applications. First it can be used to monitor commercials and detect infringement of copyrighted content in broadcast videos or web videos (Agnihotri et al., 2003; Cheung et al., 2005; Lienhart et al., 1997; Snchez et al., 2002; Kashino et al., 2003; Yuan et al., 2004), and this content based video identification approach is an important complementary method to other media copyright protection techniques such as watermarking. Second, short video repeat mining is very useful in video structure analysis task. By detecting video repeats in unlabeled raw video data, we can discover correlation of different video parts and structural video elements used for syntactic segmentation purpose, thus video structure model can be effectively constructed and applied to video syntactical segmentation (Yang & Tian et al., 2007). Structure analysis by finding repeat objects has also been extensively employed in DNA data mining domain (Kurtz & Schleiermacher, 1999; Bao & Eddy, 2002). Video repeat mining also has many other applications, such as content summary, personalization as well as lossless video compression (Pua & Gauch, 2004). Video repeats are defined as those video clips having the same video contents, but low level signal distortions are allowed, such as noises, image quality reduction, frame size change et al. Video repeat mining problem can be classified into two categories: one problem is to identify known video repeats. In this case we have a model of a sample video in advance, then use this model to detect its repeated instances in video archives, which is treated as a pattern recognition problem; The second problem is to identify unknown video repeats. In this case we do not have prior knowledge about the video repeats including their frame O pe n A cc es s D at ab as e w w w . in te ch w eb . o rg
Female reproductive output in the squid Loligo pealeii: multiple egg clutches and implications for a spawning strategy

We examined actual and potentiJ.l reproductive output with particular attention to the females' abilities to lay multiple clutches of eggs. Combining the results of 2 summer spawning sea­ sons, 28 of 47 females that laid eggs in captivity produced substantial clutches (i.e., 5 or more egg cap­ sules per clutch) at least twice. Multiply-ovipositing females exhibited a variety of patterns of oviposi­ tion, ranging from relatively small clutches at short intervals to large clutches several weeks apart. Actual reproductive output varied greatly between females. In both years, the number of egg capsules and ova laid showed a negative relationship with the combined mass of the ovary and oviduct at the time of death. Separate correlations between the number of ova laid and the combined number of oocytes and ova remaining in the reproductive tract at death revealed a similarly negative, although statistically weaker, relationship in both years. Most importantly, the number of ova laid in captivity (mean= 11800 in 1997 and mean= 15 293 in 1998) exceeded the combined number of ova and oocytes remaining at death (mean ca 4500 in both years) by roughly 3x, providing an indication of the extent to which only counting remaining oocytes and ova can underestimate fecundity. The ages of ovipositing females spanned 4 to ti mo. Interestingly, neither age nor mantle length consistently affected repro­ ductive output, i.e., short young females could be just as fecund as longer older females. A supplemen­ tary feeding experiment failed to demonstrate an effect of feeding regime on captive lifespan or repro­ ductive output. The females in one year ( 1998) were maintained in isolation without access to males; these females laid fertilized eggs, some over periods of 15 or more days, demonstrating the use of stored sperm. For females that had oviposited in both years, the oocytes remaining in the ovary always ranged greatly in size and structure. Thus, the 'spawning strategy' of Loligo pealeii appears to involve multi­ ple ovipositions over weeks or months, with oocytes possibly being developed continually. Placing the results of this study in a larger context, reproduction by females in this and other loliginids most likely entails copulation with multiple males and the laying of multiple clutches of eggs, possibly in different locations.
Central Upwind Scheme for Solving Multivariate Cell Population Balance Models

Microbial cultures are comprised of heterogeneous cells that differ according to their size and intracellular concentrations of DNA, proteins and other constituents. Because of the included level of details, multi-variable cell population balance models (PBMs) offer the most general way to describe the complicated phenomena associated with cell growth, substrate consumption and product formation. For that reason, solving and understanding of such models are essential to predict and control cell growth in the processes of biotechnological interest. Such models typically consist of a partial integro-differential equation for describing cell growth and an ordinary integro-differential equation for representing substrate consumption. However, the involved mathematical complexities make their numerical solutions challenging for the given numerical scheme. In this article, the central upwind scheme is applied to solve the single-variate and bivariate cell population balance models considering equal and unequal partitioning of cellular materials. The validity of the developed algorithms is verified through several case studies. It was found that the suggested scheme is more reliable and effective.
Sex-specific growth and effects of hatching condition in the reversed sexually size-dimorphic great skua

Increased environmental sensitivity of the larger sex has been reported in several size-dimorphic vertebrate species. It is generally assumed that this is due to a higher energy demand of the larger sex, thus increasing susceptibility to food shortage. However, sex-specific growth rates might act to reduce discrepancies in energy demands of differently sized chicks. To test these ideas, we compared growth of male and female chicks in a reversed size-dimorphic seabird, the great skua Stercorarius skua, for which a higher mortality rate of female chicks has been shown. We used chick growth data of mass, tarsus and wing from unmanipulated nests, as well as from an egg removal experiment in which chicks hatched from smaller eggs and in poor body condition. Experimental chicks were raised by either of two groups of parents with differing condition. We fitted logistic growth curves to the data using non-linear mixed models. In the experimental treatments growth was only impaired in the group which was raised by poor condition parents, which underlines the importance of parental quality for chick development. At the end of the nesting period, great skua chicks exhibited a comparable degree of size dimorphism as is found in adults, although neither sex had reached final adult size. Despite females reaching larger asymptotic values, timing of growth was not different between the sexes. However, we found a sex-specific effect of hatching condition: improved hatching condition correlated with faster growth of mass and tarsus in females, but did not affect male growth. The instantaneous growth rates suggest that females face higher energetic demands during growth, especially in the latter part of chick development when size-dimorphism is most apparent. However, vulnerability appears to be connected to circumstances during early development, a time at which the dimorphism is not yet apparent in terms of size or weight. We propose that nutritional constraints during early life negatively affect the development of structures or processes that are necessary to sustain high growth rates later. We found no evidence that growth rates are adapted in order to reduce differences in sex-specific offspring cost in this size dimorphic species.
Feature Selection Tracking Algorithm Based on Sparse Representation

In order to enhance the robustness of visual tracking algorithm in complex environment, a novel visual tracking algorithm based on multifeature selection and sparse representation is proposed. In the framework of particles filter, particles with low target similarity are first filtered out by a fast algorithm; then, based on the principle of sparsely reconstructing the sample label, the features with high differentiation against the background are involved in the computation so as to reduce the disturbance of occlusions and noises. Finally, candidate targets are linearly reconstructed via sparse representation and the sparse equation is solved by using APG method to obtain the state of the target. Four comparative experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm in this paper has effectively improved the robustness of the target tracking algorithm.
Defected Ground Magneto-Electric Dipole with Trivial Back Radiation

A magneto-electric dipole antenna with high front to back ratio (FBR) for femtocell base station is proposed. By using circular defects in the ground plane, the back radiation of the antenna is reduced. The prototype antenna achieves high FBR without affecting the bandwidth and gain. At S11 = −10 dB, the simulated and measured impedance bandwidths of the proposed antenna are 58.06% (1.54–2.8 GHz) and 60.9% (1.55–2.91 GHz), respectively. The measured FBR value ranges from 21 to 29 dB. Stable unidirectional radiation pattern at both planes and average gain of 7 dBi are also obtained.
Relationship between Exercise Hemodynamic and Cardiopulmonary Indices as Measured in Cardiac Patients by Two Separate and Specific Tests

Results: Significant correlations were found between peak-HR of the CPET and the following ICG indices: Peak-CI (Cardiac Index) – R = 0.74; p < 0.0001; Peak-CO (Cardiac Output) – R = 0.72; p < 0.0001; Peak-SI (Stroke Index) – R = 0.72; p < 0.0005. Other specific correlations were shown between: Peak-CI and Peak-VO2: R = 0.82; p < 0.0001; Peak-CO and Peak-VO2: R = O.72; p < 0.001; Peak-SI and Peak-O2P: R = 0.76; p < 0.001; Peak-SV and Peak-O2P: R = 0.76; p < 0.001. Conclusions: Such significant and crossover correlations between the indices of both above tests may validate the ICG indices as reliable for non-invasive hemodynamic evaluation and may further establish the CPET indices for similar, though indirect, physiological assessment. J Clin Basic Cardiol 2010; 13 (online): 4–7.