Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) When learning and remembering compete: A functional MRI study

Recent functional neuroimaging evidence suggests a bottleneck between learning new information and remembering old information. In two behavioral experiments and one functional MRI (fMRI) experiment, we tested the hypothesis that learning and remembering compete when both processes happen within a brief period of time. In the first behavioral experiment, participants intentionally remembered old words displayed in the foreground, while incidentally learning new scenes displayed in the background. In line with a memory competition, we found that remembering old information was associated with impaired learning of new information. We replicated this finding in a subsequent fMRI experiment, which showed that this behavioral effect was coupled with a suppression of learning-related activity in visual and medial temporal areas. Moreover, the fMRI experiment provided evidence that left mid-ventrolateral prefrontal cortex is involved in resolving the memory competition, possibly by facilitating rapid switching between learning and remembering. Critically, a follow-up behavioral experiment in which the background scenes were replaced with a visual target detection task provided indications that the competition between learning and remembering was not merely due to attention. This study not only provides novel insight into our capacity to learn and remember, but also clarifies the neural mechanisms underlying flexible behavior.
Reconciling and reconceptualising servitization research: drawing on modularity, platforms, ecosystems, risk and governance to develop mid-range theory

PurposeThis research bridges disparate research on servitization, namely product–service systems (PSS) and integrated solutions (IS), to provide valuable insights for the progression of the field. It acts as a reconciliation of these research streams and offers a reconceptualised agenda incorporating recent research on platforms, ecosystems, modularity, risk and governance as key conceptual themes to synthesise and build theory.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual, theory development article focused on advancing thinking on servitization by identifying systematic and theoretically informed research themes. It also proposes future research opportunities to advance theoretical contributions and practical implications for servitization research.FindingsBy reviewing and synthesising extant PSS and IS research, this article identified five core themes – namely modularity, platforms, ecosystems, risks and governance. The importance of these five themes and their linkages to PSS and IS are examined and a theoretical framework with a future research agenda to advance servitization is proposed.Originality/valueThis paper considers the similarities and differences between PSS and IS in order to develop a theory and to reconcile formerly disparate research efforts by establishing linkages between core themes and identifying valuable synergies for scholars. The importance of the core themes and current gaps within and across these themes are shown, and a mid-range theory for servitization is positioned to bridge the servitization-related PSS and IS communities.
How Best to Target the Poor? An operational targeting of the poor using indicator-based proxy means tests

This paper seeks to answer an operational development question: how best to target the poor? In their endeavor, policy makers, program managers, and development practitioners face the daily challenge of targeting policies, projects, and services at the poorer strata of the population. This is also the case for microfinance institutions that seek to estimate the poverty outreach among their clients. This paper addresses these challenges. Using household survey data from Uganda, we estimate four alternative models for improving the identification of the poor in the country. Furthermore, we analyze the model sensitivity to different poverty lines and test their validity using bootstrapped simulation methods. While there is bound to be some errors, no indicator being perfectly correlated with poverty, the models developed achieve fairly accurate out-of-sample predictions of absolute poverty. Furthermore, findings suggest that the estimation method is not relevant for developing a fairly accurate model for targeting the poor. The models developed are potentially useful tools for the development community in Uganda. This research can also be applied in other developing countries.
Analysis of Technical Efficiency of USAID-MARKETS II Project Participant and Non-Participant Rice Farming Households in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Low level production efficiency of the Nigerian farmers have continued to be a major problem towards food security in Nigeria. The study examined the technical efficiency of USAID-MARKETS II project participant and non-participant rice farming households in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select 491 rice farming households which comprise 239 participants, and 252 non- participants. Primary source of data were collected with the use of a structured interview questionnaire and field participation. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and percentage, Z statistic, and stochastic frontier Model. The result from the study, reveals that the USAID-MARKETS II project participants were 92% technical efficient while USAID-MARKETS II project non-participants were 91% technical efficient. The result further reveals that a significant difference exist between the participants’ technical efficiency and that of non-participants of USAID-MARKETS II project. Household size and education were the vital factors that improved technical efficiency of the rice farmers. Therefore, Ebonyi rice farmers should be adequately trained on modern rice production techniques by the government agency, Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) and non-governmental agencies. Also, adequate extension services should be provided to the farmers by the ADP for proper information dissemination.
Spaceborne differential absorption radar water vapor retrieval capabilities in tropical and subtropical boundary layer cloud regimes

Abstract. Differential absorption radar (DAR) near the 183 GHz water vapor absorption line is an emerging measurement technique for humidity profiling inside of clouds and precipitation with high vertical resolution, as well as for measuring integrated water vapor (IWV) in clear air regions. For radar transmit frequencies on the water line flank away from the highly attenuating line center, the DAR system becomes most sensitive to water vapor in the planetary boundary layer (PBL), which is a region of the atmosphere that is poorly resolved in the vertical by existing spaceborne humidity and temperature profiling instruments. In this work, we present a high-fidelity, end-to-end simulation framework for notional spaceborne DAR instruments that feature realistically achievable radar performance metrics, and apply this simulator to assess DAR's PBL humidity observation capabilities. Both the assumed instrument parameters and radar retrieval algorithm leverage recent technology and algorithm development for an existing airborne DAR instrument. To showcase the capabilities of DAR for humidity observations in a variety of relevant PBL settings, we implement the instrument simulator in the context of large eddy simulations (LES) of 5 different cloud regimes throughout the trade-wind subtropical-to-tropical cloud transition. Three distinct DAR humidity observations are investigated: IWV between the top of the atmosphere and the first detected cloud bin or Earth's surface; in-cloud water vapor profiles with 200 meter vertical resolution; and IWV between the last detected cloud bin and the Earth's surface, which can provide a precise measurement of the sub-cloud humidity. We provide a thorough assessment of the systematic and random errors for all 3 measurement products for each LES case, and analyze the humidity precision scaling with along-track measurement integration. While retrieval performance depends greatly on the specific cloud regime, we find generally that for a radar with cross-track scanning capability, in-cloud profiles with 200 m vertical resolution and 10–20 % uncertainty can be retrieved for horizontal integration distances of 100–200 km. Furthermore, column IWV can be retrieved with 10 % uncertainty for 10–20 km of horizontal integration. Finally, we provide some example science applications of the simulated DAR observations, including estimating near-surface relative humidity using the cloud-to-surface column IWV, and inferring in-cloud temperature profiles from the DAR water vapor profiles by assuming a fully saturated environment.
CRITERIA FOR ASYMMETRIC PRICE TRANSMISSION MODEL SELECTION BASED ON KULLBACK’S SYMMETRIC DIVERGENCE

In econometric modelling of asymmetric price transmission, selection of an optimal model among a collection of candidate models is a critical issue. In order to address the problem, criteria that targets Kullback’s Direct Divergence has been extensively used in asymmetric price transmission model selection. An alternative criteria recently introduced by Cavanaugh that targets Kullback’s Symmetric Divergence (KIC and KICc) remains unexplored in asymmetric price transmission model selection. In this paper, a Monte Carlo study is conducted to evaluate the relative performance of the recently developed selection criteria based on Kullback’s Symmetric Divergence (KIC and KICc) against commonly used alternatives based on Kullback’s Direct Divergence (AIC and AICc) in terms of their ability to recover the true asymmetric data generating process. Monte Carlo simulation results indicate that the performance of the model selection methods is influenced by the sample size, the level of asymmetry and the amount of noise in the model used in the application. KICc is comparable to KIC and both outperform AIC and AICc in both small and large samples. At lower noise levels, KICc is comparable to KIC and both outperform AIC and AICc. As difference in asymmetric adjustment parameters or speeds increases KICc is comparable to KIC and both outperform AIC and AICc. These results suggest that criteria based on Kullback’s Symmetric Divergence (KICc and KIC), is a very reliable and useful criterion in asymmetric price transmission model selection.
Oblivious ISA Extensions for Side Channel-Resistant and High Performance Computing

Blocking microarchitectural (digital) side channels is one of the most pressing challenges in hardware security today. Recently, there has been a surge of effort that attempts to block these leakages by writing programs data obliviously. In this model, programs are written to avoid placing sensitive data-dependent pressure on shared resources. Despite recent efforts, however, running data oblivious programs on modern machines today is insecure and low performance. First, writing programs obliviously assumes certain instructions in today’s ISAs will not leak privacy, whereas today’s ISAs and hardware provide no such guarantees. Second, writing programs to avoid data-dependent behavior is inherently high performance overhead. This paper tackles both the security and performance aspects of this problem by proposing a Data Oblivious ISA extension (OISA). On the security side, we present ISA design principles to block microarchitectural side channels, and embody these ideas in a concrete ISA capable of safely executing existing data oblivious programs. On the performance side, we design the OISA with support for efficient memory oblivious computation, and with safety features that allow modern hardware optimizations, e.g., out-of-order speculative execution, to remain enabled in the common case. We provide a complete hardware prototype of our ideas, built on top of the RISC-V out-of-order, speculative BOOM processor, and prove that the OISA can provide the advertised security through a formal analysis of an abstract BOOM-style machine. We evaluate area overhead of hardware mechanisms needed to support our prototype, and provide performance experiments showing how the OISA speeds up a variety of existing data oblivious codes (including “constant time” cryptography and memory oblivious data structures), in addition to improving their security and portability.
An improved Bonferroni procedure for multiple tests of significance

SUMMARY A modification of the Bonferroni procedure for testing multiple hypotheses is presented. The method, based on the ordered p-values of the individual tests, is less conservative than the classical Bonferroni procedure but is still simple to apply. A simulation study shows that the probability of a type I error of the procedure does not exceed the nominal significance level, a, for a variety of multivariate normal and multivariate gamma test statistics. For independent tests the procedure has type I error probability equal to a. The method appears particularly advantageous over the classical Bonferroni procedure when several highly-correlated test statistics are involved.
Surface-wave analysis for building near-surface velocity models — Established approaches and new perspectives

Today, surface-wave analysis is widely adopted for building near-surface S-wave velocity models. The surface-wave method is under continuous and rapid evolution, also thanks to the lively scientific debate among different disciplines, and interest in the technique has increased significantly during the last decade. A comprehensive review of the literature in the main scientific journals provides historical perspective, methodological issues, applications, and most-promising recent approaches. Higher modes in the inversion and retrieval of lateral variations are dealt with in great detail, and the current scientific debate on these topics is reported. A best-practices guideline is also outlined.
Executive Functions, Oral Language and Writing in Preschool Children: Development and Correlations

Funcoes executivas (FE) e linguagem oral (LO) sao importantes para a aprendizagem da leitura e escrita (LE) e para o desenvolvimento de demais competencias na fase pre-escolar. O estudo investigou a progressao e as relacoes entre os desempenhos nestas competencias em pre-escolares. Participaram 90 criancas, idade media de 4,91 anos, estudantes do Jardim I e II de uma escola particular de SP, avaliadas, individualmente, em uma bateria de nove instrumentos de FE, LO e LE. Houve aumento dos desempenhos em funcao do nivel escolar para todas as medidas de LO e LE, porem apenas para a medida de atencao no dominio das FE. Correlacoes significativas foram evidenciadas entre medidas que avaliam um mesmo dominio cognitivo, assim como interdominios, ainda que retratando um padrao diferencial. Os resultados sugerem que LO e LE parecem desenvolver-se rapidamente no curso da pre-escola, enquanto as FE apresentam desenvolvimento mais lento. Os dominios de LO e LE, bem como FE e LE sao mais interdependentes; enquanto FE e LO sao relativamente mais independentes.
New criteria for Voltage Stability evaluation in interconnected power system

--The voltage instability is a serious issue in the modern power systems with rapid voltage droop due to stressed system with increased loading. Many techniques have been given to predict the voltage collapse and maintain the voltage stability of a power system. The Voltage stability index (VSI) is a feature for solving voltage stability problems. In this paper, a new index is proposed and the performance of the new index with other indices is discussed. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through numerical studies on IEEE 30 bus system, using several scenarios of load increase. The process known as continuation load flow is used. The proposed voltage stability index is based on the difference between the present bus voltage level and the voltage at the nose point where the Jacobian becomes singular for the same load condition. A stable system may suffer voltage collapse when a contingency occurs. This paper analyses these cases. A new sensitivity factor between reactive power injection and improvement to the voltage stability margin is discussed. Keywordsvoltage stability, continuation load flow, voltage stability index, nose point.
DOES THE PERSONALITY MATTER - TALENT MANAGEMENT IN LIFE INSURANCE ORGANIZATIONS - FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

The aim of this article is to show the empirical relation between the insurance agents' specified personality traits and the efficiency of life insurance companies in context of future perspectives of development, basis on meta – analysis proceed in the three domestic and one international scientific projects in years 2007-2012 1 . In this paper it is also shown the motivators of most efficient insurance agents and opportunities / threats related to provision driven rewarding system and its consequences.
Invited review: Part of an invited issue on carbon allocation Carbon dynamics in trees: feast or famine?

Research on the degree to which carbon (C) availability limits growth in trees, as well as recent trends in climate change and concurrent increases in drought-related tree mortality, have led to a renewed focus on the physiological mechanisms associated with tree growth responses to current and future climate. This has led to some dispute over the role of stored non-structural C compounds as indicators of a tree’s current demands for photosynthate. Much of the uncertainty surrounding this issue could be resolved by developing a better understanding of the potential functions of non-structural C stored within trees. In addition to functioning as a buffer to reconcile temporal asynchrony between C demand and supply, the storage of non-structural C compounds may be under greater regulation than commonly recognized. We propose that in the face of environmental stochasticity, large, long-lived trees may require larger C investments in storage pools as safety margins than previously recognized, and that an important function of these pools may be to maintain hydraulic transport, particularly during episodes of severe stress. If so, survival and long-term growth in trees remain a function of C availability. Given that drought, freeze–thaw events and increasing tree height all impose additional constraints on vascular transport, the common trend of an increase in non-structural carbohydrate concentrations with tree size, drought or cold is consistent with our hypothesis. If the regulated maintenance of relatively large constitutive stored C pools in trees serves to maintain hydraulic integrity, then the minimum thresholds are expected to vary depending on the specific tissues, species, environment, growth form and habit. Much research is needed to elucidate the extent to which allocation of C to storage in trees is a passive vs. an active process, the specific functions of stored C pools, and the factors that drive active C allocation to storage.
Matrix product operators for symmetry-protected topological phases

Projected entangled pair states (PEPS) provide a natural description of the ground states of gapped, local Hamiltonians in which global characteristics of a quantum state are encoded in properties of local tensors. We show that on-site symmetries, as occurring in systems exhibiting symmetry-protected topological (SPT) quantum order, can be captured by a virtual symmetry of the tensors expressed as a set of matrix product operators labelled by the different group elements. A classification of SPT phases can hence be obtained by studying the topological obstructions to continuously deforming one set of matrix product operators into another. This leads to the classification of bosonic SPT states in terms of group cohomology, as originally derived by Chen et al. in [1106.4772]. Our formalism accommodates perturbations away from fixed point models, and hence opens up the possibility of studying phase transitions between different SPT phases. We furthermore show how the global symmetries of SPT PEPS can be promoted into a set of local gauge constraints by introducing bosonic degrees of freedom on the links of the PEPS lattice, thereby providing a natural and general mapping between PEPS in SPT phases and topologically ordered phases.
Dynamic Features and Identification of Regional Seismic Signals From Dead Sea Calibration Shots

Abstract : Three large-scale underwater chemical explosions were conducted on November 8-11, 1999 in the Dead Sea. One of the main objectives of the experiment was to provide data for source characterization to improve the IMS detection, location and discrimination capabilities. The explosions were recorded by the Israel Seismic Network (ISN) including 23 short-period (SP) stations, two auxiliary IMS broadband (BB) stations MRNI and EIL, BB station JER, and three temporary BB stations deployed at sites of the planned Israeli CNF stations. The magnitude values, determined from SP recordings, fit well the empirical relationship obtained from previous explosions: M(L) = 0.285 + log(10)W(kg), confirming a high seismic efficiency of the shots. The efficiency was also estimated by determination of energy of seismic waves recorded at local seismic stations relative to the explosives energy. A clear spectral modulation, caused by the bubble pulsation effect, is observed in all SP and BB seismograms. The bubble periods, determined from the harmonic series on smoothed spectra of ISN seismograms, are in good agreement with the modified Willis' (1963) empirical equation: T(b) = 2.1*W(1/3)/(P(0) + d*)(5/6), where P(0) is the pressure at the sea level (10.778 m of water column), the shot depth d=70 m, water density = 1.236g/cm(3).
FPGACam: A FPGA based efficient camera interfacing architecture for real time video processing

In most of the real time video processing applications, cameras are used to capture live video with embedded systems/Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to process and convert it into the suitable format supported by display devices. In such cases, the interface between the camera and display device plays a vital role with respect to the quality of the captured and displayed video, respectively. In this paper, we propose an efficient FPGA ‐ based low cost Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) camera interfacing architecture for live video streaming and processing applications. The novelty of our work is the design of optimised architectures for Controllers , Converters, and several interfacing blocks to extract and process the video frames in real time efficiently. The flexibility of parallelism has been exploited in the design for Image Capture and Video Graphics Array (VGA) Generator blocks. The Display Data Channel Conversion block required for VGA to High Definition Multimedia Interface Conversion has been modified to suit our objective by using optimised Finite State Machine and Transition Minimiszed Differential Signalling Encoder through the use of simple logic architectures, respectively. The hardware utilization of the entire architecture is compared with the existing one which shows that the proposed
Status of the CLIC/CTF Beam Instrumentation R&D

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is an e + /e - collider based on the two-beam acceleration principle, proposed to support precision high-energy physics experiments in the energy range 0.5-3 TeV [1]. To achieve a high luminosity of up to 6x10 34 cm -2 s -1 , the transport and preservation of a low emittance beam is mandatory. A large number and great variety of beam diagnostics instruments is foreseen to verify and guarantee the required beam quality. We discuss the status of the beam diagnostics developments and experimental results accomplished at the CLIC Test Facility (CTF) and at the Cornell University CesrTA ring accelerator.