Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Negotiation planning of autonomous agents in multi-agent environment

In negotiation process, when a conflict arises between people in a society, each will try to pose some arguments to resolve the conflict and convince the other party. Successful termination of many of these interactions is not achieved only via exchange of a series of single-message suggestions and requires that an arguer offer compelling justifications to prove his/her claim. Obviously, before negotiation is started, decision should be made about the terms and arguments that can convince the other side and terminate negotiations successfully. In other words, an exact plan of arguments and their order should be prepared. The same is true about a multi - agent environment where each agent needs planning and executing a sequence of actions to achieve its goals. Some actions in these sequences are under the direct control of the planner agent and others require negotiations with other agents. Negotiation is usually carried out during the plan execution, however, it can be considered during the planning stage, as in real life. In this paper, we present a new approach that takes into account incomplete information about opponent’s position in negotiation by using a nondeterministic planner with incomplete knowlage and sensing actions. We evaluate our approach by solving a well known negotiation scenario.
Analysts' forecast revisions and informativeness of the acquirer's stock after M&A transactions

Are mergers and acquisitions significant events that develop informativeness? Is the informativeness process the same in different countries? Looking only at cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) is insufficient and the results are sometimes contradictory. To answer to these questions we use the concept of informativeness to assess whether acquisitions improve the private information content of stock prices. We consider a sample of mergers and acquisitions in the US and Europe over the 2000–2013 period. We gauge informativeness by using different measures. First, we refer to the use of the synchronicity measure introduced by Roll (1988). We also refer to Amihud’s (2002) illiquidity ratio and the Llorente et al.’s (2002) measure of informed trading to proxy informativeness. We relate these three measures to the analysts’ activity to forecast EPS. We show that the disclosure process is partially linked to the sign and magnitude of the acquirer’s abnormal return (CARs) at the announcement date. Informativeness of the stock price does not improve systematically between before and after the acquisition. It changes asymmetrically depending on the upward or downward forecast revisions after the acquisition.
Residential sorting across Auckland neighbourhoods

This paper addresses the extent to which people in Auckland exhibit residential location patterns that differ between groups, i.e. the extent to which they are spatially sorted. To measure patterns of residential location, the paper uses the index of segregation, an isolation index, Gini coefficients, Ellison & Glaeser and Maurel & Sedillot concentration measures, Moran’s I and Getis and Ord’s G*. Results are presented based on a classification of the population in different ways: ethnicity, income, education, age and country of birth. Both city-wide and local measures are considered. We find that ethnic-based sorting is the strongest indicator of residential sorting patterns, but sorting by income, education and age is also present. Sorting by income and qualifications is strongest at the top and, to a lesser extent, at the bottom of the income and qualifications range. Age segregation is most pronounced for older residents. Clustering is strongest within a range of up to one kilometre and declines significantly over greater distances. Local analysis by means of Getis and Ord’s G* calculations suggest significant ethnic clustering. Apart from Māori and Pacific Islanders, ethnic groups tend to locate away from each other, as confirmed with cross-Moran’s I calculations. When considering interactions between ethnicity and income we find that the location of ethnicity-income subgroups is more strongly related to neighbourhood ethnicity than to neighbourhood income. he distribution of households and individuals across neighbourhoods arises through a complex process that is now commonly referred to as residential sorting (e.g. Clark & Morrison, 2012). When choosing areas to live, people make tradeoffs regarding the * Dave Mare is Senior Fellow at Motu: Economic and Public Policy Research. E-mail: dave.mare@motu.org. nz † New Zealand Treasury. ‡ National Institute of Demography and Economic Analysis. § Department of Economics, University of Otago. T
Women on Board and Performance of Family Firms: Evidence from India

This paper provides evidence on the effect of women directors on the performance of family firms with a case study of India. Existing literature on the subject has primarily focused on widely held firms, notably in the US. Given that ownership structure and governance environment of family firms are distinctly different from those of non-family firms, the evidence on the relationship between women on board and firm performance in the context of widely held firms may not apply in the context of family firms. India provides an ideal setting for analyzing this question as the presence of family firms is pervasive and since 2013 India has instituted gender quotas on corporate boards. Using a data-set of 10218 firm year observations over a ten year period from 2005 to 2014 which spans the pre-quota and post-quota years, we find robust evidence that women directors on corporate boards positively impact firm value and that this effect increases with the number of women directors on board. However, we find that the positive effect of gender diversity on firm performance weakens with the extent to which the family exerts control through occupying key management positions on the board. In addition, women directors affiliated to the family have no significant effect on firm value, whereas independent women directors do. Our results with respect to profitability are somewhat different; while as in the case of market value, women directors positively impact profitability with the positive effect driven by independent women directors, the effect does not vary with the extent of family control. Taken together, our results suggest that though gender diversity on corporate boards may positively impact firm performance in family firms in general, the extent of family control can have a significant bearing on this relationship. The findings from this study could be instructive for emerging economies like India in promoting gender-based quotas on corporate boards.
Do Sardinella aurita spawning seasons match local retention patterns in the Senegalese–Mauritanian upwelling region?

Sardinella aurita is the most abundant small pelagic fish in the Senegalese–Mauritanian region. The success of its reproduction crucially depends on the local circulation as this determines whether larvae reach coastal nursery areas favorable to their survival or are dispersed into the open ocean. As a first step towards evaluating sardinella vulnerability to climate-driven hydrodynamical changes, this study aims at underpinning how transport pathways drive optimal spatial and seasonal patterns for sardinella reproduction. We have used two estimates of the Senegalese–Mauritanian coastal seasonal circulation simulated by two hydrodynamical model configurations that differ in their forcing and topography. Nursery areas are determined by evaluating coastal retention with a Lagrangian individual-based model that accounts for processes such as diel vertical migration and mortality as a result of lethal temperature exposure. Our results suggest that the shelf zones located at the Arguin Bank (19.5°N–21°N) and south of Senegal (12°N–14.75°N) are highly retentive. We find maximum retention rates in July–August and November–December over the Arguin Bank; from February–July and November–December over the southern Senegalese shelf; and lower retention rates over the central region (14.75°N–19.5°N) that are locally maximum in June–July when the upwelling weakens. These retention areas and their seasonality are in agreement with previously reported spawning patterns, suggesting that the Sardinella aurita spawning strategy may result from a trade-off between retention patterns associated with the seasonal circulation and food availability. Exposure to lethal temperatures, although not well studied, could be a further limiting factor for spawning. The Lagrangian analysis reveals important connectivity between sub-regions within and south of the system and hence underlines the importance for joint management of the Sardinella aurita stock.
Operation of Current Controlled Three Phase Grid Connected VSI Under Non-ideal Grid Condition

Power electronics is a subject which deals with efficient processing of electrical power. With depleting fossil fuel reserve, necessity to incorporate renewable energy systems into existing power grid and need of efficient utilisation of electrical energy is growing day by day. A Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) capable of bidirectional power flow has become a basic building block to address such requirements. Generally, control strategies for grid connected VSI have been based on a rich body of research on vector control of motors. Exhaustive work has already been carried out for grid connected VSI focusing on steady state operation under both ideal and non-ideal grid condition. Current trend of research is to meet emerging requirements such as low voltage ride through, behaviour of the power converter during transients etc. In this paper an overview of current controlled three phase VSI has been presented from control point of view. Further the need to meet emerging requirements and design enhancements are indicated. Index Terms—Three phase four wire VSI, Distributed gener- ation, Fault ride through, Current control, Phase locked loop.
Detection of Duplicate Content on Twitter

Depending on the needs of a user, searching on Twitter streams has proven to be very useful for a wide range of applications. Twitter however, has large volumes of information available in the form of tweets, that are shared by mil- lions of users. We have observed that many of these tweets contain mutually redundant information and due to this, there is a consequent impact on the search and retrieval process on Twitter streams. Redundancy in the information pre- sented to a user, hinders with the objective of a search engine to limit a user’s effort, by presenting content that has already been seen. Detecting redundant information in tweets is all the more challenging, due to the colloquial nature of the language that is used. In addition to this, the presence of tweet-specific constructs like hash-tags, shortened URLs and @-mentions further complicates the task of detecting mutually redundant tweets or duplicate tweets. Although it is relatively easy to automatically detect duplicate tweets which are syntactically identical (i.e., the text in the tweets is identical), it is challenging to detect tweets that are semantically equivalent (i.e., tweets have the same underlying meaning) but syntactically different. By analyzing a large Twitter benchmark dataset (provided as a part of the TREC microblog search challenge) used for the micro-blog search task in 2011, we ob- served that there is a varying extent to which a pair of tweets can be duplicates. We developed a scale that can be used to measure the extent of semantic over- lapping in a pair of tweets. Through our analysis, we identified the key aspects around which strategies for the detection of duplicate tweets can be designed, namely, terminological, semantic and linguistic aspects. We designed and imple- mented strategies for the detection of duplicate tweets from that perspective. Our main contributions are four-fold. Firstly, we developed a scale that can be used to measure the degree of a pair of duplicate tweets. Secondly, we analyzed the top-k search results on Twitter and observed the extent to which duplicates appear in top-k retrieval. Thirdly, we designed and implemented the strategies for the detection of duplicates. Our best strategy combination results in a commend- able F-measure of just over 80% (0.82). Finally, we develop a prediction model that can predict the duplicity order of a tweet-pair with an average accuracy of over 80%.
Precision of Calibrated Radiocarbon Ages of Historic Earthquakes in the Dead Sea Basin

The precise determination of the age of historical and geological events by radiocarbon dating is often hampered by the long intersection ranges of the measured data with the calibration curve. In this study we examine the possibility of narrowing the calibrated range of the 14C ages of earthquake-disturbed sediments (seismites) from the Late Holocene lacustrine section in the Dead Sea Basin. The calibrated ranges of samples collected from seismites were refined by applying stratigraphic constraints and tuning the calibrated ranges to known historical earthquakes. Most of the earthquakes fall well within the 1σ error envelope of the 14C age. This refinement demonstrates that the lag period due to transport and deposition of vegetation debris is very short in this arid environment, probably not more than a few decades. This assessment of seismite 14C ages attests to the validity of 14C ages in Holocene sediments of the arid area of the Dead Sea. Furthermore, it demonstrates our ability to achieve highly precise (correct to within several decades) 14C ages.
Reconfigurable band-notched slot antenna using short circuited quarter wavelength microstrip resonators

Abstract—In this paper, a CPW feed ultrawideband (UWB) slot antenna with a single reconfigurable notched band is proposed for overlay cognitive radio (CR) systems. The proposed antenna utilizes two symmetrical short circuited quarter wavelength resonators at the top layer and close to the ground to create a single notch. The switching reconfiguration is achieved by changing the length of resonators to prevent the interference to the primary users that are operating in the wireless local area network (WLAN) band at 5.725–5.825 GHz and the international telecommunication union (ITU) band at 8.05– 8.4 GHz. The center frequency of the notched band can be tuned by selecting the length of the resonators, which is achieved by employing two ideal switches. Moreover, the proposed antenna has been fabricated and tested. The experimental data confirmed that the proposed design can selectively have a band notch over the two existent desired bands.
ANTINOCICEPTIVE ACTIVITY OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF LEAVES OF ALTERNANTHERA BRASILIANA KUNTZ. IN ANIMAL MODELS OF NOCICEPTION

Summary Methanolic extract of leaves of Alternanthera brasiliana Kuntz. was studied for its antinociceptive activity in both peripheral and non-narcotic models like acetic acid induced writhing syndrome test and narcotic analgesic models like tail flick and hot plate test. The methanolic extract of Alternanthera brasiliana when administered @ 300, 600 and 900mg/ kg body wt. orally, produced significant (P<0.01) analgesic activity in acetic acid induced writhing syndrome. In the hot plate analgesic test in albino mice, A. brasiliana treated (@ 300, 600 and 900 mg/ kg body wt.) and the standard drug (Morphine @ 1.5 mg/ kg) treated group, the duration of reaction time (in sec) increased dose dependently and was significantly (P< 0.01) higher. In the tail flick test, the plant extract produced dose dependant increase in reaction time and was also significantly higher (P<0.01) compared to the control group. The plant possessed significant antinociceptive activity as evidenced in all the animal models of nociception. It might possibly exert its effect through diverse mechanism that may involve both central and peripheral pathways. The preliminary phytochemical investigation revealed the presence of steroids, alkaloids and triterpene in the methanolic extract of leaves of A. brasiliana which might be responsible for its antinociceptive activity.
On the delay and link utilization with the new-additive increase multiplicative decrease congestion avoidance and control algorithm

Additive increase multiplicative decrease (AIMD) algorithm is the prevailing algorithm for congestion avoidance and control in the Internet. Reducing the end-to-end delays and enhancement of the link utilization are the important goals of this algorithm. In this work, we continue to study the performance of the New-AIMD (additive increase multiplicative decrease) mechanism as one of the core protocols for TCP, to avoid and control the congestion. We want to evaluate the effect of using the AIMD algorithm after developing it, which we called the New-AIMD algorithm, to find a new approach to measure the end-to-end delay and bottleneck link utilization and use the NCTUns simulator to obtain the results after making the modification for the mechanism. We will use the DropTail mechanism as the active queue management mechanism (AQM) in the bottleneck router. After the implementation of our new approach with a different number of flows, we expect the end-to-end delay to be less when we measure the delay dependent on the throughput for the entire system. In addition, we will measure the bottleneck link utilization using this mechanism and expect to get high utilization for bottleneck link and avoid the collisions in the link.
Service Quality Experience and Customers’ Behavioural Intentions in Active Sport Tourism

This paper analyzes the role played by experience in the loyalty and intent to return of sports tourists to a running race. The data for this study were collected through an online questionnaire filled in by 984 participants of one of the most important international running races in Italy. A regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the data. The results showed that aesthetic dimensions (the valence and the venue) were the principal determinant of loyalty for active sports tourists. The principal determinants of the intent to return were the venue and the technical quality (the value and the challenge). This study provides suggestions for future research and gives useful insights into managerial implications for sports tourism management.
Kuhn-Tucker Conditions and Integral Functionals

R = R [ f1;†1g. We show that, under transversality assumptions, the problem infff(x)+h(g(x)); x 2 Xg admits generalized or exact Kuhn-Tucker multipliers. We consider the case where f is a scalar O R-valued integral functional and g is a vector integral functional with values in (O R) n . These properties are related to growth conditions between integrands.
Improvement to the PhytoDOAS method for identification of coccolithophores using hyper-spectral satellite data

Abstract. The goal of this study was to improve PhytoDOAS, which is a new retrieval method for quantitative identification of major phytoplankton functional types (PFTs) using hyper-spectral satellite data. PhytoDOAS is an extension of the Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS, a method for detection of atmospheric trace gases), developed for remote identification of oceanic phytoplankton groups. Thus far, PhytoDOAS has been successfully exploited to identify cyanobacteria and diatoms over the global ocean from SCIAMACHY (SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY) hyper-spectral data. This study aimed to improve PhytoDOAS for remote identification of coccolithophores, another functional group of phytoplankton. The main challenge for retrieving more PFTs by PhytoDOAS is to overcome the correlation effects between different PFT absorption spectra. Different PFTs are composed of different types and amounts of pigments, but also have pigments in common, e.g. chl a, causing correlation effects in the usual performance of the PhytoDOAS retrieval. Two ideas have been implemented to improve PhytoDOAS for the PFT retrieval of more phytoplankton groups. Firstly, using the fourth-derivative spectroscopy, the peak positions of the main pigment components in each absorption spectrum have been derived. After comparing the corresponding results of major PFTs, the optimized fit-window for the PhytoDOAS retrieval of each PFT was determined. Secondly, based on the results from derivative spectroscopy, a simultaneous fit of PhytoDOAS has been proposed and tested for a selected set of PFTs (coccolithophores, diatoms and dinoflagellates) within an optimized fit-window, proven by spectral orthogonality tests. The method was then applied to the processing of SCIAMACHY data over the year 2005. Comparisons of the PhytoDOAS coccolithophore retrievals in 2005 with other coccolithophore-related data showed similar patterns in their seasonal distributions, especially in the North Atlantic and the Arctic Sea. The seasonal patterns of the PhytoDOAS coccolithophores indicated very good agreement with the coccolithophore modeled data from the NASA Ocean Biochemical Model (NOBM), as well as with the global distributions of particulate inorganic carbon (PIC), provided by MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)-Aqua level-3 products. Moreover, regarding the fact that coccolithophores belong to the group of haptophytes, the PhytoDOAS seasonal coccolithophores showed good agreement with the global distribution of haptophytes, derived from synoptic pigment relationships applied to SeaWiFS chl a. As a case study, the simultaneous mode of PhytoDOAS has been applied to SCIAMACHY data for detecting a coccolithophore bloom which was consistent with the MODIS RGB image and the MODIS PIC map of the bloom, indicating the functionality of the method also in short-term retrievals.
Cogongrass in the United States: History, Ecology, Impacts, and Management

Cogongrass is a weed throughout the tropics and subtropics. Introductions early this century have spread into forests, rangelands, reclaimed mined areas, roadsides, and natural ecosystems in the southeastern United States. Vegetative reproduction is the primary mechanism for survival and local spread, and sexually produced seeds of this obligate outcrossing species provide natural long-distance dispersal. Highly germinable (≥ 90%) seeds have no dormancy, though spikelet fill may be low (≤ 40%) in natural populations. Early seedling establishment, prior to rhizome development, is low (< 20%), occurring in areas with little competition; ≥ 75% bahiagrass sod cover is required to prevent cogongrass seedling establishment. Imazapyr and glyphosate are the most effective herbicides for cogongrass control. Younger cogongrass shoots are very susceptible to these herbicides; however, longer term control of adult plants requires translocation and thereby control of the rhizomes. Autumn applications of glyphosate and imazapyr provided greatest suppression of rhizome regrowth. Effective cogongrass management options exist and depend on integrating several control strategies. Mechanical control alone provides short-term control, whereas multiple discings plus herbicide application provide longer term control. Some combinations of herbicide, discing, and revegetation with desirable plant species provide excellent control. Because of the large geographic area infested with cogongrass and the often economically and environmentally unacceptable management techniques, biological control organisms also should be researched.