Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Macroeconomic Effects of Central Bank Independence and Transparency: The case of Nigeria.

As the Nigerian economy tend towards democracy, the search began for how to establish monetary institutional policies that can be viewed as credible commitments. There is the notion that Central Banks in democratic economies have the likelihood of higher inflationary bias than other economies. Delegation of monetary policy to an independent central bank seem to be a good option for these economies. Thus, since then, greater independence became the practice across all groups of countries, but has been particularly marked for developing and emerging market economies. Transparency has been a good ingredient of Independence. Authors have not been able to conclude on the impact of these on macro economic variables, especially in the less developed countries where democracy is gaining ground and most government are trying to use monetary policies to support their government and administration. Against this background, this paper investigated the impact these two variables will have on many macroeconomic variables in these countries taking Nigeria as a case study. Indices of these variables were calculated and their impact was investigated on selected macroeconomic variables. The findings revealed that CBN independence and transparency means more employment for the Nigerian economy. It has negative effect on inflation and interest rate. The finding that increased independence lead to low interest rate is particularly very important for the growth of the economy. Keywords: Central bank independence, Inflation Targeting, Transparency, Monetary policy.
SQL vs. NoSQL vs. NewSQL- A Comparative Study

SQL Databases also known as RDBMS (Relational Database Management Systems) is the most common and traditional approach to database solutions. The data is stored in a structured way in form of tables or Relations. With advent of Big Data however, the structured approach falls short to serve the needs of Big Data systems which are primarily unstructured in nature. Increasing capacity of SQL although allows huge amount of data to be managed, it does not really count as a solution to Big Data needs, which expects fast response and quick scalability. To solve this problem a new kind of Database system called NoSQL was introduced to provide the scalability and unstructured platform for Big Data applications. NoSQL stands for Not Only SQL. NoSQL databases consist of keyvalue pair, Documents, graph databases or wide – column stores which do not have a standard schema which it needs to follow. It is also horizontally Scalable as opposed to vertical scaling in RDBMS. NoSQL provided great promises to be a perfect database system for Big Data applications; it however falls short because of some major drawbacks like NoSQL does not guarantee ACID properties (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability) of SQL systems. It is also not compatible with earlier versions of database. This is where NewSQL comes into picture. NewSQL is a latest development in the world of database systems. NewSQL is a Relational Database with the scalability properties of NoSQL. This paper discusses each of these database systems and tries to find the ideal solution for Big Data requirements.
Can Compulsory Military Service Increase Civilian Wages? Evidence from the Peacetime Draft in Portugal

Although the practice of military conscription was widespread during most of the past century, credible evidence on the effects of mandatory service is limited. Angrist (1990) showed that the Vietnam-era draft in the U.S. lowered the early-career wages of conscripts, a finding he attributed to the low value of military experience. More recent studies have found a mixed pattern of effects, with both negative (the Netherlands) and positive (in Sweden) earnings impacts. Even among Vietnam era draftees, Angrist and Chen (2011) find that the net effect on earnings by age 50 is close to zero. We provide new evidence on the long-term impacts of peacetime conscription in a "low education" labor market, using longitudinal data for Portuguese men born in 1967. These men were inducted at a relatively late age (21), allowing us to use pre- conscription wages as a control for potential ability differences between conscripts and non- conscripts. Our estimates of the average impact of military service for men who had entered the labor market by age 21 are slightly positive (1-2 percent) but not significantly different from zero throughout the period from 2 to 20 years after their service. These small average effects arise from a significantly positive later-life impact for men with only primary education, coupled with a zero-effect for men with higher education. The positive impacts for less-educated men suggest that mandatory service can be a valuable experience for poorly-educated men who might otherwise spend their careers in low-level jobs.
Realising the Benefits of Sports and Physical Activity: The Human Capital Model (Materializando los beneficios del deporte y la actividad física: El modelo de capital humano)

Despite the fact that physical activity is universally acknowledged to be an important part of healthy functioning and well being, the full scope of its value is rarely appreciated. This paper introduces a novel framework for understanding the relationships between physical activity (and specific forms of activity like sports) and different aspects of human development. It proposes that the outcomes of physical activity can be framed as differential 'capitals' that represent investments in domain-specific assets - Emotional, Financial, Individual, Intellectual, Physical, and Social. These investments, especially when made early in the life course, can yield significant rewards, both at that time and for years to come. The paper also outlines some of the conditions necessary for the realization of Human Capital growth through sports and physical activity, focusing on the social
Determination of chlorobenzenes in sewage sludge by solid-liquid extraction with purification at low temperature and gas chromatography mass spectrometry

In this paper, the technique of solid-liquid extraction with purification at low temperature for the determination of nine chlorobenzenes (CB) in sewage sludge was optimized, validated and applied. Analyses were carried out by using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. After univariate optimization of the extraction phase, a factorial design was used in order to evaluate the influence of pH, ionic strength (NaCl) and homogenization time. The method proved to be selective, with detection and quantification limits less than 4.1 and 12.5 µg kg-1, respectively. Recoveries were about 70% and the relative standard deviation was less than 13% for the chlorobenzenes analyzed. During the monthly monitoring of sewage sludge samples 1,4-CB, 1,2,4-CB and 1,2,3-CB were detected. Only 1,2,3-CB was quantified in concentrations higher than the maximum acceptable limit for chlorobenzenes in agricultural soils amended with sewage sludge disregarding the dilution effect of the sludge on soil.
Freely draining gravity currents in porous media: Dipole self-similar solutions with and without capillary retention

We analyse the two-dimensional, gravitationally-driven spreading of fluid through a porous medium overlying a horizontal impermeable boundary from which fluid can drain freely at one end. Under the assumption that none of the intruding fluid is retained within the pores in the trail of the current, the motion of the current is described by the dipole self-similar solution of the first kind derived by Barenblatt and Zel'dovich (1957). We show that small perturbations of arbitrary shape imposed on this solution decay in time, indicating that the self-similar solution is linearly stable. We use the connection between the perturbation eigenfunctions and symmetry transformations of the self-similar solution to demonstrate that variables can always be specified in terms of which the rate of decay of the perturbations is maximised. Unsaturated flow can be modelled by assuming that a constant fraction of the fluid is retained within the pores by capillary action in the trail of the current. It has been shown (Barenblatt and Zel'dovich, 1998; Ingerman and Shvets, 1999) that in this case, the motion of the current is described by a self-similar solution of the second kind characterised by an anomalous exponent. We derive leading-order analytic expressions for the anomalous exponent and the self-similar quantities valid for small values of the fraction of fluid retained using direct asymptotic analysis and by using a novel application of the method of multiple scales. The latter offers a number of advantages and permits the evolution of the current to be clearly connected with its initial conditions in a way not possible with conventional approaches. We demonstrate that the theoretical predictions provided by these expressions are in excellent agreement with results from the numerical integration of the governing equations.
Aalborg Universitet Bayesian inference for Hawkes processes

The Hawkes process is a practically and theoretically important class of point processes, but parameter-estimation for such a process can pose various problems. In this paper we explore and compare two approaches to Bayesian inference. The first approach is based on the so-called conditional intensity function, while the second approach is based on an underlying clustering and branching structure in the Hawkes process. For practical use, MCMC (Markov chain Monte Carlo) methods are employed. The two approaches are compared numerically using three examples of the Hawkes process.
DLPFC implication in memory processing of affective information. A look on anxiety trait contribution

Recent studies suggested to approach to the analysis of the emotions and cognition from an integrating point of view rather than investigate the two constructs per se. In line with this research approach, the present study aims to investigate how emotions can affect memory processes and which cerebral areas are involved in this mechanism. We also aim to understand if and how this processing is influenced by specific personality traits, as anxiety trait. Using a rTMS measure, participants were asked to performance a memory task (a retrieval task) composed by verbal material with and without emotional content. Subjects were also assessed for their anxiety trait (high and low anxiety subjects). Our study provided a strong evidence for the influence of the emotional content and personality trait on the memory processes. Secondly, the role of the Left Dorso-Lateral Prefrontal Cortex in emotional memory was pointed out with a specific function of this frontal network in managing the emotional memories.
CAT-GRAPH+: Towards Odometry-driven Place Consolidation in Changing Environments

Changing environments present a number of challenges to mobile robots, one of the most significant being mapping and localisation. This problem is particularly significant in vision-based systems where illumination and weather changes can cause feature-based techniques to fail. In many applications only sections of an environment undergo extreme perceptual change. Some range-based sensor mapping approaches exploit this property by combining occasional place recognition with the assumption that odometry is accurate over short periods of time. In this paper, we develop this idea in the visual domain, by using occasional vision-driven loop closures to infer loop closures in nearby locations where visual recognition is difficult due to extreme change. We demonstrate successful map creation in an environment in which change is significant but constrained to one area, where both the vanilla CAT-Graph and a Sum of Absolute Differences matcher fails, use the described techniques to link dissimilar images from matching locations, and test the robustness of the system against false inferences.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHICS, EXPERTISE, AUDIT EXPERIENCE, FRAUD RISK ASSESSMENT AND AUDIT SITUATIONAL FACTORS ON AUDITOR PROFESSIONAL SCEPTICISM

This study aims to prove empirically the effect of ethics, expertise, audit experience, fraud risk assessment, and audit situtional factors on auditor professional scepticism. To test the hypotheses, a Partial Least Square analysis is applied to questionnaire survey data from 40 auditors from Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia, Riau Province Representatives. As hyphotisized, the results revealed the existence of a significant and positive association between ethics, audit experience, fraud risk assessment and situtional factors on scepticism of auditors. Contrary to the hypothesis proposed, this study fail to give support to the influence of expertise on auditor professional skepticism. Discussion and implications of the findings and also suggestions for future research are discussed. Keyworsd: Ethics, Expertise, Audit Experience, Fraud Risk Assessment, Situtional Factors and Auditor Professional Scepticism.
The Story Theory is a Key Element of Many Holistic Nursing Procedures

The authors draw attention to the effective procedure performed by nurses aimed to counteract the adverse consequences of loneliness, the essence of which is due to the so-called "Story Theory". They recall that this "Story Theory" is one of the so-called "Middle Range Theories for Nursing", proposed by Mary Jane Smith and Patrycja Lier, which is a useful tool in formulating various psychotherapeutic interventions. The authors cite two of their own previous works, related to so-called "life review therapy," in which they also proposed practical therapeutic procedures in line with the essence of the "Story Theory". The cited papers describe the rules of conversation, enabling patients to obtain a "balanced, memorized assessment of one's own live". The authors remark that the present proposal of the Story Theory coincides with the current and increasingly more explicit awareness in the field of sociology and political science of the importance of the so-called narrative, or just constructing new stories, supporting the promotion of new, social ideas.
Kicking the Habit: Why Evidence for Habits in Humans Might Be Overestimated

Researchers typically classify behavior as habitual if it occurs independently of changes in the value of its outcomes (revaluation test) or the impact it has on those outcomes (contingency degradation test). We argue that these tests are valid only if they (a) are sufficiently sensitive and (b) target the outcomes that might actually control behavior. These criteria resemble the sensitivity and information criteria that are widely adopted in research on learning without awareness. We argue that past and future evidence for habits should be evaluated in light of these criteria and illustrate this approach by applying the information criterion to the studies conducted by de Wit, Niry, Wariyar, Aitken, and Dickinson (2007) and de Wit, Ridderinkhof, Fletcher, and Dickinson (2013). In 3 experiments that were modeled after these studies, we used alternative revaluation and contingency degradation tests that targeted other outcomes than those targeted in the original studies. These alternative tests consistently provided evidence for knowledge of outcomes that could have controlled seemingly habitual behavior. Our results suggest that the revaluation test used by de Wit et al. (2007, 2013) did not meet the information criterion, which questions the validity of their conclusions regarding the habitual nature of the observed behavior.
Sandy soil fertility restoration and crops yields after conversion of long term Acacia senegal planted fallows in North Cameroon

Tree planted fallow is an agroforestry system that may restore degraded soils and protect them from erosion. In this study, sandy soils properties of Acacia senegal planted fallows (AF) were assessed and compared to those from the continuous cropped system (CC) in 3 sites from Northern Cameroon in order to determine its suitability to restore soil fertility and sustain crop productivity. Soil samples were collected from the topsoil (0 to 20 cm) and the subsoil (20 to 40 cm) and subjected to physicochemical analyses. The trials were established for 2 consecutive years, respectively with sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). Results confirmed the sandy (more than 80% of sand) and acidic (4.42 ≤ pH ≤ 6.59) soil characters. In every site, topsoil from AF was relatively more fertile than from CC. Globally, nutrients content were influenced by tree density and fallow duration. The more improved elements were organic matter, nitrogen and pH. Sorghum and cowpea yields were quite variable depending on fallow duration, tree density and conversion form. The highest crop yields (3.4 tha-1 for sorghum and 2.4 tha-1 for cowpea) were obtained in 19 years old AF converted by partial clear-felling. The intercropping process by partial clear-felling of trees was the best conversion form. Overall findings indicated that fallowing with A. senegal can reduce soil acidity, restore nutrients and therefore it constitutes a suitable agroforestry system that may sustain annual crops productivity. However, researches have to determine the best tree density for intercropping and the tools for their sustainable management. Key words: Acacia senegal fallow, agroforestry, sandy soils, continuous cropping, North Cameroon.
APPARENT LIGHT REQUIREMENT FOR ACTIVATION OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS UPON REHYDRATION OF DESICCATED BEACHROCK MICROBIAL MATS 1

Photosynthetic electron transport of beachrock microbial mats growing in the intertidal zone of Heron Island (Great Barrier Reef, Australia) was investigated with a pulse amplitude modulation chl fluorometer providing four different excitation wavelengths for preferential excitation of the major algal groups (cyanobacteria, green algae, diatoms/dinoflagellates). A new type of fiberoptic emitter‐detector unit (PHYTO‐EDF) was used to measure chl fluorescence at the sample surface. Fluorescence signals mainly originated from cyanobacteria, which could be almost selectively assessed by 640‐nm excitation. Even after desiccation for long time periods under full sunlight, beachrock showed rapid recovery of photosynthesis after rehydration in the light (t1/2∼ 15 min). However, when rehydrated in the dark, the quantum yield of energy conversion of PSII remained zero over extended periods of time. Parallel measurements of O2 concentration with an oxygen microoptode revealed zero oxygen concentration in the surface layer of rehydrated beachrock in the dark. Upon illumination, O2 concentration increased in parallel with PSII quantum yield and decreased again to zero in the dark. It is proposed that oxygen is required for preventing complete dark reduction of the PSII acceptor pools via the NADPH‐dehydrogenase/chlororespiration pathway. This hypothesis is supported by the observation that PSII quantum yield could be partially induced in the dark by flushing with molecular oxygen.
Professionalism and High-Stakes Tests: Teachers’ Perspectives When Dealing With Educational Change Introduced Through Provincial Exams

The effect of high-stakes tests on classroom activity (commonly called washback) is an issue that is receiving heightened attention in the literature. It is yet one more element that teachers need to deal with in their professional contexts. This article focuses on the perspectives of ESL secondary teachers as they experience curriculum innovations introduced into the educational system via provincial exams. Survey results from 153 teachers are reported. The survey is part of a larger washback study that also triangulated classroom observation and teachers’ and students’ perception data in a longitudinal study. The survey results suggest that teachers would like to do their part in moving the system into a position where curriculum, their teaching and assessment, and the system’s high-stakes exam correspond. They achieve this, however, according to their beliefs and professional stances, which may not present a unified performance across teachers.
Load Consequences when Sweeping Blades - A Case Study of a 5 MW Pitch Controlled Wind Turbine

max. 2000 char. ): The generic 5 MW NREL wind turbine model is used in Riso’s aeroelastic simulator HAWC2 to investigate 120 different swept blade configurations (forward and backward sweep). Sensitivity for 2 different controllers is considered as well. Backward sweep results in a pitch to feather torsional moment of the blade, effectively reducing blade twist angles under increased loading. This behaviour results in decreased flap-wise fatigue and extreme loads, an increase for edge-wise fatigue loading and status quo or slight decrease in extreme loads (depending on the controller). Tower base and shaft-end bending moments are reduced as well. Forward sweep leads to an increase in angle of attack under loading. For a pitch controlled turbine this leads to an increase in fatigue and extreme loading in all cases. An controller inflicted instability is present for the more extreme forward swept cases. Due to the shape of considered sweep curves, an inherent and significant increase in torsional blade root bending moment is noted. A boomerang shaped sweep curve is proposed to counteract this problematic increased loading. Controller sensitivity shows that adding sweep affects some loadings differently. Power output is reduced for backward sweep since the blade twist is optimized as a rigid structure, ignoring the torsional deformations which for a swept blade can be significant. ISSN 0106-2840 ISBN 978-87-550-3805-9 Contract no.: EU-019945 Group's own reg. no.: 1110053-01 Sponsorship: EU 6th Framework: Upwind Integrated Wind Turbine Design
THE MAGNITUDE OF DRIVING FORCES OF PLATE MOTION

The absolute magnitudes of a variety of driving forces that could contribute to the plate motion are evaluated, on the condition that all lithospheric plates are in dynamic equilibrium. The method adopted here is to solve the equations of torque balance of these forces for all plates, after having estimated the magnitudes of the ridge push and slab pull forces from known quantities. The former has been estimated from the age of ocean floors, the depth and thickness of oceanic plates and hence lateral density variations, and the latter from the density contrast between the downgoing slab and the surrounding mantle, and the thickness and length of the slab. The results from the present calculations show that the magnitude of the slab pull forces is about five times larger than that of the ridge push forces, while the North American and South American plates, which have short and shallow slabs but long oceanic ridges, appear to be driven by the ridge push force. The magnitude of the slab pull force exerted on the Pacific plate exceeds to 40 % of the total slab pull forces, and that of the ridge push force working on the Pacific plate is the largest among the ridge push forces exerted on the plates. The high correlation that exists between the mantle drag force and the sum of the slab pull and ridge push forces makes it difficult to evaluate the absolute net driving forces. However, the slab resistances appear to contribute more to cancelling the driving forces than the mantle drag force. From stress estimation, it was found that high stresses are concentrated around the leading edge of the downgoing slab.