Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SPS IN AGRICULTURAL TRADE: ISSUES AND OPTIONS FOR A RESEARCH AGENDA 1 PRELIMINARY DRAFT

Paper presented at the International Seminar “Agricultural Liberalization and Integration: What to expect from the FTAA and the WTO? ” hosted by the Special Initiative on Integration and Trade, Integration and Regional Programs Department, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington DC, 1-2 October 2002. The views expressed herein are the authors and do not reflect those of the InterAmerican Development Bank. Not for citation without the author’s permission.
A Simulation Model for Predicting and Analyzing Manpower Requirements

In Oklahoma, manufacturing employment continues to grow, playing a crucial role in the state's economy. The proportion of state employment in manufacturing rose from 12 percent in 1960 to 15 percent in 1970. Since then, the growth rate of manufacturing jobs has been even greater. In addition, many of the jobs created were in rural communities—from 1963 through 1971, 54 percent were located in communities smaller than 15, 000. State and community leaders planning for future growth could benefit from a manpower analysis. State leaders need to insure a sufficient supply of manpower in appropriate occupations. Community leaders could benefit from a manpower analysis estimating occupational needs resulting from changes in local economic base.
Exploring motivational design and motivation types facilitated by an online support system for learning literature

This paper is a study designed to explore the influence of an Online Support System for learning Literature (LitOSS) on a group of twenty-five Form 4 Malaysian students who generally perceived English Literature as difficult and uninteresting. This asynchronous mode of learning was introduced with the intention of enhancing the students’ motivation to learn English literature through a blended learning environment. LitOSS featured seven literature topics encompassing poems, short stories and novel, presented in the forms of online text-based materials, graphics and videos. This study was framed by the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) of language learning, Keller’s (1987) Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction (ARCS) Model and the Social Cognitive Model of Motivation (SCMM). The motivational design of the system and the prevalent types of motivation facilitated by the system were measured using two sets of questionnaires (i.e. the adapted versions of WebMac Sr. 4.0 and Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ)) and a focus group interview. Findings from the study support the prediction that LitOSS would significantly enhance students’ motivation to learn literature due to its highly motivating design. It was also discovered that not only did the system promote self-efficacy and a high control of learning, it also motivated the students extrinsically and intrinsically. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.17576/GEMA-2014-1402-08
Flux quanta, magnetic field lines, merging – some sub-microscale relations of interest in space plasma physics

Abstract. We clarify the notion of magnetic field lines in plasma by referring to sub-microscale (quantum mechanical) particle dynamics. It is demonstrated that magnetic field lines in a field of strength B carry single magnetic flux quanta Φ0=h/e. The radius of a field line in the given magnetic field B is calculated. It is shown that such field lines can merge and annihilate only over the length ep of their strictly anti-parallel sections, for which case we estimate the power generated. The length ep becomes a function of the inclination angle θ of the two merging magnetic flux tubes (field lines). Merging is possible only in the interval 1 2 πθlπ. This provides a sub-microscopic basis for "component reconnection" in classical macro-scale reconnection. We also find that the magnetic diffusion coefficient in plasma appears in quanta D0m=eΦ0/me=h/me. This lets us conclude that the bulk perpendicular plasma resistivity is limited and cannot be less than η0⊥=μ0eΦ0/me=μ0h/me~10−9 Ohm m. This resistance is an invariant.
MODELING OF TREE GROWTH AFTER FOREST FIRE IN MOUNT CIREMAI NATIONAL PARK, INDONESIA

Forest fire is a massive threat towards tropical forest causing various negative impacts to nature and human being. Forest fire often leads to alteration of forest structure and its functions. This study of tree growth after forest fire was conducted using a model simulation. The model was performed at the individual level of plant community and built to analyze the potential of tree growth and its scenario for post-fire recovery. Five important tree species from montane forest of Mount Ciremai were chosen to build the model based on four main parameters i.e. plant growth rate, diameter at breast height (DBH), tree-to-grass competition and tree-to-tree competition. The scenario of post-fire recovery was performed by replanting similar species with 5 cm DBH seedling. Prediction from our model showed that most of the chosen species would recover to its pre-fire condition after 37 - 50 years. Considering the limitation of competition after re-planting, it was suggested to minimize tree to tree competition and applied silvicultural treatments to maximize tree growth and tree community recovery.
Using Kinect for monitoring warehouse order picking operations

In this paper we address the problem of monitoring warehouse order picking using a Kinect sensor, which provides RGB and depth information. We propose a new method that uses both 2D and 3D sensory data from the Kinect sensor for recognizing cuboids in an item picking scenario. 2D local texture based features are derived from the Kinect sensor’s RGB camera image data, which are used to distinguish objects with different patterns. 3D geometric information are derived from the Kinect sensor’s depth data, which are useful for recognizing objects of different size. Usually, 2D object recognition method has relatively low recognition accuracy when the object is not sufficiently textured or illuminated uniformly. Under those situations, 3D data provide geometric descriptions such as planes and volume and becomes a welcome addition to the 2D method. The proposed approach is implemented and tested on a simulated warehouse item picking workstation for item recognition and process monitoring. Many box-shape items of different sizes, shapes and pattern textures are tested. The proposed approach can also be applied in many other applications.
The Influence of Consumption and Investment on Unemployment in Turkey: A Svar Approach

Abstract The aim of this paper is to examine the dynamic relationship between consumption, investment and unemployment in Turkey using structural VAR (SVAR) models. The four different SVAR models are estimated by using quarterly observations of dynamic and contemporaneous relations for the mentioned macroeconomic variables, covering the 2005-2016 period for the Turkish economy. Four different unemployment rates are used in the study to represent the unemployment rate in the Turkish economy, which are overall, young (15-24 age), male and female unemployment rates. Impulse response functions and variance decomposition results obtained from the study show that consumption shocks have a significant impact on both the unemployment rate and the investments, in support of the basic hypothesis that is argued in the study. Investment shocks also have a similar effect on unemployment rates and positive investment shocks have reduced unemployment rates. Moreover, another result obtained in all four models suggests that a shock in consumption increases investment through the accelerator effect.
ENHANCING SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE TAKING IN DELINQUENT ADOLESCENTS THROUGH COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY IN A HYPERMEDIA PROGRAM

The purpose of this study was to see if social perspective taking (SPT) could be enhanced in juvenile delinquents by a Cognitive Flexibility Hypermedia (CFH) program consisting of video vignettes. Seventy juvenile delinquents (forty-nine male, twenty one females) participated. The average age was 13.5. The ethnic composition was 46% Caucasian, 31% Black, and 23% Hispanic. Participants were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The former used a CFH program of video vignettes of adolescents on a lap top computer that was designed for this study. The CFH program was developed from the tenets of Cognitive Flexibility (Spiro & Jehng, 1990). The content of the vignettes were based on classroom materials that were originally in a text format (Rubisch, 1992). Participants could click on links to view how three characters perceived the same situation. Controls did not participate in the CFH program of video vignettes. After participating in the CFH, the SPT of treatment and control participants was measured by the Chandler Cartoon Sequence (CCS, Chandler, 1973) and the Twin Rivers Video (TRV). The CCS consisted of a series of cartoon panels. Participants were asked to look at the panels and tell a story from the perspective of the main character. They were then asked to tell a story from the perspective of a secondary character who did not have the same knowledge of events as the main character. The TRV, in a video format, was similar to the CCS. The TRV was constructed specifically for this study. Scores on the CCS and TRV were based on the ability of participants to separate knowledge that they knew from knowledge possessed by the bystander character. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to test the hypotheses. Results were insignificant for the total population (p= .08). However, there were significant differences for the female subgroup between those that used the CFH program and those who did not (p= .03). This may be due to the fact that the characters in the CFH program were female. There was a . 6441 correlation between the CCS and TRV in the measurement of SPT. Further research is warranted.
A Proposal to Exploit Legal Term Repertoires Extracted Automatically from a Legal English Corpus

The use of specialised corpora as support material in ESP/EAP is a widespread phenomenon yet, to the best of our knowledge, the amount of corpus-based materials in the area of legal English is considerably reduced. This study presents the proposal of several corpus-based activities to foster the acquisition of legal terminology. To that end, an 8.85 million-word legal English corpus (BLaRC) was compiled and processed to identify its most relevant terms using P.Drouin's (2003) TermoStat software. A corpus comprising three legal English textbooks (LegTeXT) was created to establish a comparison between the term inventories obtained from both corpora and thus determine the usefulness of the term list obtained from the former corpus to be used as support teaching material. Several tests were carried out finding 67% overlap between the two term inventories. Furthermore, using Heatley and Nation's (1996) Range software, it was found that 12.37% of the running words in the legal English textbooks were covered by the term inventory obtained from BLaRC. After reviewing the literature on the subject, a taxonomy is also suggested for the classification of legal terms followed by the proposal of several vocabulary activities focusing on varied linguistic levels, namely, morphological, syntactic, semantic and discursive.
Does economic distance affect the flows of trade and foreign direct investment? Evidence from Vietnam

Abstract This study examines the effect of relative economic distance (RED) between countries on bilateral foreign trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), using Vietnam as a case study. The difference in per-capita GDP is used as proxy for the RED between Vietnam and her partner countries. Modified gravity models are estimated using the procedure of panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE). The results indicate that there is a feedback and significantly positive relationship between Vietnam’s trade and FDI inflows. The economic distance between Vietnam and her partner countries has a significantly positive influence on the country’s bilateral trade and FDI inflows.
Bayesian Modeling for Mental Health Surveys

Bayesian Modeling for Mental Health Surveys Sharifa Zakiya Williams Sample surveys are often used to collect data for obtaining estimates of finite population quantities, such as disease prevalence. However, non-response and sampling frame under-coverage can cause the survey sample to differ from the target population in important ways. To reduce bias in the survey estimates that can arise from these differences, auxiliary information about the target population from sources including administrative files or census data can be used. Survey weighting is one approach commonly used to reduce bias. Although weighted estimates are relatively easy to obtain, they can be inefficient in the presence of highly dispersed weights. Model-based estimation in survey research offers advantages of improved efficiency in the presence of sparse data and highly variable weights. However, these models can be subject to model misspecification. In this dissertation, we propose Bayesian penalized spline regression models for survey inference about proportions in the entire population as well as in subpopulations. The proposed methods incorporate survey weights as covariates using a penalized spline to protect against model misspecification. We show by simulations that the proposed methods perform well, yielding efficient estimates of population proportion for binary survey data in the presence of highly dispersed weights and robust to model misspecification for survey outcomes. We illustrate the use of the proposed methods to estimate the prevalence of lifetime temper dysregulation disorder among National Guard service members overall and in sub-populations defined by gender and race using the Ohio Army National Guard Mental Health Initiative 2008-2009 survey data. We further extend the proposed framework to the setting where individual auxiliary data for the population are not available and utilize a Bayesian bootstrap approach to complete model-based estimation of current and undiagnosed depression in Hispanics/Latinos of different national backgrounds from the 2015 Washington Heights Community Survey. ii
Identification with excess heterogeneity

An outcome is determined by a structural function in which the effect of variables of interest is transmitted through a scalar function of those variables - an index. Multiple sources of stochastic variation are permitted to appear as arguments of the structural function, but not as arguments of the index. Conditions are provided under which there is local identification of ratios of partial derivatives of the index.
Touching grain kernels separation by gap-filling

Separation of touching grain kernels is a recurring problem in image analysis. Morphological methods to separate merged objects in binary images are generally based on the watershed transform applied to the inverse of the distance function. This method is efficient with roughly circular objects, but cannot separate objects beyond a certain elliptic shape nor when the contact zones are too numerous or too large. This paper presents a gap-filling method applied to the skeleton of the image background as an alternative technique to go further in the fused objects separation process. Open lines resulting from skeletonization are prolonged according to their direction from corresponding end points. If the distance between two lines is smaller than a certain value, their respective end points are connected. Results of combined use of watershed and gap-filling based methods are presented on sample binary images. An example of its use on an particularly complex image containing rice grains shows that it allows to segment up to 90% of the grains when classical watershed methods allow only to segment 25% of the grains. An application to breakage and cracks assessing of parboiled rice kernels is presented.
Exploration for hymenopterous parasitoids of thrips.

As part of a project to evaluate parasitoid species as biological control agents against western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), a survey was made in its native (United States) and newly invaded areas of distribution (Europe). In addition, parasitoids were collected form closely related Frankliniella and Thrips species, either by active search or by correspondence. Two parasitoid species, the eulophids Ceranisus menes (Walker) and Ceranisus americensis (Girault) were collected as female adults and parasitised hosts from wild vegetation and cultured crops, infested with F. occidentalis and related species at several locations in Europe and elsewhere. They were subsequently processed, shipped and reared in the laboratory, together with their thrips hosts. Methods for collecting, processing and shipment of both thrips and parasitoids are described and preliminary rearing results are presented.
Predicting Paths of Atlantic Tropical Cyclones Using Monthly Surface Pressure Data

Previous research has had some success in predicting likely tracks of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin using North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) anomalies (above or below average values) during preceding months . This paper expands on this research by in corporating other surface pressure values as independent variables as alluded to by some of the earliest NAO research . We examine monthly sea-level-pressure (SLP) data from Reykjavik (Iceland), Cape Hatteras (North Carolina), and Nassau (Bahamas), along with NAO index anomalies, to see if they can be used to predict future paths and landfall locations of Atlantic tropical cyclones during the period 1970–2005 . Average SLP from Nassau during the preceding May and June shows the strongest correlations with tropical cyclone tracks, with increased values correlated with more cyclones impacting the southeastern United States, but fewer landfalls along the Gulf of Mexico . Results also show virtually no relationship between the storm variables tested and the NAO index .
Narrative as a Resource for Feminist Practices of Socially Engaged Inquiry: Mayra Montero's In the Palm of Darkness

Against the view that the physical sciences should be the privileged source of reliable knowledge within the academy in general, and in philosophy in particular, this essay argues that an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge‐production, one that includes social and psychological assessment as well as narrative analysis, can better capture the diverse range of human epistemic activities as they occur in their natural settings. Postpositivist epistemologies, including Lorraine Code's social naturalism, Satya Mohanty's and Paula Moya's postpositivist literary and pedagogical projects, and Linda Alcoff's dialogical template for knowledge form the basis of a revised naturalized epistemology that is more accountable to a socially engaged inquiry. This revised naturalism shifts orientation from the idealized setting of the laboratory and its a priori conditions for knowledge to localized settings, where knowledge emerges out of diverse contextualized interpretations of the natural and social world that interlocutors produce as they dialogue with one another. Mayra Montero's neocolonial narrative thematizes the spatial shift of scientific activity, showing how epistemic authority, aligned with North American interests and regional identity, is established, withheld from others, and contested.
MR Imaging of the Adnexal Masses: A Review

MR (magnetic resonance) imaging is a non invasive technique for evaluation of female pelvic masses. Due to its high spatial resolution and excellent tissue contrast, various masses of adnexal origin can be imaged and a confident diagnosis can be made. MRI helps to delineate normal anatomical structures and elucidate the pathological lesions. It has high sensitivity and specificity for differentiating benign adnexal masses from malignant ones. This review article gives a brief account of approach to adnexal masses based on tissue characterization on MR imaging. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3126/njr.v1i1. 6326 Nepalese Journal of Radiology Vol.1(1): 54-60
Looking for a Few Good Metrics: ROUGE and its Evaluation

ROUGE stands for Recall-Oriented Understudy for Gisting Evaluation. It includes measures to automatically determine the quality of a summary by comparing it to other (ideal) summaries created by humans. The measures count the number of overlapping units such as n-gram, word sequences, and word pairs between the computer-generated summary to be evaluated and the ideal summaries created by humans. This paper discusses the validity of the evaluation method used in the Document Understanding Conference (DUC) and evaluates five different ROUGE metrics: ROUGE-N, ROUGE-L, ROUGE-W, ROUGE-S, and ROUGE-SU included in the ROUGE summarization evaluation package using data provided by DUC. A comprehensive study of the effects of using single or multiple references and various sample sizes on the stability of the results is also presented.
AerGOM, an improved algorithm for stratospheric aerosol extinction retrieval from GOMOS observations - Part 1: Algorithm description

Abstract. The GOMOS instrument on Envisat has successfully demonstrated that a UV–Vis–NIR spaceborne stellar occultation instrument is capable of delivering quality data on the gaseous and particulate composition of Earth's atmosphere. Still, some problems related to data inversion remained to be examined. In the past, it was found that the aerosol extinction profile retrievals in the upper troposphere and stratosphere are of good quality at a reference wavelength of 500 nm but suffer from anomalous, retrieval-related perturbations at other wavelengths. Identification of algorithmic problems and subsequent improvement was therefore necessary. This work has been carried out; the resulting AerGOM Level 2 retrieval algorithm together with the first data version AerGOMv1.0 forms the subject of this paper. The AerGOM algorithm differs from the standard GOMOS IPF processor in a number of important ways: more accurate physical laws have been implemented, all retrieval-related covariances are taken into account, and the aerosol extinction spectral model is strongly improved. Retrieval examples demonstrate that the previously observed profile perturbations have disappeared, and the obtained extinction spectra look in general more consistent. We present a detailed validation study in a companion paper; here, to give a first idea of the data quality, a worst-case comparison at 386 nm shows SAGE II–AerGOM correlation coefficients that are up to 1 order of magnitude larger than the ones obtained with the GOMOS IPFv6.01 data set.
Optimize Knowledge Sharing, Team Effectiveness, and Individual Learning within the Flipped Team-Based Classroom.

Due to the competitive and fast-changing nature of external business environments, university students should acquire knowledge of how to cooperate, share knowledge, and enhance team effectiveness and individual learning in the future workplace. Consequently, the redesign of business courses in higher education merits more discussion. Based on the notions of team-based learning (TBL) and flipped classrooms, we proposed a business course model consisting of three main phases, which have before-class, in-class, and online-course activities. After implementing these course models in two business courses at two public universities in Taiwan, a survey based on social learning and social exchange theories was distributed. A total of 262 business undergraduate students participated in this study. The findings show that team members’ valuable contributions are important in teams. This has significant impact on knowledge sharing and team effectiveness. Knowledge sharing also matters in teams since it is a significant mediator between team members’ valuable contributions and team effectiveness. In addition, when team effectiveness is higher, students in this class perceive higher levels of individual learning.