Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Equalizing Access to Improve Voter Registration: Experimental Evidence from Kenya

Voter registration is a basic component of political participation. How voter registration policies shape the electorate, especially in developing democracies, remains an important and unexplored question. We conduct an experiment in Kenya to explore constraints to participation in the voter registration process. We assigned 1,674 polling stations to six treatments to learn about three constraints to voter registration. We varied canvassing activities to inform citizens about voter registration, SMS messages to remind citizens to register, and localization of registration opportunities to decrease registration costs. Canvassing and SMS reminders had little or no impact, while reducing costs had strong, positive impacts on registration rates. The results suggest that easing logistical barriers to registration could substantially reduce political inequalities due to access, particularly among younger and poorer voters. Moreover, the results suggest that informational interventions have limited impact in the absence of interventions that reduce the costs of participation. Word Count: 9526 *Corresponding author andy.harris@nyu.edu. We thank Cornelius Lupao, Hannah Melville-Rea, and Cole TanigawaLau for research support. We thank Kerstin Fisk, Guy Grossman, Macartan Humphreys, Ryan Moore, Vincent Pons, Dan Sands De Kadt and Kelly Zhang for comments. We thank participants attending presentations at EPSA, APSA, NYU Abu Dhabi, and Leuven University for constructive feedback. This research could not have been carried out without the consistent support of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, particularly CEO Ezra Chiloba, Dr. Catherine Kamindo, Andrew Limo, Decimah M’mayi, Michael Oyalo, William Kahindi, the Regional Election Coordinators, and the Constituency Election Coordinators. New York University – Abu Dhabi provided financial support. This study was reviewed by the New York University Institutional Review Board and granted exemption (039-2016). This study was pre-registered at http://egap.org/registration/2393.
NDT_A_350121 173..186

Purpose: We investigated the serum levels of cytokines, including interleukin 1β (IL-β), IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, tumor necrosis factoralpha (TNF-α), and growth factors, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, and insulin-like growth factor 1, and their association with major depression in patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus. We also investigated the response to antidepressant treatment in both groups. Patients and Methods: Forty-one patients with major depression were recruited at the University Hospital of Occupational and Environmental Health. All patients were diagnosed with major depression using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Type 2 diabetes mellitus was diagnosed according to the criteria of the Japan Diabetes Society. Six healthy controls with no history of psychiatric or physical diseases were also enrolled. Serum levels of several cytokines, growth factors, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were measured. The clinical symptoms of patients with major depression were assessed using the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale. Results: Significant differences in cytokines, growth factors, and hs-CRP were observed between the major depression and healthy control groups. Serum TNF-α levels were significantly higher in patients with major depression and type 2 diabetes mellitus than in those without type 2 diabetes mellitus. In the major depression group, serum IL-6 and hs-CRP levels tended to be higher in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus than in those without. Several correlations among cytokines, growth factors, and hs-CRP were observed in patients with major depression with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus. Responses to pharmacological interventions for major depression did not differ between patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: Serum levels of TNF-α, hs-CRP, and IL-6 were different between patients with major depression with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus. Also, correlations were found between serum levels of cytokines, growth factors, and hs-CRP in patients with major depression. Inflammatory factors, which may be associated with growth factors, may be involved in the pathophysiology of major depression, particularly among patients with comorbid type 2 diabetes mellitus.
COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO NAMED ENTITY RECOGNITION IN SERBIAN LANGUAGE

– This paper aims to analyze different approaches to Named Entity Recognition (NER) in the Serbian language. The paper compares the performance of the CRF model to newer transformer models on the NER task. Applied transformer models are BERT, DistilBERT, and Electra. In the performed experiments, multiple configurations of CRF, trained on different attributes, are compared to transformer models
Aeroservoelastic interaction between aircraft structural and control design schemes

The behavior of the structural and control systems of  ight vehicles are highly coupled through aeroelastic effects. An interactionmodulewas formulated and software was developed to facilitate ef cient transfer of models, data and design requirements between the structural and control design schemes. The aeroelastic plant statespace equations are based on a minimum-state rational function approximation of the unsteady force coef cient matrices. The control system is de ned in a way that allows incorporationof most general linear control laws in the aeroservoelastic loop, and yet allows ef cient control margin and sensitivity computations by separating between changeablegainsto other xedcontrol elements andparameters.Analyticalexpressionsfor systemstabilitymargins and their sensitivities with respect to structural and control designparameters, which take advantageof the special controller representation form for incorporation in a multidisciplinarydesign scheme, are presented. A numerical example demonstrates a design task that involves both control synthesis and structural optimization.
High-stakes national testing, gender and school stress in Europe – A difference-in-difference analysis

Outcomes related to the wellbeing of students are increasingly being recognized as valuable objectives for education systems. In this study, we ask if high-stakes testing affects school-related stress among students and if there are gender differences in these effects. We combine macro-level data on high-stakes testing with survey data on more than 300,000 students aged 10-16 years in 31 European countries, from three waves (2002, 2006 and 2010) of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. With variation in high-stakes testing across countries, years and grade levels, we use a quasiexperimental difference-in-differences (DD) design for identification of causal effects. We find that high-stakes testing increases self-reported school-related stress by almost 10 % of a standard deviation. This is primarily driven by a strong effect for girls, meaning that high-stakes testing increases the gender gap in school-related stress. The results are robust to a range of sensitivity analyses. JEL codes: I14, I21, I24,
Causal Mediation Analysis with Multiple Time-varying Mediators.

In longitudinal studies with time-varying exposures and mediators, the mediational g-formula is an important method for the assessment of direct and indirect effects. However, current methodologies based on the mediational g-formula can deal with only one mediator. This limitation makes these methodologies inapplicable to many scenarios. Hence, we develop a novel methodology by extending the mediational g-formula to cover cases with multiple time-varying mediators. We formulate two variants of our approach that are each suited to a distinct set of assumptions and effect definitions and present nonparametric identification results of each variant. We further show how complex causal mechanisms (whose complexity derives from the presence of multiple time-varying mediators) can be untangled. We implemented a parametric method, along with a user-friendly algorithm, in R software. We illustrate our method by investigating the complex causal mechanism underlying the progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We found that the effects of lung function impairment mediated by dyspnea symptoms accounted for 14.6% of the total effect and that mediated by physical activity accounted for 11.9%. Our analyses thus illustrate the power of this approach, providing evidence for the mediating role of dyspnea and physical activity on the causal pathway from lung function impairment to health status. See video abstract at, http://links.lww. com/EDE/B988 .
To Seed or Not to Seed? An Empirical Analysis of Usage of Seeds for Testing in Machine Learning Projects

Many Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are in-herently random in nature - executing them using the same inputs may lead to slightly different results across different runs. Such randomness makes it challenging for developers to write tests for their implementations of ML algorithms. A natural consequence of randomness is test flakiness - tests both pass and fail non-deterministically for same version of code. Developers often choose to alleviate test flakiness in ML projects by setting seeds in the random number generators used by the code under test. However, this approach commonly serves as a “workaround” rather than an actual solution. Instead, it may be possible to mitigate flakiness and alleviate the negative effects of setting seeds using alternative approaches. To understand the role of seeds and the feasibility of alternative solutions, we conduct the first large-scale empirical study of the usage of seeds and its implications on testing on a corpus of 114 Machine Learning projects. We identify 461 tests in these projects that fail without seeds and study their nature and root causes. We try to minimize the flakiness of a subset of 42 identified tests using alternative strategies such as tuning algorithm hyper-parameters and adjusting assertion bounds and send them to developers. So far, developers have accepted our fixes for 26 tests. We further manually analyze a subset of 56 tests and study various characteristics such as the nature of test oracles and how the seed settings evolve over time. Finally, we provide a general set of recommendations for both researchers and developers in the context of setting seeds in tests.
A Review of Effects of Emigration on Maize Production in Mpande Ward of Nakonde District

Migration may be forced or voluntary, or in many instances, reluctant relocations imposed on the migrants by circumstances. In the work of the founding father of modern migration research and analysis, E.G. Ravenstein (1885), it was implicit that migration was in effect caused by economic development. To make a clear relationship between migration and economic development, he postulated that as industries and commerce develop and transport improves, migration increases in volume. Thus, migration plays a significant role in today’s world. The problem of rural emigration therefore continues to plague Zambia’s development process. Basing the argument on some U.N. information, Rhoda (2000) predicts that labour migration from the rural areas will account for a loss of somewhat 40% in Africa and other developing countries. Generally, emigration is both age and sex selective phenomenon and all people cannot move, the changes in the age-sex structure of migrants and non-migrants can also affect labour force participation and eventually production system such as maize production. One of the prevalent paradigms in migration studies, the “historicalstructural” thought, blames emigration for the loss of the population that can best contribute to the growth of the country of origin, usually young workers with an entrepreneurial and brave spirit (De Haas, 2007). Particularly, Zambia is not an exception, more so Mpande ward where the so well-known border town of Nakonde started, it is on this premise that this work was sought more especially with the observed retardation in maize production. Generally, the ward has over 2800 farmers and cultivates between 250 to 370 hectares of maize alone and labor is mainly manual, (reported by area camp officer,2019). Thus, migration was thought as a variable that could help to understand the said phenomenon primary on the effects of emigration on maize production in the said agrarian society. Therefore. the purpose of this study was to Review the effects of emigration on maize production in the agrarian society of Mpande ward. Thus, data was collected from 100 respondents of whom 01 was the area councilor, 20 village head men 40 public servant and 39 local residents. And data collected was both primary and secondary in nature which was processed using excel spread sheet. Therefore, the study showed that emigration although was moderate it had serious repercussions for the area such as reduced labour force leading to reduced production therefore affecting lots of walks of life such as income, food security, social behavior and many others. The International Journal of Multi-Disciplinary Research ISSN: 3471-7102, ISBN: 978-9982-70-318-5 1 Paper-ID: CFP/1228/2019 www.ijmdr. net CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Quantum Mechanical Study of 4 , 4 ’-Disubstituted Biphenyls : Part VI : HO ( CH 2 ) 8 OC 6 H 4 . C 6 H 4 CN

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Submitted: 15-01-2022 Revised: 23-01-2022 Accepted: 25-01-2022 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT: The majority of the liquid crystals have a rod-like structure and have one or more benzene rings in its core. Structure and bonding in liquid crystals are significant and diverse field in the interface between modern physics and chemistry. Structure–property relationship is also a key issue for the study of liquid crystals. The strong dipoledipole interaction shows the crystalline phase and has higher thermal stability. To understand the liquid crystalline properties, the IR spectra and Raman activities of 4,4’-Disubstituted Biphenyl (HO(CH2)8OC6H4.C6H4CN) were calculated using DFT method. The vibration associated with peaks was discussed. The atomic charges with point dipole were also computed and discussed. The HumoLumo gap as representation of ionization potential, thus computed.
Improving Support-Minors rank attacks: applications to GeMSS and Rainbow

The Support-Minors (SM) method has opened new routes to attack multivariate schemes with rank properties that were previously impossible to exploit, as shown by the recent attacks of [39] and [8] on the Round 3 NIST candidates G e MSS and Rainbow respectively. In this paper, we study this SM approach more in depth and we pro-pose a greatly improved attack on G e MSS based on this Support-Minors method. Even though G e MSS was already affected by [39], our attack affects it even more and makes it completely unfeasible to repair the scheme by simply increasing the size of its parameters or even applying the recent projection technique from [35] whose purpose was to make G e MSS immune to [39]. For instance, our attack on the G e MSS128 parameter set has estimated time complexity 2 72 , and repairing the scheme by applying [35] would result in a signature with slower signing time by an impractical factor of 2 14 . Another contribution is to suggest optimizations that can reduce memory access costs for an XL strategy on a large SM system using the Block-Wiedemann algorithm as subroutine when these costs are a concern. In a memory cost model based on [6], we show that the rectangular MinRank attack from [8] may indeed reduce the security for all Round 3 Rainbow parameter sets below their targeted security strengths, contradicting the lower bound claimed by [40] using the same memory cost model.
PRINTED BIOSENSOR BASED ON ORGANIC ELECTROCHEMICAL TRANSISTOR PRINTED BIOSENSOR BASED ON ORGANIC ELECTROCHEMICAL TRANSISTOR

Organic electronic devices arise as a suitable solution for bioelectronics sensor development, due to the good biocompatibility of organic semiconductors. So-called biosensors can convert electrochemical processes into an electronic signal. A matrix of such biosensors can simultaneously scan a number of biological samples or tissues of the living systems. The active part of the device is an Organic Electrochemical Transistor (OECT). In this work, the theoretical background on such device and its characterization, application in cell-based biosensors, methods of fabrication together with the current state of the art in the field of organic electronics are discussed. The experimental part contains specific manufacturing procedures of OECT devices development employed. The main emphasis is given on the ability of produced devices to detect response and monitor the stimulation of electrogenic cells. To this end, microplate patterns with a multielectrode array of OECTs based on the semiconductive polymer PEDOT:PSS was developed and fabricated using conventional printing methods (inkjet printing and screen printing). Standard lithographic procedures were also employed. The latest devices with the highest achieved signal amplification of g = 2.5 mS and the time constant of t = 0.15 s were produced. These are comparable or even better than some state of the art fully lithographically prepared ones. ABSTRAKT Organické elektronické zariadenia sú vyvíjané ako vhodné riešenia senzorov pre bioelektroniku, a to najmä kvôli dobrej biokompatibilite organických polovodičov v nich použitých. Takzvané biosenzory dokážu premeniť elektrochemické procesy na elektronický signál. Matrica takýchto biosenzorov môže simultánne skenovať množstvo biologických vzoriek, alebo rôznych tkanív v živých systémoch. Aktívnou súčasťou zariadenia je organický elektrochemický tranzistor (OECT). V tejto práci je diskutovaný teoretický rámec fungovania takéhoto zariadenia, jeho elektrická charakterizácia, aplikácia v biosenzoroch na báze buniek, spôsoby výroby a aktuálnym stavom techniky v oblasti organickej elektroniky. Experimentálna časť obsahuje konkrétne výrobné postupy vývoja OECT zariadení, ktoré boli použité v našom laboratóriu. Hlavný dôraz sa kladie na schopnosť vyrobených zariadení detekovať reakciu a monitorovať stimuláciu elektrogenných buniek. Za týmto účelom boli vyvinuté matice mikroelektródových OECT zariadení založených na polovodivom polyméri PEDOT:PSS. Tieto boli vyrobené s využitím bežnými tlačiarenských techník (atramentová tlač a sieťotlač) spolu so štandardnými litografickými postupmi. Najnovšie nami vyvinuté zariadenia dosahujú najväčšieho zosílením signálu, g = 2,5 mS a časovú konštantu t = 0,15 s. Tieto zariadenia sú porovnateľné, často dokonca lepšie ako niektoré iné najmodernejšie a plne litograficky pripravené senzory.
Journal of Algebraic Hyperstructures and Logical Algebras

In this paper, we focus on the intuitionistic propositional logic extended with a local operator [22] (also called nucleus [21]); such logic is commonly named lax logic after [9]. We prove that unification is finitary in this logic and supply algorithms for computing a basis of unifiers and for recognizing admissibility of inference rules, following analogous known results for intuitionistic logic. Article Information Corresponding Author: G. Lenzi; Received: October 2021; Accepted: Invited paper; Paper type: Original.
Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) Scheme with Improved Stability for Hybrid Renewable System for Industrial Loads

Renewable energy sources have gained popularity as a result of their reduced environmental impact and ability to meet increasing energy demands. The changeability and instability of renewable sources of energy are their defining characteristics.Hybrid power conditioners are designed to handle the various disadvantages of traditional energy sources. Through the use of storage and backup batteries, they can reduce their consumption and provide better reliability. The concept of this system is to use the fuzzy logic controller (FLC) to regulate the flow of power and keep the steady voltage at the point where common coupling occurs. The battery bank is also designed with an interface to the controller.
Recent Patents on Immobilized Microorganism Technology and Its Engineering Application in Wastewater Treatment

Compared with suspended microorganism technology, immobilized microorganism technology possesses many advantages, such as high biomass, high metabolic activity, and strong resistance to toxic chemicals, and so on. This review presents the state of the art of various immobilized microorganism methods as well as immobilization microorganism carriers whose engineering applications are mainly focused on bioreactors including fluidized bed reactor (FBR) and packed bed reactor (PBR). This review covers the patents which emphasize the characteristic of the immobilization carriers as well as bioreactors from the year of 2000 up to date. In the last part of the review, the future developing trend in immobilization microorganism technology and the potential engineering applications in wastewater treatment were also proposed tentatively.
CHAMPIONING SUSTAINABLE TREATMENT OF OIL PALM BASAL STEM ROT DISEASE VIA BIOLOGICAL CONTROL AGENTS

Oil palm is the most important commodity crop for Malaysia and Indonesia. However, it is being threatened by a disease identified as basal stem rot (BSR) caused by Ganoderma spp. Common approaches such as chemical and cultural control have failed to demonstrate total effectiveness in controlling BSR disease. Nevertheless, these practices cause detrimental effects on the environment. Therefore, the attention on adopting biological control agents (BCA) as one of the sustainable methods to eradicate and control BSR disease is on the rise. The current review highlights on the attempts and outcome of applying various BCA such as fungi, bacteria and actinomycetes as single or mixed application to control BSR disease in oil palm.
GENETIC DIVERSITY AND NETWORK WITHIN DESSERT BANANAS (MUSA ACUMINATA CV. AA AND AAA) INFERRED BY NEWLY DESIGNED MATK MARKER

The genus Musa L. belongs to the family Musaceae, a member of the order Zingiberales, comprises of economically important bananas [1]. The Indo-Malesian region (incl. Indonesia) is considered the homeland of bananas both wild species and cultivars [2-4]. Banana is a fruit plant of worldwide popularity with a global production reached up to 114 million tonnes in 2017 [5]. Edible banana cultivars contain high nutrient values to support food security include high carbohydrates, total sugar, vitamin C, and potassium; moderate protein and low fat [6]. Further, it also has importance values in social and cultural, particularly in rural communities and in developing countries [7, 8]. The vast majority banana cultivars were derived from natural hybridization between wild diploid Musa species i.e., Musa acuminata (A genome, x = 11) and Musa balbisiana (B genome, x = 11). Both inter and intraspecific crosses involving those two wild diploids resulted