Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring the Total Economic Value of Restoring Ejina Banner's Ecosystem Services

The contingent valuation method(CVM) is a direct interview approach that can be used to provide acceptable measures of the economic value of preservation of natural resources. While the estimates from CVM may not be perfect, neither are estimates from any other economic or physical science model. The need for an assessment of the nonmarket benefits of restoring Ejina Banners ecosystem is clear. In this paper, we take it as a case to analyze the WTP of restoring ecosystem service. Obtaining accurate benefit estimates using CVM requires detailed descriptions of the resource being valued. In our survey, we use a 12-page paper with maps depicting the reason why Ejina Banner ecosystem deteriorated, the means by which ecosystem services could be restoring from their current level. The actual valuation portion of the survey has three elements:(1) portrayal of the resources to be valued,(2) description of the particular mechanism to be used to pay for the resource; and(3) the question format used to elicit the respondent's money amount of willingness to pay. Due to concern over the influence of institutional and culture setting, the method of payment we adopted is payment cards in the survey. We employed a parametric model to estimate the welfare of restoring Ejina ecosystem. Their functional relationships between WTP values and the characteristics of responses are built respectively. Results from 700 in-person interviews indicate that per household would pay an average of RMB 37.96 yuan per year, US$ 40.15 for the main river household, 32.10 yuan for the rest of the Heihe basin. The aggregate benefit to residents of the Heihe basin is 15.98 million yuan annually for 20 years. Taking into account the ecosystem discount rate, the aggregated benefit of restoring Ejina Banner ecosystem is 1637 million yuan. These estimates suggest that the general public in Heihe valley would be willing to pay for restoring the Ejina banner ecosystem. Finally, we put forward some suggestions on how to apply the contingent valuation method in developing countries, and believe future efforts may apply CVM efficiently accompanying with benefit-cost analysis.
THE MEDIATING ROLE OF EXPERIENCE QUALITY BETWEEN AUTHENTICITY AND SATISFACTION IN A CONTEXT OF CULTURAL-HERITAGE TOURISM

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of experience quality between the dimensions of authenticity and satisfaction in a context of cultural-heritage tourism. This paper investigates the direct influences of these variables on satisfaction and the indirect influences of two dimensions of authenticity on satisfaction through quality of experience. This study is a pioneer in analysing the influence of each of the two dimensions of authenticity on satisfaction via quality of experience in a cultural-heritage context. A questionnaire survey administered to 205 visitiors in the City of York, United Kingdom, was analysed using the structural equation modelling technique. The findings confirmed the direct and indirect influence of the variable authenticity in its double perspective (objective and existential authenticity) on satisfaction. The findings also identified the mediating role of quality of experience between authenticity and satisfaction. It is therefore recommended that cultural tourism attractions in a destination should be offered to provide visitors an authentic
ΑΔΣ Advances in Decision Sciences

Modeling financial returns is challenging because the correlations and variance of returns are time-varying and the covariance matrices can be quite high-dimensional. In this paper, we develop a Bayesian shrinkage approach with modified Cholesky decomposition to model correlations between financial returns. We reparameterize the correlation parameters to meet their positive definite constraint for Bayesian analysis. To implement an efficient sampling scheme in posterior inference, hierarchical representation of Bayesian lasso is used to shrink unknown coefficients in linear regressions. Simulation results show good sampling properties that iterates from Markov chain Monte Carlo converge quickly. Using a real data example, we illustrate the application of the proposed Bayesian shrinkage method in modeling stock returns in Hong Kong.
Tail-Risk Hedging

All investors are interested in avoiding losses, as doing so can dramatically increase accumulated returns in their portfolios. Put options can effectively mitigate tail risk in equity portfolios but are often found to be too expensive, imposing a substantial drag on portfolio performance. It is however common in the current literature to focus on passive buy and hold put option strategies, i.e. buying options and holding them until maturity. In our paper we implement a rule-based monetization put option strategy, where we allocate a certain percentage of an equity portfolio’s capital to buy put options and combine this with a strategy where the put options are sold if their market price reaches a pre-determined target. The proceeds are then re-invested into equites and new put options. We compare the results to an unhedged position in the underlying equities, represented by the S&P500 TR index, and a position in a constant volatility strategy. We find little evidence that the put option monetization strategies reduce portfolio drawdowns, and we find that all the monetization strategies have lower total portfolio returns and Sharpe ratios as compared to the index. The results are conflicting with other claims and research from option practitioners and can possibly be explained by our inclusion of real life data and differences in methodology. The tested constant volatility strategy reduces drawdowns more effectively as compared to the put option monetization strategies, and it also earns a higher total return and Sharpe ratio as compared to the index. The constant volatility strategy utilizes a negative relationship between market volatility and market returns, and the persistence of market volatility. Our results suggest that simple rule-based monetization strategies are not able to adequately reduce drawdowns and enhance portfolio returns, and that other actively managed strategies, utilizing additional techniques, could be needed to make put option strategies profitable. Investors and portfolio managers may find it easier to achieve the goals of better risk adjusted returns by the implementation of a constant volatility strategy.
Evaluation of compositing algorithms from the regular and non-regular intervals using MODIS daily images in the Amazon region with a high percentage of cloud cover

One challenge in the study of optical remotely sensed time series in the Amazon is the constant cloud cover. The present study evaluates different compositing techniques using regular and non-regular intervals to obtain cloud-free images over large areas. The study area was the municipality of Capixaba, State of Acre, belonging to the Amazon region. The tests considered four compositing algorithms (maximum, minimum, mean, and median) for daily MODIS sensor data (b1 and b2, 250m). The compositing technique from regular intervals adopted the following periods: 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, and 48 days. The irregular
How Consumers ‘Learn’ to Work for Retailers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is - to investigate how learning style affects the performance of the ‘working’ consumer in one self-service context – retail Self Check-Out Tills (SCOT 1 ) Design/methodology/approach The study uses qualitative and quantitative data collected from users of retail SCOT. First: a qualitative study of self-scan users identified differences in consumer learning styles and, combined with existing measures, was used to generate a set of scale items. Second: an exploratory survey of 232 self-scan users, based on these scale items was carried out to identify differences in consumer learning styles, and offer tentative connections between these and outcome variables such as enjoyment and self-perceptions of performance. Findings Initial exploratory factor analysis of 232 SCOT users revealed significant differences in learning styles. Three categories emerged: labelled, respectively, as ‘Regular Reassurance’, ‘Motivated Practice’ and ‘Cautious Discovery’. Customers primarily adopting the different learning styles were shown to vary with regard to their perceptions of ability and enjoyment with SCOT, and in their capability of helping other customers with the technology. The demographic make-up of customers adopting the different learning styles was also shown to vary.
University of Birmingham Communication between Brain Areas Based on Nested Oscillations

Unraveling how brain regions communicate is crucial for understanding how the brain processes external and internal information. Neuronal oscillations within and across brain regions have been proposed to play a crucial role in this process. Two main hypotheses have been suggested for routing of information based on oscillations, namely the ‘communication through coherence’ and the ‘gating by inhibition’ frameworks. Here, we propose a framework unifying these two hypotheses that is based on recent empirical findings. We discuss a theory in which communication between two regions is established by phase-synchronization of oscillations at lower frequencies (<25Hz), which serve as temporal reference frame for information carried by high frequency activity (>40Hz). Our framework, consistent with numerous recent empirical findings, posits that cross-frequency interactions are essential for understanding how large-scale cognitive and perceptual networks operate.
Racing yacht appendages optimization using fluid-structure interactions

GSEA Design developed a ﬂuid structure method (FSI) suitable for early design stage of appendage with complex shapes dedicated to the America’s Cup ﬂying catamarans. The aerodynamic loading and the boat weight are counteracted by the appendages and mainly the dagger-board. Consequently, the appendage structural design is very critical. Based on a 3D lifting line and a modiﬁed beam element method, the GSEA Design FSI method takes less than one minute to compute. An illustrating example on a L-shape appendage shows that the FSI
Sharing Knowledge Across Generations and Its Impact on Innovation

The next generation (NG) is vital to securing a thriving wine industry. We argue that knowledge sharing affects innovation in family winegrowing businesses, and that the NG brings new knowledge to the family business more likely to lead to radical new innovation. This is contrary to the typical view that the senior generation (SG) is the source of all the valuable knowledge, which must be passed on to the NG. As a traditional industry with a large share of family businesses, winegrowing has a heritage of innovation. Individuals in the family business and their ability to innovate over generations is essential for adaption, competitiveness, and ultimately survival. Using Nonaka and Takeuchi’s SECI (socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization) model as a lens, we explore the knowledge creation and innovation outcomes of two-way or “bidirectional” knowledge sharing. Through this lens, we seek to understand how knowledge is shared and utilized within an intergenerational family winegrowing business. We then go further by exploring the impact each generation has on innovation, highlighting the NG as a primary source of new knowledge. We conclude with guidelines for managers in family businesses who aspire to improve innovation outcomes by enabling bidirectional knowledge sharing.
Cognitive Semiotics

The chunking problem is central to linguistics, semiotics, and poetics: How do we learn to organize a language into patterns and to use those patterns creatively? Linguistics has mainly offered two answers, one based on rule inference through innate capacities for processing and the other based on usage and on outstanding capacities for memory and retrieval. Both views are based on induction and compositionality. The Parry–Lord theory of oral composition-in-performance has argued that oral singers produce complex poems out of rehearsed improvisation through the mastery of a system of formulas, chunks that integrate phrasal, metrical, and semantic structures. The framework of formulaic creativity proposed here argues that the cognitive study of oral poetics can provide crucial insights into the chunking problem. I show the major connections between Parry–Lord and usage-based cognitive linguistics, mainly Construction Grammar and Frame Semantics. However, these approaches still remain compositional and thus struggle to model creativity and learning in oral poetry and everyday speech. The alternative is to explore a model of formulaic creativity not based on compositional patterns, but on wide learning for connecting discriminative perceptual features directly to semantic contrasts within a complex dynamic system, without the intermediation of a set of discrete units.
Biomass to Fuel: The Case of South Korea

In this report, we investigate the biofuel potential of South Korea and the implications of the introduction of biofuels for the Korean fuel market. Our biomass assessment suggests that (theoretically) biomass can be used to produce a signiﬁcant portion of the fuel consumed annually in South Korea, with the most promising feedstock being forestry residues. And out of all the technologies considered, the production of cellulosic ethanol from forestry residues could potentially impact the fuel market the most. The key novelty of our study lies in that we consider a broad portfolio of biofuel technologies and carefully examine their potential economic and environmental implications for South Korea given its biomass availability (which we actually estimate). To the best of our knowledge, this is the ﬁrst study to attempt this in the context of South Korea.
Diabetes mellitus in Tuberculosis Oxidative Stress in Sickle Cell Anaemia Childhood Diabetic Ketoacidosis Haemostatis in Hypertension Research and Publication Ethics Prostate Carcinoma Bone scan in Breast Cancer Exercise and Basal Insulin levels Rheumatic Heart Diseases Paediatric Cytopathology

Background: Health education and case management are important in the reduction of morbidity and mortality resulting from childhood diarrhoea. Objective: To identify the training needs of health care workers as a measure of their empowerment to fulfil their roles in the control of childhood diarrhoea. Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive study utilized a self-administered pre-tested questionnaire to obtain demographic information, knowledge about diarrhoea, features of dehydration, management, and prevention of diarrhoea from 165 health care workers drawn from the 18 local government areas of Edo state. Results: Only 24 (14.5%) of health care workers could correctly define diarrhoea. Majority of respondents could identify features of dehydration: thirst 161 (97%), loss of skin turgor 149 (90.3%) and irritability 142 (86.1%) but 93 (56.4%) and 52 (31.5%) did not know that unconsciousness and passage of small volume/no urine respectively were features of dehydration. Only 15 (9.1%) could correctly constitute Salt Sugar Solution (SSS). Up to 42.2% of health workers use antibiotics regularly to manage childhood diarrhoea while another 48.8% considered the use of antibiotics during the diarrhoeal episode a preventive strategy. Conclusion: Frontline health care workers need periodic training and retraining with consistent supportive supervision to ensure that children with diarrhoea are appropriately evaluated and managed.
ИсследованИе свойств конструкцИонных матерИалов методом Инструментального ИндентИрованИя с помощью портатИвного нанотвердомера Study of the Structural materialS propertieS by inStrumental indentation uSing a portable nanohardneSS meter

А. С. Усеинов*, к. ф. -м. н. , первый зам. директора по науч. раб. ФГБНУ ТИСНУМ, (ORCID: 0000-0002-9937-0954), А. А. Русаков*, мл. науч. сотр. , (ORCID: 0000-0001-5702-1353), В. И. Яковлев*, стажер, (ORCID: 0000-0001-9204-0728), Е. В. Гладких*, мл. науч. сотр. , (ORCID 0000-0001-8273-3934) / useinov@mail.ru А. S.Useinov*, Cand. of Sc. (Physics and Mathematics), First Deputy Director of FSBI TISNCM, (ORCID: 0000-0002-9937-0954) А. А. Rusakov*, Researcher, (ORCID: 0000-0001-5702-1353), V.I. Yakovlev*, Intern, (ORCID: 0000-0001-9204-0728), Ye.V. Gladkih*, Researcher, (ORCID 0000-0001-8273-3934)
Militianisation of Resource Conflicts The Case of Land-Based Conflict in the Mount Elgon Region of Western Kenya

In the early 1970s, the government of Kenya set out to implement a land resettlement programme for squatters in the Chepyuk area of Mount Elgon District, intended primarily for the Mosop (Ndorobo) and Soy clans of the district's 'autochthonous' and dominant Sabaot community. From its inception, the programme was derailed by claims and counterclaims of state favouritism and corruption by both clans, leading to a cycle of allocations, annulments and evictions. This has engendered discontentment and exacerbated intra-community tensions and conflicts, which took a more violent turn in 2006 after the finalisation of the land allocation process, during the third phase of the resettlement programme.
GIS Framework for Spatiotemporal Mapping of Urban Flooding

This research aims to develop a framework using the Geographic Information System (GIS) to perform modeling and mapping of flood spatiotemporal variation in urban micro-watersheds. The GIS-framework includes a workflow of several methods and processes including delineation of urban watershed, generation of runoff hydrographs, and time series mapping of inundation depths and flood extent. This framework is tested in areas previously known to have experienced flooding at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas main campus, including Black Parking Lot (Blacklot) and East Mall. Calibration is performed by varying Digital Elevation Model (DEM) resolution, rainfall temporal resolution, and clogging factor whereas validation is performed using flood information from news reports and photographs. The testing at the Blacklot site resulted in calibration at 5 m DEM resolution and clogging factor of 0.83. The flood model resulted in an error of 24% between the estimated (26 inches/66 cm) and actual (34 inches/86.36 cm) flood depths. The estimated flood extents are consistent with the reported conditions and observed watermarks in the area. The flood beginning time estimated from the model is also consistent with the news reports. The testing at East Mall site also shows consistent results. The GIS framework provides spatiotemporal maps of flood inundation for visualization of flood dynamics. This research provides insight into flood modeling and mapping for a storm drain inlet-based watershed.
Multiplicity of Equilibria and Information Structures in Empirical Games : Challenges and Prospects

Ron N. Borkovsky (co-chair) * University of Toronto Paul B. Ellickson (co-chair) University of Rochester Brett R. Gordon (co-chair) Columbia Business School Victor Aguirregabiria University of Toronto Pedro Gardete Stanford University Paul Grieco Pennsylvania State University Todd Gureckis New York University Teck-Hua Ho University of California-Berkeley Laurent Mathevet New York University Andrew Sweeting University of Maryland
Bronchoscopic lung volume reduction by endobronchial valve in advanced emphysema: the first Asian report

Purpose: Endobronchial valve (EBV) therapy is increasingly being seen as a therapeutic option for advanced emphysema, but its clinical utility in Asian populations, who may have different phenotypes to other ethnic populations, has not been assessed. Patients and methods: This prospective open-label single-arm clinical trial examined the clinical efficacy and the safety of EBV in 43 consecutive patients (mean age 68.4 ± 7.5, forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV 1 ] 24.5% ± 10.7% predicted, residual volume 208.7% ± 47.9% predicted) with severe emphysema with complete fissure and no collateral ventilation in a tertiary referral hospital in Korea. Results: Compared to baseline, the patients exhibited significant improvements 6 months after EBV therapy in terms of FEV 1 (from 0.68 ± 0.26 L to 0.92 ± 0.40 L; P , 0.001), 6-minute walk distance (from 233.5 ± 114.8 m to 299.6 ± 87.5 m; P = 0.012), modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale (from 3.7 ± 0.6 to 2.4 ± 1.2; P , 0.001), and St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (from 65.59 ± 13.07 to 53.76 ± 11.40; P = 0.028). Nine patients (20.9%) had a tuberculosis scar, but these scars did not affect target lobe volume reduction or pneumothorax frequency. Thirteen patients had adverse events, ten (23.3%) developed pneumothorax, which included one death due to tension pneumothorax. Conclusion: EBV therapy was as effective and safe in Korean patients as it has been shown to be in Western countries. (Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01869205).
Research on striations in low pressure rare gaz and mercury discharge

Dans la presente these, des investigations sur les striations et leurs propagations dans les decharges basses pression mercure gaz rare ont ete menees. Les raisons et les proprietes de ces phenomenes sont explorees. Nos resultats experimentaux et theoriques montrent que l'apparition des striations provient d'un exces d'ion de gaz rares dans la balance d'ionisation lorsque ceci ont ete ionise par palier a partir d'un etat metastable. Cela mene a une EEDF non locale qui permet une amplification et une propagation des instabilites. Pour eliminer les striations il faut donc limiter la production d'atome de gaz rare metastable. Cela peut se faire en augmentant le courant de decharge, la pression de vapeur de Mercure ou en augmentant la frequence. Les points creatifs de cette these sont les suivants : 1. Fournir un chauffage auxiliaire aux electrodes de la lampe etudiee pour supprimer les perturbations de la zone cathodique. Ceci a permis de montrer que les striations ne trouvent pas leur origine dans la zone cathodique, et que le phenomene est intrinseque a la decharge. 2. L'imagerie ICCD haute vitesse a revele que les striations apparaissent seulement sur un front montant du signal lumineux, sur le front descendant, les striations disparaissent. 3. Resoudre l'equation de Boltzmann numeriquement par un schema de Crank-Nicholson et simuler la reponse des electrons a un champ electrique periodique spatialement dans une decharge Ar-Hg. Les raisons d'apparition et de propagation des striations sont discutees.
Representing belief: beyond probability and logic

This chapter surveys recent approaches to the representation of belief. There is a clash between the notion of degree of belief in the subjective probability tradition and the idea of certainty as accepted belief often couched in the language of logic, and especially modal logic. The attempt to consider degrees of certainty finds its origin in the works of Francis Bacon often opposed to the one of Pascal. However, by reviewing some more recent trends in the representation of uncertainty, such as possibility theory, ranking theory, evidence theory and imprecise probability, one may argue that these novel approaches try to bridge the gap between the two traditions, even if dropping some favourite properties on the way, such as the additivity of degrees of belief and the adjunction law for accepted beliefs.