Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Not Enough Pieces of the Cake? The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the Mindanao Final Agreement

Abstract Civil wars frequently end with the signature of a peace agreement, which often includes power-sharing provisions. While most research focuses on their provisions, little research has been done on the question of how the content of peace agreements affects the groups signing them. Instead, research commonly depicts the conflict parties as unitary actors. This study tries to fill this research gap by asking how the content and implementation of the Mindanao Final Agreement affected the cohesion of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The analysis concludes that the implementation of power sharing is decisive. The failed inclusion and the low implementation of economic and territorial provisions had major effects on the cohesion of the MNLF.
The Relationship between Work-Team Personality Composition and the Job Performance of Teams

In this study, the authors investigated the relationship between work team effectiveness and two distinct aspects of the personality composition of teams: (a) the average level of a given trait within a team, referred to as team personality elevation (TPE); and (b) the variability or differences in personality traits found within a team, or team personality diversity (TPD). Retail assistants (N = 328) working in 82 teams were assessed on a broad range of traits organized around the framework of the Big Five personality factors. Across the set of Big Five traits, TPE and TPD predicted unique variance in ratings of team job performance. For each specific trait of the Big Five, either TPE or TPD predicted team performance. For the traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience, TPE was positively related to team performance; TPD of extraversion and emotional stability was positively related to team performance.
CornPittMich Sentiment Slot-Filling System at TAC 2013

We describe the 2013 system of the CornPittMich team for the KBP English Sentiment Slot-Filling (SSF) task. The central components of the architecture are two fine-grained opinion analysis systems. For each query, we select the top N documents based on a document-level relevance measure, and process each sentence therein to identify expressions of sentiment along with their source and target. The KBP knowledge base is used for the efficient retrieval of relevant documents.
Do Developing Countries Benefit from Foreign Direct Investments? An Analysis of Some Arab and Asian Countries

Abstract In addition to the widely-believed positive effects on growth, employment, and wages, foreign direct investments (FDI) are often perceived as sources of funds for development. Developing countries, especially low income and emerging economies, welcome FDIs because of their favorable budgetary implications. All of this resulted in increasing global FDIs. We discuss some specification and estimation problems that might affect the estimation of the rate of returns on FDI, and provide new figures for a number of FDI-receiving Arab countries. We compare the results to those of some Asian countries, and discuss the policy implications. There is evidence that Arab countries have, relatively, benefited from their efforts to open their economies, to reform their institutions and to attract FDIs.
Adolescent health risk behavior: when do pediatric psychologists break confidentiality?

OBJECTIVE To determine the circumstances under which pediatric psychologists believe it is ethical to break confidentiality when presented with adolescent health risk behavior. METHOD Members of the Society of Pediatric Psychology (N = 92) responded to a survey containing a vignette about an adolescent patient engaging in health-compromising behaviors. Participants rated the degree to which it is ethical to break confidentiality for health risk behaviors of varying frequency, intensity, and duration. RESULTS Respondents generally find it ethical to break confidentiality when health risk behaviors are more intense, more frequent, and of longer duration. Respondents also find it more ethical to break confidentiality for female smoking than for male smoking. Similarly, they find it more ethical to break confidentiality for female sexual behavior than for male sexual behavior, but only as the frequency/duration increases. CONCLUSIONS At a certain point, maintaining the adolescent's health is more important for pediatric psychologists than maintaining confidentiality.
Tensor product finite element differential forms and their approximation properties

We discuss the tensor product construction for complexes of dierential forms and show how it can be applied to dene shape functions and degrees of freedom for nite element dierential forms on cubes in n dimensions. These may be extended to curvilinear cubic elements, obtained as images of a reference cube under dieomorphisms, by using the pullback transformation for dierential forms to map the shape functions and degrees of freedom from the reference cube to the image nite element. This construction recovers and unies several known nite element approximations in two and three dimensions. In this context, we study the approximation properties of the resulting nite element spaces in two particular cases: when the maps from the reference cube are ane, and when they are multilinear. In the former case the rate of convergence depends only on the degree of polynomials contained in the reference space of shape functions. In the latter case, the rate of approximation is degraded, with the loss more severe for dierential forms of higher form degree.
Visitor profile analysis: a pilot market research study of an American state fair.

Although market research is utilized by many short-term tourism events, little research has been published on American state fairs. This demographic pilot study of South Carolina State Fair visitors identified the location and size of the primary market area. Also examined were the upscale nature of visitors and the importance of the fair as a family event. Based on this data, marketing implications for fair management were developed.
Simulation of the Effect of Water Temperature on Domestic Biomass Boiler Performance

This paper presents a methodology to simulate the combustion of fixed beds of biomass particles using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. The models presented were used in the simulation of a domestic pellet boiler working under operating conditions and the model predictions were compared with measurements of heat transfer, temperature and species concentration. The same procedure was then used to simulate the same domestic boiler working with different values of water temperature and the influence of water temperature variations on the main variables was analyzed.
Theoretical and Numerical Approaches for Determining the Reflection and Transmission Coefficients of OPEFB-PCL Composites at X-Band Frequencies

Bio-composites of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibres and polycaprolactones (PCL) with a thickness of 1 mm were prepared and characterized. The composites produced from these materials are low in density, inexpensive, environmentally friendly, and possess good dielectric characteristics. The magnitudes of the reflection and transmission coefficients of OPEFB fibre-reinforced PCL composites with different percentages of filler were measured using a rectangular waveguide in conjunction with a microwave vector network analyzer (VNA) in the X-band frequency range. In contrast to the effective medium theory, which states that polymer-based composites with a high dielectric constant can be obtained by doping a filler with a high dielectric constant into a host material with a low dielectric constant, this paper demonstrates that the use of a low filler percentage (12.2%OPEFB) and a high matrix percentage (87.8%PCL) provides excellent results for the dielectric constant and loss factor, whereas 63.8% filler material with 36.2% host material results in lower values for both the dielectric constant and loss factor. The open-ended probe technique (OEC), connected with the Agilent vector network analyzer (VNA), is used to determine the dielectric properties of the materials under investigation. The comparative approach indicates that the mean relative error of FEM is smaller than that of NRW in terms of the corresponding S21 magnitude. The present calculation of the matrix/filler percentages endorses the exact amounts of substrate utilized in various physics applications.
Gordon-type arguments in the spectral theory of one-dimensional quasicrystals

We review the recent developments in the spectral theory of discrete one-dimensional Schr\"odinger operators with potentials generated by substitutions and circle maps. We discuss how occurrences of local repetitive structures allow for estimates of generalized eigenfunctions. Among the recent applications of this general approach are almost sure and uniform results on the absence of eigenvalues as well as continuity of the spectral measures with respect to Hausdorff measures.
Information Diffusion and the Boundary of Market Efficiency : Empirical Evidence from Earnings Announcements

This paper tests the implications of an information diffusion model (Lu, 2003) in the quarterly earnings announcement setting. Post-announcement-drift is documented only for earnings announcements that have high information uncertainty, measured by high abnormal trading volume and return volatility surrounding the announcement. The results are robust after controlling for the magnitude of earnings surprise. Preliminary evidence also suggests that the magnitude of drift for good (bad) news firms are positively (negatively) related to analyst following and institutional ownership. Moreover, price movement after a second earnings announcement is affected by the information contained in the previous announcement. These findings are consistent with an information diffusion process at work in capital markets. I would especially like to thank Randy Beatty (Chairman) and K.R. Subramanyam for valuable guidance and many insightful discussions. I acknowledge Mark DeFond, Larry Harris, Raffi Indjejikian and Chuck Swenson for their encouragement and suggestions in this exploratory study. I am also indebted to Rebeeca Hann, Mingyi Hung, Qingzhong Ma, Ted Mock, Jim Manegold, Robert Trezevant, and the participants at the USC accounting research forum for helpful comments on the paper. All errors remain my own responsibility. I acknowledge the financial support and fellowships from the Leventhal School of Accounting, the Marshall School of Business, and the SEC and Financial Reporting Institute.
IMPACT OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURE ON THE GROWTH OF NIGERIAN ECONOMY

This study is an attempt to assess the impact of public expenditure on the growth of the Nigerian economy, and to ascertain whether there is a relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) and government expenditure in Nigeria. It covers the period of 1981 – 2011 and the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method of econometric technique was used.The econometric analysis indicates that although there is a positive relationship between the dependent and independent variables, the adjustment of economic growth or gross domestic product was a fair one which made it difficult to reject the null hypothesis. The policy implication of the above scenario is that government over the years appears to be bad managers of resources and have failed to play their role in the process of economic growth and development. The study recommended an urgent need to instill fiscal discipline in government expenditure by initiating far reaching effective internal control measures and more proactive economic management coordination and implementation as well as discouraging all non-productive activities and expenditures in all tiers of government forthwith. Also, both the Federal government and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should be more articulate in managing the exchange rate effectively to achieve her macroeconomic objectives.This will stimulate investment surplus thus raising output and enhancing the standard of living of Nigerians.
Advances in sensor networks using analog signal processing circuits

With the advent in technology, wireless sensor networks are used to gather information and monitor data in the inaccessible and remote areas where wired network is not feasible. Due to limited power back-up, sensor network cannot be deployed on wider scale. Processing is recommended within network to reduce communication overhead and energy consumption. Low power analog processing circuits integrated within sensor nodes are suitable for this task. This paper reviews analog circuitries for processing of data to improve energy efficiency in addition to low power networking protocols and security solutions.
The Leabra architecture: Specialization without modularity

Abstract The posterior cortex, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex in the Leabra architecture are specialized in terms of various neural parameters, and thus are predilections for learning and processing, but domain-general in terms of cognitive functions such as face recognition. Also, these areas are not encapsulated and violate Fodorian criteria for modularity. Anderson's terminology obscures these important points, but we applaud his overall message.
Digital Security using Watermarking Techniques via Discrete Wavelet Transform

Protection of digital multimedia content has become an increasingly important issue for content owners and service providers. As watermarking is identified as a major technology to achieve copyright protection, the relevant literature includes several distinct approaches for embedding data into a multimedia element (primarily images, audio, and video). Because of its growing popularity, the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) is commonly used in recent watermarking schemes. In a DWT based scheme, the DWT coefficients are modified with the data that represents the watermark. In this paper, we present a hybrid Scheme based on DWT and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). After decomposing the cover image into four bands, we apply the SVD to each band, and embed the same watermark data by modifying the singular values. Modification in all frequencies allows the development of a watermarking scheme that is robust to a wide range of attacks.
Myocardial strain imaging: how useful is it in clinical decision making?

Abstract Myocardial strain is a principle for quantification of left ventricular (LV) function which is now feasible with speckle-tracking echocardiography. The best evaluated strain parameter is global longitudinal strain (GLS) which is more sensitive than left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) as a measure of systolic function, and may be used to identify sub-clinical LV dysfunction in cardiomyopathies. Furthermore, GLS is recommended as routine measurement in patients undergoing chemotherapy to detect reduction in LV function prior to fall in LVEF. Intersegmental variability in timing of peak myocardial strain has been proposed as predictor of risk of ventricular arrhythmias. Strain imaging may be applied to guide placement of the LV pacing lead in patients receiving cardiac resynchronization therapy. Strain may also be used to diagnose myocardial ischaemia, but the technology is not sufficiently standardized to be recommended as a general tool for this purpose. Peak systolic left atrial strain is a promising supplementary index of LV filling pressure. The strain imaging methodology is still undergoing development, and further clinical trials are needed to determine if clinical decisions based on strain imaging result in better outcome. With this important limitation in mind, strain may be applied clinically as a supplementary diagnostic method.
Predict the Multi-hop Reliability for Receiver-Contention Based Routing in Dynamic Link Networks

We consider dynamic link networks(DLN), where nodes are static, but the links are highly dynamic. Reliable multi-hop communication is critical in such networks, which inspires receiver contention routing, which elects relays from actual receivers to overcome link dynamics. However, in previous studies of receiver contention routing protocols, the multi-hop reliability is lack of deep understanding, because the randomness and redundancy in the multi-hop packet forwarding process are hard to model. We propose RECORD protocol to control the randomness and redundant packet for receiver contention, which is carried out by designing sector-shape forwarding zone, prioritized CTS, and contention clearing scheme. For symmetric link DLNs, RECORD can guarantee multi-hop unique-path routing, which enables a Markov Chain model to the multi-hop forwarding process. The multi-hop reliability is predicted by analyzing the stable status of the Markov chain. Particularly, when positions of all sensors are known, the multi-hop reliability of RECORD has close-form formula; when node positions are unknown, recursive upper bound and lower bound are derived. Further, RECORD is implemented distributively by both simulation and in real sensor networks. Extensive evaluations validate the analytical results.
The symplectic structure on moduli space ( in memory of Andreas Floer )

The “moduli space” referred to in the title of this paper is the space M of gauge equivalence classes of flat connections on a principal G bundle over a compact Riemann surface Σ. Atiyah and Bott [1] constructed a symplectic structure ωM on M by symplectic reduction from the infinite dimensional symplectic manifold of all connections. Since M is a finite-dimensional object, it seems desirable to have a finite-dimensional construction of its symplectic form. In fact, M can also be realized as the representation space Hom(π,G)/G, where π is the fundamental group of Σ and G acts by conjugation. Using the resulting identification of the tangent spaces of M with cohomology spaces of π with suitable coefficients, Goldman [9] gave a direct construction of ωM as a nondegenerate 2-form, but he was unable to prove that this form is closed without recourse to the infinite-dimensional picture. This gap in Goldman’s approach was filled recently by Karshon [10], who showed that dωM = 0 by methods of group cohomology, without using the space of connections. 1 The purpose of this paper is to place Karshon’s computations in an appropriate general setting, namely the double complex of forms on cartesian powers of G [5] [14], or more precisely the corresponding complex of equivariant forms [2] [3] with respect to the action of G by conjugation.
Using Remote Accelerators to Improve the Performance of the FFTW Library

Hardware accelerators have forced a change in high performance computing. Their use has enabled an increment in the performance of data centers. For this reason, developers have decided to port many applications belonging to diverse science fields, such as biology or chemistry, to hardware accelerators like GPUs (Graphics Processing Units). Nevertheless, not all the applications have been able to be ported to accelerators, either due to the difficulty it entails or because the cost of performing such port does not outweigh the benefits. In this work we present a new middleware that uses remote accelerators to perform the intensive computations of scientific libraries, initially intended to be executed in the local CPUs. Forwarding the computationally intensive parts of these libraries to remote accelerators is done in a transparent way to applications, not having to modify their source code. This implementation of the new middleware focuses on offloading the FFTW library. An in-depth performance evaluation of the new middleware is presented, considering several node configurations and InfiniBand networks. NVIDIA Tesla K40 GPUs are used as accelerators. Results shown that the FFTW library experiences a speedup larger than 25x, despite having to transfer data back and forth to the remote server owning the accelerator.
Application of network coding in peer-to-peer media streaming

With network coding, intermediate nodes are allowed to perform processing operations on the incoming packets, rather than only forwarding them. The benefits of network coding have been proved to improve the performance of many peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, such as media streaming and content distribution. In this paper, we overview the basic principles of random linear network coding, and survey the recent efforts on network coding application in P2P media streaming system, both in live streaming and Video-on-Demand (VoD) streaming. Finally, we point out some open questions and up-to-date researches on combination network coding with P2P media streaming.
Long-Term Potentiation-Dependent Spine Enlargement Requires Synaptic Ca2+-Permeable AMPA Receptors Recruited by CaM-Kinase I

It is well established that long-term potentiation (LTP), a paradigm for learning and memory, results in a stable enlargement of potentiated spines associated with recruitment of additional GluA1-containing AMPA receptors (AMPARs). Although regulation of the actin cytoskeleton is involved, the detailed signaling mechanisms responsible for this spine expansion are unclear. Here, we used cultured mature hippocampal neurons stimulated with a glycine-induced, synapse-specific form of chemical LTP (GI-LTP). We report that the stable structural plasticity (i.e., spine head enlargement and spine length shortening) that accompanies GI-LTP was blocked by inhibitors of NMDA receptors (NMDARs; APV) or CaM-kinase kinase (STO-609), the upstream activator of CaM-kinase I (CaMKI), as well as by transfection with dominant-negative (dn) CaMKI but not dnCaMKIV. Recruitment of GluA1 to the spine surface occurred after GI-LTP and was mimicked by transfection with constitutively active CaMKI. Spine enlargement induced by transfection of GluA1 was associated with synaptic recruitment of Ca2+-permeable AMPARs (CP-AMPARs) as assessed by an increase in the rectification index of miniature EPSCs (mEPSCs) and their sensitivity to IEM-1460, a selective antagonist of CP-AMPARs. Furthermore, the increase in spine size and mEPSC amplitude resulting from GI-LTP itself was blocked by IEM-1460, demonstrating involvement of CP-AMPARs. Downstream signaling effectors of CP-AMPARs, identified by suppression of their activation by IEM-1460, included the Rac/PAK/LIM-kinase pathway that regulates spine actin dynamics. Together, our results suggest that synaptic recruitment of CP-AMPARs via CaMKI may provide a mechanistic link between NMDAR activation in LTP and regulation of a signaling pathway that drives spine enlargement via actin polymerization.
Community Benefits Agreements: Can Private Contracts Replace Public Responsibility

In an effort to hold developers accountable to the communities in which they build, residents and organizations of many such communities have negotiated with developers over their projects. The results of these negotiations are often memorialized in written Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs). However, several problems may prevent CBAs from becoming enforceable legal instruments. Nevertheless, they offer important lessons to local governments on the necessity of giving community citizens a voice on land use projects and development. Using a few major examples of CBAs, this Note discusses and analyzes their legality and the lessons to be learned from the successes and problems of negotiating CBAs.