Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Information Provision in a Vertically Differentiated Competitive Marketplace

This paper examines the interaction of information provision, product quality, and pricing decisions by competitive firms to explore the following question: in a competitive market where consumers face uncertainty about product quality and/or their preference for quality, which firms---those that sell higher-or lower-quality products---have the higher incentive to provide what type of information? We find that while the higher-quality firm should always provide information resolving consumer uncertainty on product quality, the lower-quality firm under certain conditions will have the higher incentive to and will be the one to provide information resolving consumer uncertainty about their quality preferences. In the analysis, we trace the latter result to competition and to free-riding on the information provision. Specifically, in a monopoly market or when consumer free-riding is restricted by the costliness of store visits, the lower-quality firm would have a lower incentive to provide information resolving consumer preference uncertainty than otherwise. The model is also adapted to examine product returns as a possible strategy of information provision.
Transmission control in cognitive radio systems with latency constraints as a switching control dynamic game

This paper addresses the secondary user rate adaptation problem in cognitive radio networks. By modeling primary user activities and secondary user block fading channels as finite state Markov chains, we formulate the transmission rate adaptation problem of each secondary user as a zero-sum dynamic Markovian game with a delay constraint. The Nash equilibrium of the resulting game is available and all of the Nash equilibria have a unique value vector. Conditions are given so that the Nash equilibrium transmission policy of each user is a randomized mixture of pure threshold policies. Such threshold policies are easily implementable. Finally, we present a stochastic approximation algorithm which can adaptively estimate Nash equilibrium policies and track such policies for non-stationary problems where the statistics of the channel and user parameters evolve with time.
Paying Respect

W hy do people work? Economic theory generally, and the principal– agent model specifically, emphasize the role of material incentives. The standard assumption is that people work hard only if they receive monetary compensation for doing so. However, a substantial body of evidence contradicts the standard economic model. Many salaried academics, for example, work diligently year after year, continuing to exert themselves as they approach retirement, although financial incentives are then usually absent. We will argue that while economists have been right to focus on incentives, they have been wrong to focus so exclusively on material incentives. While workers appreciate monetary rewards, they also get utility from what (they believe that) others think about them. Thus, employers can pay their workers with a combination of monetary rewards and respect. Employers can help to fulfill employees’ desire for respect in at least four ways, each of which sheds some light on observed practices: First, attention from an employer can enhance the employee’s sense of being respected for good performance. Second, a manager or the employer can increase the value of respect by proving to be a worthy audience; for example, hard-working employees appreciate the respect of hard-working managers, and idealistic workers appreciate the respect of an idealistic employer. Third, the employer can influence the norms of respectability—that is, what traits gain respect in a certain workplace. Fourth, employers can affect what information about an
Estimation of S‐wave scattering coefficient in the mantle from envelope characteristics before and after the ScS arrival

Examining seismogram envelopes of regional earthquakes in Central Asia with focal depths deeper than 150 km in 1s–20s periods for a wide lapse time range up to 2000s, we found an offset in each coda envelope before and after the ScS arrival at 10s and 15s periods. The ScS wave has its own tail, that is, scattered waves of ScS waves sometimes dominate over the original coda waves composed of scattered S waves and scattered surface waves. For 1s, 2s and 4s periods, such an offset is not clear. However, there is a change of coda decay gradient associated with the ScS arrival. In a layered velocity and attenuation structure according to the PREM, scattering process of S‐waves can be simulated by using the Monte Carlo method based on the radiative transfer theory for isotropic scattering process. Comparing numerical simulation for a two‐layered scattering model with observed envelopes, we estimated the total scattering coefficients as 1.129 × 10−3 km−1 and 6.230 × 10−4 km−1 at 4s, and 4.510 × 10−4 km−1 and 2.710 × 10−4 km−1 at 10s, for the lithosphere and upper mantle and for the lower mantle, respectively. In the lower mantle, scattering loss is dominant in the total attenuation of S waves.
Data Categorization and Noise Analysis in Mobile Communication Using Machine Learning Algorithms

Machine learning and pattern recognition contains well-defined algorithms with the help of complex data, provides the accuracy of the traffic levels, heavy traffic hours within a cluster. In this paper the base stations and also the noise levels in the busy hour can be predicted. J48 pruned tree contains 23 nodes with busy traffic hour provided in east Godavari. Signal to noise ratio has been predicted at 55, based on CART results. About 53% instances provided inside the cluster and 47% provided outside the cluster. DBScan clustering provided maximum noise from srikakulam. MOR (Number of originating calls successful) predicted as best associated attribute based on Apriori and Genetic search 12:1 ratio.
Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper No. 223 Women and Part-time Employment: Workers' 'choices' and Wage Penalties in Five Industrialized Countries Women and Part-time Employment: Workers' 'choices' and Wage Penalties in Five Industrialized Countries

This paper uses cross-nationally comparable data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) to analyse the patterns and consequences of part-time employment among women across five industrialized countries—Canada, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States—as of the middle 1990s. The results reveal the influence of dependent care responsibilities related to the presence of young children and elderly household members. We also find unadjusted part-time wage penalties everywhere, ranging from 8-12% in Canada and Germany, to 15% in the UK, to as high as 22% in the US and Italy, meaning that part-time workers earn that much less than full-time workers. The sources of the observed wage gaps vary markedly across countries; only in Germany do we find evidence of 'discrimination' against part-time workers. In this paper, we use cross-nationally comparable data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) to analyse the patterns and consequences of part-time employment among women across five industrialized countries—Canada, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States—as of the middle 1990s. First, we investigate women's employment choices, specifically the three-option decision between non-employment, part-time employment, and full-time employment. Second, we analyse the direct economic consequences for women workers of engagement in part-time rather than full-time employment. Our empirical analysis is structured around two questions. As we assess our findings with respect to these questions, our primary interest is always in identifying cross-national similarities as well as variability: (1) Which factors—individual and household—affect the employment decisions of adult women, that is, their decisions with respect to non-employment versus part-time employment versus full-time employment? Which factors seem to have a uniform effect on women's choices across these countries, and which appear to vary cross-nationally? (2) How do the hourly earnings of part-time workers differ from those of full-time workers, both with and without worker-and job-related controls? Again, to what extent do we find uniform—versus varying—patterns of pay differentials across countries? Our results indicate marked variation across these countries, but reveal a number of uniformities as well. First, with respect to women's employment choices, we find significant and varying effects of many of the independent variables. The results especially reveal the influence of dependent care. Our results reveal that, as expected, child-related factors—both the presence and age of children—are crucial to women's employment outcomes in nearly all cases. In all countries, being a mother (compared to being childless), ceteris paribus, decreases the probability that a woman selects full-time …
Sustaining Vetiver grass Handicrafts: An Innovative Focus on Rural Area and Tourism

In Turkey, agriculture has a great economic, cultural and ecological significance for tourism. Agricultural products to be obtained from handicraft products, especially to contribute to cultural tourism and agricultural tourism. The tourism contribution of the sale and exhibition of these products is also important for the development of the region and local people. Vetiver grass (Vetiveria zizanioides (Linn.) Nash), is known in the world as a plant of water and soil protection (wind, water and soil erosion, flood, etc.). When the studies are investigate, it is found that espicially the roots and leaves of the plant are valuable and it facilitates the development of rural development economically. Vertically growing plant roots have been shown to be a miracle plant for handcrafts, perfumery products and a wide range of applications as well as for soil and water protection. It has also increased the living standards of those living in rural areas and directed them to activities related to Vetiver grass.Vetiver grass has been tested for soil erosion in the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey (Macka / Trabzon) and its roots have been shown to show improvement. The aim of this study is to discuss the contribution of rural arts and crafts to the crafts that can be obtained from the roots of the Vetiver grass and encourage the people in the regions and regions that are suitable for the production of vetiver craft products. It also aims to demonstrate the contribution of the products that can be obtained from their roots to marketing and to reduce environmental destruction, to protect agricultural lands from destruction (flooding, soil loss, pollution, etc.) by appropriate methods.
Effective population size of steelhead trout: influence of variance in reproductive success, hatchery programs, and genetic compensation between life‐history forms

The effective population size is influenced by many biological factors in natural populations. To evaluate their relative importance, we estimated the effective number of breeders per year (Nb) and effective population size per generation (Ne) in anadromous steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in the Hood River, Oregon (USA). Using demographic data and genetic parentage analysis on an almost complete sample of all adults that returned to the river over 15 years (> 15 000 individuals), we estimated Nb for 13 run years and Ne for three entire generations. The results are as follows: (i) the ratio of Ne to the estimated census population size (N) was 0.17–0.40, with large variance in reproductive success among individuals being the primary cause of the reduction in Ne/N; (ii) fish from a traditional hatchery program (Htrad: nonlocal, multiple generations in a hatchery) had negative effects on Nb, not only by reducing mean reproductive success but also by increasing variance in reproductive success among breeding parents, whereas no sign of such effects was found in fish from supplementation hatchery programs (Hsupp: local, single generation in a hatchery); and (iii) Nb was relatively stable among run years, despite the widely fluctuating annual run sizes of anadromous adults. We found high levels of reproductive contribution of nonanadromous parents to anadromous offspring when anadromous run size is small, suggesting a genetic compensation between life‐history forms (anadromous and nonanadromous). This is the first study showing that reproductive interaction between different life‐history forms can buffer the genetic impact of fluctuating census size on Ne.
Water resource requirements of corn‐based ethanol

Ethanol derived from fermentation of corn is a very water‐intensive product with water to ethanol mass ratios of 927 to 1178 and volumetric ratios of 1174 to 1492 for the major rainfed corn‐growing U.S. states of Illinois and Iowa and the leading irrigated corn‐growing state of Nebraska, respectively. Over 99% of water requirements are for growing corn feed stocks, with 99% of that amount in Illinois and Iowa, occurring as evapotranspiration of rainfall in corn fields, and 60% as evapotranspiration of applied irrigation water in Nebraska. As a rough measure of water quality impacts, 65.5 g N, 23.8 g P, and 1.03 g of pesticides are applied, and 4.8 kg of soil is eroded per liter of ethanol produced. These results add to knowledge on corn‐based ethanol's low net energy balance and high carbon footprint by demonstrating the high water resource intensity of corn‐based ethanol production.
Dynamic eye convergence for head-mounted displays

A virtual hand metaphor remains by far the most popular technique for direct object manipulation in immersive Virtual Reality (VR). The utility of the virtual hand depends on a user's ability to see it correctly in stereoscopic 3D, especially in tasks that require continuous, precise hand-eye coordination. We present a mechanism that dynamically converges left and right cameras on target objects in VR, mimicking the effect that naturally happens in real life. As a result, the system maintains optimal conditions for stereoscopic viewing at varying depths, in real-time. We describe the algorithm, implementation details and preliminary results from pilot tests.
Graph wavelets for spatial traffic analysis

A number of problems in network operations and engineering call for new methods of traffic analysis. While most existing traffic analysis methods are fundamentally temporal, there is a clear need for the analysis of traffic across multiple network links - that is, for spatial traffic analysis. In this paper we give examples of problems that can be addressed via spatial traffic analysis. We then propose a formal approach to spatial traffic analysis based on the wavelet transform. Our approach (graph wavelets) generalizes the traditional wavelet transform so that it can be applied to data elements connected via an arbitrary graph topology. We explore the necessary and desirable properties of this approach and consider some of its possible realizations. We then apply graph wavelets to measurements from an operating network. Our results show that graph wavelets are very useful for our motivating problems; for example, they can be used to form highly summarized views of an entire network's traffic load, to gain insight into a network's global traffic response to a link failure, and to localize the extent of a failure event within the network.
The effect of HeLa cell cytoplasm on the rate of sedimentation of RNA.

Ordinarily, sedimentation analysis of RNA preparations is carried out in simple aqueous solutions. Recently, numerous investigators have carried out experiments where RNA's in cytoplasmic extracts from various types of cells have been analyzed by sedimentation through gradients of sucrose. The implicit assumption has been made that the presence of the cytoplasmic extract does not in itself affect the rate of sedimentation of the RNA. However, we have recently found that some component of HeLa cell cytoplasmic extracts causes a 1.5-2-fold increase in the sedimentation rate of a number of species of RNA. Since this result bears on the interpretation of many types of experiments, we will report the phenomenon at this time, even though we know little about its mechanism.
Hsp90 Directly Modulates the Spatial Distribution of AF9/MLLT3 and Affects Target Gene Expression*

AF9/MLLT3 contributes to the regulation of the gene encoding the epithelial sodium channel α, ENaCα, in renal tubular cells. Specifically, increases in AF9 protein lead to a reduction in ENaCα expression and changes in AF9 activity appear to be an important component of aldosterone signaling in the kidney. Whereas AF9 is found in the nucleus where it interacts with the histone H3 lysine 79 methyltransferase, Dot1, AF9 is also present in the cytoplasm. Data presented in this report indicate that the heat shock protein Hsp90 directly and specifically interacts with AF9 as part of an Hsp90-Hsp70-p60/Hop chaperone complex. Experimental manipulation of Hsp90 function by the inhibitor novobiocin, but not 17-AAG, results in redistribution of AF9 from a primarily nuclear to cytoplasmic location. Knockdown of Hsp90 with siRNA mimics the effect elicited by novobiocin. As expected, a shift in AF9 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm in response to Hsp90 interference leads to increased ENaCα expression. This is accompanied by a decrease in AF9 occupancy at the ENaCα promoter. Our data suggest that the interaction of Hsp90, Hsp70, and p60/Hop with AF9 is necessary for the proper subnuclear localization and activity of AF9. AF9 is among a growing number of nuclear proteins recognized to rely on the Hsp90 complex for nuclear targeting.
Balancing bias and variance in the optimization of simulation models

We consider the problem of identifying the optimal point of an objective in simulation experiments where the objective is measured with error. The best stochastic approximation algorithms exhibit a convergence rate of n-1/6 which is somewhat different from the n-1/2 rate more usually encountered in statistical estimation. We describe some simple simulation experimental designs that emphasize the statistical aspects of the process. When the objective can be represented by a Taylor series near the optimum, we show that the best rate of convergence of the mean square error is when the variance and bias components balance each other. More specifically, when the objective can be approximated by a quadratic with a cubic bias, then the fastest decline in the mean square error achievable is n-2/3. Some elementary theory as well as numerical examples will be presented
Attribution of Large‐Scale Climate Patterns to Seasonal Peak‐Flow and Prospects for Prediction Globally

Flood‐related fatalities and impacts on society surpass those from all other natural disasters globally. While the inclusion of large‐scale climate drivers in streamflow (or high‐flow) prediction has been widely studied, an explicit link to global‐scale long‐lead prediction is lacking, which can lead to an improved understanding of potential flood propensity. Here we attribute seasonal peak‐flow to large‐scale climate patterns, including the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), using streamflow station observations and simulations from PCR‐GLOBWB, a global‐scale hydrologic model. Statistically significantly correlated climate patterns and streamflow autocorrelation are subsequently applied as predictors to build a global‐scale season‐ahead prediction model, with prediction performance evaluated by the mean squared error skill score (MSESS) and the categorical Gerrity skill score (GSS). Globally, fair‐to‐good prediction skill (20% ≤ MSESS and 0.2 ≤ GSS) is evident for a number of locations (28% of stations and 29% of land area), most notably in data‐poor regions (e.g., West and Central Africa). The persistence of such relevant climate patterns can improve understanding of the propensity for floods at the seasonal scale. The prediction approach developed here lays the groundwork for further improving local‐scale seasonal peak‐flow prediction by identifying relevant global‐scale climate patterns. This is especially attractive for regions with limited observations and or little capacity to develop flood early warning systems.
Rapid Avr9- and Cf-9–Dependent Activation of MAP Kinases in Tobacco Cell Cultures and Leaves: Convergence of Resistance Gene, Elicitor, Wound, and Salicylate Responses

The Cf-9 resistance (R) gene from tomato confers resistance to the fungal pathogen Cladosporium fulvum expressing the corresponding, pathogen-derived avirulence gene product Avr9. To understand how an initial R/Avr recognition event is transmitted and triggers the induction of plant defenses, we investigated early Avr9/Cf-9–dependent activation of protein kinases in transgenic tobacco expressing the Cf-9 gene. We identified two protein kinases of 46 and 48 kD, using myelin basic protein as substrate, that became rapidly activated in a strictly gene-for-gene manner within 2 to 5 min after Avr9 elicitation in both Cf9 tobacco plants and derived cell cultures. Studies with pharmacological inhibitors and effectors revealed that Ca2+ influx and a phosphorylation event(s) are required for kinase activation, but neither enzyme is involved in the Avr9-dependent synthesis of active oxygen species. The activation of both kinases is achieved via post-translational mechanisms, and the activation but not inactivation step includes tyrosine phosphorylation. Using specific antibodies, we found that the 46- and 48-kD kinases were similiar to WIPK (for wound-induced protein kinase) and SIPK (for salicylic acid–induced protein kinase), two previously characterized mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases from tobacco. In addition, Cf9 tobacco plants and cell cultures showed an Avr9-dependent accumulation of the WIPK transcript. Cf9 tobacco suspension cultures are thus a unique system in which to analyze the earliest events in R gene function. These data indicate that (1) the R/Avr–mediated induction of plant defense is accomplished via several parallel signaling mechanisms, and (2) R/Avr–dependent signal transduction pathways are interlinked at MAP kinases with responses of plants not only to non-race-specific elicitors but also to abiotic stimuli, such as wounding and mechanical stress.