Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Syntax learning for the description of scenes composed of geometric shapes

People have a particular way to describe objects into a scene. Our work will be trying to learn these ways with their special characteristics and describe new images automatically. For that, we need to learn the syntax of these descriptions, and generate new syntax-correct phrases, the main reason for this paper. The final objective of this work will be describing new scenes automatically that could be understood by humans.
In-line extraction of an ultra-stable frequency signal over an optical fiber link

In the frame of the REFIMEVE+ project, aiming at disseminating an optical frequency standard to more than 20 laboratories in France, we present the progress made towards a metrological fibre wide-area network. We specifically address the key issue of multi-user dissemination and demonstrate in-line extraction on a main link, as first proposed by G. Grosche in 2010 [4].
Superselective Arterial Embolization of Pseudoaneurysm and Arteriovenous Fistula Caused by Transurethral Resection of the Prostate

Summary Background Pelvic vascular lesions such as pseudoaneurysms and arteriovenous fistulas associated with the internal pudendal artery are uncommon. The most common cause is traumas including those of iatrogenic origin. Surgical treatment is complicated due to location of the lesions and endovascular approach is usually the first choice among the treatment options. Case Report A 79-year-old patient was admitted with massive hematuria following transurethral resection of prostate for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Doppler US and angiography revealed a pseudoaneurysm and arteriovenous fistula originating from the right internal pudendal artery. It was successfully treated with coil embolization. Conclusions Arteriovenous fistulas and pseudoaneurysms concerning internal pudendal artery may occur as complications of prostate operations. Minimally invasive endovascular methods provide safe and efficient treatment and today should be considered as the first line of choice.
Carbon allowances and the demand for offsets: a comprehensive assessment of imperfect substitutes

Abstract The efficient use of market-based policy instruments is an area of increasing importance as scholars and policymakers work to balance effective climate policy with economic growth. Carbon allowances and carbon offsets, despite being statutorily substitutable, behave in practice like imperfect substitutes. This paper provides a synthesis of extant work, market data and the regulatory frameworks of the world’s major carbon markets, and provides a comprehensive assessment of the drivers of demand for carbon offsets. It also provides a detailed assessment of the process through which international carbon offsets are produced, the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism. Demand for carbon offsets is heavily influenced by key programme design parameters that are specific to carbon market design and its implementation. These design parameters heavily influence the degree to which transaction costs, regulatory uncertainty and risk factor into the decisions of firms operating within the carbon trading programme. This paper also identifies key extra-statutory drivers that are outside of the policymaker’s control, which should be considered in both the policy design and the implementation process. This paper provides an instructive set of guiding criteria for policymakers and scholars for the design of future market-based environmental policy.
Affordances of computer-supported collaborative learning platforms: A systematic review

The integration of technology in education is of concern to both researchers and to practitioners especially computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) which has gained a lot of interest lately. This field of research focuses on how computer-based technology can support and promote collaborative learning. Thus, research on technology and its potential use in collaborative learning play a key role in understanding and addressing issues regarding technology-blended learning. In this paper, we present a systematic review of the literature on different technology-driven platforms that support either the design, monitoring, or even motivates learners to embrace collaborative learning activities. In particular, we present a detailed analysis of 27 relevant papers that we identified in accordance with our review protocol. The review results are organized to address two research questions. Through our answers to these questions, we present the platforms or systems that have been used in collaborative learning and the affordances provided by each platform in accordance to social collaborative learning. Overall, review results indicate that while researchers have conducted several studies on this topic, there are still research gaps that need to be addressed. In addition, it was noted that although most of the used platforms or systems do not explicitly enforce or support some of the key theoretical elements of collaborative learning, analysis of the used studies reveals that collaborators are motivated by the used tools to be compliant with some of these elements.
Diversity and Transcriptional Levels of RuBisCO Form II of Sulfur-Oxidizing γ-Proteobacteria in Coastal-Upwelling Waters with Seasonal Anoxia

Seasonal wind-driven upwelling, high primary production in surface waters, and oxygen deficiency in subsurface waters characterize the coastal ecosystem of the subtropical eastern South Pacific (ESP), and shape the nature and dynamics of the microbial community structure and function. We investigated the diversity, abundance, and transcriptional levels of the gene encoding the large subunit form II of the RuBisCO enzyme (cbbM) in the pelagic microbial community at a continental-shelf site off central Chile over two years. We focused on cbbM genes affiliated with the sulfur-oxidizing -proteobacteria cluster, whose members are known to dominate in oxygen-deficient marine environments and are highly abundant in the study area. Phylogenetic analysis of cbbM sequences suggests the presence of a novel group of chemolithoautotrophs, closely related to the SUP05/ARCTIC96BD-19 clade. Through (RT)-qPCR, we studied the cbbM gene abundance and transcript dynamics over an annual cycle, finding a significantly higher number of cbbM copies per unit volume in months of active upwelling and at depths in which oxygen was scarce or absent. The same temporal pattern was observed at the transcriptional level. We also analyzed the relative expression of key genes for carbon, nitrogen and sulfur cycling in six metatranscriptomic datasets, for two characteristic periods within the annual cycle: the anoxic upwelling and the suboxic downwelling. Our results indicate that coastal waters of the subtropical ESP contain transcriptionally active populations of carbon fixing pelagic bacteria, whose dynamics is controlled, in large part, by fluctuations in oxygen levels. They also suggest that chemolithoautotrophic processes coupled to the sulfur and nitrogen cycles become increasingly important for the carbon economy of marine coastal waters as oxygen concentrations decline.
Study of Magnetizing Processes in ${\hbox{Ni}}_{50}{\hbox{Mn}}_{35}{\hbox{In}}_{15}$  Heusler Alloy

In the vicinity of the first-order transition temperature, the Ni50Mn35In15 Heusler alloy exhibits interesting magnetizing processes. The virgin curve at 280 K lies entirely outside the major loop, and the area of the MH loop formed by the virgin curve and the sequential descending curve is significantly larger than that of the major loop. At 275 K, the virgin curve lies slightly outside the major loop, and the area of the loop containing the virgin curve is slightly larger than that of the major loop. These differences are attributed to the different initial magnetic states of the alloy at the two temperatures. The initial state at 280 K is a mixed state, consisting of a low magnetization majority phase and a high magnetization minority phase. The initial state at 275 K is almost all the low magnetization phase. At both temperatures, a strong enough field converts the low magnetization phase to the high magnetization phase. The initial state affects the reverse transition from high to low magnetization phase upon cycling the field back to zero. The behavior of the virgin curve, major loop, and related properties is a complex function of the field and initial state. Similar behavior is expected in other Heusler alloys and other materials exhibiting first-order magneto structural transitions.
Global Reporting Initiative and Social Impact in Managing Corporate Responsibility: A Case Study of Three Multinationals in the Forest Industry

We examine recent evolution in corporate responsibility in the forest industry, an important natural‐resource‐based industry which is under rapid internationalisation and structural change under challenging financial pressures. We address two recent trends in corporate communication: corporate disclosure, that is the adoption of consistent external reporting standards [namely the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)], and the growing awareness of engagement with and impact on local communities through philanthropy, generation of prosperity, communication and the social impact of core activities. This study uses a comparative qualitative case approach to forest industry multinational enterprises (MNEs) based on a combination of secondary (reporting, company newsletters and other documentation) and interview data. Three large‐scale multinational forest industry firms, all pursuing different strategies in terms of internationalisation and geographical and product diversification, were chosen for the study: Stora Enso, SCA and Sappi Ltd. Our results show that the overall quality of sustainability reporting has improved in these companies from 2005 to 2009 with the adoption of GRI. However, based on our fourfold categorisation of social impact, the core social impact indicator in GRI (SO1) has been interpreted very differently in these MNEs, and the adoption of GRI has not actually much improved the comparability of the reports or transparency of practices.
Ricean K-factor estimation in mobile communication systems

We propose an estimator for the Ricean K-factor which has applications in mobile communication systems. The estimator is based on the statistics of the instantaneous frequency (IF) of the received signal. Using simulations, we show that the proposed estimator is robust to shadowing and its mean-square error (MSE) is significantly lower than that of the envelope-based estimators.
Natural Transformation of an Engineered Helicobacter pylori Strain Deficient in Type II Restriction Endonucleases

ABSTRACT Restriction-modification (RM) systems are important for bacteria to limit foreign DNA invasion. The naturally competent bacterium Helicobacter pylori has highly diverse strain-specific type II systems. To evaluate the roles of strain-specific restriction in H. pylori natural transformation, a markerless type II restriction endonuclease-deficient (REd) mutant was constructed. We deleted the genes encoding all four active type II restriction endonucleases in H. pylori strain 26695 using sacB-mediated counterselection. Transformation by donor DNA with exogenous cassettes methylated by Escherichia coli was substantially (1.7 and 2.0 log10 for cat and aphA, respectively) increased in the REd strain. There also was significantly increased transformation of the REd strain by donor DNA from other H. pylori strains, to an extent corresponding to their shared type II R-M system strain specificity with 26695. Comparison of the REd and wild-type strains indicates that restriction did not affect the length of DNA fragment integration during natural transformation. There also were no differentials in cell growth or susceptibility to DNA damage. In total, the data indicate that the type II REd mutant has enhanced competence with no loss of growth or repair facility compared to the wild type, facilitating H. pylori mutant construction and other genetic engineering.
International Hedge Ratios for Index Futures Market: A Simultaneous Equations Approach

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate hedge ratios in terms of the international index futures markets. Instead of looking at hedging in a single market, we construct a simultaneous equations system to study the index hedging in the light of the cross-country linkage and interaction. The three-stage least squares (3SLS) estimating procedure is then applied to CAC40 and FTSE100 indices over the period 1990–2008. The empirical results indicate that the cross-country hedging strategy in both markets is feasible and the investors can bring down the holding position in own futures market. Moreover, the hedging effectiveness of cross-country hedging strategy performs better than the traditional single market hedging strategy in terms of the percentage reduction in variance.
Effective information channels for reducing costs of environmentally- friendly technologies: evidence from residential PV markets

Realizing the environmental benefits of solar photovoltaics (PV) will require reducing costs associated with perception, informational gaps and technological uncertainties. To identify opportunities to decrease costs associated with residential PV adoption, in this letter we use multivariate regression models to analyze a unique, household-level dataset of PV adopters in Texas (USA) to systematically quantify the effect of different information channels on aspiring PV adopters’ decision-making. We find that the length of the decision period depends on the business model, such as whether the system was bought or leased, and on special opportunities to learn, such as the influence of other PV owners in the neighborhood. This influence accrues passively through merely witnessing PV systems in the neighborhood, increasing confidence and motivation, as well as actively through peer-to-peer communications. Using these insights we propose a new framework to provide public information on PV that could drastically reduce barriers to PV adoption, thereby accelerating its market penetration and environmental benefits. This framework could also serve as a model for other distributed generation technologies.
Strategic R&D Location in European Manufacturing Industries

We empirically test a model of foreign research and development (R&D) investments that takes into account strategic interaction in R&D location decisions by multinational firms in the context of R&D cross-investments, R&D spillovers and foreign technology sourcing strategies. We find support for most of the predictions of the model in an empirical analysis of the location of patented innovations by the largest European manufacturing firms in 22 ISIC industries during 1996–1997. For technology leaders in Europe, foreign R&D ratios respond positively to host country product market competition, while technology laggards avoid these locations. Foreign R&D by technology laggards increases more strongly with the efficiency of (reverse) international technology transfer while leaders are attracted more strongly to countries with better intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection. Foreign R&D of both technology leaders and technology laggards increases with the size of the local knowledge pool and the size of manufacturing operations in the host country.
Protection of Mutual Interests? Employment Protection and Skill Formation in Different Labour Market Regimes

■ The `varieties of capitalism' school argues that firm-specific skills are more common in coordinated than in liberal economies and that appropriate training is facilitated by employment protection legislation. We compare the level of firm-specific skills across 21 countries with different capacities for labour market coordination. The data provide very limited support for the thesis, showing large variation among the coordinated countries. The results indicate `varieties of coordination', which have different implications for the incidence and consequences of firm-specific skill. Improved operationalization of the skill concept seems urgent.
Rainfall index insurance to help smallholder farmers manage drought risk

The struggle to find sustainable formal insurance for droughts in developing countries captures the attention of many in the development community for good reason. Droughts disrupt the development process, and the impacts of drought are exacerbated by an unwillingness on the part of the poor to invest combined with a lack of access to credit. This paper first examines the problems associated with traditional approaches to formal drought insurance and goes on to examine the potential of index insurance that is event-driven. A combined weather-generation and crop simulation modelling approach is used to estimate site-specific risks. The method is demonstrated in a case study for dry bean production in Honduras.
Survey of Literature on Demand for Money: Theoretical and Empirical Work with Special Reference to Error-Correction Models

A stable money demand forms the cornerstone in formulating and conducting monetary policy. Consequently, numerous theoretical and empirical studies have been conducted in both industrial and developing countries to evaluate the determinants and the stability of the money demand function. This paper briefly reviews the theoretical work, tracing the contributions of several researchers beginning from the classical economists, and explains relevant empirical issues in modeling and estimating money demand functions. Notably, it summarizes the salient features of a number of recent studies that applied cointegration/error-correction models in the 1990s, and it features a bibliography to aid in research on demand for money.
Road sign detection on a smartphone for traffic safety

The goal of this work is the development of a low-cost driver assistance system that runs on an ordinary smartphone. It uses computer vision techniques and multiple-resolution template matching to detect speed limit signs and alert the driver if the speed limit is exceeded. It inputs an image of the sign to be detected and creates a set of multiple-resolution templates. It also inputs photographs of the road from the smartphone camera at regular intervals and generates multiple-resolution images from the photographs. In the first step of processing, fast filters restrict the focus of attention to smaller areas of the photographs where signs are likely to be present. In the second step, the system matches the templates against the photographs using fast normalized cross correlation to detect speed limit signs. The multiple resolutions enable this approach to detect signs at different scales. In the third step, the system recognizes the sign by matching a series of annotated speed templates to the image at the position and scale that were determined by the detection step. It compares the speed limit with the actual vehicle speed as computed from the smartphone GPS device and issues warnings to the driver as necessary. The system is implemented as an Android application that runs on an ordinary smartphone as part of a client-server architecture. It processes photos at a rate of 1 Hz with a probability of detection of 0.93 at the 95% confidence level and a false alarm rate of 0.0007, or one false classification every 25 min.
Forecasting stock return volatility at the quarterly frequency: an evaluation of time series approaches

The last decade has seen substantial advances in the measurement, modelling and forecasting of volatility which has centered around the realized volatility literature. To date, most of the focus has been on the daily and monthly frequencies, with little attention on longer horizons such as the quarterly frequency. In finance applications, forecasts of volatility at horizons such as quarterly are of fundamental importance to asset pricing and risk management. In this article we evaluate models for stock return volatility forecasting at the quarterly frequency. We find that an autoregressive model with one lag of quarterly realized volatility with an in-sample estimation period of between 60 and 80 quarters produces the most accurate forecasts, and dominates other approaches, such as the recently proposed mixed-data sampling (MIDAS) approach.
The Integration of Mortgage Markets and Capital Markets

In this paper, we develop a model to predict the impact of deregulation in the form of relaxing interest rate control on the integration between the mortgage credit market and the general credit market. The model is tested through the examination of the long-term Granger-like equilibrium relationship between mortgage interest rates and general interest rates in the pre-1980 regulated vs. the post-1980 deregulated periods. It is shown that the level of regulation, in the form of targeting general interest rate levels, contributes to the segmentation of the mortgage market from the capital market. To test this model, we compare the relationship between mortgage interest rates and general interest rates around 1980 where major control on interest rate levels in capital markets was lifted. Using Engle and Granger's procedure to overcome the estimation problem from nonstationarity in the interest rate series, we are able to find that the two interest rates were cointegrated after 1980 but not before. More importantly, it appears that the two markets were already integrated before the full development of the secondary mortgage markets between 1984 and 1987. Therefore, we conclude that the bulk of the integration between the mortgage and capital markets was completed as a result of the removal of interest rate controls around 1980, in contrast with previous studies that find integration occurred during the mid-1980s primarily as a result of the rapid development of the secondary mortgage markets. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.
Expanding on a new model of action learning: finding ethical solutions to complex problems with a framework for insightful questioning

Two critical problems are facing the academic and business communities: a lack of critical thinking capability and egregious unethical behaviour by students and practitioners in the field of business management. A number of upper tier universities have begun to address these issues by revising their undergraduate and Master of Business Administration (MBA) programmes. In response to widespread public criticism and the damaging impact on their bottom line, business organisations are also seeking means to address the dearth of critical thinking and ethical behaviour within their ranks. This paper expands upon a recently developed model of action learning that integrates foundational critical thinking concepts and principles with the process of action learning. It also presents an argument that this new tool has the potential to help mitigate two of the important issues identified.