Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring response errors in censuses and surveys through reinterview data having a different measurement error variance

1. Introduction Reinterviews have been extensively used as a tool for estimating and reducing response errors in censuses and sample surveys. By response error it is meant any error occurring at the data collection stage for a variety of reasons. Errors may be due to the respondent, to the interviewer, or to both. Such errors can never be completely avoided and, therefore, in the practice of censuses and large surveys some different techniques have been proposed (Forsman and Schreiner, 1991) in order to measure response error components. One such method relies on replicated measurements obtained through reinterview of a subsample of units from the original survey on a set of questions from the original interview. When the responses given by the same units during the reinterview differ from those given in the original interview the differences can be evaluated through reconciliation, normally by asking the respondent to determine what is the correct information between the two interviews. When using the approach based on reinterviews to measure response error components, it is usually assumed (Hansen et al., 1961; Särndal et al., 1992; pp. 614-616) that: (i) the two measures are modelled as random variables; (ii) the repeated measurements on the same unit are independent; (iii) the measurement conditions for the two occasions are identical or as close to identical as possible; this imply that the random variables which are associated to the two measurements are subject to the same measurement error variance. Under these assumptions, the standard response error model based on reinterview data, developed at the U.S. Bureau of Census (Hansen et al., 1964), yields unbiased estimates of simple and correlated measurement variances (Särndal et al., 1992; pp. 614-616). Furthermore, an estimate of the measurement bias can be obtained, assuming that the reconciled reinterview process yields the true value. While theoretically sound, the Bureau of Census survey error model seems to be not realistic in many practical situations, because some of the above assumptions are difficult to be met. Frequently, e.g., the reinterview program, because of budget and operational restrictions, are carried out using a different data collection technique with respect to the original interview. In this case, the two measurements, although still independent, cannot be considered as obtained under identical measurement conditions and, therefore, they can be deemed as having different measurement error variances. In this paper it is shown how to obtain an unbiased estimate of the response …
Realistic simulations of gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters: extracting arc parameters from mock DUNE images

Aims. We present a newly developed code that allows simulations of optical observations of galaxy fields with a variety of instr uments. The code incorporates gravitational lensing effects and is targetted at simulating lensing by galaxy cluste rs. Our goal is to create the tools required for comparing theoretical expectations with observations to obtain a better understanding of how observational noise affects lensing applications such as mass estimates, studies on the internal properties o f galaxy clusters and arc statistics. Methods. Starting from a set of input parameters, characterizing bot h the instruments and the observational conditions, the simulator provides a virtual observation of a patch of the sky. It includes sever al sources of noise such as photon-noise, sky background, seeing, and instrumental noise. Ray-tracing through simulated mass distributions accounts for gravitational lensing. Source morphologies are realistically simulated based on shapelet decompositions of galaxy images retrieved from the GOODS-ACS archive. According to their morphological class, spectralenergy-distributions are assigned to the source galaxies i n order to reproduce observations of each galaxy in arbitrary photometric bands. Results. We illustrate our techniques showing virtual observations of a galaxy-cluster core as it would be observed with the space telescope DUNE, which was recently proposed to ESA within its ”Cosmic vision” programme. We analyze the simulated images using methods applicable to real observations and measure the properties of gravitat ional arcs. In particular, we focus on the determination of t heir length, width and curvature radius. Conclusions. We find that arc properties strongly depend on several proper ties of the sources. In particular, our results show that com pact, faint or low surface brightness galaxies that are barely detectab le are more easily distorted as arcs with large length-to-wi dth ratios. We conclude that realistic lensing simulations can be obtained with the method proposed here. They will be essential for evaluating and improving analysis techniques currently used for cosmological interpretatio ns of cluster lensing.
Negative input for grammatical errors: effects after a lag of 12 weeks

Effects of negative input for 13 categories of grammatical error were assessed in a longitudinal study of naturalistic adult–child discourse. Two-hour samples of conversational interaction were obtained at two points in time, separated by a lag of 12 weeks, for 12 children (mean age 2;0 at the start). The data were interpreted within the framework offered by Saxton's (1997, 2000) contrast theory of negative input. Corrective input was associated with subsequent improvements in the grammaticality of child speech for three of the target structures. No effects were found for two forms of positive input: non-contingent models, where the adult produces target structures in non-error-contingent contexts; and contingent models, where grammatical forms follow grammatical child usages. The findings lend support to the view that, in some cases at least, the structure of adult–child discourse yields information on the bounds of grammaticality for the language-learning child.
Study on Engine Vibration Signal Denoising Method of SURE Block Threshold Based on DT-CWPT

A mechanical vibration signal denoise method of SURE block threshold based on DT-CWPT was proposed. The mechanical condition monitoring is always aims to removing the background noise and preserving the useful information more effectively. The presented method chooses the threshold level and block size by minimizing Stein’s unbiased risk estimate which is more adaptive and superior performance and can obtain higher signal-to-noise than the common NeighCoeff. Simultaneously, combine the method with the DT-CWPT’s characteristic of approximately shift-invariant and optimal representation for the signal. And the method was applied to denoise the engine vibration signal which has the property of complex frequency domain and nonstationary and time-variant. Testing results show that the proposed method can effectively compress the noise and the denoised signal has better classification performance.
BRAF associated autophagy exploitation: BRAF and autophagy inhibitors synergise to efficiently overcome resistance of BRAF mutant colorectal cancer cells

Autophagy is the basic catabolic mechanism that involves cell degradation of unnecessary or dysfunctional cellular components. Autophagy has a controversial role in cancer – both in protecting against tumor progression by isolation of damaged organelles, or by potentially contributing to cancer growth. The impact of autophagy in RAS induced transformation still remains to be further analyzed based on the differential effect of RAS isoforms and tumor cell context. In the present study, the effect of KRAS/BRAF/PIK3CA oncogenic pathways on the autophagic cell properties and on main components of the autophagic machinery like p62 (SQSTM1), Beclin-1 (BECN1) and MAP1LC3 (LC3) in colon cancer cells was investigated. This study provides evidence that BRAF oncogene induces the expression of key autophagic markers, like LC3 and BECN1 in colorectal tumor cells. Herein, PI3K/AKT/MTOR inhibitors induce autophagic tumor properties, whereas RAF/MEK/ERK signalling inhibitors reduce expression of autophagic markers. Based on the ineffectiveness of BRAFV600E inhibitors in BRAFV600E bearing colorectal tumors, the BRAF related autophagic properties in colorectal cancer cells are further exploited, by novel combinatorial anti-cancer protocols. Strong evidence is provided here that pre-treatment of autophagy inhibitor 3-MA followed by its combination with BRAFV600E targeting drug PLX4720 can synergistically sensitize resistant colorectal tumors. Notably, colorectal cancer cells are very sensitive to mono-treatments of another autophagy inhibitor, Bafilomycin A1. The findings of this study are expected to provide novel efficient protocols for treatment of otherwise resistant colorectal tumors bearing BRAFV600E, by exploiting the autophagic properties induced by BRAF oncogene.
Performance Indicators: Accountable to Whom?

In this paper the author examines the implementation of key performance indicators in Canadian post-secondary education institutions. More specifically he charts their implementation from the perspective of students and the effect they have on the quality and delivery of education. Key performance indicators (KPI) in Canada are administered by the ten provincial governments. In each of the jurisdictions in which they have been introduced KPIs have tied various forms of institutional performance to core funding and capital funding allocation.The paper offers a comparative analysis of how certain criteria are promoted by the establishment of KPIs. It examines the introduction of KPIs in three provinces: Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia. In each case the complex set of politics and institutional relations at stake in the establishment of KPIs are examined. A comparative examination of each case provides signposts for best practices as well as instructive lessons in where and how quickly the very definition of accountability becomes a highly politicised term of contention. Finally, the paper makes proactive policy suggestions, from the standpoint of students, about the criteria that should be used in the establishment of KPIs. At all points the paper (re) inserts the perspective of students into the ongoing dialogue about accountability and the changing identity of higher education.
Novel Solution Approach for Multi-Objective Attack-Defense Cyber Games With Unknown Utilities of the Opponent

A nontraditional game-theoretic approach has been recently suggested for solving Multi-Objective Games (MOGs). This paper aims to highlight the applicability and advantage of this approach to cyber security. For this purpose, we describe a new attack-defence game-theoretic model. It involves a zero-sum MOG in which the players are undecided about their objective preferences. As demonstrated here, solving such a unique type of game results in a set of rationalizable strategies wherein each strategy is associated with a set of performance vectors. Set-based strategy selection techniques are introduced and demonstrated. In addition, existing evolutionary algorithms to finding the set of rationalizable strategies are discussed. The suggested cyber-game model and the nontraditional solution approach are demonstrated using a simple academic example. Based on the demonstrated case, we conclude that the described approach opens up new possibilities for analyzing cyber defense strategies. Namely, it allows tradeoff considerations by eliminating the need to predefine a utility function for each player. Moreover, based on a time-complexity analysis, we also conclude that future algorithms for solving real-life multiobjective cyber games, by the proposed method, should be adjusted for parallel processing. Finally, in view of practical needs for cyber security, this paper takes a broader view and discusses how the development of game-based computational tools for cyber defence, such as proposed here, may benefit not just from evolutionary computation methods but also from other computational intelligence methods, such as fuzzy inference systems and artificial neural networks.
Australian Exports: Global Demand and the High Exchange Rate

Growth in Australian exports was weaker than had been expected over the past 10 years across all major categories: resources, rural, manufactures and services. While exports of bulk commodities and liquefied natural gas (LNG) grew strongly in response to higher demand from Asia, this was partly offset by declines in exports of oil and processed metals. Non-resource exports have been adversely affected by the appreciation of the exchange rate and the ongoing rise in the share of global production occurring in emerging economies. Looking ahead, the surge in mining-related investment since the mid 2000s is expected to lead to stronger growth in resource exports over the next five years. As incomes grow further in emerging Asia, demand for Australia’s exports of food products, high-skilled manufactures and services is also expected to rise.
Review of Fares Elasticities in Great Britain

INTRODUCTION Empirical analysis of the behavioural impact of a wide range of travel variables has been conducted extensively in Britain over the past forty years or so. With the likely exception of the value of travel time (Wardman, 2001), the most widely estimated parameters have been price elasticities of demand and in particular public transport fare elasticities. The wealth of available evidence provides an excellent opportunity to obtain greater insights into fare elasticities and their determinants. There have been numerous notable reviews of price elasticities (Ely, 1976; TRF&, 1980; Goodwin and Williams, 1985; Goodwin, 1992; Oum et al, 1992; Halcrow Fox et al., 1993; Wardman, 1997; Nijkamp et al., 1998; Pratt, 2000; De Jong and Gunn, 2001; Graham and Glaister, 2002; VTPI, 2003). The unique features of this study are that it covers a much larger amount of public transport evidence and a broader range of issues than previous reviews and, more significantly, it has developed a model to explain variations in fare elasticities across studies. This review covers 902 public transport fare elasticities obtained from 104 studies conducted in Britain between 1951 and 2002. The markets covered are inter-urban rail travel, suburban rail travel, urban bus travel and London underground.
Dude Where's My VaR? Annualising Volatility with Serial Correlation

Investors who use a risk-adjusted return approach to decision-making, could be making significant errors should they fail to adjust for serial correlation in fund, index and relative return data. The standard deviation of daily, weekly and monthly returns are often annualised using what is known as the “square root of t rule” where the standard deviation of returns is multiplied by the square root of the frequency of the data in order to arrive at an annualised volatility or σ_a=σ_m×√t for monthly data. It is the logical result of additive variances and is only correct under specific circumstances, which are surprisingly rare. As a result, serial correlation in returns data requires an adjustment to the annualised volatility calculation. This paper describes the rationale for this methodology and simple but necessary adjustments for serial correlation which results in a more accurate calculation of annualised volatility, where: σ_a=σ_m×√(t 2(t-1) ρ_(t,t-1) ) or in the extreme σ_a=σ_m×12 in the case of money market returns.
A new method for estimating value at risk with EVT and HS

During the past decade, Value at Risk (VaR) has become one of most commonly used Tools in risk measurement. In this paper, We propose a new method for estimating VaR. Our approach combines HS method to estimate the interior and the extreme value theory to estimate the tails. This paper uses a sample of the returns of S&P 500 daily closing index to test the performance of our VaR procedure. This approach is also backtested for financial data at different confidence level. The results of the backtesting indicate that the new approach is an adequate risk measure.
Characterization of stability transitions and practical stability of planar singularly perturbed linear switched systems

This paper is concerned with the stability of planar linear singularly perturbed switched systems in continuous time. Based on a necessary and sufficient stability condition, we characterize all possible stability transitions for this class of switched systems and we propose a practical stability result. We answer the questions related to what happen as ∈, the singular perturbation parameter, grows and how many times the system can change its stability behavior (asymptotic stability, stability, instability) and which transitions are possible. Moreover, we analyze practical stability from the viewpoint of Tikhonov approach and in particular based on existing results obtained in the context of differential inclusions. We show that these approaches can be applied to singularly perturbed switched systems allowing to prove practical stability in some cases. This kind of stability focuses on the behavior of the system on compact time-intervals as ∈ tends to 0 (in particular, it does not ensure the asymptotic stability towards the origin). It is therefore different from the stability criteria where ∈ is fixed (arbitrarily small) and the asymptotic behavior for large times is considered. For planar systems, it turns out that when practical stability can be deduced from Tikhonov-type results, then global uniform asymptotic stability (for ∈ > 0 small) holds true. It is an open question whether this is still true for higher dimensional singularly perturbed switched systems.
Essays on the functioning of housing and labor markets

The first chapter consists of my job-market paper. The foreclosure rate of subprime mortgages increased markedly across 2003-2007 borrower cohorts-subprime mortgages originated in 20062007 were roughly three times more likely to default within three years of origination than mortgages originated in 2003-2004. Many have argued that this surge in subprime defaults represents a deterioration in subprime lending standards over time. I quantify the importance of an alternative hypothesis: later cohorts defaulted at higher rates in large part because house price declines left them more likely to have negative equity. Using loan-level data, I find that changing borrower and loan characteristics explain approximately 30% of the difference in cohort default rates, with almost of all of the remaining heterogeneity across cohorts attributable to the price cycle. To account for the endogeneity of prices, I employ a nonlinear instrumental-variables approach that instruments for house price changes with long-run regional variation in house-price cyclicality. Control function results confirm that the relationship between price declines and defaults is causal and explains the majority of the disparity in cohort performance. I conclude that if 2006 borrowers had faced the same prices the average 2003 borrower did, their annual default rate would have dropped from 12% to 5.6%. The second chapter is joint with David Autor and Parag Pathak. Externalities from the attributes and actions of neighborhood residents onto the value of surrounding properties and neighborhoods are central to the theory of urban economics and the development of efficient housing policy. This paper measures the capitalization of housing market externalities into residential housing values by studying the sudden and largely unanticipated 1995 elimination of stringent rent controls in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which had previously muted landlords' incentives to invest in their properties and altered the assignment of residents to locations. Pooling administrative data on the universe of assessed values and transacted prices of all Cambridge residential properties between 1988 and 2005, we find that rent decontrol genrated substantial, robust price appreciation at decontrolled units and nearby never-controlled units, accounting for an estimated 30 percent of the $7.8 billion in Cambridge residential property appreciation during this period. The majority of this contribution is due to induced appreciation of never-controlled properties, while residential investments can explain only a small fraction of the total. The third chapter is joint with Denis Chetverikov and Bradley Larsen. We present a methodology for estimating the distributional effects of an endogenous treatment that varies at the group level when there are group-level unobservables, a quantile extension of Hausman and Taylor (1981). Standard quantile regression techniques are inconsistent in this setting, even if the treatment is exogenous. Using the Bahadur representation of quantile estimators, we derive weak conditions
Rapid Design Space Exploration of Application Specific Heterogeneous Pipelined Multiprocessor Systems

This paper describes a rapid design methodology to create a pipeline of processors to execute streaming applications. The methodology seeks a system with the smallest area while its runtime is within a specified runtime constraint. Initially, a heuristic is used to rapidly explore a large number of processor configurations to find the near Pareto front of the design space, and then an exact integer linear programming (ILP) formulation (EIF) is used to find an optimal solution. A reduced ILP formulation (RIF) or the heuristic is used if the EIF does not find an optimal solution in a given time window. This design methodology was integrated into a commercial design flow and was evaluated on four benchmarks with design spaces containing up to 1016 design points. For each benchmark, the near Pareto front was found in less than 3 h using the heuristic, while EIF took up to 16 h. The results show that the average area error of the heuristic and RIF was within 2.25% and 1.25% of the optimal design points for all the benchmarks, respectively. The heuristic is faster than RIF, while both the heuristic and RIF are significantly faster than EIF.
Are US in ation expectations anchored , contained or unmoored ?

This paper uses daily observations on implied ination expectations (di¤erence between nominal and real yields) derived from the US nominal and real Treasury securities to examine the properties of investors expectations for US CPI ination. We assess whether ination expectations are anchored, contained or unmoored. These concepts are often used in central bank communication and their presence is often viewed as essential for e¤ective monetary policy. Anchored ination expectations are modeled by assuming the underlying ination process driving expectations is quickly attracted to its long-run average. To model contained ination expectations, we develop the implications of an underlying nonlinear ination process that is quickly We thank Samuel Maurer for excellent research assistance. Arturo Estrella and Meg McConnell provided useful insights and observations on the theme of this paper. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System.
Name-based Shim6: a name-based approach to host mobility

It has long been ill to manage mobility in IP networks. In this paper we propose namebased sockets and apply a name-based approach to improve Shim6 (a host-based multihoming solution) to support host mobility. We show how the name-based approach intrinsically transforms Shim6 into a mobility solution and how the existing infrastructure is sufficient to provide the necessary signaling to support unilateral and bilateral mobility. An implementation evaluation shows that it achieves promising recovery time in both scenarios.