Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
L'allocation initiale des quotas d'émission de C02 aux entreprises à la lumière de l'analyse économique

The final draft of the European directive on C02 emissions trading has been decided on by the Council on July 23, 2003. It is now up to governments to put the instrument into place by January 2005. It is also the right time to consider the issue of initial allocation of C02 allowances from the viewpoint of economic efficiency and equity regarding business firms. The paper first recalls how the instrument is running and underlines why the choice of a specific rule of allocation is to have no significant impact on the current running of competitive markets for allowances and products, but a significant one on the capability of firms to ensure the financing of their future development. From the examination of several issues linked to initial allocation, the paper identifies three main threats for the economic efficiency of emissions trading : the administration willing to take back unused allowances when managers decide to close-down a facility ; a bad choice of allocation criteria making possible a counter-productive interference with firms abatement programs, which would be strategically framed in order to influence the future allocation of allowances in a multi-period procedure of allocation ; giving allowances for free to new entrants on the basis of a superficial understanding of the requirements of a fair competition. Also, to define the initial allocation on the basis of previous voluntary commitments of firms and to allocate extra quotas for past voluntary actions would be quite an arbitrary procedure and violate basic requirements of equity.
Public Sector Marketing

Preface Chapter 1: Marketing in the public sector Chapter 2: The stakeholder value approach Chapter 3: Creating and measuring stakeholder value Chapter 4: Developing and implementing strategies Chapter 5: Value drivers, portfolio assessment and planning ahead Chapter 6: Marketing research Chapter 7: Market measurement and forecasting demand Chapter 8: The marketing planning process Chapter 9: Corporate brand building and delivering the service Chapter 10: Pricing services Chapter 11: Communicating values Chapter 12: Social marketing Chapter 13: Internal marketing Chapter 14: Marketing via the intranet and internet Index
Working memory and fear conditioning

Previous studies of associative learning implicate higher-level cognitive processes in some forms of classical conditioning. An ongoing debate is concerned with the extent to which attention and awareness are necessary for trace but not delay eye-blink conditioning [Clark, R. E. & Squire, L. R. (1998) Science 280, 77–81; Lovibond, P. F. & Shanks, D. (2002) J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Processes 28, 38–42]. In trace conditioning, a short interval is interposed between the termination of the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the onset of the unconditioned stimulus (US). In delay conditioning, the CS and US overlap. We here investigate the extent to which human classical fear conditioning depends on working memory. Subjects had to carry out an n-back task, requiring tracking an item 1 or 2 back in a sequentially presented list of numbers, while simultaneously being tested for their ability to associate auditory cues with shocks under a variety of conditions (single-cue versus differential; delay versus trace; no task versus 0-, 1-, and 2-back). Differential delay conditioning proved to be more resilient than differential trace conditioning but does show a reduction due to task interference similar in slope to that found in trace conditioning. Explicit knowledge of the stimulus contingency facilitates but does not guarantee trace conditioning. Only the single-cue delay protocol shows conditioning during the more difficult working memory task. Our findings suggest that the larger the cognitive demands on the system, the less likely conditioning occurs. A postexperimental questionnaire showed a positive correlation between conditioning and awareness for differential trace conditioning extinction.
Auctioning Substitutable Goods

In this paper we extend the notion of multi-unit combinatorial reverse auction by adding a new dimension to the goods at auction. In such a new type of combinatorial auction a buyer can express substitutability relationships among goods: some goods can be substituted with others at a substitution cost. Substitutability relationships allow a buyer to introduce his uncertainty as to whether it is more convenient to buy some goods or others. We introduce such uncertainty in the winner determination problem (WDP) so that not only does the auction help allocate the optimal set of offers ---taking into account substitutability relationships---, but also assesses the substitutability relationships that apply. In this way, the buyer finds out what goods to buy, to whom, and what operations (substitutions) to apply to the acquired goods in order to obtain the initially required ones.
Bayesian Query Construction for Neural Network Models

If data collection is costly, there is much to be gained by actively selecting particularly informative data points in a sequential way. In a Bayesian decision-theoretic framework we develop a query selection criterion which explicitly takes into account the intended use of the model predictions. By Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods the necessary quantities can be approximated to a desired precision. As the number of data points grows, the model complexity is modified by a Bayesian model selection strategy. The properties of two versions of the criterion ate demonstrated in numerical experiments.
Impaired learning of event frequencies in tone deafness

Musical knowledge is ubiquitous, effortless, and implicitly acquired all over the world via exposure to musical materials in one's culture. In contrast, one group of individuals who show insensitivity to music, specifically the inability to discriminate pitches and melodies, is the tone‐deaf. In this study, we asked whether difficulties in pitch and melody discrimination among the tone‐deaf could be related to learning difficulties, and, if so, what processes of learning might be affected in the tone‐deaf. We investigated the learning of frequency information in a new musical system in tone‐deaf individuals and matched controls. Results showed significantly impaired learning abilities in frequency matching in the tone‐deaf. This impairment was positively correlated with the severity of tone deafness as assessed by the Montreal Battery for Evaluation of Amusia. Taken together, the results suggest that tone deafness is characterized by an impaired ability to acquire frequency information from pitched materials in the sound environment.
Magnetic Wall Climbing Devices-A Review

Wall climbing devices have been developed with the objective of replacing human operators in the accomplishment of essential safety in performing tasks in hazardous environments as with nuclear reactors, petrochemical plants, power stations etc. Electromagnetism based adhesion mechanisms have been widely used to develop devices which stick to pipes, girders, wall of ferromagnetic material surfaces etc. These devices usually rely on uninterrupted supply of on board electrical power or power supply from base station. In the event of power failure the device falls off. This paper presents a survey of the design concepts and technologies based on magnetic adhesion principle. It also describes a new climbing device that makes use of permanent magnets instead of conventional electromagnets and uses compressed air supplied from base station. The pneumatically controlled device does not require electrical power supply for its operation.
A study of human perception similarity for image quality assessment

Subjective image quality evaluation, though time consuming, is presently the most reliable evaluation method. The aim of this research was to undertake an independent study to investigate the similarity between a psychophysical experiment and an existing image quality database, where the experiments were undertaken in geographically distant locations with racially dissimilar population and varied number of subjects. The image quality database obtained from Laboratory for Image and Video Engineering (LIVE) was used to carry out subjective evaluations. The Difference Mean Opinion Scores (DMOS) were calculated from the raw scores and were analyzed against those from LIVE. The results indicate a high correlation between the two evaluations, thus confirming a globally consistent human perception.
Activity identification from GPS trajectories using spatial temporal POIs' attractiveness

GPS (Globe Positioning System) trajectory data provide a new way for city travel analysis others than traditional travel diary data. But generally raw GPS traces do not include information on trip purposes or activities. Earlier studies addressed this issue through a combination of manual and computer-assisted data processing steps. Nevertheless, geographic context databases provide the possibility for automatic activity identification based on GPS trajectories since each activity is uniquely defined by a set of features such as location and duration. Distinguished with most existing methods using two dimensional factors, this paper presents a novel approach using spatial temporal attractiveness of POIs (Point of Interests) to identify activity-locations as well as durations from raw GPS trajectory. We also introduce an algorithm to figure out how the intersections of trajectories and spatial-temporal attractiveness prisms indicate the potential possibilities for activities. Finally, Experiments using real world GPS tracking data, road networks and POIs are conducted for evaluations of the proposed approach.
Learning from the Past – Downsizing Lessons for Managers

Downsizing as a change management strategy has been adopted by companies and governmental agencies since the 1970s. While workforce reductions were utilized mainly in response to organizational and economic crises prior to the mid-1980s, downsizing developed into a proactive restructuring strategy of choice for a multitude of organizations in the mid- to late-1980s. Since then, downsizing has transformed the corporate landscape and changed the lives of hundreds of millions of individuals around the world. While downsizing has attracted a lot of attention in academic circles, the business community, and the popular media, many misconceptions and mysteries surrounding the phenomenon have remained. This research study presents an overview of the reported financial, organizational, and human consequences following the conduct of downsizing. More importantly, the paper draws out implications for practicing managers and showcases four downsizing lessons that need to be considered by executives contemplating the adoption of downsizing.
To End Gerrymandering: The Canadian Model for Reforming the Congressional Redistricting Process in the United States

In the 2012 Congressional elections, Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives carried 1.3 million more votes nationwide than Republican candidates did. Nevertheless, Republicans captured control of the House by a margin of 234 seats to 201. The undemocratic outcome of the House elections resulted directly from America’s system of redistricting and reapportionment. Partisan politics, not principles of good government, dictate the congressional redistricting process in the vast majority of states.Congressional apportionment law exacerbates the problem. In particular, the statutory limit on the size of the House of Representatives magnifies gerrymandering’s effects more than ever before. As the population gap between large and small states and urban and rural areas continues to increase, redistricting disparities will only worsen in the years ahead. Accordingly, this article proposes that Congress look to Canada as a model for making U.S. House elections more reflective of the electorate’s will. A nation strikingly similar to the United States in many important respects, Canada rejected partisan gerrymandering half a century ago. Adopting the Canadian approach would involve two significant reforms: first, the nationwide establishment of non-partisan independent redistricting commissions, and, second, the restoration of decennial increases in the total number of seats in the House of Representatives to reflect the growing population of the United States. This article explains the current law of Congressional redistricting and reapportionment, assesses the main critiques of the American system, analyzes the Parliamentary redistribution process in Canada, and proposes how the United States can apply the best features of the Canadian system to Congressional redistricting and reapportionment.
Trusted Clouds

A new paradigm for network applications emerged in the 1990s as the centralized mainframe computer model evolved into a PC client/server based model. This captured a broader scope including business, commerce and finance. Recent Cloud computing and Big Data deployments suggest that we have now come full circle with centrally managed trust infrastructures supporting an even broader application base for any-time, any-where, synchronized access to data and services. This extends the flexibility/manageability of the client/server paradigm and allows for ubiquitous lightweight service endpoints such as notebooks, tablets or smart phones that do not need to store sensitive data (other than cryptographic keys in “sealed storage”). Even though it may take some time before we understand the full extent of the Cloud paradigm, some features have already emerged and can be analyzed and studied. For example for backward compatibility, legacy practices will be maintained. In particular, cloud deployment models will comprise several technologies including public, private and hybrid. Also, past practices strongly support open virtualization, so clouds can be customized and tailored to specific security settings. Finally, the emerging paradigm will clearly be impacted by social media technologies and the Internet of Things, suggesting that social behavior, profiling and causal reasoning will play a major role. In this report we analyze the cloud paradigm from a security point of view. Our goal is to show that for critical applications, not only is the new paradigm more flexible, but it is also technically easier to secure. Finally, the Cloud has a dark side, at least from a security point of view. We shall discuss some of its more obnoxious features.
Exploiting laxity for heterogeneous multiprocessor real-time scheduling

In this paper a new laxity-based algorithm for scheduling real-time tasks on heterogeneous uniform multiprocessors is presented. In the proposed algorithm we have made use of laxity in two ways: Calculating the dynamic priority of tasks, and performing feasibility check. Besides, we have applied processor affinity to reduce the overhead in terms of task migration. The performance of this algorithm is then compared with that of EDF and LLF algorithms. It is shown that our proposed approach not only demonstrates a performance close to that of EDF in non-overloaded conditions but also has supremacy over EDF in overloaded situations in many aspects. Furthermore, it imposes much less overhead on the system.
Intravenous thrombolysis for ischaemic strokes: a call for reappraisal.

Sir, Balami et al. (2013) state that intravenous tissue plasminogen activator thrombolysis is beneficial for the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke and that strokes are now a treatable medical emergency. A critical analysis of the data, however, raises doubts about the expansive claims of efficacy made by them and others (Wardlaw et al. , 2012). The aim of tissue plasminogen activator treatment is lysis of the thrombus and recanalization of occluded cerebral arteries, to promptly restore blood flow. To prove therapeutic efficacy of the administered thrombolytic agent, angiographic demonstration of arterial recanalization is critically important as it is the only way, in patients, to conclusively demonstrate that clot lysis has occurred. Arterial recanalization has been assessed using different methods: transcranial Doppler studies, magnetic resonance angiography, CT angiography or conventional catheter angiography. However, these tests have widely variable accuracy and reliability. Conventional catheter angiography is the reference standard because of its superb accuracy for imaging evaluation of arteries. Although transcranial Doppler studies have been frequently used to determine recanalization frequency (Alexandrov et al. , 2001, 2004; Demchuk et al. , 2001; Molina et al. , 2001; Ribo et al. , 2006; Saqqur et al. , 2007) their accuracy in assessing steno-occlusive disease is suboptimal and less than either CT angiography or magnetic resonance angiography studies (Feldmann et al. , 2007; Jauch, 2013). Time of flight magnetic resonance angiography (Neumann-Haefelin et al. , 2004; Davis et al. , 2008; Marks et al. , 2008; Kimura et al. , 2009) is limited by loss of flow signal intensity in stenotic regions (Bash et al. , 2005) and does not provide the same degree of spatial resolution as CT angiography or conventional angiography (Bash et al. , 2005; Cloft, 2005; Jauch, 2013). Overall, …
Nominal Exchange Rate Regimes and the Real Exhange Rate, Evidence from the U.S. And Britain, 1885-1986

Two propositions are common in the international finance literature: (1) the real exchange rate is a random walk, (2) the real exchange rate time series properties essentially depend on the nominal exchange rate regime. The first proposition has been used in support of the claim that PPP cannot even be considered a long run relationship since deviations from it are permanent in nature. The second proposition has been used as evidence of price stickiness. Contrary to the first proposition, this paper presents evidence that the random walk behavior of the real exchange rate is just a characteristic of the post-WWII period, while in the prewar period we observe the presence of transitory fluctuations. Also, although real exchange rate volatility appears to be different between fixed and flexible exchange rate regimes, these differences are not as systematic and large as the postwar data suggest.
Governance and Innovation: A historical view

1. Prologue and Governance and Prosperity 2. Entrepreneurship and Economic Development 3. Organizations and Uncertainty: The Management of Perceptions - From Medieval Italy to Silicon Valley 4. Entrepreneurship and the State 5. Valuation and Authority in Failing Firms: US and European Bankruptcy Laws 6. Performance Pay and Uncertainty in Entrepreneurial and Bureaucratic Firms 7. Executive Pay and Tenure: Founding Fathers, Mercenaries and Revolutionaries 8. Decision Agents in Corporate and Political Democracies: Venice, Florence and the Low Countries 9. Democracy and Dictatorship: The Politics of Innovation 10. Waning and Emerging Empires 11. References
An Ethernet sniffer for On-line acquisition of EEG with the BrainNet36® device applied to a BCI

This paper presents an Ethernet sniffer programmed in ANSI C to export in an on-line way the electroencephalographic (EEG) data acquired with the device BrainNet36®, which is a Brazilian EEG device for clinical and polysomnography purposes. The sniffer proved to be useful for off-line analysis of the EEG and also for on-line applications, as Brain Computer-Interfaces (BCIs). Despite its limitations and packet losses at around 1.7% due to noise, the off-line analysis of the EEG successfully replicated results of the literature regarding the Event-Related (De)Synchronization (ERD/ERS) and Evoked Potentials (EPs) calculated for mental tasks. For on-line applications the sniffer was used to program a single-switch BCI for on-line classification of motor and no motor mental tasks with high success rate. Nowadays, the BrainNet36® device is being used for EEG research at many Brazilian universities, therefore, we hope that this article may encourage on-line applications. Finally, as the sniffer operation is explained here with examples, this text may serve as a reference guide for potential user's.
Rational Cooperation In One-Shot Simultaneous Pd-Situations

The paper shows that being able to forecast another player's actual cooperation better than pure chance can change players' strategic incentives in a one-shot simultaneous PD-situation. In particular, it is shown that if both players have such ability (to forecast each others' actual choices better than pure chance), then "conditionally cooperative" Nash equilibria may exist in addition to the "always defect" equilibrium. By "conditionally cooperative" we mean that players do not cooperate because of a behavioral "disposition" to act cooperatively, but cooperate rather selectively contingent on their forecasting of the opponent's cooperation (cooperate if and only if each other is forecasted to cooperate).
Dose-finding study of daily gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist for the prevention of premature luteinizing hormone surges in IVF/ICSI patients: antide and hormone levels.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to define the minimal effective dose of antide (Iturelix) to prevent premature luteinizing hormone (LH) surges in in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients. METHODS In a prospective, single centre study, 144 IVF/ICSI patients were stimulated with r-hFSH from cycle day 2 and from cycle day 6 onwards, cotreated with daily 2 mg/2 ml (n=30), 1 mg/ml (n=30), 0.5 mg/ml (n=31), 0.5 mg/0.5 ml (n=23) and 0.25 mg/ml (n=30) GnRH antagonist (antide). Serum samples were taken three times daily during antide administration to assess antide and hormone levels. The minimal effective dose was defined as the lowest dose group with <2 LH surges (LH >12.4 IU/l and progesterone >2 ng/ml). RESULTS Serum antide levels, mean LH and E2 levels per day and their area under the curves were dose-related to antide. The bioavailability of antide almost doubled after dilution in larger volumes. Pre-injection LH levels gradually increased during GnRH antagonist treatment. LH surges occurred in the lowest dose groups 0.5 mg/ml (3.2%), 0.5 mg/0.5 ml (6.7%) and 0.25 mg/ml (13.3%). Hence, 0.5 mg/ml is considered to be the minimal effective dose. Antide was overall well tolerated and safe. CONCLUSIONS 0.5 mg/ml antide is the minimal effective dose to prevent an untimely LH surge in IVF patients stimulated with r-hFSH.