Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Empirical essays on childhood human capital in Ethiopia

This thesis contains three empirical papers on childhood human capital accumulation in Ethiopia. The first paper examines the long-term education impacts of exposure to the 1998–2000 Ethiopia–Eritrea conflict. I exploit exogenous variation on regional and birth-year intensity of the conflict, using cross-sectional school survey data. The empirical findings indicate that exposure to the conflict during early childhood decreases student achievement in mathematics and language scores a decade later (mainly for girls). In addition, exposure to the conflict increases the probability of grade repetition (for boys and girls) and school dropout (for boys only). The paper provides first estimates on the long-term effect of exposure to conflict on human capital accumulation. It further contributes to the study of gender differences with regard to exposure to conflict. The second paper extends the analysis of the first paper by investigating the effect of conflict on childhood health and education using unique child-level panel data from Ethiopia. It also examines to what extent child health operates as a mechanism through which conflict affects childhood education outcomes. Identification is based on a difference-in-difference approach, using two points in time at which older and younger children have the same average age and controlling for observable household and child-level time-variant characteristics. The paper contributes to an empirical literature that relies predominantly on cross-sectional comparisons of child cohorts born before and after the war in war-affected and unaffected regions. The results show that war-exposed children have a one-third of a standard deviation lower height-for-age and higher incidence of stunting. In addition, exposed children are less likely to be enrolled in school, complete fewer grades (given enrollment), and are more likely to exhibit reading problems (given
Geoscientific Model Development LOSCAR : Long-term Ocean-atmosphere-Sediment CArbon cycle Reservoir Model v 2 . 0 . 4

The LOSCAR model is designed to efficiently compute the partitioning of carbon between ocean, atmosphere, and sediments on time scales ranging from centuries to millions of years. While a variety of computationally inexpensive carbon cycle models are already available, many are missing a critical sediment component, which is indispensable for long-term integrations. One of LOSCAR’s strengths is the coupling of ocean-atmosphere routines to a computationally efficient sediment module. This allows, for instance, adequate computation of CaCO 3 dissolution, calcite compensation, and long-term carbon cycle fluxes, including weathering of carbonate and silicate rocks. The ocean component includes various biogeochemical tracers such as total carbon, alkalinity, phosphate, oxygen, and stable carbon isotopes. LOSCAR’s configuration of ocean geometry is flexible and allows for easy switching between modern and paleo-versions. We have previously published applications of the model tackling future projections of ocean chemistry and weathering, pCO2 sensitivity to carbon cycle perturbations throughout the Cenozoic, and carbon/calcium cycling during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. The focus of the present contribution is the detailed description of the model including numerical architecture, processes and parameterizations, tuning, and examples of input and output. Typical CPU integration times of LOSCAR are of order seconds for several thousand model years on current standard desktop machines. The LOSCAR source code in C can be obtained from the author by sending a request to loscar.model@gmail.com.
Discounting Seniors: Implications of Age Stereotypes at Work

People of all ages are increasingly expected to work effectively with one another. Building positive relationships among employees and preventing interpersonal conflicts in the workplace contributes to the effectiveness of an organization. Issues that arise between colleagues due to ageism may have detrimental effects on both employees and the overall organization. Research suggests that both actual and perceived age discrimination at work has increased in the past years. Synthesizing current findings in the literature, we discuss both stereotypes and metastereotypes of older workers. Importantly, we also illustrate interventions to decrease ageism in the workplace and offer strategies organizations can utilize to decrease the detrimental effects of ageism in the context of a workplace. As our workforce continues to age, this is a timely issue that should not be ignored and will not be resolved on its own.
Question Answering for Large Scale Data Sets Generated by the Web Crowd

Trivia Masster is a system that collects a very large number of facts from human users, and then utilizes this Database for question answering. Users contribute to the Database by playing a Trivia game, and gain points based upon the correctness of their contribution. The obtained database is comprised of many facts, contributed by many different users; as a consequence, it contains erroneous data. The key challenge in the system development thus lies in the design of effective methods to evaluate queries over such dirty Databases. We found that no single existing technique provides a satisfactory solution to this challenge, in all cases; consequently, we have employed a novel approach, based on a declarative framework for defining recursive and probabilistic Data Cleaning rules. Our solution employs an algorithm that is based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo model. We present in this paper details on the framework, the model, the algorithm and the implementation used to develop Trivia Masster, and further provide a thorough experimental study indicating the system usability for largescale environments.
Social interactions around public transportation

In this work, we explore how information services can be used to improve the travel experience in public transportation and reduce the perceived travel time. More specifically, we describe the creation of a mobile application for assisting passengers, which explores the integration of social networking features into the traveling experience. The overall objective is to understand how social networking concepts can become part of the travel experience and enrich that experience in a way that allows passengers to reduce the "psychological travel time" and to change the perception of waiting. We have conducted a focus group with 10 participants to elicit new forms of interaction within the transportation system and uncover new directions for integrating social network concepts. We have implemented some of them in our own mobile app for public transportation and shown how they can be combined with the more informative side of those applications.
On the Role of Boundary Spanners as Team Coordination Mechanisms in Organizationally Distributed Projects

Software projects are still facing with challenges of team coordination across global boundaries. Boundary spanner is an important organic coordination mechanism that is not much explored in GSD literature. This paper presents a finding from four case studies of how a boundary spanner resolve coordination gaps in organizationally distributed teams. The qualitative data were collected from 16 interviews from different types of global software projects. Boundary spanners have common characteristics of a coordinator, such as team member recognition, multiple perspective expertise, decision-making ability and work time flexibility. Task negotiation, conflict resolution, task information navigation and boundary object set-up are common activities to support team coordination. We also discussed a compound effect of other organizational roles and the impact of context factors on boundary spanner's activities.
Neoliberal performatives and the ‘making’ of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)

This paper argues that Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) serve as a neoliberal performative act, in which idealized conditions are re-constituted by well-resourced and networked epistemic communities with the objective of bringing a distinctly instrumental and utilitarian relationality between humans and nature into existence. We illustrate the performative agency of hegemonic epistemic communities advocating (P)ES imaginaries to differentiate between the cultural construction of an ideal reality, which can and always will fail, and an external reality of actually produced effects. In doing so, we explore human agency to disobey performative acts to craft embodied and life-affirming relationships with nature.
Perceptual system for intelligent service robot by using a three-dimensional range camera

This paper discusses a perceptual system for a intelligent service robot from the viewpoint of human visual perception. Recently, various sensors were equipped with an autonomous robot enable to get too much information on the environment. However, the robot must perceive the necessary information from too much information to take a flexible action like a human. In this study, we emphasize the importance of human vision for the robot to realize perception and action flexibility. Especially, we focus on the perceptual system based on perceiving-acting cycle discussed in ecological psychology. First, we propose a retinal model for a 3D-range camera based on human retinal structure, and the information extraction method using a spiking neural network based on perceiving-acting cycle. Next, we apply the proposed method for a task of clearing the table. As an experimental result, we show the proposed method can directly perceive the necessary information by the attention mechanism for the flexible perception according to spatiotemporal context based on the spiking neural network.
Multi Domain Language Model Adaptation using Explicit Semantic Analysis

This paper presents an adaptive multi domain language model built from large sources of pre existing human created structured data. The sources’ structure is exploited to create a large array of ngram language models which are dynamically interpolated at decoding time to produce a context dependent language model that continuously adapts itself to the current domain. Because the use of human annotators is expensive and impractical we explore existing sources of human created structured data and how to extract our desired data from them. The language model is evaluated on its performance with a speech recognition system used to decode the Quaero 2009 evaluation data set. Compared to the baseline language model of our Quaero 2009 evaluation system our proposed adaptive language model reduces the WER of the speech recognition system by 0.5% absolute with some shows showing reductions of up to 14.4%. Index Terms: Speech Recognition, Language Model Adaptation, Explicit Semantic Analysis
Improving continuous improvement with CATeam: lessons from a longitudinal case study

Continuous improvement is a well known method for improving an organization step by step. This paper shows that with computer support even an improvement process can be improved. It presents a long-term study of GSS use in the Hohenheim Computer Aided Team (CATeam) room. Over two years the authors observed a natural group performing a continuous improvement process to improve their own work. The paper discusses four improvement meetings by combining case descriptions with analysis of the observed meetings. Chapters of this paper deal with anonymity, voting, managerial issues, organizational change and effects of the overall process on the group itself. Finally the authors conclude with some lessons on how to perform improvement meetings with computer support and give some basic success factors. <<ETX>>
Making legacy data accessible for XML applications

This paper presents design and implementation of DB2XML, a tool for transforming data from relational databases into XML documents. Document type declarations (DTDs) are generated describing the characteristics of the data making the documents self contained and usable as a data exchange format. DB2XML is written in Java and accesses databases through JDBC drivers. It can be used as a standalone tool or as a servlet in web based applications. Combined with client-side interpreted XSLT stylesheets DB2XML provides a novel approach for publishing data from relational databases on the web.
Molecular Systems Biology Peer Review Process File Quantitative Proteomic Analysis Reveals a Simple Strategy of Global Resource Allocation in Bacteria Transaction Report

(Note: With the exception of the correction of typographical or spelling errors that could be a source of ambiguity, letters and reports are not edited. The original formatting of letters and referee reports may not be reflected in this compilation.) Thank you again for submitting your work to Molecular Systems Biology. We have now heard back from the referees who accepted to evaluate the study. As you will see, the referees find the topic of your study of potential interest and are supportive. They raise however a series of concerns and make suggestions for modifications, which we would ask you to carefully address in a revision of the present work. The recommendations provided by the reviewers are clear in this regard and refer to the need for clarifications and some appropriate comparisons with previous works. On a more editorial level, we would kindly ask you to deposit your proteomics dataset to an appropriate public repository (see http://msb.embopress.org/authorguide#a3.5) and include the respecitve accession number in a Data availability section at the end of the Material & Method section. As suggested by reviewer #1 we would also ask you to submit the scripts used for the functional enrichment analysis as a zip compressed 'dataset' file (including a README file at the top level to explain the content of the archive). Background: Using transcriptional lacZ reporters the Hwa laboratory has previously shown linear relationships of gene transcription with growth rate upon nutrient limitation (You et al.). Genes required to cope with the stress imposed by the limitation increase linearly with reduced growth rate, while other genes decrease linearly. This intriguing linear relationship is elegantly explained by a theory of optimal resource allocation through feedback control in You et al. Summary: The current paper by Hui et al. is an extension of this previous work, which aims to generalize this concept from a few reporters investigated previously to proteome-wide adaptations to nutrient limitations. Using mass-spectrometry, the authors measured protein levels in balanced exponential growth under limitations of carbon, nitrogen and ribosome inhibition. Each protein is then classified by the trend it shows under different nutrient limitations and proteins are grouped into sectors of the same trend. The following analysis focuses on the changes of these whole sectors upon nutrient limitation. It is stated that, much like the transcriptional reporters of selected genes, the expression of these sectors follow a linear relation with growth rate. …
Testing of N-Stage 1 bit per stage Pipelined ADC using Test Input Regeneration

Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) became an integral part in most systems. The Pipelined ADC (PADC) is one of the preferred ADCs; it is perfect for applications requiring high speed and medium resolution. Hence, the test of ADCs in general as well as PADCs is not only interesting but mandatory; the need for a low cost and efficient test technique in order to test the PADC is increasing. The focus in this paper is on proposing a new efficient test technique fitting an N-stage PADC test. The proposed technique depends on the selection of test inputs that can be applied to the first stage of the PADC and it is guaranteed that they can be regenerated at the input of next stages in the PADC. This proposed technique does not use complex hardware and there is no need to access the input or output of each individual stage. It will be shown that only two DC test inputs are able to detect all catastrophic faults in the N-stage PADC producing 100% fault coverage. The simulation results are based on circuit-level simulations using the Eldo simulator provided by Mentor Graphics. Key-Words: PADC, Test Input Regeneration, N-stage, Catastrophic, Fault model, Structural test.
Arbitrary Action Model Logic and Action Model Synthesis

We present a method for synthesising action models that result in a given post-condition when executed on any Kripke model. Action models represent social actions that affect the knowledge or beliefs of agents in multi-agent systems. In the consideration of action model synthesis, we introduce an extension of the action model logic of Baltag, Moss and Solecki [3] with an action model quantifier, ∃φ which stands for “there is an action model that results in the post-condition φ”. We show that this quantifier is equivalent to the refinement quantifier of van Ditmarsch and French [10], and provide a sound and complete axiomatisation for the resulting logic, along with decidability and expressivity results.
Incomplete Information in Relational Temporal Databases

For the conventional relational model there has been considerable research in the area of incomplete information. On the other hand, research in temporal databases has concentrated on models in which complete historical information is needed. However, the likelihood of missing information in temporal databases is greater because of the vast amount of information. Hence, a mechanism must be provided to store and query incomplete temporal information. In this paper we present a model for incomplete information in temporal databases. The model generalizes our previous model for complete temporal information. It is shown that our relational operators produce results that are reliable. We also show, with some excentions. that if the definitions of the onerators were strengthened to give more information, we’ may obtain results that are not reliable.
A Preliminary Synthesis of Modeled Climate Change Impacts on U.S. Regional Ozone Concentrations

This paper provides a synthesis of results that have emerged from recent modeling studies of the potential sensitivity of U.S. regional ozone (O3) concentrations to global climate change (ca. 2050). This research has been carried out under the auspices of an ongoing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assessment effort to increase scientific understanding of the multiple complex interactions among climate, emissions, atmospheric chemistry, and air quality. The ultimate goal is to enhance the ability of air quality managers to consider global change in their decisions through improved characterization of the potential effects of global change on air quality, including O3 The results discussed here are interim, representing the first phase of the EPA assessment. The aim in this first phase was to consider the effects of climate change alone on air quality, without accompanying changes in anthropogenic emissions of precursor pollutants. Across all of the modeling experiments carried out by the differe.
Decision Support System Interface with Business Intelligence Solution for Romanian Small and Medium‐sized Enterprises

Globalization is a new challenge for small and medium‐sized enterprises. On one hand pose a threat, because new companies are going to enter the domestic market, but, on the other hand, represent an opportunity to enter the new emerging and growing markets. In order to win this challenge SMEs must focus on the inter‐ network connection; in fact, is well recognized that SMEs forming networks can improve the efficiency and effectiveness absolutely necessary to win the globalization battle. INTRODUCTION This article present a decision support system dedicated to the small and medium size enterprises from Romania, containing SMEs economic and financial data that they submit it annual to Register of Commerce. These data are then processed and integrated into a data warehouse, one component of the developed DSS. SMEs access to the data warehouse is possible through a DSS interface. The article focuses on distributed services applications philosophy (SOA) and more on fundamenting and implementing a virtual environment dedicated DSS of cloud type. In that respect the interface is published through a service with graphic (ASP.NET) and command line interface. Communication between application modules is ensured by . NET Remoting technology which involves serialized transmission of the objects. The objects are created starting from a generic type which implements a common interface. The access to its members is obtained through reflection. The generic type results by mapping various heterogenic external data sources followed by making dynamic conversion between data types. In order to obtain dynamic views aggregation onto objects, a client language is used, that provides parameters and tokens to an original dedicated API interface. If we take the case of one SME, it may find its economic and financial data collected in the DSS. It has also access to different types of analyses: sales analyses (preferences, periodicity, budget cycles, appetite for buying etc.); operations analysis and searching for alternative sources of profit; asset management analysis; what IF analyses; forecast analyses etc. The mentioned SME has access to the same type of analysis about other SMEs, which it considers competitors or potential business partners. This creates a network business environment in which competition is fair, in which SMEs enter the business based on compatibility. DSS COMPONENTS It is desirable that the data warehouse access to be free of charge, but dedicated only for members: any SME wishing to join and provide additional information about its business. Other potential members would be …
Unified systolic arrays for computation of the DCT/DST/DHT

We propose unified systolic arrays for computation of the one-dimensional (1-D) and two-dimensional (2-D) discrete cosine transform/discrete sine transform/discrete Hartley transform (DCT/DST/DHT). By decomposing the transforms into even- and odd-numbered frequency samples, the proposed architecture computes the 1-D DCT/DST/DHT. Compared to the conventional methods, the proposed systolic arrays exhibit advantages in terms of the number of PE's and latency. We generalize the proposed structure for computation of the 2-D DCT/DST/DHT. The unified systolic arrays can be employed for computation of the inverse DCT/DST/DHT (IDCT/IDST/IDHT).
Mechanotransduction at the basis of endothelial barrier function

Destabilization of cell-cell contacts involved in the maintenance of endothelial barrier function can lead to increased endothelial permeability. This increase in endothelial permeability results in an anarchical movement of fluid, solutes and cells outside the vasculature and into the surrounding tissues, thereby contributing to various diseases such as stroke or pulmonary edema. Thus, a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms regulating endothelial cell junction integrity is required for developing new therapies for these diseases. In this review, we describe the mechanotransduction mechanism at the basis of adherens junction strengthening at endothelial cell-cell contacts. More particularly, we report on the emerging role of α-catenin and EPLIN that act as a mechanotransmitter of myosin-IIgenerated traction forces. The interplay between α-catenin, EPLIN and the myosin-II machinery initiates the junctional recruitment of vinculin and α-actinin leading to a drastic remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton and to cortical actin ring reshaping. The pathways initiated by tyrosine phosphorylation of VE-cadherin at the basis of endothelial cell–cell junction remodeling is also reported, as it may be interrelated to α-catenin/ EPLIN-mediated mechanotransduction mechanisms. We also describe the junctional mechanosensory complex composed of PECAM-1, VE-cadherin and VEGFR2 that is able to transmit signaling pathway under the onset of shear stress. This mechanosensing mechanism, involved in the earliest events promoting atherogenesis, is required for endothelial cell alignment along flow direction.