Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hybrid sound classification

We posit a classification of sounds useful for studies of sound recognition and identification that accounts for both signal properties (source sound characteristics) and human perception (sound uses). This classification is split into four main branches: (1) systemic (speech and music) sounds, (2) environmental sounds, (3) warning sounds, and (4) animal sounds. We describe the differences between each in terms of criteria related to perception, production and goal. We outline the advantages of our classification, which considers the use of a sound within the context of a communication act, for example, within linguistics; or in harmonics, for musicology. Considering a sound both as a set of acoustic characteristics perceived by a human, and as having particular uses determined by a human, this classification permits a meaningful approach to the study of sound from object-and human-centered perspectives. PACS no. 43.60. +d,43.90. +v, 43.75. Cd
A privacy-preserving collaborative reputation system for mobile crowdsensing

Mobile crowdsensing is an emerging technology in which participants contribute sensor readings for different sensing applications. This technology enables a broad range of sensing applications by utilizing smartphones and tablets worldwide to improve people’s quality of life. Protecting participants’ privacy and ensuring the trustworthiness of the sensor readings are conflicting objectives and key challenges in this field. Privacy issues arise from the disclosure of the participant-related context information, such as participants’ location. Trustworthiness issues arise from the open nature of sensing system because anyone can contribute data. This article proposes a privacy-preserving collaborative reputation system that preserves privacy and ensures data trustworthiness of the sensor readings for mobile crowdsensing applications. The proposed work also counters a number of possible attacks that might occur in mobile crowdsensing applications. We provide a detailed security analysis to prove the effectiveness of privacy-preserving collaborative reputation system against a number of attacks. We conduct an extensive simulation to investigate the performance of our schema. The obtained results show that the proposed schema is practical; it succeeds in identifying malicious users in most scenarios. In addition, it tolerates a large number of colluding adversaries even if their number surpass 65%. Moreover, it detects on-off attackers even if they report trusted data with high probability (0.8).
Development of a Model for Enhancing Justice in MPA Designation and Zoning and its Application to Taiwan’s South Penghu Marine National Park

Abstract Multi-purpose marine protected areas (MPAs) are prevalent world-wide as institutional mechanisms deployed in the marine environment to manage multiple uses, conserve resources and protect ecosystems. Yet some people may experience disadvantage following the implementation of new MPAs. One understudied aspect of MPAs is the distribution of advantages and disadvantages and how best to address the “justice” concerns that they raise. This article identifies a framework of principles, methods and tools to address these concerns. It devises a “MPA justice model” and demonstrates its applicability to a Taiwanese case study. In 2014, Taiwan proclaimed its first multiple-purpose MPA, the South Penghu Marine National Park and the case study shows ways that the MPA’s socio-economic sustainability could have been better accomplished. The article focuses on future MPA establishment that incorporates distributional fairness and procedural legitimacy into MPA site designation and zoning design - but might also be adapted to use retrospectively in MPA review processes.
Re-municipalization in the US: a pragmatic response to contracting

ABSTRACT We conduct a national survey of US local governments and find service outcomes – quality, cost savings and efficiency – are the primary drivers of re-municipalization, not political pressures. Logistic regression of 2,187 governments finds larger, urban and suburban, professionally managed local governments with more service capacity are more likely to report re-municipalization. Fiscal stress perception, local debt, and unionization rates have no effect. Re-municipalization is more likely in governments that also study privatization and conduct activities to ensure successful contracting. Thus, re-municipalization in the US is a pragmatic process of contract management, not primarily driven by political interests.
An Efficient Hybrid Architecture for Visual Behavior Recognition using Convolutional Neural Network

The purpose of this research work is to understand of visual behavior from image. Since computer vision is hugely potential research area for researcher, connecting image captioning and detection of an object, visual behavior detection started to fasten researchers’ consideration because of its descriptive power and clear structure in terms of accuracy. By the progress of Deep Learning, giving the computer a chance to comprehend an image is by all accounts progressively closer. With the analysis on object recognition slowly getting to develop progressively more scientists put their consideration on more elevated amount comprehension of the scene. Object detection, visual context is now more consideration in scene understanding as a middle stage. The goal of the research is to discover visual relationships in a given image between objects and understand the whole scenario. This research presents a framework to this problem. Proposed approach performs object detection by using convolutional neural network. This research focus on relationships that can be generated by long short term memory (LSTM). The focus was to design the framework to adopt the Convolutional Neural
Visualization of tax avoidance and tax rate convergence

Purpose This study aims to explore the evidence of the probability of firms’ tax avoidance and the downward convergence trend of national statutory tax rates and firms’ effective tax rates. Design/methodology/approach This research employs exploratory data analysis using interactive data manipulation and visualization tools, namely, R with SparkR, dplyr, ggplot2 and googleVis (GeoChart and Motion Chart) packages. This analysis is based on the world-scale accounting data of all listed firms from 148 countries spanning 30 years. Findings The results reveal the following: three types of evidences on probability of firms’ tax avoidance, showing a non-random distribution of firms’ effective tax rates and return on assets, cross-sectional variation of firms’ effective tax rates in each country, and the trend of difference between effective tax rates and statutory tax rates, and the downward convergence trend of statutory tax rates and firms’ effective tax rates. Practical implications The results highlight the prominent issues of world-scale tax avoidance and tax rate competition and facilitate a collaborative discussion between laymen and professionals using objective evidence. Originality/value A novel methodology is adopted through the visualization of world-scale accounting data, which can facilitate a new perspective, revealing unexpected patterns and trends in otherwise hidden information. This study also highlights the importance of global consideration of firms’ tax avoidance and tax rate competition, using objective evidence.
How Can Community Colleges Increase Student Use of Year-Round Pell Grants? Two Proven Strategies to Boost Summer Enrollment.

Nationwide, only 24 percent of community college students earn a degree or certificate within three years of matriculating.1 Students who enroll in summer classes at the end of the freshman year are more likely to persist and graduate.2 Summer enrollment enables students to earn additional credits, reducing the time it takes to earn a degree. Summer enrollment also keeps students engaged in school, which may reduce the likelihood that they will drop out between spring and fall. Despite these potential benefits, only 30 percent of community college students enroll in summer courses, leaving much room for improvement.3
De-mythologizing and re-branding of kava as the new ‘world drug’ of choice

What seemed impossible 50 years ago is today becoming a reality as ‘soft drugs’ such as cannabis are being decriminalized and accepted for their calming effects as well as their legitimate medicinal properties. Several countries have now made the possession of cannabis legal, with others considering this, while the coffee shops in the Netherlands have been supplying cannabis in different forms for many years. It is now the turn of kava to be re-evaluated, to see whether there are properties in this plant that might be readily substituted for more conventional and harmful drugs, for instance tobacco and alcohol. However, as highlighted by Norton and Ruze (1994), kava like cannabis, has an enduring reputation that still makes it difficult for many to accept. Kava has been mythologized as an illicit alcohol, highly addictive, and causing physical harm. When examining the history of kava use in traditional contexts and considering the evidence now available, it is possible to demythologize this characterization. Looking at the potential benefits, it is time to re-brand kava, not only on the grounds as a relaxant, but in possessing life enhancing medicinal properties and as an alternative to alcohol, understanding that will be beneficial to policy makers, doctors and pharmacists.
Evaluation competencies and challenges faced by early career extension professionals: developing a competency model through consensus building

ABSTRACT Purpose To examine the evaluation competencies extension professionals need to develop and the challenges faced by early career extension professionals when they evaluate their extension education programs. Design We conducted two studies that utilized a three round Delphi technique to come to consensus on the core program evaluation competencies for extension professionals and the most pervasive program evaluation challenges early-career extension professionals face. These studies were conducted in the spring and summer of 2018. We used two Delphi panels: (1) 46 evaluation specialists and (2) 30 new county extension professionals from various program areas. We inputted the final list of program evaluation competencies and challenges into a spreadsheet for comparative analysis to achieve the research purpose. Findings The panel of extension evaluation specialists reached consensus on 36 competencies and the panel of early career extension professionals had consensus on 26 program evaluation challenges. Comparative analysis of the results of the two Delphi studies effectively linked early career extension program evaluation challenges with the evaluation specialists identified core evaluation competencies. Practical Implications We provide a framework for designing needs-based, proactive in-service trainings to build the evaluation capacity of early-career extension professionals. Theoretical Implications This program evaluation competency model for early-career extension professionals adds to the overall theoretical body of literature focused on evaluation capacity building of extension professionals. Originality It presents the US Extension Evaluation Specialists’ national consensus of the core program evaluation competencies for extension professionals. It is also the first study to compare early-career extension program evaluation challenges with a relevant evaluation competency model.
INFLUENCE OF LEADERSHIP STYLE ON CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN PRIVATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN SOUTH WEST AND SOUTH-SOUTH, NIGERIA

The study investigated the influence of leadership style on conflict management in private university libraries in South-West and South-South Nigeria. The study employed the descriptive research design. Total enumeration was adopted because of few numbers of librarians in private and structured questionnaire were used to collect data. The instrument was validated using Cronbach’s Alpha. Data analysis involved both descriptive and inferential statistics such as percentage distributions, mean and standard deviation as well as regression analysis. The finding revealed that conflict management techniques used in the university libraries studied were collaborating and accommodating, followed by sharing. Avoidance and competing techniques were not frequently used by the librarians in the study. Also the study shows that leadership style (β = .312, F=17.410, P < .05) has significant influence on conflict management. The study recommends that the library administration should encourage the workers to do the right; individual interest must not reign supreme over the common goal and also there should be meetings by librarians of different cadre to address the issues affecting harmonious working relationship and service of the library.
The Sustainable Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility: A Global Analysis and Future Trends

Due to the process of globalization, companies are obligated to observe corporate social responsibility and best practices from a sustainability approach towards their stakeholders and society. The explicit aim is to determine the relevance of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its relationship with sustainability, in order to establish trends and future lines of research. The evolution of global research on this subject has been studied from 2001 to 2018. For this purpose, a bibliometric analysis of 1832 articles has been applied, obtaining results of the scientific productivity of the journals, authors, institutions, and countries that contribute to this research. Evidence shows a growing interest in studying the relationship between socially responsible practices and the dimension of sustainability. The main category is Business, Management, and Accounting. The most productive journals are the Journal of Business Ethics and Sustainability. The authors with the most articles are García-Sánchez, Moneva, and Moratis, while Kolk is the most cited. The most prolific institution is the University of Salamanca. The United States is the country with the most publications and quotes. France and China are the countries with the largest number of international collaborations in their work. Global research has been on an upward trend with optimal publication rates in recent years.
Évaluation de la contribution individuelle dans un travail de groupe, quels effets de l'évaluation par les pairs ?

Depuis trois ans, le Mastere Specialise ® Systemes de Transports Ferroviaires et Urbains de l’Ecole des Ponts Paristech a mis en place une evaluation par les pairs pour evaluer les contributions individuelles des eleves dans des projets pedagogiques sur l’infrastructure ferroviaire. Ce dispositif a pour objectif d’individualiser les notes des projets collectifs pour repondre aux exigences des organismes de certifications, de donner plus de feedback sur le fonctionnement des equipes projets aux enseignants et de proposer une forme de notation plus equitable aux eleves. L’experience a permis de formaliser les competences au sein d’une grille criteriee et de mettre au point un systeme de notation qui discrimine les meilleures et les moins bonnes contributions. Bien que le systeme de notation revele parfois des tensions dans les equipes, le dispositif est percu comme digne d’interet par les eleves et les enseignants, car il met en lumiere les fonctionnements du groupe qui jusqu’ici etaient implicites.
The Equity Premium, Long-Run Risks to R-Star, and Asymmetric Optimal Monetary Policy

With the Federal Reserve undergoing a serious review of its strategy, this paper provides a timely analysis that focuses on longer-run themes and monetary policy's potential influence. If we take the stance that asset prices indicate a high cost of exposure to long-run risks, this has very interesting implications for monetary policy that ripple through a surprisingly broad set of dimensions. There is an intuitive result that a Ramsey planner might wish to attenuate long-run risks (a key contributor to shifts in r-star). Less intuitively, I show that a Ramsey policymaker will induce a tolerance for skewness and a higher average inflation rate than is typically advocated in the literature. A variety of factors contribute to these results. First, deep non-linearities in the model entail that the policymaker behaves asymmetrically in its countercyclical policies. Second, the presence of capital generates longer-run effects (hysteresis) and additional tradeoffs, which implies that "countercyclical" in this model takes on a lower frequency theme. And third, imperfect competition leads to the pursuit of a higher average inflation rate to offset the related welfare costs.
Adult Education and the Import of Critical Thinking in a Global Era of Accelerated Technology.

In the 21 century, globalization has ruled the drive behind adult education. While adult education, throughout much of the world, historically has its roots in addressing social inequities and social justice, globalization has caused a shift into more economic driven approaches in years of late. Through experience and observation in the field of adult education there is a constant drive to provide stackable credentials and quick pathways to employment. It is important that adult education find balance with the demands of today’s world and the foundation upon which it was built. An exploration of terms and approaches related to and relevant to adult education and critical thinking provide a springboard for its continued role in today’s world. Adult education has a duty to continue to incorporate criticality and social awareness as a foundational function of its work. This can be done through a myriad of approaches that apply to the many various adult education settings. This work has great import to today’s world and our future.
El impactode la crisis económica sobre el perfil de los trabajadores autónomos en españa: una aproximación a través de la muestra continua de vidas laborales

El objetivo principal de la investigacion es contrastar que la crisis economica ha tenido como consecuencia cambios relevantes en el perfil del nuevo autonomo en Espana, en el periodo comprendido entre 2008 y 2013. Para ello se emplea informacion contemplada en la muestra continua de vidas laborales de ambos anos. Adicionalmente se pretende determinar si existen diversos perfiles mas o menos homogeneos de nuevos trabajadores autonomos que persigan obtener puestos con caracteristicas sociodemograficas y laborales similares entre si, y a su vez si dichos clusters han cambiado en el periodo de estudio.
Digital protocells with dynamic size, position, and topology

In spatial computational models such as cellular automata (CA), designing mobile objects larger than the CA neighborhood is challenging when the object properties and dynamics are incompletely specified in advance. This paper introduces C211, a two-dimensional digital ‘protocell’ with life-like and potentially useful features, designed for the best-effort asynchronous CA called the Movable Feast Machine (MFM). The protocell consists of an amorphous variable-density ‘cytoplasm’ that uses gossiping to coordinate operations such as cell movements, surrounded by an asymmetric ‘bilayer membrane’ providing some environmental isolation while adapting to cytoplasmic dynamics. C211 was engineered in a new ‘little language’ called SPLAT, which adds discrete 2D spatial pattern transforms to the ulam programming language. SPLAT is expressive enough that minimal code was required, for example, to enable membrane topology changes such as cell splitting and fusion. C211’s cytoplasm maintains internal state but leaves do.
Relative Strength over Investment Horizons and Stock Returns

In this article, the authors propose a simple and novel measure of relative strength over investment horizons that synthesizes short- and intermediate-term price information. The relative-strength measure compares the short-term price trend with the intermediate-term price trend. The relative strength strategy generates substantial profits, which are greater than a simple sum of traditional short-term reversal and momentum profits. The superior performance of the relative strength strategy is evident after risk adjustments for various factor models and is robust across subperiods and different market conditions. These findings seem consistent with investor conservatism and the idea that investors are slow to adjust to new information. TOPICS: Analysis of individual factors/risk premia, factor-based models, style investing Key Findings • A novel relative-strength measure over investment horizons that synthesizes short- and intermediate-term price information can significantly predict subsequent short-term returns. • The relative-strength strategy generates substantial profits, which are greater than a simple sum of traditional short-term reversal and momentum profits. • The superior performance of the relative-strength strategy is evident after risk adjustments for various factor models and is robust across subperiods and different market conditions.
Análise do desempenho econômico-financeiro: um estudo ex ante e ex post diante da fusão Itaú Unibanco

Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo avaliar o desempenho economico-financeiro do banco Itau Unibanco, comparando seus indicadores de desempenho antes e apos a fusao. Foi analisado operiodo compreendido entre janeiro de 2002 ate dezembro de 2011. Para verificar se a alteracao na estrutura de propriedade possibilitou diferenca no comportamento dos indicadores, foi utilizada a estrutura de analise CAMEL. A metodologia CAMEL possibilitou avaliar a situacao economico-financeira das instituicoes financeiras a partir de uma estrutura formada por cinco componentes: C Capital (adequacao de capital); A Assets (qualidade dos ativos); M Management (qualidade da gestao); E Earnings (resultados); L Liquidity (liquidez). Posteriormente, por meio de uma analise descritiva,foram realizados testes estatisticos para avaliar se cada indicador foi modificado com a mudanca de propriedade. E ainda, se os indicadores da nova instituicao tem comportamento diferente aos indicadores de seu principal concorrente. As evidencias encontradas mostram que, apos a mudanca de propriedade, a nova instituicao ainda nao conseguiu atingir os melhores picos no desempenho das duas instituicoes que originaram o Itau Unibanco. No entanto, os resultados finais apresentados pela nova organizacao passaram a ser mais constantes, diminuindo a volatilidade dos resultados apresentados no escopo da metodologia CAMEL. Em uma analise pormenorizada de cada indicador, foi evidenciado que a maioria dos indicadores teve seus comportamentos alterados com a mudanca de propriedade,considerando a comparacao tanto com o Banco Itau, quanto com o Banco Unibanco.