Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Legally Irrelevant Factors in Judicial Decision-making: Battle Deaths and the Imposition of the Death Penalty in Nazi Germany

We study the effect of legally irrelevant events on the sentencing outcomes of around 2,500 individual defendants, heard before the People's Court in Nazi Germany. Our analysis exploits exogeneous variation in battle deaths and estimates their effect on the likelihood of receiving the death penalty. According to our results, higher German fatalities on the battlefield systematically increased the chances of receiving the death penalty. We show that decisions by experienced judges were less affected by battle deaths, while judges who were more ideologically committed to the regime were more likely to impose the death penalty in response to hearing news of higher German fatalities. Our results are not driven by particular types of offenses or defendants, time periods, or changes in arrest patterns and are robust to the use of major bombing raids of German cities instead of battle deaths. We also find some evidence that victories of the German national soccer team decreased the chances of capital punishment.
Two Stage Approaches for the Detection and Suppression of Typed Keystrokes in Speech Signals

In recent decades, keystroke suppression has got a particular attention due to the increasing use of laptops and computers to capture audio in various communication scenarios such as meetings, audio/video instant messaging etc. In many of these situations, a unique problem of additive keystroke transient noise is faced. Because of the non-stationary, short time and abrupt nature of the keystroke transient, it has been a challenging task for many years. In this paper, two new twostage approaches for the suppression of keystrokes are proposed. In the first stage the speech is estimated using supervised sparse non-negative factorization, which is common in both of the methods. Then, in the second stage, keystrokes are detected and are suppressed by replacing the corrupted speech frames with the corresponding estimated speech frames obtained in the first stage using two new techniques, which is the core contribution of this work. Experimental results show that the proposed approaches exhibit good performance without significantly degrading the quality of speech.
The effect of low birth weight on endothelial dysfunction in young adults: a retrospective cohort study

Aim. To investigate the effect of low birth weight (LBW) on endothelial function, and to determine the role of plasma adiponectin in endothelial dysfunction by conducting flow mediated brachial artery (FMBA) test or vasodilation response (VR) and by measuring plasma asymmetrical dimethylarginine (ADMA) in young adults born with LBW. Methods. In a retrospective cohort study, subjects were randomly selected from the Growth Study Cohort of Tanjungsari in the Sumedang district of West Java. They consisted of 67 LBW and 67 NBW (normal birth weight) young adults. Results. The relative risk for LBW to have low brachialis artery vasodilation response was 2.94, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.91–4.53, and to have low plasma adiponectin concentration 1.53, (95% CI: 1.07–2.18). Multivariate analysis via Hotelling’s trace showed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) for all variables studied (FMBA, plasma ADMA, and plasma adiponectin concentrations) but simultaneous confidence interval measurements indicated that the value of FMBA and the concentration of plasma adiponectin were significantly lower, respectively p < 0.001, 95% CI: –4.409–(–2.114), and p = 0.015, 95% CI: –1.083–(–0.082) in LBW compared to NBW subjects. The correlation between plasma adiponectin concentration and plasma ADMA concentration (r = –0.16, p = 0.176), and FMBA (r = 0.13, p = 0.281) in LBW subjects were not significant. Conclusions. There is an effect of LBW on endothelial function. Plasma adiponectin’s action in endothelial dysfunction in young adults with LBW has a potential role which is yet to be defined.
Evaluation of a Dynamic Agroecosystem Model (Agro-IBIS) for Soybean in Southern Brazil

With the growing demands for food and biofuel, new tech- nologies and crop management systems are being used to increase productivity and minimize land-use impacts. In this context, estimates of productivity and the impacts of agriculture management practices are becoming increasingly important. Numerical models that describe the soil-surface-atmosphere inter- actions for natural and agricultural ecosystems are important tools to explore the impacts of these agronomical technologies and their environmental impacts.
Exploring Diversification Benefits from Asia-Pacific Equity Markets

This paper examines the benefits of regionally and globally diversified portfolios from the perspective of investors holding domestic-only portfolios from different Asia-Pacific countries. Three groups of regional portfolio are constructed, with sorting based on relative strength ranking technique of Levy (1967). The step-down spanning technique is employed to uncover evidence that the global minimum-variance portfolio of a local investor can be improved by investing regionally or globally, but the evidence that the tangency portfolio can be improved is weak in all cases. The results also show an increase in Sharpe ratio when the investor invests regionally or globally but this benefit declines under the assumption of short-selling. The paper concludes that there are gains in diversifying globally but higher gains are realized by investing regionally.
Dimensions, Issues, and Bills: Appropriations Voting on the House Floor

One of the fundamental ﬁndings in the congressional literature is that one or sometimes two dimensions can successfully describe roll-call voting. In this paper we investigate if we can reach the same conclusions about low dimensionality when we divide the roll-call agenda into subsets of relatively homogeneous subject matter. We are primarily interested in the degree to which the same ordering of representatives is yielded across these different groups of votes. To conduct our analysis we focus on all roll calls on the 13 annual appropriations bills across eight congresses. When we concentrate on these smaller issue areas, we ﬁnd that voting is multidimensional and members do not vote in a consistent ideological fashion across all issue areas.
Estimation of Monetary Policy Preferences in a Forward-Looking Model : A Bayesian Approach

In this paper, we adopt a Bayesian approach to estimating monetary policy preference parameters in a general equilibrium framework. We start out from the model presented by Smets and Wouters (2003) for the euro area, where, in the original set-up, monetary policy behaviour is described by an empirical rule. We abandon this way of representing monetary policy behaviour and instead assume that monetary policy authorities optimise an intertemporal quadratic loss function under commitment. We consider two alternative specifications for the loss function. The first specification includes inflation, the output gap and difference in the interest rate as target variables. The second loss function includes an additional wage inflation target. The weights assigned to the target variables in the loss functions, i.e. the preferences of monetary policy, are estimated jointly with the structural parameters in the model. The results imply that inflation variability remains the main concern of optimal monetary policy. In addition, interest rate smoothing and the output gap appear to be important target variables as well, albeit to a lesser extent. Comparing the marginal likelihood of the original Smets and Wouters (2003) model to our specification with optimal monetary policy indicates that the latter performs only slightly worse. Since we are faced with the time-inconsistency problem under commitment, we initialise our estimates by considering a pre-sample period of 40 quarters. This enables an empirical approach to the timeless perspective framework.
Social rehousing policy in britain: Needs, rights, and choices

Abstract When selecting among competing applicants for rehousing in social rented property, the perceived wisdom in Britain since the 1940s has been to award priority to households in the greatest housing need. “Need” is often defined in highly complex ways. However, a shift has occurred in local authority and housing association rehousing policies away from allocations made solely on the basis of need. This shift comes in response to the changing context in which social rented housing has operated in the past 15 years and to perceived weaknesses in needs‐based systems. Present policies are designed to address wider objectives, including developing stable communities and minimizing housing management problems. This article examines these policy changes and the extent to which local housing allocations are used to address not only individual household needs, but also the concerns of local communities and wider housing management issues.
Transnational Business Governance Interaction and Competition between Standard‐Setting Initiatives: Labor Standards in Garment, Toys and Agriculture

This paper analyzes interactions within standard‐setting networks in the area of social and labor rights. We examine the shape of transnational business governance interactions (TBGI), pathways, and interaction mechanisms in three sectors: garments, toys and agriculture. Our comparative analysis of each of these sectors reveals meaningful differences in both the organization of regulation networks and the resulting level of competition among participants. Overall, we find that the creation of a more inclusive and more coherent standard in a whole business sector comes with the cost of weaker rules and less monitoring. These industry-specific observations provide a springboard for future studies of TBGI.
Design and analysis of SOP-HMIC transceiver with integrated T/R switch

The demand for higher performance systems that are smaller and have the potential to be more cost effective has lead the hardware designers to adopt integration of many components and modules in a package (SOP) or on a chip (SOC). Two compact SOP (single-substrate) SO-HMIC transceivers with integrated T/R switch modules for high-resolution sensor application have been demonstrated. These modules contain singly-balanced diode mixer; using either rate-race or Lange coupler; lowpass filter, 7-dB power splitter using branch coupler and T/R switch. A new and efficient methodology is investigated for the design of microstrip T/R switch. The components of the modules are designed using the full-scale computer simulation program performed with the authors, while they are analyzed and optimized using the Aplac V7.61 software. The analysis of the designed transceiver modules is introduced which reflects a good performance and achieves a higher efficiency.
Decision making with association rule mining and clustering in supply chains

Article history: Received: October 1, 2017 Received in revised format: November 16, 2017 Accepted: May 17, 2018 Available online: May 17, 2018 This paper deals with data mining applications for the supply chain inventory management. ABC characterization is typically utilized for stock items arrangement on the grounds that the quantity of stock items is large to the point that it is not computationally practical to set stock and administration control rules for every individual item. Moreover, in ABC classification, the inter-relationship between items is not considered. But practically, the sale of one item could influence the sale of other items (cross selling effect). Consequently, within each cluster, the inventories should be classified. In this paper, a modified approach is proposed considering both cross-selling effect and clusters to rank stock items. A numerical case is utilized to clarify the new approach. It is represented that by utilizing this modified approach; the ranking of items may get influenced bringing about higher profits. © 2017 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada
leaky-wave radiation from a dipole source in a wire-medium slab Permalink

Radiation features are studied for a grounded wire-medium slab excited by a simple canonical source, i.e., a horizontal electric dipole. For the first time, an approximate analysis based on a homogenized model for the wire medium as well as a rigorous full-wave analysis of the actual periodic structure are presented. The homogeneous model takes into account both anisotropy and spatial dispersion of the metamaterial medium in the long-wavelength regime. One rather surprising result is that this structure allows for directive pencil beams at broadside that are azimuthally symmetric (in spite of the directionality of the wires). The structure also allows for conical beams that point at a chosen scan angle, where the beam angle and beamwidth are azimuthally independent, and the beam peak in the elevation planes remains approximately constant during the scanning process, in contrast with other types of planar leaky-wave antennas. These remarkable features are explained in terms of the azimuthal independence of the wavenumber for the leaky mode that is responsible for the beam.
Nondestructive continuous physical property measurements of core samples recovered from hole B, Taiwan Chelungpu-Fault Drilling Project

[1] The Taiwan Chelungpu-Fault Drilling Project was undertaken in 2002 to investigate the faulting mechanism of the 1999 Mw 7.6 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake. Hole B penetrated the Chelungpu fault, and core samples were recovered from between 948.42- and 1352.60-m depth. Three major zones, designated FZB1136 (fault zone at 1136-m depth in hole B), FZB1194, and FZB1243, were recognized in the core samples as active fault zones within the Chelungpu fault. Nondestructive continuous physical property measurements, conducted on all core samples, revealed that the three major fault zones were characterized by low gamma ray attenuation (GRA) densities and high magnetic susceptibilities. Extensive fracturing and cracks within the fault zones and/or loss of atoms with high atomic number, but not a measurement artifact, might have caused the low GRA densities, whereas the high magnetic susceptibility values might have resulted from the formation of magnetic minerals from paramagnetic minerals by frictional heating. Minor fault zones were characterized by low GRA densities and no change in magnetic susceptibility, and the latter may indicate that these minor zones experienced relatively low frictional heating. Magnetic susceptibility in a fault zone may be key to the determination that frictional heating occurred during an earthquake on the fault.
Which park characteristics influence the invitingness for park visitation and park-based physical activity in adolescents? : a choice-based conjoint analysis using photographs

The aim of this study is to examine the relative importance of ten park characteristics on park visitation and park-based physical activity (PA) among adolescents, using choice-based conjoint (CBC) analysis with manipulated photographs of parks. The following park characteristics were included in the study: upkeep, presence of play/exercise features, presence of a sport field, presence and activities of peers, walking paths, presence of homeless persons, naturalness, presence of benches, a drinking fountain and presence of a mother with a child.
Control of Electric Machine Drive Systems

8) “Design and Implementation of PWM-Based Sliding Mode Con-trollers for Power Converters” applies SMC to the output voltage in buck–boost controllers.9) “Sliding Mode Control with a Cur-rent Controlled Sliding Manifold” derives the sliding-mode current controller and its need in boost-type converters.10) “Sliding Mode Control with a Reduced-State Sliding Manifold for High-order Converters” ob-tains SMC for C´uk converters and the constant-frequency re-duced-state sliding-mode current controller.11) “Indirect Sliding Mode Control with Double Integral Sliding Sur-face” further extends the solution for the SMC nonzero steady-state error at finite switching frequen-cies, using an extended-affine-sys-tem technique.Most chapters present practical cir-cuits, simulations, results, and discus -sions. A preface, index, and references are also included.The book would be suitable as a strong topical text for a one-semester course in control of power electron-ics, with the material being accessible to most readers with a background in electronic design, power electronics, electronics, or control engineering. Students may achieve the necessary expertise using simulations to test the derived SMCs and to compare them to the results of simulations and experiments in the book. SMC per-formance can be evaluated compara-tively to other control methods, such as state-space averaged model-based PWM controllers, fuzzy logic, adap-tive, predictive [5], or neural network controllers.
Effect of heat treatment on TiO2 thin films properties

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the annealing temperature on the structural and optical properties of TiO2 thin films, deposited by chemical bath deposition method (CBD) onto glass substrates. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments show that the well-known anatase phase was observed for some annealing temperature. The best conditions of crystallization were found upon annealing at temperatures higher than 400 °C in the air. The surface morphology of the deposited films characterized by the Field-Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscope (FEGSEM) consists of granular texture with a clear identified grain at the surface. The size of the grains is more than 100 nm and increases with annealing temperature. The UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy shows that our films exhibit a high value of optical transmission which is around 80%. The indirect band gap of the deposited films was found to range between 3.17 and 3.44 eV depending on the annealing temperature. The Urbach energy increases with the annealing temperature.
Large-N correlation functions in N = 2 superconformal QCD

We study extremal correlation functions of chiral primary operators in the large-N SU(N) N = 2 superconformal QCD theory and present new results based on supersymmetric localization. We discuss extensively the basis-independent data that can be extracted from these correlators using the leading order large-N matrix model free energy given by the four-sphere partition function. Special emphasis is given to singletrace 2and 3-point functions as well as a new class of observables that are scalars on the conformal manifold. These new observables are particular quadratic combinations of the structure constants of the chiral ring. At weak ’t Hooft coupling we present perturbative results that, in principle, can be extended to arbitrarily high order. We obtain closed-form expressions up to the first subleading order. At strong coupling we provide analogous results based on an approximate Wiener-Hopf method.
Vacuum plane waves in 4+1 D and exact solutions to Einstein's equations in 3+1 D

In this paper, we derive homogeneous vacuum plane-wave solutions to Einstein's field equations in 4+1 dimensions. The solutions come in five different types of which three generalize the vacuum plane-wave solutions in 3+1 dimensions to the (4+1)-dimensional case. By doing a Kaluza–Klein reduction we obtain solutions to the Einstein–Maxwell equations in 3+1 dimensions. The solutions generalize the vacuum plane-wave spacetimes of Bianchi class B to the non-vacuum case and describe spatially homogeneous spacetimes containing an extremely tilted fluid. Also, using a similar reduction we obtain (3+1)-dimensional solutions to the Einstein equations with a scalar field.
A new approach for transport network design and optimization

The solution of the transportation network optimization problem actually requires, in most cases, very intricate and powerful computer resources, so that it is not feasible to use classical algorithms. One promising way is to use stochastic search techniques. In this context, Genetic Algorithms (GAs) seem to be - among all the available methodologies- one of the most efficient methods able to approach transport network design and optimization. Particularly, this paper will focus the attention on the possibility of modelling and optimizing Public Bus Networks by means of GAs. In the proposed algorithm, the specific class of Cumulative GAs(CGAs) will be used for solving the first level of the network optimization problem, while a classical assignment model ,or alternatively a neural network approach ,will be adopted for the Fitness Function(FF) evaluation. CGAs will then be utilized in order to generate new populations of networks, which will be evaluated by means of a suitable software package. For each new solution some indicators will be calculated . A unique FF will be finally evaluated by means of a multicriteria method. Altough the research is still in a preliminary stage, the emerging first results concerning numerical cases show very good perspectives for this new approach. A test in real cases will also follow.
Acculturation and Implications for Culturally and Linguistically Different Exceptional Children.

ABSTRACT Cultural and acculturation patterns should be taken into consideration in the assessment of and development of education programs for culturally and linguistically diverse exceptional (CLDE) children. In order to promote a clearer understanding of the complex process of acculturation, a section is devoted to defining and expanding upon terms related to acculturation and culture, such as: acculturation, culture, adaptation, integration, assimilation, and deculturation. Patterns of acculturation among two groups in the United States--Hispanic and Navajo--are then discussed. The special problems in the area of language ability and development among CLDE children and related research are presented. Educators must avoid underidentifying exceptional needs by attributing learning problems to different and unfamiliar cultural and linguistic background, or overidentifying exceptional needs and ignoring cultural and linguistic characteristics. The cultural characteristics of three e thnic groups (Asian, Hispanic, and Native American) are considered in relation to implications for the special instruction of CLDE children. More research is needed in this area, especially in acculturative and sociolinguistic patterns as they relate to exceptionality, and in the interactive effects of these three factors. In addition, research is needed on cultural and parental attitudes toward exceptional children and how they may affect CLDE children's growth and development, including the use of special services. (MSS)
or without iodine supplementation

Brassicas are an important forage species on many New Zealand sheep farms. However, glucosinolates present in some brassicas can cause iodine deficiency in lambs when pregnant ewes are fed such crops during gestation. To investigate the effect of differences in glucosinolate profile of fodder radish and a brassica on ewe thyroid function and incidence of goitre in lambs born to ewes grazing these crops during pregnancy, a 3 x 2 factorial study utilising three diets (Italian ryegrass, fodder radish, rape) and two rates of iodine (I) supplementation (with, without) was conducted. Thyroid hormone (T3, T4) response to a thyroid releasing factor (TRF) challenge in ewes and incidence of goitre in newborn lambs was determined. A mild goitre, based on thyroid weight:lamb weight ratio (g/kg) of >0.4, was recorded only in newborn lambs from ewes fed rape and the incidence was higher (75% vs 11%) in those without I supplementation. Pregnant ewes grazing radish or rape had the lowest T3 and T4 responses to TRF, except in the case of T4 where there had been I supplementation. Differences in glucosinolate content and composition may explain the differing results for sheep fed radish or rape.