Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-Task and Transfer Learning with Recurrent Neural Networks

The dynamics of complex technical systems can be approximated by recurrent neural networks (RNN). Such methods have proven to be powerful alternatives to analytical models which are not always available or may be inaccurate, but they often require large amounts of data, which is a scarce resource in many applications. In this thesis, RNN models are developed which allow for data-efficient knowledge transfer from source task(s) to a related target task that lacks data. The primary contribution is a novel RNN architecture which uses factored tensors to encode cross-task and task-specific information.
Creating a Sustainable UK Farming and Food Industry : An Analysis of Partnership Thinking as a Solution to the Problems in the UK Farming and Food Industry

This thesis focuses on UK Government policy-making as it pertains to the UK farming and food industry. This sector faces many serious economic problems. In response, the UK Government has developed policies and strategies to create profitable, sustainable and internationally-competitive farming and food chains. One policy has been to promote ‘partnerships’. Considerable time and money has been spent on implementing this policy. However, the many initiatives launched have only been partially successful. A key reason for this is that many of those trying to implement ‘partnering’ have not recognised that, whilst there are many tangible and intangible advantages to be derived from ‘partnerships’, they are not always appropriate or possible. A key factor in determining when a ‘partnership’ is either appropriate or possible and whether an attempted ‘partnership’ was successful is buyer-supplier power. Unfortunately, the concept of power never featured in UK Government policy documents. The thesis also aims to improve our understanding of buyer-supplier power. While the cases showed that power was an important factor in affecting relationship success, they also showed that current power-related methodologies (Cox et al., 1999; Cox et al., 2000; Cox et al., 2003) may be too crude and require further development.
The Manufacturing Advantage: Achieving Competitive Manufacturing Operations

Market turbulence, aggressive competition and rapid changes in manufacturing methodologies and technologies are putting manufacturing operations under increasing pressure. This book aims to promote a more competitive edge in various aspects of the manufacturing process by explaining the contribution they make to overall performance in terms of productivity, quality, delivery and flexibility. The book examines the place and importance of technological awareness in firms, and gives advice on managing the marketing/manufacturing interface.
Diagnostic imaging in clinical neuro‐otology

Advances in magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography have made a more detailed imaging of the inner ear possible, and magnetic resonance imaging also allows the evaluation of the auditory pathways inside the brainstem. This has led to new possibilities in patients with congenital deafness, cochlear implant candidates, patients with inner ear infection, Tullio phenomenon, acoustic schwannomas and lesions along the auditory pathway, which have been described recently. New animal studies, which have evaluated intracochlear enhancement, encourage radiologists and neuro‐otologists to push magnetic resonance imaging techniques even further than the already amazing possibilities that they offer.
Ramsey cardinals and constructibility

Large cardinal properties divide rather strikingly into two groups. “Small” large cardinal properties such as weak compactness always relativize to L, while in contrast “large” large cardinal properties such as Ramsey are incompatible with L. These properties seem to be similar otherwise and this sense of similarity is reinforced by the fact that many of the large cardinals do exist in the L-like model L(μ). This paper will show that the division is caused by an artificially restrictive class of “constructible” sets rather than an essential difference in the properties themselves. Specifically, we consider the class K of sets constructible from mice as defined by Dodd and Jensen [3] and prove Theorem 1. If ρ is Ramsey then ρ is Ramsey in K. A modification of the proof will show Theorem 2. If ρ is Jonson, then ρ is Ramsey in K. Since Ramsey implies Jonson this shows that the notions are equiconsistent. Theorem 2 was proved by Kunen [5] under the assumption that V = L(μ). The proof of Theorems 1 and 2 depends heavily on results of Dodd and Jensen [3] about K and mice. These results are stated without proof in §2. §2 also contains elementary (to a reader familiar with the theory of iterated ultrapowers) proofs of special cases of some of these lemmas sufficient to give a self contained proof of the following corollary of Theorem 1: Corollary. If ρ ≤ κ,ρ is Ramsey and L(μ) ⊨ μ is a measure on κ then L(μ) ⊨ ρ is Ramsey.
Ship Finance: Hedging Ship Price Risk Using Freight Derivatives

Volatility in ship prices has always been an issue of concern for banks, shipyards and shipping companies, because fl uctuations in ship prices over short periods of time have signifi cant impact on the profi tability and viability of shipping ventures. Volatility of ship prices is an important factor for shipowners, not only because it affects the balance sheet value of their company, but also because a reduction in the value of a ship may affect the creditworthiness of shipowners and their ability to service their debt obligations, since ships are used as collateral in ship fi nance transactions. For this reason, banks fi nancing ships, investors providing equity to shipowners and operators, shipyards building new ships and asset players in shipping markets all tend to monitor the volatility of the market for ships and to incorporate such information in their lending, investment, portfolio construction and divestment decisions. From the practical point of view, investors and fi nanciers pay particular attention to the volatility of ship prices in order to design and set terms of credit for ship fi nance, and asset players monitor changes in ship price for investment timing and portfolio management, while shipyards follow conditions in the market for ships in order to judge whether to expand or contract production, or to offer deals in order to attract new clients and secure contracts. From the academic point of view, several studies have examined the issues of modeling and forecasting the volatility of ship prices, while others have focused on the importance of ship price volatility in the decision making of market participants, as well as in the pricing of assets and derivatives. For instance, Kavussanos (1997) investigates the dynamics of volatility in the price of second hand dry bulk carriers and argues that there is a positive relationship between price volatility and vessel size. Alizadeh and Nomikos (2003) examine the relationship between ship price volatility and trading activities in the sale and purchase market for dry bulk carriers, and fi nd that volatility of ship prices is inversely related to trading volume Ship Finance: Hedging Ship Price Risk Using Freight Derivatives
Cardiac adrenergic innervation is affected in asymptomatic subjects with very early stage of coronary artery disease.

UNLABELLED The aim of this study was to investigate whether, in subjects with a very early stage of coronary artery disease without hemodynamically significant coronary artery stenoses, cardiac adrenergic innervation is already affected. METHODS Quantitative coronary angiography and dual-isotope SPECT with 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) and 99mTc-sestamibi (MIBI) were conducted to assess the function of cardiac adrenergic innervation and myocardial perfusion, respectively, in 30 asymptomatic volunteers with a high familial risk for coronary artery disease. Regional quantitative analysis of MIBG uptake and washout rates was performed using the SPECT data from the anteroseptal, lateral, and inferior myocardial regions, which represented vascular supply by the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD), left circumflex coronary artery (LCX), and right coronary artery (RCA), respectively. RESULTS The average severity of stenoses was 33% +/- 11% in the LAD, 29% +/- 14% in the LCX, and 26% +/- 19% in the RCA. The severity of stenosis was not related to MIBI uptake in any corresponding myocardial region at rest or during exercise. However, the degree of LAD stenosis correlated directly with delayed MIBG uptake (r = 0.43; P < 0.05) and inversely with MIBG washout (r = -0.34; P = 0.06) of the anteroseptal myocardium. When subjects were divided into tertiles according to the separate severity of stenosis for each coronary artery, delayed MIBG uptake in the anteroseptal region was significantly lower in the lowest LAD tertile (0.34 +/- 0.05) than in the middle (0.41 +/- 0.06; P < 0.01) or highest (0.43 +/- 0.05; P < 0.001) LAD tertile. Correspondingly, delayed MIBG uptake in the lateral region was also lower in the lowest LCX tertile than in the middle tertile (0.34 +/- 0.04 vs. 0.41 +/- 0.06, respectively; P < 0.01). Washout rate was also higher in the lowest LAD tertile (44% +/- 7%) than in the middle (36% +/- 10%; P < 0.05) or highest LAD tertile (34% +/- 8%; P < 0.01). CONCLUSION The degree of coronary artery stenosis was associated directly with MIBG uptake and inversely with MIBG washout. This finding suggests that the function of cardiac adrenergic nerve endings is modified even in mild coronary artery disease before denervation occurs.
Financial globalization in the 19th century: Germany as a financial center

We analyze the capital exports of Germany between 1883 and 1914 to study its importance as a financial center. Therefore, we collected data on foreign securities issued on German stock exchanges from primary sources. We find that Germany specialized in lending to European countries, mostly to Austria-Hungary, Russia and Italy, and was competing with France in lending to these countries. Indeed we show that shocks to the French interest rates affected German foreign investment. Great Britain, the largest international financial center, was not competing in lending to European countries but specialized in lending to previous colonies and to North and Latin America. As Germany’s lending to the Americas accounted only for a low share of its foreign investment and was negligible compared to Great Britain’s, shocks to the interest rates in London did not affect overall foreign issuances in Germany.
The Role of Family/Friend Social Support in Diabetes Self-Management for Minorities with Type 2 Diabetes

This study investigated how ethnicity, perceived family/friend social support (FSS), and health behaviors are associated with diabetes self-management (DSM) in minorities. The participants were recruited by community outreach methods and included 174 Cuban-, 121 Haitian- and 110 African-Americans with type 2 diabetes. The results indicated that ethnicity and FSS were associated with DSM. Higher FSS scores were associated with higher DSM scores, independent of ethnicity. There were ethnic differences in several elements of FSS. DSM was highest in Haitian- as compared to African-Americans; yet Haitian Americans had poorer glycemic control. The findings suggest FSS together with ethnicity may influence critical health practices. Studies are needed that further investigate the relationships among minorities with diabetes, their intimate network (family and friends) and the diabetes care process.
Meeting the challenge of large-scale software development in an educational environment

This paper describes a final-year Master's course in large-scale software development. A number of issues such as closeness to an application domain and executing the software on a real target system are stressed in order to imitate an industrial environment. The experience gained from the course is discussed. In particular, effort data (in terms of man-hours) from the course are presented, both from the plan devised by the students, and the actual outcome. Furthermore, it is discussed how the data can be used to create an experience base for the future. The objective for next year's course is to let the students plan their projects based on the experience base. The experience base will also form the basis to complement the course with a complete experience factory.
Integrating the Wisdom and Experience of Indigenous Farmworkers to Improve Farmworker Safety and Health

Background: Community advisory committees (CACs) increasingly are formed to cultivate partnerships between researchers and communities. Objectives: This article details the processes used to recruit CAC members, the purpose and structure of the committees, members’ motivation to participate, and examples of member input and influence. Methods: In-depth interviews, meeting notes, and partners’ reflections were synthesized to identify key lessons regarding establishing and sustaining effective CACs. Lessons Learned: Findings highlight the need for partner agreement on the role of CACs, structured meeting procedures, intentional integration of CAC input into project activities, and training on sharing research information with the community. Conclusions: CAC members’ expertise regarding indigenous culture and experiences increased the project relevance for workers and strengthened research and intervention efforts. Members also reported greater knowledge of safety, health, and workers’ rights, and increased confidence to share information. This influence extends beyond the project and contributes to sustained change among CAC members and in the participating communities.
Glycine betaine-induced lead toxicity tolerance related to elevated photosynthesis, antioxidant enzymes suppressed lead uptake and oxidative stress in cotton

Anthropogenic activities contaminate soils with heavy metal concentrations including lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), and chromium (Cr). Pb has higher potential for ready accumulation, sedimentation, and poisoning of the soil than other heavy metals. The present study was conducted to induce Pb tolerance, in solution culture-grown cotton, by exogenous glycinebetaine (GB) application using 3 levels of Pb (0, 50, and 100 µm) and 2 GB levels (0 and 1 mM). The results revealed that Pb stress decreased gas exchange characteristics (net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, water use efficiency, chlorophyll, carotenoids, and SPAD value) and the performance of antioxidant enzymes. Toxic effects of Pb stress were mitigated by GB application, which in turn increased the plant growth and gas exchange characteristics by reducing the performance of malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and electrolytic leakage. An increase in the activity of antioxidant enzymes helped in mediating the adverse effect of the Pb stress as compared to plants treated with Pb alone. The results revealed that exogenous application of GB significantly alleviated the Pb toxicity by improving the growth, biomass, and photosynthetic parameters in cotton (Gossypium L.) plants. GB increased Pb tolerance by enhancing the chlorophyll synthesis, photosynthetic activities, and antioxidant enzyme activities and by lowering the electrolytic leakage, MDA, and H2O2 levels.
On the need for an international lender of last resort: Lessons from domestic financial markets

The increasing incidence and intensity of crises in the international financial markets during the 1990s have given new impetus to the debate on reform of the international financial system. Much of the discussion focuses on the idea of an international lender of last resort which could provide liquidity to ensure the stability of the international financial system. This paper responds to the question of whether an international lender of last resort is necessary by presenting both the differences and the similarities between a domestic financial market and an international one. This comparison will show that in regard to those aspects which justify the existence of a lender of last resort at the national level, the two types of financial markets are no different: If commercial banks are engaging in maturity and liquidity transformation, then the existence of a lender of last resort is a prerequisite to stable and crisis-free development of financial markets. Both the recent financial crises, and the developments which can be observed in the banking sectors of Latin America and Eastern Europe, provide empirical evidence for this thesis. In these regions, banking sectors are emerging which are increasingly dominated by foreign banks, and thus have indirect access to an international lender of last resort. At the same time, there is an increasing tendency within emerging markets to introduce regulations which limit the extent to which transformation is performed in financial markets, and thus to limit as far as possible the risks which make an international lender of last resort necessary.
Multi-label extreme learning machine based on label matrix factorization

Multi-label learning aims to predict the label sets an instance belongs to. Extreme Learning Machine (ELM), as a single-hidden layer feedforward neural network algorithm, has been extended to multi-label scenarios because of faster learning speed and less human intervention. Aiming at dealing with the problem of ignoring the inter-label dependencies, the proposed method, ELM-LMF, decomposes the label matrix into latent label matrix mapping the label space to the latent space and the k-label dependency matrix preserving the inter-label relationships, classifies in latent space with ELM, and maps the predicted labels back to the original space. Experiments on 3 benchmark multi-label data sets with 3 other state-of-art methods prove the feasibility of ELM-LMF.
Patterns of craniofacial variation and taxonomic diversity in the South African Cercopithecidae fossil record

The rich paleontological record of South Africa is central in our understanding of Plio-Pleistocene mammalian evolution due in large part to the number of crania recovered. Because of the difficulty of chronometric control in many of the cave systems from which these fossils derive, extinct Old World Monkeys (OWMs) are often employed as biochronological markers, making the taxonomic identification of these primate remains particularly relevant to pursuing broader evolutionary questions relating to human evolution and faunal diversity shifts. The taxonomic relationships for the OWM fossils are reconstructed through phylogenetic systematics that rely heavily on craniodental traits. These analytical methods assume that these characters are developmentally, functionally, and genetically independent. This assumption is increasingly being questioned by analyses of extant phenotypic datasets and genetics. We statistically explored cranial variation in South African fossil papionins (n = 99) to determine whether or not extinct taxa reflect the same phenotypic covariance structure as has been reported for extant OWMs. Our results show that many of the cranial measurements are statistically significantly correlated and fail to distinguish between species or even genera of fossil papionins despite distinguishing extant species. Overall, our results suggest that these extinct OWM taxa cannot be discriminated using craniofacial measurements alone, or that the taxonomic designations, as they currently stand, are confounded. Tesla A. Monson. Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 3040 Valley Life Sciences Building #3140, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. tesla.monson@berkeley.edu Marianne F. Brasil. Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley; Human Evolution Research Center, 3040 Valley Life Sciences Building #3140, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. mbrasil@berkeley.edu Dominic J. Stratford. School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein 2000, Johannesburg, South Africa. Dominic.Stratford@wits.ac. za Leslea J. Hlusko. Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley; Human Evolution Research Center, 3040 Valley Life Sciences Building #3140, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. hlusko@berkeley.edu
The Effect of Psychosocial Stress on Sleep: A Review of Polysomnographic Evidence

This systematic review examines the effect of diverse psychosocial stressors on polysomnographic measures of sleep. Sixty-three articles were located and categorized in terms of the types of stressors imposed. Experimental stress resulted in fairly consistent changes: decreases in slow wave sleep, REM sleep, and sleep efficiency (SE), as well as increases in awakenings. Data were limited in terms of response to non-experimental stressors, except for the case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on sleep, where a number of reports suggest that PTSD patients have increased awakenings and decreased SE. Future research needs to define stress more precisely in terms of duration and severity and to measure its impacts on sleep in populations that differ in terms of age, comorbid illness, gender, and so forth. Without such fine-grained analyses, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about this important area.
Influential factors in the trust relationships existing between financial analysts and corporate managers in Iran

This research explored the role of trust in the relationship between the financial analysts and corporate managers in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) by focusing on two important aspects of the trust relationship. These aspects are key trustworthiness factors and the influential factors to perceive these key factors. Financial analysts use financial reports, which are prepared by corporate managers, in their analysis. In this thesis components of trust are distinguished from each other. These components are antecedent factors to trust, trust, and outcome of trust. Trust is considered as the financial analyst’s intention to depend on managers based on their perception of managers’ key characteristics including: integrity, benevolence, competence, and predictability. Antecedent factors to trust are psychological and sociological factors that influence the perception of financial analysts about those key characteristics. These antecedent factors include: related factors to: financial reports, management as well as external auditors, rules and regulations, and religion- Islam. The financial analysts’ trust in corporate mangers results in their reliance in the provided financial reports. The level of financial analysts’ reliance on the financial reports is positively associated with the level of their trust in managers. The theoretical model of trust developed by … is modified to apply in Iranian context. Purposive sampling is used to collect the required data. The primary data is gathered from in-depth interviews with 20 financial analysts in Iran. After that, the pattern coding technique proposed by Miles and Huberman (1994) is applied to summarise and analyse the interview data. The pattern matching technique is then used to compare the results of interviews to the theoretical patterns. The main findings of this research are: 1) trust is important in the relationship between the financial analysts and corporate mangers, 2) the degree of trust that the financial analysts put in the corporate managers is identified by the corporate managers’ level of trustworthiness, 3) the key factors of trustworthiness of a corporate manager are integrity, benevolence, competence, and predictability in his/her behaviour, 4) a model of trust relationship which explains how financial analysts build their relationships is suggested, 5) the main reason for financial analysts to build the relationship with corporate managers is to get accurate information about the company, especially