Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Review of Causes for and Consequences of Economic Concentration in the U.S. Meatpacking Industry

Clear and continuing changes in the structure of the U.S. meatpacking industry have significantly increased economic concentration since the mid-1970s. Concentration levels are among the highest of any industry in the United States, and well above levels generally considered to elicit non-competitive behavior and result in adverse economic performance, thereby triggering antitrust investigations and subsequent regulatory actions. Many agricultural economists and others deem this development paradoxical. While several civil antitrust lawsuits have been filed against the largest meatpacking firms, there have been no major antitrust decisions against those firms and there have been no significant federal government antitrust cases brought against the largest meatpacking firms over the period coincident with the period of major structural changes. The structural changes in the U.S. meatpacking industry raise a number of questions. What is the nature of the changes and what economic factors caused them? What evidence is there that economic behavior has shifted from competitive to non-competitive? What evidence is there that structural and behavioral changes have resulted in adverse economic performance? This paper reviews the available data and information pertaining to these questions and provides some insight into the answers. Structural changes are reviewed, along with discussion of one major causal factor for the changes. Then, numerous studies conducted over the past twenty years are reviewed, i.e., studies carried out at different times with alternative approaches and varying levels of data aggregation.
Modelos alternativos de valoración de opciones sobre acciones: una aplicación al mercado español

espanolEn este trabajo se analiza el comportamiento, tanto dentro como fuera de la muestra, de varios modelos basados en diferentes distribuciones para la modelizacion del activo subyacente en opciones de compra sobre acciones individuales que cotizan en MEFF. Estas opciones de compra, aunque son americanas, se comportan como europeas en nuestra muestra pues no existe reparto de dividendos en ninguna de las acciones seleccionadas como activo subyacente durante la vida de las opciones correspondientes. En concreto, se analizan los modelos semiparametricos de Corrado-Su (1996a) y Jondeau-Rockinger (2001), y el modelo basado en la mixtura de distribuciones lognormal de Bahra (1997), comparandolos con el modelo original de Black-Scholes (1973). Los resultados indican que los modelos de Corrado-Su y Jondeau-Rockinger mejoran frente a Black-Scholes y la mixtura de distribuciones lognormal, si bien no consiguen eliminar por completo el conocido efecto sonrisa de volatilidad. EnglishThis paper is about testing different call option models on individual stocks traded on MEFF, the Spanish market of trading futures and options. These call options are American ones, but in practice, they behave as European options since the underlying assets in our selected sample do not deliver dividends during the life of their respective options. We implement the models of Corrado-Su (1996a), Jondeau-Rockinger (2001), the lognormal mixture of Bahra (1997) and the benchmark model of Black-Scholes (1973). Our results show, by either an in-sample or an out-of-sample analysis, that Corrado-Su and Jondeau-Rockinger are better than the Black-Scholes and the lognormal mixture but they do fail to eliminate completely the volatility smile pattern.
The Role of Pastoralists Indigenous Knowledge and Practices in Reducing Household Food Insecurity in West Pokot, Kenya: A Binary Probit Analysis

In recent decades, researchers and development practitioners have explored strategies to manage shocks and reduce food insecurity in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) especially through introduction of modern scientific approaches and interventions; for instance promotion of exotic livestock breeds, but these interventions have not yielded desired results. This has been attributed to the fact that most of these interventions ignore pastoralists’ own indigenous knowledge and practices and thus tend to have low acceptability. Recognizing the need for context-specific locally-acceptable and adaptable solutions to pastoralists’ challenges, the present study assessed the role of indigenous knowledge and practices in reducing food insecurity in pastoralists’ households in West Pokot County, Kenya. Data was collected from arid and semi arid locations. A focus group discussion, key informant interviews and individual surveys on 191 households were conducted. Results demonstrate the value attached to traditional customs, guided migratory patterns and sustainable human-environment interactions in adapting to the harsh environment and mitigating food insecurity. Results from a binary probit regression analysis showed that seasonal transhumant migration, traditional pasture conservation and planting indigenous drought tolerant crops have a significant effect in reducing household food insecurity. The findings point to the need for documentation of indigenous knowledge and practices and their integration in long-term programs and plans aimed at building resilience in pastoralist systems. Key words: Pastoralists, indigenous knowledge, local practices, food security.
Exclusion and coordination in collaborative innovation and patent law

Intellectual property law has been criticised for over-arching scope of protection and at the same time, for insufficient protection. This seeming contradiction may stem from the discrepancies between the actual innovation practice and process and the models adopted in law. This paper illustrates this contradiction in the patent laws' treatment of collaborative innovators. Particularly, this study examines how the participation of multiple innovators at the initial stage of the innovation is regulated under the patent laws in the US, Japan and, to an extent, in Europe. A single entity perspective and a concurrent closed invention model implied in law create legal uncertainties for collaborative innovators. This brings forward the organisational capability that provides inter- and intra-firm governance structure over the innovative process and the uses of innovation in managing the uncertainties before, during and after collaboration. This capability is in a central role in addressing the seeming contradiction.
Choice of Aggregate Demand Proxy and its Affect on Phillips Curve Nonlinearity: U.S. Evidence

Using nonlinearity testing and modeling associated with the smooth transition regression model we examine how the choice of aggregate demand proxy affects, if at all, the nonlinearity of the Phillips curve. The three proxies we examine are the unemployment rate, output gap, and real unit labor costs. Our data is monthly from 1983-2008 for the U.S. We find that regardless of aggregate demand proxy examined, tests indicate a nonlinear Phillips curve. However, the dynamics of the nonlinear models vary substantially.
Professional Orientation and Structural Components of Early Childhood Programs: A Social-Ecological Perspective.

ABSTRACT A 1987 study, which involved 26 male and 805 female early childhood workers from 85 center-based programs in 20 states, was conducted to develop a social-ecological perspective on professional orientation and job satisfaction and on structural components of early childhood programs. Professional orientation is characterized by a person's emphasis on growth/change, knowledge-based skill, decision-making autonomy, reference-group orientation, goal achievement, and loyalty to clients/professional associates. Central to this social-ecological perspective is th "goodness of fit" between the person's needs and the setting's demands. The sample included 242 classroom assistants, 473 teachers or head teachers, and 116 administrators or supervisors. A five-page questionnaire was developed to measure the structural components of program size, legal structure, and type as well as the professional orientation of the centers and each person. Results confirm that persons are clearly influenced by the prolessional orientation of their work environment. However, further analysis is needed to understand the interaction effects of different combinations of the structural components if the results would be similar when controlling for the persons' role. (TJH)
Distributed Water Demand Computation Using Remote Sensing Techniques

The Arenal-Tempisque irrigation district is located in the lower part of the Tempisque and Bebedero basins. It is the major irrigation project of Costa Rica (59960 ha) and is divided into eight sub-districts. It has extensive agricultural activity (sugarcane, rice, watermelon and tilapia) with a high water consumption. Systematization of information is a priority issue to increase water distribution efficiency and enhance decision making during the dry season. An example has been developed in Canas sub-district to analyze various hydro-geospatial variables related to water demand in order to determine the water status of the region for January, February and March, corresponding to the driest months in Guanacaste. Using GIS and remote sensing techniques, it was possible to obtain distributed water balance and water demand on farms, taking into account precipitation, temperature, evapotranspiration and runoff. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was calculated using information extracted from LANDSAT 8 satellite images available for the study area. These were used to evaluate kc and evapotranspiration to a resolution of 30 meters. Distributed runoff was computed with the SCS method. The curve number was obtained from impermeable, vegetation and soil proportions using LandSat images and the lineal spectrum unmixing technique for the separation. Results showed a total water deficit of 416.53 L/m2 with a standard deviation (SD) of 157.64 L/m2 during the 3 dry months.
Islet Transplantation Challenge - Human Islet Longevity: A Potential Solution from Bone Marrow Cells

The occurrence of diabetes mellitus has increased steadily worldwide [1]. Improvements in the immunosuppressive regimen have made clinical islet transplantation a feasible choice which to treat type 1 diabetes [2]. However, efforts toward routine islet cell transplantation have been hindered not only by scarce islet availability but also by low rates of post-transplantation islet survival and function [3,4]. The number of islets generally required to achieve insulin independence is 12000 islet equivalents per kg of recipient’s body weight, and this number is usually obtained by transplanting more than one islet preparation per patient [5]. Early graft loss resulting from repeated transplantations of islets [6] is a major component of islet primary nonfunctioning, which occurs in syngeneic islet transplantation [7] as well as T-cell activation [8,9]. Large numbers of islets are destroyed, and only a small proportion are successfully engrafted after transplantation [4,10,11]. These findings suggest that poor islet viability—not just allograft rejection and recurrence of autoimmunity—may contribute to early-stage loss of islet function. In experimental models of syngeneic islet transplantation, up to 60% of islet cell mass undergoes apoptosis, and half of this loss occurs within the first 3 days after transplantation [12]. Functional islet mass is reduced even in successfully transplanted recipients compared with healthy people. These failures—the result of islet damage before transplantation—are the major barrier to the widespread use of islet transplantation.
Observer-Based Robust Controller Design for Nonlinear Fractional-Order Uncertain Systems via LMI

We discuss the observer-based robust controller design problem for a class of nonlinear fractional-order uncertain systems with admissible time-variant uncertainty in the case of the fractional-order satisfying . Based on direct Lyapunov approach, a sufficient condition for the robust asymptotic stability of the observer-based nonlinear fractional-order uncertain systems is presented. Employing Finsler’s Lemma, the systematic robust stabilization design algorithm is then proposed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). The efficiency and advantage of the proposed algorithm are finally illustrated by two numerical simulations.
Hadronic gamma-rays from RX J1713.7−3946?

RX J1713.7-3946 is a key object to check the supernova remnant paradigm of the origin of Galactic cosmic rays. While the origin of its gamma{ray emission (hadronic versus leptonic) is still debated, the hard spectrum at GeV energies reported by the Fermi collaboration is generally interpreted as a strong argument in favor of a leptonic scenario. On the contrary, we show that hadronic interactions can naturally explain the gamma{ray spectrum if gas clumps are present in the supernova remnant shell. The absence of thermal X{rays from the remnant ts well within this scenario.
A Method and Case Study for Estimating The Ramping Capability of a Control Area or Balancing Authority and Implications for Moderate or High Wind Penetration

The invention is directed to an alignment device for aligning a prosthetic hip stem implant with an opening formed in a proximal femur. The hip stem implant includes a landmark and the proximal femur includes a visual alignment mark. The alignment device includes an implant engaging portion configured for attachment with the landmark on the hip stem implant. The alignment device also includes a needle indicator connected with the implant engaging portion and having an end which may be positioned relative to the visual alignment mark on the proximal femur, thereby aligning the prosthetic hip stem implant relative to the opening in the proximal femur.
Nonperturbative results for the mass dependence of the QED fermion determinant

The fermion determinant in four-dimensional quantum electrodynamics in the presence of O(2)xO(3) symmetric background gauge fields with a nonvanishing global chiral anomaly is considered. It is shown that the leading mass singularity of the determinant's nonperturbative part is fixed by the anomaly. It is also shown that for a large class of such fields there is at least one value of the fermion mass at which the determinant's nonperturbative part reduces to its noninteracting value.
Encounter of the Ulysses Spacecraft with the Ion Tail of Comet MCNaught

Comet McNaught was the brightest comet observed from Earth in the last 40 years. For a period of five days in early 2007 February, four instruments on the Ulysses spacecraft directly measured cometary ions and key properties of the interaction of the comet's ion tail with the high-speed solar wind from the polar regions of the Sun. Because of the record-breaking duration of the encounter, the data are unusually comprehensive. O3+ ions were detected for the first time in a comet tail, coexisting with singly charged molecular ions with masses in the range 28-35 amu. The presence of magnetic turbulence and of ions with energies up to ~200 keV indicate that at a distance of ~1.6 AU from the comet nucleus, the ion tail of comet McNaught had not yet reached equilibrium with the surrounding solar wind.
A METHOD FOR CALCULATION OF MORSE POTENTIAL FOR FCC, BCC, HCP CRYSTALS APPLIED TO DEBYE-WALLER FACTOR AND EQUATION OF STATE

Analytical expressions for the Morse potential parameters for fcc, bcc and hcp crystals have been developed. They contain the energy of sublimation, the compressibility and the lattice constant. Numerical results for Cu (fcc), W (bcc) and Zn (hcp) agree well with the measured values. Debye-Waller factors in X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) and equation of state computed using the obtained Morse potential parameters agree well with the experimental results.
Semantic annotation for medieval cartography: The example of the Behaim Globe of 1492

Summary: The Behaim Globe of 1492 is the oldest extant globe of the earth. It is an early masterpiece of various scientific and technological achievements; nowadays it is a famous exhibit of the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg. Its map image is primarily Ptolemaic, including elements of medieval universal cartography and of portulans. Its luxurious decoration shows 100 pictorial illustrations plus 60 banners and coats of arms, more than 2000 place names, and more than 50 long legends. The Behaim Globe is one of the very few existing cartographical works where different traditions of late medieval mapmaking are bound together. This paper reports on an ongoing research project, aiming at a digital as well as a printed edition of the globe. In 2011, high-resolution digital photographs have been taken and a new 3D model is under construction. Furthermore, there is a database of digitized analog images of its surface taken in 1990 and black-and-white images from 1940. Based on these image data, a comprehensive catalogue of all visually relevant places including text fields is built up by means of a domain ontology for medieval cartography in description logics (OWLDL). Up to now, nearly 3000 instances (catalogue entries and comments) have been created. These instances are the core of the planned edition. Regarding its digital part, it is a common practice nowadays to unite generic concepts and properties for objects, time and space, events, actors, processes, etc., in a reference ontology such that domain specific concepts are derived from the generic ones. The CIDOC CRM is such a reference ontology; our implementation, the Erlangen CRM, provides a semantic base for the cartographic domain ontology, suitable for automatic reasoning. Furthermore, the globe provides a georeferential organization of information which opens up a new dimension for semantic indexing. Historical maps are cognitive maps in the first place, which require a formal qualitative representation of (abstract) regions, their relative positions, but also direction, orientation, and distance. Represented by specific datatypes with constraint solvers, their integration with a logical representation framework leads to a system of hybrid reasoning for processing complex spatial queries over the Behaim globe instance base.
Research on the Evaluation System of Economic Development Environment Based on the Factor Analysis Method

Coordinated environment of economic development will provide power for economic development. Otherwise, it would counteract the development of economy. Aiming at this problem, using the factor analysis method and taking Chinese city for example, this article selects the 18 indexes of 36 cities throughout the country as the research object. Through calculation and analysis of the regional statistics, it is concluded that the economic operation, infrastructure, and environmental science and education are three public factors. On the basis of factor score and statistical data in past years, the paper evaluated the environment of economic development comprehensively.
Utilization of various seeds: A review

Seed, known to be an embryo possessing part of a plant, enclosed in a protective outer covering, does not have much utilization known to us. Seeds which are generally thrown away as a waste product have various benefits hidden among themselves. In this review paper, seeds and their different utilizations have been highlighted. We see that seeds, because of their concealed polyphenols and antimicrobial activities, serve us with various medicinal purposes. By-products such as seed flour and seed oil derived from them are enriched with nutrition value and antioxidant properties. Thus, instead of being wasted and withered, proper utilization of seeds should be done.
Mise en œuvre et analyse de calculs aéroacoustiques de type SGE pour la prévision du bruit de chambres de combustion aéronautiques

Une part importante du bruit genere par les moteurs d'avion est liee a la combustion. Afin de reduire cette source de bruit, une comprehension fine des phenomenes associes est necessaire. Deux mecanismes generateurs de bruit, et ayant pour origine la combustion, ont ete identifie dans les moteurs d'avions dans les annees 1970: un premier mecanisme dit direct, qui est lie directement a un degagement de chaleur instationnaire, et l'autre dit indirect qui est lie aux interactions entre les etages de turbine et les fluctuations de temperature en sortie de chambre, egalement produites par la combustion. Des methodes analytiques et des simulations numeriques sont utilisees ici a la fois pour montrer l'importance du bruit de combustion indirect par rapport au bruit direct, et pour donner des limites de validite des approches analytiques qui sont basees sur l'hypothese de tuyere compacte. Trois configurations differentes sont etudiees dans un premier temps: une tuyere quasi-1-D, une tuyere axi-symetrique 2-D, ainsi qu'une aube de turbine 2-D. Finalement, un secteur de chambre de combustion 3-D reelle (SNECMA) est calcule a l'aide de la Simulation aux Grandes Echelles. Les fluctuations en sortie du bruleur sont utilisees pour evaluer le bruit total genere par la combustion (direct et indirect) a l'aide des approches analytiques precedemment etudiees. ABSTRACT : An important part of the noise generated by aero-engines is caused by the combustion. To decrease this source of noise, a precise comprehension of the underlying phenomenon is required. Two different mechanisms generating noise in aero-engines because of the combustion have been identified in the 1970’s: the direct mechanism that is directly related to the unsteady heat release, and the indirect one that is caused by the interactions between the turbine stages and the temperature fluctuations also produced by the combustion. Analytical methods and numerical simulations are used here both to show the importance of the indirect combustion noise compared with the direct one, and to provide some validity limits of compact nozzles analytical approaches. Three different configurations dealing with indirect noise are investigated: quasi-1- D nozzle, axisymmetric 2-D nozzle and 2-D turbine blade. Finally, an actual 3-D combustion chamber sector (SNECMA) is addressed with Large-Eddy Simulation. Fluctuations at the outlet of the combustor are used to compute the overall noise caused by the combustion (direct and indirect), by means of the investigated analytical models.
High-Entropy Alloys: A Critical Review

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are alloys with five or more principal elements. Due to the distinct design concept, these alloys often exhibit unusual properties. Thus, there has been significant interest in these materials, leading to an emerging yet exciting new field. This paper briefly reviews some critical aspects of HEAs, including core effects, phases and crystal structures, mechanical properties, high-temperature properties, structural stabilities, and corrosion behaviors. Current challenges and important future directions are also pointed out.
DYNAMIC APPROACH TO k-Means CLUSTERING ALGORITHM

k-Means clustering algorithm is a heuristic algorithm that partitions the dataset into k clusters by minimizing the sum of squared distance in each cluster. In contrast, there are number of weaknesses. First it requires a prior knowledge of cluster number ‘k’. Second it is sensitive to initialization which leads to random solutions. This paper presents a new approach to k-Means clustering by providing a solution to initial selection of cluster centroids and a dynamic approach based on silhouette validity index. Instead of running the algorithm for different values of k, the user need to give only initial value of k as k o as input and algorithm itself determines the right number of clusters for a given dataset. The algorithm is implemented in the MATLAB R2009b and results are compared with the original k-Means algorithm and other modified k-Means clustering algorithms. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed scheme improves the initial center selection and overall computation time.