Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Filling the Gap: How Technology Enables Access to Finance for Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Traditional financial services are rapidly being reformed by technology. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for more than one-half of the world’s GDP and employ two-thirds of the global workforce, however a key barrier to growth faced by SMEs around the globe is access to financing. This is not a new issue, as the onerous information, administration, and collateral requirements associated with traditional loans have inhibited SMEs from seeking or securing financing. The 2008 financial crisis only exacerbated the problem, as many local retail banks (often the primary providers of SME financing) closed their doors and the appetite for taking on high-risk SME loans was quelled. Online business lending may be stepping in to fill this gap by resolving many of the barriers associated with traditional SME financing. This paper analyzes data from PayPal Inc., a company best known for its global online payment system, and from Kiva, a crowdsourcing platform. PayPal Working Capital launched in late 2013; it is a product that enables SMEs to apply for and obtain short-term credit. Our objective is to understand how technology is impacting SMEs’ ability to access financing. Our findings suggest the following: (i) online business loans have stepped in to fill the SME funding gap left in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis; (ii) young and minority-owned businesses with low and moderate income benefit particularly from online business loans; and (iii) online business loans can boost the growth of SMEs in under-served counties. Based on increased sales of businesses that have received PPWC loans, we estimate that programs like this have the potential to boost economic activity considerably.
Estimating and Interpreting Peer and Role Model Effects from Randomly Assigned Social Groups at West Point

The random assignment of cadets to social groups at West Point provides a rare opportunity to highlight potentially misleading estimates of social group effects found in many studies. Estimates of contemporaneous group effects in human capital production are typically positive and significant; however, evidence in this study suggests that occurrences common to a group may account for much of this correlation. Models that address these biases provide little evidence of group effects in academic performance, although there is evidence of group influences in choice outcomes such as the selection of academic major and the decision to remain in the Army.
Letterpress Language: Typography as a Medium for the Visual Representation of Language

This examination of three works by Johanna Drucker, 26 '76 (1976), from A to Z (1977) and Against Fiction (1983), all printed letterpress, focuses on the formal properties of typography and its capacity to extend the meaning of a written text. Handsetting metal type necessarily focuses one's attention on the specificity of written language as a sequence of discrete letters. Each has properties of size, weight and shape; and placement and type styles can be widely varied. The technical constraints of letterpress tend to conserve the norm in the representation of language: line after straight line of a single typeface. The author's intention in deviating from these norms has been to extend, rather than negate or deny, the possibilities of meaning by encouraging plural readings at the levels of the word, the line and the page. Other issues such as the relation of language to experience, to literary tradition or to the social context in which it is produced are investigated.
The Complexion of Two Bodies. Part One: Nuance Drawn Out

ABSTRACT Motion capture, eye-tracking and digital image capture technologies are rapidly replacing traditional life drawing practice. We are led to believe that such technologies provide high-quality movement-analysis resources, yet these new tools are only in the early developmental stages. The author employed cutting-edge movement-analysis technologies and traditional drawing practice to create a series of “transparent” key-frame drawings based on Muybridge-style movement sequences, depicting specificity of the skeleton and musculature at key anatomical landmarks as though seen through the skin to stimulate perception of both movement and structure simultaneously.
Reconceptualizing the Role of Security User

Abstract The Internet is not the only critical infrastructure that relies on the participation of unorganized and technically inexpert end users. Transportation, health, waste management, and disaster preparedness are other areas where cooperation between unorganized citizens who lack experience with the domain has increased resiliency, reduced social costs, and helped meet shared goals. Theories of community-based production and management of the commons explain this type of cooperation, both offline and online. This essay examines these two complementary approaches to organizing the cybercitizen for cybersecurity. Cybersecurity discourse has reasonably focused on centralized parties and network operators. From domain name registrars to network service providers, solutions are sought through incentives, regulation, and even law enforcement. However great the ability of these centralized entities to implement change, the end user plays a crucial role. The Internet must remain open to enable innovation and diffusion of innovation; thus, the end user will continue to be important. What is the role of the citizen in cybersecurity? What socio-technical characteristics might enable a system that encourages and empowers users to create a secure infrastructure?
Differential Hive Plots: Seeing Networks Change

Network layouts generated by common algorithms, such as force-directed and spectral methods, are difficult to interpret because the methods are inherently unpredictable. These layouts are ineffective in comparing networks because the layouts lack perceptual uniformity—the differences in output are not proportional to differences in input. To address this, the authors introduce the differential hive plot (DHP), a layout method based on the comparison of two hive plots (HP). The DHP is a difference of two visualizations and contains nodes and edges in the difference or intersection of the two networks based on positional similarity in the input HPs.
Generation of Kandinsky Art

ABSTRACT The authors present a programmed experiment to automatically generate art in the style of Kandinsky during his Bauhaus years. The program the authors developed analyzes the artist’s paintings based on his art theories and the authors’ own understanding and observations of his artworks. The authors describe the generation process in detail and share and discuss sample generated images styled according to four of Kandinsky’s paintings. By pseudorandomizing various parameters, the program is able to make each styled image it generates unique. The authors’ approach is highly scalable, limited only by the memory space set in the programming language Processing, which is used for the generation. Potential impacts of the authors’ approach are also discussed.
Physique Characteristics of Elite Caucasian and Polynesian Rugby Union Athletes

Rugby union (RU) is an international full-contact team sport characterised by short bursts of high intensity running, heavy tackling, and substantial body contact events. It requires a unique combination of physiological attributes, which are position specific, with an athlete’s morphology considerably influencing their on-field position. Forwards are in continual close contact with opposition players, and need to be strong and powerful to gain and retain possession of the ball. Backs control possession of the ball once obtained by the forwards, and are required to accelerate away from opposition players to create scoring opportunities, whilst providing cover in defence. Speed and endurance are among the most important physical attributes for backs. Substantial morphological differences between forwards and backs exist, with forwards possessing more lean mass (LM), and greater absolute and proportional fat mass (FM) compared to backs. There are well established links between the mass of RU athletes and success, with “supersized” athletes highly sought after at the professional level. With physique traits having the potential to influence performance, being able to monitor and manipulate body composition in elite RU athletes is beneficial. As such, physique traits are routinely assessed in elite RU populations, with the most common techniques utilised being surface anthropometry (SA) and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). ; Submitted in the fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Univerity of the Sunshine Coast, 2018.
Gender and the Erotics of Nationalism in Ngg wa Thiong'o's Drama

At the intersection of symbolic language, gender, and national politics, Ngg wa Thiong'o uses sexual puns as a metaphor for land and political independence. Performance is central to all of Ngg's writing, and his oral performances in praise of his wife, Njeeri, mark the acme of his gendered use of language for political ends. Ngg's practice raises the question of whether the use of indigenous languages in African drama is liberating in and of itself, even when representations of gender roles are regressive.
Accountability of Networked Climate Governance: The Rise of Transnational Climate Partnerships

Public-private partnerships (PPP) have been advanced as a new tool of global governance, which can supply both effective and legitimate governance. In the context of recent debates on the democratic legitimacy of transnational governance, this paper focuses on accountability as a central component of legitimacy. The aim of this paper is to map transnational climate partnerships and evaluate their accountability record in terms of transparency, monitoring mechanisms and representation of stakeholders. Three types of partnerships are identified with respect to their degree of public-private interaction: public-private (hybrid), governmental and private-private. Most of the climate partnerships have functions of advocacy, service provision and implementation. None are standard setting, which indicates that governmental actors are less willing to contract out rule-setting authority to private actors in the climate change. Some partnerships, such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development climate partnerships and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects represent new modes of hybrid governance with high degree of public-private interaction. However, many partnerships, not least the voluntary technology agreements such as the APP, rest on old form of governance based on the logic of lobbying, corporatism, co-optation and interstate bargaining. Private (business-to business) climate partnerships are to varying degrees geared toward quantitative targets in the Kyoto Protocol. The accountability record is higher for hybrid climate partnerships, such as the CDM, due to extensive reporting and monitoring mechanisms, while lower for the governmental networks, such as voluntary technology agreements. Partnerships do not necessarily replace or erode the authority of sovereign states, but rather propels the hybridization and transformation of authority that is increasingly shared between state and nonstate actors.
Resolving the Adaptation Paradox: Exploring the Potential for Deliberative Adaptation Policy-Making in Bangladesh

Climate change adaptation presents a paradox: climate change is a global risk, yet vulnerability is locally experienced. Effective adaptation therefore depends on understanding the local context of vulnerability, which requires deliberative and participatory approaches to adaptation policy-making. But, how can local inclusiveness be achieved in the context of global environmental risk, and what sorts of institutions are needed? This article examines one avenue for the participation of vulnerable groups in adaptation policy-making: National Adaptation Programmes of Actions (NAPAs). Drawing on the case study of Bangladesh, this article shows that the adaptation paradox creates a tension between local and global definitions of climate change risk, affecting the legitimacy of participatory processes under the NAPA. I propose that early analysis and engagement of existing local institutional frameworks as a starting point for national adaptation planning is one possible entry point for meaningful local deliberation in global climate change policy-making processes.
Postconflict Reconstruction in Africa: Flawed Ideas about Failed States

Postconflict state reconstruction has become a priority of donors in Africa. Yet, externally sponsored reconstruction efforts have met with limited achievements in the region. This is partly due to three flawed assumptions on which reconstruction efforts are predicated. The first is that Western state institutions can be transferred to Africa. The poor record of past external efforts to construct and reshape African political and economic institutions casts doubts on the overly ambitious objectives of failed state reconstruction. The second flawed assumption is the mistaken belief in a shared understanding by donors and African leaders of failure and reconstruction. Donors typically misread the nature of African politics. For local elites, reconstruction is the continuation of war and competition for resources by new means. Thus their strategies are often inimical to the building of strong public institutions. The third flawed assumption is that donors are capable of rebuilding African states. Their ambitious goals are inconsistent with their financial, military, and symbolic means. Yet, African societies are capable of recovery, as Somaliland and Uganda illustrate. Encouraging indigenous state formation efforts and constructive bargaining between social forces and governments might prove a more fruitful approach for donors to the problem of Africa's failed states.
Functional Restriction and Efficiency in Causal Inference

1 2 X p 2 pU 2 0 X p 2 1 pU U 2 pU p 2 X U 2 pU 2 p 2 , respectively, where 0(X) E(Y0X), 1(X) E(Y1X), (X) 1(X) 0(X), (U) E((X)U), 1 (X) E({Y1 1(X)} 2 X), 0 (X) E({Y0 0(X)} 2 X), and p Pr(Di 1). PROOF. See Appendix, sections 1 and 2. These bounds can be compared with the asymptotic variance bounds computed without imposing the exclusion restriction on the propensity score:
Exchange Rate Pass-Through in U.S. Manufacturing Industries

This paper studies exchange rate pass-through in U.S. manufacturing industries and its cross-sectional variation. Through an adapted DixitStiglitz model of product differentiation, the paper predicts that pass-through is positively related to the degree of product differentiation and inversely related to the elasticity of marginal cost with respect to output. Empirical estimates of the pass-through elasticities show that pass-through is incomplete and varies across industries. The degree of pass-through is found to be positively correlated to different proxies for product differentiation, and negatively to a proxy for the elasticity of marginal cost.
Institutions and Policies to Protect Rural Livelihoods in REDD Regimes

While there is growing interest among researchers and practitioners concerning the risks that emerging REDD regimes pose to rural livelihoods, there has been little scholarly analysis of specific policies that could be applied to guard against these risks. We argue that for REDD regimes to avoid negative impacts on local populations, social safeguard policies will need to overcome the significant barriers posed by ambiguous property rights and weak governance and create five institutional conditions: (1) local community support for project-level activities, (2) citizen participation in reforms affecting property rights and land use, (3) transparency of forest carbon revenue flows, (4) citizen access to grievance mechanisms, and (5) opportunities for adaptive management through evaluation. We identify and discuss various policies that could be applied to produce these conditions. We argue that positively engaging rural populations in REDD may be integral to the effectiveness of programs in reducing deforestation and degradation, and enhancing forest carbon stores. Future research should aim to identify the causal mechanisms (policies and institutions) responsible for positive socioeconomic and ecological impacts in REDD, while testing key theories that link participation to conservation and development outcomes.
The Flavor Network

The authors investigate regional variations in culinary culture by constructing a flavor network of food ingredients, based on shared flavor compounds, and comparing this network to recipe data. They show that Western and Eastern cuisines differ in their compound sharing patterns. The findings show, in particular, that only Western cuisines support the hypothesis that foods sharing flavor compounds are more likely to taste well together. Using additional data the authors investigate the validity of this hypothesis further and suggest a new, more specific version of the hypothesis, which holds for a particular subset of compounds.
Is Protection for Sale? Evidence on the Grossman-Helpman Theory of Endogenous Protection

Grossman and Helpman (1994) present a theory of endogenous protection by explicitly modeling government-industry interactions for which mere black-box models previously existed. They obtain a Ramsey pricing-type solution to the provision of protection which emphasizes the role of inverse import penetration ratios and import elasticities. On the lobbying side, the model makes predictions about lobbying competition and lobbying spending according to deadweight costs from protection. The model not only makes for richer theory in terms of rigor and elegance, but its predictions are directly testable. Whether the Grossman-Helman model stands up to real-world data is investigated in this paper. Predictions from both the protection side and lobbying side are tested using cross-sectional U.S. nontariff barrier data. We also compare the second-generation Grossman-Helpman model with a more traditional specification. Our results call for serious consideration of this model in the political economy literature.
Facilitating the Teacher Quality Gap? Collective Bargaining Agreements, Teacher Hiring and Transfer Rules, and Teacher Assignment Among Schools in California

Certain studies and the California legislature have recently concluded that seniority preference rules in teacher collective bargaining agreements facilitate a teacher quality gap by permitting senior teachers to transfer to schools with higher-performing and more affluent children. This study examines the effects of such transfer rules on the distribution of teachers among and within school districts in California. The study finds that, when comparing California districts to each other, strong seniority preference rules are associated with a greater percentage of credentialed teachers in school districts. Employing hierarchical linear modeling, the study then finds that schools with higher percentages of minority students, within districts, have lower percentages of credentialed and experienced teachers. Contrary to certain previous research and conventional wisdom, however, this study finds no persuasive evidence that the seniority preference rules independently affect the distribution of teachers among schools or exacerbate the negative relationship between higher minority schools and uncredentialed and low-experience teachers.
Recovering Distributions in Difference-in-Differences Models: A Comparison of Selective and Comprehensive Schooling

Abstract We compare the effects of selective and nonselective secondary education on children's test scores, using British data from the National Child Development Study. Test scores are modeled as the output of an additive production function. An important input is the child's unobserved initial endowment, which may be correlated with the education system attended. In this model, we generalize the difference-in-differences approach and identify the entire counterfactual distribution of potential outcomes. Our results suggest that the better performance of selective schools relative to nonselective ones is essentially due to differences in pupils' composition.
Wildlife, Conservation and Conflict in the Anthropocene: New Forms of Stewardship?

Humans have won the battle for dominating the Earth. Many species are threatened with extinction in this Anthropocene Age, with significant declines in vertebrates, birds, corals, and important habitats (Butchart et al. 2010). The growth of agriculture has enabled huge increases in human populations but has also threatened many species (Rands et al. 2010). Wild fish stocks once considered limitless are now threatened due to overharvesting, including huge declines in sharks, rays, and skates (Pikitch 2005). Some threats, such as local hunting, are relatively easy to control, but conservation has not dealt with the underlying issues such as “population and economic growth, [and] technological development” (Mace 2010, 251) that that are integral to human domination of the Earth. With their “victory,” humans are faced with conservation and ethical dilemmas. The two books reviewed here overlap in dealing with contemporary challenges to conservation and species preservation in the Anthropocene. Both examine the complex and often intense relationships between wildlife and humans. The book edited by Catherine Hill, Amanda Webber, and Nancy Priston presents an array of different strategies to deal with human-wildlife conflicts, which are multiplying as human populations increase near wildlife. Jamie Lorimer’s book challenges many of the assumptions that traditional conservationists have concerning the Anthropocene. Lorimer proposes a new post-Anthropocene era, the “Cosmoscene,” in which humans will forge a time of multispecies flourishing to replace traditional conservation’s focus on a false separation between humans and nature. He argues
The Blockchain Ethical Design Framework

gy is enabling society to experiment with new solutions and business models. Ubiquity and global reach, increased capabilities, and affordability have made technology a critical tool for solving problems, making this an exciting time to think about achieving greater social impact. We now can address issues for underserved or marginalized people in ways that were previously unimaginable. Blockchain is a technology that holds real promise for dealing with key inefficiencies and transforming operations in the social sector, and for improving lives. Because of its immutability and decentralization, Blockchain has the potential to create transparency, provide distributed verification, and build trust across multiple systems. For instance, Blockchain applications could provide the means to establish identities for individuals without identification papers, improve access to finance and banking services for underserved populations, and distribute aid to refugees in a more transparent and efficient manner. Similarly, national and subnational governments are putting land registry information onto Blockchains to create greater transparency and avoid corruption and manipulation by third parties. From increasing access to capital to tracking health and education data across multiple generations to improving THE BLOCKCHAIN ETHICAL DESIGN FRAMEWORK