Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Stabilizing or Deregulating Food Prices

This paper studies measurement of welfare e¤ects, transient and permanent, of stabilizing or deregulating prices in Cobweb-like settings. As in Cobweb-models, producers must commit inputs in face of uncertainty. Here, however, we consider producers who are concerned with adaptations of inputs rather than price predictions. This shift of emphasis reflects two things. First, since persistent randomness causes on-going price fluctuations, point predictions are of modest concern. Second, producers are likely to care more about profits than prices. Explored below are economic issues related to transitions between regulated and unregulated equilibrium. Our focus is on convergence, stability and welfare. The main motivation and the running example centers on agricultural commodities. The paper does, however, not review the case for or against market intervention. In stead it advocates and illustrates the use of tractable tools called stochastic approximation. These tools easily produce quantitative estimates to facilitate discussion of the pros and cons.
Strategic Spatial Planning Revisited Experiences from Europe

Europe is finding itself confronted with major developments and challenges: the growing complexity of global issues (rise of new technologies, changes in production processes, crisis of representative democracy, diversity, inequality, migration and the globalization of culture and the economy), increasing concern about the rapid and apparently random course of (uneven) development, the problems of fragmentation, the rising cost of energy, the ageing of the population, the increasing awareness (on all scales, from local to global) of environmental issues (climate change…), the longstanding quest for better coordination (both horizontal and vertical), and the re-emphasis on the need for long-term thinking (Albrechts, 2001; 2004; 2006). Moreover, the need felt by many governments to adopt a more entrepreneurial style of planning in order to enhance regional, cityregion and city competitiveness, the growing awareness that a number of planning concepts (learning regions, knowledge communities, industrial districts, compact cities, liveable cities, sustainable cities, creative cities, multi-cultural cities, fair cities) cannot be achieved solely through physical hard planning and the fact that (in addition to traditional land use regulation, urban maintenance, production and management of services) governments are being called upon to respond to new demands. These developments and challenges imply the abandonment of bureaucratic approaches and the involvement of skills and resources that are external to the traditional administrative apparatus. They all serve to expand the planning agenda.
Case Study: The growth and poverty impacts of trade liberalization in Senegal

Most empirical studies find relatively small welfare and poverty impacts of trade liberalization, mainly as a result of the static framework generally used, in which welfare gains and poverty impacts result solely from a short term reallocation of resources. Using Senegal as a case study, we illustrate the results of integrating the growth and productivity gain effects of trade liberalization with the resulting long-run impacts on welfare and poverty. We show that the distributional impacts between poor and non-poor depend upon the specific nature of the trade liberalization policies adopted; and the characteristics of the economy in which it occurs. In the Senegalese case, the predicted principal beneficiaries of trade liberalization are urban and higher skill workers.
Exploitation d’une ressource lexicale pour la construction d’un étiqueteur morpho-syntaxique état-de-l’art du français

Cet article présente MEltfr, un étiqueteur morpho-syntaxique automatique du français. Il repose sur un modèle probabiliste séquentiel qui bénéficie d’informations issues d’un lexique exogène, à savoir le Lefff. Evalué sur le FTB, MEltfr atteint un taux de précision de 97.75% (91.36% sur les mots inconnus) sur un jeu de 29 étiquettes. Ceci correspond à une diminution du taux d’erreur de 18% (36.1% sur les mots inconnus) par rapport au même modèle sans couplage avec le Lefff. Nous étudions plus en détail la contribution de cette ressource, au travers de deux séries d’expériences. Celles-ci font apparaître en particulier que la contribution des traits issus du Lefff est de permettre une meilleure couverture, ainsi qu’une modélisation plus fine du contexte droit des mots.
Hydrothermal processing of corn residues:process optimisation and products characterisation

Hydrothermal processing was used as pre-treatment method for the selective solubilisation of hemicellulose from corn residues (leaves and stalks). The raw material was treated at a liquidto-solid ratio of 10 g/g, under non-isothermal conditions (150-240oC) and the effect of treatment on the composition of both liquid and solid phases was evaluated. The yields of solid residue and soluble products, e.g., oligosaccharides, monosaccharides, acetic acid and degradation compounds, such as furfural, hydroxymethylfurfural are presented and interpreted using the severity factor (log R0). The operational conditions leading to the maximum recovery of XOS (53% of initial (arabino)xylan) and for highest glucan content of the solid residue (64%) were established for log R0 of 3.75 and 4.21, respectively. Under the severest condition 95% of xylan was selectively solubilised and 90% of initial glucan was recovered on the solid residue, making it very attractive for further processing in a biorefinery
Determining an Optimal Gated Loudness Measurement for TV Sound Normalization

Undesirable loudness jumps are a notorious problem in television broadcast. The solution consists in switching to loudness-based metering and program normalization. In Europe this development has been led by the EBU P/LOUD group, working towards a single target level for loudness normalization applying to all genres of programs. P/LOUD found that loudness normalization as specified by ITU-R BS.1770-1 works fairly well for the majority of broadcast programs. However, it was realized that wide loudness-range programs were not well-aligned with other programs when using ITU-R BS.1770-1 directly, but that adding a measurement-gate provided a simple yet effective solution. P/LOUD therefore conducted a formal listening experiment to perform a subjective evaluation of different gate parameters. This paper specifies the method of the subjective evaluation and presents the results in term of preferred gating parameters.
Interactive comment on “Earth’s surface heat flux” by J. H. Davies and D. R. Davies

While the final value is not very different from those obtained by previous studies, there are important differences in the methodology used, which I think are worth discussing. The paper takes advantage of the most recent compilation of the world surface geology. The study illustrates the advantages and the pitfalls of using global compilations. The main difference between the approach of this paper and the one that we (Jaupart et al., 2007) have used concerns the continental heat flow. In our study, we have used com-
Effect of selected feed additives on egg performance and eggshell quality in laying hens fed a diet with standard or decreased calcium content

Abstract The aim of the experiment with 240 ISA Brown hens fed the diets with standard or decreased Ca level was to evaluate the effect of selected feed additives on laying performance and eggshell quality. The hens were allocated to 10 treatments, each containing 12 cages (replicates) of 2 birds. A 2 × 5 experimental arrangement was used. From 26 to 70 wks of age, experimental diets containing 3.20 or 3.70% Ca were used. The diets were either not supplemented, or supplemented with sodium butyrate, probiotic bacteria, herb extracts blend or chitosan. The decreased dietary Ca reduced eggshell quality indices in older hens (43-69 wks) (P<0.05) without effect on performance indices. The addition of the probiotic, herb extracts, or chitosan increased the laying rate (P<0.05). In older hens, i.e. at 69 wk, chitosan increased eggshell thickness and breaking strength, while herb extracts increased eggshell thickness (P<0.05). There was no interaction between the experimental factors in performance and eggshell quality. The used feed additives had no influence on fatty acid profile of egg lipids, however diet supplementation with chitosan decreased cholesterol concentration in egg yolk lipids (P<0.05). It can be concluded that such feed additives as probiotic, herb extracts, or chitosan may positively affect performance and eggshell quality, irrespective of Ca dietary level.
Physical Activity and Environment Research in the Health Field: Implications for Urban and Transportation Planning Practice and Research

This article reviews literature fromthe health field investigating the characteristics of environments that support or hinder physical activity. This literature shows that physical activity is associated with objective and subjective measures of accessibility to recreational facilities and local destinations, as well as with neighborhood safety and visual quality. Walking and biking emerge as prominent forms of physical activity and occur primarily in neighborhood streets and public facilities, suggesting that building walkable and bikable communities can address health as well as transportation concerns. The studies help advance environment-behavior research related to urban and transportation planning. They identify behavioral and environmental determinants of physical activity and employ rigorous data collection methods and theoretical frameworks that are new to the planning field. The article concludes that multidisciplinary research will likely yield promising results in identifying the aspects of environments that can be modified to encourage physical activity and physically active travel.
Harmonic Mitigation Methods in Large Offshore Wind Power Plants

Various sources of harmonic problems in large wind power plants (WPPs) and optimized harmonic mitigation methods are presented in this paper. The harmonic problems such as sources of harmonic emission and amplification as well as harmonic stability are identified. Also modern preventive and remedial harmonic mitigation methods in terms of passive and active filtering are described. It is shown that WPP components such as long HVAC cables and park transformers can introduce significant low-frequency resonances which can affect wind turbine control system operation and overall WPP stability as well as amplification of harmonic distortion. It is underlined that there is a potential in terms of active filtering in modern grid-side converters in e.g. wind turbines, STATCOMs or HVDC stations utilized in modern large WPPs. It is also emphasized that the grid-side converter controller should be characterized by sufficient harmonic/noise rejection and adjusted depending on WPPs to which it is connected. Keywords—active filtering, grid-side converter, harmonics; harmonic analysis; wind turbine, wind power plant.
Modelling analysts’ target price revisions following good and bad news?

We study the relation between analysts’ target price revisions and recent market returns, excess stock returns, and other analysts’ target price revisions. Empirical results show that, after controlling for earnings forecast and recommendation revisions, target price revisions are associated with each of these information sources. We also find that target price revisions are more sensitive to negative than to positive excess stock returns. We conjecture that firms’ tendency to withhold bad news, while releasing good news promptly, drives this effect and, using proxies for firms’ withholding of bad news, we report evidence supporting this hypothesis.
Service Gap of Selected Public and Private Commercial Banks in Bangladesh

The economy of a country is largely dependent on banking sector. In this case, Bangladesh is not exceptional. Both public and private banks play a vital role in the economy, making up one of the biggest providers of services in the Bangladesh economy. In the current banking environment, service quality is one of the main weapons, which enables the banks to differentiate from each other. It is said that service quality has become an important factor to survive and succeed in the banking sector. Hence, providing a better service quality is vital, as banks have to compete for customers. In this paper, the factors leading to the service provider gaps in case of selected public and private commercial banks have been identified and measured and it attempts to show the relationship between the provider gaps of these banks and the gap between expected service and perceived service (customer gaps). Two public commercial banks (Janata Bank Ltd., and Agrani Bank Ltd.) and two private commercial banks (Dutch Bangla Bank Ltd., and Prime Bank Ltd.) were selected for the purpose of the study. In this paper there is an endeavor to recognize whether the service provider gaps and the customer gaps are correlated and takes into consideration the problems of organizational quality gaps where the quality losses occur. This will help the management of these banks to know where the service gaps lie and how to close the gaps for providing quality service to their clients. This study shows that the overall service gap is higher in the public commercial banks in comparison to the private commercial banks. To remove this gap and to improve the overall service quality this paper has recommended some measures for both public and private commercial banks in Bangladesh.
Thought for Food: Understanding Educational Disparities in Food Consumption

Higher educated individuals are healthier and live longer than their lower educated peers. One reason is that lower educated individuals engage more in unhealthy behaviours including consumption of a poor diet, but it is not clear why they do so. In this paper we develop an economic theory of unhealthy food choice, and use a Discrete Choice Experiment to discriminate between the theoretical parameters. Differences in health knowledge appear to be responsible for the greatest part of the education disparity in diet. However, when faced with the most explicit health information regarding diet, lower educated individuals still state choices that imply a lower concern for negative health consequences. This is consistent with a theoretical prediction that part of the education differences across health behaviours is driven by the "marginal value of health" rising with education.
ANALYSIS OF WAVE INTERACTION WITH SUBMERGED ADJACENT PORO-ELASTIC BREAKWATERS

In this study, the problem of wave interaction with two closely submerged adjacent porous elastic breakwaters is investigated theoretically. The porous elastic breakwaters are assumed to be homogeneous, isotropic and elastic. Lan and Lee’s (2010) analytical solution is extended to the problem subject to proper boundary conditions. Using general solutions for each region and the matching boundary conditions, a set of simultaneous equations is thus developed and solved numerically. The present analytic solutions compare favorably with simplified cases of the poro-elastic submerged breakwater. Changes of the width of two adjacent breakwaters, the permeable coefficient effect on wave profile, and the effect of materials and configurations of breakwaters on wave variation are the focus of the present paper. The results show that a large amount of energy dissipates when the adjacent structures both have the same soft material and dimension of width with higher permeability. Different materials and shapes of structures could significantly influence the reflection coefficient.
Optimal linear growth in swept boundary layers

Optimal perturbations for the family of three-dimensional boundary layers described by the Falkner–Skan–Cooke similarity solution are obtained using a variational technique in the temporal framework. The disturbances experiencing the most growth take the form of vortices almost aligned with the external streamline at inception and evolve into streaks. In subcritical flows these can attain about twice the transient amplification observed in comparably forced two-dimensional flows. Possible connections between optimal perturbations and exponentially amplified crossflow vortices are explored.
ENERGY RECOVERING LINACS

Energy Recovering Linacs (ERLs) are potentially powerful types of recirculating linear accelerators in that they deliver beams of linac quality (short pulses and emittance and energy spread determined by the source) with efficiency approaching that of storage rings. As a result, in addition to the two existing ERLs being used as FEL drivers, the Jefferson Lab (JLAB) IRFEL and the JAERI FEL, ERLs are being contemplated for a variety of other applications. These applications include the generation of X-ray radiation, high energy electron cooling, and linac-ring colliders for nuclear and particle physics. The required beam current for these applications is of order 100 mA, a factor of 20 higher than presently demonstrated at the JLAB IRFEL. The energy of these applications spans the range from the currently achieved 50 MeV to 5 GeV. This paper reviews the existing and planned energy recovering linac projects and their accelerator physics and technology issues. Experimental data obtained at the JLAB IRFEL energy recovering linac are used to evaluate the limitations and ultimate performance of ERLs.
Influence of atmospheric circulation types on space‐time distribution of intense rainfall

The influence of the prevailing weather situation on the temporal evolution and geographical distribution of intense rainfall is studied, as a potential tool to improve rainfall prediction. A classification scheme of the atmospheric circulation over the east Mediterranean territory is used for the analysis. The study area is the Sterea Hellas region (central Greece) with an area of about 25,000 km 2 . Daily data from 71 rain gages and hourly data from three rain recorders over a 20 year period are used. From these data sets, the intense rainfall events were extracted and analyzed. Several empirical and statistical methods (also including the available tools of a Geographical Information System) are used for the analysis and comparison of rainfall distribution both in time and in space. The analysis shows that the contribution of the concept of weather types to the quantitative point rainfall prediction in short timescale is small, and only the estimation of the probability of occurrence of an intense event is feasible. On the contrary, the relation between the spatial distribution of rainfall and the atmospheric circulation patterns is significant and may be used for improving the forecasting of the geographical distribution of rainfall.
Words of Eternity: Blake and the Poetics of the Sublime

William Blake called himself a "sublime Artist" and acknowledged his own power to create "the Most Sublime Poetry. " Words of Eternity reveals the fundamental importance of the term "sublime" in a defining of Blake's poetic achievement. This first full-length study of Blake and the sublime demonstrates that a sophisticated theory of sublimity permeates his writings, serving him as a personal poetics, a framework in which the difficulties and unusual strategies of the works find their rationale. Vincent De Luca combines historically grounded source study with insights from modern critical theories of textuality to identify Blake's two opposing conceptions of sublimity--a sublime of obscurity, terror, and material power and one of determinate, concentrated intellectual design. De Luca examines the interplay between these two modes from differing perspectives--theoretical, stylistic, and thematic. As the perspectives widen, they embrace many of the speculative systems of Blake's time and reveal these systems as various displaced modalities of an underlying sublime discourse. "Words of Eternity is one of the dozen or so most important books ever written about Blake's poetry. De Luca provides a wealth of new insights on every page. "--Robert N. Essick, University of California, Riverside "With the context that this book supplies, we take a quantum leap in the sense we can make of Blake's project. De Luca opens our eyes to a Blake, and a sublime, that will never again be the same for us. "--Nelson Hilton, University of Georgia
THE SOCIAL COST OF HOSPITAL WAITING LISTS AND THE CASE FOR COPAYMENT: EVIDENCE FROM GALICIA

In this paper we try to quantify the social cost of hospital waiting lists in Galicia, on the basis of the model by Cullis and Jones (1986). From official data of waiting lists for outpatient appointments published by the Galician Health Service (Sergas) and a survey of specialist doctors in the province of A Coruna, we estimate that the cost of waiting lists is 70 million euros annually. We argue that this estimate, which does not include surgical waiting lists, tends to be conservative. Finally, as a possible measure to reduce the costs of waiting, we propose the introduction of a copayment, which would bring about a direct efficiency gain from the reduction in waiting costs and an indirect “efficiency dividend” from the revenue of the copayment, which may reduce the need for market distorting taxes.
Encoding specificity: Relation between recall superiority and recognition failure.

The results of four experiments show that (a) recall superiority over recognition is reversed by the use of unrelated word pairs in the study list, and (b) the reversal of recall superiority leaves intact the phenomenon of recognition failure of recallable words. These results extend the generality of encoding specificity and suggest that although recall superiority is a sufficient condition for recognition failure of recallable words it is not a necessary condition. In memory experiments in which people are required to remember the items of a list, the most effective retrieval cues are almost always nominal copies of to-be-remembe red items. If such cues are ineffective, it is unlikely that any other cues will succeed. Under certain experimental conditions, however, copies of list items are not the most effective cues for retrieval—in the presence of other cues, people do recall learned list words that they fail to recognize. This phenomenon of recognition failure of recallable words has been manifested in a number of experiments in which the same procedure, with only minor variations, has been used (e.g., Tulving, 1974; Tulving & Thomson, 1973; Watkins & Tulving, 1975; Wiseman & Tulving, 1975). In these experiments, learners studied a list of pairs of ,associatively related words. One word of each pair was designated as the to-be-remembered (TBR) or target word; the other word was