Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Import Switching and the Impact of a Large Devaluation

In Colombia, from 1998 to 1999, during a large external shock the RER depreciated by 26% and import value dropped 32%. Since imports became more expensive during the devaluation, we would expect increases in exit of firms from the import market as well as larger dropped varieties for continuing firms. However, using detailed firm level import transactions, we find that compared to normal times the value from firms dropped varieties and exit falls. To be sure, we do find that firms use less imported varieties, but its due to fewer adding of new imported varieties rather than more dropping of varieties. Regarding firms adjustment mechanisms, we find: 1) Most importers add and drop import varieties all the time. 2) Firms add and drop varieties with similar intensity. 3) Both the values of added and dropped products by continuing firms comove negatively with the exchange rate, as does entry and exit. Our findings suggest firms select their imported varieties, and reorganize their imported inputs and production over time. We introduce searching for imported inputs into a model with endogenous choice of import intermediate inputs. Firms search for imported inputs suppliers and reorganize their input usage. With an imported input cost shock, e.g., a devaluation, the benefit from searching new suppliers decreases, which leads to less adding and dropping in firms' imported inputs. Our model focuses on the dynamic aspects of import reorganization, and shows that a devaluation can slow down the import churning and lead to larger TFP declines beyond those previously found. The model predicts more productive firms use more imported inputs, and do more adding and dropping at the same time. During the devaluation, there are fewer firms add and drop import varieties, and if they do, the shares of adding and dropping among their total import decreases. In the data, firm level imports switching behavior is consistent with these predictions, and results are robust to controlling for export switching behavior.
Reliability and Validity of the Writing Essential Skill Screener—Elementary Version (WESS-E)

The Writing Essential Skill Screener - Elementary Version (WESS-E) was designed to screen primary-grade children who are at risk for writing difficulties. 'Four independent samples of boys and girls ages 6-7 were used to study the WESS-E's reliability and validity. Internal consistency of WESS-E items (n = 499) was . 91, while 30-day test-retest reliability (n = 83) was . 86. On item analysis of the standardization sample, items ranged in difficulty from . 28-. 98 (median = .49), while 88% of WESS-E items met or exceeded a.50 item discrimination criterion. The WESS-E yielded concurrent validity coefficients (n = 125) of . 75 with scores on the Woodcock-Johnson: Tests of Achievement - Revised (WJ-R) Broad Written Language Domain and . 78 with scores on the Wide-Range Achievement Test - Revised (WRAT-R) Spelling subtest. Exploratory factor analytic procedures suggest the WESS-E is comprised of two dimensions: writing skills and name writing. However, this factor structure did not fit the data well using confirmatory factor analytic procedures. A diagnostic efficiency study indicated the WESS-E's total predictive value was 84%, sensitivity = . 92, specificity = . 76, positive predictive power = . 79, and negative predictive power = . 90.
REFLECTIONS ON THE ROLE OF ASYMPTOTIC ANALYSIS IN PHYSICS

“Asymptotic analysis” is the science and art of systematically revealing the behavior of a mathematical object as some parameter becomes small — usually by expanding in a power series or some suitable generalization of one. It means roughly the same thing as “perturbation theory”, but in a generic sense (the small parameter is not necessarily a coupling constant). Asymptotics has two roles in our thinking. The most obvious is approximation: It enables us to find approximate solutions to problems that are too hard to solve exactly. As someone has said, “Every application of mathematics to physics involves a small parameter (though sometimes the small parameter is the degree of contact with experiment). ” But asymptotic thinking is at least as important when it acts in the opposite direction, as interpretation. When I begin teaching such material, I ask a class to sketch the graph of the function
Issues in the Use of Psychological Testing in Custody Evaluations

Courts order child custody evaluations to facilitate the process of determining the health, safety, welfare, and best interest of children in disputed custody and visitation situations. Cal. Rules of Ct. , Rule 1257.3 sets forth "[u]niform standards of practice for court-ordered child custody evaluations" that are consistent with Fam. Code § § 211 and 3117. These standards require evaluators to "observe and consider each party in comparable ways and to substantiate (from multiple sources when possible) interpretations and conclusions regarding each child's developmental needs; the quality of attachment to each parent and that parent's social environment; and reactions to the separation, divorce, or parental conflict" [Cal. Rules of Ct. , Rule 1257.3(e)(2)]. Furthermore, these standards suggest that the scope of the evaluation process may include psychological testing to confirm or question other information or previous conclusions [Cal. Rules of Ct. , Rule 1257.3(e)(1)(B)].
Faster approximate lossy generalized flow via interior point algorithms

We present asymptotically faster approximation algorithms for the generalized flow problems in which multipliers on edges are at most 1. For this lossy version of the maximum generalized flow problem, we obtain an additive ε approximation of the maximum flow in time O{m3/2 log (U/ε)2}, where m is the number of edges in the graph, all capacities are integers in the range {1, . , U}, and all loss multipliers are ratios of integers in this range. For minimum cost lossy generalized flow with costs in the range {1,. ,U}, we obtain a flow that has value within an additive ε of the maximum value and cost at most the optimal cost. In many parameter ranges, these algorithms improve over the previously fastest algorithms for the generalized maximum flow problem by a factor of m1/2 and for the minimum cost generalized flow problem by a factor of approximately m1/2/ ε2. The algorithms work by accelerating traditional interior point algorithms by quickly solving the system of linear equations that arises in each step. The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, we analyze the performance of interior point algorithms with approximate linear system solvers. This analysis alone provides an algorithm for the standard minimum cost flow problem that runs in time Om3/2 log U}--an improvement of roughly O{n / m1/2} over previous algorithms. Second, we examine the linear equations that arise when using an interior point algorithm to solve generalized flow problems. We observe that these belong to the family of symmetric M-matrices, and we then develop Om-time algorithms for solving linear systems in these matrices. These algorithms reduce the problem of solving a linear system in a symmetric M-matrix to that of solving O{log n} linear systems in symmetric diagonally-dominant matrices, which we can do in time Om using the algorithm of Spielman and Teng. All of our algorithms operate on numbers of bit length at most O{log n U / ε}.
On 3-dimensional spectrum sharing for TV white and Gray Space networks

Spectrum scarcity demands for additional bandwidth where new services can be deployed on. However, today's spectrum allocation leaves almost no bands unallocated. Thus, Cognitive Radio has been studied to bring relief to the lack of spectrum, moving towards a more efficient and dynamic spectrum access. In this domain TV White Space have been proposed as a possible solution to bring new, valuable spectrum for opportunistic services. However, their availability is quite low in highly populated areas, and thus their viability is limited. This is mainly because the availability of TV White Space is typically considered at the rooftop, through two-dimensional propagation models which do not account for possible spectrum re-utilization policies within a building, or in a small-scale area. In this paper, we show that much more communication opportunities can be found when we consider also the third-dimension, i.e. the height from the terrain, and novel per-floor allocation policies. We propose three main contributions in this paper. First, we describe an analytical model through which we derive the number of available spectrum resources for indoor secondary networks, considering PU protection policies in the same building, and in surrounding buildings. Second, we estimate the number of TV Gray Space (TVGS) over realistic scenarios in candidate cities, considering realistic street topology and buildings locations, and we show that this value can be much higher than what reported in the spectrum database. Finally, we investigate co-existence of secondary networks on TVWS, when novel per-floor spectrum sharing models are used.
Immense Review on Clustering Approaches

--Clustering is process for finding similarity groups in data. It is considered as unsupervised learning task. The motive of clustering is detecting groups of similar objects by separating dissimilar ones. Clustering plays wide role in data mining. Old versions of clustering methods compute a division of the data, grouping each object in at most one cluster or detecting it as noise. However, it is not always necessary that an object must belongs to only one cluster. It means that multiple meaningful groupings might exist for each object. In today’s any applications, high dimensional databases are used. As multiple concepts described in the same data set by different attributes are mixed. And clusters are hidden in the subspace projections and do not exist in all directions. Furthermore, as a general contribution to the community, the benefits of evaluation study and evaluation framework are described. Both provide important basis for future research and ensure compatibility and repeatability of experiment results. To describe the objective more correctly it is necessary to define it by all possible and meaningful directions. To find out the similarity between objects become difficult because of increase in number of attributes. Hence. Its difficult to discover the distribution pattern. Thus, it is necessary to look for meaningful grouping in subspaces. This paper presents an overview of clustering techniques, its significance along with its various methods of implementation and challenges that need to be overcome. Keywords— Data mining, Subspace clustering, High
Quantification of Central Substance P Receptor Occupancy by Aprepitant Using Small Animal Positron Emission Tomography

Background: Central substance P receptors, termed NK-1 receptors, have been considered as therapeutic targets in the development of drugs against diverse conditions, including emesis, overactive bladder, and depression. Methods: Here, we applied small animal positron emission tomography (PET) and a radioligand for NK-1 receptors ([18F]FE-SPA-RQ) for measuring occupancies of these receptors by a selective antagonist (aprepitant) in order to examine the validity of this in vivo imaging system for preclinical characterization of candidate agents acting on NK-1 receptors, and as a tool for predicting optimal doses in humans. Results: PET in gerbils depicted high uptake in the striatum and dose-dependent displacement with increasing doses of aprepitant. Occupancies increased as a function of aprepitant plasma concentrations according to a one-site competition model, which agrees with reported occupancy-concentration relationships in clinical studies after correction for species differences in plasma protein-unbound aprepitant fractions. These occupancy data were further supported by ex vivo autoradiography of brain samples from aprepitant-treated gerbils. In a pilot study of a marmoset, we obtained more accurate determinations of NK-1 receptor occupancy, less affected by spillover of signals from extracranial tissues than in gerbil experiments. Conclusions: These findings support the utility of small animals and quantitative PET in the development of drugs targeting NK-1 receptors.
Recursive Utility : Discrete Time Theory

a consumption path as a function of current consumption and the future utility derived from the remaining periods consumption. In this way, recursive utility recalls the two-period model of Fisher (1930). Time additive separable utility has dominated research in economic dynamics owing to the mathematical simplification derived from that functional form. The economic plau-sibility of additive utility was pushed aside in the interest of obtaining insights and directions for further research. The body of work surveyed in this paper represents the latest efforts at studying dynamic optimization models with intertemporally dependent preferences as embodied in the recursive utility hypotheses. The foundations of recursive utility theory were set by Koopmans and his collaborators during the 1960's and early 1970's. We re-examine this work in light of new developments in general equilibrium theory with infinite dimensional commodity spaces. We focus on the optimal growth model as the paradigm for dynamic models with brief mention of general competitive analysis for exchange economies as another illustration of the methods used to analyze the implications of a recursive utility specification of preferences. Part 11 of the paper examines the structure of commodity spaces with a countable infinity of goods and reviews the properties of recursive utility functions. Part 111 explores the variety of notions of impatience and myopia. The aggregator as the primitive expression of the preference order is taken up in Part IV. The dynamic properties exhibited by optimal growth paths with recursive utility objectives is presented in Part V. Concluding comments are found in Part VI and an appendix devoted to mathematical properties of weighted contraction mappings completes the paper. of the utility function where consumption seemed to only affect discounting. This form also shows us that even though recursive utility is forward-looking, the functional form may superficially appear to be backward-looking. y. the limit in the Euler equations shows f'(k)=1+p(f(k)-k). The optimal path converges to one of the endpoints. Similar]y, if k is greater than all of the steady states it either converges to the largest steady state, or to co. The next theorem shows that kt-k(cid:631)i+1 when ke(k(,ki+1)c f(cid:631)+ and kt-ki when ke(ki,k(+1)c f-. However, we need a preliminary lemma before proceeding to the turnpike result. since the long run capital supply is perfectly elastic at the (fixed) steady-state rate of impatience. If the interest rate is above the rate of impatience, agents will lend as much as they can. If the interest rate is below the rate of impatience, agents will borrow as much as possible. The long-run equilibrium thus has the interest rate set at the most patient agent's rate of impatience, and all others borrow as much as possible.
Effect of Heavy Metals on, and Handling by, the Kidney

Heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr) and platinum (Pt) are a major environmental and occupational hazard. Unfortunately, these non-essential elements are toxic at very low doses and non-biodegradable with a very long biological half-life. Thus, exposure to heavy metals is potentially harmful. Because of its ability to reabsorb and accumulate divalent metals, the kidney is the first target organ of heavy metal toxicity. The extent of renal damage by heavy metals depends on the nature, the dose, route and duration of exposure. Both acute and chronic intoxication have been demonstrated to cause nephropathies, with various levels of severity ranging from tubular dysfunctions like acquired Fanconi syndrome to severe renal failure leading occasionally to death. Very varied pathways are involved in uptake of heavy metals by the epithelium, depending on the form (free or bound) of the metal and the segment of the nephron where reabsorption occurs (proximal tubule, loop of Henle, distal tubule and terminal segments). In this review, we address the putative uptake pathways involved along the nephron, the mechanisms of intracellular sequestration and detoxification and the nephropathies caused by heavy metals. We also tackle the question of the possible therapeutic means of decreasing the toxic effect of heavy metals by increasing their urinary excretion without affecting the renal uptake of essential trace elements. We have chosen to focus mainly on Cd, Hg and Pb and on in vivo studies.
On the Repair of Redundant RAMs

1. INTRODUCTION The size of random access memory (RAM) quadruples every two or three years [l]. As integrated-circuit densities of such RAMS increase, the probability of defects in them also increases. Thus yield is significantly decreased. One suggested approach to improve yield is to include spare rows and columns of memory cells which can be used together with appropriate decoders to repair Potentially faulty memory cells. There are three phases in the repair process [Z]. In the testing phase, faulty cells are located. In the analysis phase, the rows and columns to be repaired are selected. Finally in the repair phase, a computer-controlled laser is used to disconnect the defective rows and columns and to program spare rows and columns to replace them. Here we are concerned with increasing the efficiency of the analysis phase. A critical review of the state of the art in algorithms for memory repair is available in [l]. All existing repair algorithms are either heuristic algorithms which take polynomial time but may not find a solution even if it does exist or are exhaustive tree-search algorithms which may take exponential time Lo find a soIution, if one exists [2-61. Both types of algorithms may use a " feasibility check " step that, at low computational cost, determines unrepairability of some fault patterns. In this paper, a new feasibilitycheck procedure called Qtick-Terminate as well as an exhaustive search algorithm to obtain an optimum cost solution, when feasible, to repair an RRAM are ProPo=d. 2. PRELIMINARIES The problem studied is modelled as follows. A rectangular RRAM with (R+r) rows and (C+c) columns and a fault map is given which specifies the memory cells that are defective. Redundancy consists of r spare rows and c spare columns. The repair problem consists of using no more than r sp,are rows and c spare columns in replacing all the faulty cells. Cost associated with the use of spare rows and spare columns gives rise to a repair cost. For example, the cost function could be F = 8r' + lSc', where r'-z= r and c' <= c are the number of spares used in the covering [3]. A cost-effective repair problem can be defined as finding a solution with the least cost. The fault model
Using kinematic boundary lines for particle mass measurements and disambiguation in SUSY-like events with missing energy

We revisit the method of kinematical endpoints for particle mass determination, applied to the popular SUSY decay chain ? 02 ? 01. We analyze the uniqueness of the solutions for the mass spectrum in terms of the measured endpoints in the observable invariant mass distributions. We provide simple analytical inversion formulas for the masses in terms of the measured endpoints. We show that in a sizable portion of the SUSY mass parameter space the solutions always suffer from a two-fold ambiguity, due to the fact that the original relations between the masses and the endpoints are piecewise-defined functions. The ambiguity persists even in the ideal case of a perfect detector and infinite statistics. We delineate the corresponding dangerous regions of parameter space and identify the sets of ``twin'' mass spectra. In order to resolve the ambiguity, we propose a generalization of the endpoint method, from single-variable distributions to two-variable distributions. In particular, we study analytically the boundaries of the {mj? (lo),mj? (hi)} and {m? ,mj? } distributions and prove that their shapes are in principle sufficient to resolve the ambiguity in the mass determination. We identify several additional independent measurements which can be obtained from the boundary lines of these bivariate distributions. The purely kinematical nature of our method makes it generally applicable to any model that exhibits a SUSY-like cascade decay.
Students' Interpretations of Writing Tasks: A Case Study.

When students interpret writing tasks, they often ask their teachers: "What do you want in this paper? " While on the surface this question seems to be only a request for information, on a deeper level it can signal a shift of textual authority from student to teacher. If teachers answer by presenting a list of requirements for the assignment, they will reinforce many students' beliefs that writing tasks can be solved by following a "right" formula. Teachers become stage directors, while students become performers, rehears­ ing parts of scripts instead of producing plays themselves. The answer to the often-asked question "What do you want in this paper? " then, influences how students interpret writing tasks, and determines the sense of authority they have over their texts. The issue of task representation is relevant to all students-in fact, to all writers-but it is particularly pertinent to basic writers. I use the term "basic writers" here to mean beginning college writers who may be able to write error-free, grammatically correct sentences, but whose writing lacks development and fluency. Such writers often do not have the confidence and authority to interpret writing tasks broadly, in ways that are meaningful to them. Instead, they tend to be eager to please their teachers, a factor that limits
Real Estate Price Indices for Germany: Past, Present and Future

In the past, information on residential property price developments in Germany could be inferred only from a small number of indicators of sometimes dubious quality. These indicators often lacked a clear methodological foundation and had a restricted coverage. Moreover, they gave - to some extent - contradictory signals. The Bundesbank residential property price indices derived from BulwienGesa data, which was released in 2003, brought some improvements with respect to intertemporal comparability. The main weaknesses of the Bundesbank indicators are the reliance on expert assessments instead of true transaction data and the limited coverage (only cities). Still, the BulwienGesa/Bundesbank indicators remain the market leaders in Germany. The increasing use of the internet for residential property transactions and finance has provided additional indicators. However, the future will belong to hedonic indices. The German Federal Statistical Office is developing hedonic indices based on data gathered by local expert committees for property valuation. Due to the federal structure of Germany, however, it is very difficult to compile comparable data from all over the country. The Association of German Pfandbrief Banks is developing hedonic property price indices based on data gathered in the course of its member banks' commercial operations, and it invests heavily in improving the quality of the raw data. The main motivation behind this effort is compliance with new capital adequacy requirements. As a by-product, high quality hedonic property price indices for Germany might emerge, covering not only residential property but also commercial property.