Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DSGE Model-Based Forecasting of Modeled and Non-Modeled Inflation Variables in South Africa

Inflation forecasts are a key ingredient for monetary policymaking especially in an inflation targeting country such as South Africa. Generally, a typical Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) only includes a core set of variables. As such, other variables,e.g. such as alternative measures of inflation that might be of interest to policymakers, do not feature in the model. Given this, we implement a closed-economy New Keynesian DSGE model-based procedure which includes variables that do not explicitly appear in the model. We estimate such a model using an in-sample covering 1971Q2 to 1999Q4, and generate recursive forecasts over 2000Q1-2011Q4. The hybrid DSGE performs extremely well in forecasting inflation variables (both core and non-modeled) in comparison with forecasts reported by other models such as AR(1).
Rechts-, Wirtschafts-und Verwaltungswissenschaftliche Sektion Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften Diskussionspapiere Der Dfg- Forschergruppe (nr.: 3468269275): Heterogene Arbeit: Positive Und Normative Aspekte Der Qualifikationsstruktur Der Arbeit Self-selection and Wage-tenure Profiles for Hetero

Zusammenfassung: In this paper I develop a theoretical model explaining optimal wage-tenure profiles for heterogeneous labor. My findings entail that high productive people have steeper profiles than low productive individuals. I find strong empirical evidence for these findings. At the end of my paper, I utilize the basic model to describe the labor market entry of college graduates. Abstract In this paper I develop a theoretical model explaining wage-tenure profiles for heterogeneous labor. My findings entail that high productive people have steeper profiles than low productive individuals. In the literature, I find strong empirical evidence for these findings. At the end of the paper, I utilize the basic model to describe the labor market entry of college graduates.
Leisure/Tourism Geographies: Practices and Geographical Knowledge

Leisure and Tourism Geographies considers leisure/tourism as an encounter. An encounter that exists between people, between people and space and between people and their expectations, experiences and desires. The contributors explore diverse aspects of leisure and tourism, ranging from the methodologies behind leisure practices to detailed case studies including: *Disneyland, Paris *tourism in sacred landscapes *leisure practices in cyberspace *leisure and yachting *use of recreational/holiday cottages *National Parks, local parks and gardens Presenting an exciting mix of attitudes and ideas concerning leisure and tourism, this book documents a lively debate, placing geography at its centre.
A Mobile-Based Attribute Aggregation Architecture for User-Centric Identity Management

The explosive growth of the Internet is accelerating the translation of essential real world societal infrastructures to the virtual world. Identity management has been playing a fundamental structuring service role in this process, by making it easier to plan, deploy and secure online access to an ever increasing number of systems and applications. More recently, the general tendency has been to concentrate development efforts on identity management models structured around user-centric concepts, totally in concert with a digital society that is demanding and is ever more focused on empowering individuals with tools for a more reliable, responsible and secure user-centric management of private digital data. Recent incidents related with the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information also shows how important it is for users to be able to exercise some control on how much about them is publicly known and disseminated on the Internet. It is therefore crucial to promote the development of standardised interoperable systems that enable the user-centric management of private information and help secure users basic right for privacy. Massive centralized identity providers (Google, Facebook), are currently under a fierce competition over the hearts and minds of users. One of their main purposes is to create enormous monopolized user personal data database as they enable them to produce highly accurate user profiles that they can then monetize very efficiently for marketing and lock-in purposes. There are also some types of important personal data that by their very nature can be subjected to change and thus become stale, sometimes very quickly. With a centralized and distant identity provider it can therefore become quite difficult to manage the degree of staleness for dynamic personal data. For all these reasons we believe that all users private information should be kept as much as close as possible to their owners primary source, under his direct control. This data can then be managed by the user with the help of personal Attribute Authority(AA) entities in the network. These AAs disclose personal data to other applications only after the owners explicit consent, which should also take into
The Biological Flora of Coastal Dunes and Wetlands: Distichlis littoralis (Engelm.) H.L. Bell & Columbus

ABSTRACT Lonard, R.I. ; Judd, F.W. , and Stalter, R. , 2014. The biological flora of coastal dunes and wetlands: Distichlis littoralis (Engelm.) H.L. Bell & Columbus. Distichlis littoralis (Engelm.) H.L. Bell & Columbus = Monanthochloë littoralis Engelm. is a New World temperate- and subtropical-zone perennial grass that is an important species in hypersaline coastal landscapes. Also known as shoregrass, it tolerates salinities twice that of seawater. It occurs in soils low in organic matter and deficient in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Dense, monotypic populations of D. littoralis eliminate nearly all competing annuals in harsh coastal habitats. Distichlis littoralis provides limited cover and limited nutrition for resident and migratory birds.
Efectos competitivos de las restricciones a la publicidad en la industria española del tabaco en el siglo XXI

Advertising has a huge impact on business strategies, so it is critical to understand the effect of potential external restrictions of the advertising activity on the competition. We analyze the legal ban, because of public health reasons, of the cigarettes industry advertising in Spain (2005). We verify a decrease on entry, together with an initial decrease on leadership positions on several of the bigger brands. This duality, of great impact for legislators, on top of several effects of taxes and pricing on profi ts, suggests further studies on this topic.
LAKE DETECTION ALGORITHM IN POINT CLOUDS OF THE LIDAR IMAGE BASED ON THREE-DIMENSIONAL CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORK

An algorithm for detecting lakes in a point cloud of a lidar image based on a three-dimensional convolutional neural network is proposed. The contours of the lakes were extracted from the point clouds of the lidar image and their geometric characteristics were determined using the chain code algorithm. The accuracy of the proposed algorithm for identifying lakes from clouds of laser scanning points was 96.34%. The proposed algorithm can calculate and analyze information about the shape of lakes.
P o S ( C O R F U 2 0 2 1 ) 3 1 6 Quantum Gravity in 30 Questions

Quantum gravity is the missing piece in our understanding of the fundamental interactions today. Given recent observational breakthroughs in gravity, providing a quantum theory for what lies beyond general relativity is more urgent than ever. However, the complex history of quantum gravity and the multitude of available approaches can make it difficult to get a grasp of the topic and its main challenges and opportunities. We provide a guided tour of quantum gravity in the form of 30 questions, aimed at a mixed audience of learners and practitioners. The issues covered range from basic motivational and background material to a critical assessment of the status quo and future of the subject. The emphasis is on structural issues and our current understanding of quantum gravity as a quantum field theory of dynamical geometry beyond perturbation theory. We highlight the identification of quantum observables and the development of effective numerical tools as critical to future progress. Corfu Summer Institute 2021 "School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity" 29 August 9 October 2021 Corfu, Greece
Business Groups: Are They More Efficient than Conglomerates and Stand-Alone Units?

This paper argues that groups reduce bankruptcy costs with respect not only to stand-alone units (thanks to coinsurance) but to conglomerates as well (thanks to corporate limited liability). This allows groups to save on contagion costs, thereby generating more value than conglomerates despite a higher cost of debt due to a lower recovery rate for their lenders. We also show that group survival skills paradoxically generate a value discount if they are matched to other organizations without accounting for their lower mortality during industry downturns. This insight may reconcile contrasting findings about group relative efficiency.
Student Loans: Do College Students Borrow Too Much--Or Not Enough?

Total student loan debt rose to over $800 billion in June 2010, overtaking total credit card debt outstanding for the first time. By the time this article sees print, the continually updated Student Loan Debt Clock will show an accumulated total of roughly $1 trillion. Borrowing to finance educational expenditures has been increasing—more than quadrupling in real dollars since the early 1990s. The sheer magnitude of these figures has led to increased public commentary on the level of student borrowing. We move the discussion of student loans away from anecdote by establishing a framework for considering the use of student loans in the optimal financing of collegiate investments. From a financial perspective, enrolling in college is equivalent to signing up for a lottery with large expected gains—indeed, the figures presented here suggest that college is, on average, a better investment today than it was a generation ago—but it is also a lottery with significant probabilities of both larger positive, and smaller or even negative, returns. We look to available—albeit limited—evidence to assess which types of students are likely to be borrowing too much or too little.
Smokeless Tobacco 1. Exposure Data 1.1 Smokeless Tobacco Products 1.2 Chemical Composition of Smokeless Tobacco

The term smokeless tobacco implies use of unburned tobacco in the finished products. A variety of smokeless tobacco products are available, for oral or nasal use. Products intended for oral use are sucked, chewed (dipped), gargled or applied to the gums or teeth, while fine tobacco mixtures are usually inhaled into the nostrils. Table 1.1 summarizes for each smokeless tobacco product its mode of use, the main ingredients included, the WHO regions in which the product is used, and some specification of the countries is which the product is used most commonly or specifically (DHHS, 2001; IARC, 2007a; European Commission, 2008). Smokeless tobacco products that contain areca nut are commonly used in India, other countries in South Asia, and in migrant populations from these countries. These products may be mentioned here for comparison but are reviewed in the Monograph on Betel Quid and Areca Nut in this volume. 1.2 Chemical composition of smokeless tobacco
Mid-Holocene Sector Collapse at Mount Spurr Volcano, South-Central Alaska

Radiocarbon-dated volcanic mass-flow deposits on the southeast flank of Mount Spurr in south-central Alaska provide strong evidence for the timing of large-scale destruction of the south flank of the volcano by sector collapse at 4,769–4,610 yr B.P. The sector collapse created an avalanche caldera and produced an ~1-km-volume clay-rich debris avalanche that flowed into the glacially scoured Chakachatna River valley, where it transformed into a lahar that extended an unknown distance beyond the debris avalanche. Hydrothermal alteration, an unbuttressed south flank of the volcano, and local structure have been identified as plausible factors contributing to the instability of the edifice. The sector collapse at Mount Spurr is one of the later known large-volume (>1 km) flank failures recognized in the Aleutian Arc and one of the few known Alaskan examples of transformation of a debris avalanche into a lahar.
Concentration and Agglomeration of IT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Evidence from Patenting

National Bureau of Economic Research Volume Title: The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth Volume Authors/Editors: Michael J. Andrews, Aaron Chatterji, Josh Lerner, and Scott Stern, editors Volume Publisher: University of Chicago Press Volume ISBNs: 978-0-226-81078-2 (cloth), 978-0-226-81064-5 (electronic) Volume URL: https://www.nber. org/books-and-chapters/role-innovation-andentrepreneurship-economic-growth Conference Date: January 7-8, 2020 Publication Date: Februrary 2022
Demographic structure and private savings in selected countries of the Oceania region

This paper tests the life cycle hypothesis that private saving rises with a higher percentage of population working and falls by higher percentages among the young and the retired, using the case of selected Pacific Island countries. Our results provide strong empirical evidence that age structure is a prime determinant of national savings. The results reveal a statistically significant and positive relationship between national savings ratio and the percentage of working population groups. The research also revealed a statistically significant and negative relationship between national savings and percentage of retired population. Policy makers need to set up measures that improve the economic welfare of the working age population, such as instituting and enforcing minimum wage laws, encouraging compulsory savings for private and public sector workers, adjusting wages to inflation on a consistent and regular basis, providing tax rebates to low-income earners and those providing care for the elderly family members and improving the private sector business environment so as to facilitate the absorption of more working age population.
Medical Image Analysis

Lung cancer is the deadliest type of cancer worldwide and late detection is the major factor for the low survival rate of patients. Low dose computed tomography has been suggested as a potential screening tool but manual screening is costly, time-consuming and prone to variability. This has fuelled the development of automatic methods for the detection, segmentation and characterisation of pulmonary nodules. In spite of promising results, the application of automatic methods to clinical routine is not straightforward and only a limited number of studies have addressed the problem in a holistic way, using automatic methods to obtain patient follow-up recommendations from the computed tomography image. With the goal of advancing the state of the art in lung cancer medical image analysis, the Lung Nodule Database (LNDb) Challenge on automatic lung cancer patient management was organized. The LNDb Challenge addressed lung nodule detection, segmentation and characterization as well as prediction of patient follow-up according to the 2017 Fleischner society pulmonary nodule guidelines. 294 CT scans were thus collected retrospectively at the Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de São João in Porto, Portugal and each CT was annotated by at least one radiologist. Annotations comprised nodule centroids, segmentations and subjective characterization. A total of 947 participants registered for the challenge and 11 successful submissions for at least one of the sub-challenges were received. All submitted methods relied, at least partly, in deep learning methodologies. A maximum nodule detection sensitivity below 0.4 (and 0.7) for nodules indentified by at least one (and two) radiologist(s) at 1 false positive per scan was obtained, remaining the most challenging task in lung cancer image analysis. For nodule segmentation, a maximum Jaccard score of 0.567 was obtained, surpassing the interobserver variability. In terms of nodule texture characterization, a maximum Fleiss-Cohen weighted Cohen’s kappa of 0.733 was obtained, with part solid nodules being particularly challenging to classify correctly. For patient follow-up prediction, a maximum Fleiss-Cohen weighted Cohen’s kappa of 0.580 was obtained. Detailed analysis of the proposed methods and the differences in performance allow to identify the major challenges remaining and future directions. The LNDb Challenge and associated dataset remain publicly available so that future methods can be tested and benchmarked, promoting the development of new algorithms in lung cancer medical image analysis and patient follow-up recommendation. c © 2020 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved. Preprint submitted to Medical Image Analysis September 9, 2020 2 João Pedrosa et al. / Medical Image Analysis (2020)
Fe b 20 07 Form factors of integrable Heisenberg ( higher ) spin chains

We present determinant formulae for the form factors of spin operators of general integrable XXX Heisenberg spin chains for arbitrary (finite dimensional) spin representations. The results apply to any “mixed” spin chains, such as alternating spin chains, or to spin chains with magnetic impurities. PACS numbers: 71.45. Gm; 75.10. Jm; 11.30. Na; 03.65. Fd
Model-Based Deep Learning PET Image Reconstruction Using Forward–Backward Splitting Expectation–Maximization

We propose a forward–backward splitting algorithm to integrate deep learning into maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) positron emission tomography (PET) image reconstruction. The MAP reconstruction is split into regularization, expectation–maximization (EM), and a weighted fusion. For regularization, the use of either a Bowsher prior (using Markov-random fields) or a residual learning unit (using convolutional-neural networks) were considered. For the latter, our proposed forward–backward splitting EM (FBSEM), accelerated with ordered subsets (OS), was unrolled into a recurrent-neural network in which network parameters (including regularization strength) are shared across all states and learned during PET reconstruction. Our network was trained and evaluated using PET-only (FBSEM-p) and PET-MR (FBSEM-pm) datasets for low-dose simulations and short-duration in-vivo brain imaging. It was compared to OSEM, Bowsher MAPEM, and a post-reconstruction U-Net denoising trained on the same PET-only (Unet-p) or PET-MR (Unet-pm) datasets. For simulations, FBSEM-p(m) and Unet-p(m) nets achieved a comparable performance, on average, 14.4% and 13.4% normalized root-mean square error (NRMSE), respectively; and both outperformed OSEM and MAPEM methods (with 20.7% and 17.7% NRMSE, respectively). For in-vivo datasets, FBSEM-p(m), Unet-p(m), MAPEM, and OSEM methods achieved average root-sum-of-squared errors of 3.9%, 5.7%, 5.9%, and 7.8% in different brain regions, respectively. In conclusion, the studied U-Net denoising method achieved a comparable performance to a representative implementation of the FBSEM net.
Rotation invariant texture classification using covariance

Proposes a simple and powerful approach for texture classification using the eigenfeatures of local covariance measures. A texton encoder produces a texture code which is invariant to local and global textural rotations. The proposed method uses six statistical features obtained from two scales of this invariant encoder to result in indices for roughness, anisotropy, and other higher-order textural features. Classification results for synthetic and natural textures are presented. The authors also discuss the effect of window sizes used at local and global scales on the performance of the classifier. <<ETX>>
Quaternary： status, rank, definition, survival

The long controversy over the term ‘Quaternary' as a chronostratigraphic unit may be reaching an apotheosis, judging from recent papers (Pillans and Naish, 2004; Gibbard et al., 2005; and referencest herein). The debate is no longer centered on whether there should be a place in the geological time scale for a unit termed ‘Quaternary'-despite its dubious past, it cannot be denied that a large body of earth-historical research is strongly identified with this term. The challenge now concerns an appropriate rank and definition of Quaternary with regard to other chronostratigraphic units. Several options have been proposed (Pillans and Naish, 2004), and Gibbard et al. (2005) encourage a debate on these before decision is reached. In this brief note, we describe an arrangement not previously considered that seems advantageous. It is instructive, however, to first review the Pleistocene Series and Neogene System, the two units that are directly affected by introduction of the Quaternary into the chronostratigraphic hierarchy.
On the distribution-free continuous review (Q, r, L) inventory model with lead-time-dependent partial backlogging

ABSTRACT In this article, we study a distribution-free continuous review inventory system that assembles lost sales and backorders. The order quantity, the reorder point and lead-time are decision variables of the problem. The study under consideration assumes that purchasing cost is order dependent, partial backlogging is lead-time dependent and the distribution of lead-time demand is known partially. The objective of the paper is twofold. First, in the random framework, we provide the optimal order quantity, reorder level and lead-time simultaneously to acquire significant savings in the total costs of the model than Sana and Goyal ((q, r, l) model for stochastic demand with lead-time dependent partial backlogging. Annals of Operations Research. 233(1), 401–410, 2015). Second, we extend the crisp model to the fuzzy random environment employing the uncertain demand rate as a fuzzy random variable. We develop the mathematical methodologies to obtain the optimal solutions such that the total expected cost of the inventory system is minimized in both the cases. An algorithm is proposed with the help of the developed methodologies. We employ the proposed algorithm to solve two numerical examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of the methods.
The crystalline fabric of polar ice sheets inferred from seismic anisotropy

A photoimageable composition includes a polymeric binder which is soluble in aqueous solution; a cross-linking agent for the polymeric binder; a polymerizable acrylic substance; a chemical, photosensitive, free radical-generating initiating system; and a liquid epoxy resin composition and an epoxy cure catalyst. In one method of using the photoimageable composition of the present invention, the composition is applied as a film to a substrate, heated to make the film non-tacky but still aqueous-soluble, exposed to actinic radiation, developed in aqueous solutions to wash away non-exposed portions of the film and heat-cured to harden the film.