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This research paper examines the role of cloud computing in promoting sustainable development. Cloud Computing (CC) has emerged as a transformative technology that has the potential to reduce the environmental impact of businesses and organizations, while also enabling economic growth and social development. The paper explores the environmental benefits of cloud computing, including energy efficiency, reduced carbon emissions, and the potential for renewable energy integration. It also examines the economic and social benefits of cloud computing, including cost savings, increased productivity, and improved access to technology. The paper concludes by highlighting the potential challenges and opportunities associated with the adoption of cloud computing for sustainable development and identifies key areas for future research and policy action. Overall, the paper argues that cloud computing has the potential to play a critical role in promoting sustainable development, and that further research and policy action are needed to realize its full potential.

This research paper aims to explore the relationship between water pollution and sustainable development. Water pollution is a significant environmental challenge that threatens the sustainability of ecosystems, human health, and economic development. Sustainable development aims to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The research methodology involves a comprehensive review of relevant literature on water pollution and sustainable development, including empirical studies, theoretical frameworks, and policy documents. The research will explore the impact of water pollution on sustainable development, the drivers of water pollution, and the policy and regulatory frameworks that promote sustainable water management. The findings of this research paper will contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between water pollution and sustainable development and provide insights into effective strategies and policies that can promote sustainable water management. The research will also highlight the importance of public awareness and education in promoting sustainable practices and behaviors that can help to prevent and mitigate water pollution. This research paper will provide valuable insights into achieving sustainable water management practices that promote environmental sustainability and socio-economic development.

This paper examines sight loss, identity, uncertain borders and power, using postcolonial theory. The novel explored in this paper, Blindsided, follows a British-Egyptian ophthalmologist to Mali and back to the UK. She experiences sight loss, and a consequent shift from doctor to patient, from subject to object, which forces her to explore her identity issues. She becomes no longer the observer but the examined. This novel sits in an underexplored intersection between postcolonial theory, literature, disability theory and medical humanities. It offers a perspective on the shifts in power that occur within sight loss, within relationships; it offers this paradigm in order to examine how we may unlearn privilege, and explore becoming other. The critical paper continues this exploration, providing a unique analysis of how people with sight loss have written about the subject in academia, literature and creative non-fiction. It delves into the porous boundaries between these different types of writing, and demonstrates that writing about sight loss is a way that people who experience it can seize back the power that society takes from them, gain authority, and take control of their own narrative.

Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods are a class of Monte Carlo methods that are used to obtain random samples of a high dimensional random variable in a sequential fashion. Many problems encountered in applications often involve different types of constraints. These constraints can make the problem much more challenging. In this paper, we formulate a general framework of using SMC for constrained sampling problems based on forward and backward pilot resampling strategies. We review some existing methods under the framework and develop several new algorithms. It is noted that all information observed or imposed on the underlying system can be viewed as constraints. Hence the approach outlined in this paper can be useful in many applications.

This research paper aims to study the axes of the transition towards blockchain technology, how to apply it in Islamic financial institutions, obstacles of actual implementations and the proposed solutions. Islamic financial institutions must keep pace with technological developments, especially with regard to strategic changes, development of work mechanism, performance efficiency, accuracy of operations performance, service speed with cost and security of operations, and the impact of this on the competitiveness of Islamic financial institutions with international and traditional financial institutions, and the impact of all of this on the success and effectiveness of financial institutions. The role of blockchain technology in developing the performance of financial institutions and the huge change in the way of work that has emerged is the importance and severity of the need for technology, especially during the pandemic, for an effective transformation towards blockchain technology considering cases studies is very important to manage the change through the following three main axes: Technology: how to choose the right technology and the right technology partner. Procedures: The development of procedures has a major and effective role in improving and controlling all operations in general, achieving the best productivity, reducing waste of time and money, and controlling better workflow and costs and removing obstacles. Employees: One of the most important factors affecting the application of modern technologies and the success of development and change is the mechanism of work in financial institutions. Keywords: Islamic, Financial, Blockchain, institutions, Transformation.

A man in his 70s was referred to the endocrine surgery department after incidental finding of hypercalcaemia during preoperative work-up for abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. The patient reported severe fatigue and malaise with no previous history of nephrolithiasis or osteoporosis. After biochemical confirmation of primary hyperparathyroidism, localisation studies suggested multiple gland disease. Intraoperatively, three enlarged parathyroid adenomas were found and excised. Histopathological and immunohistochemical examination revealed triple water clear cell (WCC) parathyroid adenomas. Adenomas being entirely composed of WCCs are rare. In addition, triple adenomas are so rare that their existence is disputed by some authors. The present paper reports on an extremely rare case of a patient suffering from triple parathyroid adenomas composed entirely of WCCs. To our knowledge, this is the first such reported case in the English language literature.

The definition of the mandibular angle profile is a common challenge for oral and maxillofacial surgeons. Accurate diagnosis and treatment planning are mandatory in order to properly manage soft and hard tissues. The use of several biomaterials is described in the literature. The present paper reports the treatment of a defect in the right mandibular angle in otomandibular syndrome sequelae by positioning polyetheretherketone (PEEK) patient-specific implants (PSI) in a 25-year-old patient who previously underwent orthognathic surgery. Satisfactory aesthetic results were achieved with no complications 12 months after surgery. Considering its advantageous physical properties and the low rate of postoperative complications reported in the literature, PEEK can increase the treatment options for recontouring not only the upper third and the middle third of the face, but also of the lower third, in particular in cases of large three-dimensional defects.

A man in his twenties with a history of recurrent sinusitis was urgently referred to the emergency department (ED) by an out-of-hours general practitioner following a 2-day history of increasing right eye pain, redness and swelling after a week of coryzal symptoms. He denied visual impairment and any history of recent dental pain or procedures. Initial assessment in ED noted fever, tachycardia and hypotension. Video consultation with ophthalmologist in the ED identified proptosis, periorbital erythema and chemosis with full eye movement solely affecting the right eye. Visual acuity of 6/6 was confirmed in both eyes. After review by the ear, nose and throat (ENT) team, a diagnosis of sinogenic right orbital cellulitis was made, empirical antibiotics started and care transferred to the ENT team for immediate surgical intervention. 48 hours postoperatively, the patient acutely deteriorated, developing ophthalmoplegia and visual acuity of 6/95 in the right eye. Repeat imaging demonstrated a deteriorating picture and urgent surgery was organised at a neighbouring hospital’s specialist ENT unit combined with a change to his antibiotics. On day 4, 1 day following transfer, an anaerobic bacterium,Eggerthia catenaformis,was isolated from blood cultures collected on admission. The patient improved clinically following the second surgery and targeted antimicrobial therapy, eventually being discharged 10 days after initial presentation. In addition toE. catenaformis, the Anaerobic Reference Unit (Cardiff) identified two further anaerobic bacteria,Parvimonas micraandDialister pneumosintes. This paper presents the first documented case of polymicrobial anaerobic orbital cellulitis secondary to acute bacterial sinusitis. Moreover, this case underpins the importance of broad empirical antibiotics coupled with surgical source control to effectively manage a rare but sight-threatening and life-threatening disease.

How are abstract concepts such as ‘freedom' and ‘democracy' represented in the mind? One prominent proposal suggests that abstract concepts are grounded in emotion. Supporting this ‘affective embodiment' account, abstract concepts are rated to be more strongly positive or more strongly negative than concrete concepts. This paper demonstrates that this finding generalizes across languages by synthesizing rating data from Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish and Spanish. However, a deeper look at the same data suggests that the idea of emotional grounding only characterizes a small subset of abstract concepts. Moreover, when the concreteness/abstractness dimension is not operationalized using concreteness ratings, it is actually found that concrete concepts are rated as more emotional than abstract ones. Altogether, these results suggest limitations to the idea that emotion is an important factor in the grounding of abstract concepts. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences’.

Lipomas are benign tumours of mesenchymal origin, representing one of the most common tumours of the body. They are often observed between the fourth and the sixth decade of life and in 13% of the cases they occur in the head and neck region. In case of symptoms, surgical removal is the treatment of choice; when the formation involves the temporal region, the surgical approach is often challenging due to the presence of the neurovascular structures, such as the temporalis branch of the facial nerve and their potential extension to the nearby structures under the zygomatic arch to either the infratemporal fossa or the buccal region. Recurrence can occur frequently only if there is incomplete removal of lipoma. In this paper, the authors discuss surgical pitfalls of a very rare case of a large-sized symptomatic lipoma extended to the infratemporal and pterygomaxillary fossa, surgically removed via trans-zygomatic hemicoronal approach.

Cooperative networks are essential features of human society. Evolutionary theory hypothesizes that networks are used differently by men and women, yet the bulk of evidence supporting this hypothesis is based on studies conducted in a limited range of contexts and on few domains of cooperation. In this paper, we compare individual-level cooperative networks from two communities in Southwest China that differ systematically in kinship norms and institutions—one matrilineal and one patrilineal—while sharing an ethnic identity. Specifically, we investigate whether network structures differ based on prevailing kinship norms and type of gendered cooperative activity, one woman-centred (preparation of community meals) and one man-centred (farm equipment lending). Our descriptive results show a mixture of ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ features in all four networks. The matrilineal meals network stands out in terms of high degree skew. Exponential random graph models reveal a stronger role for geographical proximity in patriliny and a limited role of affinal relatedness across all networks. Our results point to the need to consider domains of cooperative activity alongside gender and cultural context to fully understand variation in how women and men leverage social relationships toward different ends.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives’.

Humans rely on both kin and non-kin social ties for a wide range of support. In patrilocal societies that practice village exogamy, women can face the challenge of building new supportive networks when they move to their husband's village and leave many genetic kin behind. In this paper, we track how women from 10 diverse communities in rural Bangladesh build supportive networks after migrating to their husband's village, comparing their trajectories with women who remained in their childhood village (Bengali: n = 317, Santal: n = 36, Hajong: n = 39, Mandi: n = 36). Women who migrated for marriage started with almost no adult close kin (mean 0.1) compared to women who remained in their childhood village (mean 2.4). However, immigrants compensated for the lack of genetic kin by a combination of close affinal kin and close friends. By their late 20s, immigrants reported substantially more non-kin friends than did non-immigrants (mean 1.4 versus 1.1) and a comparable number of supportive partners in several domains. These findings raise questions about the functions and quality of these different social ties and how different composition of supportive networks may provide different opportunities for women in these settings. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives’.

We investigate the value of a two-armed Bayesian response adaptive randomization (RAR) design to investigate early preterm birth rates of high versus low dose of docosahexaenoic acid during pregnancy. Unexpectedly, the COVID-19 pandemic forced recruitment to pause at 1100 participants rather than the planned 1355. The difference in power between number of participants at the pause and planned was 87% and 90% respectively. We decided to stop the study. This paper describes how the RAR was used to execute the study. The value of RAR in two-armed studies is quite high and their use in the future is promising.

Estimation of the high-dimensional banded covariance matrix is widely used in multivariate statistical analysis. To ensure the validity of estimation, we aim to test the hypothesis that the covariance matrix is banded with a certain bandwidth under the high-dimensional framework. Though several testing methods have been proposed in the literature, the existing tests are only powerful for some alternatives with certain sparsity levels, whereas they may not be powerful for alternatives with other sparsity structures. The goal of this paper is to propose a new test for the bandedness of high-dimensional covariance matrix, which is powerful for alternatives with various sparsity levels. The proposed new test also be used for testing the banded structure of covariance matrices of error vectors in high-dimensional factor models. Based on these statistics, a consistent bandwidth estimator is also introduced for a banded high dimensional covariance matrix. Extensive simulation studies and an application to a prostate cancer dataset from protein mass spectroscopy are conducted for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive tests blue and bandwidth estimator for the banded covariance matrix.

Evidence suggests that emotional distress, including problems like depression and anxiety is commonly reported by individuals meeting criteria for psychosis spectrum disorders. It has been argued that the appraisals individuals hold about the meaning of their psychosis may explain the emotional distress experienced. However, this literature has often failed to acknowledge the role of other variables in accounting for this distress. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the mechanisms underpinning emotional distress in those experiencing psychosis, by focusing specifically on psychosis-related appraisals and goal expectancy. A total of five studies are reported, four of these addressed the above aim by focusing specifically on individuals with a psychosis related disorder who were receiving support from a rehabilitation service. The final study captured how parental carers make sense of their child’s future following an experience of psychosis. Following a review of the literature in Chapter One, Chapter Two aimed to provide an overview of the methodological approaches employed in the current thesis. The study presented in Chapter Three aimed to synthesis the literature investigating the association between appraisals of psychosis experience and emotional distress in those experiencing psychosis, in order to determine the direction and magnitude of this association. A total of 17 studies were included in the review (15 in the meta-analysis). Small to moderate associations were observed between appraisals of psychosis and both depression and anxiety. A narrative synthesis of the literature showed that significant associations were evident in a small number of longitudinal studies (with regards to depression only). Furthermore, i in a number of cross-sectional studies significant associations held even when accounting for symptoms of psychosis, suggesting that the association that beliefs have with distress may not be entirely explained by the shared association with psychosis symptom severity. Chapter Four presents the findings of a study that aimed to validate a goal generation task within individuals experiencing psychosis. Using behaviour sequence analysis, the utility of the task in capturing goal generation processes in those meeting criteria for psychosis was determined. The study highlighted that those experiencing psychosis were able to progress from lower to higher-order goals. Using a cross-sectional design, Chapter Five aimed to investigate the extent to which psychosis related appraisals and goal expectancies (goal likelihood and goal difficulty) could account for emotional distress in those experiencing psychosis. A total of 73 individuals accessing support from a rehabilitation service were recruited. Results revealed that appraisals of psychosis were significantly associated with depression and anxiety. Specifically, appraisals of psychosis as a source of internal shame and defectiveness, external shame and as resulting in loss (e.g., loss of future employments) were all found to predict both depression and anxiety. Many of these associations held when controlling for other variables. Only appraisals of internal shame and defectiveness were found to be significantly associated with emotional distress, however, this association did not hold when controlling for other variables. When adjusting for appraisals of psychosis, goal appraisals were not found to be significantly associated with emotional distress. Chapter Six aimed to expand upon the results presented in chapter five by investigating the longitudinal association between goal expectancies (goal likelihood, difficulty and progress) and emotional distress. A series of mixed model ii regression analyses were carried out to determine the concurrent association between the variable and to establish if the degree of change in goal appraisals would correspond with changes in depression scores. On the whole these models revealed that goal expectancies do not have a consistent association with emotional distress when adjusting for other factors. However, they did highlight that appraisals of psychosis may be implicated in emotional distress within individuals experiencing psychosis. Finally, Chapter Seven presents the findings of a qualitative paper. Nine parental carers were interviewed with the aim of exploring how they make sense of their child’s future following an experience of psychosis, focusing particularly on the goals and aspirations parental carers hold for their adult children. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was carried out. A total of three superordinate themes emerged, impact of psychosis (subthemes: psychosis causing a change of path, goals: lost, maintained and adjusted), a fear of relapse (subthemes: concerns about coping and adjustment), and navigating the future (subthemes: hope, uncertainty and somewhere in between, barriers and facilitators). Overall, the findings from the current thesis suggest that appraisals of psychosis experience are important in accounting for emotional distress, an effect that was observed consistently across the studies reported within this thesis. However, it appears that goal expectancies do not have a consistent effect with emotional distress.

This paper aims to test the number of spikes in a generalized spiked covariance matrix, the spiked eigenvalues of which may be extremely larger or smaller than the non-spiked ones. For a high-dimensional problem, we first propose a general test statistic and derive its central limit theorem by random matrix theory without a Gaussian population constraint. We then apply the result to estimate the noise variance and test the equality of the smallest roots in generalized spiked models. Simulation studies showed that the proposed test method was correctly sized, and the power outcomes showed the robustness of our statistic to deviations from a Gaussian population. Moreover, our estimator of the noise variance resulted in much smaller mean absolute errors and mean squared errors than existing methods. In contrast to previously developed methods, we eliminated the strict conditions of diagonal or block-wise diagonal form of the population covariance matrix and extend the work to a wider range without the assumption of normality. Thus, the proposed method is more suitable for real problems., 23 pages,3 figures

Variations in skeletal abundance through geological history, when combined with organismal body size, can provide a much-improved quantification of animal abundance in marine environments, an important control on energy and nutrient flow through such systems. Increases in abundance have long been hypothesized to explain the increase in taxonomic diversity and mean animal body size in marine communities during the post-Paleozoic (252 Mya - Present) but total biomass has remained more poorly constrained than taxonomic diversity and body size due to the challenge of collecting relevant data. For this study, the abundance of skeletal fossils in marine limestones from the earliest Triassic through the Neogene (252 - 0 Mya) was evaluated in order to more directly quantify the absolute abundance of skeletal animals, algae, and foraminifera in marine carbonate environments. Absolute abundance data were collected from thirteen previously published papers reporting point count data for 1596 rock samples totaling to around 400,000 individual points. These data were recorded along with the geologic age, depositional environment, and standardized at the phylum and class level. An increase in the abundance of calcifying organisms across the post-Paleozoic was found, with the exception of a short-term decline following a major mass extinction event at the end of the Triassic period (201 Mya). These findings support the hypothesis that the abundance of marine biota has increased since the start of the Mesozoic, suggesting that increased trophic resources were at least one factor enabling the increases in taxonomic diversity. These and similar findings also have implications for modern conservation efforts. Conservationists can use these data as a deep-time baseline against which to compare changes in abundances within modern marine environments to identify ecosystems most in need of protection.

The goal of this study is to review the overall prevalence, burden, and distribution of the dengue disease in Pakistan from 2000 to 2019. Literature was searched using different search engines like Google scholar, PubMed, etc. providing the keywords “Dengue disease/infection, Dengue virus, DENV, DF/DHF/ DSS Pakistan”. All the published research papers/reports on the dengue virus over the period 2000 to 2019 were studied and selected data were summarized using MS Excel for windows such as total cases, age wise, gender, DENV serotype distribution, total DHF, and DSS patients. The literature providing insufficient data was excluded. The total number of cases reported during 2000-19 were 201,269. The maximum number of cases during the mentioned literature survey period was reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) (23.3%) followed by Punjab (3.8%) and Sindh (1.9%). The majority of dengue-infected cases were reported as Dengue fever (74.4%) followed by DHF (24.1%) and DSS (1.5%). Overall the deaths during the mentioned literature survey were 1082, of which the maximum mortalities were reported from KP (N=248) followed by Punjab (N=220). DENV remains a major public health problem in Pakistan and seems to remain endemic for a long time. The total prevalence of dengue infection is increased accordingly with time from 2000 to 2019. Moreover, all the four serotypes exist in Pakistan with increased mortalities.

A composite likelihood is a combination of low-dimensional likelihood objects useful in applications where the data have complex structure. Although composite likelihood construction is a crucial aspect influencing both computing and statistical properties of the resulting estimator, currently there does not seem to exist a universal rule to combine low-dimensional likelihood objects that is statistically justified and fast in execution. This paper develops a methodology to select and combine the most informative low-dimensional likelihoods from a large set of candidates while carrying out parameter estimation. The new procedure minimizes the distance between composite likelihood and full likelihood scores subject to a constraint representing the afforded computing cost. The selected composite likelihood is sparse in the sense that it contains a relatively small number of informative sub-likelihoods while the noisy terms are dropped. The resulting estimator is found to have asymptotic variance close to that of the minimum-variance estimator constructed using all the low-dimensional likelihoods.

This is a pre-analysis plan for the Facebook 2020 Election Research Project like-minded information experiment. The results from the study outlined in this PAP will be published in a paper forthcoming in Nature, July 28, 2023.

In this paper, we propose a new spectral-based approach to hypothesis testing for populations of networks. The primary goal is to develop a test to determine whether two given samples of networks come from the same random model or distribution. Our test statistic is based on the trace of the third order for a centered and scaled adjacency matrix, which we prove converges to the standard normal distribution as the number of nodes tends to infinity. The asymptotic power guarantee of the test is also provided. The proper interplay between the number of networks and the number of nodes for each network is explored in characterizing the theoretical properties of the proposed testing statistics. Our tests are applicable to both binary and weighted networks, operate under a very general framework where the networks are allowed to be large and sparse, and can be extended to multiple-sample testing. We provide an extensive simulation study to demonstrate the superior performance of our test over existing methods and apply our test to three real datasets.

Pre-analysis plan for the Facebook 2020 Election Research Project. The results from the study outlined in this PAP will be published in a paper forthcoming in Science, July 28, 2023.

Treball acceptat per publicar al proper volum 65 de la revista "Onomázein : Revista de Lingüística, Filología y Traducción" al tercer trimestre de 2024. Desde la campaña de Reforma y apertura iniciada en China en 1978, se ha despertado en este país el interés por la poesía española y han sido publicadas numerosas antologías poéticas. Sin embargo, la poesía femenina, muy destacable en el conjunto de la producción poética española, no había sido recopilada de manera sistemática hasta la publicación en 2001 de Antología de la poesía femenina española del siglo XX, obra del traductor Zhao Zhenjiang. El presente artículo se centra en cinco poetas españolas de la Generación del 27 incluidas en dicha antología y analiza las normas y las técnicas aplicadas en el proceso traductor. Since China's economic reform in 1978, people's interest in Spanish poetry has begun to awake and a large number of anthologies of poems have been published. However, female poetry, which has attracted worldwide attention in Spanish poetry creation, was not systematically compiled until 2001 when the translator Zhao Zhenjiang's Anthology of Spanish Female Poetry in the 20th Century was published. This paper focuses on five Spanish poetesses of the 27 Generation included in this collection of poems, and analyzes the principles and techniques used in the process of translation

In this paper, we provide an overview of the evolution of the definition of hyperglycemia during the past century and the alterations in glucose dynamics that cause fasting and postprandial hyperglycemia. We discuss how extensive mechanistic, physiological research into the factors and pathways that regulate the appearance of glucose in the circulation and its uptake and metabolism by tissues and organs has contributed knowledge that has advanced our understanding of different types of hyperglycemia, namely prediabetes and diabetes and their subtypes (impaired fasting plasma glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, combined impaired fasting plasma glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes mellitus), their relationships with medical complications, and how to prevent and treat hyperglycemia.

There is a need for an instantly indicating, easy-to-read, and inexpensive ionizing radiation dosimeter for first responders and members of the general public. One commercially available option is the RADTriage50 TM colorimetric dosimeter. However, existing literature has not adequately addressed the accuracy of RADTriage50 dosimeters at low doses of ionizing radiation (50 mSv) or the need for methods to quantitatively read the RADTriage50 dosimeters after they are exposed. In this paper, we use digital scanning methods to read the RADTriage50 dosimeters. The performance of the dosimeters was evaluated by irradiation with a gamma irradiator traceable to national standards. Experiments covered a range of deep dose equivalents (50 mSv to 2,000 mSv) within the manufacturer's specified range (50 mSv to 4,000 mSv) and also below 50 mSv to determine if the digital scanning densitometry method allowed for a quantitative readout with a greater dynamic range. We also conducted tests using different gamma energies, 137 Cs (662 keV) and 60 Co (1.17 and 1.33 MeV), and different dose rates to evaluate the dependency of the RADTriage50 dosimeters on these parameters. Modeling of our measurements suggests that the dose-response of the RADTriage50 dosimeter is linear at low doses with strong non-linearity beginning at ~750 mSv and the dosimeter response appearing to plateau at ~2,000 mSv, although additional measurements at doses beyond 2,000 mSv are needed to confirm this finding. We also found that the RadTriage50 dosimeter response varied with gamma energy, but not with dose rate.

Selecting hyperparameters for unsupervised learning problems is challenging in general due to the lack of ground truth for validation. Despite the prevalence of this issue in statistics and machine learning, especially in clustering problems, there are not many methods for tuning these hyperparameters with theoretical guarantees. In this paper, we provide a framework with provable guarantees for selecting hyperparameters in a number of distinct models. We consider both the subgaussian mixture model and network models to serve as examples of i.i.d. and non-i.i.d. data. We demonstrate that the same framework can be used to choose the Lagrange multipliers of penalty terms in semi-definite programming (SDP) relaxations for community detection, and the bandwidth parameter for constructing kernel similarity matrices for spectral clustering. By incorporating a cross-validation procedure, we show the framework can also do consistent model selection for network models. Using a variety of simulated and real data examples, we show that our framework outperforms other widely used tuning procedures in a broad range of parameter settings.

Abstract This paper studied the behavior of multidimensional and income poverty, as well as its determinants in Brazil, in addition to rural and urban areas, based on information from the 2019 National Continuous Household Sample Survey (PNADC). The Alkire-Foster methodology was used in the construction of a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), in addition to the logit model to estimate the impacts of determinants related to household characteristics on poverty. The health and sanitation dimension was the one that contributed the most to the MPI, followed by the education and housing dimensions. Unidimensional poverty was greater than multidimensional and rural poverty was also greater. Among the determinants of poverty, being in households with non-white heads, younger, unmarried, unemployed, less educated and in the North and Northeast regions increased the chances of poverty. In addition, while female heads reduced the chances of multidimensional poverty, it increased the chances of the unidimensional one.

Despite the rapid development in artificial intelligence, machines are nowhere close to the cognitive capabilities of humans. What could we be missing? This paper explores the idea that consciousness is the key to intelligence and the missing ingredient to artificial general intelligence. Any intelligence as advanced as humans or more advanced will have to be conscious, even though their consciousness may look different from ours. That consciousness is necessary for intelligence, including artificial intelligence should not be taken to mean that there is a hard cap for how advanced artificial intelligence can be. While consciousness as a concept appears to be extremely elusive, particularly the subjective, phenomenal aspect of consciousness, I claim that consciousness, if it exists, simply is the physical process that enables non-reflexive behavior. I support an eliminativist approach to understanding consciousness in the hopes of demystifying the idea of building artificial consciousness.

A potential free temperature measurement in gas insulated switchgear and lines (GIS/GIL) was investigated within an HVDC research project, because the temperature is of high importance during development and operation of HVDC equipment. Infrared spectrum measurement of the heated inner conductor by pyrometer sensors has emerged as the best technical solution for HVDC GIS/GIL. To optimize the infrared emission of the inner conductor, it was painted with black varnish. The sensor had to be adjusted to the infrared transmission of the pressurized insulating gas atmosphere. Experiences as well as methods to perform such a calibration are shown in the paper. A calibration by adjusting transmission and emission coefficients inside the sensor software did not succeeded, because the coefficients differed for variable sensor ambient temperatures. A successful calibration was possible by considering two major variables: the pyrometer output as well as the sensor ambient temperature. However, certain limits of the pyrometer measurement in GIS/GIL were observed as well. The EMC performance of the pyrometer was improved by an additional electronic unit, which protects the commercial electronics. Overall, the potential free temperature measurement could be performed during the long-term operation of the regarded HVDC GIL system. Typical temperature curves based on the calibrated pyrometer sensor are shown.

This paper projects and analyzes the regional impacts of climate change on the agricultural productivity of family farming and large-scale agriculture in Brazil between 2021 and 2050, using the RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios. The methodology adopted consists of a cross-sectional estimation of a production function in which agricultural productivity is determined by climatic, geographic, and productive factors. The study contributes to the literature by disaggregating agricultural production into family farming and large-scale agriculture, indicating the magnitude and direction of impacts by crops and regions in Brazil, a country with a great territorial dimension and relevant and heterogeneous agricultural production. The results indicate that the agricultural productivity of family farming is more sensitive and therefore this type of producer could be more vulnerable to the phenomenon. On average, the effects will be negative in the North/Northeast regions and for cassava, maize, beans, and soybeans, with possible impacts on deforestation and on food supply. Productivity gains are expected in the southern region and for the cultivation of sugar cane and soybeans. Deterioration of food security of the vulnerable farmers and regional disparities may increase in Brazil.

In observational data studies in economics trying to estimate causal effects (typically using instrumental variables, difference-in-differences, or regression discontinuity methods) it has become common to carry out so called placebo tests (e.g. Almond et al. 2015). In such placebo tests, the same test as in the main hypothesis test is carried out on a time period or situation where the estimated effect is expected to be zero (i.e. the null hypothesis is expected to be true). An example can be using an outcome where there should be no effect or applying a regression discontinuity test on another time period than that for the studied discontinuity. A failure to reject the null hypothesis in the placebo test is interpreted as supporting the validity of the research design to identify causal effects. In placebo tests researchers face different incentives than in regular hypothesis tests. In regular hypothesis tests researchers have an incentive to engage in “p-hacking” and selectively report statistically significant findings. In placebo tests, researchers have an incentive to report null results and thus have an incentive to engage in a form of “reverse p-hacking” (selectively only reporting placebo tests that cannot reject the null hypothesis). In this study we will test if statistically significant placebo tests are selectively underreported. If the null hypothesis is true in placebo tests, the false positive probability of these tests should equal the significance threshold used (i.e. if the tests are carried out at the 5% significance level, 5% of the placebo tests should report a statistically significant finding). This implies that 5% of published placebo tests should be significant at the 5% level if there is no selective reporting. If less than 5% of placebo tests in published papers have a two-sided p-value below 0.05, this provides evidence that placebo tests are selectively reported. As placebo tests that yield a significant effect in the opposite direction of the main hypothesis test are often interpreted as supporting the validity of the research design (see e.g. Ananyev & Guriev 2019 and Bahar & Rapoport 2018); the incentives to underreport statistically significant placebo tests is strongest for placebo tests that yield a significant effect in the same direction as the main hypothesis test. In our primary hypothesis test below we therefore test if the fraction of significant placebo tests with an effect in the same direction as the main hypothesis differ from 2.5% (the expected fraction if true null hypotheses are tested). Note that it is possible that placebo tests are not valid (i.e. do not test true null hypotheses), in which case the fraction of published placebo tests that are significant at the 5% level should be larger than 5% if there is no selective reporting (and larger than 2.5% in our primary hypothesis test). This would bias the results against our hypothesis of selective reporting of placebo tests.

High-dimensional self-exciting point processes have been widely used in many application areas to model discrete event data in which past and current events affect the likelihood of future events. In this paper, we are concerned with detecting abrupt changes of the coefficient matrices in discrete-time high-dimensional self-exciting Poisson processes, which have yet to be studied in the existing literature due to both theoretical and computational challenges rooted in the non-stationary and high-dimensional nature of the underlying process. We propose a penalized dynamic programming approach which is supported by a theoretical rate analysis and numerical evidence.

Pre-analysis plans for the Facebook 2020 Election Research Project. The results from the studies outlined in this PAP will be published in two papers forthcoming in Science, July 28, 2023.

This thesis presents a critical examination of the rivalry between G. W. M. Reynolds and Charles Dickens between 1837 and 1870. Specifically, the thesis analyses three distinct phases of their rivalry. The first is its inception in 1837 following Reynolds���s publication of Pickwick Abroad, his ���sequel��� to Dickens���s Pickwick Papers (1836). The second phase concerns the 1840s, examining how Reynolds���s success and reputation directly impacted upon Dickens���s position in the literary market. The final phase addresses the most explicit and combative chapter of their rivalry as the two traded insults across their publications in the 1850s and Dickens looked to ���displace��� his more radical counterpart. Commonly cited as a peripheral figure in Dickens���s career, this thesis argues for Reynolds as a more significant presence. By analysing their publications in parallel, often viewing one through the lens of the other, this study offers a fresh perspective on two authors competing for readerships and commercial marketspace while grappling with authorial identities in the first age of mass culture. The thesis presents three principal arguments. Firstly, it seeks to contest the reductive perception of Reynolds as a cheap plagiariser of Dickens���s work by analysing the more nuanced and complex aspects of Reynolds���s early re-appropriations. Secondly, it argues that Reynolds���s precipitous rise to literary fame and political notoriety after 1844 had a significant bearing on the fiction Dickens produced thereafter. It is contended that Dickens���s abrupt shift from the political incendiarism of The Chimes in 1844 into a ���transitional period��� in 1845, after which his fiction became more domestically, or family-oriented, can be understood as a response, or reaction to Reynolds���s concurrent literary successes and his growing reputation as a radical and political subversive. Finally, it is reasoned that the bitter exchange of insults between Dickens and Reynolds in the 1850s and the seemingly mutable tone of their rivalry up until Dickens���s death in 1870 illustrates a relationship not entirely the product of natural antipathy, but one cultivated for commercial and political purposes. It is argued that both Dickens and Reynolds constructed an image of the other in order to mask their similarities and natural affinities and to bolster and better define their own position in the literary marketplace.