Spike sorting using locality preserving projection with gap statistics and landmark-based spectral clustering

Understanding neural functions requires knowledge from analysing electrophysiological data. The process of assigning spikes of a multichannel signal into clusters, called spike sorting, is one of the important problems in such analysis. There have been various automated spike sorting techniques with both advantages and disadvantages regarding accuracy and computational costs. Therefore, developing spike sorting methods that are highly accurate and computationally inexpensive is always a challenge in the biomedical engineering practice.

A global gap analysis of sea turtle protection coverage

 Although the number and extent of protected areas (PAs) are continuously increasing, their coverage of global biodiversity, as well as criteria and targets that underline their selection, warrants scrutiny. As a case study, we use a global dataset of sea turtle nesting sites (. n=. 2991) to determine the extent to which the existing global PA network encompasses nesting habitats (beaches) that are vital for the persistence of the seven sea turtle species. The majority of nesting sites (87%) are in the tropics, and are mainly hosted by developing countries. Developing countries contain 82% nesting sites, which provide lower protection coverage compared to developed countries. PAs encompass 25% of all nesting sites, of which 78% are in marine PAs. At present, most nesting sites in PAs with IUCN ratification receive high protection. We identified the countries that provide the highest and lowest nesting site protection coverage, and detected gaps in species-level protection effort within countries. No clear trend in protection coverage was found in relation to gross domestic product, the Global Peace Index or sea turtle regional management units; however, countries in crisis (civil unrest, war or natural catastrophes) provided slightly higher protection coverage of all countries. We conclude that global sea turtle resilience against threats spanning temperate to tropical regions require representative PA coverage at the species level within countries. This work is anticipated to function as a first step towards identifying specific countries or regions that should receive higher conservation interest by national and international bodies. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Wage inequality and welfare in developing countries: privatization and reforms in the short and long run

The impacts of privatization on wage inequality and welfare are considered for developing countries. In the short run, privatization can narrow wage inequality but reduce output of public firms. However, the favorable effect of privatization on lowering wage inequality vanishes in the long run due to the excessive entry of public firms. Thus, a policy recommendation for privatization would be: to avoid rising wage inequality, entry regulation of public firms should be imposed in the short run, and to mitigate the output contraction, complementary structural changes or policy reforms are needed in the transitional period of privatization.

Gender roles and the education gender gap in Turkey

Using nationally representative data on individual subjective views on gender roles, we examine the gender gap in educational achievement in Turkey and show that the cultural bias against the education of girls is a fundamental factor behind their low educational attainment in socially conservative societies. The 1997 education reform in Turkey extended compulsory schooling from 5 to 8 years. Using the reform as a natural experiment, we investigate the impact of the reform on the effects of mothers’ traditional views in determining children’s educational attainment. We find that the reform helped reduce school dropout rates across the country. Nevertheless, regardless of the mother’s view on gender roles, the reductions in school dropout rates were similar for boys and girls, failing to eliminate the gender gap against girls. Turkey is an excellent environment to study the effects of societal gender roles since it combines modernity with traditionalism and displays a wide spectrum of views on gender roles. It is also one of the few developing countries where a gender gap to the detriment of females still exists in educational achievement

Determinants of wage arrears and their implications for the socioeconomic wellbeing of China's migrant workers: Evidence from Guangdong province

The recent unprecedented scale of Chinese migration has had far-reaching consequences. Within China, many villages have been drained of their young and most able workers, cities have been swamped by the ‘floating population’, and many rural migrants have been unable to integrate into urban society. Internationally, the Chinese have become increasingly more mobile. This Handbook provides a unique collection of new and original research on internal and international Chinese migration and its effects on the sense of belonging of migrants.

Non-wage benefits, corporate ownership and firm performance in post-communist economies: evidence from Ukraine

The economic reforms in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe have fundamentally reshaped ownership and governance of economic production, notably through the privatization of former state-owned enterprises. These reforms were expected to transform management practices by displacing ‘cradle-to-grave’ welfare arrangements administered by state-owned enterprises. Using data drawn from two large samples of Ukrainian establishments, we investigate, in two different time points, the relationship between non-wage benefits and firm performance during the period of transition to a market economy (1994–2004). We found that non-wage benefits continued to be a critical feature of HRM practices in Ukraine during this period, and were positively associated with firm performance.

Influence of fill gap on flexural strength of parts fabricated by curved layer fused deposition modeling

Rapid Prototyping Techniques (RPT) have evolved over the last decade. Novel RP techniques are being developed to improve the overall properties of parts manufactured using RPT. One such technique is the Curved layer fused deposition modeling (CLFDM) which has been developed based on the conventional Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technique. The CLFDM technique has gained significant amount of attention as a result of its advantages such as increased flexural strength, reduction of the stair-stepping effect and the reduction in the number of layers, especially for thin shell-like structures. This paper studies the effects of fill gap (FG) on flexural strength and bead dimension, middle-plane cross section profiles and the fracture surface and compares the results to parts made using the traditional planar layer-by-layer approach. Also, in the end some meaningful and interesting future study areas both in hardware design and software development for the CLFDM are proposed.