Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Asset Prices and Monetary Policy – A sticky-dispersed information model

We present a DSGE model with heterogeneously informed agents and two investment opportunities – stocks and bonds – to study the interaction between monetary policy and asset prices. The information is both sticky, as in Mankiw e Reis (2002), and dispersed, as in Morris e Shin (2002). This framework allows us to (i) show that variations in stock market wealth affect consumption, (ii) demonstrate that a central bank can prevent the creation of boom-bust episodes in the economy, (iii) determine the moment of a bust occurrence and (iv) study the impulse responses to dividend and informational shocks.
You've Got Photos! The design and evaluation of a location-based media-sharing application

PhotoJournal is a novel location-based media sharing appli- cation that enables users to build interactive journals that associate multimedia files with locations on maps and share this information with other users. Its underlying informa- tion discovery and sharing mechanism is 7DS that runs in either pure peer-to-peer or centralized server-to-client mode, depending on the availability of a server and/or an infras- tructure. 7DS-enabled devices act as miniature caches, shar- ing information with each other. When access to an informa- tion server (e.g., web server) is not available, the local 7DS instance running on the device enables the device to search and access information from other peers in proximity. We have implemented the prototype and evaluated the delay to access the data using three testbeds. Two of these testbeds employ a centralized (server-to-client) architecture, while the third one applies the peer-to-peer paradigm. Depend- ing on the underlying network technology and device capa- bilities, this delay varies. The results encourage us to per- form additional empirical-based studies under increased traf- fic load conditions and initiate a user-study in the premises of a museum and a research park.
Symmetric Monopoles

We discuss the spectral curves and rational maps associated with SU (2) Bogomolny monopoles of arbitrary charge k . We describe the eﬀect on the rational maps of inverting monopoles in the plane with respect to which the rational maps are deﬁned, and discuss the monopoles invariant under such inversion. We deﬁne the strongly centred monopoles, and show they form a geodesic submanifold of the k -monopole moduli space. The space of strongly centred k -monopoles invariant under the cyclic group of rotations about a ﬁxed axis, C k , is shown to consist of several surfaces of revolution, generalizing the two surfaces obtained by Atiyah and Hitchin in the 2-monopole case. Geodesics on these surfaces give a novel type of k -monopole scattering. We present a number of curves in T P 1 which we conjecture are the spectral curves of monopoles with the symmetries of a regular solid. These conjectures are based on analogies with Skyrmions.
Clients of conventional and Islamic banks in Bahrain: How they choose which bank to patronize

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report a study into: the motives that dispose customers in Bahrain to choose a specific bank; the level of familiarity of customers with the most widely used services/products offered by Islamic banks; and the extent of use of those products. Design/methodology/approach - This is the first study conducted in Bahrain to include three types of bank clients: those who bank with conventional banks, those who bank with Islamic banks, and who use both kinds of banks. The results are based on a response rate of 65.5 percent from 1,000 questionnaires distributed. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric statistics (Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests) are reported, and factor analysis used to analyze the responses. Findings - It is found that: Islamic religious belief and social responsibility are the two most important factors that determine bank selection. Cost benefit is the third most important factor considered in bank selection; clients of conventional and Islamic banks share a number of motives, but they differ significantly on a few motives in relation to bank selection; and clients of Islamic banks are more familiar with the products/services that conform to the Practical implications - The most important practical implication is for banks, conventional and Islamic, when setting and implementing their marketing strategies, which should include an awareness campaign. The results also benefit banks operating in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This is because of the similarities of the countries in the GCC. Originality/value - This paper is the first attempt to identify the motives and criteria for bank selection in Bahrain among clients of conventional banks, Islamic banks, and clients who bank with both types of banks. The study goes on to determine the extent of familiarity of clients of banks in Bahrain with the products/services that comply with Islamic
Filling the Knowledge Gap: Measuring HIV Prevalence and Risk Factors among Men Who Have Sex with Men and Female Sex Workers in Tripoli, Libya

Background Publications on Libya’s HIV epidemic mostly examined the victims of the tragic nosocomial HIV outbreak in the 1990s and the related dispute about the detention of foreign medical workers. The dispute resolution in 2003 included an agreement with the European Union on humanitarian cooperation and the development of Libya’s first National HIV Strategy. As part of this we conducted Libya’s first bio-behavioural survey among men having sex with men (MSM) and female sex workers (FSW). Methods Using respondent-driven sampling, we conducted a cross-sectional study to estimate the prevalence of HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and related risk factors among 227 MSM and 69 FSW in Tripoli (FSW recruitment ended prematurely due to the political events in 2011). Results For MSM we estimated an HIV prevalence of 3.1%, HBV prevalence of 2.9%, and HCV prevalence of 7.3%, and for FSW an HIV prevalence of 15.7%, HBV prevalence of 0%, and HCV prevalence of 5.2%. We detected high levels of risk behaviours, poor HIV-related knowledge, high stigma and lack of prevention programmes. These results must be interpreted in the context of the political situation which prohibited reaching an ideal sample size for FSW. Conclusion There is urgent need to implement an effective National HIV Strategy informed by the results of this research. The risk of transmission within different risk groups and to the general population may be high given the recent military events that led to increased violence, migration, and the disruption of essential HIV-related services.
Stabilization and Lifetime Optimization in Distributed Sensor Networks

One of the main design challenges in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is to prolong the system lifetime, while achieving acceptable quality of service for applications. In WSN, each sensor node is battery powered and it is not convenient to recharge or replace the batteries in many cases, especially in remote and hostile environments. Due to the limited capabilities of sensor nodes, it is usually desirable that a WSN should be deployed with high density and thus redundancy can be exploited to increase the network's lifetime. In this paper, we introduce an efficient lifetime optimization and self-stabilizing algorithm to enhance the lifetime of wireless sensor networks especially when the reliabilities of sensor nodes are expected to decrease due to use and wear-out effects. Our algorithm seeks to build resiliency by maintaining a necessary set of working nodes and replacing failed ones when needed. We provide some theoretical and simulation results, that fully demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed algorithm.
Trinity : reconstructing a full-length transcriptome without a genome from RNA-Seq data

Massively-parallel cDNA sequencing has opened the way to deep and efficient probing of transcriptomes. Current approaches for transcript reconstruction from such data often rely on aligning reads to a reference genome, and are thus unsuitable for samples with a partial or missing reference genome. Here, we present the Trinity methodology for de novo full-length transcriptome reconstruction, and evaluate it on samples from fission yeast, mouse, and whitefly – an insect whose genome has not yet been sequenced. Trinity fully reconstructs a large fraction of the transcripts present in the data, also reporting alternative splice isoforms and transcripts from Users may view, print, copy, download and text and datamine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use: http://www.nature. com/authors/editorial_policies/license.html#terms Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to nir@cs.huji. ac.il (NF), aregev@broad.mit. edu (AR). *These authors contributed equally to this work and appear in alphabetical order ‡These authors contributed equally to this work Author Contributions. MGG, MY, BJH, KLT, NF and AR conceived and designed the study. BJH, MGG and MY developed the Inchworm, Chrysalis, and Butterfly components, respectively. NR, FDP, BB, CN, KLT contributed to the study’s conception and execution. JZL, DAT, XA, LF, RR, IA, NH, AR and AG designed and performed all experiments. QZ, ZC and EM contributed computational analyses. MGG, BJH and MY designed, implemented, and evaluated all methods. AR, NF, MGG, BJH and MY wrote the manuscript, with input from all authors. The authors declare no competing financial interest. Data Availability. Data is available in the gene expression omnibus or SRA (Fission yeast data is SRP005611 15, mouse is GSEXXX). HHS Public Access Author manuscript Nat Biotechnol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 February 13. Published in final edited form as: Nat Biotechnol. ; 29(7): 644–652. doi:10.1038/nbt.1883. A uhor M anscript
After neoliberalism : what next for Latin America?

In the past twenty years, economic policy in Latin America has veered toward neoliberalism, or market friendliness. State interventions in the economy were cut back in many areas, in the form of reductions in fiscal deficits; privatization of public enterprises; reductions of import quotas and tariffs and export subsidies; removal of barriers to foreign capital flow; and increased faith in the private sector and market processes.This book offers an intellectual and historical background for these policy choices, specifically in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. The contributors detail the structural reform and economic policies in Latin America and discuss the various and often contradictory effects neoliberalism, such as fluctuating growth rates and saving-investment balances, worsened corruption, growth of exports, falling wages, and rising unemployment. In addition, each case study forecasts the effects of neoliberal policies on future growth and income distribution in the respective countries. Finally, it offers policy alternatives to neoliberalism.The essays in this volume are: an introduction by Lance Taylor; "The Argentine Experience with Stabilization and Structural Reform," by Jose Maria Fanelli and Roberto Frenkel; "Opening, Stabilization, and Macroeconomic Sustainability in Brazil," by Edward Amadeo, "An Ongoing Structural Transformation: The Colombian Economy, 1986-96," by Jose Antonio Ocampo; "Economic Reforms, Stabilization Policies, and the 'Mexican Disease, '" by Nora Claudia Lustig and Jaime Ros; and "Structural Reforms and Macroeconomic Policy in Peru: 1990-96," by Oscar Dancourt.Lance Taylor is the Arnhold Professor of International Cooperation and Development, New School for Social Research. "
An analysis of the factors influencing the implementation of the youth enterprise development fund (Yedf) in Kenya. A survey of Westlands Constituency, Nairobi County.

Youth unemployment in Kenya has been on the increase over the years. The government conceived the Youth Entet. :prise Development Fund (YEDF) as a strategic move towards arresting youth unemplo~ent in the country. The overall objective of this study therefore was to analyze the factors influencing the implementation of the YEDF in Westlands Constituency, Nairobi County. To achieve this, two sets of questionnaires were used to get information from YEDF management officials and some beneficiary youth groups. Descriptive survey design was used. The target population was 76 respondents and due to the small sample size, the researcher carried out a census. The overall response rate was 83% an equivalent of 63 respondents. The data collected was then analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented using tables and charts enhanced by a narrative explanation. The analysis revealed that the most important factors influencing YEDF implementation were 'personnel skills' and 'government support/stakeholder involvement' at (85.7%). This was followed by the factor 'monitoring and evaluation' at (78.6%). Many respondents (57.2%) also felt that the government's efforts were inadequate in addressing the challenges facing the Kenyan youth. All the three factors were considered important by more than 50% of the respondents. Therefore for the fund to be a success, it's important that the government puts in more efforts by increasing the budgetary allocation to the fund, put the legal framework in place and seek ways of encouraging youth employment e.g. offer financial incentives to industries. The fund should also involve the youth more and seek for their opinions. Since personnel skills were also considered as very important to the success of the fund, the staff in the regional offices should be equipped with the necessary project management skills. The decision makers should also utilize the valuable monitoring and evaluation findings for the ultimate success of evaluation. The youth felt that they were 'not involved' (24.49%) as stakeholders in the implementation of the fund. Only 36.73% felt that the youth were 'very involved'. Majority of the youth respondents (61.2%) also felt that the youth fund has helped reduce youth unemployment 'very much'. They also felt that the fund should also give loans to individuals since not all of them are in youth groups.
Decoding Multiple Sound Categories in the Human Temporal Cortex Using High Resolution fMRI

Perception of sound categories is an important aspect of auditory perception. The extent to which the brain’s representation of sound categories is encoded in specialized subregions or distributed across the auditory cortex remains unclear. Recent studies using multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) of brain activations have provided important insights into how the brain decodes perceptual information. In the large existing literature on brain decoding using MVPA methods, relatively few studies have been conducted on multi-class categorization in the auditory domain. Here, we investigated the representation and processing of auditory categories within the human temporal cortex using high resolution fMRI and MVPA methods. More importantly, we considered decoding multiple sound categories simultaneously through multi-class support vector machine-recursive feature elimination (MSVM-RFE) as our MVPA tool. Results show that for all classifications the model MSVM-RFE was able to learn the functional relation between the multiple sound categories and the corresponding evoked spatial patterns and classify the unlabeled sound-evoked patterns significantly above chance. This indicates the feasibility of decoding multiple sound categories not only within but across subjects. However, the across-subject variation affects classification performance more than the within-subject variation, as the across-subject analysis has significantly lower classification accuracies. Sound category-selective brain maps were identified based on multi-class classification and revealed distributed patterns of brain activity in the superior temporal gyrus and the middle temporal gyrus. This is in accordance with previous studies, indicating that information in the spatially distributed patterns may reflect a more abstract perceptual level of representation of sound categories. Further, we show that the across-subject classification performance can be significantly improved by averaging the fMRI images over items, because the irrelevant variations between different items of the same sound category are reduced and in turn the proportion of signals relevant to sound categorization increases.
Patterns of congressional voting

Congressional roll call voting has been highly structured for most of U.S. history. The structure is revealed by a dynamic, spatial analysis of the entire roll call voting record from 1789 to 1985. The space is characterized by a predominant major dimension with, at times, a significant, but less important second dimension. In the modern era, spatial positions are very stable. This stability is such that, under certain conditions, short run forecasting of roll call votes is possible. Since the end of World War II, changes in congressional voting patterns have occurred almost entirely through the process of replacement of retiring or defeated legislators with new members. Politically, selection is far more important than adaptation.
Web based neurology “textbooks”: www.medlink.com and www.emedicine.com/neuro

Objective and importance: Resective surgery is an effective treatment for refractory temporal lobe epilepsy. In difficult cases, invasive monitoring may be needed to precisely lateralise and localise seizure foci of mesial temporal origin. The authors present a modified technique for image guided, endoscopic placement of an intraventricular electrode array (IVE) that abuts the amygdalo-hippocampal complex. Methods: Eight patients with suspected mesial temporal lobe epilepsy had placement of an IVE in conjunction with other invasive electrodes. Seven of these patients also had subdural grid or strip electrodes and four had foramen ovale electrodes. Frameless image guidance was used to place a custom 10-contact depth electrode through a rigid neuroendoscope within the atrium of the lateral ventricle. Once proper orientation towards the temporal horn was confirmed, the IVE array was advanced into the temporal horn to the temporal tip. The endoscope was removed and electrode placement was confirmed through an intraoperative lateral skull radiograph and on visual inspection at the time of resection in two cases. Results: The IVE was crucial for localisation in one patient and helped localisation in four others. Surgery was offered to seven patients. The only serious complication of IVE placement was a thalamic contusion presumably from an errant electrode tip. One electrode was inadvertently placed into the frontal horn. There were no deaths and no permanent morbidity associated with the procedure. Conclusion: Endoscopically placed temporal horn, intraventricular electrodes provide an alternative to transcortical depth electrode placement. The technique hopefully can avoid complications associated with multiple depth electrode placements, especially when bilateral amygdalo-hippocampal electrical recordings are desired, although there may be a steep learning curve.
Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Effect of vitamin C and vitamin E supplementation on endothelial function : a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Randomised controlled trials (RCT) testing the effects of antioxidant supplements on endothelial function (EF) have reported conflicting results. We aimed to investigate the effects of supplementation with antioxidant vitamins C and E on EF and to explore factors that may provide explanations for the inconsistent results. We searched four databases (MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library and Scopus) from inception until May 2014 for RCT involving adult participants aged $18 years who were supplemented with vitamins C and E alone or in combination for more than 2 weeks and reporting changes in EF measured using flow mediated dilation or forearm blood flow. Data were pooled as standardised mean difference (SMD) and analysed using a random-effects model. Significant improvements in EF were observed in trials supplementing with vitamin C alone (500–2000 mg/d) (SMD: 0·25, 95 % CI 0·02, 0·49, P1⁄40·043) and vitamin E alone (300–1800 IU/d; 1 IU vitamin E 1⁄4 0·67 mg natural vitamin E) (SMD: 0·48, 95 % CI 0·23, 0·72, P1⁄40·0001), whereas co-administration of both vitamins was ineffective (vitamin C: 500–2000 mg/d; vitamin E: 400–1200 IU/d) (SMD: 0·12, 95 % CI 20·18, 0·42, P1⁄40·428). The effect of vitamin C supplementation on EF increased significantly with age (b 0·023, 95 % CI 0·001, 0·05, P1⁄40·042). There was a significant negative correlation between baseline plasma vitamin E concentration and the effect of vitamin E supplementation on EF (b 20·03, 95 % CI 20·06, 20·001, P1⁄40·029). Supplementation with either vitamin C or vitamin E alone improves EF. However, subgroup analysis emphasises the importance of careful characterisation and selection of a population group which may benefit from such supplementation.
Reexamining loss aversion in aggregate consumption - Swedish and international evidence

Recent empirical and theoretical studies have suggested that consumption growth reacts asymmetrically to positive and negative expected income growth. In this paper we investigate if this behavior is robust to a) assumptions on how the households form their expectations of future earnings and b) sampling frequency. After investigating the case for Swedish consumption using survey data and a panel of annual observations on 15 OECD countries we conclude that previous results can not easily be generalized
A QA System for the MRSA Web Portal Evaluating Retrieval Techniques for a Domain-Specific Corpus

As part of a long-term project a system needed to b e developed which enables hospital workers to quickly find answers to their questions regarding the MRSA patho gen. This paper focuses on how these questions can be an swered by using modern information retrieval and natural l anguage processing techniques on a frequently-asked-questio ns style database. It focuses on the theoretical foundations on which the final system was built.
Stemming heart failure with cardiac- or reprogrammed-stem cells

Despite extensive efforts to control myocyte growth by genetic targeting of the cell cycle machinery and small molecules for cardiac repair, adult myocytes themselves appeared to divide a limited number of times in response to a variety of cardiac muscle stresses. Rare tissue‐resident stem cells are thought to exist in many adult organs that are capable of self‐renewal and differentiation and possess a range of actions that are potentially therapeutic. Recent studies suggest that a population of cardiac stem cells (CSCs) is maintained after cardiac development in the adult heart in mammals including human beings; however, homeostatic cardiomyocyte replacement might be stem cell‐dependent, and functional myocardial regeneration after cardiac muscle damage is not yet considered as sufficient to fully maintain or reconstitute the cardiovascular system and function. Although it is clear that adult CSCs have limitations in their capabilities to proliferate extensively and differentiate in response to injury in vivo for replenishing mature car‐diomyocytes and potentially function as resident stem cells. Transplantation of CSCs expanded ex vivo seems to require an integrated strategy of cell growth‐enhancing factor(s) and tissue engineering technologies to support the donor cell survival and subsequent proliferation and differentiation in the host microenvironment. There has been substantial interest regarding the evidence that mammalian fibroblasts can be genetically reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which closely resemble embryonic stem (ES) cell properties capable of differentiating into functional cardiomyocytes, and these cells may provide an alternative cell source for generating patient‐specific CSCs for therapeutic applications.