Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Testing Consumption-Based CAPM: Evidence from Alternative Models

Despite its intuitive appeal, empirical evidence on the consumption-based CAPM remains unclear at best. Model restrictions are often rejected, parameters are estimated imprecisely, and inferences can be highly sensitive to model specifications and choice of instruments. This paper tests the fit of the classic C-CAPM and three model extensions against various Australian asset classes. There is very little prior work examining the success of the C-CAPM in an Australian context, and the few existing studies are restricted to the classic C-CAPM. Our results provide some support for the C-CAPM, especially in relation to equity returns. When using instruments, the model implied restrictions cannot be rejected for market indexes, industry portfolios and portfolios cross-sorted on size and book-to-market. However, the evidence rejects the C-CAPM restrictions for size-sorted portfolios and for fixed-income returns. Our results also cast some doubts on the comparative advantage of various extensions of the classic C-CAPM such as habit-persistence and recursive utility models. These model extensions bring significant complexity and computational challenges but without much improvement in the model fit over the classic C-CAPM. Moreover, these extensions, like the classic C-CAPM, also fail to price small stock portfolios and fixed-income assets.
A bi-population PSO with a shake-mechanism for solving constrained numerical optimization

This paper presents an enhanced particle swarm optimizer approach, which is designed to solve numerical constrained optimization problems. The approach uses a single method to handle different types of constraints (linear, nonlinear, equality or inequality) and it incorporates a shake- mechanism and a dual population in an attempt to overcome the problem of premature convergence to local optima. The proposed algorithm is validated using standard test functions taken from the specialized literature and is compared with respect to algorithms representative of the state-of-the-art in the area. Our preliminary results indicate that our proposed approach is a highly competitive alternative to solve constrained optimization problems.
TWO PHYSICALLY DISTINCT POPULATIONS OF LOW-IONIZATION NUCLEAR EMISSION-LINE REGIONS

The nature of low-ionization nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs) has been an open question for a long time. We study the properties of LINERs from several different aspects. The LINERs are found to consist of two different categories that can be clearly separated in the traditional Baldwin–Phillips–Terlevich diagrams, especially in the [O i]/Hα versus [O iii]/Hβ diagram. LINERs with high [O i]/Hα ratios (Population I) differ from ones with low ratios (Population II) in several properties. Broad emission lines are only identified in the spectra of Population I LINERs. While only the Population II LINERs show luminous infrared emission and occurrence of core-collapse supernovae in the host. Combining these results with the known distribution of stellar populations not only suggests that the two populations have different line-excitation mechanisms, but also implies that they are at different evolutionary stages.
Phase-Noise Analysis of Injection-Locked Oscillators and Analog Frequency Dividers

In-depth investigation of the phase-noise behavior of injection-locked oscillators and analog frequency dividers is presented. An analytical formulation has been obtained, which allows a better understanding of the shape of the output phase-noise spectrum of these circuits. The simplicity of this formulation is also helpful for circuit design. Approximate expressions for the corner frequencies of the spectrum are determined, identifying the most influential magnitudes and deriving design criteria. In particular, a technique has been developed to shift the frequency of the first corner of the phase-noise spectrum, up to which the output phase noise follows the input one. The expressions for the corner frequencies can be introduced in either in-house or commercial harmonic-balance software, thus allowing an agile design, as no separate phase-noise analysis is required. The validity of the analytical techniques is verified with the conversion-matrix approach and with measurements using two field-effect-transistor-based circuits: a 4.9-GHz injection-locked oscillator and a frequency divider by 2 with 9.8-GHz input frequency.
Calibration of the Polarimetric NEXRAD Radar Using Meteorological Signals

Regular operation of weather radar mandates frequent calibration to ensure accurate measurements. Even modest calibration errors in reflectivity factor Z and differential reflectivity ZDR may produce severe deficiencies in the quality of radar products such as rainfall estimates and hydrometeor classes. Radar users, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), rely on high quality weather radar data to ensure efficient operations. Techniques for absolute calibration of Z and ZDR measured with dual-polarization weather radars are examined in this paper. The idea of polarimetric selfconsistency in the rain medium is tested for Z calibration (e.g., Goddard et. al 1994, Scarchilli et al. 1996, Vivekanandan et al. 2003) and the polarimetric properties of natural weather scatterers are used for ZDR calibration (e.g., Gorgucci et al. 1999, Bringi and Chandrasekar 2001). The Z calibration procedure is implemented in real-time and tested using a large dataset collected during the Joint Polarization Experiment (JPOLE). This calibration routine operates continuously for the standard VCP during data acquisition and processing.
Near-infrared spectroscopy of (proto)-planetary nebulae: molecular hydrogen excitation as an evolutionary tracer

We present an in-depth analysis of molecular excitation in 11 H2-bright planetary and protoplanetary nebulae (PN and PPN). From newly acquired K-band observations, we extract a number of spectra at positions across each source. H2 line intensities are plotted on ‘column density ratio’ diagrams so that we may examine the excitation in and across each region. To achieve this, we combine the shock models of Smith, Khanzadyan & Davis with the photodissociation region (PDR) models of Black & van Dishoeck to yield a shock-plus-fluorescence fit to each data set. Although the combined shock + fluorescence model is needed to explain the low- and high-energy H2 lines in most of the sources observed (fluorescence accounts for much of the emission from the higher-energy H2 lines), the relative importance of shocks over fluorescence does seem to change with evolutionary status. We find that shock excitation may well be the dominant excitation mechanism in the least evolved PPN (CRL 2688 ‐ in both the bipolar lobes and in the equatorial plane) and in the most evolved PN considered (NGC 7048). Fluorescence, on the other hand, becomes more important at intermediate evolutionary stages (i.e. in ‘young’ PN), particularly in the inner core regions and along the inner edges of the expanding postasymptotic giant branch (AGB) envelope. Since H2 line emission seems to be produced in almost all stages of post-AGB evolution, H2 excitation may prove to be a useful probe of the evolutionary status of PPN and PN alike. Moreover, shocks may play an important role in the molecular gas excitation in (P)PN, in addition to the low- and/or high-density fluorescence usually attributed to the excitation in these sources.
New Evidence on Sex Segregation and Sex Differences in Wages from Matched Employee‐Employer Data

We use new matched employer‐employee data to estimate the contributions of sex segregation and wage differences by sex within occupation, industry, establishment, and occupation‐establishment cells to the overall sex gap in wages. In contrast to earlier data used to study this question, our data cover all industries and occupations across all regions of the United States. We find that segregation of women into lower‐paying occupations, industries, establishments, and occupations within establishments accounts for a sizable fraction of the sex gap in wages. Nonetheless, approximately one‐half of the sex gap in wages remains attributable to the individual’s sex.
What's Ahead for Embedded Software?

Once deemed too small and retro for research, embedded software has grown complex and pervasive enough to attract the attention of computer scientists. There are many research questions, but most center around one issue: how to reconcile a set of domain-specific requirements with the demands of interaction in the physical world. How do you adapt software abstractions designed merely to transform data to meet requirements like real-time constraints, concurrency, and stringent safety considerations? The answer to this question has given rise to some promising research angles, including novel ways to deal with concurrency and real time and methods for augmenting component interfaces to promote safety and adaptability.
Memoized symbolic execution

This paper introduces memoized symbolic execution (Memoise), a new approach for more efficient application of forward symbolic execution, which is a well-studied technique for systematic exploration of program behaviors based on bounded execution paths. Our key insight is that application of symbolic execution often requires several successive runs of the technique on largely similar underlying problems, e.g., running it once to check a program to find a bug, fixing the bug, and running it again to check the modified program. Memoise introduces a trie-based data structure that stores the key elements of a run of symbolic execution. Maintenance of the trie during successive runs allows re-use of previously computed results of symbolic execution without the need for re-computing them as is traditionally done. Experiments using our prototype implementation of Memoise show the benefits it holds in various standard scenarios of using symbolic execution, e.g., with iterative deepening of exploration depth, to perform regression analysis, or to enhance coverage using heuristics.
Proxy Provable Data Possession in Public Clouds

Recently, cloud computing rapidly expands as an alternative to conventional computing due to it can provide a flexible, dynamic and resilient infrastructure for both academic and business environments. In public cloud environment, the client moves its data to public cloud server (PCS) and cannot control its remote data. Thus, information security is an important problem in public cloud storage, such as data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. In some cases, the client has no ability to check its remote data possession, such as the client is in prison because of committing crime, on the ocean-going vessel, in the battlefield because of the war, and so on. It has to delegate the remote data possession checking task to some proxy. In this paper, we study proxy provable data possession (PPDP). In public clouds, PPDP is a matter of crucial importance when the client cannot perform the remote data possession checking. We study the PPDP system model, the security model, and the design method. Based on the bilinear pairing technique, we design an efficient PPDP protocol. Through security analysis and performance analysis, our protocol is provable secure and efficient.
ANNLOR: A Naïve Notation-system for Lexical Outputs Ranking

This paper presents the systems we developed while participating in the first task (English Lexical Simplification) of SemEval 2012. Our first system relies on n-grams frequencies computed from the Simple English Wikipedia version, ranking each substitution term by decreasing frequency of use. We experimented with several other systems, based on term frequencies, or taking into account the context in which each substitution term occurs. On the evaluation corpus, we achieved a 0.465 score with the first system.
Validation of the Persian Smartphone Addiction Scale Among Tehran University Students, Iran

Background: Smartphone addiction is a recent phenomenon which has been increasing tremendously as new applications are being published, especially in Southeast Asia. In Iran, smartphone users are estimated to be around 46 million people and are increasing day by day. Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of persian smartphone addiction scale (PSAS) among students of Tehran universities, Iran. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017. The PSAS and Internet addiction test (IAT), which has been already validated in Iran, were completed by 200 students studying at Tehran universities who were selected by the multistage random sampling method Results: A comparison was made between SAS and IAT in order to find out the concurrent validity. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was 0.7 (P = 0.00), showing a strong positive correlation between PSAS and Persian IAT. The optimal cutoff score was more than 106 for at-risk individuals by analyzing the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The sensitivity and specificity of the test were 80% and 86%, respectively, and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.93 for the total scale. Test-retest reliability of PSAS was high, with an interclass correlation of 0.996. Sample adequacy for factor analysis as represented by Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (0.92) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (P = 0.00), indicating that factor analysis was useful. Conclusions: PSAS is a valid and reliable tool for evaluating smartphone addiction in the Iranian population.
Authentic Leadership and Positive Psychological Capital

This study investigates the relationship between authentic leadership, trust, positive psychological capital (PsyCap), and performance at the group level of analysis. Data were collected from a small Midwestern chain of retail clothing stores, a context in which the needs for both authentic leadership and a positive sales staff are integral to the firm's performance. Constructs were aggregated to the store (group) level to test relationships between perceptions of authentic leadership, trust in management, positive psychological capital, and performance. Trust in management was found to mediate the relationship between PsyCap and performance and to partially mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and performance. Future discussions and implications are discussed.
The Logic of Latent Variable Analysis as Validity Evidence in Psychological Measurement

Objective: It is a common practice among psychologists and educationalists to provide validity evidence for their instruments by fitting a latent trait model such as exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis or the Rasch model. However, there has been little discussion on the rationale behind model fitting and its use as validity evidence. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question: why the fit of data to a latent trait model counts as validity evidence for a test?
A reception study of descriptive vs. interpretative audio description

In the German-speaking world, guidelines for Audio Description (AD) of feature films vary, often in a contradictory fashion. In this study, 34 a test was carried out to compare the audience’s reception of two AD styles, i.e. descriptive vs. interpretative. Respondents (n=25) were asked to evaluate two different AD scripts of the short feature film “Wie immer” (Sethna 2010). The test results suggest that descriptive AD was not unequivocally preferred by recipients. On the other hand, interpretative AD facilitated the transfer of information and allowed for the audience’s better participation in the filmic experience. These results seem particularly significant in the Germanspeaking world, where the public broadcasting stations of ARD, ORF, SRF, ZDF have committed themselves to descriptive AD. These preliminary results need to be further investigated, ideally in collaboration with heterogeneous target groups. 34 This work is funded by federal contributions in the framework of the Project “P-16: Proposal and implementation of a Swiss research centre for barrier-free communication” (2017-2020). 1 Definition Audio Description (AD) transfers the visual images and sound effects of feature films and other visual media into spoken language. Together with the original soundtrack, an audio described film or programme provides an additional voice-over narration track intended primarily for blind and visually impaired people. The combination of the two soundtracks generates the audio film (or Hörfilm, cf. Jekat and Oláh 2016), i.e. a verbal version of the visual content. 2 Guidelines for AD In the German-speaking world, guidelines and methods for Audio Description of feature films are based on specifications derived from practical experience (Dosch and Benecke 2004; Benecke 2014, which were incorporated into ARD et al. 2015). Benecke (2014) argues that no interpretations should be provided in AD and that audio description should rather allow visually impaired consumers to interpret for themselves. For instance, when describing characters, interpretative segments should be avoided (e.g. “she is beautiful”) and objective descriptions of the characters’ features should be used instead (e.g. “she has long shiny black hair and big brown eyes”). In contrast to Benecke’s recommendations (2014), Fix (2005) and Fryer (2016) advocate a subjective or interpretative AD, which, they argue, is legitimate and no longer to be regarded as subjective if it is provided by the film’s scriptwriter (“auteur description”, Fryer 2016: 54). Interpretation in AD is, in fact, a longstanding contentious issue in Europe as well as across the Atlantic, which may never be fully resolved (Mazur and Chmiel 2012). Mazur and Chmiel (2012) propose that instead of the binary opposition of objective versus subjective, AD practitioners and researchers should rather be working within a continuum between objectivity and subjectivity.
Influence of Outdoor and Adventure Activities on Subjective Measures of Resilience in University Students

Background: Adventure experiences offer opportunities to improve resilience by exposure to controlled challenging situations. While previous studies have shown improvements in resilience, they have often lacked matched control groups, relied on a single measure of resilience, and had limited longitudinal follow-up. Purpose: This research assessed changes in subjective measures of resilience in response to adventure experiences. Method/Approach: Using a quasi-experimental design, resilience was assessed in two matched groups of university students using two validated instruments. Measurements were taken at four time points over a 3-month period, which included a 4-day residential experience for the Outdoor Adventure group. Findings/Conclusion: Adventure experiences showed tentative evidence for influencing subjective measures of resilience, more so for individuals who started with a low score. Resilience demonstrated the largest increase immediately post-program, returning to near baseline within 3 weeks. Implications: The mechanism for change in resilience would appear to be appropriate levels of challenge, rather than specific exposure to outdoor adventure activities. Furthermore, individuals with initially low scores are likely to achieve the greatest gain.
PPP: a disaggregated view

By disaggregating price indices, it becomes apparent that the real exchange rate consists of the real exchange rate for a single good and a weighted sum of relative prices between goods. When applying a battery of panel unit root tests to this sum and its components, it is found that both the sum and the relative prices are non-stationary. This implies that PPP is invalid even if the LOP holds for all goods. The findings contrast with the result from panel unit root tests that real exchange rates as a whole are stationary. Several suggestions for solving the conflict are discussed.
Achieving k-anonymity in privacy-aware location-based services

Location-Based Service (LBS) has become a vital part of our daily life. While enjoying the convenience provided by LBS, users may lose privacy since the untrusted LBS server has all the information about users in LBS and it may track them in various ways or release their personal data to third parties. To address the privacy issue, we propose a Dummy-Location Selection (DLS) algorithm to achieve k-anonymity for users in LBS. Different from existing approaches, the DLS algorithm carefully selects dummy locations considering that side information may be exploited by adversaries. We first choose these dummy locations based on the entropy metric, and then propose an enhanced-DLS algorithm, to make sure that the selected dummy locations are spread as far as possible. Evaluation results show that the proposed DLS algorithm can significantly improve the privacy level in terms of entropy. The enhanced-DLS algorithm can enlarge the cloaking region while keeping similar privacy level as the DLS algorithm.
Physical Behavior in Older Persons during Daily Life: Insights from Instrumented Shoes

Activity level and gait parameters during daily life are important indicators for clinicians because they can provide critical insights into modifications of mobility and function over time. Wearable activity monitoring has been gaining momentum in daily life health assessment. Consequently, this study seeks to validate an algorithm for the classification of daily life activities and to provide a detailed gait analysis in older adults. A system consisting of an inertial sensor combined with a pressure sensing insole has been developed. Using an algorithm that we previously validated during a semi structured protocol, activities in 10 healthy elderly participants were recorded and compared to a wearable reference system over a 4 h recording period at home. Detailed gait parameters were calculated from inertial sensors. Dynamics of physical behavior were characterized using barcodes that express the measure of behavioral complexity. Activity classification based on the algorithm led to a 93% accuracy in classifying basic activities of daily life, i.e., sitting, standing, and walking. Gait analysis emphasizes the importance of metrics such as foot clearance in daily life assessment. Results also underline that measures of physical behavior and gait performance are complementary, especially since gait parameters were not correlated to complexity. Participants gave positive feedback regarding the use of the instrumented shoes. These results extend previous observations in showing the concurrent validity of the instrumented shoes compared to a body-worn reference system for daily-life physical behavior monitoring in older adults.
A systematic review of approaches for teaching introductory programming and their influence on success

Decades of effort has been put into decreasing the high failure rates of introductory programming courses. Whilst numerous studies suggest approaches that provide effective means of teaching programming, to date, no study has attempted to quantitatively compare the impact that different approaches have had on the pass rates of programming courses. In this article, we report the results of a systematic review on articles describing introductory programming teaching approaches, and provide an analysis of the effect that various interventions can have on the pass rates of introductory programming courses. A total of 60 pre-intervention and post-intervention pass rates, describing thirteen different teaching approaches were extracted from relevant articles and analyzed. The results showed that on average, teaching interventions can improve programming pass rates by nearly one third when compared to a traditional lecture and lab based approach.