Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating Conditional Asset Pricing Models for the German Stock Market

We study the performance of conditional asset pricing models in explaining the German cross-section of stock returns. Our test assets are portfolios sorted by size and book-to-market as in the paper by Fama and French (1993). Our results show that the empirical performance of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) can be improved substantially when allowing for time-varying parameters of the stochastic discount factor. A conditional CAPM with the term spread as a conditioning variable is able to explain the cross-section of German stock returns about as well as the Fama-French model. Structural break tests do not indicate parameter instability of the model - whereas the reverse is found for the Fama-French model. Unconditional model specifications however do a better job than conditional ones at capturing time-series predictability of the test portfolio returns.
Effectiveness Comparison of Kinect and Kinect 2 for Recognition of Oyama Karate Techniques

The aim of this research is to evaluate effectiveness of Kinect and Kinect 2 for recognition of specialized actions namely Oyama karate techniques. As a classification algorithm we have used Gesture Description Language (GDL) classifier. We have recorded a dataset that contains motion (MoCap) recordings of two professional sport (black belt) instructors and masters of Oyama Karate. The whole dataset contained 200 movement samples per person (400 samples per Kinect camera, so totally we had 800 samples). After data was captured it was split into two subsets: training and validation. Each subset contained only recordings of a single user. We have performed 2-fold cross validation switching the role of user data between training and validation set. In all cases but two MoCap data from Kinect 2 appeared to be more reliable than from Kinect 1 taking into account both recognition rates of GDL classifier and error classification cases. Also in case of Kinect 1 standard deviation of results were higher which means that classifier becomes less stable while trained on data from older device. The ability of more accurate calculation of legs joints positions seems to be biggest advantages of Kinect 2 over its predecessor.
Formant frequencies of Dutch vowels in a text, read at normal and fast rate

Speaking rate is thought to affect the spectral features of vowels. Target‐undershoot models of vowel production predict more spectral reduction and coarticulation of vowels in fast‐rate speech than in normal‐rate speech. To test this prediction, a meaningful Dutch text of about 850 words was read twice by an experienced newscaster, once at a normal speaking rate and once as fast as possible. All realizations of seven different vowels and some realizations of the schwa (/E/) were isolated. The first and second formant frequency values of all realizations were measured at five different points, each time by making cross sections at different points in the vowel realization. The different selections of these points are based on procedures used in literature, such as maximal F1 or mean formant value. No spectral vowel reduction was found that could be attributed to a faster speaking rate, neither was a change in coarticulation found. The only systematic effect was a higher F1 value in fast‐rate speech irresp.
Context and Action in the Transformation of the Firm: A Reprise

This article returns to address the strengths and limitations of Pettigrew 1985 and 1987. It then responds to two of the main deficiencies of those publications. These are the failure to link context to process to outcome in those studies and in process scholarship more generally and the limited treatment of the method of process analysis offered by Pettigrew in 1985 and 1987. The article then compares and contrasts the methods of five additional process scholars – Mintzberg, Burgelman, Langley, Van de Ven, and Eisenhardt – to highlight developments in the conduct of process research since the mid and late 1980s, and to identify a set of pointers for the conduct of future process research.
When Facial Attractiveness is Only Skin Deep

Whilst the relationship between aspects of facial shape and attractiveness has been extensively studied, few studies have investigated which characteristics of the surface of faces positively influence attractiveness judgments. As many researchers have proposed a link between attractiveness and traits that appear healthy, apparent health of facial skin might be a property of the surface of faces that positively influences attractiveness judgments. In experiment 1 we tested for a positive correlation between ratings of the apparent health of small skin patches (extracted from the left and right cheeks of digital face images) and ratings of the attractiveness of male faces. By using computer-graphics faces, in experiment 2 we aimed to establish if apparent health of skin influences male facial attractiveness independently of shape information. Results suggest that apparent health of facial skin is correlated both with ratings of male facial attractiveness (experiment 1) and with being a visual cue for judgments of the attractiveness of male faces (experiment 2). These findings underline the importance of controlling for the influence of visible skin condition in studies of facial attractiveness and are consistent with the proposal that attractive physical traits are those that positively influence others' perceptions of an individual's health.
Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii: lessons learned from a xylem-dwelling pathogen of sweet corn.

UNLABELLED Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii is a Gram-negative enteric bacterium that primarily infects sweet corn. Studies of this bacterium have provided useful insight into how xylem-dwelling bacteria establish themselves and incite disease in their hosts. Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii is a remarkable bacterial system for laboratory studies because of its relative ease of propagation and genetic manipulation, and the fact that it appears to employ a minimal number of pathogenicity mechanisms. In addition, P. stewartii subsp. stewartii produces copious amounts of its quorum sensing (QS) signal, acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL), making it an excellent organism for studying QS-controlled gene regulation in a plant-pathogenic bacterium. In fact, P. stewartii subsp. stewartii has become the microbial paradigm for QS control of gene expression by both repression and activation via a QS regulator that binds DNA in the absence and dissociates in the presence of the signal ligand. Moreover, P. stewartii subsp. stewartii is a member of the Enterobacteriaceae, and lessons learned from its interaction with plants may be extrapolated to other plant-associated enterics, such as Erwinia, Dickeya and Pectobacterium spp. , or enteric human pathogens associated with plants, such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. TAXONOMY Bacteria; Gammaproteobacteria; family Enterobacteriaceae; genus Pantoea; species stewartii (Mergaert et al., 1993). MICROBIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES Gram-negative, motile, yellow pigmented, mucoid, facultative anaerobe. HOST RANGE Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii (Smith, 1898) Dye causes Stewart's wilt of corn (Zea mays). Early-maturing sweet corn varieties and some elite inbred maize lines are particularly susceptible. DISEASE SYMPTOMS There are two major phases of Stewart's wilt disease: (i) wilt and (ii) leaf blight. The wilt phase occurs when young seedlings are infected with P. stewartii subsp. stewartii (Fig. 1A). Water-soaked lesions first appear on the young expanding leaves and, later, seedlings may become severely wilted (Fig. 1B). The plants usually die when infected at the seedling stage. The leaf blight phase occurs when mature plants are infected (Fig. 1C). The bacteria enter the xylem and cause long linear yellow-grey lesions with a wavy margin that run parallel to the leaf veins. These lesions later turn necrotic and dark in colour. The leaf blight phase is most apparent after tasselling and does not generally cause death of the plant. In addition, the bacteria can sometimes break out of the xylem and cause pith rot in mature sweet corn plants. In resistant varieties, lesions are usually limited to only a few centimetres depending on the level of resistance of the particular hybrid (Claflin, 2000; Pataky, 2003). USEFUL WEBSITES http://www.apsnet. org/publications/apsnetfeatures/Pages/StewartsWilt.aspx.
Gender and longitudinal changes in physical activities in later life.

OBJECTIVES to describe gender differences in levels of, and longitudinal changes in, habitual physical activity among older people. DESIGN longitudinal study. PARTICIPANTS sub-groups of survivors (with sample sizes dependent on the availability of complete datasets, ranging from 303-344) assessed on three occasions: 1985, 1989 and 1993 in Nottingham, UK. All were 65 years and over in 1985. METHODS descriptive presentation (median and range values) of quantitative longitudinal data by gender across five activity categories assessed in a recall-based questionnaire. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES participation in walking, shopping, indoor, outdoor and leisure activities. RESULTS while levels of indoor and outdoor activities were marked by decline for both sexes, gender differentials were maintained over the 8 years of the study, with women showing higher levels of activity participation indoors and men showing higher levels of activity participation outdoors. In levels of walking/shopping activity, however, there was evidence of gender differentials reducing over time. CONCLUSIONS within these cohorts of older people traditional gender roles continue to exert a strong influence on levels and types of habitual physical activity well into later life. In some areas of activity, however, temporal changes provide some evidence of gender convergence consistent with late-life transitions in marital status and dependency.
Functional roles of rhythmic neuronal activity in the human visual and somatosensory system

The main aim of this thesis was to investigate the functional role of synchronised oscillations in sensory systems of the human brain. In the first study we found high-frequency gamma-oscillations in the somatosensory system in response to mechanical tactile stimulation. These stimulus-related high-frequency oscillations have been described before in other sensory systems, but not in the somatosensory system in response to tactile stimulation. Its functional relevance was assessed by means of a spatial selective attention task. We found that performance of this task caused a variety of changes in neural activity with different temporal dynamics: The main affect of attention on stimulus-related activity was an enhancement of somatosensory gamma-band-activity, while low-frequency activity in the alpha- and beta-band were altered largely independently from stimulation. Tactile stimulation also altered neural activity in occipital cortex. We therefore investigated how simultaneous visual and tactile stimulation influence activity in visual cortex compared to unimodal stimulation, and as a function of the spatial relation between the two stimuli. We found that in occipital cortex, primarily gamma-band activity was enhanced by tactile stimulation (irrespective of location) and that this effect corresponded with the shortening of response latencies to visual stimuli by tactile stimulation. We further investigated the role of oscillatory activity in sensory information transmission using a visual detection task, where stimuli were presented at threshold level. The main result from this study was that (presumably non-stimulus-related) beta-band-activity in a parieto-frontal network discriminated best between successful and unsuccesful performance. Together the results show that rhythmic activity in sensory cortex is not only altered by stimulation but also correlates with various cognitive and behavioural parameters, suggesting it has a function role. A differential pattern of high- and low-frequency activity in response to bottom-up and top-down-activation was observed and is of interest for further research.
ASPic-GeneID: A Lightweight Pipeline for Gene Prediction and Alternative Isoforms Detection

New genomes are being sequenced at an increasingly rapid rate, far outpacing the rate at which manual gene annotation can be performed. Automated genome annotation is thus necessitated by this growth in genome projects; however, full-fledged annotation systems are usually home-grown and customized to a particular genome. There is thus a renewed need for accurate ab initio gene prediction methods. However, it is apparent that fully ab initio methods fall short of the required level of sensitivity and specificity for a quality annotation. Evidence in the form of expressed sequences gives the single biggest improvement in accuracy when used to inform gene predictions. Here, we present a lightweight pipeline for first-pass gene prediction on newly sequenced genomes. The two main components are ASPic, a program that derives highly accurate, albeit not necessarily complete, EST-based transcript annotations from EST alignments, and GeneID, a standard gene prediction program, which we have modified to take as evidence intron annotations. The introns output by ASPic CDS predictions is given to GeneID to constrain the exon-chaining process and produce predictions consistent with the underlying EST alignments. The pipeline was successfully tested on the entire C. elegans genome and the 44 ENCODE human pilot regions.
Asset Pricing with Uncertainty About the Long Run

When investors have preferences for early resolution of uncertainty, higher uncertainty about future growth rates raises agents’ marginal utility, which generates a premium for bearing uncertainty risk. If expected growth rates have persistent long-run dynamics, small local uncertainty about the growth rate can translate into large uncertainty about future cash flows, which amplify the uncertainty premium. We study the effects of learning on the dynamics of asset prices in an endowment economy, where agents learn about consumption growth through a nonlinear filter. The uncertainty premium is large, varies substantially over time, and tends to rise following negative consumption shocks. Moreover, a decrease in consumption volatility can sometimes sharply increase the Sharpe Ratio and risk premium.
Illness perception and related behaviour in lower respiratory tract infections—a European study

Background. Lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) is a common presentation in primary care, but little is known about associated patients’ illness perception and related behaviour. Objective. To describe illness perceptions and related behaviour in patients with LRTI visiting their general practitioner (GP) and identify differences between European regions and types of health care system. Methods. Adult patients presenting with acute cough were included. GPs recorded co morbidities and clinical findings. Patients filled out a diary for up to 4 weeks on their symptoms, illness perception and related behaviour. The chi-square test was used to compare proportions between groups and the Mann-Whitney U or Kruskal Wallis tests were used to compare means. Results. Three thousand one hundred six patients from 12 European countries were included. Eighty-one per cent (n = 2530) of the patients completed the diary. Patients were feeling unwell for a mean of 9 (SD 8) days prior to consulting. More than half experienced impairment of normal or social activities for at least 1 week and were absent from work/school for a mean of 4 (SD 5) days. On average patients felt recovered 2 weeks after visiting their GP, but 21% (n = 539) of the patients did not feel recovered after 4 weeks. Twenty-seven per cent (n = 691) reported feeling anxious or depressed, and 28% (n = 702) re-consulted their GP at some point during the illness episode. Reported illness duration and days absent from work/school differed between countries and regions (North-West versus South-East), but there was little difference in reported illness course and related behaviour between health care systems (direct access versus gate-keeping). Conclusion. Illness course, perception and related behaviour in LRTI differ considerably between countries. These finding should be taken into account when developing International guidelines for LRTI and interventions for setting realistic expectations about illness course.
The Oxford Handbook of Economic and Institutional Transparency

In recent years, the term 'transparency' has emerged as one of the most popular and keenly-touted concepts around. In the economic-political debate, the principle of transparency is often advocated as a prerequisite for accountability, legitimacy, policy efficiency, and good governance, as well as a universal remedy against corruption, corporate and political scandals, financial crises, and a host of other problems. But transparency is more than a mere catch-phrase. Increased transparency is a bearing ideal behind regulatory reform in many areas, including financial reporting and banking regulation. Individual governments as well as multilateral bodies have launched broad-based initiatives to enhance transparency in both economic and other policy domains. Parallel to these developments, the concept of transparency has seeped its way into academic research in a wide range of social science disciplines, including the economic sciences. This increased importance of transparency in economics and business studies has called for a reference work that surveys existing research on transparency and explores its meaning and significance in different areas. The Oxford Handbook of Economic and Institutional Transparency is such a reference. Comprised of authoritative yet accessible contributions by leading scholars, this Handbook addresses questions such as: What is transparency? What is the rationale for transparency? What are the determinants and the effects of transparency? And is transparency always beneficial, or can it also be detrimental (if so, when)? The chapters are presented in three sections that correspond to three broad themes. The first section addresses transparency in different areas of economic policy. The second section covers institutional transparency and explores the role of transparency in market integration and regulation. Finally, the third section focuses on corporate transparency. Taken together, this volume offers an up-to-date account of existing work on and approaches to transparency in economic research, discusses open questions, and provides guidance for future research, all from a blend of disciplinary perspectives. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordhandbooks. com/oso/public/content/oho_economics/9780199917693/toc.html Contributors to this volume - Raj Aggarwal Edward I. Altman. Rym Ayadi James R. Barth Iain Begg Leif Atle Beisland Thomas L. Berglund Tom Brewer Bo Carlsson Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra Willem Pieter De Groen Eva Eberhartinger Jens Forssbaeck Richard Friberg Dimitrios Georgakakis Petra M. Geraats PervezN. Ghauri John Goodell Sidney J. Gray Peder Greve Philippe Gugler Amjad Hadjikhani Helen Kang Soojin Lee Ana Teresa Lehmann Frederick Lehmann Peter MacKay Michael Mehling Erik Mellander Roy Mersland Lars Oxelheim Cecilia Pahlberg. Michael G. Plummer Apanard (Penny) Prabha Trond Randoy Raghavendra Rau Herbert Rijken Winfried Ruigrok Richard J. Sweeney Alissa Tafti Eskil Wadensjo Clas Wihlborg
Characterizing VIP Neurons in the Barrel Cortex of VIPcre/tdTomato Mice Reveals Layer-Specific Differences

Neocortical GABAergic interneurons have a profound impact on cortical circuitry and its information processing capacity. Distinct subgroups of inhibitory interneurons can be distinguished by molecular markers, such as parvalbumin, somatostatin, and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP). Among these, VIP-expressing interneurons sparked a substantial interest since these neurons seem to operate disinhibitory circuit motifs found in all major neocortical areas. Several of these recent studies used transgenic Vip-ires-cre mice to specifically target the population of VIP-expressing interneurons. This makes it necessary to elucidate in detail the sensitivity and specificity of Cre expression for VIP neurons in these animals. Thus, we quantitatively compared endogenous tdTomato with Vip fluorescence in situ hybridization and αVIP immunohistochemistry in the barrel cortex of VIPcre/tdTomato mice in a layer-specific manner. We show that VIPcre/tdTomato mice are highly sensitive and specific for the entire population of VIP-expressing neurons. In the barrel cortex, approximately 13% of all GABAergic neurons are VIP expressing. Most VIP neurons are found in layer II/III (∼60%), whereas approximately 40% are found in the other layers of the barrel cortex. Layer II/III VIP neurons are significantly different from VIP neurons in layers IV–VI in several morphological and membrane properties, which suggest layer-dependent differences in functionality.
Predictors of Driving While Intoxicated among Teenagers

Youthful driving while intoxicated (DWI) is a leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults. In spite of great social concern about teenagers and DWI, definitive studies are lacking which characterize youth who are at a high risk for this problem behavior. The present study uses a large representative sample of over 11,000 New York State secondary school students aged 16 years and older. The relationships between DWI, alcohol use, other drug use and numerous social factors are explored using multivariate analysis. Driving while intoxicated is found to be a prevalent problem, occurring among almost a quarter of the high school students in the past year. DWI is strongly related to various sociodemographic factors such as age, sex, ethnicity and geographic region. Furthermore, DWI is found to be part of a complex network of adolescent problem behaviors including other alcohol-related problems, illicit drug abuse and school misconduct.
13C Breath Tests for the Assessment of Exocrine Pancreatic Function

The secretin-pancreozymin test is regarded as the most accurate of the pancreatic exocrine function tests but is cumbersome, time consuming, and invasive because it requires duodenal intubation and hormonal stimulation of the pancreas. Fecal analysis of fat, fecal elastase, or chymotrypsin are more practicable but far less sensitive to detect early stages of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency. Several 13C-labeled substrates that are digested by pancreatic enzymes have been proposed for breath tests, thus assessing the intraluminal activity of pancreatic enzymes and therewith the pancreatic exocrine function. Particularly in pediatrics, 13C breath tests are suited not only for diagnosis of pancreatic exocrine disorder, but also for therapy control under pancreatic enzyme substitution. However, the costs of substrates, the high time expenditure, and the lack of standardization still limit the clinical use of these breath tests. This review aims to place into perspective the traditional pancreatic exocrine function tests and the newer 13C breath tests.