Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Value at Risk: Issues and Implementation in Forex Market in India

Value-at-Risk (VaR) has been widely promoted by the Bank for International Settlement (BIS) as well as central banks of all countries as a way of monitoring and managing market risk and as a basis for setting regulatory minimum capital standards. The revised Basle Accord, implemented in January 1998, makes it mandatory for banks to use VaR as a basis for determining the amount of regulatory capital adequate for covering market risk. Foreign exchange forms a major part of banks' holding and hence are subject to risk. We have adopted three categories of VaR methods, viz., Variance-Covariance (Normal) methods including Risk-Metric, Historical Simulation (HS) and Tail-Index Based approach. We have used the daily exchange rate data from March 1, 1993 to October 8, 2003 for our analysis. Empirical results show that most of the models are failing in 1 500 rolling window while the full sample data is over estimating the VaR.
Language Planning in Higher Education Issues of Access and Equity

Pakistan as a multilingual country faces numerous problems in language planning in higher education. Aseducational standards in higher education decline, there are concerns about student difficulties in English and lack of required materials in Urdu, The research reported here is a nation wide survey of 2136 students, 121 Subject and English teachers of public and private sector colleges and universities from all the capital cities of Pakistan, as well as 63 parents who responded to the questionnaire. The survey examines the learner's background, attitudes to languages and motivational orientation, availabilityand quality of materials in different mediums, learner difficulties in English, provision of English support programmes, and language outcomes. Results point to the significant differences between private sector and public sector students in terms of socio-economic status, and other variables. The study recommends that public sector students be provided more state support by adopting an 'English for all policy', and strengthening the English programmes through a revision of courses, development of materials, and training of teachers so as to meet the students' learning and target needs.
The effect of sequential therapy for postmenopausal women with osteoporosis

Background: Osteoporosis, more likely to occur in postmenopausal women, is a chronic condition that usually requires a long-term treatment strategy, but the use of either antiresorptive or anabolic drugs should be limited to 18 to 24 months. Discontinuing antiosteoporosis drugs may result in rapidly declining bone mineral density (BMD). Therefore, many patients are treated with the sequential use of 2 or more drugs. However, whether switching treatment from anabolic to antiresorptive drugs or the reverse could maintain or further increase BMD; and whether the sequential therapy could outperform the monotherapy under the same treatment duration still remains unclear. Nowadays, no firm conclusions were drawn. Methods: We searched Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Library from January 1, 1974 until February 1, 2016 to identify all randomized controlled trials for evaluating the effectiveness of sequential therapy of antiresorptive and anabolic drugs in postmenopausal osteoporosis women with the BMD changes of lumbar spine, femoral neck, and total hip as the outcomes. We evaluated the methodological quality and abstracted relevant data according to the Cochrane Handbook. Results: Eight trials involving 1509 patients were included. The pooled data showed that after switching treatment, the alternative drugs maintained the BMD and significantly increased the percentage change in BMD at the lumbar spine (MD, 3.59; 95% CI, 2.26–4.93), femoral neck (MD, 1.44; 95% CI, 0.60–2.27), and total hip (MD, 1.24; 95% CI, −0.12 to 2.60), although change in BMD was not significantly increased at the total hip. The sequential therapy significantly increased BMD from baseline at the lumbar spine (SMD, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.26–0.91), femoral neck (SMD, 0.22; 95% CI, 0.06–0.37), and total hip (SMD, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.01–0.56). Conclusions: After switching treatment, sequential therapy further increased BMD. The sequential therapy showed a more significant improvement in BMD compared with any anti-resorptive drug given for the same treatment duration and was as effective as anabolic drugs. Thus, sequential therapy may be recommended as an effective treatment for osteoporotic women. However, more randomized controlled trials are still needed to determine the best sequence and the most appropriate drugs of sequential therapy.
AuRA: principles and practice in review

This paper reviews key concepts of the Autonomous Robot Architecture (AuRA). Its structure, strengths, and roots in biology are presented. AuRA is a hybrid deliberative/ reactive robotic architecture that has been developed and refined over the past decade. In this article, particular focus is placed on the reactive behavioural component of this hybrid architecture. Various real world robots that have been implemented using this architectural paradigm are discussed, including a case study of a multiagent robotic team that competed and won the 1994 AAAI Mobile Robot Competition.
Information and communication technology acceptance in education : a study of pre-service teachers in Ghana

This thesis employed the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to empirically explore factors influencing acceptance and integration of Information and Communication Technology as a tool for teaching and learning in pre-service teacher education in Ghana. This purpose was accomplished by extending the original technology acceptance model by adding six exogenous variables. Although, there have been few studies on the use of ICT in the Ghanaian education context, no studies have been done on this topic specifically on pre-service teachers offering a 3-year Diploma in Basic Education in Colleges of Education in Ghana. The study adopted mixed methods where first, a survey was conducted among 380 respondents studying a 3-year Diploma in Education programme in two colleges of education in Ghana. This was followed by interviews and observations among a number of teacher educators and pre-service teachers to collect additional qualitative data to triangulate with the quantitative results. Empirical results obtained employing multiple step-wise regression analysis showed that all the eleven hypotheses tested were statistically supported by the data with the exception of hypothesis seven. Together, perceived usefulness, attitude towards use, leadership support and technological complexity explained 58 percent of the variance in actual use of ICT by the pre-service teachers. Attitude towards use, perceived usefulness, technological complexity and leadership support had direct and positive effect on the pre-service actual use of ICT. Among these constructs, technological complexity which is an exogenous factor was found to be the most dominant determinant. Contrary to the results of the prominent prior TAM studies, statistically, perceived ease of use had no significant influence on perceived usefulness. Altogether, LS, TC, PU and ATU were able to explain 58% of the variance observed in the users’ actual use of ICT. Erratic power supply, a lack of technical support and maintenance, poor Internet access, pressure from high-stakes testing and disconnection between the colleges and the practicum schools in the use of ICT were identified as major barriers to ICT integration in both colleges. Potentially, the study found shared-leadership as the most effective leadership approach to effective ICT integration as it brought all stakeholders with a vested interest in ensuring the success as they perceived themselves as partners in a common endeavour. In general, the participants expressed positive attitudes towards ICT and acknowledged it as a pre-requisite for teaching and learning in the 21st century. However, it was observed that majority of them were not competent in using the technology for pedagogical purposes. The findings of this empirical research will serve as a useful practical guide to the policy-makers and practitioners about how to increase the use of the new technologies in teaching and learning within the Ghanaian pre-service teacher education in particular and developing world in general.
Development of the Bi-Partite Gal4-UAS System in the African Malaria Mosquito, Anopheles gambiae

Functional genetic analysis in Anopheles gambiae would be greatly improved by the development of a binary expression system, which would allow the more rapid and flexible characterisation of genes influencing disease transmission, including those involved in insecticide resistance, parasite interaction, host and mate seeking behaviour. The Gal4-UAS system, widely used in Drosophila melanogaster functional genetics, has been significantly modified to achieve robust application in several different species. Towards this end, previous work generated a series of modified Gal4 constructs that were up to 20 fold more active than the native gene in An. gambiae cells. To examine the Gal4-UAS system in vivo, transgenic An. gambiae driver lines carrying a modified Gal4 gene under the control of the carboxypeptidase promoter, and responder lines carrying UAS regulated luciferase and eYFP reporter genes have been created. Crossing of the Gal4 and UAS lines resulted in progeny that expressed both reporters in the expected midgut specific pattern. Although there was minor variation in reporter gene activity between the different crosses examined, the tissue specific expression pattern was consistent regardless of the genomic location of the transgene cassettes. The results show that the modified Gal4-UAS system can be used to successfully activate expression of transgenes in a robust and tissue specific manner in Anopheles gambiae. The midgut driver and dual reporter responder constructs are the first to be developed and tested successfully in transgenic An. gambiae and provide the basis for further advancement of the system in this and other insect species.
In Economics and Social Sciences Working Papers Series a General Equilibrium Analysis of Parental Leave Policies Erosa and Fuster Also Acknowledge Financial Support from the European Commission through Marie Curie International Reintegration Grants. Contact

Despite mandatory parental-leave policies being a prevalent feature of labor markets in developed countries, the aggregate effects of leave policies are not well understood. In order to assess the quantitative impact of mandated leave policies in the economy, we develop a general-equilibrium model of fertility and labor-market decisions that builds on the labor market framework of Mortensen and Pissarides (1994). We find that females gain substantially with generous policies, but this benefit occurs at the expense of a reduction in the welfare of males. Mandated leave policies have important effects on fertility, leave taking decisions, and employment rate of mothers with infants. These effects are driven by how policy affects bargaining in job matches: Young females anticipate that there are some states in the future in which their threat point in bargaining will be higher. Because the realization of these states depend on the decisions of females to give birth and take a leave, the change in the threat point induced by the policy subsidizes fertility and leave taking. Unpaid parental leaves have a small impact on the time that mothers spend with their children but paid parental leaves can be an effective tool to encourage mothers to spend time with their children after giving birth. † We are grateful to Ig Horstmann, Richard Rogerson, and two anonymous referees for detailed comments and suggestions. We also thank seminar participants at several universities and conferences. All remaining errors are our own. We acknowledge the financial support from the BBVA Foundation,
SERPINA1 is a direct estrogen receptor target gene and a predictor of survival in breast cancer patients

Of all breast cancer patients, about 70% are ER+ and 10% are ER+/HER2+. The ER+/HER2+ patients have a worse outcome compared to ER+/HER2- patients. Currently there is a lack of effective prognosis biomarkers for the prediction of outcome in ER+/HER2+ patients. Genome-wide differences in ER binding between the endocrine-responsive and endocrine-resistant cells were discovered using ChIP-seq, and combined with gene expression microarray data to identify direct ER target genes. These genes were correlated to survival outcome using publicly available breast cancer patient cohorts. We found the expression of the gene SERPINA1 to have a significant predictive value for the overall survival (OS) of ER+ patients in the TCGA cohort, and validated this finding in the Curtis cohort. SERPINA1 also has a significant predictive value for the OS of ER+/HER2+ patients in the TCGA cohort, with validation in the Bild cohort. The expression of SERPINA1 can be suppressed by fulvestrant and HER2 siRNA. Our results indicate that ER is constitutively activated, resulting in an E2-independent ER binding to the SERPINA1 gene and upregulation of SERPINA1 expression. Importantly, results of survival correlation suggests that high expression of SERPINA1 could be predictive for a better clinical outcome of ER+ and ER+/HER2+ patients.
Qualitative Research Methods in Sport, Exercise and Health: From process to product

Introduction Chapter 1 - What is Qualitative Research? Chapter 2 - Traditions in Qualitative Research Chapter 3 - Getting Started with Some Pre-study Tasks Chapter 4 - Data Collection Chapter 5 - Qualitative Analysis Chapter 6 - Representing Qualitative Findings Chapter 7 - Judging the Quality of Qualitative Research Chapter 8 - Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research Chapter 9 - Brief Reflections
Effect of Ramadan Fasting on Body Water Status Markers after a Rugby Sevens Match

Purpose To evaluate the effect of Ramadan fasting on body water status markers of rugby players at basal condition and following a simulation of rugby sevens match. Methods Twelve recreational rugby sevens players played three matches: one day before Ramadan (before Ramadan), at the end of the first week of Ramadan (Beg-R) and at the end of Ramadan (End-R). Before and immediately after each match, body weight was determined and blood samples were taken for the measurement of body water status markers. Total body water was measured with an impedancemeter only before matches. Results At rest, an increase in hematocrit (+4.4%, P=0.03), hemoglobin (+3.4%, P=0.01) and plasma osmolarity (+2.8%, P<0.001) was noticed at End-R compared to before Ramadan. Total body water measured before Ramadan did not differ significantly from that of Ramadan. After the match, values of hematocrit and plasma osmolarity increased significantly at End-R (+1.4%, P=0.02; +3.1%, P<0.001 respectively) compared to before Ramadan. Although, hemoglobin measured after matches occurring during Ramadan did not differ from those of before Ramadan. In response to matches, the change of percentage of body water status markers did not differ during each period of the investigation. Conclusions The present results show that Ramadan fasting induces dehydration at basal conditions. Also, rugby sevens match played during Ramadan did not exacerbate the magnitude of responses to matches of blood and body water status markers.
BORE RECONSTRUCTION BASED ON INPUT IMPEDANCE MEASUREMENT: APPLICATION TO THE BASSOON CROOK

The bore profile of a wind instrument has an important influence on its acoustical characteristics. Specifically, playing frequencies are close to the resonance frequencies of the tube constituted by the bore of an instrument. Several methods were developed to obtain bore dimensions, such as pulse-reflectometry, or radiography techniques. The method investigated here is based on tube input impedance measurement, which provides us with an alternative way to estimate the bore profile. Accuracy of the method is 2% of the diameter dimensions for measured ducts. In collaboration with the oboe and bassoon maker Olivier Cottet, this method has been applied to the case of a bassoon crook, at two different stages of fabrication. For two measured crooks, the average difference between mandrels dimensions and straight crooks is below 1.1 % of diameter dimensions. After the bending stage this difference is about 2.5 %. Comparison of reconstructed bores for crooks made with metal sheets of different thicknesses is presented. No link is established between the thickness of the metal sheet used and the bore profile of the crook after the bending stage. However, some differences appear for a crook made by metal sheet of varying thickness. Those modifications of the bore profile might explain differences perceived by the maker in the sound produced.
Performance Analysis in AODV Based Protocols for MANETs

Discovering and maintaining routes between nodes are one of the biggest challenges in MANETs the ultimate goal of the MANET community is to provide a set of standardized protocols that can be both robust and scalable. This paper proposes routing protocols based on the {heading direction angle + Number of Hops, Number of Hops + heading direction angle, the best heading direction angle route}. The first one is designed to calculate the angle direction and when the angles are the same take the best hop count. The second one is designed to calculate the best hop count and when the hops counts are the same take the best angle direction. The last one is designed to calculate the average of all heading direction angles in the route and find the best route from the source to the destination. We measure the performance of the proposed approach by comparing it with the well known On-Demand (reactive) routing protocol (AODV).
Generic average modeling and simulation of the static and dynamic behavior of Switched Capacitor Converters

A generic behavioral average circuit model of a Switched Capacitor Converter (SCC) is proposed and verified. The model is based on the average currents concept and assumes that each of the SCC subcircuits can be described or approximated as a first order network. The model can be used to calculate or simulate the average static, dynamic and small signal responses of the SCC. The model is valid for all operational modes of a SCC (complete, partial and no charge) and is compatible with any circuit simulator that includes dependent sources. Excellent agreement was found between the behavior of the proposed average model, full circuit simulation, and experimental results.
Probiotic Administration Reduces Mortality and Improves Intestinal Epithelial Homeostasis in Experimental Sepsis

Background:Recent clinical trials indicate that probiotic administration in critical illness has potential to reduce nosocomial infections and improve clinical outcome. However, the mechanism(s) of probiotic-mediated protection against infection and sepsis remain elusive. The authors evaluated the effects of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) and Bifidobacterium longum (BL) on mortality, bacterial translocation, intestinal epithelial homeostasis, and inflammatory response in experimental model of septic peritonitis. Methods:Cecal ligation and puncture (n = 14 per group) or sham laparotomy (n = 8 per group) were performed on 3-week-old FVB/N weanling mice treated concomitantly with LGG, BL, or vehicle (orally gavaged). At 24 h, blood and colonic tissue were collected. In survival studies, mice were given probiotics every 24 h for 7 days (LGG, n = 14; BL, n = 10; or vehicle, n = 13; shams, n = 3 per group). Results:Probiotics significantly improved mortality after sepsis (92 vs. 57% mortality for LGG and 92 vs. 50% mortality for BL; P = 0.003). Bacteremia was markedly reduced in septic mice treated with either probiotic compared with vehicle treatment (4.39 ± 0.56 vs. 1.07 ± 1.54; P = 0.0001 for LGG; vs. 2.70 ± 1.89; P = 0.016 for BL; data are expressed as mean ± SD). Sepsis in untreated mice increased colonic apoptosis and reduced colonic proliferation. Probiotics significantly reduced markers of colonic apoptosis and returned colonic proliferation to sham levels. Probiotics led to significant reductions in systemic and colonic inflammatory cytokine expression versus septic animals. Our data suggest that involvement of the protein kinase B pathway (via AKT) and down-regulation of Toll-like receptor 2/Toll-like receptor 4 via MyD88 in the colon may play mechanistic roles in the observed probiotic benefits. Conclusions:Our data demonstrate that probiotic administration at initiation of sepsis can improve survival in pediatric experimental sepsis. The mechanism of this protection involves prevention of systemic bacteremia, perhaps via improved intestinal epithelial homeostasis, and attenuation of the local and systemic inflammatory responses.
Scaling Up Household Water Treatment Among Low-Income Populations Public Health and Environment Water , Sanitation , Hygiene and Health

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Dotted lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which there may not yet be full agreement. The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers' products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the World Health Organization in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters. All reasonable precautions have been taken by the World Health Organization to verify the information contained in this publication. However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of the material lies with the reader. In no event shall the World Health Organization be liable for damages arising from its use. This publication contains the views of the named author and does not necessarily represent the decisions or the stated policy of the World Health Organization.
Financial Markets' Views about the Euro-Swiss Franc Floor

Exchange rates and option prices incorporate market participants’ views about the credibility and the effects of exchange rate targets. I present a model to determine exchange rates under policy targets that can be used to price options. The model is estimated with Euro-Swiss Franc exchange rate and options price data. In the first few months of the minimum exchange rate policy, the implied survival probability of the policy for a three month horizon was typically less than 75%. Over time, the credibility increased and this probability reached 95% in August 2014. The analysis also implies that during the second quarter of 2012, when reserve accumulation was high, the exchange rate without the policy would have been as low as about 1 Swiss franc per euro.