Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pricing and Hedging American-Style Options: A Simple Simulation-Based Approach

This article presents a simple yet powerful simulation-based approach for approximating the values of prices and Greeks (i.e. derivatives with respect to the underlying spot prices, such as delta, gamma, etc) for American-style options. This approach is primarily based upon the Least Squares Monte Carlo (LSM) algorithm and is thus termed the Modified LSM (MLSM) algorithm. The key to this approach is that with initial asset prices randomly generated from a carefully chosen distribution, we obtain a regression equation for the initial value function, which can be differentiated analytically to generate estimates for the Greeks. Our approach is intuitive, easy to apply, computationally efficient and most importantly, provides a unified framework for estimating risk sensitivities of the option price to underlying spot prices. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique with a series of increasingly complex but realistic examples.
Musical experience modulates categorical perception of lexical tones in native Chinese speakers

Although musical training has been shown to facilitate both native and non-native phonetic perception, it remains unclear whether and how musical experience affects native speakers’ categorical perception (CP) of speech at the suprasegmental level. Using both identification and discrimination tasks, this study compared Chinese-speaking musicians and non-musicians in their CP of a lexical tone continuum (from the high level tone, Tone1 to the high falling tone, Tone4). While the identification functions showed similar steepness and boundary location between the two subject groups, the discrimination results revealed superior performance in the musicians for discriminating within-category stimuli pairs but not for between-category stimuli. These findings suggest that musical training can enhance sensitivity to subtle pitch differences between within-category sounds in the presence of robust mental representations in service of CP of lexical tonal contrasts.
Sexual Dysfunction among Females Receiving Psychotropic Medication: A Hospital-based Cross-sectional Study

Background: Sexual dysfunction (SD) is a known adverse effect of psychotropic medications. Even though sexual difficulties are common among women; very few studies have been carried out in India. Objective: To study the prevalence and nature of SD among females receiving psychotropic medications and to compare the SD among female patients receiving antipsychotics and antidepressants. Materials and Methods: Female investigator conducted a hospital-based cross-sectional study on female patients visiting the psychiatry outpatient department. Patients meeting inclusion criteria were assessed for SD disorder as per Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition Text Revision. SD severity was measured using Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) scale. Results: The prevalence of SD in this study was 68.32%. There was more than one SD in 48 (47.52%). FSFI score was significantly low in patients with SD as compared to patients not having SD (P = 0.001). SD was more common in patients who were on combination of antidepressants and benzodiazepines than antidepressant alone or antipsychotic alone. Conclusion: SD was prevalent in more than 50% of female patients on psychotropic drugs. Number of patients on individual psychotropic drugs was so small that a definite conclusion could not be drawn. Study emphasizes the need to carry out similar study on larger number of patients to get better insight into this problem.
Prevalence of Candida spp. among healthy denture and nondenture wearers with respect to hygiene and age

Dentures are inert and nonshading surfaces and therefore get easily colonized by Candida species. Subsequent biofilm produced by them lead to denture stomatitis and candidiasis. This study was aimed to understand the prevalence of Candida species among healthy denture and nondenture wearers with respect to their age and hygiene status. Swabs were collected from 50 complete dentures and 50 non-denture wearers and processed on Sabouraud′s dextrose agar. Identification of Candida species was done by staining and a battery of biochemical tests. Data obtained was correlated with age & oral hygiene and statistical analysis was performed. Candida was isolated from both denture and nondenture wearers. Prevalence of different Candida species was significantly higher in denture wearers and found predominated by C. albicans, C. tropicalis, C. dubliensis and C. glabrata. Among nondenture wearers, C. albicans and C. tropicalis were isolated. Prevalence of Candida increased with increasing age among denture wearers. Men presented declining denture hygiene compared to women with increasing age. In comparison to nondenture wearers, multispecies of Candida colonized the dentures thus presenting higher risk of candidiasis especially with increasing age.
Intraday Statistical Properties of Eurofutures

This paper studies the statistical properties of the price, volatility and tick dynamics of the intraday Eurofutures markets by utilizing the transactions and quote data. We build two different types of price series, by position and by contract. The findings indicate numerous sources of intraday and intraweek seasonality. First, volatility tends to decrease towards the maturity date. Second, intraday price changes and tick activity display U-shaped seasonalities with peaks occuring at opening and closing hours. Third, there is evidence of intraweek seasonalities where the level of activity displays a minimum on Monday and a maximum on the last two working days of the weeks. The findings of this paper suggest that a model of volatility for futures markets should correct for the seasonality originating from the maturity effect. In addition, U-shaped intraday seasonalities and intraweek seasonalities should be properly taken into account in the conditional mean and conditional volatility models of futures markets. In addition, the return series exhibit serial correlation which provides evidence for predictability and timing ability. This predictability does not translate itself into net profitability in the short horizons such as three minutes data. However, the net profitability opportunities exist at the lower frequencies such as the thirty minutes horizon after taking trading costs into account.
Effects of Mediating Notifications Based on Task Load

We know that talking or texting while involved in a complex sensorimotor task like driving is dangerous. In such situations, interruptions from notifications can negatively impact primary task performance as well. This paper investigates the impact of attending to such notifications. In our study, participants were engaged in a primary task with varying task loads. Notifications were presented to them aurally and visually, and were mediated relative to the primary task load. Our results show that a) attending to notifications were distracting regardless of modality, b) mediation helped users comprehension of visual notifications, but did not effect their comprehension of audio notifications, and c) even though mediated notifications reduced performance degradation, users did not notice or choose it differentially.
Endogenous Rhythms in Period1 Mutant Suprachiasmatic Nuclei In Vitro Do Not Represent Circadian Behavior

The mammalian circadian pacemaker in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) controls daily rhythms of behavior and physiology. Lesions of the SCN cause arrhythmicity of locomotor activity, and transplants of fetal SCN tissue restore rhythmic behavior that is consistent with the periodicity of the donor's genotype, suggesting that the SCN determines the period of the circadian behavioral rhythm. While several studies have demonstrated that the circadian characteristics of in vitro SCN rhythms represent circadian behavior, others have shown that the periods of explanted SCN are not always congruent with locomotor activity. We find that the aberrant rhythms of ex vivo SCN lacking functional Period1 (Per1−/−) do not represent the behavioral rhythms of the mutant animals. Surprisingly, in C57BL/6J Per1−/− mice, the real-time circadian gene promoter activity rhythm is weak or absent in adult SCN slices in vitro even though the free-running wheel-running activity rhythm is indistinguishable from wild-type (Per1+/+) mice. While some neurons in Per1−/− SCN explants exhibit robust circadian rhythms, others have irregular and/or low-amplitude rhythms. Together, these data suggest that either a small population of rhythmic neurons in the Per1−/− SCN is sufficient to control wheel-running activity or that in vivo physiological factors can compensate for the aberrant endogenous rhythms of Per1−/− SCN.
Understory light regimes in old-growth and second-growth temperate forests of Northeastern China

Light penetration through the forest canopy affects the growth and survival of tree regeneration. We compared understory light regimes in an old-growth forest and a second-growth forest using hemispherical photography. From each photograph, we ascertained canopy openness (CO), light transmission (gap light index, GLI), sunfleck characteristics, and the spatial distribution of CO and GLI. Old-growth and second-growth forests differed significantly in CO, GLI and the mean number of sunflecks per day. The old-growth forest plot was more open and heterogeneous in its openness than the second-growth forest plot. Sunflecks were more abundant in the second-growth plot, but sunfleck duration was not significantly different between the two forest types. Our study suggests that the characteristics of understory light may be a distinguishing indicator of the different forest types.
The (1 + β)-choice process and weighted balls-into-bins

Suppose <i>m</i> balls are sequentially thrown into <i>n</i> bins where each ball goes into a random bin. It is well-known that the gap between the load of the most loaded bin and the average is Θ (√mlog <i>n</i>/<i>n</i>), for large <i>m</i>. If each ball goes to the lesser loaded of two random bins, this gap dramatically reduces to Θ (log log <i>n</i>) independent of <i>m</i>. Consider now the following "(1 + β)-choice" process for some parameter β ∈ (0, 1): each ball goes to a random bin with probability (1 - β) and the lesser loaded of two random bins with probability β. <i>How does the gap for such a process behave? </i> Suppose that the weight of each ball was drawn from a geometric distribution. <i>How is the gap (now defined in terms of weight) affected? </i> In this work, we develop general techniques for analyzing such balls-into-bins processes. Specifically, we show that for the (1 + β)-choice process above, the gap is Θ(log <i>n</i>/β), irrespective of <i>m</i>. Moreover the gap stays at Θ(log <i>n</i>/β) in the weighted case for a large class of weight distributions. No non-trivial explicit bounds were previously known in the weighted case, even for the 2-choice paradigm.
Integrable Solutions of Kinematic Redundancy via Impedance Control

Problems arising when kinematically redundant manipula tors are controlled using the Jacobian pseudoinverse are related to the nonintegrability of the standard pseudoin verse. This article presents a class of generalized inverses that have the property of being integrable within any sim ply connected, nonsingular region of the work space. Inte grability is obtained by deriving the equations that describe an externally imposed motion, with the hypothe sis that a compliance function is associated with each degree of freedom of the manipulator. The result is a weighted pseudoinverse containing a term that accounts for the nonlinear features of the forward kinematics. The relation of this integrable weighted pseudoinverse to the standard Moore-Penrose and other weighted pseudo- inverses is discussed.
Toward a public administration theory of public service motivation

Abstract Public service motivation (PSM) is a prominent concept within current Public Administration, as it refers to the drive for public interested and altruistic behaviour. Although substantial empirical research on its nature and its impact is available, little is known on the origins of PSM. Led by cues provided by previous empirical research, this article seeks to develop a general theory of PSM, encompassing both causes and consequences of PSM. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, elements of institutional theory and motivational psychology are fused together, blending into an operational theory of PSM.
A NEW APPROACH TO GENERALIZED FRACTIONAL DERIVATIVES (COMMUNICATED BY CLAUDIO R. HENRÍQUEZ)

The author (Appl. Math. Comput. 218(3):860-865, 2011) introduced a new fractional integral operator given by, ( I a+f ) (x) = ρ1−α Γ(α) ∫ x a τρ−1f(τ) (xρ − τρ)1−α dτ, which generalizes the well-known Riemann-Liouville and the Hadamard fractional integrals. In this paper we present a new fractional derivative which generalizes the familiar Riemann-Liouville and the Hadamard fractional derivatives to a single form. We also obtain two representations of the generalized derivative in question. An example is given to illustrate the results.
Assessing Money Supply Rules

We provide evidence that Federal Reserve’s money supply can be characterized by a simple rule, whereby the growth rate of nonborrowed reserves depends on expected in‡ation. The Volcker-Greenspan era is found to be associated with a negative in‡ation elasticity, whereas our estimates indicate that the Federal Reserve in the pre-1980 era supplied money in an accommodating way. While these results appear to be consistent with empirical evidence on interest rate rules, our theoretical analysis gives rise to novel insights. Applying a New Keynesian model, money supply rules are shown to ensure saddle path stabil-ity, indicating that they do not allow for self-fulling expectations. Further, optimal monetary policy canbeimplementedby a money supplyrule witha negative in‡ation elasticity, implying that the pre-1980 regime was less e¢cient in dampening macroeconomic ‡uctuations. On the transmission of money sup-ply shocks, we show that a negative in‡ation elasticity raises the likelihood of a liquidity e¤ect and lowers the persistence of the output response.
Effects of a cognitive behavioral treatment package on exercise attendance and drop out in fitness centers

New and returning adult exercisers were tracked to evaluate the effect of a multiple component, behavior change treatment “package” on exercise atten-dance and drop out, within fitness facility settings in the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy. After assessing treatment participants' propensity for early drop out, various behavioral and cognitive behavioral treatments (e.g., goal setting, relapse prevention, self-reinforcement, contracting), exercise plans tai-lored to produce desirable affective change, and social support recruitment methods were administered by exercise leaders. Control group participants received typical exercise counseling that centered around amounts, types, and physiological results. Exercise leader-participant contact time over the 36-week studies were matched across treatment and control groups. Results of all 3 studies demonstrated significantly (p < .05) higher attendance (13–30%)and less drop out (30–39%) for the treatment groups, compared to their respective controls. Discussion included future possibilities for the use of behavior change treatments for supporting ongoing exercise and promoting positive physiological and emotional well-being.
Anomaly detection in IP networks

Network anomaly detection is a vibrant research area. Researchers have approached this problem using various techniques such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and state machine modeling. In this paper, we first review these anomaly detection methods and then describe in detail a statistical signal processing technique based on abrupt change detection. We show that this signal processing technique is effective at detecting several network anomalies. Case studies from real network data that demonstrate the power of the signal processing approach to network anomaly detection are presented. The application of signal processing techniques to this area is still in its infancy, and we believe that it has great potential to enhance the field, and thereby improve the reliability of IP networks.
Distinguished principal series representations for GLn over a p-adic field

In the following article, we give a description of the distingushed irreducible principal series representations of the general linear group over a p-adic field in terms of inducing datum. This provides a counter-example to a conjecture of Jacquet about distinction (Conjecture 1 in U.K Anandavardhanan, "Distinguished non-Archimedean representations ", Proc. Hyderabad Conference on Algebra and Number Theory, 2005, 183-192).
The Impact of the Federal Reserve's Large-Scale Asset Purchase Programs on Corporate Credit Risk

Estimating the effect of Federal Reserve's announcements of Large-Scale Asset Purchase (LSAP) programs on corporate credit risk is complicated by the simultaneity of policy decisions and movements in prices of risky financial assets, as well as by the fact that both interest rates of assets targeted by the programs and indicators of credit risk reacted to other common shocks during the recent financial crisis. This paper employs a heteroskedasticity-based approach to estimate the structural coefficient measuring the sensitivity of market-based indicators of corporate credit risk to declines in the benchmark market interest rates prompted by the LSAP announcements. The results indicate that the LSAP announcements led to a significant reduction in the cost of insuring against default risk--as measured by the CDX indexes--for both investment- and speculative-grade corporate credits. While the unconventional policy measures employed by the Federal Reserve to stimulate the economy have substantially lowered the overall level of credit risk in the economy, the LSAP announcements appear to have had no measurable effect on credit risk in the financial intermediary sector.
Optimizing Processing Gain of a Cellular DS/FFH-CDMA Rayleigh Fading System

The optimization between the processing gain and the theoretically achievable average channel capacity (in the sense of information theory) per user of a constant total system's allocated bandwidth, hybrid direct-sequence/fast frequency hopping code-division multiple-access (DS/FFH-CDMA) cellular system operating in a Rayleigh fading environment, is presented. Then, the spectral efficiency is estimated in terms of the achievable average channel capacity per user, during the operation over a broadcast cellular time-varying link, and leads to a simple novel-closed form expression for the optimal processing gain value based on the maximization of the achieved spectral efficiency. Numerical results are presented to illustrate and prove the validity of the presented work.
The Arabidopsis RETARDED ROOT GROWTH Gene Encodes a Mitochondria-Localized Protein That Is Required for Cell Division in the Root Meristem1[W]

To develop a growing root, cell division in the root meristem has to be properly regulated in order to generate or propagate new cells. How cell division is regulated in the root meristem remains largely unknown. Here, we report the identification and characterization of the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) RETARDED ROOT GROWTH (RRG) gene that plays a role in the regulation of root meristem cell division. In the root, RRG is predominantly expressed in the root meristem. Disruption of RRG function reduced numbers of dividing cells, the rate of cell production, and endoreduplication, and thus affected meristem size and root growth. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and marker-assisted analyses revealed that expression levels of several cell cycle genes were decreased in the mutant roots, indicating a defect in cell cycle progression. Mutations in RRG, however, did not affect the expression of key root-patterning genes and an auxin-responsive marker, suggesting that RRG is not essential for root patterning and auxin signaling. RRG is a mitochondria-localized protein conserved in plants and shares a DUF155 domain with proteins related to cell division in yeast, and rrg mutants displayed extensive vacuolization in mitochondria. We propose that Arabidopsis RRG is a conserved mitochondrial protein required for cell division in the root meristem.
An EM-MAP-Block Algorithm for Semi-Blind Channel Estimation

In this paper, we propose a semi-blind MAP (maximum "a posteriori") channel estimation method based on an expectation-maximization block algorithm (EM-MAP-block). In the OFDM communication context, our algorithm still have a linear arithmetical complexity. However, it yields to an SNR improvement going up to 3.5 dB compared to classical training sequences based channel estimation method in the context of 5 GHz OFDM WLANs. The new algorithm performs better than already existing recursive algorithms and block algorithms
Mergers, motivation and directors' remuneration

Using small matched samples of companies which are, and are not, highly involved in acquisition in the period 1986-90, an investigation is mounted to ascertain whether "acquisitiveness" has any impact upon the remuneration of the top directors over and above what one would expect because of the growth in "size". The evidence suggests it does, if returns to share options are included in the measure of remuneration.
Global law without a state

Part 1 A self-validating legal discourse: global bukowina, legal pluralism in the world society. Part 2 Areas of global law without a state: lex mercatoria, a self-applying system beyond national law? multinational enterprises, the constitution of a pluralistic legal order "global bukowina" examined - viewing the multinational enterprise as a transnational law-making community mega-insolvencies, informal rulemaking by accountants and lawyers globalizing labour law, transnational private regulation and countervailing actors in European law globalization of human rights - the role of non state actors. Part 3 Local futures: from denunciation to revalorization of the indigenous other the twilight of the global polis, on losing paradigms, environing systems and observing world society.
Finding work: employment experiences of South African graduates

Complementing existing labour-market research on graduates, this study provides qualitative and quantitative data relating to graduates' experiences in the labour market. The data presented here offers a clear picture of graduate employment and includes the time it takes graduates to find employment, the factors that influence employability, the types of jobs they find, their perceptions of the relation of the level of jobs they found to their qualifications and to the sectors of employment. The report also looks at graduate unemployment, the period of unemployment and the reasons for unemployment. It reports on mobility in the South African labour market and what influences such mobility, and reviews the extent to which graduates move abroad and the reasons for deciding to move. It further investigates why the graduates surveyed chose to continue studying after obtaining their first degrees and reports on graduates' perceptions of the skills they acquired through higher education. For planners and employers, the report will inform long-term strategies aimed at developing an effective and appropriately trained workforce for South Africa. Prospective and current students will find the report's in-depth information on the way in which the graduate labour market works both useful and relevant.