Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
External Shocks and Banking Crises in Developing Countries: Does the Exchange Rate Regime Matter?

This paper examines some determinants of banking crises in developing economies. Specifically, the effects of terms of trade shocks and capital flows are analyzed. The choice of the nominal exchange rate regime is found to be a crucial factor in the way various shocks are transmitted through the monetary sector. A logit model is used on panel data and preliminary results indicate that countries with flexible regimes were able to lessen the impact of external shocks on the domestic economy. This in turn reduced the likelihood of banking crises.
A Strong Invariance Principle for Associated Random Fields

In this paper we generalize Yu’s strong invariance principle for associated sequences to the multi-parameter case, under the assumption that the covariance coefficient u(n) decays exponentially as n -> (infinity symbol). The main tools will be the Berkes-Morrow multi-parameter blocking technique, the Csorgo-Revesz quantile transform method and the Bulinski rate of convergence in the CLT for associated random fields.
Reflections on entrepreneurship education in African tertiary institutions

It is a well-established fact that several developed economies grew on the back of small businesses and entrepreneurial development. It stands to reason then that the development of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) can also be catalysed by a rise in the number of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial activity. In that general regard, this paper sought to investigate the state of entrepreneurship education in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The method adopted in investigating this phenomenon was to critique the existing tertiary education entrepreneurship structures (where these existed at all) and to proffer recommendations where anomalies were discovered. It came to light that despite the critical importance of entrepreneurs in the economic development of a nation, Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have not fully developed strategies to tap this resource. What the countries have, are haphazard policies designed to promote the lesser or uneducated individuals in the informal sector into entrepreneurship. SSA educational leaders must find ways to structure their curricula so that all or most of their students can take courses in entrepreneurship. This is essential for SSA countries in order to move them from their present disadvantaged economic status, to greater economic and social development. A tentative syllabus for African tertiary education is proffered at the end of the article but its robustness needs to be tested.
NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF LARGE BUBBLES IN CHANNELS USING A FRONT-TRACKING METHOD

Previous work on the motion of large bubbles in 2D channels in the creeping-flow limit is extended here to moderate Reynolds numbers (10<Re<200). Simulations are carried out to determine the effects of inertia, surface tension, viscosity and inclination angle on the terminal velocity in stagnant liquid, streamline patterns and bubble shape. Local wall shear stress and normal stress profiles are presented. Results are presented for a single large bubble (using a moving frame of reference) and a train of large bubbles (using a periodic cell). The method is validated against results from the literature.
Institutional Stock Ownership, Accrual Management, and Information Environment

This study examines the empirical relationship between institutional percentage shareholding and accounting discretion exercised by firms to manage accruals over a period of time. It also evaluates the effects of firm size and information environment on such relationship. By employing a firm-specific abnormal accrual estimation design to measure accounting flexibility/discretion used to adjust abnormal accruals in financial reporting, the study documents that institutional stock ownership is inversely related to such accounting discretion exercised to manage abnormal current accruals. This inverse relationship is, however, found to be dependent on firm size and richness of information environment. Specifically, the inverse relationship strongly holds for smaller firms that are deemed to have an impoverished information environment compared with larger firms having information-rich environment. Furthermore, by using a two-stage least-squares approach, the study addresses the endogeneity-driven ambiguity which is inherent in the simple identification of a negative relation between institutional stock ownership and accrual management. The analysis demonstrates that the overall negative relationship is partly attributed to institutional shareholder monitoring that constrains management's ability to opportunistically manage abnormal accruals. The evidence is consistent with the view that active monitoring of institutional shareholders mitigates opportunistic reporting behavior of corporate managers and improves the quality of governance in the financial reporting process.
Effects of nanoscale film thickness on apparent stiffness of and cell-mediated strains in polymers

The mechanical properties of compliant materials such as polymeric films and biological membranes that are of nanoscale in thickness are increasingly extracted from scanning probe microscope-enabled nanoindentation. These films are applied in various fields that require multiaxial loading conditions. The Hertzian contact models developed for linear elastic materials of semi-infinite thickness fail to accurately predict the elastic modulus E for these compliant materials. This makes it necessary to understand the evolution of stress and strain fields of these nanoscale structures. In this thesis we employ computational simulations that are based on experimental parameters for contact based analysis of compliant polymer thin films, to decouple the effect of thickness and angle of indentation on calculated mechanical properties. Traction applied by living cells to these compliant films are studied in detail. We thus identify the range of strains and material thickness for which contact models could be used to accurately predict the elastic stiffness of these polymeric films of nanoscale (< 100 nm) thickness using scanning probe microscope-enabled experiments, and the volumes over which adhered cells deform these films. The key results of this thesis enable accurate experimental analysis of polymeric thin film elastic properties, and design of synthetic polymeric substrata that will dominate the mechanical environment of adhered cells. Thesis Supervisor: Krystyn J. Van Vliet Title: Lord Foundation Assistant Professor
The Yeast PH Domain Proteins Slm1 and Slm2 Are Targets of Sphingolipid Signaling during the Response to Heat Stress

ABSTRACT The PH domain-containing proteins Slm1 and Slm2 were previously identified as effectors of the phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PI4,5P2) and TORC2 signaling pathways. Here, we demonstrate that Slm1 and Slm2 are also targets of sphingolipid signaling during the heat shock response. We show that upon depletion of cellular sphingolipid levels, Slm1 function becomes essential for survival under heat stress. We further demonstrate that Slm proteins are regulated by a phosphorylation/dephosphorylation cycle involving the sphingolipid-activated protein kinases Pkh1 and Pkh2 and the calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase calcineurin. By using a combination of mass spectrometry and mutational analysis, we identified serine residue 659 in Slm1 as a site of phosphorylation. Characterization of Slm1 mutants that mimic dephosphorylated and phosphorylated states demonstrated that phosphorylation at serine 659 is vital for survival under heat stress and promotes the proper polarization of the actin cytoskeleton. Finally, we present evidence that Slm proteins are also required for the trafficking of the raft-associated arginine permease Can1 to the plasma membrane, a process that requires sphingolipid synthesis and actin polymerization. Together with previous work, our findings suggest that Slm proteins are subject to regulation by multiple signals, including PI4,5P2, TORC2, and sphingolipids, and may thus integrate inputs from different signaling pathways to temporally and spatially control actin polarization.
Intralesional Cryotherapy for Enhancing the Involution of Hypertrophic Scars and Keloids

&NA; Although therapeutic management of hypertrophic scars and keloids using contact or spray cryosurgery has yielded significant improvement or complete regression of hypertrophic scars and keloids, it requires one to 20 treatment sessions. This study was designed to assess the clinical safety and efficacy of an intralesional needle cryoprobe method in the treatment of hypertrophic scars and keloids. Ten patients, ranging in age from 3 to 54 years, with a total of 12 hypertrophic scars and keloids of more than 6 months duration and of diverse causes, were included in this study. The 18‐month trial evaluated volume reduction of the hypertrophic scars and keloids after a single session of intralesional cryotherapy. Objective (hardness and color) and subjective (pain/tenderness and itchiness/discomfort) parameters were examined on a scale of 0 to 3 (low score was better). Pretreatment and posttreatment histomorphometric studies of the collagen fibers included spectral picrosirius red polarization and fast Fourier transformation orientation index. A specially designed cryoneedle was inserted into the long axis of the hypertrophic scars and keloids so as to maximize the volume of the hypertrophic scars and keloids to be frozen. The cryoneedle was connected by an adaptor to a cryogun filled with liquid nitrogen, which was introduced into the cryoprobe, thereby freezing the hypertrophic scars and keloids. After the hypertrophic scars and keloids were completely frozen, the cryoprobe defrosted and was withdrawn. An average of 51.4 percent of scar volume reduction was achieved after one session of intralesional cryosurgery treatment (average preoperative hypertrophic scars and keloids volume, 1.82 ± 0.33; average posttreatment volume, 0.95 ± 0.21; p < 0.0022). Significant alleviation of objective and subjective clinical symptoms was documented. Mild pain or discomfort during and after the procedure was easily managed. Only mild local edema and epidermolysis, followed by a short reepithelialization period, were evident. During the 18‐month follow‐up period, there was no evidence of bleeding, infection, adverse effects, recurrence, or permanent depigmentation. The histomorphometric analysis demonstrated rejuvenation of the treated scars (i.e., parallelization) and a more organized architecture of the collagen fibers compared with the pretreated scars. This study demonstrated the increased efficacy of this method as a result of increased freezing area of deep scar material compared with that obtained with contact/spray probes. As a result, fewer treatment cycles are needed. Because the reepithelialization period is short, treatment intervals, if any, can be shortened to 2 to 3 weeks. This intralesional cryoneedle method is simple to operate and safe to use, it necessitates less postoperative care of the wound, and it can easily be added to any preexisting cryosurgical unit. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 111: 1841, 2003.)
Critical Legal Histories

Critical legal writers pay a lot of attention to history. In fact, they have probably devoted more pages to historical descriptionparticularly the intellectual history of legal doctrine-than to anything else, even law and economics. Such a preoccupation within a radical movement is at first glance surprising. After all, lawyers have, by notorious custom, used history conservatively, appealing to continuity and tradition. ' And in the less common situations in which lawyers have used history to criticize the status quo, they have usually resorted to social and economic history, to show that the original social context of a legal rule reveals it was adopted for wicked or obsolete reasons, rather than to the history of legal doctrine.2 What could conceivably be radical-or, as some unkindly ask, even interesting-about rewriting the history of doctrine? I will attempt, in this article, to give a brief account of the impulses that have prompted the Critical scholars to their chosen ways of writing history (or rather histories, since the movement has actually spawned several different historiographical practices). I'll start by trying to describe a vision of law-in-history that has tended, as I'll
What is narrative

This paper explores the definition and boundaries of ‘narrative’. First, focusing on narratives’ movement or succession of signs and building of meanings, it argues for the decentring of temporality and the recognition of ‘narrative’ in, for instance, still images. Second, taking into account the particularities of narratives, the paper examines how narrative research can allow for transferability and heuristics, rather than generalisability and predictivity. In the case of the extreme particularity of exceptional narratives, the paper argues that these operate as important interruptors of existing theory and calls to consider phenomena that have not yet been addressed.
The Ins and Outs of Unemployment: the Ins Win

This paper develops a framework for analyzing unemployment in terms of variations in the nt.imber and distribution of people becoming unemployed and in individual probabilities of leaving unemployment. Contrary to the emphasis on exit probabilities in the recent macroeconomics literature, we present empirical evidence in support of the proposition that changes in the size and distribution of the inflow Into unemployment are the primary determinant of the unemployment rate. Instead of falling at the beginning of a recession, the outflow rate rises (with a lag) in response to the increased inflows which drive the recession. In contrast to normal unemployment, cyclical unemployment is concentrated in groups with low normal exit probabilities; so the observed procyclical variation in the average exit probability may largely he explained by predictable distributional effects.
Cognitive and Motivational Biases in Decision and Risk Analysis

Behavioral decision research has demonstrated that judgments and decisions of ordinary people and experts are subject to numerous biases. Decision and risk analysis were designed to improve judgments and decisions and to overcome many of these biases. However, when eliciting model components and parameters from decisionmakers or experts, analysts often face the very biases they are trying to help overcome. When these inputs are biased they can seriously reduce the quality of the model and resulting analysis. Some of these biases are due to faulty cognitive processes; some are due to motivations for preferred analysis outcomes. This article identifies the cognitive and motivational biases that are relevant for decision and risk analysis because they can distort analysis inputs and are difficult to correct. We also review and provide guidance about the existing debiasing techniques to overcome these biases. In addition, we describe some biases that are less relevant because they can be corrected by using logic or decomposing the elicitation task. We conclude the article with an agenda for future research.
The b Distribution of the Lyα Forest: Probing Cosmology and the Intergalactic Medium

We investigate a method for determining the temperature-density relation of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at z ~ 2-4 using quasar absorption-line systems. Using a simple model combined with numerical simulations, we show that there is a lower cutoff in the distribution of column density (N) and line width (b parameter). The location of this cutoff can be used to determine the temperature-density relation (under certain conditions). We describe and test an algorithm to do this. The method works as long as the amplitude of fluctuations on these scales (~100 kpc) is sufficiently large. Models with less power can mimic higher temperatures. A preliminary application is made to data from two quasar lines of sight, and we determine an upper limit to the temperature of the IGM. Finally, we examine the full distribution of b parameters and show that this is completely specified by just two: the temperature of the gas and the amplitude of the power spectrum. Using the temperature upper limit measured with the N-b cutoff method, we derive an upper limit to the amplitude of the power spectrum. The limiting uncertainty in this work appears to come from the nonunique nature of Voigt-profile fitting.
Molecular screening strategies for NF1-like syndromes with café-au-lait macules

Multiple café-au-lait macules (CALM) are usually associated with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), one of the most common hereditary disorders. However, a group of genetic disorders presenting with CALM have mutations that are involved in human skin pigmentation regulation signaling pathways, including KIT ligand/KIT proto-oncogene receptor tyrosine kinase and Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase. These disorders, which include Legius syndrome, Noonan syndrome with multiple lentigines or LEOPARD syndrome, and familial progressive hyperpigmentation) are difficult to distinguish from NF1 at early stages, using skin appearance alone. Furthermore, certain syndromes are clinically overlapping and molecular testing is a vital diagnostic method. The present review aims to provide an overview of these ‘NF1-like’ inherited diseases and recommend a cost-effective strategy for making a clear diagnosis among these diseases with an ambiguous borderline.
The Regal Phantasm: Shakespeare and the Politics of Spectacle

Drawing together three Shakespearean plays, "The Regal Phantasm" explores the relationship between theatre and power in the English Renaissance. Pye explores theatre's role in forming a distinct theory of sovereignty and political subjectivity. This book should be of interest to students and lecturers in Shakespeare and English Renaissance drama.
Chasing Diamonds and Crowns: Online Reputation Systems and Strategic Seller Response

Reputation systems contribute a lot to the success of e-commerce. This study utilizes an institutional feature to make causal inference on the effect of the number of ratings on demand. Platforms like eBay and Taobao assign sellers into different levels based on their rating scores. Therefore, continuous rating scores lead to discontinuity in levels, allowing a regression discontinuity (RD) design. I collected a large and unique dataset with nearly three thousand sellers and 6.8 million transactions on Taobao. Implementing a non-parametric panel RD, I find that on average, having one extra level increases sales by over 9%, otherwise equal. The effect is even stronger for established sellers with rating scores in the range of thousands. It is also highly heterogeneous across industries. I build a simple dynamic pricing model that predicts sellers keep lowering their prices before the thresholds, and increase them after passing the thresholds. The finding on price changes is largely consistent: Sellers keep lowering their prices for up to 2% before reaching thresholds and increasing them afterwards.
The Current Indication for Pacemaker in Patients with Cardioinhibitory Vasovagal Syncope

The most frequent cause of syncope is vasovagal reflex. It is associated with worse quality of life, depression, fatigue and physical injury. Recurrence of vasovagal syncope is an aggravating, reaching the rate of 69%. Initial step and pharmacological treatment may not work, especially in patients with recurrent syncope without prodrome. These patients can present cardioinhibitory response with asystole. Studies were designed to analyses the effectiveness of pacemaker for prevention of syncope. In this review, nonrandomized clinical trials, open-label randomized, double-blind randomized, placebo-controlled, and studies based on tilt test or Implantable Loop Recorder findings will be discussed.
How can software metrics help novice programmers

Many computing education studies have reported poor learning outcomes in programming courses for novices. Yet methods for measuring students' ability to generate computer programs remains an open research problem. In this paper we review some limitations of existing approaches for assessing student programs. We then propose a set of valid and reliable metrics for the direct measurement of novices' program code. Distributions of each metric are given for student populations. The metrics can be utilised for both diagnostic and formative assessment. Examples of formative assessments are given and a new diagnostic metric is presented for Perkins' "stoppers" and "movers" learning styles. This metric captures the multi-dimensional distance of a student's program from a target solution. The metric can be used by instructors to triage a large set of submissions and to tailor formative feedback to individuals.
Fluxes of higher-spin currents and Hawking radiation from charged black holes

This is an extended version of the previous paper [S. Iso, T. Morita, and H. Umetsu, Phys. Rev. D 75, 124004 (2007). ]. Quantum fields near horizons can be described in terms of an infinite set of two-dimensional conformal fields. We first generalize the method of Christensen and Fulling to charged black holes to derive fluxes of energy and charge. These fluxes can be obtained by employing a conformal field theory technique. We then apply this technique to obtain the fluxes of higher-spin currents and show that the thermal distribution of Hawking radiation from a charged black hole can be completely reproduced by investigating transformation properties of the higher-spin currents under conformal and gauge transformations.
Spatial disaggregation of rainfall data

Abstract Use of output from global Circulation Models (GCMs) by regional or small scale rainfall-runoff models necessitates the disaggregation of the hydrological information available from GCMs to smaller scales. The hydrological processes of interest commonly occur at much smaller scales than those being modelled by GCMs. The present work examines the disaggregation of areally averaged monthly rainfall values of a basin or a region into point rainfall values. It uses some statistical methods based on a frequency analysis approach, a correlation approach and a disaggregation approach. A total of ten different methods have been tried and their relative performances compared based on some error criteria evaluated from observed and disaggregated point rainfall and mean areal rainfall values and their statistics. The results show the superiority of methods based on disaggregation techniques over other methods. The methods presented and discussed in the paper may very well be applied to disaggregate mean area.