Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Foreign Output Shocks and Monetary Policy Regimes in Small Open Economies: A DSGE Evaluation of East Asia

East Asia’s small open economies were hit in varying degrees by the sharp drop in the output of major industrial countries during the global financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009. This highlights the role of monetary policy regimes in cushioning small open economies from adverse external output shocks. To assess the welfare impact of external shocks on key macroeconomic variables under different monetary policy regimes, we numerically solve and calculate the welfare loss function of a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model. We find that CPI inflation targeting minimizes welfare losses for import-to-GDP ratios from 0.3 to 0.9. However, welfare under the pegged exchange rate regime is almost equivalent to CPI inflation targeting when the import-to-GDP ratio is one while the Taylor-type rule minimizes welfare when the import-to-GDP ratio is 0.1. We calibrate the model and derive welfare implications for eight East Asian small open economies.
Primary prevention of cardiovascular events with low-dose aspirin and vitamin E in type 2 diabetic patients: results of the Primary Prevention Project (PPP) trial.

OBJECTIVE We investigated in general practice the efficacy of antiplatelets and antioxidants in primary prevention of cardiovascular events in people with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The Primary Prevention Project (PPP) is a randomized, open trial with a two-by-two factorial design aimed to investigate low-dose aspirin (100 mg/day) and vitamin E (300 mg/day) in the prevention of cardiovascular events in patients with one or more cardiovascular risk factors. The primary end point was a composite end point of cardiovascular death, stroke, or myocardial infarction. A total of 1,031 people with diabetes in the PPP, aged >/=50 years, without a previous cardiovascular event were enrolled by 316 general practitioners and 14 diabetes outpatient clinics. RESULTS The PPP trial was prematurely stopped (after a median of 3.7 years) by the independent data safety and monitoring board because of a consistent benefit of aspirin compared with the control group in a population of 4,495 patients with one or more major cardiovascular risk factors. In diabetic patients, aspirin treatment was associated with a nonsignificant reduction in the main end point (relative risk [RR] = 0.90, 95% CI 0.50-1.62) and in total cardiovascular events (0.89, 0.62-1.26) and with a nonsignificant increase in cardiovascular deaths (1.23, 0.69-2.19). In nondiabetic subjects, RRs for the main end point, total cardiovascular events, and cardiovascular deaths were 0.59 (0.37-0.94), 0.69 (0.53-0.90), and 0.32 (0.14-0.72), respectively. No significant reduction in any of the end points considered could be found with vitamin E in either diabetic or nondiabetic subjects. CONCLUSIONS Our data suggest a lower effect of primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) with low-dose aspirin in diabetic patients as opposed to subjects with other cardiovascular risk factors. If confirmed, these findings might indicate that the antiplatelet effects of aspirin in diabetic patients are overwhelmed by aspirin-insensitive mechanisms of platelet activation and thrombus formation, thus making the balance between benefits and harms of aspirin treatment unfavorable. Further large-scale trials investigating the role of aspirin in the primary prevention of CVD in diabetic patients are urgently needed.
Real-time human action recognition from motion capture data

Recognition of human actions is one of the important tasks in various computer vision applications including video surveillance, human computer interaction etc. Traditionally RGB or depth cameras are utilized for this task. In this work we propose an approach that utilizes motion capture data for recognizing actions. Motion capture provides accurate motion information of joints of body in 3D space. The 3D skeleton joint co-ordinates of the user provided by motion capture system are used to analyze the dynamics of the action being performed. The temporal variance of each joint of the skeleton and its time weighted variance serve as the features for classification. The time weighted variance feature embeds temporal information in the feature and helps in discriminating confusing actions such as sit-down and stand-up. These features can be extracted rapidly and suitable for real-time recognition. We demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach using correlation based metric and support vector machines (SVM) on the Multi-modal Human Action Detection dataset. The recognition accuracy of above 95% has been achieved.
Exploiting temporal uncertainty in time warp simulations

This paper describes a time warp mechanism designed to exploit temporal uncertainty (TU) in distributed simulation. Novel in the proposed approach are: a formal event model where events are assigned time intervals instead of usual punctual timestamps; an aggressive cancellation technique which shifts overheads from communications to computation; and an implementation in Java which deploys a framework for distributed simulations over the Internet. The paper introduces the time warp mechanism and reports some experimental results using a large PCS model. The experiments confirm that TU is able to speedup simulation without compromising the accuracy of the results.
Entrepreneurship training and poverty alleviation: Empowering the poor in the Eastern Free State of South Africa

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the major long‐term role that hands‐on entrepreneurship training could play in poverty alleviation and job creation in one of the poorest regions of South Africa – the Eastern Free State (EFS). This is done against a background of frequently occurring violent protests against the inadequacy of the government's hand‐out poverty alleviation strategy of social grants, free houses and free social services.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses desk research and quantitative analysis of survey data collected from the Phuthaditjhaba area of Qwaqwa in the EFS.Findings – The poverty indicators confirm the accepted view of the Free State as one of the poorest provinces in South Africa, which makes Qwaqwa, the poorest part of the Free State, a real human plight. While government hand‐out poverty alleviation measures, with their unintended consequences of violent protests and demonstrations, may only help some of the poor in the short term, training in entrep.
Method for simultaneous analysis of nine second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs using UPLC-MS/MS.

OBJECTIVES Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of anti-tuberculosis (TB) drugs is beneficial for patients responding slowly to treatment and those with multidrug-resistant TB. We used ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) to develop a rapid method for simultaneously measuring the blood concentrations of nine second-line anti-TB drugs: streptomycin, kanamycin, clarithromycin, cycloserine, moxifloxacin, levofloxacin, para-aminosalicylic acid, prothionamide and linezolid. METHODS Serum samples were extracted with acidified methanol and neutralized with NaOH. A Waters Acquity HSS T3 column and gradients of ammonium formate and acetonitrile in 0.1% formic acid were used for UPLC separation. Drug concentrations were determined by multiple reaction monitoring in positive ion mode, and assay performance was evaluated. We applied this method to TDM, analysing random serum samples from 85 patients treated with second-line drugs. RESULTS Sample preparation using acidified methanol extraction followed by neutralization yielded good recovery and ionization efficiency, with chromatographic separation achieved within 3 min per sample. Within-run and between-run precisions were 1.7%-7.5% and 1.7%-12.4%, respectively, at concentrations representing low and high levels for the nine drugs. Lower limits of detection and quantification were 0.025-0.5 and 0.25-5.0 μg/mL, respectively. Linearity was acceptable at five concentrations for each drug. No ion suppression was observed at the retention time for most compounds, except for streptomycin, kanamycin and cycloserine, which were eluted close to the void volume of the column. In a limited pilot study, all quantifiable human samples had values within the validated assay ranges. CONCLUSIONS The performance of our MS/MS detection technique was generally acceptable. The method provided rapid, sensitive and reproducible quantification of nine second-line anti-TB drugs and should facilitate drug monitoring during treatment.
Using a Random Forest Classifier to Compile Bilingual Dictionaries of Technical Terms from Comparable Corpora

We describe a machine learning approach, a Random Forest (RF) classifier, that is used to automatically compile bilingual dictionaries of technical terms from comparable corpora. We evaluate the RF classifier against a popular term alignment method, namely context vectors, and we report an improvement of the translation accuracy. As an application, we use the automatically extracted dictionary in combination with a trained Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) system to more accurately translate unknown terms. The dictionary extraction method described in this paper is freely available 1 .
Die langen Wellen der Konjunktur

In der vergangenen Dekade ist die "langfristige Betrachtung" in der ökonomischen Theorie wieder modern geworden. Nachdem kurzfristig konzipierte, makroökonomische Modelle über lange Jahre das Terrain beherrschten und von Ökonometrikern bereits die Feinabstimmung der Wirtschaftspolitik ins Auge gefaßt wurde, ist die Illusion von der Kontrollierbarkeit der Marktwirtschaft durch die schwere Weltwirtschaftskrise der achtziger Jahre in Brüche gegangen. Auf langfristige Entwicklungen abzielende Erklärungen sind wieder gefragt. Grob gesprochen können diese neuen Ansätze in zwei Schulen unterteilt werden: eine neo-schumpeterianische Schule und eine Schule in marxistischer Tradition. Es lohnt sich zunächst zu rekapitulieren, was die beiden Ahnherren dieser Schulen, Schumpeter und Marx, gemeinsam haben. Was macht sie für die Theoretiker langfristiger Wirtschaftsentwicklung so attraktiv? Im wesentlichen dürften es zwei Gründe sein, die ihre Anziehungskraft ausmachen: Erstens entwickelten beide ihre Theorien aufgrund einer ausführlichen Analyse des tatsächlichen, historisch beobachteten Wirtschaftsgeschehens, und nicht aufgrund entscheidungslogischer Annahmen über abstrakte "Agenten". Zweitens beschrieben beide, indem sie nichtsdestotrotz von den historischen Einzelheiten abstrahierten, eine wohlspezifizierte, eine besondere Epoche, eine Produktionsweise den Kapitalismus. Und sie beschreiben ihn beide als ein
PROPERTY IMPROVEMENT AND DEGRADABILITY CONTROL OF POLYOLEFIN BASED COMPOSITES CONTAINING NATURAL FIBRES AND MINERAL FILLERS

Polymer composites based on natural fillers are currently attracting great attention as alternative materials to glass or synthetic fibre reinforced plastics in several applications, mostly for automotive, appliance and packaging products. The main advantage of employing natural fibres is that these are biodegradable and renewable, and exhibit low cost, low density and high toughness. However the low compatibility between fibres and polymer matrix generally leads to weak mechanical performances, limiting the use of these materials. In order to improve the interfacial interactions between the components, surface modification of the fibres and/or polymer functionalization, as well as addition of compatibilizers is required. In the present communication we analyse the effect of reactive compatibilization processes on the morphological, thermal and mechanical properties, as well as the degradation behaviour of composites with isotactic polypropylene (PP) and/or polystyrene (PS) as thermoplastic matrix, and with hemp, cellulose or oat as natural fillers. These systems are then compared to composites reinforced with CaCO3 particles.
A Monetary Model of Exchange Rate and Balance of Payments Adjustment

In this note I explore how a non-constant rate of time preference on the part of policymakers affects economic growth. In a simple dynamic general equilibrium model I show that if the incumbent government has a rate of time preference in the form of a quasi-hyperbolic discounting function, tax rates can be substantially higher and economic growth considerably lower than the standard case of exponential discounting.
Chinese firm and industry reactions to antidumping initiations and measures

China has been the subject of large numbers of both antidumping initiations and measures. This article explores the reactions of Chinese firms and industries to these actions by using dynamic system GMM estimator and industrial panel data on all Chinese firms in the industry, foreign firms operating within China and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for aggregated firms group between 1997 and 2007. We find that antidumping actions by developed and developing countries negatively impact industrial profits and employee and firm numbers and also exports, but improve labour productivity. We also find that different kinds of firms show different responses. All firms together in an industry react to antidumping the most, and foreign and SOE firms show a much smaller response. Further, antidumping effects from different countries are different. Developed countries’ antidumping actions have more negative impact than developing countries’ actions; the effects of US actions are different from the European Union’s.
Lamina Propria and Olfactory Bulb Ensheathing Cells Exhibit Differential Integration and Migration and Promote Differential Axon Sprouting in the Lesioned Spinal Cord

Olfactory bulb-derived (central) ensheathing cell (OB OEC) transplants have shown significant promise in rat models of spinal cord injury, prompting the use of lamina propria-derived (peripheral) olfactory ensheathing cells (LP OECs) in both experimental and clinical trials. Although derived from a common embryonic precursor, both sources of OECs reside in different nervous system compartments postnatally, and their ability to promote regeneration and efficacy after transplantation may differ depending on both their source and mode of transplantation. Here, we have purified green fluorescent protein-expressing LP and OB OECs, assayed their biological differences in vitro, and transplanted them acutely either directly into or rostral and caudal to a dorsolateral funiculus crush. LP and OB OECs exhibit multiple morphological and antigenic similarities in vitro, and, after transplantation, they both attenuate lesion and cavity formation and promote angiogenesis, endogenous Schwann cell infiltration, and axonal sprouting. However, an increased mitotic rate and migratory ability of LP OECs in vitro was reflected in vivo by their superior ability to migrate within the spinal cord, reduce cavity formation and lesion size, and differentially stimulate outgrowth of axonal subpopulations compared with OB OECs. An undesired behavior (autotomy) was also significantly enhanced by LP OEC, over OB OEC, transplantation. These results suggest that LP and OB OECs exhibit intrinsic biological differences that, after transplantation into the lesioned CNS, result in differences in postlesion spinal cord neuropathology and anatomical and behavioral regeneration outcomes that also vary depending on direct versus rostrocaudal transplantation.
Cross-sectoral and participatory approaches to combating desertification: The Iranian experience

Anti‐desertification planning in Iran operates at the national level through the Five Year Development Plans, the National Plan to Combat Desertification — a long‐running scheme for which the Forest, Rangeland and Watershed Management Organisation (FRWO) is responsible — and the recently developed National Action Programme to Combat Desertification (the NAP). The Iranian NAP was formulated following the country's ratification of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and drew heavily on the experience, expertise and collaboration of personnel in FRWO. Development and implementation of the NAP has had major policy impacts in Iran in the two main areas of generating cross‐sectoral cooperation between government instruments at the national planning level and by community participation in local projects to combat desertification. Documenting the evolution of cross‐sectoral and participatory approaches to desertification in Iran shows that the NAP provided impetus towards a transformation of previous procedures, a policy impact that is continuing to generate change.
A Discrete-Time Model for Daily S&P500 Returns and Realized Variations: Jumps and Leverage Effects

We develop an empirically highly accurate discrete-time daily stochastic volatility model that explicitly distinguishes between the jump and continuous time components of price movements using nonparametric realized variation and Bipower variation measures constructed from high-frequency intraday data. The model setup allows us to directly assess the structural inter-dependencies among the shocks to returns and the two different volatility components. The model estimates suggest that the leverage effect, or asymmetry between returns and volatility, works primarily through the continuous volatility component. The excellent fit of the model makes it an ideal candidate for an easy-to-implement auxiliary model in the context of indirect estimation of empirically more realistic continuous-time jump diffusion and Levy-driven stochastic volatility models, effectively incorporating the interdaily dependencies inherent in the high-frequency intraday data.
A discriminative deep model for pedestrian detection with occlusion handling

Part-based models have demonstrated their merit in object detection. However, there is a key issue to be solved on how to integrate the inaccurate scores of part detectors when there are occlusions or large deformations. To handle the imperfectness of part detectors, this paper presents a probabilistic pedestrian detection framework. In this framework, a deformable part-based model is used to obtain the scores of part detectors and the visibilities of parts are modeled as hidden variables. Unlike previous occlusion handling approaches that assume independence among visibility probabilities of parts or manually define rules for the visibility relationship, a discriminative deep model is used in this paper for learning the visibility relationship among overlapping parts at multiple layers. Experimental results on three public datasets (Caltech, ETH and Daimler) and a new CUHK occlusion dataset1 specially designed for the evaluation of occlusion handling approaches show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Alzheimer β Amyloid Deposition Enhanced by ApoE ϵ4 Gene Precedes Neurofibrillary Pathology in the Frontal Association Cortex of Nondemented Senior Subjects

To clarify how Alzheimer disease pathology develops in the brains of nondemented subjects, we examined the interrelations among the amounts and morphology of Aβ deposition, neurofibrillary pathology, and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype in the frontal association cortex of 101 autopsy brains from patients aged between 40 to 83. Senile plaque density correlated well with the logarithmic data of insoluble Aβ measured by enzyme immunoassay (EIA). The amounts of Aβ42-EIA increased dramatically in the late preclinical stage, whereas the Aβ42+ plaque density increased in the early preclinical stage. Neurofibrillary pathology appeared only in the areas with severe Aβ deposition and in subjects aged over 70. The ApoE ϵ4 allele enhanced the Aβ deposition in presenile subjects. Plaque-associated glial Aβ was prominent in subjects with mild to moderate Aβ deposition. The morphology of cerebral Aβ deposition changed from diffuse plaques with small amounts of Aβ in each plaque in the early preclinical stage to primitive/neuritic plaques with larger amounts of Aβ in each plaque in the late preclinical stage. Our findings suggest that the prevention of Aβ deposition in the late preclinical stage can be a rational therapeutic target, especially in elderly people with ApoE ϵ4 allele.
Analisis Agency Cost, Struktur Kepemilikan dan Mekanisme Corporate Governance

This paper examines the relationship between ownership structure, corporate governance and agency costs measured in terms of asset utilization and operating expense. This paper based on the previous research by Ang et al. (1999) and Singh et al. (2003). I utilize a sample of 96 firms from Jakarta Stock Exchange for periods of 1999-2001. Univariate results show that firms with high managerial ownership are more efficient in their asset utilization than firms with low managerial ownership, but the difference is insignificant. Firms with high institutional ownership and large size of boards are significantly more efficient than low those of institututional ownership and small size of boards. Multivariate results fail to confirm that managerial and institutional ownership have potential effect to agency costs (asset utilization and operating expense). However, I find there is a positive relationship between board size and asset utilization and negative relationship to operating expense. This evidence is consistent with the notion that large boards are effective to monitor firm performance.
Carotid Artery Stenting: A Single-Center Experience

Background Carotid artery stenting is now used as an alternative to surgical endarterectomy. This study was done to assess the feasibility, safety, and immediate and late clinical outcomes in patients undergoing carotid stenting. Methods Between July 2008 and December 2009, a total of 40 patients (20 male, mean age: 65 ± 11 years, 19 symptomatic, and 90% high risk for endarterectomy) underwent carotid artery stenting with different embolic protection devices and carotid stents. Thirty-seven patients had coronary artery disease. Technical success rate, stroke/death/myocardial infarction rate at 30 days, access-site complications, and contrast-induced nephropathy were assessed. For the evaluation of the influence of experience in carotid artery stenting on complications, the patients were divided into two groups: Group 1 included the first 20 treated patients and Group 2 comprised the remainder of the patients. Results The overall technical success rate was 100%. The cumulative in-hospital stroke death rate was 7.5% (n = 3: 2 deaths and 1 major stroke). Complications were more frequent in Group 1 (2/20, 10%; 2 deaths) than in Group 2 (1/20, 5%; 1 major stroke), but this was not statistically significant (p value = 0.09). No access-site complications occurred, and mild contrast-induced nephropathy occurred in 3 patients (7.5%). No major stroke or neurological deaths occurred during a mean follow-up of 12 months. Conclusion Carotid stenting seemed feasible and relatively safe in our experience. Advanced experience in carotid artery stenting appears to confer an acceptable peri-procedural stroke-death rate.
National Athletic Trainers' Association Position Statement: Management of Sport-Related Concussion.

Kevin M. Guskiewicz, PhD, ATC, FACSM; Scott L. Bruce, MS, ATC; Robert C. Cantu, MD, FACSM; Michael S. Ferrara, PhD, ATC; James P. Kelly, MD; Michael McCrea, PhD; Margot Putukian, MD, FACSM; and Tamara C. Valovich McLeod, PhD, ATC, CSCS, contributed to conception and design, acquisition and analysis and interpretation of the data; and drafting, critical revision, and final approval of the article. Address correspondence to National Athletic Trainers’ Association, Communications Department, 2952 Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, TX 75247.