Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Foundations of Factor Investing

Factor investing is based on the existence of factors that have earned a premium over long periods, reflect exposure to systematic risk, and are grounded in the academic literature. Early financial theory established that for stocks, exposure to the market was a significant driver of returns (e.g., the CAPM). Later, researchers like Barr Rosenberg, Eugene Fama and Kenneth French extended the CAPM to include certain systematic factors that also were important in explaining returns. Tilts towards these factors such as Value, Low Size, and Momentum historically produced excess long-term returns and there were strong theoretical foundations behind these factors. Until now, passive investing has focused on capturing market beta through market capitalization weighted indexes. The only way institutional investors could get access to factors was through active management. Indexation is opening a new way for factor investing today by allowing investors to access factors through passive vehicles that replicate factor indexes. MSCI Factor Indexes provide access to six solidly grounded factors — Value, Low Size, Low Volatility, High Yield, Quality and Momentum. These indexes have historically earned excess returns over market capitalization weighted indexes and experienced higher Sharpe Ratios. This paper is the first in a three-paper series focusing on factor investing.
p47 GTPases Regulate Toxoplasma gondii Survival in Activated Macrophages

ABSTRACT The cytokine gamma interferon (IFN-γ) is critical for resistance to Toxoplasma gondii. IFN-γ strongly activates macrophages and nonphagocytic host cells to limit intracellular growth of T. gondii; however, the cellular factors that are required for this effect are largely unknown. We have shown previously that IGTP and LRG-47, members of the IFN-γ-regulated family of p47 GTPases, are required for resistance to acute T. gondii infections in vivo. In contrast, IRG-47, another member of this family, is not required. In the present work, we addressed whether these GTPases are required for IFN-γ-induced suppression of T. gondii growth in macrophages in vitro. Bone marrow macrophages that lacked IGTP or LRG-47 displayed greatly attenuated IFN-γ-induced inhibition of T. gondii growth, while macrophages that lacked IRG-47 displayed normal inhibition. Thus, the ability of the p47 GTPases to limit acute infection in vivo correlated with their ability to suppress intracellular growth in macrophages in vitro. Using confocal microscopy and sucrose density fractionation, we demonstrated that IGTP largely colocalizes with endoplasmic reticulum markers, while LRG-47 was mainly restricted to the Golgi. Although both IGTP and LRG-47 localized to vacuoles containing latex beads, neither protein localized to vacuoles containing live T. gondii. These results suggest that IGTP and LRG-47 are able to regulate host resistance to acute T. gondii infections through their ability to inhibit parasite growth within the macrophage.
Fixed-Time Attitude Control for Rigid Spacecraft With Actuator Saturation and Faults

This brief investigates the finite-time control problem associated with attitude stabilization of a rigid spacecraft subject to external disturbance, actuator faults, and input saturation. More specifically, a novel fixed-time sliding mode surface is developed, and the settling time of the defined surface is shown to be independent of the initial conditions of the system. Then, a finite-time controller is derived to guarantee that the closed-loop system is stable in the sense of the fixed-time concept. The actuator-magnitude constraints are rigorously enforced and the attitude of the rigid spacecraft converges to the equilibrium in a finite time even in the presence of external disturbances and actuator faults. Numerical simulations illustrate the spacecraft performance obtained using the proposed controller.
Taxation and fiscal expenditure in a growth model with endogenous fertility

Most growth theorists agree that understanding the economics of innovation and technological change is central to understanding why some countries are richer and/or grow faster than other countries. The driving force behind recent developments in endogenous innovation models of growth is a desire to eliminate population scale effects. In the semi endogenous growth model growth becomes proportional to the exogenous population growth rate but invariant to policy. This paper makes population growth endogenous by modeling fertility along the lines of Barro and Becker (Fertility Choice in a Model of Economic Growth, 1989) and models an array of government policies to demonstrate how some policies can impact levels and growth rates in a scale free endogenous growth model. In the model government policies are categorized according to whether they have level effects only, level and growth effects, or no impact on levels and/or growth.
Convergence of International Output Movements

This paper explores the convergence of real per capita output in advanced industrialized economies. We start by observing that in a stochastic environment. convergence in per capita GDP requires that permanent shocks to one econ~ be associated with permanent shocks to other economies. Convergence is a natural outcome, of models where exogenous technical change migrates across countries with similar microeconomic specifications. Conversely, in a world where some component of permanent output movements is due to technical change whereas other components are due to domestic factors. national economies may diverge over time. we formalize a general definition of convergence using the notions of unit roots and cointegration developed in the time series literature. We construct bivariate and multivariate tests of convergence across advanced industrialized economies. Our evidence indicates that one cannot reject the no convergence null. Further. the estimated time series representation of cross-country output deviations exhibits substantial persistence. These results suggest that previous empirical work on convergence has neglected some aspects of the null hypothesis.
Evidence-Based Policy and Performance Management

Both the evidence-based policy and performance management movements aim to improve government effectiveness by developing and utilizing a more rigorous base of information and scientific evidence to guide decisions about program design, funding, implementation, and management. In practice, however, differences and tensions between these movements—such as their methods and standards for assembling and analyzing data, and the strategic timing and use of this information to influence policy and hold public managers accountable for performance—could limit their success. Using cases and empirical studies, this article considers questions about what should count as evidence, how it should be communicated, who should judge the quality and reliability of evidence and performance information, and how to achieve a balance between processes that produce rigorous information for decision making and those that foster democratic governance and accountability. Recommendations are made for improving government effectiveness by using more rigorous information in decision making, along with acknowledgment of the limitations and risks associated with such efforts.
The effect of aromatherapy on haemodialysis patients' pruritus.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To determine the effect of aromatherapy on pruritus observed in haemodialysis patients. BACKGROUND Although the prevalence of pruritus in kidney failure has decreased in the recent years, pruritus is a difficult and serious problem which concerns the majority of haemodialysis patents and is hard to cure. DESIGN A prospective, pretest-post-test quasi-experimental design was used. METHODS The research is quasi-experimental clinical trial conducted as pretest and post-test with control groups between January 2011-April 2012, in haemodialysis units of hospitals in Erzurum. The collection of the data is achieved using a questionnaire to detect the patients' individual and pruritus score scale and to clarify certain laboratory parameters regarding the pruritus. Chi-square analysis and t-test are used for the analysis of data. RESULTS The experimental group's mean post-test pruritus scores (7·20 ± 3·14) were found to be lower than that of control group patients (10·00 ± 2·47), and a highly significant difference was found between the groups (p < 0·001). In the between-groups comparisons of experimental and control group's laboratory parameters, the experimental group's post-test blood urea nitrogen levels (118·26 ± 36·76) were found to be lower than that of control group patients (138·80 ± 48·69), and the between-groups difference was found to be statistically significant (p < 0·05). CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrate that aromatherapy was found to decrease the pruritus problem of haemodialyses patients and led to positive changes in some laboratory parameters related to pruritus. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE One of the roles of health professionals is to advise individuals, who are living on this problem, using the nonpharmacological methods in checking the itching. By preventing or reducing uraemic pruritus, aromatherapy may also improve quality of life in this patient group.
Reference Price Conceptualisations: An Integrative Framework of Analysis

The notion of reference price is becoming more popular in modelling price effects on consumers' purchasing behaviour. In order to understand the formation of reference price, an integrative analysis of the different concepts of reference price is proposed here. We present a classification of some twenty-six different concepts of reference price, based on an analysis of the different cognitive processes involved in the different conceptualisations. In addition, similarities and differences between the different concepts are examined. Finally, we consider utilization of particular reference price concepts in reference price modelling as well as in managerial decisions pertinent to various market situations.
Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation Evokes Resonant Neural Activity

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a rapidly expanding treatment for neurological and psychiatric conditions; however, a target‐specific biomarker is required to optimize therapy. Here, we show that DBS evokes a large‐amplitude resonant neural response focally in the subthalamic nucleus. This response is greatest in the dorsal region (the clinically optimal stimulation target for Parkinson disease), coincides with improved clinical performance, is chronically recordable, and is present under general anesthesia. These features make it a readily utilizable electrophysiological signal that could potentially be used for guiding electrode implantation surgery and tailoring DBS therapy to improve patient outcomes. Ann Neurol 2018;83:1027–1031
Elimination of All Charged Residues in the Vicinity of the Active-site Helix of the Disulfide Oxidoreductase DsbA

Disulfide oxidoreductases are structurally related proteins that share the thioredoxin fold and a catalytic disulfide bond that is located at the N terminus of an α-helix. The different redox potentials of these enzymes varying from −270 mV for thioredoxin to −125 mV for DsbA have been attributed to the lowered pK a values of their nucleophilic, active-site cysteines and the difference in thermodynamic stability between their oxidized and reduced forms (ΔΔG ox/red). The lowered pK a of the nucleophilic cysteine thiols was proposed to result from favorable interactions with the helix dipole and charged residues in their vicinity. In this study, we have eliminated all charged residues in the neighborhood of the active-site disulfide of DsbA from Escherichia coli to analyze their contribution to the physicochemical properties of the protein. We show that the conserved charge network among residues Glu24, Glu37, and Lys58 stabilizes the oxidized form of DsbA and thus does not cause the high redox potential of the enzyme. The pK a values of the nucleophilic cysteine (Cys30) and the redox potentials of the DsbA variants E24Q, E37Q, K58M, E24Q/K58M, E37Q/K58M, E24Q/E37Q, E24Q/E37Q/K58M, and E24Q/E37Q/E38Q/K58M are similar to those of DsbA wild type. The redox potentials of the variants neither correlate with the Cys30pK a values nor with the ΔΔG ox/red values, demonstrating that the relationship between these parameters is far more complex than previously thought.
Progressivism -- For Middle-Class Whites Only: North Carolina Education, 1880-1910

"The problem that the South now presents," asserted Walter Hines Page in an Atlantic Monthly article in 1902, "has at last become so plain that thoughtful men no longer differ about it. It is no longer obscured by race differences nor by political differences. It is simply the training of the untrained masses. " Education, Page was sure, would build a new "democratic order of society" in the South, would, as he had asserted in a famous 1897 speech, "develop the forgotten man . The neglected people will rise," he went on, "and with them will rise all the people. "
The Accuracy of Price-Earnings and Discounted Cash Flow Methods of IPO Equity Valuation

This paper compares estimates of value derived from conventional discounted cash flow and price earnings valuation methods to the market price. For a sample of 45 firms newly listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange our results suggest that the best discounted cash flow method and the best price earnings comparable have similar accuracy. The median absolute pricing error is around 20 percent; and the models explain around 70 percent; of the cross-sectional variation in market price scaled by book value. The results serve to corroborate the findings of Kaplan and Ruback (1995).
Career Concerns in Teams

We investigate how changes in the commitment power of a principal affect cooperation among agents who work in a team. When the principal and her agents are symmetrically uncertain about the agents’ innate abilities, workers have career concerns. Then, unless the principal can commit herself to long‐term wage contracts, an implicit sabotage incentive emerges. Agents become reluctant to help their teammates. Anticipating this risk, and in order to induce the desired level of cooperation, the principal offers more collectively oriented incentive schemes. Temporary workers, though, are not affected by the sabotage effect, and their incentives are more individually oriented.
Cross-sectional analysis of food demand in the North Central, Nigeria: The quadratic almost ideal demand system (QUAIDS) approach

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of socio-economic variables on households' food demand. This paper derived the indirect utility function in terms of expenditure and price through the use of nonlinear demand quadratic almost ideal demand system (QUAIDS) model to estimate price, expenditure and elasticities of food items consumed in the North-Central, Nigeria, and the impact of the socio-economic variables on households' food demand. Design/methodology/approach - The primary data used came from random selection of 396 households between 2006 and 2007 through a stratified random sampling procedure from Kwara and Kogi states making up the North Central zone in Nigeria. Findings - All own price elasticities of the six food groups analyzed (root and tubers – RT, cereal – CR, legume – LG, animal protein – AP, fruits and vegetable – FV, fats and oil) showed that they are price inelastic. The results of income elasticity show that AP consumption is the most sensitive to income changes, while fats and oil is the least sensitive to income changes. Factors that positively and significantly affected demand for LG, FV, AP, CR and RT were household size (HSZ), level of education, primary occupation, access to credit, presence of children =6 years mainly at Originality/value - This paper is original and novel in that it examines the impact of socio-economic variables on households' food demand. High-income elasticities of demand for all the food groups in QUAIDS except fruits and vegetable, as well as fats and oils, suggests that income-generating policies will foster higher levels of consumption for these commodities.
A less-constrained solution to curve interpolation by Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces

This paper reports a generic solution to the problem of constructing Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces to interpolate arbitrarily intersecting meshes of curves, which is less constrained than already published solutions following this approach. Besides making surface generation more straightforward, the proposed scheme seems to improve the quality of the surface in terms of smoothness at and around extraordinary points. Moreover, the scheme permits the construction in explicit form of a subdivision matrix integrating the interpolation constraints.
Energy Consumption and Economic Growth in Algeria: Cointegration and Causality Analysis

This study investigates the energy consumption-growth nexus in Algeria. The causal relationship between the logarithm of per capita energy consumption (LPCEC) and the logarithm of per capita GDP (LPCGDP) during the 1965-2008 period is examined using the threshold cointegration and Granger causality tests. The estimation results indicate that the LPCEC and LPCGDP for Algeria are non cointegrated and that there is a uni-directional causality running from LPCGDP to LPCEC, but not vice versa. The research results strongly support the neoclassical perspective that energy consumption is not a limiting factor to economic growth in Algeria. Accordingly, an important policy implication resulting from this analysis is that government can pursue the conservation energy policies that aim at curtailing energy use for environmental friendly development purposes without creating severe effects on economic growth. The energy should be efficiently allocated into more productive sectors of the economy
A new approach to chemoembolization for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma using aclarubicin microspheres in combination with cisplatin suspended in iodized oil

Sixty‐six consecutive patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were treated with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) using aclarubicin microspheres (ACRms) in combination with cisplatin suspended in iodized oil (Lipiodol, Laboratoire Guerbert, Paris, France) (CSL). The stages of the disease were as follows: Stage I (n = 1), Stage II (n = 10), Stage III (n = 26), and Stage IV (n = 29). The effectiveness of TACE was assessed by comparing ACRms with CSL with ACRms without CSL. Of 66 patients treated with ACRms and CSL, 62 (93.9%) could be examined for response. According to response criteria, there were 31 (50.0%) partial responses and 17 (27.4%) minor responses. In 13 cases (21.0%) there was no change and in 1 case (1.6%) there was progressive disease. The cumulative survival rate was 80.7% at 1 year, 64.2% at 2 years, and 50.6% at 3 years. The rates were significantly higher than those of the group treated with ACRms. Eleven patients in the ACRms and CSL group experienced clinical complications: cholecystitis (4.5%), pancreatitis (3.0%), liver abscess (3.0%), hepatic failure (3.0%), gastrointestinal bleeding (1.5%), and renal failure (1.5%). No lethal side effects related to the therapy were observed. TACE using ACRms in combination with CSL prolongs the survival of patients with unresectable HCC. Cancer 68:2555–2560, 1991.
Welfare Reform and Its Long-Term Consequences for America's Poor

Two decades of federal and state-level demonstration projects and experiments concerning cash welfare in the United States culminated with the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, better known as welfare reform. Ten years after reform there remain a host of unanswered questions on the well-being of low-income families. In Welfare Reform and its Long Term Consequences for America's Poor, many of the nation's leading poverty experts address these and related outcomes to assess the longer-term effects of welfare reform. A diverse array of survey and administrative data are brought to bear to examine the effects of welfare reform and the concomitant expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit on the level and distribution of income, the composition of consumption, employment, public versus private health insurance coverage, health and education outcomes of children, marriage, and social service delivery.
A Contrast of HRM and Tqm Approaches to Performance Management: Some Evidence

Using a survey, this paper provides information about the current state of performance management (appraisal) from a sample of UK-based EFQM-affiliated organizations. It particularly focuses on several critical issues of performance management in the context of TQM including: the effectiveness of TQM programmes; the rationale for performance management; degree of internal consistency between TQM assumptions and performance management systems; and the relationship among performance management, effectiveness of TQM programmes, employee satisfaction and overall organization performance. Although the fundamental precepts advocated by founders of TQM appear to be in conflict with performance management practices, however, the article argues that, rather than being contradictory, both can add value to the operations of the other in the interest of the organization as a whole. More precisely, the paper explains how a successful TQM strategy requires a rethinking and changing the organization's performance management system, otherwise it is highly likely to result in a disaster. To conclude, the survey evidence is used, combined with previous literature, to discuss the implications of these results for designing a contextually appropriate performance management for TQM and in the interest of the future research on TQM and HRM.
Tuition Fees and Sunk�?Cost Effects

This article reports on a field experiment testing for sunk-cost effects in an education setting. Students signing up for extra-curricular tutorial sessions randomly received a discount on the tuition fee. The sunk-cost effect predicts that students who pay more will attend more tutorial sessions, with possibly beneficial effects on their performance. For our full sample, we find no support for this hypothesis, neither on attendance nor on performance. Results are consistent with a sunk-cost effect for the subsample of students who, based on hypothetical survey questions, are identified as sunk-cost prone. We do not find differential effects by students’ income or parental contributions.
Modeling Behavioral Complexities of Warning Issuance for Domestic Security: A Simulation Approach to Develop Public Management Theories

ABSTRACT Our daily life is full of various forms of security warnings. But do they have enough effect on people's behavior, and how can the government improve its domestic warning system? The purpose of this article is to develop a model to help examine the trade-offs inherent in issuing security warnings and identify optimal timing for warning issuance. We develop a formal dynamic model of security-based warning systems. Then we conduct several simulation-based analyses. We show that optimal policies for warning issuance are sensitive to two major behavioral characteristics of the society: how fast people might start ignoring warnings, and how adversaries perceive such ignorance. The results show that an underestimation of these effects can result in sub-optimal solutions and performance shortfall. In addition, methodologically, the article provides an example of how to use simulation techniques for theory development in public management and policy. [Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of International Public Management Journal for the following free supplemental resource: online appendix. ]