Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimating the Stochastic Discount Factor without a Utility Function

In this paper we take seriously the consequences of the Pricing Equation in constructing a novel consistent estimator of the stochastic discount factor (SDF) using panel data. Under general conditions it depends exclusively on appropriate averages of asset returns, and its computation is a direct exercise, as long as one has enough observations to fit our asymptotic results. We identify the logarithm of the SDF using the fact that it is the serial correlation "common feature" in every asset return of the economy. Our estimator does not depend on any parametric function representing preferences, or on consumption data. This property allows its use in testing different preference specifications commonly employed in finance and in macroeconomics, as well as investigating the existence of several puzzles involving intertemporal substitution, such as the equity-premium puzzle. It is also straightforward to construct an estimator of the risk-free rate based on our SDF estimator. When applied to quarterly data of U.S.$ real returns from 1972:1 through 2002:4, our estimator of the SDF is close to unity most of the time and yields an equivalent average annual real discount rate of 2.46%. When we examined the appropriateness of different functional forms to represent preferences, we concluded that standard preference representations used in the literature on intertemporal substitution cannot be rejected by the data. Moreover, estimates of the relative risk-aversion coefficient are close to what can be expected a priori -- between 1 and 2, statistically significant, and not different than unity in testing. A direct test of the equity-premium puzzle using our SDF estimator cannot reject the null that the discounted equity premium in the U.S. has mean zero. However, when consumption-based SDF estimates are employed in the same test, the null is rejected. Further empirical investigation shows that our SDF estimator has a large negative correlation with the equity premium, whereas that of consumption-based estimates are usually too small in absolute value, generating the equity-premium puzzle
Validating a standards-based classroom assessment of English proficiency: A multitrait-multimethod approach

The use of standards-based classroom assessments to test English learners' language proficiency is increasingly prevalent in the United States and many other countries. In a large urban school district in California, for example, a classroom assessment is used to make high-stakes decisions about English learners' progress from one level to the next, and as one of the criteria for reclassifying students as Fluent English Proficient. Yet many researchers have questioned the validity of using classroom assessments for making high-stakes decisions about students (Brindley, 1998; 2001; Rea-Dickins and Gardner, 2000). One way to investigate the validity of the inferences drawn from these assessments is to examine them in relation to other measures of the same ability. In this study, a multivariate analytic approach was used to examine the extent to which the English Language Development (ELD) Classroom Assessment measures the same constructs as the CELDT (California English Language Development Test), the statewide standardized test of English proficiency. Using confirmatory factor analysis of multitrait-multimethod data, this study investigates the construct validity of these measures by focusing on evidence of convergence, discrimination, and method effects longitudinally over three years. The study concludes that the evidence gathered via the ELD Classroom Assessment is consistent with that provided by the CELDT, the standardized measure.
A Decade of Adaptive Governance Scholarship: Synthesis and Future Directions

Adaptive governance is an emergent form of environmental governance that is increasingly called upon by scholars and practitioners to coordinate resource management regimes in the face of the complexity and uncertainty associated with rapid environmental change. Although the term “adaptive governance” is not exclusively applied to the governance of social-ecological systems, related research represents a significant outgrowth of literature on resilience, social-ecological systems, and environmental governance. We present a chronology of major scholarship on adaptive governance, synthesizing efforts to define the concept and identifying the array of governance concepts associated with transformation toward adaptive governance. Based on this synthesis, we define adaptive governance as a range of interactions between actors, networks, organizations, and institutions emerging in pursuit of a desired state for social-ecological systems. In addition, we identify and discuss ambiguities in adaptive governance scholarship such as the roles of adaptive management, crisis, and a desired state for governance of social-ecological systems. Finally, we outline a research agenda to examine whether an adaptive governance approach can become institutionalized under current legal frameworks and political contexts. We suggest a further investigation of the relationship between adaptive governance and the principles of good governance; the roles of power and politics in the emergence of adaptive governance; and potential interventions such as legal reform that may catalyze or enhance governance adaptations or transformation toward adaptive governance.
Assessment of the Adequacy of Closed Reduction in Fractures of the Zygomatic Arch Using "C"-Arm Image Intensifier

Major problems in closed reduction of isolated, minimally displaced, and depressed zygomatic arch fractures are blind nature of the technique, reliability on digital palpation, reduction click, and step deformity between fragments. The purpose of this study was to objectively confirm the adequacy of closed reduction intraoperatively and the usefulness of the "C"-arm image intensifier. A total of 12 patients with 1- to 8-day-old unilateral isolated and depressed zygomatic arch fracture underwent closed reduction under "C"-arm image intensifier. Of these patients, 9 were men and 3 were women, with age ranging from 18 to 32 years. Intraoperative prereduction and postreduction images were obtained using the "C"-arm image intensifier. Criteria for adequate reduction were the following: intrafragmentary gap less than 0.5 mm, no overriding of fragments, no depression of fragments, and no step deformity. After being clinically satisfied about the reduction, images on "C"-arm showed no intrafragmentary gap. In 3 patients, there were residual overriding and minimal rotation around the anteroposterior axis of the posterior fragment. In 1 patient, rotation and step deformity remained. In this patient, additional stabilization was provided. The "C"-arm image intensifier shows some poorly reduced or unstable isolated depressed zygomatic arch fractures that remain unidentified even after careful palpation. Thus, it plays a recognizable role to avoid the trouble of second intervention.
Red cell pyruvate kinase deficiency: molecular and clinical aspects

Red cell pyruvate kinase (PK) deficiency is the most frequent enzyme abnormality of the glycolytic pathway causing hereditary non‐spherocytic haemolytic anaemia. The degree of haemolysis varies widely, ranging from very mild or fully compensated forms, to life‐threatening neonatal anaemia and jaundice necessitating exchange transfusions. Erythrocyte PK is synthesized under the control of the PK‐LR gene located on chromosome 1. To date, more than 150 different mutations in the PK‐LR gene have been associated with PK deficiency. First attempts to delineate the biochemical and clinical consequences of the molecular defect were mainly based on the observation of the few homozygous patients and on the analysis of the three‐dimensional structure of the enzyme. More recently, the comparison of the recombinant mutants of human red cell PK with the wild‐type enzyme has enabled the effects of amino acid replacements on the enzyme molecular properties to be determined and help to correlate genotype to clinical phenotype.
Shelter During the Storm

Using data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, the authors show that trajectories of past violence predict future violence better than other more traditional measures of risk. The authors then evaluate whether factors that can be manipulated during this time can both promote less violence for all individuals as well as protect against violence among those who are most at risk for more violence. This article finds that several factors protect youth from violent behavior but not from gun or weapon carrying. Implications of these findings for future research on risk and protective factors of youth violence and for strategies for preventing such behavior are discussed.
Self-Control and Variability Over Time: Multivariate Results Using a 5-Year, Multisite Panel of Youths

Gottfredson and Hirschi claimed, as part of their general theory of crime, that a child’s criminal propensity, what they called level of self-control, is fairly fixed by age 10. Low self-control children, they further claimed, exhibit greater proclivities for delinquency and analogous behaviors than children with high levels of self-control. They see self-control levels for children at both ends of the spectrum—and their propensities for crime and analogous behaviors—as immutable over the life course. The authors explore the self-control levels, self-reported illegal behavior, and supporting attitudes exhibited by a panel of youths from in six cities at five points in time. Some of our findings substantiated Gottfredson and Hirschi’s claims (e.g., claims linking self-control, sex, and race or ethnicity); however, other findings are at odds with their theory (e.g., the unchanging nature of self-control). The authors review the implications of these findings for self-control theory.
The AOSpine thoracolumbar spine injury classification system: A reliability and agreement study

Aim: Recently, AOSpine trauma knowledge forum proposed the AOSpine thoracolumbar injury classification (AOSTLIC) system and suggested that it was reliable. However, reliability data from additional institutions for the AOSTLIC system are not available. This study was to examine the reliability of the AOSTLIC system in patients with thoracolumbar (TL) fractures. Materials and Methods: Between August 2009 and June 2012, 56 patients with 74 levels traumatic TL spinal injuries were recruited. Two classifiers, consisting of two spine surgeons, assessed clinical and imaging data. Initially, one surgeon reviewed the data in order to classify and calculate injury severity score according to the AOSTSIC system. This process was repeated on a 5-week interval by another surgeon. Then we analyzed data for intra-observer and inter-observer reliability using the kappa statistic (k). Finally, validity was assessed using the known-groups comparison. Results: The mean age of patients was 59.5 ± 11.5 years. The k values for the AOSTSIC system for intra-observer and inter-observer reliability ranged from 0.83 to 0.89, indicating nearly perfect agreement agreements. Known-groups analysis showed satisfactory results. The AOSTSIC system discriminated well between sub-groups of patients who differed in Oswestry disability index. Conclusion: The findings showed that the morphologic classification in AOSTSIC system appears to be reliable and reproducible classification.
Influence of the Dynamic Social Network Timeframe Type and Size on the Group Evolution Discovery

New technologies allow to store vast amount of data about users interaction. From those data the social network can be created. Additionally, because usually also time and dates of this activities are stored, the dynamic of such network can be analyzed by splitting it into many timeframes representing the state of the network during specific period of time. One of the most interesting issue is group evolution over time. To track group evolution the GED method can be used. However, choice of the timeframe type and length might have great influence on the method results. Therefore, in this paper, the influence of timeframe type as well as timeframe length on the GED method results is extensively analyzed.
Analysis of the factors influencing lung cancer hospitalization expenses using data mining

Hospitalization expenses for the therapy of lung cancer are not only a direct economic burden on patients, but also the focus of medical insurance departments. Therefore, the method for classifying and analyzing lung cancer hospitalization expenses so as to predict reasonable medical cost has become an issue of common interest for both hospitals and insurance institutions.
Galvanic skin response (GSR) as an index of cognitive load

Multimodal user interfaces (MMUI) allow users to control computers using speech and gesture, and have the potential to minimise users. experienced cognitive load, especially when performing complex tasks. In this paper, we describe our attempt to use a physiological measure, namely Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), to objectively evaluate users. stress and arousal levels while using unimodal and multimodal versions of the same interface. Preliminary results show that users. GSR readings significantly increase when task cognitive load level increases. Moreover, users. GSR readings are found to be lower when using a multimodal interface, instead of a unimodal interface. Cross-examination of GSR data with multimodal data annotation showed promising results in explaining the peaks in the GSR data, which are found to correlate with sub-task user events. This interesting result verifies that GSR can be used to serve as an objective indicator of user cognitive load level in real time, with a very fine granularity.
Problems with early and very early intervention Problems with early and very early intervention in psychosis* in psychosis*

tion both before and after the onset of psytion both before and after the onset of psychosis. The problems, risks and potential chosis. The problems, risks and potential benefits are quite different for each of these benefits are quite different for each of these approaches. I will argue that the expectaapproaches. I will argue that the expectation of special benefits from early intertion of special benefits from early intervention after the onset of illness is vention after the onset of illness is premised on weak evidence, and that the premised on weak evidence, and that the approach presents a risk of unnecessary approach presents a risk of unnecessary treatment to those who would otherwise treatment to those who would otherwise experience a brief or mild psychotic disorexperience a brief or mild psychotic disorder. Intervention before psychosis is fully der. Intervention before psychosis is fully
A Behavioural Conditioning Approach to Autonomous Flight Control Design

Unmanned Air Vehicles are aircraft designed for autonomous operation in realistic environments. The condition of autonomy restricts major mission planning and flight control to on-board processing. This paper presents a novel control architecture, CEDAR, that is structured from reactive controllers to satisfy real-time operation. Adaptive circuitry provides for compensation of design errors and allow the control system to learn skills through experience. Reinforcement learning is the basis for behavioral conditioning and planning. Simulation results are presented which demonstrate the on-line training capabilities of a sailplane autopilot. An overview of the architecture covers the basic operation and related works.
Magnetic Induction Tomography: A Measuring System for Biological Tissues

Abstract: A single‐channel magnetic induction system operating at 10 MHz has been constructed. The system consists of an excitation coil and a sensing coil, between which different objects can be scanned. The eddy currents induced in the object cause perturbations in the sensed magnetic field, which are measured with a phase‐sensitive detector with backing off of the signal to improve sensitivity. Scans were obtained for saline solutions with conductivities ranging from 0.001 to 6 Sm−1, encompassing the range for biological tissues. The imaginary part of the perturbation in the sensed magnetic field was found to be proportional to saline conductivity, consistent with theoretical prediction, and had a constant of proportionality of −1.2% per Sm−1. A filtered back‐projection algorithm was used to generate tomographic images from the scans.
Control of in vitro neural differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells in 3D macroporous, cellulosic hydrogels.

BACKGROUND Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells that can be induced to differentiate into multiple cell lineages, including neural cells. They are a good cell source for neural tissue-engineering applications. Cultivation of human (h)MSCs in 3D scaffolds is an effective means for the development of novel neural tissue-engineered constructs, and may serve as a promising strategy in the treatment of nerve injury. AIM This study presents the in vitro growth and neural differentiation of hMSCs in 3D macroporous, cellulosic hydrogels. RESULTS The number of hMSCs cultivated in the 3D scaffolds increased by more than 14-fold after 7 days. After 2 days induction, most of the hMSCs in the 3D scaffolds were positive for nestin, a marker of neural stem cells. After 7 days induction, most of the hMSCs in the 3D scaffolds showed glial fibrillary acidic protein, tubulin or neurofilament M-positive reaction and a few hMSCs were positive for nestin. After 14 days induction, hMSCs in the 3D scaffolds could completely differentiate into neurons and glial cells. The neural differentiation of hMSCs in the 3D scaffolds was further demonstrated by real-time PCR. CONCLUSION These results show that the 3D macroporous cellulosic hydrogel could be an appropriate substrate for neural differentiation of hMSCs and its possible applications in neural tissue engineering are discussed.
FINITE-DEFORMATION IRREVERSIBLE COHESIVE ELEMENTS FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL CRACK-PROPAGATION ANALYSIS

SUMMARY We develop a three-dimensional nite-deformation cohesive element and a class of irreversible cohesive laws which enable the accurate and ecient tracking of dynamically growing cracks. The cohesive element governs the separation of the crack anks in accordance with an irreversible cohesive law, eventually leading to the formation of free surfaces, and is compatible with a conventional nite element discretization of the bulk material. The versatility and predictive ability of the method is demonstrated through the simulation of a drop-weight dynamic fracture test similar to those reported by Zehnder and Rosakis. 1 The ability of the method to approximate the experimentally observed crack-tip trajectory is particularly noteworthy. Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The effect of dicumarol, diphacinone and pivalyl upon blood prothrombin time of chicks.

Abstract INCREASED prothrombin time due to feeding dicumarol has been observed with the chick (Quick and Stefanini, 1948; Harms and Tarver, 1957) and laying hens (Waldroup and Harms, 1962; Day et al., 1964). The action of dicumarol in the inhibition of the blood clotting process is lessened by the presence of vitamin K in the diet according to Quick and Stefanini (1948). Although sulfaquinoxaline is used to induce hypoprothrombinemia in chick assays of vitamin K compounds (Perdue and Frost, 1961; Griminger and Daves, 1959), the use of other anticoagulants may prove of value in studies on vitamin K activity or the mechanism of blood clotting as related to the occurrence of blood spots in eggs. The experiments reported herein were designed to evaluate the effects of three anticoagulants on the prothrombin time of chicks. EXPERIMENTAL Four experiments were conducted using broiler strain chicks obtained from a commercial hatchery. All chicks were …
Recruitment of an RNA Polymerase II Complex Is Mediated by the Constitutive Activation Domain in CREB, Independently of CREB Phosphorylation

ABSTRACT The cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) is a bifunctional transcription activator, exerting its effects through a constitutive activation domain (CAD) and a distinct kinase inducible domain (KID), which requires phosphorylation of Ser-133 for activity. Both CAD and phospho-KID have been proposed to recruit polymerase complexes, but this has not been directly tested. Here, we show that the entire CREB activation domain or the CAD enhanced recruitment of a complex containing TFIID, TFIIB, and RNA polymerase II to a linked promoter. The nuclear extracts used mediated protein kinase A (PKA)-inducible transcription, but phosphorylation of CRG (both of the CREB activation domains fused to the Gal4 DNA binding domain) or KID-G4 did not mediate recruitment of a complex, and mutation of the PKA site in CRG abolished transcription induction by PKA but had no effect upon recruitment. The CREB-binding protein (CBP) was not detected in the recruited complex. Our results support a model for transcription activation in which the interaction between the CREB CAD and hTAFII130 of TFIID promotes the recruitment of a polymerase complex to the promoter.
Glioblastoma Cell-Secreted Interleukin-8 Induces Brain Endothelial Cell Permeability via CXCR2

Glioblastoma constitutes the most aggressive and deadly of brain tumors. As yet, both conventional and molecular-based therapies have met with limited success in treatment of this cancer. Among other explanations, the heterogeneity of glioblastoma and the associated microenvironment contribute to its development, as well as resistance and recurrence in response to treatments. Increased vascularity suggests that tumor angiogenesis plays an important role in glioblastoma progression. However, the molecular crosstalk between endothelial and glioblastoma cells requires further investigation. To examine the effects of glioblastoma-derived signals on endothelial homeostasis, glioblastoma cell secretions were collected and used to treat brain endothelial cells. Here, we present evidence that the glioblastoma secretome provides pro-angiogenic signals sufficient to disrupt VE-cadherin-mediated cell-cell junctions and promote endothelial permeability in brain microvascular endothelial cells. An unbiased angiogenesis-specific antibody array screen identified the chemokine, interleukin-8, which was further demonstrated to function as a key factor involved in glioblastoma-induced permeability, mediated through its receptor CXCR2 on brain endothelia. This underappreciated interface between glioblastoma cells and associated endothelium may inspire the development of novel therapeutic strategies to induce tumor regression by preventing vascular permeability and inhibiting angiogenesis.