Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trading In Pennies : A Survey of the Issues

In the second half of year 2,000, the U.S. equity and options markets will switch to decimal pricing. Following the switch, and barring regulatory intervention, competition will likely drive the minimum price increment (tick size) down to a penny. This paper surveys the effects that trading on pennies will have on investors, dealers, brokers, exchanges, and data vendors. Investors must consider how the switch to trading on pennies will affect their transaction costs, their order submission strategies, and ultimately the profitability of their trading. Dealers must consider how to remain profitable as their clients and competitors respond to the new environment. Brokers must understand how trading on pennies affects the markets so that they can better serve their clients. Exchanges must consider how the switch will affect their system utilization, how they regulate their markets, and their competitiveness. Data vendors must consider how trading on pennies will increase demands on their ability to move and present data. Finally, regulators must consider what minimum price increments markets should use. This survey starts with short briefs about minimum price increments and about why the US markets are switching to decimal pricing. It then considers the theoretical effects of trading on pennies on trader strategies. A very brief survey of the empirical evidence concerning these effects is then presented. The implications of trading on pennies for system capacity are then enumerated. The paper concludes with a discussion of the regulatory problems associated with trading on pennies. Minimum Price Increments All markets have a minimum price increment (tick size) that determines the set of prices traders may use. In some markets, the increment is a decimal fraction, for example, 0.01, 0.05, or 0.1. In other markets, it is a fraction based on powers of two such as 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, or 1/16. In markets organized by exchanges or dealers, the organizer usually sets the tick. In other markets, traders set it themselves by common practice. The tick varies substantially by market and location. Stock, bond and options markets in the US and Canada traditionally have used prices denominated in eighths. European and Asian markets typically use decimal prices. The practice in futures markets varies. Grains and some 2 interest rate contracts use fractional pricing. Industrial commodities, stock indices, foreign exchange contracts and some interest rate contracts use decimals. Some decimal-denominated markets are de facto fractional markets. For example, the tick used to trade gas …
The Economics of Regulation: Principles and Institutions

As Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board in the late 1970s, Alfred E. Kahn presided over the deregulation of the airlines and his book, published earlier in that decade, presented the first comprehensive integration of the economic theory and institutional practice of economic regulation. In his lengthy new introduction to this edition Kahn surveys and analyzes the deregulation revolution that has not only swept the airlines but has transformed American public utilities and private industries generally over the past seventeen years. While attitudes toward regulation have changed several times in the intervening years and government regulation has waxed and waned, the question of whether to regulate more or to regulate less is a topic of constant debate, one that The Economics of Regulation addresses incisively. It clearly remains the standard work in the field, a starting point and reference tool for anyone working in regulation. Kahn points out that while dramatic changes have come about in the structurally competitive industries - the airlines, trucking, stock exchange brokerage services, railroads, buses, cable television, oil and natural gas - the consensus about the desirability and necessity for regulated monopoly in public utilities has likewise been dissolving, under the burdens of inflation, fuel crises, and the traumatic experience with nuclear plants. Kahn reviews and assesses the changes in both areas: he is particularly frank in his appraisal of the effect of deregulation on the airlines. His conclusion today mirrors that of his original, seminal work - that different industries need different mixes of institutional arrangements that cannot be decided on the basis of ideology.
Bank Relationships and Their Effects on Firm Performance Around the Asian Financial Crisis: Evidence from Taiwan

We evaluate the impact of bank relationships on firm performance for a sample of Taiwanese firms around the 1997 Asian financial crisis. We find a negative relation between the number of domestic-bank relationships and firm performance, but a positive relation between the number of foreign-bank relationships and firm performance. Firms explored new relationships with domestic banks and reduced their reliance on foreign banks during the crisis. Lending bank reputation and bank loan ratios are important factors explaining firm performance. Factors that affect banking relationships include borrowing firms’ profitability, age, size, and leverage, and the primary lending bank’s characteristics.
Cross‐species infection of specific‐pathogen‐free pigs by a genotype 4 strain of human hepatitis E virus

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an important pathogen. The animal strain of HEV, swine HEV, is related to human HEV. The genotype 3 swine HEV can infect humans and genotype 3 human HEV can infect pigs. The genotype 4 swine and human HEV strains are genetically related, but it is unknown whether genotype 4 human HEV can infect pigs. A swine bioassay was utilized in this study to determine whether genotype 4 human HEV can infect pigs. Fifteen, 4‐week‐old, specific‐pathogen‐free pigs were divided into three groups of five each. Group 1 pigs were each inoculated intravenously with PBS buffer as negative controls, group 2 pigs similarly with genotype 3 human HEV (strain US‐2), and group 3 pigs similarly with genotype 4 human HEV (strain TW6196E). Serum and fecal samples were collected at 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, and 56 days postinoculation (dpi) and tested for evidence of HEV infection. All pigs were necropsied at 56 dpi. As expected, the negative control pigs remained negative. The positive control pigs inoculated with genotype 3 human HEV all became infected as evidenced by detection of HEV antibodies, viremia and fecal virus shedding. All five pigs in group 3 inoculated with genotype 4 human HEV also became infected: fecal virus shedding and viremia were detected variably from 7 to 56 dpi, and seroconversion occurred by 28 dpi. The data indicated that genotype 4 human HEV has an expanded host range, and the results have important implications for understanding the natural history and zoonosis of HEV. J. Med. Virol. 80:1379–1386, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Election closeness and voter turnout : Evidence from California ballot propositions *

This paper uses a new data set of 885 California ballot propositions from 1912 through 1990 to test the hypothesis that voter turnout increases as an election becomes closer. Various measures of voter participation are regressed on various measures of election closeness. The main finding is that there is not a systematic relation between closeness and turnout. Two conclusions are drawn: (1) voters are not sensitive to the probability their votes are decisive, and (2) other studies which found higher turnout for close elections probably detected an increased mobilization of party elites in tight races.
Rotating Credit Associations: Their Formation and Use by Poverty-Stricken African Women in Rhini, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape

Extracted from text . Rotating credit associations: theirformation and use by poverty-stricken African women in Rhini,Grahamstown, Eastern CapeGina BuijsDepartment of Development Studies andAnthropologyUniversity of Zululand1 INTRODUCTIONThe project on which this article is based1 is aimed at investigating the role ofrotating credit associations (RCAs) (popularly known as a stokvel, or umgaleloin the Eastern Cape) and other forms of voluntary savings schemes in assistingAfrican people (mostly women) in poverty-stricken circumstances to provide forthemselves and their families.The Eastern Cape, in which the project areas of Rhini, Grahamstown, andZwelitsha, King William's Town, are situated, is among the poorest provinces inSouth Africa, with current estimates of unemployment running at over . Extracted from text . Rotating credit associations: theirformation and use by poverty-stricken African women in Rhini,Grahamstown, Eastern CapeGina BuijsDepartment of Development Studies andAnthropologyUniversity of Zululand1 INTRODUCTIONThe project on which this article is based1 is aimed at investigating the role ofrotating credit associations (RCAs) (popularly known as a stokvel, or umgaleloin the Eastern Cape) and other forms of voluntary savings schemes in assistingAfrican people (mostly women) in poverty-stricken circumstances to provide forthemselves and their families.The Eastern Cape, in which the project areas of Rhini, Grahamstown, andZwelitsha, King William's Town, are situated, is among the poorest provinces inSouth Africa, with current estimates of unemployment running at over .
ORDERINGS OF HIGHER LEVEL AND RINGS OF FRACTIONS

We consider existence and uniqueness of extensions of orderings of higher level from associative domains to various rings of fractions. It is well-known that every total ordering of a commutative domain extends uniquely to a total ordering of its field of fractions. Various attempts have been made to generalize this result to (noncommutative) associative domains. There is a generally accepted definition of a total ordering of an associative domain, however several nonequivalent definitions of its ring of fractions have been considered in the literature. Existence and uniqueness of extensions of total orderings depend on the definition chosen. An important generalization of total orderings are orderings of higher level. They were introduced in 1978 by E. Becker (Bec) as a tool for studying sums of 2n-th powers in fields. Their importance for real algebraic geometry was discovered by R. Berr in his habilitation thesis, see also (Ber). V. Powers (Po1, Po2) and J. Cimpric (Ci1, Ci2) extended the theory to noncommutative rings. It is a folk result that every total ordering of higher level of a commutative domain extends uniquely to its field of fractions. We would like to contribute to this discussion by studying the extension theory of order- ings of higher level of associative domains. The article is divided into four sections, each devoted to one variant of rings of fractions. In each section we recall the corresponding results for total orderings. Some of the results are new even for total orderings. 1. Ore's localization Let R be an associative ring (not necessarily unital) and C the field of complex numbers. We will define signatures, orderings and cones (of higher level) of R. A signature of a ring R is a semigroup homomorphism σ :( R, ·) → (C, ·) such that σ −1 (−1) � ∅ and Pσ := σ −1 {0, 1} is an additive set. We say that σ has finite exponent
The chronic obstructive pulmonary disease assessment test improves the predictive value of previous exacerbations for poor outcomes in COPD

Introduction Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations have a negative impact on the quality of life of patients and the evolution of the disease. We have investigated the prognostic value of several health-related quality of life questionnaires to predict the appearance of a composite event (new ambulatory or emergency exacerbation, hospitalization, or death) over a 1-year follow-up. Methods This was a multicenter, prospective, observational study. Patients completed four questionnaires after recovering from an exacerbation (COPD Assessment Test [CAT], a Clinical COPD Questionnaire [CCQ], COPD Severity Score [COPDSS], and Airways Questionnaire [AQ20]). Patients were followed-up until the appearance of the composite event or for 1 year, whichever came first. Results A total of 497 patients were included in the study. The majority of them were men (89.7%), with a mean age of 68.7 (SD 9.2) years, and a forced expiratory volume in 1 second of 47.1% (SD 17.5%). A total of 303 (61%) patients experienced a composite event. Patients with an event had worse mean scores of all questionnaires at baseline compared to patients without event: CAT=12.5 vs 11.3 (P=0.028); CCQ=2.2 vs 1.9 (P=0.013); COPDSS=12.3 vs 10.9 (P=0.001); AQ20=8.3 vs 7.5 (P=0.048). In the multivariate analysis, only previous history of exacerbations and CAT score ≥13.5 were significant risk factors for the composite event. A CAT score ≥13.5 increased the predictive value of previous exacerbations with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.864 (95% CI: 0.829–0.899; P=0.001). Conclusion The predictive value of previous exacerbations significantly increased only in one of the four trialled questionnaires, namely in the CAT questionnaire. However, previous history of exacerbations was the strongest predictor of the composite event.
Estimating the effects of United States food safety and agricultural health standards on agro-food exports from Latin America and the Caribbean

Food safety and agricultural health standards have become a mayor challenge for food exports from developing countries in the past few years (Jaffe & Henson, 2005; OECD, 2003; Josling, Roberts & Orden, 2004; Maskus & Wilson, 2001). As tariff rates were negotiated down in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in regional and bilateral trade agreements, international trade in agro-food products increased substantially and so did concerns over food safety and agricultural health in food importing countries. Several countries, including the U.S, started to pay closer attention to their food safety and agricultural health standards both domestically and for food imports. In the U.S., the tightening of standards was in part related to heightened concerns about bioterrorism (Jaffe & Henson, 2005). Increased consumer awareness of agro-food quality and agricultural health issues also played an important role, as indicated by the large number and strictness of private technical standards (Jaffe & Henson, 2005). Although there is an extensive literature describing the general issues of food-safety and its potential effects on international trade, few studies have looked at the empirical question of what are the actual trade costs of an increase in the number, strictness and enforcement of food safety regulations. This document contributes to the literature by providing an innovative estimation of the effects of U.S. food safety and agricultural health standards in the agro-food exports of Latin America and the Caribbean, using the number of refusals at the U.S. border as a proxy for trade costs associated with tighter food safety standards and regulations. The analysis focuses on agro-food exports from Latin American countries to the U.S. market to estimate a gravity model with panel data for the years spanning from 1997 to 2009. The main results are that technical standards and regulations are not significant determinants of Latin America and Caribbean agro-food exports to the U.S. Rather the size of the countries or their market potential in the food sector, as measured by the agricultural GDP, is the main determinant. Time specific factors such as oil prices and global economic conditions as well as population of the exporting country also play a role. This is consistent with the results obtained by Novy (2009), that the majority of U.S. trade growth over the period 1970-2000 was explained by income growth rather than by a decline in bilateral trade barriers. In addition, we found that using GDP as a measure of market potential in the agro-food sector is inadequate, because GDP includes services, most of which are non-tradables, and the value added of products other than those whose trade is relevant for our analysis. As a result, using GDP overestimates trade costs in the agro-food sector and underestimates the role of income as a determinant of trade (Novy, 2009).
‘Tying the manager's hands’: constraining opportunistic managerial intervention

We discuss and examine empirically a firm-level equivalent of the ancient problem of 'tying the King's hands', namely how to avoid managerial intervention that is undertaken to reap private benefits but is harmful to overall value creation, that is, 'managerial opportunism'. The link from managerial intervention to firm-level value-creation is moderated by employee motivation. Thus, intervention in the form of managers overruling employees or reneging on delegation may demotivate employees, particularly when the intervention is perceived as being unfair, undertaken for personal gain, etc. We argue that a number of mechanisms, such as managers staking their personal reputation, employees controlling important assets, strong trade unions, etc. may function as constraints on managerial proclivities to intervene, thus reducing the problem of managerial opportunism. We derive four hypotheses from these ideas, and test them, using path-analysis, on a rich dataset, based on 329 firms in the Spanish food and electric/electronic industries. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
A low power electronics converter with input resistance control for piezoelectric energy harvesting

This work describes the modeling and analysis of a low power electronics converter for piezoelectric energy harvesting. The proposed converter consists of a diode bridge rectifier, a MOSFET switch driven by a PWM signal, and a rechargeable battery as the storage device. The circuit is used to convert mechanical vibration energy into electric charge stored in a battery using piezoelectric transducers mounted on a flexible structure. By utilizing an averaging scheme, it is shown that the converter exhibits a pseudo-resistive behavior across its input terminals. An analytical expression for the input resistance of the converter is derived and further evaluated by simulations and experiments. A self-powered converter is utilized to convert vibration energy into electric charge whose input resistance can be set to a prescribed value depending on the input source resistance. It is also shown that by applying a feedback controller to the circuit, the input resistance of the converter can be regulated to a desired value. This feature may be utilized to achieve impedance matching in applications requiring maximum power transfer. Experimental studies are conducted to verify the performance of the self-powered circuit and the feedback control scheme.
Optimizations of XQuery in peer-to-peer distributed XML databases. (Optimisation de requêtes XQuery dans des bases de données XML distribuées sur des réseaux pair-à-pair)

The topic of this work is to study the efficient evaluation of queries expressed in the XQuery language on XML databases distributed over peer-topeer networks. We present XQ2P, an extensible XQuery evaluation engine oriented towards exploiting Distributed Hash Tables and XML indexing techniques adapted to DHTs for efficient processing. In contrast to most related research, where a new indexing algorithm is introduced and a query language is developed depending on the constructs the index can evaluate efficiently, XQ2P was designed in a top-down fashion: it attempts to support, as much as possible, the entire XQuery language with a simple though unoptimized implementation, and then extend this by adding indexing and efficient query algorithms to optimize select operations. We believe this approach is more favorable to widespread adoption of XQuery, with desirable effects such as better interoperability and increased competition.
Corporate Tax Burden in the European Union

The main aim of this paper has been to analyse the tax burden exerted by Corporate Income Tax (CIT) on European Union (EU) companies using the effective tax rate (ETR) as a tool for analysis. For this purpose, a sample of listed companies in the EU was extracted from the Datastream/Worldscope database for the period 1995–2005. This analysis allowed us to determine the tax burden experienced by companies. The results have showed significant differences between the different EU countries as well as between statutory tax rates (STR) and ETRs. Likewise it has been proved that general reductions in STR do not have the expected effect on the tax burden. These results are especially relevant in the present environment, which is characterized by the discussion regarding harmonizing measures for CIT, which will limit its impact on business decisions regarding locating within the EU.
Multiway analysis of EEG artifacts based on Block Term Decomposition

Neural information recorded from electroencephalogram (EEG) provides new possibilities for diagnosis of brain abnormalities, cognitive monitoring, etc. However, many artifacts, such as eye blink and muscle movements, impact and contaminate EEG data. While traditional techniques proposed for artifact removal identified artifact on two-way data, (spatial x temporal), multidimensional nature of EEG data (spatial x temporal x spectral x condition x trial) is overlooked. In this work, we investigate the use of multiway analysis/tensor factorization on the extended EEG tensor (spatial x temporal x spectral), which is constructed from continuous wavelet transform, using Block Term Decomposition (BTD) of rank-(Lr, Lr, 1) for artifact removal. Eight different carefully designed experiments to study artifact typically produced by voluntarily, and sometimes involuntarily, behaviors using a subject were performed and analyzed. After the BTD decomposition, artifacted components are automatically identified removed using spatial and temporal features. The reconstructed signal from proposed method suppresses artifact while retains the signal texture of eight types of artifact investigated.
A formalization of objective and subjective time ontologies

This paper presents a novel formalization of temporal notions and their classification. First, objective and subjective time perceptions are discussed from a philosophical and logical viewpoint. Then, all objective and subjective temporal concept types are identified, based on McTaggart's A- and B-series and Priorean tense logic, to which temporal events (or propositions) could be mapped. Time ontology is then defined according to a formalism previously introduced by the authors, together with a graphical representation of the proposed temporal concept type hierarchy. Temporal axioms and properties are finally identified, linking our logic with propositional logic.