Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Skewness Matter? Evidence from the Index Options Market

Current research on stock returns indicates that neglecting conditional skewness may bias inferences about risk. In this paper, we examine if time-varying skewness in asset returns explains option mispricing. We model the temporal properties of the first three moments of asset returns, and devise trading rules that use skewness forecasts to trade delta-neutral strips, straps and straddles using at-the-money S&P 500 index options. We find that changes in skewness are priced in the index option markets. Our findings are robust to two conditional skewness specifications, two option-pricing models, trading costs and filters. Our results suggest that time varying skewness in the underlying asset returns could be viewed as an alternative explanation to the jump-risk argument to explain option mispricing.
More Blessed to Give Than to Receive: Evidence of the Altruism–Promotion Relationship from Female Taiwanese Civil Servants

Abstract The spirit of public service is benevolence toward all—a caring altruism. To investigate whether altruism is related to career success, multisource data were collected from a cohort of government employees in Taiwan. Analytical results supported research hypotheses by revealing that altruism and male gender are positively associated with pay grade advancement. Moreover, the altruism–promotion relationship was statistically more prominent among women, because less altruistic women, compared with their male counterparts, were more likely to struggle to advance in their careers. Suggestions are offered to redress the imbalance between men and women and to connect more effectively the practices of human resource management with the moral base of benevolence in public service.
On the origin of isophotal shapes in elliptical galaxies

Using semi-analytical models of galaxy formation, the origin of boxy and discy elliptical galaxies is investigated. We find that the simple scenario, motivated by N-body simulations, in which the isophotal shape is only dependent on the mass ratio of the last major merger, is not able to reproduce the observation that the fraction of boxy and discy ellipticals depends on galaxy luminosity. The observations can, however, be reproduced with the following reasonable assumptions: (i) equal-mass mergers lead to boxy ellipticals and unequal-mass mergers produce discy ellipticals (as motivated by N-body simulations); (ii) major mergers between bulgedominated galaxies result always in boxy ellipticals, independent of the mass ratio; (iii) merger remnants that subsequently accrete gas leading to a secondary stellar disc with more than 20 per cent of the total stellar fraction are always discy. This scenario indicates that the isophotal shapes of merger remnants are sensitive to the morphology of their progenitors and subsequent gas infall. Boxy and discy ellipticals can be divided into two subclasses, depending on their formation history. Boxy ellipticals are formed either by equal-mass mergers of disc galaxies or by major mergers of early-type galaxies. We find that discy ellipticals are indicators of unequalmass mergers or late gas infall. Discy ellipticals with high luminosities are preferentially onecomponent systems that result from unequal-mass mergers, whereas low-luminosity discy ellipticals are more likely to harbour secondary disc components. In addition, the fraction of discy ellipticals with secular disc components should increase in regions with higher galaxy densities. Taking into account the conversion of cuspy cores into flat low-density cores by black hole merging, we find that discy ellipticals should contain central density cusps whereas boxy ellipticals should in general be characterized by flat cores. Only rare low-luminosity boxy ellipticals, resulting from equal-mass mergers of disc galaxies, could have power-law cores. Ke yw ords: galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD ‐ galaxies: formation ‐ dark matter.
Empirical Performance of Alternative Option Pricing Models for Commodity Futures Options

The central part of pricing agricultural commodity futures options is to find appropriate stochastic process of the underlying assets. The Black's (1976) futures option pricing model laid the foundation for a new era of futures option valuation theory. The geometric Brownian motion assumption girding the Black's model, however, has been regarded as unrealistic in numerous empirical studies. Option pricing models incorporating discrete jumps and stochastic volatility have been studied extensively in the literature. This study tests the performance of major alternative option pricing models and attempts to find the appropriate model for pricing commodity futures options.
Robust real-time pulse rate estimation from facial video using sparse spectral peak tracking

We consider the task of real-time pulse rate estimation from the facial video of a subject recorded in a natural setting in an office environment. For estimating the pulse rate, we exploit the fact that the pulse rate does not vary drastically from one analysis window to the next. For this purpose we sparsify the spectra of windowed traces obtained by independent component analysis of the average RGB profile over the face of the subject. This is done by preserving the top few significant peaks of the spectra which are used to compute multiple candidate pulse rate trajectories among which one is chosen for predicting the pulse rate in the current window. The selection of the best trajectory is done such that it passes closely through the peaks of the spectra in consecutive analysis windows. Experiments with video recordings of fifteen subjects using two different camera types and three different camera-subject distances reveal that the estimated pulse rate accuracy improves by 6.71 beats per minute (averaged across different subjects and recording conditions) when the slow-varying nature of the pulse rate is exploited compared to when pulse rate is estimated independently in each analysis window.
Workaholism, Motivation, and Addiction in the Workplace: A Critical Review and Implications for HRD

Despite the wide use of the term workaholism, universally defined as an addiction to work, there is little consensus on this concept and how people become workaholics. This article critically reviews the workaholism literature to reframe the concept of workaholism and to provide implications for human resource development (HRD). Through a literature review, four perspectives were found based on assumptions about behavioral motivation. The motivation and addiction processes in workaholism are discussed, focusing on the theories and characteristics of the workplace. The gaps and omissions are identified in the reviewed research, and a workaholism framework is suggested that emphasizes contextual and behavioral inclusiveness. This review contributes to literature on workaholism by illuminating current divergent opinions on workaholism and guiding future research. The recommendations can also enhance the practical development of individuals and organizations that currently or potentially face excessive work issues.
Risk attitudes, development, and growth: Macroeconomic evidence from experiments in 30 countries

We measure risk attitudes in 30 different countries in a controlled, incentivized experiment (N = 3025). At the macroeconomic level, we find a strong and highly significant negative correlation between the risk tolerance of a country and income per capita. This gives rise to a paradox, seen that risk tolerance has been found to be positively associated with personal income within countries. We show that this paradox can be explained by unified growth theory. These results are consistent with the prediction that risk attitudes act as a transmission mechanism for growth by encouraging entrepreneurship. Furthermore, our study shows that risk attitudes vary considerably between countries and that for typical experimental stakes, risk seeking or neutrality is just as frequent as risk aversion.
Differential coding in networked controlled linear systems

This paper investigates the closed-loop properties of the differential coding scheme known as Delta-modulation (A-M) when used in feedback loops within the context of linear systems controlled through some communication network. We propose a new modified scheme of the original form of the Delta-M algorithm which improves the closed-loop properties. The new coding structure explicitly uses information from the system model. Stability properties for both: the continuous-time and the discrete-time version of this new algorithm are assessed. The results shows that the stability domain and the resulting precision of the Delta-M is limited by the position of the unstable poles of the system
Illicit Heroin and Methamphetamine Use among Methadone Maintenance Treatment Patients in Dehong Prefecture of Yunnan Province, China

Objective Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) was introduced to China in 2004 to reduce the harm of injecting drug users (IDUs). However, little is known about continued drug use, especially methamphetamine (MAMP), among MMT patients. Methods A survey was conducted among patients attending five major MMT clinics in Dehong Prefecture in 2014 to investigate the heroin and MAMP use and their associated risk factors. Participants were administered with face-to-face interviews, and urine tests for morphine and MAMP. Results A total of 2,121 were eligible and participated in the study. Among them, 220 (10.4%) were only positive for morphine, 12.9% were only positive for MAMP, and 196 (9.2%) were positive for both morphine and MAMP. Compared with neither use of heroin nor MAMP during MMT, heroin use (not using MAMP) was associated with ethnicity, shorter duration of MMT, lower dose of methadone, and having had no more than two sex partners in the past year; MAMP use (not using heroin) was associated with ethnicity, longer duration of MMT, higher dose of methadone and being aged <30 years (vs. ≥50 years); use of both heroin and MAMP was associated with being Dai minority (vs. Han), a marital status of divorced or widowed, having used drugs for ≥10 years and shorter duration of MMT. Conclusion These findings indicate the complexity in the treatment of heroin users and underscore the importance in prescribing appropriate methadone dosages in order to reduce both heroin and MAMP use.
The Bcl10–Malt1 complex segregates FcɛRI-mediated nuclear factor κB activation and cytokine production from mast cell degranulation

Mast cells are pivotal effector cells in IgE-mediated allergic inflammatory diseases. Central for mast cell activation are signals from the IgE receptor FcɛRI, which induce cell degranulation with the release of preformed mediators and de novo synthesis of proinflammatory leukotrienes and cytokines. How these individual mast cell responses are differentially controlled is still unresolved. We identify B cell lymphoma 10 (Bcl10) and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue 1 (Malt1) as novel key regulators of mast cell signaling. Mice deficient for either protein display severely impaired IgE-dependent late phase anaphylactic reactions. Mast cells from these animals neither activate nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) nor produce tumor necrosis factor α or interleukin 6 upon FcɛRI ligation even though proximal signaling, degranulation, and leukotriene secretion are normal. Thus, Bcl10 and Malt1 are essential positive mediators of FcɛRI-dependent mast cell activation that selectively uncouple NF-κB–induced proinflammatory cytokine production from degranulation and leukotriene synthesis.
External Technology Purchase and Indigenous Innovation in Chinese Hi-Tech Industries

I empirically investigated the effect of three types of investment in acquiring technological knowledge (in-house R&D, importing foreign technology and purchasing domestic technology) on the innovation output of Chinese domestic firms in hi-tech industries. These investments on technology are assumed to generate different types of knowledge, which in turn contribute to the enhancement of the technology capability of firms. Based on a dataset constructed from a panel of 21 4-digit Hi-tech sectors over the 10 year period of 1995~2004, I estimated an aggregated patent production function with the sector as units of analysis. The results show that investing in foreign technology alone does not facilitate the introduction of innovation in domestic firms, unless it is coupled with a firm's own in-house R&D effort. Domestic technology purchases also favorably influence innovation, suggesting that firms have little difficulty in absorbing domestic technological knowledge.
High-Density SNP Screening of the Major Histocompatibility Complex in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Demonstrates Strong Evidence for Independent Susceptibility Regions

A substantial genetic contribution to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) risk is conferred by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) gene(s) on chromosome 6p21. Previous studies in SLE have lacked statistical power and genetic resolution to fully define MHC influences. We characterized 1,610 Caucasian SLE cases and 1,470 parents for 1,974 MHC SNPs, the highly polymorphic HLA-DRB1 locus, and a panel of ancestry informative markers. Single-marker analyses revealed strong signals for SNPs within several MHC regions, as well as with HLA-DRB1 (global p = 9.99×10−16). The most strongly associated DRB1 alleles were: *0301 (odds ratio, OR = 2.21, p = 2.53×10−12), *1401 (OR = 0.50, p = 0.0002), and *1501 (OR = 1.39, p = 0.0032). The MHC region SNP demonstrating the strongest evidence of association with SLE was rs3117103, with OR = 2.44 and p = 2.80×10−13. Conditional haplotype and stepwise logistic regression analyses identified strong evidence for association between SLE and the extended class I, class I, class III, class II, and the extended class II MHC regions. Sequential removal of SLE–associated DRB1 haplotypes revealed independent effects due to variation within OR2H2 (extended class I, rs362521, p = 0.006), CREBL1 (class III, rs8283, p = 0.01), and DQB2 (class II, rs7769979, p = 0.003, and rs10947345, p = 0.0004). Further, conditional haplotype analyses demonstrated that variation within MICB (class I, rs3828903, p = 0.006) also contributes to SLE risk independent of HLA-DRB1*0301. Our results for the first time delineate with high resolution several MHC regions with independent contributions to SLE risk. We provide a list of candidate variants based on biologic and functional considerations that may be causally related to SLE risk and warrant further investigation.
Sequential consistency versus linearizability (extended abstract)

The power of two well-known consistency conditions for shared memory multiprocessors, sequential consistency and linearizability, is compared. The cost measure studied is the worst-case response time in distributed implementations of virtual shared memory supporting one of the two conditions. The memory is assumed to consist of read/write objects. The worst-case response time is very sensitive to the assumptions that are made about the timing information available to the system. All the results in this paper assume that pr~ cesses have clocks that run at the same rate as real time and that all message delays are in the range [d – u, dj for some known constants u and d, O < u < d. If processes have perfectly synchronized clocks or if every message haa delay exactly d, then there are linearizable implementations in which one operation (either read or write) is performed instantaneously and the response time of the other operation is d. These upper bounds match exactly *Email: hagit@cs. technion. ac. il. Part of this work was performed while the author was at the Laboratory for Computer Science, MIT, supported by ONR contract NOO014-85-K-0168, by NSF grants CCR8611442 and CCR 8915206, and by DARPA contracts NOO014-89-. J-1986 and NOO014-87-K-0825. t Emfil: ~elch@c~ . ~nc . cd”. The work oft& author w= supported in part by NSF grant CCR901O73O and an IBM Faculty Development Award. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Association for Computing Machinery. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission. a lower bound for sequential consistency, proved by Lipton and Sandberg, on the sum of the response times of read and write operations. If clocks are not perfectly synchronized and if message delays are variable, i.e., u >0, then such a tradeoff cannot be achieved by Iinearizable implementations: the response time for both read and write operations is at least Q(u). In contrast, we present sequentially consistent implementations for this weaker timing model in which one operation (either read or write) is performed instantaneously, and the worst-case response time of the other operation is O(d).
Daily coffee consumption and prevalence of nonmelanoma skin cancer in Caucasian women

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between daily coffee consumption and nonmelanoma skin cancer. This study was a cross-sectional analysis of women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study (n=93 676). As nearly all cases of self-reported nonmelanoma skin cancer occurred among Caucasian women (97.8%), we focused our analyses on this group. Compared with nondrinkers, women drinking only caffeinated coffee on a daily basis had a 10.8% lower prevalence of nonmelanoma skin cancer. Consumption of six or more cups of caffeinated coffee per day was associated with a 36% reduction in nonmelanoma skin cancer. After adjusting for various demographic and life style variables, daily consumption of six or more cups was associated with a 30% reduced prevalence of nonmelanoma skin cancer. In contrast to caffeinated coffee, daily consumption of decaffeinated coffee was not associated with a significant change in self-reported nonmelanoma skin cancer for Caucasian women. Daily caffeinated coffee consumption was associated with a dose-related decreased prevalence of nonmelanoma skin cancer in Caucasian women.
Looking for Network Latency Clusters in the LAC Region

Measuring Internet connectivity is complex and represents a major challenge. Successful connectivity measurement requires access to a large number of probes, distributed across the monitored networks, as well as a large number of measurements to capture as much intra- and inter-network information as possible. In this paper we present an approach to measure ICMP connectivity based on RTT measurements, performed on a distributed active measurement platform. Based on these measurements, we study the intra-country and inter-country network connectivity within the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. By relying on clustering algorithms, we unveil LAC sub-regions showing better connectivity patterns, and identify regions with poor connectivity. The presented techniques and results are not only highly useful to improve network management and content location in the LAC region, but also to advance the Internet connectivity among LAC countries.
Lgr5 Identifies Progenitor Cells Capable of Taste Bud Regeneration after Injury

Taste buds are composed of a variety of taste receptor cell types that develop from tongue epithelium and are regularly replenished under normal homeostatic conditions as well as after injury. The characteristics of cells that give rise to regenerating taste buds are poorly understood. Recent studies have suggested that Lgr5 (leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5) identifies taste bud stem cells that contribute to homeostatic regeneration in adult circumvallate and foliate taste papillae, which are located in the posterior region of the tongue. Taste papillae in the adult anterior region of the tongue do not express Lgr5. Here, we confirm and extend these studies by demonstrating that Lgr5 cells give rise to both anterior and posterior taste buds during development, and are capable of regenerating posterior taste buds after injury induced by glossopharyngeal nerve transection.
RNA helicases and abiotic stress

RNA helicases function as molecular motors that rearrange RNA secondary structure, potentially performing roles in any cellular process involving RNA metabolism. Although RNA helicase association with a range of cellular functions is well documented, their importance in response to abiotic stress is only beginning to emerge. This review summarizes the available data on the expression, biochemistry and physiological function(s) of RNA helicases regulated by abiotic stress. Examples originate primarily from non-mammalian organisms while instances from mammalian sources are restricted to post-translational regulation of helicase biochemical activity. Common emerging themes include the requirement of a cold-induced helicase in non-homeothermic organisms, association and regulation of helicase activity by stress-induced phosphorylation cascades, altered nuclear–cytoplasmic shuttling in eukaryotes, association with the transcriptional apparatus and the diversity of biochemical activities catalyzed by a subgroup of stress-induced helicases. The data are placed in the context of a mechanism for RNA helicase involvement in cellular response to abiotic stress. It is proposed that stress-regulated helicases can catalyze a nonlinear, reversible sequence of RNA secondary structure rearrangements which function in RNA maturation or RNA proofreading, providing a mechanism by which helicase activity alters the activation state of target RNAs through regulation of the reaction equilibrium.
Effect of Radio Frequency Heating on Yoghurt, II: Microstructure and Texture

Radio frequency (RF) heating was applied to stirred yoghurt after culturing in order to enhance the shelf-life and thereby meet industrial demands in countries where the distribution cold chain cannot be implicitly guaranteed. In parallel, a convectional (CV) heating process was also tested. In order to meet consumers’ expectations with regard to texture and sensory properties, the yoghurts were heated to different temperatures (58, 65 and 72 °C). This second part of our feasibility study focused on the changes in microstructure and texture caused by post-fermentative heat treatment. It was shown that there were always microstructural changes with additional heat treatment. Compared to the dense and compact casein network in the stirred reference yoghurt, network contractions and further protein aggregation were observed after heat treatment, while at the same time larger pore geometries were detected. The changes in microstructure as well as other physical and sensorial texture properties (syneresis, hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, apparent viscosity, G’, G’’, homogeneity) were in good agreement with the temperature and time of the heat treatment (thermal stress). The RF heated products were found to be very similar to the stirred reference yoghurt, showing potential for further industrial development such as novel heating strategies to obtain products with prolonged shelf-life.