Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An International Dynamic Term Structure Model with Economic Restrictions and Unspanned Risks

We construct a multi-country affine term structure model that contains unspanned macroeconomic and foreign exchange risks. The canonical version of the model is derived and is shown to be easy to estimate. We show that it is important to impose restrictions (including global asset pricing, carry trade fundamentals and maximal Sharpe ratios) on the prices of risk to obtain plausible decompositions of forward curves. The forecasts of interest rates and exchange rates from the restricted model match those from international survey data. Unspanned macroeconomic variables are important drivers of international term and foreign exchange risk premia as well as expected exchange rate changes.
Corporate Governance Lessons from the Financial Crisis

This report analyses the impact of failures and weaknesses in corporate governance on the financial crisis, including risk management systems and executive salaries. It concludes that the financial crisis can be to an important extent attributed to failures and weaknesses in corporate governance arrangements which did not serve their purpose to safeguard against excessive risk taking in a number of financial services companies.Accounting standards and regulatory requirements have also proved insufficient in some areas. Last but not least, remuneration systems have in a number of cases not been closely related to the strategy and risk appetite of the company and its longer term interests. The article also suggests that the importance of qualified board oversight and robust risk management is not limited to financial institutions. The remuneration of boards and senior management also remains a highly controversial issue in many OECD countries. The current turmoil suggests a need for the OECD to re-examine the adequacy of its corporate governance principles in these key areas.
Prioritization of Facilitation Strategies of Park and Recreation Agencies Through DEMATEL Analysis

Rural park and recreation agencies introduce facilitation strategies to mitigate rural park visitation leisure constraints. Using Taiwanese population as sample, this article used leisure constraints concept and Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to help agencies to prioritize facilitation strategies. DEMATEL analysis showed that constraints overlap in the consumer's mind. Impact of constraints vs sum of rows r map informs agencies which constraints should be given the priority to mitigate. DEMATEL influence map shows how facilitation strategies that allay priority constraints impact other constraints. Although this method is applied for rural park visitation, it is context neutral and can be applied to other leisure activities.
Transaction Data Tests of the Mixture of Distributions Hypothesis

Abstract This paper presents new tests of the mixture of distributions hypothesis. Previous tests examined security prices and volume measured only at daily intervals. Here, differential implications of the hypothesis for transaction data are derived and tested. The new predictions emanate from the assumption that prices and volume evolve at uniform rates in transaction time. The results support this assumption and the mixture of distributions hypothesis in general. In addition, the tests suggest that the daily transaction-count may be a useful instrumental variable for estimating unobserved realizations of stochastic price variances.
On the Performance of Bit-Synchronizers in an ISI Channel and a Related Lower Bound

The maximum likelihood (ML) criterion for symbol timing estimation is derived for a sequence of pulse amplitude modulated pulses in the presence of intersymbol interference (ISI) and Gaussian noise. The performance of this synchronizer is used as a benchmark to evaluate the performance of other synchronizers in a practical scenario. It is shown that a previous lower bound based on the ISI-free ML synchronizer cannot be used to lower bound the mean square error (MSE) of bit-synchronizers. A detection theory bound (DTB) is applied to the symbol timing recovery problem in an ISI channel and it is shown that this bound is a tight lower bound on the MSE of the ML synchronizer. A simple lower bound on this DTB is derived and it is shown that the simple bound is almost as tight as the well known modified Cramer-Rao bound (MCRB) at moderate values of SNR while it does not suffer from the shortcomings of the MCRB at small values of SNR.
Political Instability, Freedom, and Economic Growth: Some Further Evidence

Over time, the impact of both political and institutional factors on the rate of economic growth has received a lot of attention in the economic literature. Since Adam Smith (if not before) it has been observed that economic performance depends in part on political and institutional factors. Unfortunately, attempts to discover how and under what conditions such factors impinge on economic performance often did not progress beyond anecdote.1 It is only recently that more systematic attempts were undertaken to analyze the importance of political and institutional factors in explaining cross-country variances in economic growth. For instance, many researchers have examined whether the democratic character of national political procedures and institutions can help explain cross-country differences in national development. L. Sirowy and A. Inkeles reviewed 13 studies, all of which attempted to evaluate the economic consequences of variation in the democratic character of national political regimes. Sirowy and Inkeles conclude that the studies they considered present a very mixed and confusing picture with regard to the effect of democracy on economic growth.2 The relationship between civil and political liberty, on the one hand, and economic growth, on the other, has also been the subject of much discussion. Two conflicting hypotheses have been advanced concerning the connection between economic growth and political freedom. Some economists argue that freedom fosters economic performance and hence economic growth; others pose that high growth rates require economic controls and reduced freedom. Four recent cross-section studies on economic growth have found evidence that lack of civil and political liberties is negatively correlated with economic growth.3 All of these studies used R. D. Gastil's measures of civil liberties or political rights.4 G. W. Scully concludes that, for the
On Observer Error Linearization for Perspective Dynamic Systems

State estimation in perspective dynamic systems can be performed using different kinds of nonlinear observers. In this paper we investigate observer error linearization for perspective dynamic systems, where the goal is to find a coordinate transformation that results in a system for which a linear observer can be constructed. We present preliminary results in this direction, showing that such linearizing coordinate transformations indeed exist, subject to certain constraints on the angular and linear velocities. Specifically, it is shown that in many situations a linearizing coordinate transformation can be found only when additional states are added to the original system. This results in what is referred to as dynamic observer error linearization. Our investigations further provide additional insight into observability issues for perspective dynamic systems by showing how an observability condition can be interpreted in terms of the focus of expansion, and how the condition is related to the derivation of appropriate coordinate transformations.
Option Volume and Stock Prices: Evidence on Where Informed Traders Trade

This paper investigates the informational role of transactions volume in options markets. We develop an asymmetric information model in which informed traders may trade in option or equity markets. We show conditions under which informed traders trade options, and we investigate the implications of this for the linkage between markets. Our model predicts an important informational role for the volume of particular types of option trades. We empirically test our model's hypotheses with intraday option data. Our main empirical result is that negative and positive option volumes contain information about future stock prices. Copyright The American Finance Association 1998.
An Adenoviral Vector‐Based System to Study Neuronal Gene Expression: Analysis of the Rat Tyrosine Hydroxylase Promoter in Cultured Neurons

Abstract: We validated an adenoviral vector‐based system as a move toward the characterization of regulatory sequences that are involved in the control of cell‐type specificity and ligand regulation of neuronal gene expression in cultured neurons. We constructed recombinant adenoviruses, incorporating the luciferase gene under the control of different fragments of the rat tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) promoter. Similar results for luciferase expression were obtained in immortalized cells either by infection using adenoviral constructs or by transfection using conventional plasmid vectors. Taking advantage of adenoviral vectors, we extended our experiments to various primary cell cultures. The first 800 bp of the TH promoter were found to be sufficient to confer a cell‐type preferential activity in noradrenergic neurons of the rat superior cervical ganglia. Furthermore, using this neuronal culture model, we showed that the same promoter region carries leukemia‐inhibitory factor (LIF)‐responsive element(s). Our results demonstrate that the first 800 bp of the rat TH promoter contains a functionally important core region for constitutive and LIF‐regulated expression of TH in peripheral noradrenergic neurons. Moreover, the study validates the adenoviral vector‐based system as a new strategy for studying the regulation of neuronal gene expression.
Reduction kinetics of Fe(III), Co(III), U(VI), Cr(VI), and Tc(VII) in cultures of dissimilatory metal-reducing bacteria.

The reduction kinetics of Fe(III)citrate, Fe(III)NTA, Co(III)EDTA-, U(VI)O(2) (2+), Cr(VI)O(4) (2-), and Tc(VII)O(4) (-) were studied in cultures of dissimilatory metal reducing bacteria (DMRB): Shewanella alga strain BrY, Shewanella putrefaciens strain CN32, Shewanella oneidensis strain MR-1, and Geobacter metallireducens strain GS-15. Reduction rates were metal specific with the following rate trend: Fe(III)citrate > or = Fe(III)NTA > Co(III)EDTA- >> UO(2)(2+) > CrO(4)(2-) > TcO(4)(-), except for CrO(4) (2-) when H(2) was used as electron donor. The metal reduction rates were also electron donor dependent with faster rates observed for H(2) than lactate- for all Shewanella species despite higher initial lactate (10 mM) than H2 (0.48 mM). The bioreduction of CrO(4) (2-) was anomalously slower compared to the other metals with H(2) as an electron donor relative to lactate and reduction ceased before all the CrO(4)(2-) had been reduced. Transmission electron microscopic (TEM) and energy-dispersive spectroscopic (EDS) analyses performed on selected solids at experiment termination found precipitates of reduced U and Tc in association with the outer cell membrane and in the periplasm of the bacteria. The kinetic rates of metal reduction were correlated with the precipitation of reduced metal phases and their causal relationship discussed. The experimental rate data were well described by a Monod kinetic expression with respect to the electron acceptor for all metals except CrO(4)(2-), for which the Monod model had to be modified to account for incomplete reduction. However, the Monod models became statistically over-parameterized, resulting in large uncertainties of their parameters. A first-order approximation to the Monod model also effectively described the experimental results, but the rate coefficients exhibited far less uncertainty. The more precise rate coefficients of the first-order model provided a better means than the Monod parameters, to quantitatively compare the reduction rates between metals, electron donors, and DMRB species.
Rulers of the game: central bank independence during the interwar years

Central bank independence is associated with restrictive monetary choices that can be deflationary within fixed exchange-rate regimes. Because central banks act to counteract domestic inflation, they put a premium on domestic price stability at the expense of international monetary stability. Evidence from fifteen countries between 1925 and 1938 shows that the more independent central banks took more deflationary policies than were necessary for external adjustment. Central banks in general were more restrictive under left-wing governments than they were under more conservative regimes and often were more restrictive than required for external equilibration. This suggests that policies of independent central banks designed to enhance domestic price stability may force deflationary pressures onto other states in the system and potentially destabilize a fixed exchange-rate regime.
Planning for the optimal mix of paygo tax and funded savings

We analyze the optimal balance between social security taxation and private saving in the provision of retirement income in dynamically efficient economies, a question at the center of policy debates in Europe and the United States. We consider the relative importance for this question of the return to capital, the internal return of the pay-as-you-go system, and the variabilities and correlation (or independence) of labor earnings and the capital return. We analyse these influences theoretically in the context of a two-period, overlapping generations model with uncertainty. We use a new method to calibrate the model using annual data on GDP per worker and the total real return on equities, from 1950 to 2002, from which we infer the stochastic characteristics of lifetime labor income and the return to lifetime savings in the US, UK, France and Japan. We obtain a range of optimal, steady-state values of the social security tax and the rate of lifetime savings. When the relative rate of risk aversion is assumed to be 2.5, the computed optimal tax varies from 5% in the United States to 22% in Japan. France is similar to Japan, and the UK is in between.
Acute pancreatitis during pregnancy

Acute pancreatitis in pregnancy is a rare condition estimated to occur in 1 per 1000 to 1 per 12 000 pregnancies. The most frequent etiology in pregnancy is biliary, followed by hyperlipidemia and/or alcohol abuse. Abdominal ultrasound and endoscopic ultrasound are ideal imaging techniques for diagnosing disease because they have no radiation risk. Computed tomography, magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography, and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography should be used with caution. Treatment could be conservative or surgical, and standard algorithms are slightly modified in pregnant women. In the last decades the outcome of acute pancreatitis in pregnancy is much better, and perinatal mortality is less than 5%.
Atorvastatin Increases the Number of Endothelial Progenitor Cells After Cardiac Surgery: A Randomized Control Study

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are a subtype of hematopoietic stem cells, which contribute to the repair of injured endothelium. Treatment with atorvastatin has been shown to increase EPC count in patients with coronary artery disease. Therefore, we investigated whether atorvastatin augments the number of EPCs after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) surgery. We conducted a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2-way crossover trial in 50 patients undergoing elective coronary surgery. Patients received either 3-week treatment with atorvastatin or placebo. EPCs were quantitated by flow cytometric phenotyping on blood samples. Levels of interleukin, IL-6 and IL-8; tumor necrosis factor α; SDF-1α; granulocyte colony-stimulating factor; and vascular endothelial growth factor were determined at recruitment, preoperatively, post-CPB, and 6, 12, and 24 hours postoperatively. The atorvastatin group showed a significantly higher amount of EPCs both pre- and postoperatively compared with the placebo, with a >4-fold increase compared with the baseline values. CPB induced an increase in all cytokines, but the levels of proinflammatory cytokines were significantly lower in the atorvastatin group (P < 0.05). Statin did not affect levels of SDF-1α, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, and vascular endothelial growth factor. However, no correlation was found between plasma levels of any cytokine and number of EPCs, with the exception of SDF-1α. Pretreatment with atorvastatin significantly increases the amount of EPCs after CPB, by a mechanism independent of plasma levels of cytokines and cholesterol.
Predicting asthma control and exacerbations: chronic asthma as a complex dynamic model

Purpose of review Predicting asthma episodes is notoriously difficult but has potentially significant consequences for the individual, as well as for healthcare services. The purpose of this review is to describe recent insights into the prediction of acute asthma episodes in relation to classical clinical, functional or inflammatory variables, as well as present a new concept for evaluating asthma as a dynamically regulated homeokinetic system. Recent findings Risk prediction for asthma episodes or relapse has been attempted using clinical scoring systems, considerations of environmental factors and lung function, as well as inflammatory and immunological markers in induced sputum or exhaled air, and these are summarized here. We have recently proposed that newer mathematical methods derived from statistical physics may be used to understand the complexity of asthma as a homeokinetic, dynamic system consisting of a network comprising multiple components, and also to assess the risk for future asthma episodes based on fluctuation analysis of long time series of lung function. Summary Apart from the classical analysis of risk factor and functional parameters, this new approach may be used to assess asthma control and treatment effects in the individual as well as in future research trials.
Are Professional Development School Trained Teachers Better Classroom Managers

This study examined the effectiveness of teachers trained in a Professional Development School (PDS) versus a traditional program. The paper begins with data from earlier research which shows that PDSs prepare graduates better for teaching and managing classrooms than do traditional programs. This study used the North Carolina Teacher Performance Appraisal Instrument to evaluate teachers in their first 3 years of teaching. Teachers trained in a traditional program and teachers trained in a PDS program completed the evaluation. The instrument examined eight functions, though this study investigated only management of student behavior. Findings for years 1-3 showed that PDS teachers had better student behavior management scores in all measured areas than did teachers trained in a traditional program. The best, mediocre, and poorest PDS teachers were better than the best, mediocre, and poorest non-PDS teachers. One of the practices that positively impacted the level of classroom management performance was the formative, coaching nature of the evaluation process. Interns had regular opportunities to participate in non-threatening discussions of their teaching practice. Another positive practice for PDS students was their witnessing and participating in daily reflections with their cooperating teachers and other professionals. (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the ori inal document.
A dynamic model of demand for Mediterranean tourism.

A dynamic econometric model was specified in order to estimate tourism consumption changes by Northern European countries and the USA for major Mediterranean destinations. The model employed a flexible framework for modelling short-term dynamics as well as the long run effects of a range of variables of specific interest to the countries considered. The estimated model provided useful information for tourism demand. The income elasticities demonstrated considerable differences in tourism demand preferences between origin countries and between traditional and newly developing destinations. The own and substitute price elasticities indicated the importance of effective prices in determining tourism receipts of the destinations.
Liquidity and Return Relationships in an Emerging Market

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between liquidity and stock returns in the Vietnam stock market during the global financial crisis. Vietnam is one of a new group of frontier emerging markets referred to as CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa). We use a rich and detailed data set of firm characteristics to identify a positive relationship between liquidity and stock returns. This contradicts the negative correlation typically found in stock returns in developed markets. Our results support the proposition that when a market is not fully integrated with the global economy, a lack of liquidity will be a less important risk factor. Our findings contribute to those studies that highlight the diversification benefits from including frontier markets, which have a lower degree of integration with the global economy, in international portfolios.
The Negotiation of Purpose in Multi-Organizational Collaborative Groups

The negotiation and agreement of goals for collaborations between public and non-profit organizations is argued to be a complex and painful process. Thus, the research described in this paper used action research to explore some of the critical behaviours in such groups. Based on the two units of analysis of 'goal ownership' and 'episodes in negotiation', a categorization of types of multi-organizational group negotiation behaviour is developed. The categories are intended to be of practical use to those seeking to ensure the success of a collaboration.
Propensity to Pay Dividends and Catering Incentives in Thailand

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the catering incentives of dividends can influence firms' dividend payment decisions in Thailand. Design/methodology/approach - The sample includes all listed stocks in the Stock Exchange of Thailand during the years 1992-2009, excluding the firms from financial industries and firms with incomplete information. The catering incentives are measured by dividend premium. The firms' dividend payment decisions are measured by propensity to pay dividends and decision to change dividends. Findings - The findings yield qualitatively consistent with the previous research. After controlling for the effect of the Asian Crisis during 1997-1999, the result shows that the firm's decision to pay dividend could be affected by the catering incentives. Furthermore, dividend premium will reduce the probability that firms will decide to cut dividend payment from previous years. Research limitations/implications - The result is limited to the availability of historical data. The Stock Exchange in Thailand has been established for only 35 years. With the lack of availability and completeness of data, the historical data could be gathered for only 18 years. Practical implications - Investors in Thailand show their preference for dividend incomes. This could be the catering incentive of the firm to decide to pay dividends. Originality/value - This paper offers the evidence of catering incentives of dividend proposed by Baker and Wurgler in the emerging market. Even though the result is not strong, it can be the evidence supporting the catering theory of dividend, not only in well-developed markets, but also in emerging markets such as Thailand.