Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extraction of Financial Market Expectations about Inflation and Interest Rates from a Liquid Market

In this paper we propose an affine model that uses as observed factors the Nelson and Siegel (NS) components summarising the term structure of interest rates. By doing so, we are able to reformulate the Diebold and Li (2006) approach to forecast the yield curve in a way that allows us to incorporate a non-arbitrage opportunities condition and risk aversion into the model. These conditions seem to improve the forecasting ability of the term structure components and provide us with an estimation of the risk premia. Our approach is somewhat equivalent to the recent contribution of Christiensen, Diebold and Rudebusch (2008). However, not only does it seem to be more intuitive and far easier to estimate, it also improves that model in terms of fitting and forecasting properties. Moreover, with this framework it is possible to incorporate directly the inflation rate as an additional factor without reducing the forecasting ability of the model. The augmented model produces an estimation of market expectations about inflation free of liquidity, counterparty and term premia. We provide a comparison of the properties of this indicator with others usually employed to proxy the inflation expectations, such as the break-even rate, inflation swaps and professional surveys.
Clasp-Knife Model of Muscle Spasticity for Simulation of Robot-Human Interaction

The objective of this research was to replicate the muscle tone moment feedback of elbow upon passive mobilization and classify them based on modified ashworth scale criterion using a mathematical model. The proposed model enables the visualization of muscle tone pattern for robotic interaction simulation. A concurrent muscle tone model necessitates a jerk effect to fully replicate the catch and release effect, also known as, clasp-knife phenomenon of muscle tone feedback. However, the research of passive mobilization control interaction between robot and subject does not emulate such phenomenon. Thus, the model was improvised to replicate the clasp-knife phenomenon according to the robot’s gross kinematics and dynamics. The model was designed based on the quantitative pattern of muscle tone feedback from subject with spasticity. The simulated model was then correlated to clinical measures using similar kinematic and dynamic input. The velocity dynamic input was splined to obtain the velocity trend without the jerk effect. The results obtained from the proposed model were relatively promising with an overall <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(n=9\times 4)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> linear (Pearson) correlated average of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\bar {r}=0.8348$ </tex-math></inline-formula> for nine subjects with correlation significant at the 0.01 level (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p< 0.01$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and five of them presented a distinctive clasp-knife phenomenon with correlation average of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\bar {r}=0.8631$ </tex-math></inline-formula>.
Attentional biases for threat and unfamiliarity in behaviourally inhibited children

Two studies assessed information processing biases related to threat and novelty in school age children who differed in behaviourally inhibited temperament (BI). Study 1 (N = 40) assessed selective attention for threatening expressions in novel and familiar faces using the Dot Probe task. BI ratings were obtained using two self-report measures: the BIQ and Bll. Children with higher BI exhibited a greater attentional bias towards threat (with no evidence for avoidance following initial vigilance), and responded faster to novel faces across trials. Study 2 (N = 188) attempted to replicate and expand on Study 1. The Dot Probe task had additional trials to directly assess potential attentional biases for novel faces, and the parent-report versions of the BIQ and Bll were administered in addition to the self-report versions. The findings regarding selective attention for threat were inconsistent, and there was no evidence that response to novelty differed based on BI.
ALLELOPATHIC IMPACT OF ESSENTIAL OIL OF TAGETES MINUTA ON COMMON AGRICULTURAL AND WASTELAND WEEDS

ABSTRACT Objective: Tagetes minuta (Family Asteraceae) is an aromatic plant possessing volatile essential oil. Its oil finds extensive use in flavor and perfume industry. T. minuta oil also possess medicinal and insecticidal properties as antiheminthic, nematicidal, bactericidal, antiviral, fngicidal and insecticidal. The plant has been explored for herbicidal potential in very few reports. The aim of present study is to find out its allelopathic potential against common wasteland and agricultural weeds. Material & Methods: Various agricultural and wasteland weeds were selected for laboratory growth studies. Oil was applied in solution form using an emulsifier. Results: Growth of all test weeds was inhibited by T. minuta oil; however, effect was maximum in Amaranthus tricolor with complete inhibition at 1µl/ml and E. cruss-galli was least affected with complete inhibition at 5µl/ml concentration of T. minuta oil. Conclusion: T. minuta oil offers great potential for effective weed management in agricultural as well as wasteland areas. Keyowrds: Tagetes minuta , essential oil, allelopathy, solution form, wasteland, agricultural, weeds
Aspie96 at IronITA (EVALITA 2018): Irony Detection in Italian Tweets with Character-Level Convolutional RNN

Irony is characterized by a strong contrast between what is said and what is meant: this makes its detection an important task in sentiment analysis. In recent years, neural networks have given promising results in different areas, including irony detection. In this report, I describe the system used by the Aspie96 team in the IronITA competition (part of EVALITA 2018) for irony and sarcasm detection in Italian tweets.
A network of sex and competition: The promiscuous mating system of an invasive weevil

Invasive alien pest insect species represent a major threat for agriculture and biodiversity. Because chemical treat- ments employed to contrast such pests elicit serious environmental and human health problems, a great effort is currently directed to develop long term and environmentally friendly biological control strategies. However, the successful application of some promising techniques, such as the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), requires a deep knowledge of the pest basic biology. Here, we argue that understanding pest sexual biology using a social network approach can significantly improve the performance of con- trol strategies. For example, SIT may benefit from understanding how individuals interact and how males accede to reproduction, in order to target the most reproductively active and polygamic males. In this paper we studied the socio-sexual networks of the Asian red palm weevil (RPW) Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, a worldwide invader which is causing heavy economic impacts on several palm species. We found that the RPW has a highly promiscuous mating system, characterized by forced interruptions of pair copulations by additional males. The social network is highly non-random nor regular: few males almost monopolize repro- duction, behaving as key-players in the network of matings. Additionally, males have a stable pattern of sexual behaviour over time. We use RPW social network as a case study to direct the development of management techniques such as SIT strategy (Current Zoology 61 (1): 85-97, 2015).
Poultry Waste Management Techniques in Urban Agriculture and its Implications: A Case of Metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria

This study examines the existing poultry waste management and utilization technique in urban vegetable farms. It analyses the implications of the management pattern on yield and revenue and further determines the socio-economic differentials of farmers on management pattern. Socio-economic survey was carried out to determine relationship between socio economic characteristics of farmers and poultry waste management while field experiments and estimations were done to determine poultry waste production input and crop yield. The result revealed that poultry waste is poorly collected, packaged and transported. Proper knowledge on treatment is lacking due to lack of skill, space, time together with paucity of capital. Availability and cost of synthetic fertilizer among other factors determine poultry waste utilization. Exotic vegetable requires more poultry waste than indigenous ones and soil characteristics play strong role in influencing poultry waste input and yield of vegetable crops. At p>0.05, there is significant difference between poultry waste utilization, crop yield and revenue in the study area.
SHORT COMMUNICATION Molecular evolution of cell division proteins FtsA, FtsL, and FtsZ in bacteria: A phylogenetic analysis

In the past 16s rRNA gene sequencing has been used to find out the evolutionary pattern and the phylogenetic relationship among bacteria. Despite its accuracy, 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis lacks widespread use beyond the large reference laboratories because of technical and cost considerations. The rapid development of the field of proteomics has now been very helpful in finding the phylogenetic relationship of microorganisms. An attempt has been made in this study to find out the molecular evolution of three cell division proteins FtsZ, FtsA and FtsL among certain bacteria and possibility of studying their phylogenetic relationship using various proteomics databases and tools. For the present study various economically and medically important bacteria were selected. The amino acid residue sequence of the three cell division proteins FtsZ, FtsA and FtsL were retrieved from UniprotKB database. The sequences thus obtained for each cell division protein were subjected to Multiple Sequence analysis in ClustalW database. The molecular evolution and phylogenetic study has been performed using TreeDomViwer. The study clearly revealed that the cell division proteins do follow a definitive evolutionary pattern and is based on gram staining character rather than the morphology. The present study has also clearly shown that the important conserved protein sequences can be very useful to study the phylogeny of bacteria.
Determinants of financial reporting quality and its implications on the financial performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs)

This research aimed at analyzing the influence of the size of the board of directors, the composition of the independent commissioners, the effectiveness of audit committee and government ownership of the financial reporting quality and its implications on the financial performance of state-owned enterprises. Research population is state-owned enterprises listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2010-2014. There were 50 companies assigned as the sample of this research by using purposive sampling method. The results showed that partially, the size of the board of director, the composition of the independent commissioners and government ownership did not have the significant influence on financial reporting quality. The effectiveness of audit committee positively and significantly influenced financial reporting quality. The size of the board of directors, the effectiveness of the audit committee and financial reporting quality positively and significantly influenced financial performance. The composition of an independent commissioner and government ownership negatively and significantly influenced financial performance.
Interdependence of Market Risk Measures

The proper definition and measurement of risk in asset valuation have been subject to important theoretical developments in recent years. ' One segment of this work has focused on the behavior of common-stock price volatility, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally.2 The present study presents further empirical evidence on the redundancy of certain risk surrogates. More specifically, using correlation and cluster analysis, we investigate the degree of informational overlap between 11 commonly used risk measures. Six of the measures are found to produce similar rankings of common stock at considerably high levels of significance. A sample of 943 firms having month-end price data from January 1966 to January 1974 was selected from the Quarterly Compustat Industrial tape. Since this time period was characterized by wide upward and downward swings in the market, biases from examining a single market phase are reduced. Additionally, two subperiods exist-1966-69 and 1970-73which allow analysis of intertemporal stability between rankings by risk measures. After adjustment for stock splits and stock dividends, percentage changes in prices were computed for each of the 943 firms as follows: (Pt+Pt)/Pt, where Pt and Pt+, represent prices of a firm's stock at the beginning and end of a month. Using these percentages as inputs, we then calculated the 11 risk measures shown in table 1 for each firm during each subperiod and the overall period. This list is indicative of the wide range of risk surrogates suggested in the literature on security analysis and portfolio management.
AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE AUTONOMOUS LEARNERS IN LEARNING ENGLISH

This study investigated the factors influencing the autonomous learners in learning English. This study was conducted in second grade of one senior high school in Bandung. This study employed a qualitative case study. Case study was deemed to be relevant for this study since it deals with specific phenomenon of autonomous learner as a single case which was analyzed and described. The data were obtained from the students which were collected through observation, questionnaire, and interview. After collecting the data, it was analyzed inductively based on qualitative data analysis and interpreted to answer the research question. The study revealed a finding related to the research question. It was found that the autonomous learners were influenced by five factors which are (1) motivation, (2) social environment, (3) task, (4) teacher and (5) material. These finding suggest that the teacher must encourage and promote students to become autonomous learner because students will get more benefit from becoming autonomous learners. Key words: Autonomous learner, influencing factors.
Microstructural and Dielectric Properties of Zr Doped Microwave Sintered CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 Synthesized by Sol-Gel Route

Polycrystalline samples with the chemical formula CaCu 3 Ti 4−xZrxO12 (x = 0, 0.02, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, and 0.1) CCTZO were synthesized frommetal nitrate solutions by the sol-gel method, followed by conventional andmicrowave heat treatments.The X-ray diffraction pattern of powder calcined at 800C in conventional furnace for 3 h showed formation of a single phase. The crystal structure did not change on doping with zirconium and it remained cubic in the five studied compositions. The surface morphology of samples sintered at 1000C inmicrowave furnace for 10min was observed using a high resolution scanning electronmicroscope (HR-SEM). The grain sizes were in the range of 250 nm–5 μm for these samples. HRSEM results show that doping with Zr enhanced grain growth or densification. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) confirmed the presence of Zr. The dielectric characteristics of Zr doped CCTOwere studied with an LCRmeter in the frequency range of 50Hz–1MHz. A very high dielectric constant 21,500 was observed for the sample doped with Zr (0.02mol%) at 50Hz.
Study on HELLP syndrome - maternal and perinatal outcome

Background: HELLP Syndrome is a serious obstetric complication in pregnancy characterised by haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count. Incidence is 0.5-0.9% of all pregnancies and in 10-20% of cases with severe preeclampsia and eclampsia. The aim of the study was to study the incidence, different clinical presentations and diagnosis of HELLP syndrome in Pre eclampsia and Eclampsia and to analyze the severity, complications, maternal and perinatal outcome. Methods: It is a 16 months period retrospective study of 102 cases of preeclampsia and eclampsia admitted in NRIMC and GH in OBGY Department with more than 28 weeks gestation. Of these, 91 cases had preeclampsia and 11 cases had eclampsia. Out of these, 15 cases developed HELLP Syndrome. The available history, clinical data, detailed laboratory investigations were studied and categorized by Mississippi classification for better analysis of complications and outcome in HELLP syndrome. Results: Of 91 cases of Preeclampsia, 12 cases (13.18%) developed HELLP syndrome and out of 11 cases of Eclampsia, 3 cases (27.27%) had HELLP Syndrome. Majority of the cases belonged to 21-25years age group and were mostly from lower Socio economic status. The present study showed 60% maternal morbidity and 6.6% maternal mortality and the perinatal morbidity and mortality was 46.6% each. Conclusions: HELLP Syndrome is a severe variant and a dreadful complication of Preeclampsia and Eclampsia, it needs early diagnosis and timely intervention in the form of termination of pregnancy to arrest further progress of pathophysiology leading to complications.
How TOMS’ “one day without shoes” campaign brings stakeholders together and co-creates value for the brand using Instagram as a platform

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the power of social media networks, namely Instagram, in building brand communities and co-creating value for brands. By analysing the 2015 campaign #withoutshoes by TOMS, the authors intend to demonstrate how the value creation process can be extended to involve all stakeholders and raise the effectiveness of a brand’s communication campaign. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach was taken to enable an understanding of online consumer behaviour. A series of qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with retail and marketing professionals from the TOMS brand to explore brand strategy. The TOMS Instagram account was analysed for a specific marketing communications event and summative content analysis was applied to the brand’s Instagram profile in order to allow for an in-depth exploration of the co-creation process. Triangulation was used for the multiple sources of evidence in order to build the study and to establish the co.
Analytical Solution of a Steady Non-Reacting Laminar Fluid Flow in a Channel Filled With Saturated Porous Media with Two Distinct Horizontal Impermeable Wall Conditions

An analysis of the study of momentum and heat transfer characteristics of a non-reacting Newtonian viscous incompressible laminar fluid flow in a channel filled with saturated porous media with both isothermal and isoflux boundary conditions has been carried out. The dimensionless non-linear coupled ordinary differential equations governing the flow and the heat transfer characteristics are solved analytically using the method of undetermined coefficients. Details of velocities and temperature fields for various values of the emerging parameters of the steady solutions of the problems are presented using contour graphs. It was shown that the porous medium may be used to control the flow in a saturated porous media using less permeable materials which offer greater resistance to the boundary-layer momentum development. It was further revealed that increase in porous media permeability and decrease in ratio of viscosities, help to enhance the fluid flow; however the input of the viscous term on the flow behaviour is insignificant for extremely lower values of Darcy number. It was also shown that the fluid temperature is more influenced in isothermal and isoflux processes if the Darcy number, Da , or Brinkman number, Br , or both are increased and if the ratio of viscosities M , is decreased. Keywords: laminar flow, porous medium, impermeable walls, isothermal, isoflux)
Is a Nonseasonally Adjusted Median CPI a Useful Signal of Trend Inflation

Since controlling inflation is a central monetary policy goal, monetary policymakers focus intently on inflation signals. But they face a major difficulty: inflation data contain a lot of transitory shocks. The presence of the transitory “noise” in inflation data makes it difficult to detect early warnings of sustained movements. Responding to these transitory shocks would be a bad idea, because doing so would translate into policy swings and reversals and introduce uncertainty and volatility into the economy. Instead, policymakers attempt to respond to the sustained movements in inflation—that is, to underlying trend inflation. Discerning the underlying trend in the midst of the noisy inflation data is a challenging task.
The Chemical Evolution Carousel of Spiral Galaxies: Azimuthal Variations of Oxygen Abundance in NGC1365

The spatial distribution of oxygen in the interstellar medium of galaxies is the key to understanding how efficiently metals that are synthesized in massive stars can be redistributed across a galaxy. We present here a case study in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 1365 using 3D optical data obtained in the TYPHOON Program. We find systematic azimuthal variations of the H ii region oxygen abundance imprinted on a negative radial gradient. The 0.2 dex azimuthal variations occur over a wide radial range of 0.3–0.7 R25 and peak at the two spiral arms in NGC 1365. We show that the azimuthal variations can be explained by two physical processes: gas undergoes localized, sub-kiloparsec-scale self-enrichment when orbiting in the inter-arm region, and experiences efficient, kiloparsec-scale mixing-induced dilution when spiral density waves pass through. We construct a simple chemical evolution model to quantitatively test this picture and find that our toy model can reproduce the observations. This result suggests that the observed abundance variations in NGC 1365 are a snapshot of the dynamical local enrichment of oxygen modulated by spiral-driven, periodic mixing and dilution.
Posterior Convergence of Gaussian and General Stochastic Process Regression Under Possible Misspecifications

In this article, we investigate posterior convergence in nonparametric regression models where the unknown regression function is modeled by some appropriate stochastic process. In this regard, we consider two setups. The first setup is based on Gaussian processes, where the covariates are either random or non-random and the noise may be either normally or double-exponentially distributed. In the second setup, we assume that the underlying regression function is modeled by some reasonably smooth, but unspecified stochastic process satisfying reasonable conditions. The distribution of the noise is also left unspecified, but assumed to be thick-tailed. As in the previous studies regarding the same problems, we do not assume that the truth lies in the postulated parameter space, thus explicitly allowing the possibilities of misspecification. We exploit the general results of Shalizi (2009) for our purpose and establish not only posterior consistency, but also the rates at which the posterior probabilities converge, which turns out to be the Kullback-Leibler divergence rate. We also investigate the more familiar posterior convergence rates. Interestingly, we show that the posterior predictive distribution can accurately approximate the best possible predictive distribution in the sense that the Hellinger distance, as well as the total variation distance between the two distributions can tend to zero, in spite of misspecifications.