Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Counterparty Credit Risk and American Options

One of the many counterintuitive things students in a first course on options learn is that premature exercise of an American call option on a nondividend paying stock is a mistake, and that for a dividend-paying stock, early exercise is never rational except just before the stock goes ex-dividend. Efforts to incorporate counterparty credit risk in the calculation have suggested assuming no change in exercise policy and simply discount the projected future cash flows at a higher risky interest rate. Others have argued that counterparty default should never happen with American options because the holder will exercise just before the counterparty defaults and effectively step in front of the other creditors to be paid in full. Klein and Yang show that these ideas are incorrect. Early exercise gives up the option’s time value, so that even when imminent counterparty default is perfectly predictable, there is still a cost to exercise for credit reasons. Moreover, properly taking counterparty risk into account leads to optimal exercise behavior different from that in the nonvulnerable case, so simply discounting the same cash flows at a different rate undervalues the vulnerable option. The difference is particularly important when counterparty risk is wrong-way risk, such that the counterparty’s credit weakens under the same conditions that the option is in the money.
Union Immobility? Trade Unions and the Freedoms of Movement in the Enlarged EU

East–West union co-operation in Europe is discussed as the most serious test to cross-border union solidarity, in the light of new frameworks capable to make sense of transnational trade union activity and alternative to theoretical nationalism. The empirical assessment of trade union chances reviews the activities of trade unions in the UK, Germany, Austria and Poland on foreign investment, migration and movement of services. Secondary evidence and case studies show that the strength of transnational union action does not depend on the country, but rather on its form. ‘Structural’ Europeanization remains weak (e.g. in most European Works Councils), while network-based action is displaying strong developments, especially on migration, but least on the movement of services.
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: STRATEGIC CHARACTERISTICS AND COMPETITIVE IMPLICATIONS

The purpose of the paper is to identify the main characteristics of vertical integration strategies and discuss the effects of those characteristics on companies' ability to compete. Using a sample of 316 parent companies, the study found that industry uncertainty affected companies' decisions regarding their levels of vertical integration, but not companies' decisions to change those levels. The study also suggests that a significant number of companies have disintegrated to become more competitive.
Social Protection: Responding to a Global Crisis

The current global financial crisis will have adverse effects on poor people in developing countries in both the short‐ and long‐term. While the complexity of this crisis makes its path difficult to predict, recent advances in social protection thinking and practice provide a body of experience for developing countries and development agencies to draw upon in responding to the crisis. Recognising that the crisis will produce pressures on national budgets and could lead to social and political unrest, this article argues that the ways that policymakers think about and design social protection responses will require careful consideration. It proposes a framework for prioritising responses and argues for an approach to designing social protection measures that take account of both immediate needs and the wider developmental role of social protection schemes. Social protection measures can be an important element in reconstructing a social contract that builds effective future governance for development.
Design and implementation of an efficient integer count sort in CUDA GPUs

We describe experience on design and implementation of an efficient count sort algorithm on Compute Unified Device Architecture graphics processing units. The novelty of this work is twofold. At first, we propose a count sort algorithm for integers that needs no synchronization at its last step and thus, offers superior performance. At second, this work contributes ad hoc techniques for optimizing the performance of the algorithm on Compute Unified Device Architecture‐enabled graphics processing units. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Pyrophosphate Transporter ANKH is Expressed in Kidney and Bone Cells and Colocalises to the Primary Cilium/Basal Body Complex

Background/Aims: ANKH encodes a putative pyrophosphate transporter named ANKH, which regulates tissue calcification. ANKH is a transmembrane protein with at least 8 predicted transmembrane domains. Sequence analysis reveals a possible cilial localisation motif immediately after the last transmembrane segment. Here we aim to determine the subcellular localisation of ANKH in ciliated epithelial cells and murine tissue and identify colocalisation using ciliary/basal body markers. Methods: Using murine kidney, renal epithelial cells and osteoblast cells we investigated the expression and localisation of ANKH using RT-PCR, Western blotting and immunocytochemistry. Results: Here we confirm endogenous expression of ANKH mRNA and protein in whole mouse kidney as well as mouse renal epithelial cell lines M1 and mpkCCDcl4 and the osteoblast cell line MC3T3-E1. Using antibodies directed towards ANKH, we confirm cilial and basal body localisation in renal tissues and renal epithelial cells, in addition to a centrosomal localisation in dividing mpkCCDcl4 cells. We also establish that the osteoblast cell line MC3T3-E1 forms an epithelioid cell layer, with junctional complex formation and primary cilia expression. ANKH is also seen within cilial and basal body structures of MC3T3-E1 cells. An ANKH-3XFLAG construct expressed in mpkCCDcl4 cells also localises to the primary cilium/basal body complex confirming this localisation. Conclusion: We conclude that the transmembrane protein ANKH is expressed in cilia and basal body structures, and postulate a sensory role at this location.
Some further experimental results on hypothetical versus real willingness to pay

In a previous experiment the null hypothesis of no difference between real and hypothetical willingness to pay for a box of chocolate could not be rejected. In this study we carry out a second experiment to see if we can confirm that finding. The experimental subjects are randomly divided into two groups. One group receives an open-ended hypothetical willingness to pay question and another group participates in a second-price auction with real payments. The mean willingness to pay is SEK 133.33 (STD 78.78) in the hypothetical payment group and SEK 81.62 (STD 62.99) in the real payment group, and the hypothesis of no difference in the mean willingness to pay between the groups can be rejected on the 10% level. In contrast to the first experiment the study thus gives some support for the notion that hypothetical willingness to pay questions overestimates real willingness to pay.
Improved Optimization of Finite Sums with Minibatch Stochastic Variance Reduced Proximal Iterations

We present novel minibatch stochastic optimization methods for empirical risk minimization problems, the methods efficiently leverage variance reduced first-order and sub-sampled higher-order information to accelerate the convergence speed. For quadratic objectives, we prove improved iteration complexity over state-of-the-art under reasonable assumptions. We also provide empirical evidence of the advantages of our method compared to existing approaches in the literature.
Alcohol consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Japanese: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association between alcohol consumption and the risk for type 2 diabetes (DM) in Japanese. METHODS We searched the MEDLINE data base with the key words 'alcohol intake' (or 'alcohol consumption') and 'Japanese' cross-linked with 'diabetes mellitus' (or 'impaired glucose tolerance'). The reports we sought were restricted to prospective cohort studies, randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses and systematic reviews. Computerized and hand searches were conducted in June 2007. RESULTS Seven prospective cohort studies were adopted. We previously reported that in lean Japanese men (BMI < or =22.0 kg/m2), moderate to heavy alcohol intake is a risk factor for diabetes. One study found heavy alcohol intake to be associated with an increased risk in low-BMI men while moderate alcohol intake was associated with a reduced risk in higher-BMI men. Another study suggested daily alcohol consumption to be a risk factor in low-BMI participants, while being protective in middle-BMI participants. Yet another study demonstrated a U-shaped association between alcohol consumption and the risk of diabetes in men. Three other studies, which did not divide the subjects in terms of BMI values, indicated alcohol intake to be an increased risk for diabetes, two being in men and one being in women, respectively. CONCLUSION For a large number of Japanese men who have relatively low BMI, alcohol intake is an established risk factor for diabetes.
Effects of Hyperbaric Oxygen on Proliferative and Apoptotic Activities and Reactive Oxygen Species Generation in Mouse Fibroblast 3T3/J2 Cell Line

Background Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy is widely used to treat problem wounds associated with pathologic conditions compromising blood supply and tissue oxygenation because increased tissue oxygen levels enhance collagen synthesis, cell proliferation, and angiogenesis. However, little is known about the dose of hyperoxia needed to achieve optimal therapeutic effects. Moreover, HBO, by enhancing the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), may also exert cytotoxic effects. In vitro models are simplified systems that may aid the development of treatment protocols with HBO. Hence, we have investigated the effects of HBO on the growth and ROS production of the 3T3/J2 fibroblast cell line in relation to the pressure and the duration of exposure. Methods 3T3/J2 fibroblasts were plated (5 × 103 cells/cm2) on six-well microtiter plates in phosphate buffered saline (PBS), put in a compression chamber, and exposed to 100% oxygen at a pressure of 1.0 or 2.5 atmosphere absolute (ATA) for 15, 30, 60, or 120 minutes. Then the cells were incubated in Dulbecco's modified minimum essential medium (DMEM) for 24, 48, or 72 hours, and at the end of the post-HBO incubation period, their number was determined. In other experiments, cells were detached just after HBO exposure, seeded on 60 mm Petri dishes, and cultured for 10 days in DMEM, and the colony forming units were counted. The effects of HBO exposure (2.5 ATA) on the apoptotic rate of cultured cells were investigated by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. To measure ROS production, 60 minutes before HBO exposure, 2′,7′-dichlorofluorescin (DCF) diacetate (200 nmol/mL) was added to PBS, and after HBO exposure (2.5 ATA), cells were lysated, and fluorescence-emission intensity was measured and converted to μmol DCF/μg protein. Results At 1.0 ATA, all HBO exposures increased the proliferation rate of cultured fibroblasts and their clonal growth efficiency. At 2.5 ATA, 15-minute exposure to HBO was ineffective, whereas 30- and 60-minute exposures raised the proliferation rate and clonal growth efficiency. Conversely, a 120-minute exposure significantly decreased these parameters compared with control cultures. The exposure of cells to HBO at 2.5 ATA for 120 minutes raised the apoptotic rate of cultured fibroblasts, whereas shorter exposure times were ineffective. All exposure periods to HBO at 2.5 ATA enhanced ROS production from cultured fibroblasts. Conclusions Collectively, our findings allow us to conclude that (1) all of the exposure periods to HBO at 1.0 ATA or 30- and 60-minute periods at 2.5 ATA enhance cell growth, (2) 120-minute exposure to HBO at 2.5 ATA exerts a marked proapoptotic effect, and (3) no evident relationships occur between the effects of HBO on cell growth and ROS production.
The stigmatization of bankrupt entrepreneurs in Dutch newspapers

We examine to what extent bankrupt entrepreneurs are stigmatized in the mass media. Based on a decade of newspaper articles, we show that while overall the level of stigmatization is lower than expected based on popular belief, stigmatization increases in the years with many bankruptcies, and in the months following a prominent bankruptcy. These differences are caused by the distinctions made by journalists between entrepreneurs in charge of large and small firms respectively as villains responsible for the bankruptcy and its consequences, or as hard-working victims of the system. Findings are explained in terms of experienced peril and cultural factors.
Importance of evaluating all vascular phases on contrast-enhanced sonography in the differentiation of benign from malignant focal liver lesions.

OBJECTIVE Our objective was to evaluate the accuracy of a blood-pool sonographic contrast agent in the late phase compared with the three vascular phases for differentiation between benign and malignant focal liver lesions. SUBJECTS AND METHODS In 152 patients (105 with chronic liver disease), 152 solid focal liver lesions characterized either by fine-needle biopsy or by dynamic CT or MRI were studied. The final diagnoses were metastasis for 24, hepatocellular carcinoma for 75, focal nodular hyperplasia for 13, regenerating or dysplastic nodule for 14, hemangioma for 22, cholangiocarcinoma for two, and another focal liver lesion for two. Real-time sonography was performed after a bolus injection of 2.4 mL of SonoVue, using a low mechanical index (< 0.2). All lesions were evaluated in the arterial, portal, and late phases; classified as benign or malignant; and correlated with final diagnoses. RESULTS For discrimination between malignant and benign focal liver lesions, evaluation of all vascular phases improved the sensitivity from 78.4% to 98% and the accuracy from 80.9% to 92.7%, compared with evaluation of the late phase alone. The increase in accuracy was higher in patients with chronic liver disease (16.3%) than in those without (2.1%). CONCLUSION Evaluation of SonoVue enhancement in all three vascular phases is superior to evaluation of SonoVue enhancement in the late phase alone, especially in patients with chronic liver disease.
Functional Similarity of Medial Superior Parietal Areas for Shift-Selective Attention Signals in Humans and Monkeys

We continually shift our attention between items in the visual environment. These attention shifts are usually based on task relevance (top-down) or the saliency of a sudden, unexpected stimulus (bottom-up), and are typically followed by goal-directed actions. It could be argued that any species that can covertly shift its focus of attention will rely on similar, evolutionarily conserved neural substrates for processing such shift-signals. To address this possibility, we performed comparative fMRI experiments in humans and monkeys, combining traditional, and novel, data-driven analytical approaches. Specifically, we examined correspondences between monkey and human brain areas activated during covert attention shifts. When "shift" events were compared with "stay" events, the medial (superior) parietal lobe (mSPL) and inferior parietal lobes showed similar shift sensitivities across species, whereas frontal activations were stronger in monkeys. To identify, in a data-driven manner, monkey regions that corresponded with human shift-selective SPL, we used a novel interspecies beta-correlation strategy whereby task-related beta-values were correlated across voxels or regions-of-interest in the 2 species. Monkey medial parietal areas V6/V6A most consistently correlated with shift-selective human mSPL. Our results indicate that both species recruit corresponding, evolutionarily conserved regions within the medial superior parietal lobe for shifting spatial attention.
Productivity and the Density of Economic Activity

Two different models - one based on local geographical externalities and the other on the variety of only locally available intermediate services - are shown to give rise to a simple, estimable relation between employment density and productivity. Using data on gross state output for the U.S., we find that agglomeration more than offsets congestion effects in denser areas. While our estimate of the elasticity of productivity with respect to density is small, it explains more than 50% of the observed state productivity differences, given the large differences in density.
The Private Production of Public Goods

THIs paper analyzes the production of public goods through private means under conditions that allow nonpurchasers to be excluded from the use of the good. Two conclusions are reached. First, given the ability to exclude nonpurchasers, private producers can produce public goods efficiently. Secondly, the payment of different prices for the same good is consistent with competitive equilibrium if the good is a public good. The allocation of resources to the production of public goods can be understood with the aid of the model formulated long ago by Alfred Marshall for the analysis of joint supply. ' Just as the slaughtering of a steer provides goods to both leather users and meat consumers, so the production of a public good, by definition, yields benefits that can be enjoyed by more than one individual, for one person's use of public good services does not prevent simultaneous use by others. Under competitive conditions the rate at which steers are slaughtered is determined where the sum of the market prices for the hide and the meat is equal to the cost of slaughtering a steer. The geometry of equilibrium for jointly supplied products is shown in Figure I. Curve d is the market demand for hides and D is the vertical summation of d and the market demand for meat, hence D-d measures the demand for meat. The vertical summation of the demand prices equals the marginal cost of slaughtering cattle, shown by curve S, at the slaughter rate Q. No special problem arises in the allocation of resources to joint products in this, the standard case, nor does any
Recovering the Shadow Value of Nutrients

This article investigates the shadow values of twenty-eight different nutrients. It links the unit price of foods to the shadow values of nutrients by building on a utility theoretic model first proposed by Gorman. Maximum entropy principles are then used to reason consistently about the values of the parameters of interest. The resulting estimates are discussed and analyzed.
The history of the mainstream rejection of interdependent preferences

The notion of interdependent preferences has a long history in economic thought. It can be found in the works of authors such as Hume, Rae, Genovesi, Smith, Marx and Mill among others. In the 20th century, the idea became more widespread mainly through the works of Veblen and Duesenberry. Recently, an increasing number of theorists are interested in issues like reference income, relative consumption and positional goods which are all based on the concept of interdependent preferences. However, such preferences were never part of the corpus of orthodox theory. For instance, although Pareto and Marshall were aware of their existence, they rejected their incorporation into economic theory. There were various reasons for this rejection. The structure of mainstream economic methodology might be one reason. Another reason had to do with the theoretical implications of adopting interdependent preferences. The paper discusses the main historical aspects of this idea in relation to the mainstream resistance to incorporate it in orthodox economic theory.
HRM and organizational performance in northern and southern Europe

This article aims to extend understanding of the firm-level impact of strategic HR practices on organizational performance. Adopting a contingency approach, it develops a structural model that considers direct and indirect influences of market growth, business strategy formalization and HRM centrality and practices on organizational performance in Europe. The study uses a comparative approach, revealing differences between northern and southern Europe. Clear differences appeared between the two clusters in the HR policies and practices correlated with higher performance, thus indicating that the link between HRM and performance may be different in different geographies.
An Intellectual History of Environmental Economics

▪ Abstract From modest beginnings in the 1960s, environmental economics has grown to be a major subdiscipline of economics. It combines traditional work in the field of welfare economics and the theory of economic growth with more recent perspectives on the political economy of choosing policy instruments and the philosophy of sustainable development. The central tenets are that environmental problems have their roots in the failure of economic systems to maximize human well-being, that environmental quality matters for human well-being and for more traditionally oriented economic growth objectives, and that efficient policy can be achieved through incentive design.
European antitrust policy : an analysis of court of appeal rulings in the EU : 1957 - 2000

In Europe, the most influental competition policy enforcing agency is the European Commission. The Commission applies antitrust, state aid and merger law as well as initiates new legislation thereby shaping the competitive process on the old continent. However, how well the institution is working in terms of legal certainty and economic justice is an open issue. This paper surveys critically the history of European antitrust policy from the perspective of the European Court of Justice since the grounds for its implementation were set in 1962. The data cover all antitrust decisions by the European Commission decided under Articles 81 and 82 resulting into an appeal proceeding. First, we present a number of descriptive statistics on the European Court of Justice antitrust sentences in form of a historical overview including landmark case discussion. Issues such as the grounds for appeal, revisions of the original decision, the duration and length of the appeals proceedings and probabilities of success depending on characteristics such as the type of infringement originally found are considered. Thereafter, we estimate a model evaluating the quality of the Commission’s work with respect to Court sentences using a multinomial logit on the sentence and regressions on fine reduction and cost sharing by the parties.