Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can Portfolio Rebalancing Explain the Dynamics of Equity Returns, Equity Flows and Exchange Rates?

We explore whether the pattern of international equity returns, equity portfolio flows, and exchange rate returns are consistent with the hypothesis that (unhedged) global investors rebalance their portfolio in order to limit their exchange rate exposure when there are (1) relative equity return and (2) exchange rate shocks. We also explore whether (3) equity flow shocks influence the exchange rates and relative equity prices. In the estimation of the VAR system we do not impose any causal ordering upon the primitive shocks, but instead identify the system based on theoretical priors about the contemporaneous conditional correlations between the three variables. International data for the five largest equity markets are consistent with a theory in which equity returns and portfolio rebalancing are an important source of exchange rate dynamics.
ANALISIS PENGARUH CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, KEPEMILIKAN MANAJERIAL, DAN KEPEMILIKAN INSTITUSIONAL TERHADAP INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL DISCLOSURE

The objective of this empirical study is to examine and to analyze the effect of corporate governance, managerial ownership, and institutional ownership on the relation of intellectual capital disclosure. The sample of this empirical study is the manufacturing company that listed in Bursa Efek Indonesia (BEI) in 2013. This research uses multiple regression analysis as hypothesis testing. The result of this empirical study are (1) corporate governance had positive significant influence to intellectual capital disclosure, (2) managerial ownership had not significant influence to intellectual capital disclosure, (3) institutional ownership had not significant influence to intellectual capital disclosure, (4) firm size had positive significant influence to intellectual capital disclosure, (5) ROA had positive significant influence to intellectual capital disclosure, (6) leverage had not significant influence to intellectual capital disclosure.
Extending the translational potential of targeting NO/cGMP‐regulated pathways in the CVS

The discovery of NO as both an endogenous signalling molecule and as a mediator of the cardiovascular effects of organic nitrates was acknowledged in 1998 by the Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine. The characterization of its downstream signalling, mediated through stimulation of soluble GC (sGC) and cGMP generation, initiated significant translational interest, but until recently this was almost exclusively embodied by the use of PDE5 inhibitors in erectile dysfunction. Since then, research progress in two areas has contributed to an impressive expansion of the therapeutic targeting of the NO‐sGC‐cGMP axis: first, an increased understanding of the molecular events operating within this complex pathway and second, a better insight into its dys‐regulation and uncoupling in human disease. Already‐approved PDE5 inhibitors and novel, first‐in‐class molecules, which up‐regulate the activity of sGC independently of NO and/or of the enzyme's haem prosthetic group, are undergoing clinical evaluation to treat pulmonary hypertension and myocardial failure. These molecules, as well as combinations or second‐generation compounds, are also being assessed in additional experimental disease models and in patients in a wide spectrum of novel indications, such as endotoxic shock, diabetic cardiomyopathy and Becker's muscular dystrophy. There is well‐founded optimism that the modulation of the NO‐sGC‐cGMP pathway will sustain the development of an increasing number of successful clinical candidates for years to come.
CONTRIBUTIONS OF SEXUAL AND ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION TO POPULATION STRUCTURE IN THE CLONAL SOFT CORAL, ALCYONIUM RUDYI

Numerous studies of population structure in sessile clonal marine invertebrates have demonstrated low genotypic diversity and nonequilibrium genotype frequencies within local populations that are monopolized by relatively few, highly replicated genets. All of the species studied to date produce planktonic sexual propagules capable of dispersing long distances; despite local genotypic disequilibria, populations are often panmictic over large geographic areas. The population structure paradigm these species represent may not be typical of the majority of clonal invertebrate groups, however, which are believed to produce highly philopatric sexual propagules. I used allozyme variation to examine the population structure of the temperate soft coral, Alcyonium rudyi, a typical clonal species whose sexually produced larvae and asexually produced ramets both have very low dispersal capabilities. Like other clonal plants and invertebrates, the local population dynamics of A. rudyi are dominated by asexual reproduction, and recruitment of new sexually produced genets occurs infrequently. As expected from its philopatric larval stage, estimates of genetic differentiation among populations of A. rudyi were highly significant at all spatial scales examined (mean θ = 0.300 among 20 populations spanning a 1100‐km range), suggesting that genetic exchange seldom occurs among populations separated by as little as a few hundred meters. Mapping of multilocus allozyme genotypes within a dense aggregation of A. rudyi ramets confirmed that dispersal of asexual propagules is also very limited: members of the same genet usually remain within < 50 cm of one another on the same rock surface. Unlike most previously studied clonal invertebrates, populations of A. rudyi do not appear to be dominated by a few widespread genets: estimates of genotypic diversity (Go) within 20 geographically distinct populations did not differ from expectations for outcrossing, sexual populations. Despite theoretical suggestions that philopatric dispersal combined with typically small effective population sizes should promote inbreeding in clonal species, inbreeding does not appear to contribute significantly to the population structure of A. rudyi. Genet genotype frequencies conformed to Hardy‐Weinberg expectations in all populations, and inbreeding coefficients (f) were close to zero. In general, the population structure of A. rudyi did not differ significantly from that observed among outcrossing sexual species with philopatric larval dispersal. Age estimates suggest, however, that genets of A. rudyi live for many decades. Genet longevity may promote high genotypic diversity within A. rudyi populations and may be the most important evolutionary consequence of clonal reproduction in this species and the many others that share its dispersal characteristics.
The Role of Audiovisual Speech and Orthographic Information in Nonnative Speech Production

Visual information from the face is an integral part of speech perception. Additionally, orthography can play a role in disambiguating the speech signal in nonnative speech. This study investigates the effect of audiovisual speech information and orthography on nonnative speech. Particularly, orthographic depth is of interest. Turkish (transparent) and Australian English (opaque) speakers were tested for their production of nonwords in Spanish (transparent) and Irish (opaque). We found that transparent orthography enhanced pronunciation and orthographic responses. Results confirm previous findings that visual information enhances speech production and extend them to show the facilitative effects of orthography under certain conditions. Implications are discussed in relation to audiovisual speech perception and orthographic processing and practical considerations such as second language instruction.
Global Diversification with Local Stocks: A Road Less Traveled

Utilizing approximately 51,000 sample firms from developed markets over 1995-2014, we document a stark heterogeneity in global integration at the firm-level and study its implications for diversification. Specifically, the adjusted R-square, our integration measure, is widely distributed across firms, within and across sample markets. A firm’s integration is significantly affected by its style, country, and industry attributes. Systematically identifying and holding “local stocks” that are minimally driven by the common global factors, investors can significantly benefit from diversification within developed markets. Thus, the diversification gains solely inferred from the market indices much understate the potential benefits that world markets can provide.
Oil spill impact modeling: Development and validation

A coupled oil fate and effects model has been developed for the estimation of impacts to habitats, wildlife, and aquatic organisms resulting from acute exposure to spilled oil. The physical fates model estimates the distribution of oil (as mass and concentrations) on the water surface, on shorelines, in the water column, and in the sediments, accounting for spreading, evaporation, transport, dispersion, emulsification, entrainment, dissolution, volatilization, partitioning, sedimentation, and degradation. The biological effects model estimates exposure of biota of various behavior types to floating oil and subsurface contamination, resulting percent mortality, and sublethal effects on production (somatic growth). Impacts are summarized as areas or volumes affected, percent of populations lost, and production foregone because of a spill's effects. This paper summarizes existing information and data used to develop the model, model algorithms and assumptions, validation studies, and research needs. Simulation of the Exxon Valdez oil spill is presented as a case study and validation of the model.
Hybrid Method for Minimizing Service Delay in Edge Cloud Computing Through VM Migration and Transmission Power Control

Due to physical limitations, mobile devices are restricted in memory, battery, processing, among other characteristics. This results in many applications that cannot be run in such devices. This problem is fixed by Edge Cloud Computing, where the users offload tasks they cannot run to cloudlet servers in the edge of the network. The main requirement of such a system is having a low Service Delay, which would correspond to a high Quality of Service. This paper presents a method for minimizing Service Delay in a scenario with two cloudlet servers. The method has a dual focus on computation and communication elements, controlling Processing Delay through virtual machine migration and improving Transmission Delay with Transmission Power Control. The foundation of the proposal is a mathematical model of the scenario, whose analysis is used on a comparison between the proposed approach and two other conventional methods; these methods have single focus and only make an effort to improve either Transmission Delay or Processing Delay, but not both. As expected, the proposal presents the lowest Service Delay in all study cases, corroborating our conclusion that a dual focus approach is the best way to tackle the Service Delay problem in Edge Cloud Computing.
Search engine queries used to locate electronic theses and dissertations: Differences for local and non-local users

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine two research questions: What search engine queries lead users to the Auburn University electronic theses and dissertations (AUETDs) collection? Do these queries vary for users in different locations and, if so, how? Design/methodology/approach – Search engine queries used to locate the AUETDs collection were obtained from Google Analytics and were separated into groups based on user location. These queries were assigned to empirically derived categories based on their content. Findings – Most local users’ queries contained person names, variants for thesis or dissertation, and variants for Auburn University. Over a third were queries for the AUETDs collection, while the remainder were seeking theses and dissertations from specific Auburn researchers. Most out-of-state users’ queries contained title and subject keywords and appeared to be seeking specific research studies. Queries from users located within the state but outside of the local area were interm.
Effects of Capital Structure on the Financial Performance of Firms Listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange

xi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 Background of the Study . 1 1.1.1 Capital Structure . 2 1.1.2 Firm Financial Performance . 3 1.1.3 Capital Structure and Firm Financial Performance . 5 1.1.4 Firms Listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange . 6 1.2 Research Problem . 7 1.3 Research Objective . 10 1.4 Value of the Study . 10 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW . 11 2.
Sensitive detection of a novel class of toluene-degrading denitrifiers, Azoarcus tolulyticus, with small-subunit rRNA primers and probes

Azoarcus tolulyticus is a new class of widely distributed toluene-degrading denitrifiers of potential importance in remediating benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX)-contaminated environments. To detect these organisms in the environment, 16S rRNA gene-based phylogenetic probes were developed. Two sets of specific PCR amplification primers and two oligonucleotide hybridization probes were designed and tested against both closely and distantly related environmental isolates. All of these primers and probes were specific to the species A. tolulyticus. The sensitivity of the PCR amplification primer sets was evaluated with DNA isolated from A. tolulyticus Tol-4 pure culture and from sterile soils seeded with a known number of Tol-4 and Escherichia coli cells. These primer sets were able to detect 1 fg to 1 pg of template DNA from the pure culture and 1.11 x 10(2) to 1.1 x 10(8) Tol-4 cells per g of soil in the presence of 1.56 x 10(10) E. coli cells. These two PCR amplification primers were also successfully tested at two field sites. The primers identified the A. tolulyticus strains among the toluene-degrading bacteria isolated from a low-O2-high-NO(3)- aquifer at Moffett Field, Calif. Also, the presence of A. tolulyticus was detected in the groundwater samples from a BTEX-contaminated aquifer at an industrial site in Detroit, Mich. , which showed anaerobic toluene degradation.
Bank Earnings Management and Tail Risk during the Financial Crisis

We show that a pattern of earnings management in bank financial statements has little bearing on downside risk during quiet periods, but seems to have a big impact during a financial crisis. Banks demonstrating more aggressive earnings management prior to 2007 exhibit substantially higher stock market risk once the financial crisis begins as measured by the incidence of large weekly stock price “crashes” as well as by the pattern of full‐year returns. Stock price crashes also predict future deterioration in operating performance. Bank regulators may therefore interpret them as early warning signs of impending problems.
Genes involved in lipopolysaccharide production and symbiosis are clustered on the chromosome of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar viciae VF39

Four mutants of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar viciae VF39 altered in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) synthesis were isolated upon random Tn5 mutagenesis. These mutants produced matt colonies on TY medium and showed autoagglutination and loss of motility. On sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels, they lacked a slow-migrating carbohydrate band, corresponding to the complete LPS (LPSI). All four mutants formed small white nodules on Vicia hirsuta. These nodules were infected but showed no nitrogen-fixing activity and senesced prematurely. Three of the mutants were complemented by a wild-type cosmid to synthesis of normal LPS and induction of nitrogen-fixing nodules. By hybridization and in vivo cloning experiments, the mutations were mapped within different EcoRI fragments which could be localized on the VF39 chromosome. Cross-complementation analyses revealed that the three mutants were affected in different transcriptional units. The results indicate that a cluster of genes necessary for LPSI production and symbiotic efficiency is located within a defined region of 20 kilobases on the R. leguminosarum bv. viciae chromosome.
Presentation and outcomes among patients with isolated myeloid sarcoma: a Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database analysis

Abstract Isolated myeloid sarcoma (MS) is a rare extramedullary presentation of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Little is known about MS outcomes due to its rarity. A population-based analysis of MS using the Survival, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database was performed. We identified 345 patients, aged 15 or older, diagnosed with isolated MS between 1973 and 2010. Overall survival (OS) was calculated and compared between MS and non-MS AML using the log-rank test. Survival was also evaluated based upon the primary site of disease presentation. The 3-year survival rate for MS (0.319; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.267–0.371) was greater than for non-MS AML (0.172; 95% CI: 0.168–0.175). There was variation in survival based on the site of involvement. The survival rates for isolated MS involving the pelvis/genitourinary organs, eyes/gonads and gastrointestinal mucosa appeared to be slightly improved when compared to primary sites of soft tissues, lymphatic/hematopoietic tissues or nervous system.
Effects of Adenosine and Verapamil on Anatomic No-Reflow in a Rabbit Model of Coronary Artery Occlusion and Reperfusion

Abstract: Adenosine and verapamil have successfully been used in the treatment of clinical no-reflow after direct angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction. However, their effects on anatomic perfusion defects in experimental myocardial ischemia/reperfusion are unknown. Thus the area of no-reflow (ANR), visualized after in-vivo staining of perfused tissue by thioflavin S (% of the risk area, RA, blue dye), and regional myocardial blood flow (radioactive microspheres) were determined in anesthetized open-chest rabbits after 30 minutes of occlusion and 120 minutes of reperfusion. Adenosine, administered intravenously during the entire reperfusion period, reduced vascular resistance in the RA at 120 minutes of reperfusion by 39% compared with controls (P < 0.053). However, in every animal, sizable perfusion defects developed and the ANR with adenosine treatment (29 ± 3%) was not significantly different from saline controls (35 ± 6%). Intravenous verapamil, given during the entire reperfusion period, reduced vascular resistance in the RA by 54% at 120 minutes of reperfusion (P < 0.03). But perfusion defects, visible in every animal, were similar in size between verapamil (38 ± 5%) and saline (35 ± 6%) groups. Therefore, neither treatment prevented or attenuated perfusion defects after ischemia/reperfusion despite reducing vascular resistance in the RA; hence vasospasm is not a major contributor to microvascular perfusion defects in this model.
Phase II study of capecitabine, oxaliplatin, and erlotinib in previously treated patients with metastastic colorectal cancer.

PURPOSE To investigate the combination of erlotinib, capecitabine, and oxaliplatin in patients who were previously treated for metastatic colorectal cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients were eligible if they had metastatic colorectal cancer that progressed, were intolerant to first-line chemotherapy, or had disease recurrence within 1 year of adjuvant therapy for early-stage disease. Each 21-day cycle consisted of daily oral erlotinib at 150 mg, oral capecitabine at 1,000 mg/m2 (reduced to 750 mg/m2 after the first 13 patients) twice a day on days 1 to 14, and intravenous oxaliplatin at 130 mg/m2 on day 1. RESULTS Thirty-two patients were enrolled onto this phase II study. By intention-to-treat analyses, eight patients (25%) experienced a partial response and 14 patients (44%) had stable disease for at least 12 weeks. The median progression-free survival was 5.4 months and the median overall survival was 14.7 months. These results were essentially unchanged when limited to the cohort of patients (78%) who received prior irinotecan for metastatic colorectal cancer. Most common grade 3 to 4 toxicities included diarrhea (38%), nausea/emesis (19%), fatigue (16%), dehydration (16%), and dermatitis (13%); grade 3 or 4 toxicities were reduced with a lower starting dose of capecitabine. CONCLUSION The combination of capecitabine, oxaliplatin, and erlotinib seems to have promising activity against metastatic colorectal cancer in patients who received prior chemotherapy, with a relatively higher response rate and progression-free survival compared with previous reports of either infusional FU, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin or capecitabine and oxaliplatin in similar patient populations.
An Empirical Study on Deoptimization in the Graal Compiler

Managed language platforms such as the Java Virtual Machine or the Common Language Runtime rely on a dynamic compiler to achieve high performance. Besides making optimization decisions based on the actual program execution and the underlying hardware platform, a dynamic compiler is also in an ideal position to perform speculative optimizations. However, these tend to increase the compilation costs, because unsuccessful speculations trigger deoptimization and recompilation of the affected parts of the program, wasting previous work. Even though speculative optimizations are widely used, the costs of these optimizations in terms of extra compilation work has not been previously studied. In this paper, we analyze the behavior of the Graal dynamic compiler integrated in Oracle's HotSpot Virtual Machine. We focus on situations which cause program execution to switch from machine code to the interpreter, and compare application performance using three different deoptimization strategies which influence the amount of extra compilation work done by Graal. Using an adaptive deoptimization strategy, we managed to improve the average start-up performance of benchmarks from the DaCapo, ScalaBench, and Octane benchmark suites, mostly by avoiding wasted compilation work. On a single-core system, we observed an average speed-up of 6.4% for the DaCapo and ScalaBench workloads, and a speed-up of 5.1% for the Octane workloads; the improvement decreases with an increasing number of available CPU cores. We also find that the choice of a deoptimization strategy has negligible impact on steady-state performance. This indicates that the cost of speculation matters mainly during start-up, where it can disturb the delicate balance between executing the program and the compiler, but is quickly amortized in steady state.
Lp Norm Iterative Sparse Solution for EEG Source Localization

How to localize the neural electric activities effectively and precisely from the scalp EEG recordings is a critical issue for clinical neurology and cognitive neuroscience. In this paper, based on the spatial sparse assumption of brain activities, proposed is a novel iterative EEG source imaging algorithm, Lp norm iterative sparse solution (LPISS). In LPISS, the lp(ples1) norm constraint for sparse solution is integrated into the iterative weighted minimum norm solution of the underdetermined EEG inverse problem, and it is the constraint and the iteratively renewed weight that forces the inverse problem to converge to a sparse solution effectively. The conducted simulation studies with comparison to LORETA and FOCUSS for various dipoles configurations confirmed the validation of LPISS for sparse EEG source localization. Finally, LPISS was applied to a real evoked potential collected in a study of inhibition of return (IOR), and the result was consistent with the previously suggested activated areas involved in an IOR process
Ordered mutation testing

Mutation Analysis is an established technique for test data generation and source code testing. Developed systems have concentrated on applying some or all of the possible mutant operators (perturbations) to the submitted code. Recent work tackled the scheduling of mutant program execution on vector processors or a Hypercube as a cost reduction scheme. This paper discusses a logical mechanism of impact driven testing in order to acheive full mutation testing with reduced overheads regardless of implementation. Guiding the mutant generation by block impact together with mutant operator heirarchies and a test data coverage scheme enable an efficient tool to be constructed.