Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Post-seismic earthquake deformation monitoring in Peninsular Malaysia using global positioning system

Sundaland, which covers Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, has moved towards the east before the Aceh earthquake, but shortly after the earthquake, the motion of most of Sundaland was towards the west. The main objective of this study is to monitor the post-seismic motion of Peninsular Malaysia due to the previous earthquakes such as Aceh 2004, Nias 2005 and Bengkulu 2007. Seventy eight (78) Malaysia Real Time Kinematic Network (MyRTKnet) and thirty (30) Global Positioning System (GPS) stations worldwide were used in this study. The Bernese 5.0 software with double difference strategy was used to process all the data. The results show that the west-northwest part has the worse deformation in comparison to the other parts. Generally, from 2004 until 2005 Peninsular Malaysia moved towards west-southwest by 8.2 cm per year but in 2006, there was a slight change in the motion. From 2006 until 2008, the southern part has moved towards east-southeast by 0.23 cm per year and the northern part moved towards west-southwest by 5.9 cm per year. These motions have caused different displacements between both northern and southern parts, and may have triggered local faults movement. The other objective of this study is to identify whether the Raub-Bentong suture had any seismic activity. In 2007 until 2009, several tremors were recorded in Bukit Tinggi, Kuala Pilah, and Jerantut areas. These tremors are believed as indications of fault movement in Bukit Tinggi, Kuala Lumpur or Raub-Bentong. The determination of fault movement in this study was based on selected MyRTKnet baselines analysis. The technique is unable to identify the fault movement due to the fact that MyRTKnet stations are sparse and are far away from the fault lines. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out GPS field campaign along Bukit Tinggi and Kuala Lumpur faults in the future. Besides that, continuous post-seismic monitoring is needed to get a better picture of the seismic cycle in Peninsular Malaysia.
The Evolution of Job Stability in Canada: Trends and Comparisons with U.S. Results

Using data from the 1976-2001 Canadian Labour Force Survey, we examine the stability of currently held jobs and find no period-long drop in job stability. However, job stability declined across the 1980s and rose across the 1990s for workers with less than one year of tenure. When 1987 and 1995 are compared, it can be seen that job stability was steady in Canada but fell slightly in the United States, with the difference concentrated among medium tenured workers. We suggest that this difference was due to a slower recovery in Canada in the 1990s, which caused Canadian workers to be less mobile.
Determinants of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure in Polish Organisations

Background. Studies suggest, that organisations tend to a selective disclosure of non-financial information, which may depend on the organisations characteristics, general and internal contextual factors. Furthermore it is believed that CSR disclosure is country-variant. Research aims. Therefore the main goal of this paper is to verify, whether selected variables: the size of the company, the issue of operating on foreign markets and financial performance influence the detail of disclosed non-financial information. Methodology. For this purpose CATI research with 102 companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange has been conducted. The obtained results have been analysed using V Cramer contingency measure. Key findings. The conducted research and analysis have shown that in most cases a statistically significant correlation between the analysed variables could not been determined. A statistically important correlation has been determined between i.e. the size of the company and the disclosure of social and employee related information towards internal stakeholders, between operating on foreign markets and the disclosure of social and employee related information towards external stakeholders and between financial performance and disclosure towards external stakeholders in regards to three dimensions.
Determinants of corporate social responsibility reporting and external assurance: evidence from Italian-listed companies

The purpose of this research is to explore the factors associated with the decision of Italian listed companies to produce a corporate social responsibility (CSR) report and to adopt assurance services. Furthermore, we intend to analyse whether an association exists between the type of assurance provider and the nature of the assurance services. Then we want to verify if there is an association between the provider and some key qualitative characteristics of assurance statements. We find that industrial affiliation and company size affect both the production of CSR reports and the adoption of assurance services. Companies that have social and environmental certification are more likely to produce CSR reports. There is a positive association between the GRI application level and the assurance of CSR reports. Our analysis emphasises that being a Big 4 provider is positively associated with the standard used and with the conclusions expressed in a negative form, and it is negatively associated with the recommendations provided.
American and Exotic Option Pricing with Jump Diffusions and Other Lévy Processes

In general, no analytical formulas exist for pricing discretely monitored exotic options, even when a geometric Brownian motion governs the risk-neutral underlying. While specialized numerical algorithms exist for pricing particular contracts, few can be applied universally with consistent success and with general Lévy dynamics. This paper develops a general methodology for pricing early exercise and exotic financial options by extending the recently developed PROJ method. We are able to efficiently obtain accurate values for complex products including Bermudan/American options, Bermudan barrier options, survival probabilities and credit default swaps by value recursion, European barrier and lookback/hindsight options by density recursion, and arithmetic Asian options by characteristic function recursion. This paper presents a unified approach to tackling these and related problems. Algorithms are provided for each option type, along with a demonstration of convergence. We also provide a large set of reference prices for exotic, American and European options under Black-Scholes-Merton, Normal Inverse Gaussian, Kou’s double exponential jump diffusion, Variance Gamma, KoBoL/CGMY and Merton’s jump diffusion models.
“Inclusive Growth”: A Lacanian Reading

Until the 1970s, mainstream development theory and the practice of international economic organizations put total faith in a trickle-down approach, refusing to conceive any special policy for those excluded from the gains of modern development. Gradually, both theory and practice are veering toward the mainstream’s “inclusive growth. ” The authors of World of the Third and Global Capitalism conceptualize exclusion and subsequent inclusion as two sides of the same coin that can be theorized through the Lacanian couple of foreclosure/foregrounding. The authors propose a practice of counterhegemony grounded in ethical principles born of the encounter of the working class of the first world and the modes of being and producing of the third world, which are excluded from hegemonic discourse. Many powerful insights are provided by this Lacanian reading of exclusion/inclusion in development theory and practice, but this reading cannot accommodate the role of lived experience and may generate another “end of history. ”
Natural tracer profiles across argillaceous formations: The CLAYTRAC project.

Disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in engineered facilities, or repositories, located deep underground in suitable geological formations is being developed worldwide as the reference solution to protect humans and the environment both now and in the future. An important aspect of assessing the long-term safety of deep geological disposal is developing a comprehensive understanding of the geological environment in order to define the initial conditions for the disposal system as well as to provide a sound scientific basis for projecting its future evolution. The transport pathways and mechanisms by which contaminants could migrate in the surrounding host rock are key elements in any safety case. Relevant experiments in laboratories or underground test facilities can provide important information, but the challenge remains in being able to extrapolate the results to the spatial and temporal scales required for performance assessment, which are typically tens to hundreds of metres and from thousands to beyond a million years into the future. Profiles of natural tracers dissolved in pore water of argillaceous rock formations can be considered as large-scale and long-term natural experiments which enable the transport properties to be characterised.
Dinoflagellate cysts and Ammonoids from Upper Cretaceous sediments of the Pemberger Formation (Krappfeld, Carinthia, Austria)

Dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts) and acritarchs are described for the first time from the Pemberger Formation of the Gosau Group (Krappfeld, Carinthia, Austria). The dinoflagellate cyst assemblage is quite diverse and well preserved and compositionally similar to those described from Upper Cretaceous strata in northern Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic. Many stratigraphically significant taxa are documented, among them Alisogymnium nucleases, Cannosphaeropsis utinensis, Florentinia mayii, Isabelidinium cooksoniae and Xenascus ceratioides. They support a Campanian to Maastrichtian age. Ammonoids observed in this study are instead rare within the investigated section: although several taxa were previously described to occur in this area, only Pachydiscus (Pachydiscus) haldemsis and some indeterminable fragments were found in the present study.
Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery

Decision-analytic techniques were used to evaluate the choice between an aortocoronary bypass operation and medical management in a set of hypothetical patients with coronary artery disease. The decision framework incorporates variables believed to have an important bearing on the choice of treatment. Probability estimates were obtained from two cardiologists and one cardiac surgeon. Patient preferences for the trade-off between years of survival and the quality of life as reflected by the severity of angina pectoris were made explicit by assigning utility values to alternative health outcomes. The results are expressed in terms of quality-adjusted years of life expectancy. Decision analysis favored operation for 13 of the 14 hypothetical patients, including patients with one- and two-vessel disease. The one patient for whom medical treatment was preferred had mild angina pectoris, severe left ventricular dysfunction, and a poor prognosis regardless of therapeutic modality. The results are sensitive to changes in the probability of long-term survival, but not to changes in operative mortality rates. In five patients, the physicians' clinical judgments favored medical treatment, whereas their decision-analysis-derived estimates of survival favored operation. Possible explanations for these discrepancies are discussed. A simplified cost-effectiveness analysis for patients in whom surgery was the optimal treatment indicated costs ranging from $1,500 to $250,000 per year of life gained and from $1,500 to $32,000 per quality-adjusted year of life gained.
Separation of Ownership and Control : Delegation as a Commitment Device November 18

This paper provides a theoretical model for explaining the separation of ownership and control in firms. An entrepreneur hires a worker for providing effort to complete a project. The worker’s effort determines the probability that the project is completed on time, but the worker receives private benefits for every period she is employed. We show that hiring a manager on a short-term contract may increase firm value and we identify the conditions under which separation of ownership and control is optimal.
Uncertainty Aversion, Robust Control And Asset Holdings With A Stochastic Investment Opportunity Set

We formulate the portfolio choice problem as a robust control problem under uncertainty or ambiguity aversion. By considering a stochastic investment opportunity set, we derive optimal robust portfolio rules in the cases of one and two risky assets. With two risky assets and ambiguity structure determined by economy-wide factors, we show that the robust portfolio rule could lead to an increase in the total holdings of risky assets as compared to the holdings under the Merton rule, which is the standard risk aversion case. This result goes against the general belief that uncertainty aversion and robust control methods lead to conservative behavior. We also show that the investor is more likely to increase the holdings of the asset for which there is no ambiguity, and reduce the holdings of the asset for which there is ambiguity, a result that might provide an explanation for the home bias puzzle.
Effects of lifestyle activity vs structured aerobic exercise in obese women: a randomized trial.

CONTEXT Physical inactivity contributes to weight gain, but only 22% of Americans are regularly active. OBJECTIVE To examine short- and long-term changes in weight, body composition, and cardiovascular risk profiles produced by diet combined with either structured aerobic exercise or moderate-intensity lifestyle activity. DESIGN Sixteen-week randomized controlled trial with 1-year follow-up, conducted from August 1995 to December 1996. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING Forty obese women (mean body mass index [weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters], 32.9 kg/m2; mean weight, 89.2 kg) with a mean age of 42.9 years (range, 21-60 years) seen in a university-based weight management program. INTERVENTIONS Structured aerobic exercise or moderate lifestyle activity; low-fat diet of about 1200 kcal/d. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Changes in body weight, body composition, cardiovascular risk profiles, and physical fitness at 16 weeks and at 1 year. RESULTS Mean (SD) weight losses during the 16-week treatment program were 8.3 (3.8) kg for the aerobic group and 7.9 (4.2) kg for the lifestyle group (within groups, P<.001; between groups, P = .08). The aerobic group lost significantly less fat-free mass (0.5 [1.3] kg) than the lifestyle group (1.4 [1.3] kg; P = .03). During the 1-year follow-up, the aerobic group regained 1.6 [5.5] kg, while the lifestyle group regained 0.08 (4.6) kg. At week 16, serum triglyceride levels and total cholesterol levels were reduced significantly (P<.001) from baseline (16.3% and 10.1% reductions, respectively) but did not differ significantly between groups and were not different from baseline or between groups at week 68. CONCLUSIONS A program of diet plus lifestyle activity may offer similar health benefits and be a suitable alternative to diet plus structured aerobic activity for obese women.
Space use by roe deer in a fragmented landscape some preliminary results

Les patrons d'utilisation de l'espace par le chevreuil sont bien connus, a la fois dans l'habitat forestier et dans la plaine agricole. Mais les strategies d'utilisation de l'espace dans des paysages fragmentes sont a peu pres inconnues. Dans cet article nous presentons les premiers resultats sur les domaines vitaux de neuf chevreuils suivis par radiotracking dans un paysage de coteaux agricoles ou les bois representent un habitat fragmente. Captures sur le meme site, ces animaux ont presente deux modes differents d'occupation de l'espace en fonction de l'ambiance plus ou moins forestiere du lieu. Les domaines vitaux les plus forestiers etaient de petite dimension et l'ecart entre leurs barycentres successifs montrait une forte stabilite spatiale. Les deux chevreuils installes en milieu agricole avaient des domaines tres vastes et mobiles dans le temps, dont la superficie dependait de la frequence et de la dispersion des bosquets. La surface absolue d'habitat boise incluse dans un domaine ne differait pas entre les animaux forestiers et ceux de la matrice agricole. Nos resultats suggerent que le chevreuil a besoin d'une certaine surface d'habitat boise pour l'alimentation, le repos et des activites sociales. Ainsi la fragmentation de la foret aurait des consequences marquees sur le patron d'utilisation de l'espace par les individus et probablement sur la dynamique de la population a l'echelle du paysage.
Construction of height and weight growth charts for Iran, with an investigation of appropriate statistical methods.

Data on weights and heights of children 2-18 years old in Iran were obtained in a National Health Survey of families in 1990-2, with a sampling ratio of 1 in 1000. In total 10660 households were surveyed in random cluster samples of households in all 24 provinces of Iran. The data are hierarchically structured with children in families, families in clusters and clusters in provinces. The main aim of the thesis is to use the survey data on height and weight to model growth pattern of children and adolescents in Iran and the construction of growth charts for height and weight. After removing the outliers in the data by multivariate analysis, regional variation in growth patterns were studied by constructing multilevel models. The results of these analyses showed that the data from Urban Tehran can be used as a reasonable baseline for the country, and further investigations of distributions of different centiles confirmed this. Three recently developed techniques of chart construction were compared with a chart constructed from a multilevel model to see which method produces centiles which fit the data best. the data structure has little effect on estimates of population centiles. The HRY method using spline procedure is shown to produce the best fit, and this technique has been used to construct the growth charts of weight and height for Iranian boys and girls. Checks confirm that all these curves fit the data well. However, growth of rural children differs significantly from that of children in urban Iran; a practical solution enabling one set of charts to be used for both groups of children is proposed. In view of the difference between the Tehran charts and the NCHS reference centiles, it is concluded that charts presented here should be adopted as the new reference curves for children in Iran.
A randomized phase II trial of erlotinib vs. S-1 as a third- or fourth-line therapy for patients with wild-type EGFR non-small cell lung cancer (HOT1002)

Title A randomized phase II trial of erlotinib vs. S-1 as a thirdor fourth-line therapy for patients with wild-type EGFR nonsmall cell lung cancer (HOT1002) Author(s) Ikezawa, Yasuyuki; Asahina, Hajime; Oizumi, Satoshi; Watanabe, Masahiro; Takamura, Kei; Kawai, Yasutaka; Yamada, Noriyuki; Harada, Toshiyuki; Kinoshita, Ichiro; Fujita, Yuka; Miyauchi, Eisaku; Ogi, Takahiro; Amano, Toraji; Furuta, Megumi; Sakakibara-Konishi, Jun; Nishihara, Hiroshi; Dosaka-Akita, Hirotoshi; Isobe, Hiroshi; Nishimura, Masaharu Citation Cancer chemotherapy and pharmacology, 80(5), 955-963 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00280-017-3432-4 Issue Date 2017-11
State Regulation of Homeschooling and Homeschoolers’ SAT Scores

The professoriate is a highly individualized endeavor where scholars work independently on projects of their choosing. High stakes issues of retentions and promotions require new faculty members to document a public expertise in scholarship. In one sense, academics are scholarly gamesmen (Maccoby 1976) who attempt to create a scholarly presence while interpreting their colleagues’ patterns of actions and motivations. Such interpretations are created in an environment of "hollowed collegiality" (Massey, Wilger, and Colbeck, 1994) where superficial evidence of active participation often masquerades as community. For many new faculty members, connecting their work to a larger community of scholars can be an intimidating and lonely pursuit.
Myopia: structural and functional correlates

Ocular dimensions are widely recognised as key variants of refractive error. Previously, accurate depiction of eye shape in vivo was largely restricted by limitations in the imaging techniques available. This thesis describes unique applications of the recently introduced 3-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach to evaluate human eye shape in a group of young adult subjects (n=76) with a range of ametropia (MSE= -19.76 to +4.38D). Specific MRI derived parameters of ocular shape are then correlated with measures of visual function. Key findings include the significant homogeneity of ocular volume in the anterior eye for a range of refractive errors, whilst significant volume changes occur in the posterior eye as a function of ametropia. Anterior vs. posterior eye differences have also been shown through evaluations of equivalent spherical radius; the posterior 25% cap of the eye was shown to be relatively steeper in myopes compared to emmetropes. Further analyses showed differences in retinal quadrant profiles; assessments of the maximum distance from the retinal surface to the presumed visual axes showed exaggerated growth of the temporal quadrant in myopic eyes. Comparisons of retinal contour values derived from transformation of peripheral refraction data were made with MRI; flatter retinal curvature values were noted when using the MRI technique. A distinctive feature of this work is the evaluation of the relationship between ocular structure and visual function. Multiple aspects of visual function were evaluated through several vehicles: multifocal electroretinogram testing, visual field sensitivity testing, and the use of psychophysical methods to determine ganglion cell density. The results show that many quadrantic structural and functional variations exist. In general, the data could not demonstrate a significant correlation between visual function and associated measures of ocular conformation either within or between myopic and emmetropic groups.
DEPARTAMENTO DE ECONOMÍA DOCUMENTO DE TRABAJO “ Intergovernmental Transfers and Fiscal Behavior : Insurance versus Aggregate Discipline ”

This paper evaluates the trade-off between the advantages of risk sharing and the perils of common pool problems in federal fiscal arrangements. Under the assumption of asymmetric information we evaluate two alternative regimes of intergovernmental transfers. In one regime, the central government pre-commits to a certain level of transfers that compensate vertical fiscal imbalances and provide some limited ex-ante insurance In the other regime, it accommodates ex-post the fiscal needs of the different provinces In this second case, full-insurance results, but the economy is subject to a tragedy of the fiscal commons, with excessive subnational spending, insufficient local taxation, and reduced production of federal public goods We find the range of parameters for which one or the other institutional regime will be preferable. The result is a fiscal-federalism version of the usual trade off between rules and discretion. JEL H71,D82,D81