Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fundamentals, Derivatives Market Information and Oil Price Volatility

We analyze empirically what drives market expectations of crude oil price volatility. Between 2000 and 2014, we investigate the links between the term structure of oil option‐implied volatilities (IVs) and global macroeconomic conditions, physical market fundamentals (OPEC surplus output capacity, oil storage) and economy‐wide financial conditions (captured by the equity VIX). The VIX and the constraints affecting oil output or inventories have statistically and economically significant explanatory power for the short‐dated oil IVs and for the WTI IV term structure. After controlling for the VIX, in contrast, macroeconomic variables and a measure of speculative activity based on public data are both insignificant. Our model, which outperforms a benchmark ARIMA specification both in and out of sample, suggests an approach for studying volatility in asset markets that behave as satellites to other markets. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Jrl Fut Mark 36:317–344, 2016
Tracking analysis of the ε-NSRLMMN algorithm

In this work, expressions for the tracking excess-mean-square error (EMSE) and optimum step-size of the ε-normalized sign regressor least mean mixed-norm (NSRLMMN) adaptive algorithm are derived. Finally, extensive simulation results performed are found to corroborate very closely with the theoretical results for correlated Gaussian data.
Technical Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Experience

DR. DYLAN JONES-EVANS IS European Union postdoctoral research fellow at the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, University College, Dublin, Ireland. The increasing contribution of technology- based small firms to both employment and innovation within high-technology industries has led to considerable interest in their growth and development, especially in the identification of factors which may influenceithe future management and strategy of these ventures. Evidence from qualitative interviews with thirty-eight technical entrepreneurs suggests that three main factors affect the strategy of the small technology-based firm, namely the age of the venture, the novelty of the technology used within the venture, and the previous management and technical competence of the entrepreneur. In terms of the future strategy of their businesses, approximately half of the entrepreneurs questioned were reluctant to grow their businesses beyond a certain size, preferring instead to remain small. Although age and size of the firm had minimal influence on growth orientation, the majority of technical entrepreneurs possessing a high degree of technical competence and those using radical technologies in their ventures demonstrated a major reluctance to grow their businesses beyond a certain size. This result, if confirmed by a larger, more comprehensive study, may have considerable implications with regard to policy towards small technology-based firms.
Metagenomic analysis reveals changes of the Drosophila suzukii microbiota in the newly colonized regions

The spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is a highly polyphagous pest of a wide variety of wild or cultivated berry and stone fruit. Originating from Southeast Asia, it has recently invaded a wide range of regions in Europe and North America. It is well known that insect microbiotas may significantly influence several aspects of the host biology and play an important role in invasive species introduction into new areas. However, in spite of the great economic importance of D. suzukii, a limited attention has been given so far to its microbiota. In this study, we present the first in‐depth characterization of gut bacterial diversity from field (native and invasive range) and lab‐reared populations of this insect. The gut bacterial communities of field insects were dominated, regardless of their origin, by 2 families of the phylum Proteobacteria: Acetobacteraceae and Enterobacteriaceae, while Firmicutes, mainly represented by the family Staphylococcaceae, prevailed in lab‐reared population. Locality was the most significant factor in shaping the microbiota of wild flies. Moreover, a negative correlation between diversity and abundance of Enterobacteriaceae and the time elapsed since the establishment of D. suzukii in a new region was observed. Altogether our results indicate that habitat, food resources as well as the colonization phase of a new region contribute to shape the bacterial communities of the invasive species which, in turn, by evolving more quickly, could influence host adaptation in a new environment.
Sociodemographic moderators of relations of neighborhood safety to physical activity.

PURPOSE This study aimed to investigate gender, race/ethnicity, education, and income as moderators of relations of perceived neighborhood crime, pedestrian, and traffic safety to physical activity. METHODS Participants were from two samples: adults (N = 2199, age = 25-65 yr) and older adults (N = 718, age = 66+ yr) from high- and low-walkable neighborhoods in the Washington, DC, and Seattle, Washington, areas. Neighborhood safety and transportation and leisure walking were assessed via survey, and moderate to vigorous physical activity was assessed using accelerometers. Sociodemographic moderators were investigated using interaction terms and follow-up within-group tests from mixed-effects regression models. RESULTS Overall direct effects of safety on physical activity were not found, with one exception. Seven interactions were found in each sample. Interactions were found for all physical activity outcomes, although total moderate to vigorous physical activity was involved in more interactions in adults than older adults. Half of the interactions revealed significant positive relations of pedestrian and traffic safety to physical activity in the more affluent/advantaged group (i.e., high education, high income, and non-Hispanic white) and null associations in the less affluent/advantaged group. Race/ethnicity was a moderator only in older adults. One-third of the interactions involved gender; half of these involved crime safety. Interactions involving crime safety showed nonsignificant positive trends in the more affluent/advantaged group and women and nonsignificant negative trends in the less affluent/advantaged group and men. CONCLUSIONS Sociodemographic moderators of neighborhood safety explained some of the variation in adults' and older adults' physical activity. Patterns suggested positive associations between safety and physical activity in participants with more affluent/advantaged sociodemographic characteristics, although some patterns were inconsistent, particularly for gender. More refined conceptualizations and measures of safety are needed to understand if and how these constructs influence physical activity.
Approximate solutions for the maximum benefit chinese postman problem

The Maximum Benefit Chinese Postman Problem (MBCPP) is an interesting and practical generalization of the classical Chinese Postman Problem, which has many real-world applications. Each arc on the MBCPP network is associated with a service cost for the traversal with service, a deadhead cost for the traversal with no service, and a set of benefits. Each time an arc is traversed, a benefit is generated. The objective of the MBCPP is to find a postman tour traversing a selected set of arcs with the total net benefit maximized. Such a generalization reflects real-world situations more closely. The MBCPP has been shown to be more complicated than the Rural Postman Problem, which is an NP-hard problem. Therefore, it is difficult to find polynomial-time bounded algorithms to solve the problem exactly. In this paper, we first review an existing exact solution procedure, and introduce several heuristic algorithms including the Branch-Scan algorithm, the Connection algorithm with various connection strategies, and the Directed Tree algorithm, to solve the MBCPP approximately. We also apply one-opt, two-opt, component exchange, and component-drop procedures to improve the solutions. The proposed algorithms are tested and compared. Extensive computational results are provided and analysed.
Epidemiology of pterygium in Victoria, Australia

AIM To describe the prevalence of and risk factors for pterygium in a population based sample of residents of the Australian state of Victoria who were aged 40 years and older. METHODS The strata comprised nine randomly selected clusters from the Melbourne statistical division, 14 nursing homes randomly selected from the nursing homes within a 5 kilometre radius of the nine Melbourne clusters, and four randomly selected clusters from rural Victoria. Pterygium was measured in millimetres from the tip to the middle of the base. During an interview, people were queried about previous ocular surgery, including surgical removal of pterygium, and their lifetime exposure to sunlight. RESULTS 5147 people participated. They ranged in age from 40 to 101 years and 2850 (55.4%) were female. Only one person in the Melbourne cohort reported previous pterygium surgery, and seven rural residents reported previous surgery; this information was unavailable for the nursing home residents. Pterygium was present upon clinical examination in 39 (1.2%) of the 3229 Melbourne residents who had the clinical examination, six (1.7%) of the nursing home residents, and 96 (6.7%) of the rural residents. The overall weighted population rate in the population was 2.83% (95% CL 2.35, 3.31). The independent risk factors for pterygium were found to be age (OR=1.23, 95% CL=1.06, 1.44), male sex (OR=2.02, 95% CL=1.35, 3.03), rural residence (OR=5.28, 95% CL=3.56, 7.84), and lifetime ocular sun exposure (OR=1.63, 95% CL=1.18, 2.25). The attributable risk of sunlight and pterygium was 43.6% (95% CL=42.7, 44.6). The result was the same when ocular UV-B exposure was substituted in the model for broad band sun exposure. CONCLUSION Pterygium is a significant public health problem in rural areas, primarily as a result of ocular sun exposure.
Non-convulsive status epilepticus.

During the same year, 6584 cases of mumps were reported to the health authorities. Although one considers many unreported and subclinical infections, the occurrence of six cases of deafness due to mumps seems significantly higher than the assumed rate of 1/20 000 infections. ' According to Sullivan et al,2 about 2-5% of patients with mumps may require treatment in hospital; considering this possible rate of admission the incidence of severe hearing loss associated with mumps may have been as high as 1/3400 cases of clinical mumps. Two groups of patients with deafness related to infection with mumps may have been missed by the study of Hall and Richards: firstly, cases of mumps that were not apparent, which are considered to be in the range of 30-40% of all infections with mumps.3 In these cases, it is impossible to obtain a history of parotitis, but, as shown by our third patient, severe hearing loss may, none the less, occur. Secondly, there are rare cases of bilateral hearing loss caused by infection with mumps.4 Therefore, the importance of mumps as a cause of acquired deafness may be greater than usually estimated.
The Effects of Different Parameters in Crosstalk Noise Modeling

This work uses a new model for dealing with crosstalk noise in interconnects of VLSI systems. The model considers self-inductance and mutual inductance of interconnects in 130 nm technology. The peak noise voltage is measured using HSPICE simulations. The effects of spacing, length and driver of victim line are considered. Also this work shows that for interconnects larger than 1mm; there is no need to involve self and mutual inductances in the model.
Gaussia princeps Luciferase as a Reporter for Transcriptional Activity, Protein Secretion, and Protein-Protein Interactions in Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium

ABSTRACT Gaussia princeps luciferase (Gluc) is widely used as a reporter in eukaryotes, but data about its applicability in bacteria are very limited. Here we show that a codon-optimized Gluc gene can be efficiently expressed in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. To test different Gluc variants as transcriptional reporters, we used the siiA promoter of Salmonella pathogenicity island 4 (SPI-4) driving expression of either an episomal or a chromosomally integrated Gluc gene. Most reliable results were obtained from lysates of single-copy Gluc reporter strains. Given the small size, high activity, and cofactor independence of Gluc, it might be especially suited to monitor secretion of bacterial proteins. We demonstrate its usefulness by luminescence detection of fusion proteins of Gluc and C-terminal portions of the SPI-4-encoded, type I-secreted adhesin SiiE in supernatants. The SiiE C-terminal moiety including immunoglobulin (Ig) domain 53 is essential and sufficient for mediating type I-dependent secretion of Gluc. In eukaryotes, protein-protein interaction studies based on split-Gluc protein complementation assays (PCA) could be established. We adapted these methods for use in Salmonella, demonstrating the interaction between the SPI-1-encoded effector SipA and its cognate secretion chaperone InvB. In conclusion, the versatile Gluc can be used to address a variety of biological questions, thus representing a valuable addition to the toolbox of modern molecular biology and microbiology.
Forecasting Political Risk

An applied procedure is preserved in this paper which has been used to forecast some of the political risks ars oil company faces from investment in an overseas developing country, e.g., expropriation, taxation, price and production controls. The procedure makes use of a panel of experts, but requires, their estimates to be formulated in a way that takes explicit account of the precursive conditions for each of the adverse actions that the host country could take. A Bayesian method is used to derive the composite probabilities, for the political risk events under consideration and a Cross-Impact Analysis then provides s means of overall scenario generation.
Agile Walker

The goal of the Agile Walker is to improve the outdoor mobility of healthy elderly people with some mobility limitations. It is a newly developed, all-terrain walker, equipped with an electric drive system and speed control that can assists elderly people to walk outdoors or to hike. The walker has a unique product design with an attractive look that will appeal to "active-agers" population. This paper describes product design requirements and the development process of the Agile Walker, its features and some preliminary testing results.
Credit in the Production Organization of the Firm

It is argued that the equilibrium conditions traditionally used by economists must be modified to provide criteria for optima useful to the firm. Important modifications are associated with liquidity attributes of the firm organization. Credit, defined as borrowing capacity, constitutes an important source of liquidity. Accordingly, borrowing generates a cost from loss of liquidity as well as from interest charges on loans. Modifications are suggested in the relevant optimizing criteria relating to the firm to account for liquidity losses associated with borrowing. Finally, the modifications are reflected in models and observational techniques suggested to make the conceptual notions operationally useful.
Cysteines Introduced into Extracellular Loops 1 and 4 of Human P-Glycoprotein That Are Close Only in the Open Conformation Spontaneously Form a Disulfide Bond That Inhibits Drug Efflux and ATPase Activity*

Background: P-glycoprotein (P-gp) may alternate between the inward-facing (open) or outward-facing (closed) conformations during the reaction cycle. Results: Cysteines introduced into extracellular loops 1 and 4 cross-linked spontaneously and inhibited drug efflux and ATPase activity. Conclusion: P-gp activity was inhibited when P-gp was trapped in an open conformation. Significance: P-gp can be blocked by multiple mechanisms involving extracellular loops. P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is an ATP-binding cassette drug pump that protects us from toxic compounds and confers multidrug resistance. The protein is organized into two halves. The halves contain a transmembrane domain (TMD) with six transmembrane segments and a nucleotide-binding domain (NBD). The drug- and ATP-binding sites reside at the TMD1/TMD2 and NBD1/NBD2 interfaces, respectively. ATP-dependent drug efflux involves changes between the open inward-facing (NBDs apart, extracellular loops (ECLs) close together) and the closed outward-facing (NBDs close together, ECLs apart) conformations. It is controversial, however, whether the open conformation only exists transiently in intact cells because of the presence of high levels of ATP. To test for the presence of an open conformation in intact cells, reporter cysteines were placed in extracellular loops 1 (A80C, N half) and 4 (R741C, C half). The rationale was that cysteines A80C/R741C would only come close enough to form a disulfide bond in an open conformation (6.9 Å apart) because they are separated widely (30.4 Å apart) in the closed conformation. It was observed that the mutant A80C/R741C cross-linked spontaneously (>90%) when expressed in cells. In contrast to previous reports showing that trapping P-gp in a closed conformation highly activated ATPase activity, here we show that A80C/R741C cross-linking inhibited ATPase activity and drug efflux. Both activities were restored when the cross-linked mutant was treated with a thiol-reducing agent. The results show that an open conformation can be readily detected in cells and that cross-linking of cysteines placed in ECLs 1 and 4 inhibits activity.
Informative Cluster Sizes for Subcluster‐Level Covariates and Weighted Generalized Estimating Equations

Summary Williamson, Datta, and Satten's (2003, Biometrics 59, 36–42) cluster‐weighted generalized estimating equations (CWGEEs) are effective in adjusting for bias due to informative cluster sizes for cluster‐level covariates. We show that CWGEE may not perform well, however, for covariates that can take different values within a cluster if the numbers of observations at each covariate level are informative. On the other hand, inverse probability of treatment weighting accounts for informative treatment propensity but not for informative cluster size. Motivated by evaluating the effect of a binary exposure in presence of such types of informativeness, we propose several weighted GEE estimators, with weights related to the size of a cluster as well as the distribution of the binary exposure within the cluster. Choice of the weights depends on the population of interest and the nature of the exposure. Through simulation studies, we demonstrate the superior performance of the new estimators compared to existing estimators such as from GEE, CWGEE, and inverse probability of treatment‐weighted GEE. We demonstrate the use of our method using an example examining covariate effects on the risk of dental caries among small children.
A Generalized Nash Solution for Two-Person Bargaining Games with Incomplete Information

The paper extends Nash's theory of two-person bargaining games with fixed threats to bargaining situations with incomplete information. After defining such bargaining situations, a formal bargaining model (bargaining game) will be proposed for them. This bargaining game, regarded as noncooperative game, will be analyzed in terms of a certain class of equilibrium points with special stability properties, to be called "strict" equilibrium points. Finally an axiomatic theory will be developed in order to select a unique solution from the set X of payoff vectors corresponding to such strict equilibrium points (as well as to probability mixtures of the latter). It will be shown that the solution satisfying the axioms proposed in this paper is the point where a certain generalized Nash product is maximized over this set X.
The energy-saving generation dispatching optimization model of wind power and thermal power based on time-of-use price

In order to be able to absorb the abandoned wind, i ncreasing wind-connect amount, the paper study the way of wind power, thermal power joint run and puts forward win d power, thermal power joint run optimization model based on the energy-saving generation dispatching way under the environment of TOU price and the target of mini mizing the cost of coal-fired cost, unit commitment and pollut ion emissions. The numerical example finds, the TOU price can realize the goal of peak load shifting, increasing the electricity demand in the low load and reducing electricity demand in the peak load. The model can increase the amount of wind-connect grid, absorb the abandoned wind, reduce the use of coal-fired units under the enviro nment, increase the average electricity sales price and profit of Power Company. Therefore, the model has significant economical environmental benefits.
The Evidential Reasoning approach for Inference in rule-based systems

In this paper a generic Rule-base Inference Methodology using the Evidential Reasoning approach (RIMER) is proposed. A new knowledge representation scheme in a rule-base is proposed using a belief structure and fuzzy set theory. In this scheme, a rule-base is designed on the basis of the belief structure with belief degrees embedded in all possible consequents to capture vagueness, incompleteness and nonlinear causal relationships, whilst traditional IF-THEN rules can be represented as a special case. In an established rule-base, an input to an antecedent attribute is transformed into a belief distribution. Subsequently, inference in such a rule-base is implemented using the evidential reasoning approach. The scheme is further extended to inference in hierarchical rule bases. A numerical study is provided to illustrate the potential applications of the proposed methodology.
Perceptions of quality teaching and learning as indicators for staff development aimed at experienced academics

In many ways, the Vaal Triangle Technikon is a typical South African institution. Global and local changes have impacted the institution and it has been transformed dramatically during the past decade. Amidst these changes, providing quality teaching and learning remained the key performance area for academic members of staff. Considering these changing contexts, this article wants to explore how an understanding of perceptions of quality teaching and learning can improve staff development aimed at experienced academics at the Vaal Triangle Technikon. Very little academic staff development efforts are directed at experienced academics working at the Vaal Triangle Technikon. If one argues that experienced academics is a resource to the institution because they are able to maintain quality teaching and learning in the midst of accelerated transformation, then more attention must be afforded to their development. It is argued in this article that understanding perceptions of quality teaching and learning held by experienced academics could be used to provide indicators for more relevant academic staff development aimed at this valuable group of staff.
A Comprehensive Review of Literature Associated With the No Child Left Behind Act of 200 1

ii The purpose of this study was to examine available research associated with the No Child Left Behind Act of2001 (NCLB). Since the NCLB passed through Congress in fall of 2001 and was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002, it has generated a wealth of social and political controversy. The law created federally mandated standards and assessment requirements with severe sanctions for the schools that failed in their efforts to reach published benchmarks for improvement. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to examine the historical background of the NCLB, how the policies it established affected school districts, educators, and students, and the changes to the law the new administration would like to establish. Upon conclusion of the literature review, recommendations were made in regard to what schools can do to help their students achieve high academic standards.