Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of Investment Activity: the Case of Greece

• Total investment-to-GDP ratio has plunged since 2007 in Greece, with the real capital stock declining for the first time after 50 consecutive years. A real challenge for the Greek economy is the strengthening of its productive capacity through real capital stock increases. • In this report, we identify factors that affect investment activity in Greece and can boost investment expenditures in the foreseeable future. Our analysis confirms the anticipated positive relationship between investment and output. A sustained 1.0 percentage point increase in per capita output growth would over time lead to a 1.8 percent of GDP increase in the investment rate. • Other key macroeconomic variables that affect the investment rate in Greece are real long-term interest rates, private credit growth and taxation. Our econometric results reveal a negative and statistically significant relation between the investment rate and real interest rate and changes in corporate taxation. In addition, there is a positive and statistically significant relation between the investment rate and changes in credit to firms. • Our econometric model is used to perform projections for the investment rate in Greece in the years ahead. The baseline scenario is consistent with an increase of approximately 7.0 pp, from 12.1% of GDP in 2013 to 19.0% of GDP in 2020. If we take into account the latest forecasts of the Second Economic Adjustment Programme for GDP growth in Greece, then our baseline case is translated into a cumulative increase in the level of investment of roughly 90%, i.e. from €22.1bn in 2013 to €42.0bn (at current prices) in 2019.
Effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy for panic disorder in a specialized unit.

INTRODUCTION The efficacy of cognitive-behavior therapy for panic disorder (PD) with or without agoraphobia is well established, but few data exist on its effectiveness using a group format. The goal of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of group CBT in a sample of PD patients in a specialized unit. METHODS Treatment consisted of nine weekly group sessions. Patients with PD (n=56) were assessed at baseline, after the treatment and in one and three-months followups. RESULTS There were significant reductions in panic/agoraphobia symptoms and related variables between baseline and post-treatment, and these reductions were maintained in three-month follow-up. No differences were observed between those patients who received only CBT and those who received pharmacological treatment as well as CBT. Only initial panic/agoraphobia symptoms were significant predictors of treatment response at the end of treatment (a greater severity was associated with a worse response to CBT). CONCLUSIONS Our results show that group CBT in a specialized unit is effective for PD patients.
Review of relevant literature 2 . 1 . Cost of quality

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between the ability to apply quality cost information and planning and implementing quality improvement activities. The factors leading to increase in application capacity of quality cost information in organizations are also explored in this study. The research model explains how the application capacity of quality cost information affects the planning and implementation of quality improvement activities. The research model and assumptions are examined through “structural equation model” testing approach. The findings of this research show that there is a positive and direct relationship between the application capacity of quality cost information and planning and implementation of quality improvements activities. The data used in the present study were gathered from 102 Iranian companies manufacturing automotive spare parts. Due to the volume of samples, there are limitations in generalizing the study results. This study, through identifying the factors influencing the increase in ability of an organization to apply quality cost information, offers a framework for investment and improvement of these factors with the aim of using quality cost information. Article history : Received: 20 April 2015 Received in revised format: 25 May 2015 Accepted: 15 June 2015 Available online: 10 September 2015
Gender difference and farm level efficiency: Metafrontier production function approach

Gender mainstreaming has, for some time now, been identified as a paramount issue in development of resource-poor societies, and particularly, the women whose access to productive resources is limited due to tradition, culture and other socio-economic constraints. This research paper investigates the influence of Gender in management on the level of efficiency of food crop farms in Ghana. The study specifically: compares the technical efficiency scores of farms with male entrepreneurs and those with female entrepreneurs; examines the determinants of technical efficiency of food crop farmers; and compares technological gaps of farms with male entrepreneurs and those with female entrepreneur. The study involved 90 male food crop farmers and 90 female food crop farmers in the Juaboso District in the Western Region of Ghana. The respondents interviewed were selected using stratified random sampling technique. Stochastic metafrontier production function was used to estimate the efficiency scores in each group and multiple regression models was estimated to verify the determinants of technical efficiency. Survey was conducted with structured interview schedules to collect data. The estimated technical efficiencies indicate that food crop farmers in the Juaboso District of Ghana are, in general, less efficient in their production. Although farms under male farmers management had higher mean value of production figures relative to the female farmers’ farms, the farms under female farmers management were found to be more efficient and also nearer to the potential output defined by the metafrontier production function compared to the farms owned by males. We also found technical efficiency to be influenced significantly by gender, age, household size, years of farming experience, access to credit, education and consultation with extension staff. Key words: Gender of farmers, metafrontier, food crop production.
Actions and habits: the development of behavioural autonomy

The study of animal behaviour has been dominated by two general models. According to the mechanistic stimulus-response model, a particular behaviour is either an innate or an acquired habit which is simply triggered by the appropriate stimulus. By contrast, the teleological model argues that, at least, some activities are purposive actions controlled by the current value of their goals through knowledge about the instrumental relations between the actions and their consequences. The type of control over any particular behaviour can be determined by a goal revaluation procedure. If the animal's performance changes appropriately following an alteration in the value of the goal or reward without further experience of the instrumental relationship, the behaviour should be regarded as a purposive action. On the other hand, the stimulus-response model is more appropriate for an activity whose performance is autonomous of the current value of the goal. By using this assay, we have found that a simple food-rewarded activity is sensitive to reward devaluation in rats following limited but not extended training. The development of this behavioural autonomy with extended training appears to depend not upon the amount of training per se, but rather upon the fact that the animal no longer experiences the correlation between variations in performance and variations in the associated consequences during overtraining. In agreement with this idea, limited exposure to an instrumental relationship that arranges a low correlation between performance and reward rates also favours the development of behavioural autonomy. Thus, the same activity can be either an action or a habit depending upon the type of training it has received.
The breakdown of the shear modulus at the glass transition

The glass transition is described in terms of thermally activated local structural rearrangements, the secondary relaxations of the glass phase. The interaction between these secondary relaxations leads to a much faster and much more dramatic breakdown of the shear modulus than without interaction, thus creating the impression of a separate primary process which in reality does not exist. The model gives a new view on the fragility and the stretching, two puzzling features of the glass transition.
Formalizing architectural connection

As software systems become more complex the overall system structure - or software architecture - becomes a central design problem. An important step towards an engineering discipline of software is a formal basis for describing and analyzing these designs. We present a theory for one aspect of architectural description, the interactions between components. The key idea is to define architectural connectors as explicit semantic entities. These are specified as a collection of protocols that characterize each of the participant roles in an interaction and how these roles interact. We illustrate how this scheme can be used to define a variety of common architectural connectors. We provide a formal semantics and show how this lends to a sound deductive system in which architectural compatibility can be checked in a way analogous to type checking in programming languages. <<ETX>>
The Impact of Gender Norms on Condom Use among HIV-Positive Adults in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Critical to preventing the spread of HIV is promoting condom use among HIV-positive individuals. Previous studies suggest that gender norms (social and cultural constructions of the ways that women and men are expected to behave) may be an important determinant of condom use. However, the relationship has not been evaluated among HIV-positive women and men in South Africa. We examined gender norms and condom use at last sex among 550 partnerships reported by 530 sexually-active HIV-positive women (372) and men (158) who had sought care, but not yet initiated antiretroviral therapy in a high HIV-prevalence rural setting in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa between January 2009 and March 2011. Participants enrolled in the cohort study completed a baseline questionnaire that detailed their socio-demographic characteristics, socio-economic circumstances, religion, HIV testing history and disclosure of HIV status, stigma, social capital, gender norms and self-efficacy. Gender norms did not statistically differ between women and men (p = 0.18). Overall, condoms were used at last sex in 58% of partnerships. Although participants disclosed their HIV status in 66% of the partnerships, 60% did not have knowledge of their partner’s HIV status. In multivariable logistic regression, run separately for each sex, women younger than 26 years with more equitable gender norms were significantly more likely to have used a condom at last sex than those of the same age group with inequitable gender norms (OR = 8.88, 95% CI 2.95–26.75); the association between condom use and gender norms among women aged 26+ years and men of all ages was not statistically significant. Strategies to address gender inequity should be integrated into positive prevention interventions, particularly for younger women, and supported by efforts at a societal level to decrease gender inequality.
ANALOG SIGNAL PROCESSING WITH INTEGRATED CURRENT FEEDBACK

This dissertation thesis deals with the design of n ew functional blocks usable in area of analogue signal processing. The current feedback ci rcuits (which in a suitable configuration can operate in voltage or current mod e) are used here. This allows to achieve very promising results in the systems with a very l ow power supply. The versatility of the circuits will find applications in many areas. The curreent-feedback amplifier is chosen as the main building block for the detailed studies on the analog signal processing circuit design and realisation through various RC configura tions. The thesis deals mainly with the study, synthesis, and design aspects of deriving ne w immittance functions covering inductive and supercapacitive admittances, current co veyors, voltage conveyors, high quality selective filters utilizing the transimpeda nce, integrators and differentiators, nonminimum phase allpass equalizers, and voltage contr olled oscillators. The work deals in detail with these new particular blocks which are d escribed theoretically and evaluated by simulations.
IJCAI-VC-2015 Title : Humanoidly Speaking-- Learning about the world and language with a humanoid friendly robot

This video shows a friendly human-robot interaction using humanoid Nao robots. The speaker teaches the robot some names of objects using speech. This work shows the successful integration of three different projects mainly using Artificial Neural Networks: (1) object recognition with RGB-D (color and depth) sensor, (2) speech to text using an approach that post-processes Google's speech recognition hypotheses, and (3) syntactic interpretation of sentences. The robot is able to identify surfaces in the environment (tables, floor, walls) and establish a relation between these surfaces and the clusters (objects). Multiple viewpoints are easily obtained from the segmented clusters and used for training a Convolutional Neural Network. The features obtained allow the robot to recognise objects and to generalise to unknown viewpoints and scales. The speech recognition system maps the results from Google to expectable sentences in the given scenario using phonemic matching. The syntactic interpretation of the sentence is done with a Recurrent Neural Network (namely an Echo State Network). It maps each semantic word in a sentence to its thematic role. In the end, all roles form predicates which indicate what should be performed (e.g. learning a new object or performing motor actions). At the start, the robot does not know any objects. During the learning of new objects, increasingly complex sentences are used to describe the position of new objects. Motor commands (e.g. pointing) are also provided in order to check the knowledge of the robot. It can be noted that the human user produces natural complex sentences, and thus any human could interact with the robot, not only robot programmers. Furthermore, complex sentences containing multiple commands can be correctly interpreted as a temporal action sequence (e.g. "Before doing 'B' do 'A'") without adding any complementary mechanism. In addition to teaching objects and relationships to the robot, in the future this kind of interaction scheme could also be used by children to learn (e.g. new objects) while interacting with the robot. In other words, by teaching the robot, the child is learning. It could be used also to teach new instructions or even new languages to the robot (with only few changes in modules (2) and (3)). Conversely, if the robot already knows about the environment in one language and a child would not, this child could learn this new language while interacting with the robot.
Design and evaluation of an augmented reality simulator using leap motion

Advances in virtual and augmented reality (AR) are having an impact on the medical field in areas such as surgical simulation. Improvements to surgical simulation will provide students and residents with additional training and evaluation methods. This is particularly important for procedures such as the endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV), which residents perform regularly. Simulators such as NeuroTouch, have been designed to aid in training associated with this procedure. The authors have designed an affordable and easily accessible ETV simulator, and compare it with the existing NeuroTouch for its usability and training effectiveness. This simulator was developed using Unity, Vuforia and the leap motion (LM) for an AR environment. The participants, 16 novices and two expert neurosurgeons, were asked to complete 40 targeting tasks. Participants used the NeuroTouch tool or a virtual hand controlled by the LM to select the position and orientation for these tasks. The length of time to complete each task was recorded and the trajectory log files were used to calculate performance. The resulting data from the novices' and experts' speed and accuracy are compared, and they discuss the objective performance of training in terms of the speed and accuracy of targeting accuracy for each system.
A High-Salt Meal Produces Natriuresis in Humans Without Elevating Plasma Atriopeptin

Abstract The effects of a high-sodium meal on plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (atriopeptin) and renal sodium excretion were studied in eight normal human subjects. As expected, sodium excretion and urine osmolality increased following the meal. Plasma atriopeptin levels did not increase, however, after the high-sodium meal. In a control experiment, consumption of a low-sodium meal by six of the same subjects did not increase either urinary sodium excretion or plasma atriopeptin concentration. We conclude that the natriuresis elicited by a high-salt meal is not mediated by the atrial peptides.
Risk assessment in tourism system using a fuzzy set and dominance-based rough set

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to identify risks, discover rule base structure and the impact of risks by knowledge base system design in one of the Iran tourism destination. Based on tourism system approach, the factors of risks are divided in two dimensions: internal risks and external risks and seven criteria: political, economic, cultural-social, technological, environmental-health, functional and safe-security. Data were analyzed by fuzzy inference system and Dominance-based Rough Set Approach (DRSA) synthesizing to construction of forecasting risk assessment system. Tourists’ perspectives towards the possibilities of risks were first assessed within seven risk factors and converted into a systematic structure within the structure of rough sets. Designing of a fuzzy expert system was dealt with using the created knowledge database. Then, the system’s sensitivity analysis was examined. The results indicate that the system can be a good way to estimate the risks and their fluctuation rates and im.
The Role of Confidence in Truthful Revelation of Private Values

Recent research shows that disparities between willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) disappear with market experience and training. In effect, preferences can be refined by eliminating subjects’ misconceptions regarding elicitation procedures. We use a stated measure of confidence as a proxy for misconceptions and test the influence of confidence on truthful revelation of induced values in WTP and WTA auctions using the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism. The results indicate that confidence matters for buyers and sellers. With confidence, WTA and WTP measures converge, and people with greater confidence choose the dominant bidding strategy more frequently.
CHAPTER 5 Portfolio Choice Problems

This chapter is devoted to the econometric treatment of portfolio choice problems. The goal is to describe, discuss, and illustrate through examples the different econometric approaches proposed in the literature for relating the theoretical formulation and solution of a portfolio choice problem to the data. In focusing on the econometrics of the portfolio choice problem, this chapter is at best a cursory overview of the broad portfolio choice literature. In particular, much of the discussion is focused on the single period portfolio choice problem with standard preferences, normally distributed returns, and frictionless markets. There are many recent advances in the portfolio choice literature, some cited below but many regrettably omitted, that relax one or more of these simplifying assumptions. The econometric techniques discussed in this chapter can be applied to these more realistic formulations. The chapter is divided into three parts. Section 2 reviews the theory of portfolio choice in discrete and continuous time. It also discusses a number of modeling issues and extensions that arise in formulating the problem. Section 3 presents the two traditional econometric approaches to portfolio choice problems: plug-in estimation and Bayesian decision theory. In Section 4, I then describe a more recently developed econometric approach for drawing inferences about optimal portfolio weights without modeling return distributions.
A Phase I Trial of a Potent P-Glycoprotein Inhibitor, Zosuquidar Trihydrochloride (LY335979), Administered Intravenously in Combination with Doxorubicin in Patients with Advanced Malignancy

Purpose: Our intention was to (a) to investigate the safety and tolerability of a potent P-glycoprotein modulator, zosuquidar trihydrochloride (LY335979), when administered i.v. alone or in combination with doxorubicin, (b) to determine the pharmacokinetics of zosuquidar and correlate exposure to inhibition of P-glycoprotein function in a surrogate assay, and (c) to compare the pharmacokinetics of doxorubicin in the presence and absence of zosuquidar. Patients and Methods: Patients with advanced malignancies who provided written informed consent received zosuquidar and doxorubicin administered separately during the first cycle of therapy and then concurrently in subsequent cycles. Zosuquidar was given i.v. over 48 h in a cohort-dose escalation manner until the occurrence of dose-limiting toxicity or protocol specified maximum exposure. Doxorubicin doses of 45, 60, 75 mg/m2 were administered during the course of the trial. Results: Dose escalation proceeded through 9 cohorts with a total of 40 patients. The maximal doses administered were 640 mg/m2 of zosuquidar and 75 mg/m2 of doxorubicin. No dose-limiting toxicity of zosuquidar was observed. Pharmacokinetic analysis revealed that, in the presence of zosuquidar at doses that exceeded 500 mg, there was a modest decrease in clearance (17–22%) and modest increase in area under the curve (15–25%) of doxorubicin. This change was associated with an enhanced leukopenia and thrombocytopenia but was without demonstrable clinical significance. The higher doses of zosuquidar were associated with maximal P-glycoprotein inhibition in natural killer cells. Conclusion: Zosuquidar can be safely coadministered with doxorubicin using a 48 h i.v. dosing schedule.
R v Peacock: Landmark Trial Redefines Obscenity Law

The acquittal of Michael Peacock, who was charged with distributing DVDs featuring male fisting, urination and sado-masochism, has cast doubt on the English obscenity law. The ‘deprave and corrupt’ test under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 has been controversial since its inception in England and Wales. One of the strengths of the 1959 Act is its ability for juries to recognise changing moral standards in accordance with modern social values. While such content has been found in the past to be capable of debasing and destroying the moral purity of its likely audience, the question put before the jury in R v Peacock was if this is the case nowadays. For some, the not guilty verdict represents a victory for freedom of expression and the end of an era; for others, moral degeneration. This article provides a more perceptive view of the implications of the Peacock outcome. It argues that we have not seen the demise of obscenity yet. On the contrary, more insidious obscenity provisions have replaced the ‘archaic’ 1959 Act and more censorship laws with real teeth are likely to be just over the horizon.