Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk Spillovers and Hedging: Why Do Firms Invest Too Much in Systemic Risk

In this paper we show that free entry decisions may be socially inefficient, even in a perfectly competitive homogeneous goods market with non-lumpy investments. In our model, inefficient entry decisions are the result of risk-aversion of incumbent producers and consumers, combined with incomplete financial markets which limit risk-sharing between market actors. Investments in productive assets affect the distribution of equilibrium prices and quantities, and create risk spillovers. From a societal perspective, entrants underinvest in technologies that would reduce systemic sector risk, and may overinvest in risk-increasing technologies. The inefficiency is shown to disappear when a complete financial market of tradable risk-sharing instruments is available, although the introduction of any individual tradable instrument may actually decrease efficiency. We therefore believe that sectors without well-developed financial markets will benefit from sector-specific regulation of investment decisions.
THE ROLE OF PROACTIVE PROCUREMENT ON STRATEGIC PROCUREMENT PERFORMANCE AT PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS IN KENYA: A SURVEY OF RONGAI SUB-COUNTY IN NAKURU COUNTY

The research study covered the role of proactive procurement on strategic procurement performance at public institutions in Kenya: A survey of Rongai Sub-County in Nakuru County. There was need to have direct interventions that would undo the complexities that bedevil the efforts of the government and international organization for supporting the public procurement performance initiatives. Despite of the presence of the current legal framework (PPDA, 2005), the efficiency and effectiveness of the procurement process had not been achieved. This was demonstrated by the continuous return of unutilized funds to the treasury by state agencies. The objectives of the study were: To assess the contribution of Early Supplier involvement to strategic procurement performance, to find out the role of procuring entity- supplier partnership(s) on strategic procurement performance and to establish the effects of information sharing on strategic procurement performance at public institutions. The study targeted a population of 200 persons from the user departments and prequalified suppliers engaged in procurement at Rongai Sub-County in Nakuru County. Both stratified sampling and Simple Random Sampling techniques were used to select the respondents. The study used questionnaires for collecting data that supported the intended objectives.
Toward a synthesis of the resource‐based and dynamic‐capability views of rent creation

Two distinct causal mechanisms—resource-picking and capability-building—have been proposed in the strategic management literature about how firms create economic rents. Under the resource-picking mechanism, managers gather information and analysis to outsmart the resource market in picking resources, similar to the way that a mutual fund manager tries to outsmart the stock market in picking stocks. Under the capability-building mechanism, managers design and construct organizational systems to enhance the productivity of whatever resources the firm acquires. These two rent-creation mechanisms are certainly not mutually exclusive, and it is likely that firms generally use both of them. It is therefore important to consider the interaction between these two rent-creation mechanisms: Do they complement each other? Or are they substitutes for each other? In other words, do they enhance each other's value, or detract from each other's value? Answering these questions is a necessary precondition to understanding how firms should allocate their time and effort between these two rent-creation mechanisms. The present paper develops a basic theoretical model to address these questions, and derives testable hypotheses from the model. The model predicts that the two rent-creation mechanisms are complementary in some circumstances but substitutes in others. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A New Technique for the Design of Multi-Phase Voltage Controlled Oscillators

In this work, a novel circuit structure for second-harmonic multi-phase voltage controlled oscillator (MVCO) is presented. The proposed MVCO is composed of N (N being an integer number and N≥2) identical inductor–capacitor (LC) tank VCOs. In theory, this MVCO can provide 2N different phase sinusoidal signals. A six-phase VCO based on the proposed structure is designed in a TSMC 0.18um CMOS process. Simulation results show that at the supply voltage of 0.8V, the total power consumption of the six-phase VCO circuit is about 1mW, the oscillation frequency is tunable from 2.3GHz to 2.5GHz when the control voltage varies from 0V to 0.8V, and the phase noise is lower than −128dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset frequency. The proposed MVCO has lower phase noise, lower power consumption and more outputs than other related works in the literature.
Neurodynamics and attractors in quantum associative memories

Quantum associative memories are connectionist structures that demonstrate the particle-wave nature of information and are compatible with quantum mechanics postulates. Following the solution of Schrodinger's diffusion equation, and using the Hopfield memory model, quantum associative memories are developed. It is proved that the weight matrix of quantum associative memories can be decomposed in a superposition of matrices, thus resulting in an exponential increase of the number of attractors (memory patterns). The storage and recall of patterns in quantum associative memories is studied through a numerical example and simulation tests.
Modular Design and Verification of Distributed Adaptive Real-Time Systems Based on Refinements and Abstractions

A promising way to cope with complexity in verifying large systems is to perform modular verification where components are verified separately. However, in the context of adaptive systems, it is difficult to apply this principle because adaptation behaviour and functional behaviour are often intertwined. In this paper, we present and apply a design pattern for distributed adaptive real-time systems using the process calculus Timed CSP. Our pattern explicitly differentiates between functional data and adaptive control data and thereby allows for a strict separation of adaptation and functional components. We enable the modular verification of functional and adaptation behaviour, respectively, based on the notion of process refinement in Timed CSP. The verification of refinements is automated using industrial-strength proof tools. As the notion of refinement can also be used to justify abstractions, we furthermore enable abstractionbased verification, where a detailed system is abstracted to facilitate more efficient verification efforts. This is especially important in the industrial development of adaptive systems using languages like SystemC where a designer not necessarily applies fine-grained refinements, but implements larger parts of the functional and adaptation logic possibly at the same time. Therefore, we discuss how common refinements and abstractions from the context of Timed CSP can be used as a formal basis for refinements and abstractions in SystemC.
Content Analysis Of Board Reports On Corporate Governance, Internal Controls And Risk Management: Evidence From France

The French legislature has mandated in 2008 that the board chairperson reports on governance, internal controls, and risk management approach with the objective to enhance corporate disclosures to investors. This study examines the content of board chair reports to assess their relevance and compliance with mandated disclosure requirements. Based on a sample of 109 french publicly listed comapnies in 2009, Our results show that, with the exception of banks subject to a more stringent regulatory standard, the mandatory nature of the legislation did not translate in extended disclosures about internal controls and risk management practices. We further observe significant variations among the different indices of disclosure particularly with regards internal accounting and financial control. The multivaraite results validate the influence of the chosen internal control framework as well as firm characteristics on the content of the information disclosed about governance, internal control, and risk management practices.
Extrinsic risk factors for pressure ulcers early in the hospital stay: a nested case-control study.

BACKGROUND Little is known about the impact of extrinsic factors on pressure ulcer risk. The objective of this study was to determine whether risk of pressure ulcers early in the hospital stay is associated with extrinsic factors such as longer emergency department (ED) stays, night or weekend admission, potentially immobilizing procedures and medications, and admission to an intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS A nested case-control study was performed in two teaching hospitals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Participants were medical patients age > or =65 years admitted through the ED. Cases (n = 195) had > or =1 possibly or definitely hospital-acquired pressure ulcers. Three controls per case were sampled randomly from among noncases at the same hospital in the same month (n = 597). Pressure ulcer status was determined by a research nurse on the third day of hospitalization. Pressure ulcers were classified as preexisting, possibly hospital-acquired, or definitely hospital-acquired. Information on extrinsic factors was obtained by chart review. RESULTS The odds of pressure ulcers were twice as high for those with an ICU stay as for those without (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.0, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-3.5). The aOR was 0.6 (95% CI, 0.3-0.9) for use of any potentially immobilizing medications during the early inpatient period. CONCLUSIONS Many of the procedures experienced by patients in the ED and early in the inpatient stay do not confer excess pressure ulcer risk. Having an ICU stay is associated with a doubling of risk. This finding emphasizes the importance of developing and evaluating interventions to prevent pressure ulcers among patients in the ICU.
Forecasting linear time series models with heteroskedastic errors in a Bayesian approach

A study was conducted to compare the forecasting performance of four models, namely Stochastic Volatility (SV), Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH), Autoregressive with GARCH errors (AR-GARCH) and Autoregressive with SV errors (AR-SV). Bayesian approach and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation methods are applied to estimate the parameters of the models and their predictive densities; using three time series data (daily Euro/US Dollar, British Pound/US Dollar and Iranian Rial/US Dollar exchange rates). Out-ofsample analysis through cumulative predictive Bayes factors clearly showed that modeling regression residuals heteroskedastic, substantially improves predictive performance, especially in turbulent times.A direct comparison of SV and vanilla GARCH(1,1) indicated that the former performs better in terms of predictive accuracy
The Ecomomic Impact of Agricultural Products in the Albanian Exports

Exports are considered as one of the priorities of government for the developing of the economy and facing the trade liberalization process of Albania in the international market. The increasement of exports is one of the most fundamental indicators for increasing the competitiveness in the economy, the increase of investors and one of the indicators for increasing the employment in Albania. The performance of the economy in these years has been characterized in quite large fluctuations in its stability, restructuring, growth rate and in this way of huge transformations. This kind of performance has accompanied also that part of export-oriented economy by turning the economy and the domestic market to a market economy that is relied mainly on imports. Based on the Intermediate Interim Agreement on the 1- December 2006, it is expected a significant impact on domestic economic structure. Due to this agreement the export tariffs will decrease faster than those of imports. This is expected to have a positive effect because in the EU countries perform about 60% of imports and 80% of exports . Because of the rapid expansion of exports and moderate growth in imports , there has been an improved trade deficit, helping to balance the demand and supply for foreign currency and to maintain the national currency . Exports during the first 8 months of the year increased 25 billion ALL compared with the year 2010. Domestic Exports includes the agricultural products (medicinal plants, tobacco), by metals (ferrochrome and aluminum), leather, from timber and mineral products (fuels). Exports of agricultural products include all countries in the region, but we are also exporting to Hungary, Germany and other countries of the European Union. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013. v2n1p263
Automatic brain tumor detection and segmentation in MR images

The MRI or CT scan images are primary follow up diagnostic tools when a neurologic exam indicates a possibility of a primary or metastatic brain tumor existence. The tumor tissue mainly appears in brighter colors than the rest of the regions in the brain. Based on this observation, an automated algorithm for brain tumor detection and medical doctors' assistance in facilitated and accelerated diagnosis procedure has been developed and initially tested on images obtained from the patients with diagnosed tumors and healthy subjects.
Selling stem cell based biologics and salesforce alignment for the biomedical device industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discover best practices for selling stem cell based biologics and ensuring proper sales force alignment in the biomedical device industry. Design/methodology/approach – This research is based on an immersion into the industry as well as several formal, semi-structured interviews and dozens of informal interviews of surgeons, medical staff and medical device salespersons and managers. Data were also collected and analyzed from wipricepoint.org. The factors analyzed were the number of discharges, average charge per procedure, median age, male/female patient ratio and total hospital charges per year. Findings – Secondary data can augment primary data collection to determine the most lucrative markets for salespersons to target their efforts. In addition, the data when combined with sales force specific data can help optimize sales force alignment. Insights into the industry are also given such as how to overcome objections to the use of stem cell based biologics for .
Export Assistance Programs: Insights from Canadian SMEs

This paper reports on the usefulness of the export assistance programs available to Canadian exporting firms. This paper is one of a few studies that examine the usefulness of export assistance programs offered to Canadian exporters by the Canadian government. One conclusion is that these programs, as expected, are not viewed as being equally useful by Canadian exporters. Another finding is that the hypotheses that the usefulness of these export assistance programs differs for firms in different stages in export activities, for firms deriving different percentage of sales from exports, and for firms of different size received limited support.
Formal Modeling For Pervasive Design of Human-Computer Interfaces

The advent of mobile interfaces induces an evolution on the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) field. We observe the emergence of several mobile devices and sensors that gave birth to the ubiquitous environments. In our research, we focus on: (i) how to adapt the interface to its environment, specifically in its context of use and (ii) what relationship has the context with the users’ task. This paper will propose a formal approach for specifying user interfaces adapted to the context of use. We will focus on the strength of formal approach to context and user’s modeling and how to infer users’ requirements through the model of the task for critical domains. Our approach will be illustrated by a case study on the monitoring of diabetic patients. Keywords-pervasive user interfaces; ubiquitous computing; formal modeling; critical domains.
Final Report INVESTIGATION OF FULLERENES FOR HIGH-SPEED , LOW LATENCY , PHOTONIC SWITCHING 96-LW-090

The components in high-speed, all-optical photonic systems must satisfy two essential requirements: (1) high swiching speeds in the range of Tbit/s, and (2) low latency, where the latency is the amount of time that the optical signal remains in the device. An important problem precluding the practical implementation of high-speed, all-optical switching is the lack of a material with appropriate nonlinear optical properties needed to effect the switching. Numerous material systems have been studied in the past, but none have met all the necessary requirements. Development of such a material and its incorporation into photonic devices would advance the field tremendously. This Lab-wide LDRD project resolved this critical problem.
Banking Efficiency and Risk in the European Union Banking System: The Effect of the World Financial Crisis

This study examines cost and profit efficiencies of banking sectors in the 27 European Union countries over the period 2004-2010 using the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). The study divides the EU sample into four sub-samples; the entire EU, the old and the new EU countries as well as the GIIPS countries. Also, this study investigates the extent to which insolvency, credit and liquidity risks affect banking efficiency during the world financial crisis (2007-2009) along with other environmental factors. The average cost and profit efficiency levels of the entire EU are found to be 73% and 57% respectively, and banking sectors in the old EU countries appear to be more cost efficient but less profit efficient than their counterparts in the new EU countries. Banking sectors in the four EU samples manage to improve their cost and profit efficiency levels over time and the efficiency gap between the old and the new EU member states is decreased over the seven years under study. The results also show that overall well-capitalised banks, banks with higher liquidity and less credit risk outperform their counterparts in terms of cost and profit efficiencies during the world financial crisis, highlighting the importance of maintaining low levels of bank risk during times of financial distress.
Treatment of aplastic anaemia (AA) with antilymphocyte globulin (ALG) and methylprednisolone (MPred) with or without androgens: a randomized trial from the EBMT SAA working party

Summary 134 patients with acquired aplastic anaemia (AA) were given HALG 15 mg/kg/d for 5 d and methylprednisolone for 1 month, and randomized to receive (n= 69) or not (n= 65) oxymetholone 2 mg/kg/d p.o. daily for 4 months. Early mortality (<120 d) was comparable in the two arms 12/69 (17%) and 11/65 (17%), and correlated with the severity of the disease (39%, 10% and 6% respectively in patients with neutrophil counts (PMN) <0.2, 0.2–0.5, >0.5 × 109/l). The response rate at 120 d was significantly greater in patients receiving androgens (56%v 40%; P= 0.04); it was 68%v 48% (P= 0.02) in patients surviving 120 d, and 78%v 27% (P= 0.03) in females with PMN less than 0.5 × 109/l. In a multivariate Cox analysis on patients with less than 0.5 × 109/l PMN, the probability of responding without androgens was reduced compared to the androgen treatment arm (P= 0.05).
Nanoelectronics in Radio-Frequency Technology

In this article we have attempted to give an overview of the impact of nanoelectronics on RF technology. Today the development of nanoelectronics is highly market driven since the push for progress requires tremendous investments. The continuous technological progress in CMOS technology, following Moore's law and the extensions more and more than certainly offers large room for progress, however, saturation already appears on the horizon. Long-term research and development in direction of novel materials, novel technologies, and novel device concepts is of great importance to maintain the competitiveness of electronics industry. Novel devices based on novel materials and novel technologies will be required to go beyond Moore. Even circuit and system paradigms will change. The next 20 years of development of nanoelectronics will be extremely challenging and will be decisive for the fate of the global players in the field. Although the reflow of investment can be expected only over a long period of time a strong engagement in research and development will be mandatory.
Heterogeneity in Organizational Form: Why Otherwise Identical Firms Choose Different Incentives for Their Managers

Product-market competition affects the benefits from providing incentives to managers. In particular, the best response to other firms providing strong incentives can be to provide weak incentives. Conversely, the best response to other firms providing weak incentives can be to provide strong incentives. In equilibrium only a fraction of the firms may, therefore, provide strong incentives. Moreover, all equilibria may exhibit heterogeneity in incentives due to the nonconvexities inherent in the underlying agency problem between firms and their managers. This article also investigates how increased competition affects the strength of the incentives provided in the equilibrium.
A Many-objective Optimization Framework for Virtualized Datacenters

The process of selecting which virtual machines should be located (i.e. executed) at each physical machine of a datacenter is commonly known as Virtual Machine Placement (VMP). This work presents a general manyobjective optimization framework that is able to consider as many objective functions as needed when solving the VMP problem in a pure multi-objective context. As an example of utilization of the proposed framework, for the first time a formulation of the many-objective VMP problem (MaVMP) is proposed, considering the simultaneous optimization of the following five objective functions: (1) power consumption, (2) network traffic, (3) economical revenue, (4) quality of service and (5) network load balancing. To solve the formulated many-objective VMP problem, an interactive memetic algorithm is proposed. Simulations prove the correctness of the proposed algorithm and its effectiveness converging to a treatable number of solutions in different experimental scenarios.
Wearable posture detection and alert system

Posture is a way in which a human holds his body so that there is less strain on muscles during movement. Poor body posture leads to many health issues. Incorrect posture problems, which range from back pain to fatigue may rise up and affect our daily activities. The Nowadays maximum population suffers from back pain, injuries, neck pain and shoulder problems etc., hence a need to develop a device is increased. A wearable device has been designed in the form of belt. Also a mechanism has been designed to detect the area of stress and time duration for which a person is sitting in the same posture. The main aim of the system is to detect the correct or incorrect posture by detecting the changes occur in human posture using sensors i.e. accelerometer sensor and push buttons fixed on the belt vertically in direction of spinal cord. The changes occur in different directions (i.e. right, left, forward, backward) are detected using sensors, by calculating the angles according to the tiltation of a body and time for which stress applies on particular back area is detected using push buttons. Indication of the incorrect posture is provided by the buzzer to the user and the results are displayed on the LCD. The Device is designed for human comfort and good body posture, which is required to maintain body and mind healthy.