Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of the long-term yield in Canada: an open economy VAR approach

This study analyses the economic determinants of short- and long-term interest rates in Canada using a structural vector autoregressive (VAR) model. The VAR takes into consideration that Canadian financial markets are small and open relative to those in the USA and that Canada is a relatively large exporter of commodities. In part, the empirical results for Canada are similar to those for the USA. Aggregate demand shocks have relatively large and persistent effects on long-term yields, while aggregate supply shocks do not have significant effects. However, monetary policy shocks in Canada are found to have larger and more persistent effects on long-term yields than those found for the USA. The most striking result is that movements in US monetary policy have relatively large, significant and persistent effects on Canadian long-term bond yields. Furthermore, US monetary policy disturbances can account for the overall trend in long-term yields in Canada.
Optimal Economic Growth and Uncertainty: The No Discounting Case

The cornerstone of one-sector optimal economic growth models is the existence and stability of a steady-state solution for optimal consumption policies. The optimal consumption policy is the stable branch of the saddle point solution of the system of differential equations governing the dynamics of the economy. Examples of this type of behavior can be found in Cass [2] and Koopmans [4]. However, the stable branch solution is a knife-edge policy in the sense that any perturbation, no matter how small, results in instability and eventual annihilation. (This phenomenon is true when the Euler conditions are adhered to after the perturbation). Small pertubations might occur due to observation errors or the lack of knowledge of the exact production functions. It seems reasonable to expect that all sorts of human errors influence decision variables. Hence unless perfect knowledge of all variables, present and future, were known with complete certainty, and unless all decisions were made with exactness, economies of the one-sector deterministic type would lead at best to suboptimal consumption and investment policies. One would expect analogous instability results if production due to aggregation error, say, were not known with certainty. Moreover, it should be expected that planners know the future with something less than certainty. Since it seems impossible, in the face of uncertainty of the future,
Integrating Small Scale Farmers into Bread Wheat Marketing Chain through Contract Farming in Ethiopia

The treatment effect censored regression model results of this study showed that educational level, value of agricultural equipment and number of oxen owned affected the participation decisions of the farmers in bread wheat contract farming significantly. The most important factors that determine gross margin obtained from bread wheat production were contract farming experience, the number of oxen owned and participation in contract farming. However, technical efficiency differences and management practices followed were not the reasons for differences in gross margin between the participant and non-participant farmers.
Millian Superiorities and the Repugnant Conclusion

James Griffin has considered a form of superiority in value that is weaker than lexical priority as a possible remedy to the Repugnant Conclusion. In this article, I demonstrate that, in a context where value is additive, this weaker form collapses into the stronger form of superiority. And in a context where value is non-additive, weak superiority does not amount to a radical value difference at all. These results are applied on one of Larry Temkin's cases against transitivity. I demonstrate that Temkin appeals to two conflicting notions of aggregation. I then spell out the consequences of these results for different interpretations of Griffin's suggestion regarding population ethics. None of them comes out very successful, but perhaps they nevertheless retain some interest.
Teaching empathy to first year medical students: evaluation of an elective literature and medicine course.

BACKGROUND Empathy is critical to the development of professionalism in medical students, and the humanities-particularly literature-have been touted as an effective tool for increasing student empathy. This quantitative/qualitative study was undertaken to assess whether reading and discussing poetry and prose related to patients and doctors could significantly increase medical student empathy and appreciation of the relevance of the humanities for their own professional development. METHOD In 2000-2001, first year students (n=22) volunteered for an eight-session literature and medicine elective and were randomly assigned to either immediate participation in the class or a wait-list group, who participated in the same class 6 months later. Complete pre- and post-intervention data for 16 students from both groups were obtained for two quantitative measures of empathy and an attitudes-toward-the-humanities scale. Students also participated in a qualitative group interview pre- and post-intervention. RESULTS Empathy and attitudes toward the humanities improved significantly (p<0.01) after participation in the class when both groups of students were combined. The scaled treatment effect size was in the moderate range (> or =0.60 standard deviation units) for both measures that had statistically significant pre-to-post changes. Furthermore, student understanding of the patient's perspective became more detailed and complex after the intervention. Students were also more likely post-intervention to note ways reading literature could help them cope with training-related stress. CONCLUSION A brief literature-based course can contribute to greater student empathy and appreciation for the value of humanities in medical education.
The Effect of Maturity on Price Fluctuations

IN CONSIDERING the relationship between the maturity of a marketable contract and the extent to which it is likely to fluctuate in price, two influences must be taken into account. One influence, which is the dominating factor in the bond market, is that a change in the rate of interest has a greater effect on the prices of the longer maturities. The operation of this influence, which will be called the "discounting effect," is well understood and can be stated quite explicitly. ' The operation of the second factor has received much less attention in the literature: this is the effect which maturity has on uncertainty and through uncertainty on price volatility. Although it is rarely stated explicitly, the general belief appears to be that, even if interest rates are held constant, longer contracts will tend to exhibit greater price volatility because of the greater uncertainties involved. That is, in addition to the "discounting effect," there is an "uncertainty effect," which brings about a direct relationship between maturity and price volatility.2 The logic of the foregoing argument is not entirely clear. It is reasonable, for example, to argue in favor of an inverse relationship between maturity and volatility. This could be stated as follows: The prices of both longand short-term contracts take into account the fact that various events may take place which will affect the value of the contracts. Since the probability that any one of these events will occur before the expiration of the contract is greater for long maturities than for short maturities, holders of longer-term contracts will tend to discount these events more fully than will holders of shorter contracts. Thus, when one of the previously uncertain events does occur,3 the longer-term holders should react to the event less severely. On grounds of uncertainty alone, then, long-term contracts might be expected to fluctuate less violently in price than short-term contracts. Since a priori analysis alone does not yield a clear-cut answer regarding the effect of uncertainty on the maturityvolatility relationship, this paper attempts to examine historical data for further light on the subject. Ideally, testing media would consist of contracts of varying maturities in which price fluctuations resulting from the "discounting
microRNA‐151–3p Regulates Slow Muscle Gene Expression by Targeting ATP2a2 in Skeletal Muscle Cells

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of small noncoding RNAs that regulate the stability or translation of cognate mRNAs at the post‐transcriptional level. Accumulating evidence indicates that miRNAs play important roles in many aspects of muscle function, including muscle growth and development, regeneration, contractility, and muscle fiber type plasticity. In the current study, we examined the function of miR‐151–3p in myoblast proliferation and differentiation. Results show that overexpression of miR‐151–3p not only upregulates myoblast proliferation, but also decreases slow muscle gene expression (such as MHC‐β/slow and slow muscle troponin I) in both C2C12 myotubes and in primary cultures. Alternatively, inhibition of miR‐151–3p by antisense RNA was found to upregulate MHC‐β/slow expression, indicating that miR‐151–3p plays a role in muscle fiber type determination. Further investigation into the underlying mechanisms revealed for the first time that miR‐151–3p directly targets ATP2a2, a gene encoding for a slow skeletal and cardiac muscle specific Ca2+ ATPase, SERCA2 thus downregulating slow muscle gene expression. Mechanisms by which the alteration in SERCA2 expression induces changes in other slow muscle gene expression levels needs to be defined in future research. J. Cell. Physiol. 230: 1003–1012, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company
Envisioning a World-Class University System for India

We envision a world-class university system for India using a simple ontology from which a large number of potential 'visions' can be derived systematically, each applicable to a higher education institution. Some visions may not make sense intuitively; and some, although sensible, may not map to a current institution. The combination of visions of the institutions in the system will be a collage of the system.The proposed ontology encapsulates a complete view of the system - it can be extended, modified, and redefined to encapsulate other views. Given a view, it would then be possible to select the appropriate vision to compose the vision of a world-class university system for India. Thus the ontology is a structured envisioning tool for strategic planning.
Embedded FLOTOX flash on ultra-low power 55nm logic DDC platform

We have successfully embedded flash memory on an ultra-low power (<;0.9V) 55nm Deeply Depleted Channel™ (DDC) platform. In spite of reduced thermal budget of DDC process, single-bit charge loss (SBCL) of flash after cycling can be optimized and is comparable to that of baseline embedded flash. We have also verified that improved variability and resultant ultra-low power digital performance of the DDC process is maintained in an embedded flash flow.
Large-scale scene reconstruction using periscopic stereo

Most of the existing work on three-dimensional scene reconstruction from imagery has concentrated on individual scenes or objects. Large-scale reconstruction of the surrounding scene is limited by the problems of "where to look next" and the resolution of structure parallel to the stereo baseline. Periscopic stereo is a largely forgotten concept which is able to solve both by virtue of its unique imaging geometry and the appropriate application of image processing and computer vision techniques. This paper discusses the large-scale reconstruction of the surrounding scene with applications to remote exploration by autonomous robotic vehicles.
State Government Export Promotion: An Exporter's Guide

Alan R. Posner discusses the ways state government agencies can and do promote and facilitate the overseas exports of producers in their respective states. He presents detailed case studies of successful state programs and outlines how business can utilize these programs and what opportunities export trading companies can provide. The contributions made by state labor relations specialists and universities to export promotion are described. The author provides a comprehensive directory and listing of the export promotion services each state offers. Posner focuses attention on specific problems and opportunities in agricultural exports. The long-term consequences of continued U.S. emphasis on the export of services and capital investment versus agricultural products and manufactures are evaluated in depth.
Awareness, knowledge and intentions for postgraduate study

Many university administrators, academics and marketers expend time and financial resources promoting postgraduate study options, yet scant scholarly research has addressed students' attraction to postgraduate study. This study examines awareness and knowledge of, and intentions to pursue postgraduate study from the perspective of current undergraduate students. A survey of 340 first, second and third year business/management students revealed no statistically significant differences between the cohort years, revealing opportunities for universities to disseminate important aspects of postgraduate study at appropriate times. The significant link between the university's promotion of postgraduate study and students' intentions to progress to postgraduate study is demonstrated through structural equation modelling. Implications for practice are addressed.
NETWORK INTERACTIONS AND MUTUAL DEPENDENCE: A TEST IN THE CAR INDUSTRY

By engaging in specific investments a firm may develop a unique competence value for its partner, which makes the partners mutually dependent. This may neutralize any hold-up risk of an opportunistic partner that is tempted to exploit the dependence and appropriate a greater share of the value added in the relation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate such mechanisms of mutual dependence. The analysis builds on previous theoretical and empirical research by the authors. It is based on an integration of transaction cost economics with the resource (competence, capabilities) view and a social exchange view, from a dynamic perspective. The paper asks the following: How do competencies develop in interaction between firms? The social exchange view brings in trust as an important dimension of governance. The research question asks how risks of mutual dependence between firms may be mitigated without either hierarchical or legal control. Five hypotheses concerning such mechanisms of mutual dependence are tested on data from the car industry.
Out of the Goodness of Their Hearts? Regulatory and Regional Impacts on Bank Investment in Housing and Community Development in the United States

ABSTRACT: Banks are considered key actors in affordable housing and community development in the United States. Their involvement in such activities may be due partly to their dependence on economic rents generated from development. In the United States, however, banks are encouraged to support such activities by the federal 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). I examine how different factors explain the CRA-qualified investments by banks. Qualified investments are essentially nondebt financial resources provided as an equity investment or grant with a community development purpose. I find that the identity of the regulator (the United States has four banking regulators) has a major impact on the level of qualified investments. Other things equal, a difference in regulators can cause a bank’s qualified investments to more than double. Besides suggesting that some regulators may be enforcing a major portion of CRA regulations more vigorously than others, this also suggests that the CRA plays a major role in bank investment in community development. This has policy implications not just in the United States but also in other countries that might consider replicating the CRA.
Poitou-Tate without restrictions on the order

The Poitou-Tate sequence relates Galois cohomology with restricted ramification of a finite Galois module $M$ over a global field to that of the dual module under the assumption that $\#M$ is a unit away from the allowed ramification set. We remove the assumption on $\#M$ by proving a generalization that allows arbitrary "ramification sets" that contain the archimedean places. We also prove that restricted products of local cohomologies that appear in the Poitou-Tate sequence may be identified with derived functor cohomology of an adele ring. In our proof of the generalized sequence we adopt this derived functor point of view and exploit properties of a natural topology carried by cohomology of the adeles.
The role of market research in the development of discontinuous new products

Market research results frequently produce negative reactions to discontinuous new products (innovative products) that later become profitable for the innovating company. Famous examples such as the fax machine, the VCR and James Dyson’s bagless vacuum cleaner are often cited to support this view. Despite this, companies continue to seek the views of consumers on their new product ideas. The debate about the use of market research in the development of new products is long‐standing and controversial. This paper reviews the literature in this area and examines the extent to which market research is justified and whether companies should sometimes ignore their customers. The paper offers a conceptual framework that may help companies to decide when market research findings may be helpful and when they may hinder the development of discontinuous new products.
Antigenic Structure of Outer Membrane Protein E ofMoraxella catarrhalis and Construction and Characterization of Mutants

ABSTRACT Outer membrane protein E (OMP E) is a 50-kDa protein ofMoraxella catarrhalis which possesses several characteristics indicating that the protein will be an effective vaccine antigen. To study the antigenic structure of OMP E, eight monoclonal antibodies were developed and characterized. Three of the antibodies recognized epitopes which are present on the bacterial surface. Fusion peptides corresponding to overlapping regions of OMP E were constructed, and immunoblot assays were performed to localize the areas of the molecule bound by the monoclonal antibodies. These studies identified a surface-exposed epitope in the region of amino acids 80 through 180. To further study the protein, two mutants which lack OMP E were constructed. In bactericidal assays, the mutants were more readily killed by normal human serum compared to the isogenic parent strains. These results indicate that OMP E is involved in the expression of serum resistance of M. catarrhalis.
Rethinking the O in Dunning’s OLI/Eclectic Paradigm

John Dunning introduced the OLI (Ownership‐Location‐Internalization) paradigm 37 years ago to explain the origin, level, pattern, and growth of MNEs’ offshore activities. Over the years, OLI has developed into perhaps the dominant paradigm in international business (IB) studies. However, the costs of being a paradigm are reflected in Dunning’s efforts to include an ever‐expanding array of IB theories and phenomena under the OLI “big tent. ” In this paper, we focus specifically on the O in the OLI paradigm, tracing the history of Dunning’s ownership advantages. We argue that the modifications of O advantages over the past 37 years, as Dunning attempted to bring all IB phenomena and IB‐related theories under the OLI “big tent,” has had mixed results. However, we continue to believe that the typology of ownership advantages retains its relevance for IB scholars; that O advantages cannot and should not be subsumed within internalization advantages; and that O advantages are necessary for explaining the existen.
NUMERICAL ALGORITHMS FOR STOCK OPTION VALUATION

Since the formulation by Black, Scholes, and Merton in 1973 of the first rational option pricing formula which depended only on observable values, the volume of options traded daily on the Chicago Board of Exchange has grown rapidly. In fact, over the past three decades, options have undergone a transformation from specialized and obscure securities to ubiquitous components of the portfolios of not only large fund managers, but of ordinary individual investors. Essential ingredients of any successful modern investment strategy include the ability to generate income streams and reduce risk, as well as some level of speculation, all of which can be accomplished by effective use of options.Naturally practitioners require an accurate method of pricing options. Furthermore, because today's market conditions evolve very rapidly, they also need to be able to obtain the price estimates quickly. This dissertation is devoted primarily to improving the efficiency of popular valuation procedures for stock options. In particular, we develop a method of simulating values of European stock options under the Heston stochastic volatility model in a fraction of the time required by the existing method. We also develop an efficient method of simulating the values of American stock option values under the same dynamic in conjunction with the Least-Squares Monte Carlo (LSM) algorithm. We attempt to improve the efficiency of the LSM algorithm by utilizing quasi-Monte Carlo techniques and spline methodology. We also consider optimal investor behavior and consider the notion of option trading as opposed to the much more commonly studied valuation problems.
Hashing based indexing techniques for content based image retrieval: A survey

Image retrieval has been an active research field and classified as concept-based and content-based image retrieval systems. One of the key challenges is to design indexing technique for fast and accurate retrieval of images. Unsupervised techniques are more practical due to its learning binary codes property. Hashing based methods highly depends on the quality of hash functions and constructing effective hash functions is a challenging task. This paper presents a detailed study of recent hashing based techniques for analysis of the future scope research in hashing based indexing techniques.
Inorganic phosphate inhibits growth of human osteosarcoma U2OS cells via adenylate cyclase/cAMP pathway

In order to elucidate how phosphate regulates cellular functions, we investigated the effects of inorganic phosphate (Pi) on adenylate cyclase (AC)/cyclic AMP (cAMP) axis. Here we describe that Pi treatment of human osteosarcoma U2OS cells results in a decrease of both intracellular cAMP levels and AC activity, and in a cell growth inhibition. The phosphate‐triggered effects observed in U2OS cells are not a widespread phenomenon regarding all cell lines, since other cell lines screened respond differently to parallel Pi treatments. In U2OS cell line, the AC activity/cAMP downregulation is accompanied by significant variations in the levels of some membrane proteins belonging to the AC system. Remarkably, the above effects are blunted by pharmacological inhibition of sodium‐dependent phosphate transport. Moreover, 8‐Br‐cAMP and other cAMP‐elevating agents, such as IBMX and forskolin, interestingly, prevent the cell growth inhibition in response to phosphate. Our results enforce the increasing evidences of phosphate as a signaling molecule, identifying in U2OS cell line the AC/cAMP axis, as a novel‐signaling pathway modulated by phosphate to ultimately affect cell growth. J. Cell. Biochem. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Markdown Pricing and Cattle Supply in the Beef Packing Industry

We determine the effect of anticipated and unanticipated cattle supply on the departure of fed cattle price from cattle's marginal value product. Results indicate fed cattle were priced significantly below their marginal value during 31 of the 59 quarters between 1972II and 1986IV. When unanticipated supply shocks are small, markdown behavior is consistent with the hypothesis that packers follow an average processing cost (APC) pricing rule. One implication of our results is that reducing industry concentration is not likely to lead to changes in cattle prices predicted by SCP-based studies of the industry.