Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effectiveness of Price Limit Imposed on Stock Market in Mainland China

According to stock exchange regulations in Mainland China, in order to mitigate excessive volatility and protect ordinary investors from market manipulation, the price of any stock cannot change by more than 10 percent from its previous day’s closing price on any given trading day. Although the price limit regulation exists in a substantial number of financial markets around the world and has attracted much attention from government regulators, industrial practitioners, and academic researchers, the existing literature is limited. In consideration of inconclusive arguments and out-of-date samples in previous research about emerging markets, it is necessary to reconsider the effectiveness of price limit with more recent data through an insightful approach. The purpose of this study is to show that price limit in the Chinese stock markets is ineffective to some extent, in that they cannot successfully mitigate market volatility or provide higher returns to investors. In order to better understand the effects of price limit, this study utilizes historical stock price data in the Chinese stock markets over 20 years, which includes both periods with and without the price limit regulation. The fundamental idea of this study is to analyze volatilities and returns of different periods, based on overall market, various industries, various market caps, and selective sample stocks. The empirical results in the research show that price limit regulation works under certain circumstances while fails to mitigate volatilities or provide higher returns in most cases. The findings exactly match the hypothesis and indicate ineffectiveness of price limit regulation. In conclusion, this study could be used as empirical evidence for implementing appropriate stock market regulations, and promoting stock market microstructural reforms, especially for emerging markets.
Effects of Human-Animal Interaction on Dog Salivary and Plasma Oxytocin and Vasopressin

Oxytocin (OT) and Vasopressin (AVP) are neuropeptides with diverse effects on social behavior, cognition and stress responses. Recent studies suggest that OT facilitates and responds to affiliative forms of human-animal interaction (HAI). However, previous studies measuring OT and AVP in dogs have been limited to measures from blood or urine, which present concerns related to the invasiveness of sample collection, the potential for matrix interference in immunoassays, and whether samples can be collected at precise time points to assess event-linked endocrine responses. Previous studies from our laboratory validated salivary measures of OT and AVP in dogs, however, it is currently unknown whether these measures respond dynamically to aspects of HAI. Here, we investigated the effects of affiliative forms of HAI on both plasma and salivary OT and AVP in dogs. We employed a between-subjects design with a group of Labrador retrievers and Labrador retriever X golden retriever crosses (23 females, 15 males). Half of the dogs engaged in 10 minutes of free-form friendly interaction with a human experimenter (HAI condition), and the other half rested quietly in the same environment, without human interaction (control condition). We collected blood and saliva samples before, and immediately following both experimental conditions, and all samples were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) following previously validated protocols. Dogs participating in HAI exhibited a significant increase in both salivary OT (+39%) and plasma OT (+5.7%) whereas dogs in the control group did not. Salivary AVP showed no change in the HAI group but increased significantly (+33%) in the control group. Plasma AVP decreased significantly following HAI (-13%) but did not change across time in the control condition. Within the dogs exposed to HAI, increases in salivary OT, and decreases in plasma AVP, were predicted by the extent of affiliative behaviour between the dog and human (indexed by scores from a principal components analysis of social behaviours between the dog and human). Collectively our results suggest that measures of salivary OT and AVP provide useful biomarkers in studies of HAI, and afford a flexible and noninvasive toolkit than can be employed in diverse research contexts.
Add-on type repetitive controller design for the feedback control system satisfying the robust performance condition

Given a periodic reference signal or disturbance, repetitive control is a special control scheme to reduce a tracking error effectively by the periodic signal generator in the repetitive controller. In general, a repetitive controller is added on the existing feedback control system to improve the tracking performance. However, the repetitive controller has been designed without utilizing the information used in the design of the feedback controller. In this paper, we present a method to design an add-on type repetitive controller using the information on the performance of the existing feedback control system. We first show that a robust stability condition of repetitive control systems is obtained using the well-known robust performance condition of general feedback control systems. It is also shown that we can obtain a steady-state tracking error described in a simple form without time-delay element if the robust stability condition is satisfied for the repetitive control system. From the obtained results, several design criterions for repetitive controller are provided. Finally, to show the validity of the proposed method, simulation studies on the track-following control system of optical disk drives are performed.
Updates to the QBIC system

QBICTM (Query By Image Content) is a set of technologies and associated software that allows a user to search, browse, and retrieve image, graphic, and video data from large on-line collections. This paper discusses current research directions of the QBIC project such as indexing for high-dimensional multimedia data, retrieval of gray level images, and storyboard generation suitable for video. It describes aspects of QBIC software including scripting tools, application interfaces, and available GUIs, and gives examples of applications and demonstration systems using it.
Magnesium deficiency in critically ill patients

A study was performed to assess the value of estimation of intracellular magnesium in peripheral blood cells (red and mononuclear blood cells) in critically ill patients as an index of tissue magnesium content. A magnesium loading test was used to diagnose magnesium depletion in 16 critically ill patients. Patients were divided into magnesium depleted and non‐depleted groups according to their response to the loading test. Pre ‐infusion plasma and intracellular (blood cell) magnesium levels were measured. There were no significant differences between the magnesium depleted (mean plasma magnesium 0.81 mmol.l‐1, red blood cell magnesium 2.34mmol.l‐1, mononuclear blood cell magnesium 25.16mmol.kg‐1 dry weight) and non‐depleted groups (mean plasma magnesium 0.90mmol.l‐1, red blood cell magnesium 2.18mmol.l‐1, mononuclear blood cell magnesium 18.1 mmol.kg‐1 dry weight). We conclude that the diagnosis of magnesium depletion cannot be excluded in the face of normal plasma, red blood cell or mononuclear blood cell concentrations of magnesium.
Job Loss from Imports: Measuring the Costs

There is an important question lost in the debate over the number of jobs created or destroyed by trade liberalization: as the dynamic American economy continues to change, with freer trade and technological advances, what kind of work will Americans do? In a dynamic economy jobs are created and lost, and workers are displaced. Moving beyond the recent public policy focus on how many workers will be affected, this study focuses on understanding how these workers will be affected. Using worker-level data from the Displaced Worker Surveys, Lori G. Kletzer asks and answers a number of key questions about the cost of trade-related job loss. How do these workers compare to those displaced from other manufacturing industries? How sizeable are the earnings losses? What can we learn from the pattern of reemployment and earnings that will aid in the (re)design of adjustment services? The costs of import-competing job loss are high for some workers, but not starkly higher than the costs of other types of manufacturing job loss. For many manufacturing displaced workers, the best outcome, in terms of minimizing medium-term earnings losses, is to regain employment in the "old economy," back in manufacturing. New jobs in the service economy tend to result in larger earnings losses. This report reveals a narrow, but significant, group of workers for whom import-competing job loss is very costly. For other workers, realized costs are smaller. Understanding this range of outcomes should assist policymakers in targeting assistance to address the real costs of import-competing job loss.
Articulated human pose estimation in natural images

In this thesis the problem of estimating the 2-D articulated pose, or configuration of a person in unconstrained images such as consumer photographs is addressed. Contributions are split among three major chapters. In previous work the Pictorial Structure Model approach has proven particularly successful, and is appealing because of its moderate computational cost. However, the accuracy of resulting pose estimates has been limited by the use of simple representations of limb appearance. In this thesis strong discriminatively trained limb detectors combining gradient and colour segmentation cues are proposed. The approach improves significantly on the “iterative image parsing” method which was the state-of-the-art at the time, and shows significant promise for combination with other models of pose and appearance. In the second part of this thesis higher fidelity models of pose and appearance are proposed. The aim is to tackle extremely challenging properties of the human pose estimation task arising from variation in pose, anatomy, clothing, and imaging conditions. Current methods use simple models of body part appearance and plausible configurations due to limitations of available training data and constraints on computational expense. It is shown that such models severely limit accuracy. A new annotated database of challenging consumer images is introduced, an order of magnitude larger than currently available datasets. This larger amount of data allows partitioning of the pose space and the learning of multiple, clustered Pictorial Structure Models. A relative improvement in accuracy of over 50% is achieved compared to the standard, single model approach. In the final part of this thesis the clustered Pictorial Structure Model framework is extended to handle much larger quantities of training data. Furthermore it is shown how to utilise Amazon Mechanical Turk and a latent annotation update scheme to achieve high quality annotations at low cost. A significant increase in pose estimation accuracy is presented, while the computational expense of the framework is improved by a factor of 10.
Seizing the potential of ‘ big data

In fact, companies in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to retailing to telecommunications to insurance have begun moving forward with big data strategies in recent months. Together, the activities of those companies illustrate novel strategic approaches to big data and shed light on the challenges CEOs and other senior executives face as they work to shatter the organizational inertia that can prevent big data initiatives from taking root. From these experiences, we have distilled four principles that we hope will help CEOs and other corporate leaders as they try to seize the potential of big data. Size the opportunities and threats
Familial Predisposition and Clustering for Juvenile Lumbar Disc Herniation

The siblings and parents of 40 patients (cases) with lumbar disc herniation (aged 18 years or younger) who underwent surgery at the Department of Orthopaedics at Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital between 1976 and 1990 were examined for incidence of lumbar disc hermiation. A total of 120 randomly sampled, age and sex-matched patients (controls) who were hospitalized during the same period due to extraspinal diseases also were studied in the same manner. A survey of the occurrence of definite lumbar disc herniation was carried out that included 75,237 students in elementary, junior high, and senior high schools in Toyama Prefecture, Japan, covering a mean period of 3 years and 4 months. The incidence of surgically treated lumbar disc hermiation among people aged 18 years or younger was calculated, and the expected value of disc hemiation was obtained in an age-specific manner, on the basis of the age distrbution of encumbrances in the above cse-control study. The encumbrances of 18-year-old or younger patients with lumbar disc herniation showed familial predisposition, with an odds ratio of 5.61 in comparison to the controls. It was suggested that there is familial clustering of lumbar disc hemiatio among the encumbrances of 18-year-old or younger patients with lumbar disc herniation.
A fingerprint verification algorithm using the differential matching rate

We propose a fingerprint verification algorithm with template matching based on the cyclic structure of the fingerprint image. For a correlation value between a template and a sensed image, we use the differential matching rate. The differential matching rate utilizes the cyclic structure observed in the local area of a fingerprint pattern, which is calculated by the maximum matching rate minus the minimum matching rate detected near the point where the matching rate is maximum. In order to extract the maximum effectiveness of the cyclic structure, we compare divided windows of a template image against a sensed image. A verification experiment confirmed that the proposed method judges whether a template image and a sensed image are same finger's fingerprints more accurately than the conventional method using the maximum matching rate as a correlation value. We obtain the equal error rate (EER) of 3.6%, which is better than half that of the conventional method.
Saliency-Aware Volume Data Resizing by Surface Carving

We present a saliency-aware volume resizing operation called surface carving, which intelligently removes contextual voxels while preserving important features. By iteratively applying surface carving in all directions, we can create a volume of the desired size. For large volume data sets, a multilevel banded method is introduced to gracefully overcome the memory limit and speed up volume resizing. We compare our technique with traditionally cropping and scaling approaches and demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our method with several volume data sets.
Estimation of Mass and Center of Mass of Unknown and Graspless Cylinder-like Object

In manipulating an object stably and accurately by a robot, the mass and the center of mass of the object is often required. For cases when the weight or shape of an object is over the grasp capacity of a robot's hand, a technique that can estimate the mass and center of mass of a graspless unknown object, which has curved surfaces and a base plane is proposed in this paper. A line called Passing-C.M. Line which contains the center of mass, is defined. For estimating the passing-C.M. line, we proposed the Tip Operation by a robot finger, which tips the object slowly and repeatedly in a parallel motion with a vertical operation plane. Using the fingertip position and force information measured from tip operations, an algorithm to estimate the passing-C.M. line is described. Then an algorithm to estimate the mass and center of mass of the object is given by estimating the intersecting point of several differently oriented passing-C.M. lines.
Development of a neural network for precipitable water vapor retrieval over ocean and land

In this work a method based on neural networks is proposed to retrieve precipitable water vapour over land and over ocean from brightness temperatures measured by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System. In order to train the neural network, water vapour values provided by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, sampled on a regular grid with a spacing of 0.25deg in latitude and longitude, were exploited. The analysis was performed over Italy and the Mediterranean area and, as expected, the water vapour retrieval over a sea background exhibits good accuracy. Over a land background the proposed approach seems to be promising, where a RMS error of about 0.3 cm was achieved.
Single-agent ifosfamide studies in sarcomas of soft tissue and bone: the M.D. Anderson experience.

We have used ifosfamide to treat patients with sarcomas in four completed single-agent protocols and one pilot study since 1985. All the studies have used either N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) or mesna as a uroprotective agent, except in one arm of one study where hydration alone was employed. Mesna has proven superior to NAC in providing protection against ifosfamide-induced hematuria. Mesna given as a loading dose followed by continuous 24-h infusion has been effective and most practical in this regard. Ifosfamide has demonstrated clinically useful antitumor activity in our hands against most sarcoma subtypes. Our studies suggest a dose-response relationship for ifosfamide. At a total dose of 6 g/m2 per course, the overall response rate was 10%; at 10 g/m2 per course, it rose to 21%. Future clinical trials will determine ifosfamide's role in combination chemotherapy and more clearly define the best schedule or schedules for the uroprotective administration of mesna.
Variable-precision multiplier for equalizer with adaptive modulation

The impact of word length in a least-mean-square (LMS) equalized adaptive demodulator is studied. Analytic and simulation results show that there exists an optimal word length implementation for LMS equalizer for each modulation scheme. Increasing the word length beyond this point does little to improve performance. In order to achieve an optimal power/performance ratio, a variable word length datapath solution is needed for different modulation types. A basic building block of this kind of datapath, a variable-precision multiplier using dynamic voltage scaling (DVS), and gating technique are proposed. Simulation results show that a LMS equalizer based on a variable-precision multiplier can produce an 85% power reduction without performance or throughput penalties.
Gene expression analysis of dendritic cells that prevent diabetes in NOD mice: analysis of chemokines and costimulatory molecules

We have demonstrated previously that BM‐derived DCs can prevent diabetes development and halt progression of insulitis in NOD mice, the mouse model of type 1 diabetes. The DC population that was most effective in this therapy had a mature phenotype, expressed high levels of costimulatory molecules, and secreted low levels of IL‐12p70. The protective DC therapy induced Treg and Th2 cells in vitro and in vivo. Microarray analysis of therapeutic and nontherapeutic DC populations revealed differences in the expression of OX40L, CD200, Ym‐1, CCL2, and CCL5, which could play important roles in the observed DC‐mediated therapy. The unique pattern of costimulatory molecules and chemokines expressed by the therapeutic DCs was confirmed by flow cytometry and ELISA. Using a novel cell‐labeling and 19F NMR, we observed that the chemokines secreted by the therapeutic DCs altered the migration of diabetogenic Th1 cells in vivo and attracted Th2 cells. These results suggest that the therapeutic function of DCs is mediated by a combination of costimulatory and chemokine properties that results in the attraction of diabetogenic Th1 and the induction of Th2 and/or Treg differentiation.
Radial organization of thalamic projections to the neocortex in the mouse

The intracortical distributions of the thalamic projections to a large number of neocortical fields are studied by the anterograde degeneration method in the mouse. The basic radial distribution of terminating thalamofugal axons is uniform throughout the mouse cortex and is essentially the same as that encountered in other mammalian species. Terminating axons are concentrated in three tiers: an outer tier in layer I, a middle tier in layers IV and/or III, and an inner tier in layer VI. In most fields, terminating axons also extend, to some extent, into layer V. Variations are encountered from field to field, particularly in the density and degree of divergence of projections and in the radial extent of individual tiers with respect to cytoarchitectonic layers.
Physical inactivity and socioeconomic status in Canadian adolescents.

UNLABELLED Physical activity is an important determinant of population health. In this paper, we examine levels of physical activity among Canadian adolescents in relation to socioeconomic status. METHODS Data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, Cycle 2.1, conducted in 2003, were used to evaluate the association between socioeconomic status and physical activity. This survey included 9,294 males between 12 and 20 years of age, and 9,147 females in the same age range. RESULTS Among adolescents aged 12 to 20 years, 55.9% of males and 39.2% of females were physically active. The proportion of subjects in the active category tended to decrease with age in both males and females. Adolescents from low income families were more physically inactive (odds ratio=1.30, 95% confidence interval=1.29-1.32) than those from high income families. CONCLUSION Physical inactivity in adolescence represents an important population health issue in Canada. Physical activity levels tended to be higher among males, younger people, and those with higher socioeconomic status. Multi-sectoral policies and initiatives are needed to create environments that promote physical activity among Canadian youth.
Responsive School Programs: Possibilities for Urban Schools

This article addresses the view that schools are regarded as market-driven organizations dispensing a product. While such a view relates to all schools, it is especially significant in terms of an impact on urban schools. With this emphasis on customer satisfaction, school leaders must think of school programs as responsive to its customers. Responsive schools are defined and an overview of seven responsive school programs is presented. The conclusion of this article advances the notion that the success of urban schools is connected to their responsiveness to the needs of students, parents, and communities.
Market Liberalization: Spillovers from ADRs and implications for local markets

In this paper we perform a firm level analysis of the implications of financial liberalization. In particular, the paper focuses on the link between cross-listing in a foreign exchange and market integration. The specific focus is on the spillover effect to individual firms of the local market. We show that the first ADR from a country produces a spillover effect, and can thus be interpreted as an indirect market liberalization event. On average it leads to lower cost of capital, lower volatility and increased exposure to world factors. In addition, we find that the effects of liberalization are asymmetric across firms, and we identify the channels that influence the magnitude of the gains from higher integration. The results are consistent with improved risk sharing after the cross-listing. Nevertheless, besides risk sharing the results provide support to the predictions of models of capital market equilibrium with incomplete information. JEL classification: F36, G12, G15, G28