Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compensation for Volatility Risk in Interest Rate Derivatives

We use volatilities implied from interest rate swaptions to assess the size, the sign and the behavior through time of the compensation for volatility risk, for dollar, euro and pound rates at a daily frequency, between October 1998 and August 2006. The measurement of the volatility risk premium rests on a simple model according to which variance forecasts can be generated under the physical measure. Results show that between September 2001 and mid-2004 dollar implieds were embodying a large - negative - compensation for volatility risk, a component which was much smaller for the other two currencies. While the negative compensation for volatility risk is in line with previous studies focusing on other asset classes, we also document that it exhibits a significant term structure, more evident for dollar and euro rates than for pound rates. The volatility risk premium is strongly changing through time but much less than implied volatilities. Estimates of risk aversion based on the physical skewness and kurtosis of interest rate changes suggest that (minus) the vrp can almost directly be read as risk aversion, as the proportionality between the two is about 0.8. Also, compensation for volatility risk is positively related to expected volatility, although the relation is not completely linear. Daily compensation for volatility risk is influenced, as expected, by the level of the short term rate and its volatility as well as by a small but robust number of macroeconomic surprises. The latter induce more sizeable changes on compensation for volatility risk of dollar rates than in euro or pound rates.
Analysis of Foreign Currencies Exchange Rate and Sudan Macroeconomic Variables

Since the beginning of the year 2012, foreign currencies exchange rates against the domestic Sudanese currency saw continuous rise. That happened even though there were universal fluctuations for them due to continuous financial crisis. The continuous appreciations of foreign currencies in Sudan have economic negative impacts. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to estimate the effects of Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) on Sudan trade balance (TB). The present situation is confusing for all in Sudan with discrepancies in market effective foreign currencies and government declared prices. For example, one US$ in the market is worth 5.2 Sudanese pounds, while government price is only 2.62. That generates deep gap between imports real cost and domestic market values. The same is true for exports which are valued below REER and that minimize producers' profitability. There studies that have investigated in the short-run and long run effects of real effective exchange rate on trade balance. The first group has employed at aggregate level between Sudan and the rest of world. The second group has used the trade at the bilateral level between Sudan and her major trading partners, China as a largest export and import partner of Sudan. Since a country's trade balance behavior is directly depending on real effective exchange rate (REER), foreign income (Y*) and real domestic income (Y), so, we will include all these variables in our model to test the general case (Sudan-world case) and specific case (Sudan-China case). This study uses unit root tests, co-integration techniques, Error Correction Model and impulse response function with time series data covering the periods of 1981Q1-2009Q4. The main findings of this study are that REER have a significant expected impact as positive in long-run and negative in short-run on the Sudan bilateral trade balance with China and on the total trade balance. The Granger Causality test suggests that REER does Granger causes trade balance for all cases of study. The study clearly demonstrates that real devaluations of exchange rate in Sudan have been negatively associated with improvement of trade balance. Hence, devaluation of currency as a whole does not seem to be beneficial for Sudan exports. That is because the country's real economic sectors, agriculture and industry have deteriorated in their productive abilities, mostly due to oil dependency syndrome and negligence of the other economic sectors.
An Analysis of the NIST SP 800-90A Standard

We conduct a multi-faceted investigation of the security properties of the three deterministic random bit generator (DRBG) mechanisms recommended in the NIST SP 800-90A standard [4]. This standard received a considerable amount of negative attention, due to the host of controversy and problems with the now retracted DualEC-DRBG, which was included in earlier revisions. Perhaps because of the attention paid to the DualEC, the other algorithms in the standard have received surprisingly patchy analysis to date, despite widespread deployment. This paper provides an analysis of the remaining DRBG algorithms in NIST SP 800-90A. We uncover a mix of positive and less than positive results, emphasizing and addressing the gap between theoretical models, and the NIST DRBGs as specified and used. As an initial positive result, we verify claims in the standard by proving (with a few caveats) the forward security of all three DRBGs. However, digging deeper into flexibility in implementation and usage choices permitted by the standard, we uncover some undesirable properties of these standardized DRBGs. Specifically, we argue that these DRBGs have the property that leaking certain parts of the state may lead to catastrophic failure of the algorithm. Furthermore, we show that flexibility in the specification allows implementers and users of these algorithms to make choices that considerably weaken the algorithms in these scenarios.
A Visualization Technique of a Unique pH Distribution around an Ion Depletion Zone in a Microchannel by Using a Dual-Excitation Ratiometric Method

The ion depletion zone of ion concentration polarization has a strong potential to act as an immaterial barrier, separating delicate submicron substances, including biomolecules, without causing physical damage. However, the detailed mechanisms of the barrier effect remain incompletely understood because it is difficult to visualize the linked behavior of protons, cations, anions, and charged molecules in the thin ion depletion zone. In this study, pH distribution in an ion depletion zone was measured to estimate the role of proton behavior. This was done in order to use it as a tool with good controllability for biomolecule handling in the future. As a result, a unique pH peak was observed at several micrometers distance from the microchannel wall. The position of the peak appeared to be in agreement with the boundary of the ion depletion zone. From this agreement, it is expected that the pH peak has a causal connection to the barrier effect of the ion depletion zone.
Information Sharing Mechanism among Mobile Agents In Ad-hoc Network Environment and Its Applications

Mobile agents are programs that can move from one site to another in a network with their data and states. Mobile agents are expected to be an essential tool in pervasive computing. In multi platform environment, it is important to communicate with mobile agents only using their universal or logical name not using their physical locations. More, in an ad-hoc network environment, an agent can migrate autonomously and communicate with other agents on demand. It is difficult that mobile agent grasps the position information on other agents correctly each other, because mobile agent processes a task while moving a network successively. In order to realize on-demand mutual communication among mobile agents without any centralized servers, we propose a new information sharing mechanism within mobile agents. In this paper, we present a new information sharing mechanism within mobile agents. The method is a complete peer based and requires no agent servers to manage mobile agent locations. Therefore, a mobile agent can get another mobile agent, communicate with it and shares information stored in the agent without any knowledge of the location of the target mobile agent. The basic idea of the mechanism is an introduction of Agent Ring, Agent Chain and Shadow Agent. With this mechanism, each agent can communicate with other agents in a server-less environment, which is suitable for ad-hoc agent network and an agent system can manage agents search and communications efficiently.
HIV/AIDS, Security and Conflict: New Realities, New Responses

This is the final report of the AIDS, Security and Conflict Initiative(ASCI) that was convened by the Social Science Research Council (New York) and Clingendael Institute (The Hague) between 2005 and 2009, with support from UNAIDS. ASCI is a global research initiative aimed at informing policy and programming by strengthening the evidence base and addressing critical gaps in knowledge in the fields of HIV and AIDS and security.
Recognition and Disclosure Reliability: Evidence from SFAS No. 106

This paper examines a fundamental question of interest to researchers and regulators: Does the market treat disclosed financial statement information as if it is less reliable than information recognized in the body of the financial statements? Specifically, we compare the perceived reliability of liabilities for retiree benefits other than pensions (PRBs) disclosed prior to adoption of SFAS No. 106 with the perceived reliability of PRB liabilities subsequently recognized under SFAS No. 106. Overall, the evidence is consistent with the market treating disclosed PRB liabilities as being less reliable than recognized PRB liabilities and pension liabilities. However, once PRB liabilities are recognized, they do not appear to be any less reliable than pension liabilities. These findings are inconsistent with the Choi et al. (1997) conclusion that PRB liabilities are inherently less reliable than pension liabilities. The paper also investigates factors that may have contributed to the lower disclosure reliability.
Common-Mode-Voltage-Reduced Model-Predictive Control Scheme for Current-Source-Converter-Fed Induction Motor Drives

Common-mode voltages (CMVs) in a motor drive system could damage the motor insulation and induce destructive bearing current, especially at medium-voltage (MV) level. Various reduced CMV space vector modulation (RCMV SVM) methods have been proposed for current-source converter (CSC)-fed motor drives. However, no matter what kind of RCMV SVM methods, the CMV peak value can only be reduced to no larger than summation of half peak values of capacitor phase voltages at both rectifier and inverter sides, since only zero-state vectors with higher CMV values are eliminated. In this paper, a CMV reduced model-predictive control (RCMV-MPC) is proposed to further mitigate the CMV peak value through selecting optimal space vectors for both current-source rectifier and current-source inverter simultaneously. A novel unified cost function is developed to realize both rectifier- and inverter-side reference tracks and CMV peak value further reduction at the same time. With RCMV-MPC, the CMV peak value in a CSC-fed induction motor drive can be further reduced inside a calculated CMV peak value limitation. In fact, the CMV peak value of RCMV-MPC can be reduced to nearly 60% of that in existing zero-state vector selection-based RCMV SVM methods. Besides, satisfactory performance on reference tracks, especially during transients, is also guaranteed based on the unified cost function. Simulation results in a high-power MV CSC-fed IM drive (1 MW, 4160 V), and experiments in a low-power prototype (5 kW, 208 V) verify the effectiveness of RCMV-MPC.
Brain Drain or Brain Circulation: Evidence from OECD's International Migration and R&D Spillovers

This paper empirically investigates whether labour mobility can transfer technology across borders based on the panel cointegration method. Estimates of specifications on a cross-section of 19 OECD countries during 1980-1990 lend strong support to this thesis. Data indicate that international labour movement may help transfer technology across borders in both directions: from donor countries to host countries and vice versa. This suggests that migration may more likely create a brain circulation rather than a brain drain. In addition, human capital has a significant impact on the research and development (R&D) diffusion process as it enhances a country's capacity to learn from a foreign technology base.
AN SOA APPROACH FOR MEASURING ALIGNMENT BETWEEN ENTERPRISE REQUIREMENTS AND ERP SYSTEM

The implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system within companies is increasingly current. Despite the potential benefits that ERP systems provide, these projects are risky. In fact, many ERP integration projects fail because the system is not aligned to adopting organization’s requirements. This paper proposes criteria and metrics that allow measuring alignment between enterprise requirements and ERP functionalities in order to quantify the extent of the fit between the business and the ERP system. We used SOA (service oriented architecture) formalism to model both the ERP system and the enterprise requirements. We illustrate how to derive service oriented business process model and service oriented ERP process model from business process model and ERP process model, respectively. This derivation is essentially deduced from a set of rules based on the concepts of the business process meta-model and SOA meta-model. On the other hand, we used the pair of resulting SOA models as inputs for the alignment measurement process. Finally, we illustrate our proposals with a case study.
Using the Comer Process to Create a Successful Middle School

According to Dickinson and McEwin (1998), there appears to be a general consensus regarding the major ele ments of a middle school: (a) an inter disciplinary team organization; (b) a respectable guidance program that includes a teacher advisory plan; (c) curriculum that provides personal development, basic knowledge, and learning skills; and (d) continued articulation between parents, teachers, students, and community. Within this framework the Comer process offers tremendous potential. Driven by a focus on the developmental path ways of learning, the Comer process utilizes a three team approach that emphasizes governance, student support services, and parental involvement. The part nership of the middle school concept and Comer Process produces a school structure and culture that is integrative rather than segmented. The following case study shows how one middle school in decline used this integrative partnership to restructure education and support services to improve its performance.
Ownership participation of cross-border mergers and acquisitions by emerging market firms: Antecedents and performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to adopt a multi-level approach to investigate what factors shape the content of emerging market firms’ foreign market entry decisions, particularly the ownership participation in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (MA and uses a standard event study methodology to assess the market reaction of a particular cross-border M&A deal. Findings – The author finds that a country-level factor (institutional distance), an industry-level factor (industry unrelatedness) and a firm-level factor (board concentration) have significant impact on ownership participation in cross-.
Zero Expenditures and the Estimation of Engel Curves

Over the brief interview periods typical of budget surveys (such as the U.K. Family Expenditure Survey) households' recorded expenditures are liable to be misleading indicators of their underlying consumption. Most starkly, a household may not be observed to purchase commodities that it nevertheless consumes. This paper considers the implications of such measurement errors for the estimation of demand systems, and derives a consistent estimator for the special case of linear Engel curves.
Public finance and the optimal speed of transition

We develop a general equilibrium model that jointly considers the influence of capital accumulation constraints and of labour market frictions on the process of transition. We endogenize the economic and budgetary costs of different government policies and show that, early in transition, governments ought to subsidize state firms. Provided that intertemporal commitment is feasible, this policy limits the initial output fall, which relaxes capital accumulation constraints, accelerates transition, and increases welfare. Moreover, by resorting to indirect - instead of direct - taxes, governments can bring the path of transition closer to the first best. Yet, political pressures may induce a policy of suboptimal subsidization.
Porn and sex education, porn as sex education

Both popular and academic discussions of pornography have explored the question of sexually explicit texts as pedagogy. While many commentators and scholars have acknowledged the educational qualities of pornography, there is no universal consensus as to what porn teaches its consumers and how it works as an educator. Pornography is increasingly itself the subject of educational texts, with ‘porn literacy’ being debated as a potential addition to the secondary state school curriculum in the United Kingdom and Australia. This article presents an overview of the field of ‘porn as pedagogy’ and pedagogy about porn. It is modest in scope, relying primarily on recent research and media reportage from Australasia, North America and the United Kingdom. These Anglophone countries have significant similarities in respect to the ways pornography is framed as a moral and/or political issue within public debate (although there are also notable differences). For this reason, the overview that follows does not seek to .
Functional Characterization of a Nonmammalian IL-21: Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss IL-21 Upregulates the Expression of the Th Cell Signature Cytokines IFN-γ, IL-10, and IL-22

In mammals, IL-21 is a common γ chain cytokine produced by activated CD4+ T cells and NKT cells that acts on multiple lineages of cells. Although IL-21 has also been discovered in birds, amphibians, and fish, to date, no functional studies have been reported for any nonmammalian IL-21 molecule. We have sequenced an IL-21 gene (tIL-21) in rainbow trout, which has a six-exon/five-intron structure, is expressed in immune tissues, and is induced by bacterial and viral infection and the T cell stimulant PHA. In contrast to mammals, calcium ionophore and PMA act synergistically to induce tIL-21. Recombinant tIL-21 (rtIL-21) induced a rapid and long-lasting (4–72 h) induction of expression of IFN-γ, IL-10, and IL-22, signature cytokines for Th1-, Th2-, and Th17-type responses, respectively, in head kidney leukocytes. However, rtIL-21 had little effects on the expression of other cytokines studied. rtIL-21 maintained the expression of CD8α, CD8β, and IgM at a late stage of stimulation when their expression was significantly decreased in controls and increased the expression of the Th cell markers CD4, T-bet, and GATA3. Intraperitoneal injection of rtIL-21 confirmed the in vitro bioactivity and increased the expression of IFN-γ, IL-10, IL-21, IL-22, CD8, and IgM. Inhibition experiments revealed that the activation of JAK/STAT3, Akt1/2, and PI3K pathways were responsible for rtIL-21 action. This study helps to clarify the role of IL-21 in lower vertebrates for the first time, to our knowledge, and suggests IL-21 is a likely key regulator of T and B cell function in fish.
The Political Economy of Industrial Policy in Korea

The article aims to provide some additional empirical support and theoretical consolidation for the emerging 'alternative' interpretation of the Korean developmental experience, which emphasizes the role of the state. After briefly reviewing some mainstream interpretations, it presents a detailed account of state intervention in Korea, where it is revealed that industrial policy played the central role. Then it explains how the Korean state was able to avoid some of the obvious dangers of such a policy, which is often associated with economic failures in developing countries. It then explores the basis of state power in Korea which provided a background for such an outcome. Copyright 1993 by Oxford University Press.
Antioxidant activities of Echinops orientalis trauv . 33 worm and hemorrhoid in Ethiopia

The genus Echinops belonging to the Asteraceae family comprises 130 species. The dried leaves and seeds of Echinops orientalis Trauv. were extracted separately with methanol. Apigenin-7-O-(6"-trans-pcoumaroyl--D-glucopyranoside 1, and Apigenin-7-O--D glucoside 2 were isolated from leaves and 1methoxycarbonylindole 3 and beta-sitositerol 4 were isolated from seeds. The compounds were isolated by chromatographic techniques, based on column chromatography, preparative TLC and identified by spectroscopic methods including 1D-, 2D-NMR, UV, IR, HPLC-QTOF/MS. Isolated compounds and extracts were applied to antioxidant activity tests. While seeds and leaves extracts have high DPPH and moderate ABTS radical scavenging activities, the isolated flavones exhibited high cation radical scavenging activities.
Negative refractive index metamaterial for enhancing radiation directivity in S-band

A new design of metamaterial having a negative refractive index in the whole of S-band (2.2–3.3 GHz) is shown which resonates at 2.5 GHz with less than −40 dB of the reflection coefficient, thus showing a perfect transmission. The radiation pattern with and without metamaterial is compared. It is seen that the radiation directivity is enhanced due to the metamaterial when the half power beamwidth is compared. This structure can be used in the application like wireless power transfer.
Evaluation of clustering algorithms for gene expression data using gene ontology annotations.

BACKGROUND Clustering is a useful exploratory technique for interpreting gene expression data to reveal groups of genes sharing common functional attributes. Biologists frequently face the problem of choosing an appropriate algorithm. We aimed to provide a standalone, easily accessible and biologically oriented criterion for expression data clustering evaluation. METHODS An external criterion utilizing annotation based similarities between genes is proposed in this work. Gene ontology information is employed as the annotation source. Comparisons among six widely used clustering algorithms over various types of gene expression data sets were carried out based on the criterion proposed. RESULTS The rank of these algorithms given by the criterion coincides with our common knowledge. Single-linkage has significantly poorer performance, even worse than the random algorithm. Ward's method archives the best performance in most cases. CONCLUSIONS The criterion proposed has a strong ability to distinguish among different clustering algorithms with different distance measurements. It is also demonstrated that analyzing main contributors of the criterion may offer some guidelines in finding local compact clusters. As an addition, we suggest using Ward's algorithm for gene expression data analysis.
Energy harvesting power management circuit design in 22nm FDSOI technology

Today, users of existing commercial products expect longer battery life from the electronic products that they use in their daily activities. In addition to this, emerging technologies, especially in the Internet-of-Things domain require very long battery life time to be regarded as useful by their potential users. Energy harvesting methods which are used for extending the battery life or battery-free operation have been long studied by researchers. With the utilization of FD-SOI technology which can significantly reduce the leakage current in the stand-by mode of the electronic devices, more efficient energy harvesting power management integrated circuits can be designed. In this work, we present the design of an energy harvesting circuit which is optimized to benefit from the low leakage current characteristics of FD-SOI transistor.