Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the Market Timing Performance of Managed Portfolios

A number of techniques have been proposed to measure portfolio performance and to distinguish between performance due to forecasting security-specific returns and performance due to forecasting market-wide events. We show theoretically and empirically that it is possible to construct portfolios that show artificial timing ability when no true timing ability exists. In particular, investing in options or levered securities will show spurious market timing. These types of securities will also induce the negative correlation between measured selectivity and timing ability found by others. We suggest specification tests to help distinguish between spurious and true timing ability. In addition, the tests can be used to distinguish between different models of the manager's reaction function.
Recognition of Double-stranded RNA by Human Toll-like Receptor 3 and Downstream Receptor Signaling Requires Multimerization and an Acidic pH*

Studies involving Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3)-deficient mice suggest that this receptor binds double-stranded RNA. In the present study, we analyzed ligand/receptor interactions and receptor-proximal events leading to TLR3 activation. The mutagenesis approach showed that certain cysteine residues and glycosylation in TLR3 amino-terminal leucine-rich repeats were necessary for ligand-induced signaling. Furthermore, inactive mutants had a dominant negative effect, suggesting that the signaling module is a multimer. We constructed a chimeric molecule fusing the amino-terminal ectodomain of TLR3 to the transmembrane and carboxyl terminal domains of CD32a containing an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based motif. Expression of TLR3-CD32 in HEK293T cells and the myeloid cell line U937 resulted in surface localization of the receptor, whereas the nonrecombinant molecule was intracellularly localized. The synthetic double-stranded RNAs poly(I-C) and poly(A-U) induced calcium mobilization in a TLR3-CD32 stably transfected U937 clone but not in control cells transfected with other constructs. An anti-TLR3 antibody also induced Ca2+ flux but only when cross-linked by a secondary anti-immunoglobulin antibody, confirming that multimerization by the ligand is a requirement for signaling. The inhibitors of lysosome maturation, bafilomycin and chloroquine, inhibited the poly(I-C)-induced biological response in immune cells, showing that TLR3 interacted with its ligand in acidic subcellular compartments. Furthermore, TLR3-CD32 activation with poly(I-C) was only observed within a narrow pH window (pH 5.7–6.7), whereas anti-TLR3-mediated Ca2+ flux was pH-insensitive. The importance of an acidic pH for TLR3-ligand interaction becomes critical when using oligomeric poly(I-C) (15–40-mers). These observations demonstrate that engagement of TLR3 by poly(I-C) at an acidic pH, probably in early phagolysosomes or endosomes, induces receptor aggregation leading to signaling.
Religion, Society and Modernity in Turkey

This is a selection of the finest essays by Serif Mardin, offering a historical and cultural analysis of the late Ottoman period and Republican Turkey. This book collects Serif Mardin's seminal essays written throughout the span of his prolific career. Comprising some of the author's finest and most incisive writings, these essays deal with the historical background, political travails, and socioeconomic metamorphosis of Turkey during a century of modernization. With his characteristic sophistication and breadth of vision, Mardin provides readers with a remarkably objective analysis of ideology, civil society, religion, urban life, and violence in late Ottoman and Republican Turkey. Mardin moves easily from sociological topics on violence and class-consciousness to the history of the Ottoman Empire, and the philosophy and culture of modern Turkey within the greater Middle East. These influential pieces - collected for the first time in one volume - represent an invaluable addition to the field of Middle East studies.
Sub-100 fJ and sub-nanosecond thermally driven threshold switching in niobium oxide crosspoint nanodevices

We built and measured the dynamical current versus time behavior of nanoscale niobium oxide crosspoint devices which exhibited threshold switching (current-controlled negative differential resistance). The switching speeds of 110 × 110 nm2 devices were found to be ΔtON = 700 ps and ΔtOFF = 2.3 ns while the switching energies were of the order of 100 fJ. We derived a new dynamical model based on the Joule heating rate of a thermally driven insulator-to-metal phase transition that accurately reproduced the experimental results, and employed the model to estimate the switching time and energy scaling behavior of such devices down to the 10 nm scale. These results indicate that threshold switches could be of practical interest in hybrid CMOS nanoelectronic circuits.
Using polynomial eigenvalue problem modeling to improve monocular visual odometry and 3D mapping

Visual Odometry (VO) is the process of calculating the motion of an agent (such as, robot and vehicle), using images captured by a single or multiple cameras embedded to it. VO is an important process to supplement autonomous navigation systems, since VO can provide accurate trajectory estimates. This process can be used to perform a 3D mapping, in order to provide more information during a vehicle navigation. However, algorithms of VO work with several steps of hard numerical computation which generate numerical errors and demand considerable processing time. In this paper, we propose the use of a mathematical framework for monocular VO process and mapping based on Polynomial Eigenvalue Problem (PEP) modeling in order to achieve both more accurate motion estimation and faithful 3D maps. Some previous experiments are shown in order to validate the proposed framework.
Academic Employment as Day Labor: The Dual Labor Market in Higher Education.

In recent years the structure of employment in higher education has undergone significant modification. Ever since the widespread establishment of tenure, faculty have belonged to one of two groups: those who hold tenure and those who do not. However, at the present time the nontenured faculty are being further partitioned into those who have access to tenure and those who do not. This distinction
Poverty, Human Development and Health Financing in India

Health constitutes one of the important determinants of human development. There are notable differentials across the Indian states in terms of human development, life expectancy and per capita incomes. Generally the HDI indices portray a better picture for better off states relative to their less well off counterparts. This study aims at analyzing the differentials across rich and poor states and across rich and poorer strata and rural urban segments of 19 major Indian states. The study indicates that besides individual health financing policies of the respective state governments, there are significant disparities even between rural and urban strata and rich and poorer sections of the society. These are indicated by high inequality coefficients and an emerging pattern of life style second generation health problems as well as levels of utilization of both preventive and curative care both in public and private sectors. Our results indicate that rather than more reliance on private sector an appropriate fine tuning of health financing strategy may be called for to mitigate partly the inequitable outcomes.
An Empirical Investigation of Changes in Scale Economies for the Commercial Banking Firm, 1979-1986

The period of the 1980s represents a particularly turbulent time for the banking industry. A number of technological and regulatory changes have occurred, including the elimination of Regulation Q which had limited the explicit interest payments that banks could pay on some types of deposits. It would be expected that these changes would affect the structure of costs for banks. The behavior of the cost function is studied over the 1979-1986 time period, and in contrast to previous studies using earlier data, increasing economies of scale are found in the later years for banks in both unit and branch banking states. These results indicate that there may be increased cost pressure for smaller banks to become larger, either through mergers and acquisitions or through internal growth. This may lead to further consolidation pressures within the industry, and reductions in the overall number of banking firms. Copyright 1991 by Ohio State University Press.
Design of A Two-Stage Adaptive Fuzzy Controller

In this paper, a systematic two-stage design method for adaptive fuzzy controllers (TSAFC's) is presented. The proposed control scheme has low computational complexity. Moreover, the exact mathematical model of the plant to be controlled is not required. The fuzzy controller under consideration is based on the proportional-derivative fuzzy control scheme and triangular membership functions. In the design procedure, the domain intervals of the input and output variables are selected with a heuristic approach to minimize the cost function under the constraint of tolerable overshoots in the response curve. A learning scheme is then proposed to automatically adjust the parameters in the fuzzy controller to reduce the error of the system. Simulations are included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
The Differential‐Productivity Hypothesis and Purchasing‐Power Parties: Some New Evidence*

The structure of prices of goods entering into international trade relative to those that do not plays a key role in the Balassa-Samuelson explanation of why countries' exchange rates differ systematically from their currencies' purchasing power. The B-S analysis leads to the proposition that the tradable-nontradable price difference is lower for rich countries than for poor. This paper examines the gap, using prices collected by the International Comparison Program. A variety of regressions were run to see if indeed the difference between tradable and nontradable price parities moved with income in the way B-S expected. They did. Copyright 1994 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
S-equol and the fermented soy product SE5-OH containing S-equol similarly decrease ovariectomy-induced increase in rat tail skin temperature in an animal model of hot flushes

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the effect of SE5-OH, a fermented soy product containing S-equol, with purified S-equol on hot flushes in an ovariectomized rat model. Methods: Eleven-week-old female Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to either the sham group (vehicle; n = 30) or one of four ovariectomized groups: control (vehicle; n = 30), conjugated equine estrogens (CEE; 6.0 mg kg−1 d−1 CEE; n = 10), SE5-OH (2,000 mg kg−1 d−1 SE5-OH containing 11.7 mg kg−1 d−1 as S-equol; n = 30), and S-equol (11.7 mg kg−1 d−1 S-equol; n = 30). Three days after sham operation or ovariectomy, animals were treated once daily for 38 days. Tail skin temperature (TST) was assessed on days 21, 28, and 35 after surgery. Plasma estradiol and follicle-stimulating hormone levels and uterine weight and uteri histology were evaluated at the end of treatment. Results: The rise in TST resulting from ovariectomy was inhibited by CEE, SE5-OH, and S-equol. Compared with the control, TST was decreased by 68.9% and 86.2% in SE5-OH group on days 21 and 28, respectively (P = 0.014, 0.020), and by 60.1% and 89.1% in S-equol group, respectively (P = 0.038, 0.016). Unlike in the CEE group, plasma estradiol and follicle-stimulating hormone levels, uterine weight, epithelial height, stromal expansion, and myometrial thickness were not affected in SE5-OH and S-equol groups. Conclusions: The results of this animal model of hot flushes suggest that S-equol is one of the primary components of SE5-OH and that both SE5-OH and S-equol represent promising alternatives for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. Clinical research is needed to confirm these findings.
Corporate Tax Systems And Cross Country Profit Shifting

The paper analyses optimal taxation of corporate profits when governments can choose both the rate and the base of the corporation tax, but are constrained to collect a given amount of corporate tax revenue. In a standard two-period model of investment and international mobility of portfolio capital only, the optimal tax system allows a full deduction for the costs of capital. When foreign direct investment is permitted, however, and firms can shift profits between countries through transfer pricing, it will be optimal for each government to distort investment decisions in order to reduce tax rates and limit the incentive for profit shifting.
Modelling the volatility in Istanbul Stock Exchange: shifting from Box-Jenkins to ARCH type models

Forecasting the volatility of financial markets is one of the important issues in empirical finance that absorbed the interest of many researchers in the last decade. As it is known, there has been many studies uncovering the properties of competing volatility models. In this study, both traditional (unconditional) and conditional volatility models, which have the implications for finance that investors can predict the risk, are analyzed. In this study, Box-Jenkins model (ARIMA) and ARCH-type models (ARCH-GARCH-EGARCH-TARCH and GARCH-M) are discussed for the time–dependence in variance that is regularly observed in financial time series and various classical volatility forecasting approaches are compared using ISE-100 Stock Index for the time period between the years 1987 and 2009. As a result, it is found that IMKB-100 returns series include; leptokurtosis, leverage effects, volatility clustering (or pooling), volatility smile and long memory and TGARCH (1,1) is the best fitting model for modeling the volatility of Ise-100 Index.
Why certain dyes are useful for localizing the sentinel lymph node.

UNLABELLED Location of the sentinel lymph node in malignant melanoma and early breast cancer patients requires separate injections of radiocolloid and blue dye. These agents are administered at alternative times because of their different rates of transit. This study has elucidated why particular dyes are absorbed by the lymphatic system from an investigation of dye molecular structure as a function of protein binding ability. METHODS A dye-protein binding assay was developed using size-exclusion chromatography and ultraviolet spectrophotometry and applied to a series of 20 sulfonic acid group-containing dyes. Radiochemical analyses were also used with 3 99mTc-labeled dyes to rationalize which functional groups are involved in the protein binding reaction. RESULTS Methylene blue resulted in no protein affinity at 37 degrees C, whereas disulfonate dyes separated by 1 atom such as Patent blue or Indigo carmine gave <30% binding. Optimum protein binding (84%-100%) was achieved with those dyes containing at least 2 sulfonic acid groups separated by 2-6 atoms in their chemical structure. Seven symmetric tetrasulfonic acid azo dyes were examined, including Evans blue, to result in 59%-71% binding. CONCLUSION Ionizable groups (sulfonic acids) that are present in the structure of dyes are directly involved in dye-protein binding. At the molecular level, there is a sulfonation reaction between sulfonic acid dyes and amino groups on the protein surface to form sulfonamide complexes. This reaction shows how the soluble dyes Evans blue and Patent blue are trapped in lymph after subdermal injection during the sentinel node biopsy procedure.
Informational Efficiency in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, 1931–40

type="main"> This article relies on a unique dataset of daily price indices for stocks and bonds to analyse the functioning of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in the period 1931–40. We find that this market deviated from weak-form efficiency, in a context of cross-market segmentation, short-run spillovers, and turmoil surrounding major events. In this context, zaibatsu insiders were able to make abnormal returns via informed trading, while other uninformed investors could rely on technical rules to make abnormal profits. Such findings call for a micro-level analysis of the interwar TSE corporate financing function.
Problematic psychosocial adaptation and executive dysfunction in women and men with myelomeningocele

Purpose: Myelomeningocele (MMC) is caused by incomplete neural tube development, affecting physical, cognitive and adaptive functioning. The aim of this study was to characterize women and men with problematic psychosocial adaptation with respect to cognitive functions and psychological symptoms. It was expected that cognitive functions, especially the executive functions, were mostly impaired. In addition, the clinical history, the neurological and the psychological functioning was investigated. Method: Twelve participants (six men, six women; age range 24–41 years) with MMC were recruited from TRS National Resource Centre for Rare Disorders. Inclusion criteria were (1) uncompleted upper secondary school, (2) unemployment and (3) lack of social relationships. The participants underwent a systematic clinical history, a clinical neurological examination, a neuropsychological assessment and questionnaires regarding cognitive and psychological functioning. Results: All participants had major neurological deficits and most of them had hydrocephalus and Chiari-II malformation. Cognitive deficits were present in a range of domains, especially the executive functions. The neuropsychological findings showed no obvious difference between men and women. Symptoms of psychopathology were more pronounced in women. The men were less capable to structure daily living. Conclusions: The neuropsychological findings disclosed that the executive functions were most impaired. Future research should be directed towards cognitive rehabilitation. Implications for Rehabilitation It is conceivable that executive deficits in patients with myelomeningocele are decisive for problematic psychosocial adaptation. Cognitive rehabilitation should be considered for neuropsychological impairments to improve psychosocial functioning and quality of life. Gender differences in psychological functioning are evident.
Sur la gestion des Monopoles Publics astreints a l'equilibre budgetaire

Cet article constitue la mise au point et le developpement d'une communication anterieure sur le meme sujet. Il concerne le probleme pose par l'incompatibilite de la regle de vente au cout marginal preconisee par les Welfare Economics, et les conditions d'equilibre budgetaire imposees par les Pouvoirs Publics aux entreprises nationalisees. La methode consiste en une "maximation de Pareto" appliquee a un modele general dont les liaisons de structure comportent a la fois des liaisons entre les quantites et des liaisons entre les valeurs. Les resultats obtenus, rassembles dans la section 8, sont commentes et compares aux solutions anterieurement proposees a ce probleme. Un resume de cet article est constitue par les sections 1, 3, et 8, qui peuvent etre lues sans prendre connaissance des calculs. Le modele developpe dans la section 2 a pour objet de faciliter l'interpretationdonnee dans la section 3, et d'expliquer plus clairement l'intervention des prix et revenus dans les liasons du systeme; mais la maximation exposee dans la section 5 est effectuee sur le modele transforme qui, a la fin de la section 4, rassemble sous une forme condensee les liaisions du systeme. La section 9, enfin, a l'occasion de la critique faite de la politique "traditionnelle" des monopoles publics, commente certains points particuliers des resultats exposes dans la section 8.
The Effects of Glyphosate Isopropylamine and Trifluralin on the Carbon Mineralization of Olive Tree Soils

Glyphosate isopropylamine and trifluralin are herbicides widely used in Turkish agriculture. The recommended field dose (RFD) (480 g of active ingredient l-1 for both glyphosate and trifluralin) and 2 x RFD of these herbicides were added to the soil of olive trees (Olea europaea L., Oleaceae) growing on the Cukurova University Campus (Adana) under Mediterranean climate conditions in order to determine their effects on soil microbial activity as measured by carbon mineralization. Carbon mineralization of all samples was determined by the CO2 respiration method over 30 days (28 °C, constant moisture). When the RFD and 2 x RFD of glyphosate were compared to a control treatment with no herbicide, they significantly stimulated carbon mineralization at the end of the 30 days (P 0.05). Based on these results, it is possible to conclude that soil microorganisms are capable of using glyphosate as a carbon source.
Decomposing Welfare Changes in GTAP

This paper develops a complete decomposition of the change in global welfare in the GTAP model. In particular, this money metric change is broken down into component parts, each of which relates to a quantity change interacting with a distortion in the model. This enables the user to assess, for example, how much of the gains from trade reform are attributable to a given commodity and/or a given region. The commodity and region specific changes in allocative efficiency can be further decomposed by transaction/tax instrument. We find that this greatly facilitates the presentation and analysis of results from GTAP. We motivate the derivation of this decomposition with the case of a one region, three commodity, analogue to the GTAP model. This permits us to focus on purely allocative efficiency effects (no terms of the trade changes). Extension to the multiregion model adds the prospect of terms of trade effects on regional EV, and the multiregion decomposition isolates the contribution of tradable price changes to regional welfare. This is demonstrated in a 3 region, 3 commodity example. Finally, we offer a more complete decomposition which takes into account the impact of changes in endowments and technology on regional welfare. This revised (2001) version introduces a number of important changes to the original (1996) paper. In particular, we build on the new final demand structure for GTAP proposed by McDougall (2001). This includes explicit recognition of changes in the marginal utility of income, as well as a per capita decomposition. We also take account of version 5.0 changes in the standard GTAP model, including the introduction of multiple international margins commodities.
Employment Hazards: An Investigation of Market Performance

The safety of the work place is now a highly visible public issue. Many are calling for tighter regulation to reduce worker risk, while others feel government intervention is ineffective and costly. Here Kip Viscusi explores how well markets for hazardous jobs actually work. According to classical economics, other things being equal, a worker will demand more pay for a hazardous job than a safe one. However, this assumes that job related hazards are known, when often they are not. Using recent advances in the economics of information, Viscusi develops a theory of individual responses to job hazards under conditions of uncertainty.His assumptions are that hazards are uncertain events and that learning about them is a process that takes place over time. He then employs this analysis to study the performance of job markets in matching persons and jobs and in compensating persons for exposure to hazards. Finally he tests his adaptive model of the decision to quit and finds substantial evidence that risks are indeed reflected in wage differentials and quit behavior.