Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Calendar anomalies in the stock returns of real estate investment trusts

Recurring behaviours of broad market stock returns around various calendar dates have been widely documented in the finance literature. Some studies have exposed similar performances in subsectors of the market. This paper considers such anomalous return behaviour in REITs from 1994–99. Rather than finding January and Monday effects, like are present in the broad market, we report on December and Friday effects in the REIT market. December returns are higher than those experienced in other months. Friday produces the highest returns during the week and Monday returns are positive and not significantly different from those of Tuesday to Thursday. Consistent with other research, we find support for a holiday effect and a turn-of-the-month effect. Most of the findings hold across industry subsamples within the REIT market. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications
BLSTM-CTC Combination Strategies for Off-line Handwriting Recognition

In this paper we present several combination strategies using multiple BLSTM-CTC systems. Given several feature sets our aim is to determine which strategies are the most relevant to improve on an isolated word recognition task (the WR2 task of the ICDAR 2009 competition), using a BLSTM-CTC architecture. We explore different combination levels: early integration (feature combination), mid level combination and late fusion (output combinations). Our results show that several combinations outperform single feature BLSTM-CTCs.
Discretion in European merger control: The German regime in context

Abstract Merger control is used in this article to illustrate the exercise of discretion in economic regulation. It suggests that discretion is unavoidable and examines the various modes of discretion exercised by institutions such as the Bundeskartellamt and Directorate‐General IV of the European Union. It argues that institutions should be structured to deploy discretion productively and to modify both legal and economic modes of analysis. Four elements in the article can be stressed. First, it provides an analysis of the important and under‐emphasized area of German merger control; secondly, it offers a comparative critique of the operation of German policy; thirdly, it suggests that an impoverished European theory of regulation could benefit from a transfusion of American concepts and, fourthly, it provides a sceptical perspective on current proposals for reform of EC competition policy institutions.
CHLOROPLAST BIOGENESIS Genes Act Cell and Noncell Autonomously in Early Chloroplast Development1

In order to identify nuclear genes required for early chloroplast development, a collection of photosynthetic pigment mutants of Arabidopsis was assembled and screened for lines with extremely low levels of chlorophyll. Nine chloroplast biogenesis (clb) mutants that affect proplastid growth and thylakoid membrane formation and result in an albino seedling phenotype were identified. These mutations identify six new genes as well as a novel allele of cla1. clb mutants have less than 2% of wild-type chlorophyll levels, and little or no expression of nuclear and plastid-encoded genes required for chloroplast development and function. In all but one mutant, proplastids do not differentiate enough to form elongated stroma thylakoid membranes. Analysis of mutants during embryogenesis allows differentiation between CLB genes that act noncell autonomously, where partial maternal complementation of chloroplast development is observed in embryos, and those that act cell autonomously, where complementation during embryogenesis is not observed. Molecular characterization of the noncell autonomous clb4 mutant established that the CLB4 gene encodes for hydroxy-2-methyl-2-(E)-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase (HDS), the next to the last enzyme of the methylerythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway for the synthesis of plastidic isoprenoids. The noncell autonomous nature of the clb4 mutant suggests that products of the MEP pathway can travel between tissues, and provides in vivo evidence that some movement of MEP intermediates exists from the cytoplasm to the plastid. The isolation and characterization of clb mutants represents the first systematic study of genes required for early chloroplast development in Arabidopsis.
Yu Duan Practices as Embodying Tradition, Modernity and Social Change in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand

ABSTRACT In this paper I examine the traditional postpartum beliefs and practices which still exist in northern Thailand today. The paper is based on qualitative research involving in-depth interviews with 30 women in Chiang Mai province. Beliefs and practices remain an essential part for postpartum care for women and have important consequences for women's health and well-being in northern Thailand. Many Thai women see their reproductive health problems as the consequence of inadequate postpartum practices. Thai women also believe that the effects of postpartum taboos would continue for the rest of their lives. Although the traditional postpartum beliefs and practices abound, the level of adherence differs according to the social structure of the women and their families. Poor rural women seem to hold on to their traditions more strongly than their urban counterparts. Urban middle class women in particular embody modernity in their thinking and behaviors concerning postpartum practices. But modernization has brought with it medical dominance. Due to their medical knowledge, doctors retain authority over both knowledge and status. The consequence of this dominance is the attempt to dismiss local traditional knowledge and practices. Although the pattern of traditional postpartum beliefs and practices is changing, it is still observed in northern Thailand. I contend that postpartum care for women incorporates local traditions so that women's health can be optimized at the time when they are in the most vulnerable stage of their lives.
Solving the Probabilistic Travelling Salesman Problem Based on Genetic Algorithm with Queen Selection Scheme

The probabilistic travelling salesman problem (PTSP) is an extension of the well-known travelling salesman problem (TSP), which has been extensively studied in the field of combinatorial optimization. The goal of the TSP is to find the minimum length of a tour to all customers, given the distances between all pairs of customers whereas the objective of the PTSP is to minimize the expected length of the a priori tour where each customer requires a visit only with a given probability (Bertsimas, 1988; Bertsimas et al., 1990; Jaillet, 1985). The main difference between the PTSP and the TSP is that in the PTSP the probability of each node being visited is between 0.0 and 1.0 while in TSP the probability of each node being visited is 1.0. Due to the fact that the element of uncertainty not only exists, but also significantly affects the system performance in many real-world transportation and logistics applications, the results from the PTSP can provide insights into research in other probabilistic combinatorial optimization problems. Moreover, the PTSP can also be used to model many real-world applications in logistical and transportation planning, such as daily pickup-delivery services with stochastic demand, job sequencing involving changeover cost, design of retrieval sequences in a warehouse or in a cargo terminal operations, meals on wheels in senior citizen services, trip-chaining activities, vehicle routing problem with stochastic demand, and home delivery service under e-commerce (Bartholdi et al., 1983; Bertsimas et al., 1995; Campbell, 2006; Jaillet, 1988; Tang & Miller-Hooks, 2004). Early PTSP computational studies, dating from 1985, adopted heuristic approaches that were modified from the TSP (e.g., nearest neighbor, savings approach, spacefilling curve, radial sorting, 1-shift, and 2-opt exchanges) (Bartholdi & Platzman, 1988; Bertsimas, 1988; Bertsimas & Howell, 1993; Jaillet, 1985, 1987; Rossi & Gavioli, 1987). With its less than satisfactory performance in yielding solution quality, researchers in the recent years switch to metaheuristic methods, such as ant colony optimization (Bianchi, 2006; Branke & Guntsch, 2004), evolutionary algorithm (Liu et al., 2007), simulated annealing (Bowler et al., 2003), threshold accepting (Tang & Miller-Hooks, 2004) and scatter search (Liu, 2006, 2007, 2008). Because the genetic algorithm (GA), a conceptual framework of the population-based metaheuristic method, has been shown to yield promising outcomes for solving various complicated optimization problems in the past three decades (Back et al., 1997; Davis, 1991; O pe n A cc es s D at ab as e w w w . ite ch on lin e. co m
Hydrogel Polysaccharides of Tamarind and Xanthan to Formulate Hydrodynamically Balanced Matrix Tablets of Famotidine

The gastroretentive dosage form of famotidine was modified using tamarind seed powders to prolong the gastric retention time. Tamarind seeds were used in two different forms having different swelling and gelling properties: with husk (TSP) or without husk (TKP). TKP (TKP1 to TKP 6) and TSP (TSP1 to TSP 6) series were prepared using tamarind powder:xanthan in the ratios of 5:0, 4:1, 3:2, 2:3, 1:4, 0:5, respectively. The matrix tablets were prepared by the wet granulation method and evaluated for pharmacopoeial requirements. TKP2 was the optimum formulation as it had a short floating lag time (FLT < 30 s) and more than 98.5% drug release in 12 h. The dissolution data were fitted to popular mathematical models to assess the mechanism of drug release, and the optimum formulation showed a predominant first order release and diffusion mechanism. It was concluded that the TKP2 prepared using tamarind kernel powder:xanthan (4:1) was the optimum formulation with shortest floating lag time and more than 90% release in the determined period of time.
Four Fiduciary Puzzles

The nature and operation of fiduciary duties is an area bedeviled by difficulties, confusion and uncertainty. This chapter considers four puzzles which arise in relation to fiduciary duties. The four puzzles are as follows: 1. Which fiduciary duties can be excluded by agreement? 2. When do fiduciary obligations come to an end? 3. What is the proper law to be applied to fiduciary duties where they arise in a cross-border context? 4. What is the level of fault required before a person can be liable for inducing or assisting in a breach of fiduciary duty? This chapter begins with the premise that fiduciary duties are voluntary undertakings and shows how that analysis helps to understand and provide answers to four contemporary puzzles in the law concerning fiduciary obligations. The point I make in this chapter is that each of the four conundra can be easily understood once we see fiduciary duties as duties which are expressed or implied into voluntary undertakings. The chapter begins with a brief introduction to the nature of fiduciary duties as terms expressed or implied into voluntary undertakings before showing how this conception explains the pattern of development of the law in each of the four areas.
Elliptic curve ElGamal Threshold-based Key Management Scheme against Compromise of Distributed RSUs for VANETs

: In Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs), the vehicular scenario requires smart signaling, smart road maintenance and other services. A brand new security issue is that the semi-trusted Road Side Units (RSUs) may be compromised. In this paper, we propose an Elliptic curve ElGamal Threshold system-based key management scheme for safeguarding a VANET from RSUs being compromised and their collusion with malicious vehicles. We analyze the packet loss tolerance for security performance demonstration, followed by a discussion on the threshold. After discussion of the feasibility on privacy and processing time, overhead analysis is presented in terms of two types of application scenarios: Emergency Braking Notiﬁcation (EBN) and Decentralized Floating Car Data (DFCD). Our method can promote security with low overhead in EBN and does not increase overhead in DFCD during security promotion.
Towards trusted metering in the smart grid

With the evolution of the smart grid, most homes will be equipped with smart meters that support consumption reading, demand response and applications requiring two-way communications. In this context, security is a key aspect for smart grid adoption, especially since customers will have physical access to smart meters installed in their premises. Customers will be able to modify the software, firmware or hardware of the smart meter for their own benefit; additionally, remote attackers can mount cyber-attacks against smart meters. To address these challenges we have designed and evaluated a trusted computing environment for smart meters that provides secure storage of cryptographic keys and sensitive data, remote attestation, and protection to sensitive smart grid applications. The performance evaluation shows that our proposal is efficient and can be applied to embedded devices, like smart meters.
GDP in the Dutch Cape Colony: The National Accounts of a Slave‐Based Society

New estimates of GDP of the Dutch Cape Colony (1652-1795) suggest that the Cape was one of the most prosperous regions during the eighteenth century. This stands in sharp contrast to the perceived view that the Cape was an “economic and social backwater”, a slave economy with slow growth and little progress. Following a national accounts framework, we find that Cape settlers’ per capita income is similar to the most prosperous countries of the time – Holland and England. We trace the roots of this result, showing that it is partly explained by a highly skewed population structure and very low dependency ratio of slavery, and attempt to link the eighteenth century Cape Colony experience to twentieth century South African income levels.
Where's the Pivot? Obstruction and Lawmaking in the Pre-cloture Senate

This article employs a three-pronged approach to test competing theories regarding the size of coalitions required for passing legislation prior to the adoption of cloture in the Senate. We compare predictions generated by a model derived from the theory of pivotal politics with those generated by the theory of universalism. To test these predictions, we first examine coalition sizes on the passage of significant legislation. Second, we analyze the size of coalitions on dilatory motions as a predictor of success in defeating legislation. Finally, we examine coalition sizes on tariff legislation to assess the degree to which politics in this policy area were majoritarian. We find that a pivotal politics-based model incorporating the median voter and veto pivot generally outperforms universalism in explaining lawmaking patterns in the pre-cloture Senate. Narrow majorities were quite successful at legislating, although minority obstruction fostered uncertainty about the threshold required to force a final vote when adjournment loomed.
Inhibition of buthionine sulfoximine-enhanced doxorubicin toxicity in metallothionein overexpressing transgenic mouse heart.

Cardiotoxicity and acquired drug resistance of tumor cells have been two impediments for the clinical use of doxorubicin (DOX). Trials are ongoing using buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) to deplete glutathione (GSH) content in tumors, whose elevation was found to contribute to the acquired drug resistance. However, BSO also decreases GSH content in the heart, enhancing DOX cardiotoxicity. Recent studies have shown that metallothionein (MT) is an important factor in cardiac protection against DOX. Our study was undertaken to determine whether MT can compensate for the loss of protection from GSH depletion in the heart. Transgenic mice with cardiac MT concentrations about 20-fold higher than normal, and nontransgenic controls were treated with BSO by i.p. injection at 5 mmol/kg, two times with a 12-hr interval, before treatment with DOX at a single dose of 15 mg/kg, lasting for 4 days. Cardiac GSH was depleted by 60% in both transgenic and non-transgenic mice. DOXinduced cardiotoxicity, as measured by blood levels of creatine kinase and malondialdehyde concentrations in the heart, was dramatically increased in the BSO-treated nontransgenic mice. This increase was completely inhibited in the BSO-treated transgenic mice. These results demonstrate that cardiac MT overexpressing transgenic mice are resistant to BSO-enhanced DOX cardiotoxicity. Selective modulations of decreasing DOX resistance in tumors by BSO and of increasing cardioprotection by MT induction may provide an alternative approach to improved DOX chemotherapeutic efficacy.
Abstract W P53: Extracranial Traumatic Aneurysms Due to Blunt Cerebrovascular Injury

Background and Purpose: Traumatic aneurysms occur in about 10% of extracranial blunt traumatic cerebrovascular injuries (TCVI). The clinical consequences and optimal management of traumatic aneurysms are poorly understood. Methods: A prospective systematic study of TCVI at a Level I trauma center identified seven patients with 19 extracranial carotid or vertebral artery aneurysms. An additional six patients with seven traumatic aneurysms were followed outside of the prospective study. All patients were treated with aspirin 325 mg daily and underwent clinical follow up and imaging beyond the initial hospitalization. Endovascular treatment was reserved for aneurysms demonstrating significant enlargement on follow-up imaging. Ischemic complications, aneurysm symptoms, and aneurysm appearance on follow-up CT angiography (CTA) were assessed. Results: The seven patients with traumatic aneurysms identified in the prospective cohort comprised 10.3% of all patients with TCVI. Two patients (15.4%) patients had an ischemic stroke. No patient experienced an ischemic stroke or new symptom following the initiation of antiplatelet therapy. Clinical and radiographic follow-up with CTA averaged 22.0 months (range 6.6-55.7 months). Ten of 26 (38.5%) aneurysms were not visualized on last follow up CTA, 10/26 (38.5%) were smaller, 1/26 (3.8%) were unchanged, and 5/26 (19.2%) were larger. Saccular aneurysms were more likely to enlarge than fusiform aneurysms (33.3 vs 11.8%). Two aneurysms (both > 15 mm in size) were treated with stenting. Conclusion: The majority of traumatic aneurysms can be managed with an antiplatelet regimen of aspirin 325 mg daily and serial imaging. Saccular aneurysms have a greater tendency to grow when compared to fusiform aneurysms.
Fixed‐effects Hedonic Price Model for Statistical Value of Live Estimations

Abstract Relatively little attention has been given to the differences in value of statistical life (VSL) from developed and less developed countries. The paper derives a cross‐countries VSL estimate based on road fatality accidents and it provides a test to check for such differences. Estimations were obtained from a fixed‐effect hedonic price model applied to a panel of data using new and second‐hand car prices from 27 countries as a dependent variable. The VSL estimate of e6.63 million is in line with results from other studies; and the income elasticity of VSL between countries is close to unity, implying that VSL is approximately proportional to income.
Turning Up the Volume: An Experimental Investigation of the Role of Mutual Monitoring in Tournaments

This study investigates experimentally how mutual monitoring affects effort when employees are compensated via rank-order tournaments. Theory and anecdotal evidence suggest that mutual monitoring may either decrease effort by facilitating collusion or increase effort by stimulating competition. In our first experiment, we find that mutual monitoring increases effort, because participants do not attempt to collude but rather behave competitively. This result leads us to expand our theory and develop hypotheses to predict that the effect of mutual monitoring depends on whether employees have the inclination to collude or compete. Specifically, we predict that mutual monitoring decreases effort when employees are inclined to collude and increases effort when employees are inclined to compete. That is, mutual monitoring will not change the basic inclination created by the workplace setting, but will “turn up the volume” on the effect that such inclination has on effort. Consistent with our predictions, our second experiment finds that mutual monitoring leads to lower effort when participants have a collusive inclination and (eventually) higher effort when they have a competitive inclination. Overall, the results from these two studies suggest that allowing employees to observe each other's productive effort in tournament incentive settings may have positive or negative consequences for the firm, depending on whether environmental factors predispose employees to collude or compete.
Optical pumping with two finite linewidth lasers.

Two-laser optical pumping schemes show great promise for atom preparation since they can act as a nearly perfect state selector. This paper presents a new theoretical model to evaluate the pumping efficiency of two-laser pumping schemes, taking into account optical, ground and excited states hyperfine and Zeeman coherences, neighboring transitions, and fluctuating laser fields. The model is used to predict the optimal pumping efficiency of two lasers with Lorentzian spectral profiles on a beam of cesium atoms
Evaluation of the Utility of the Wells Score in Predicting Pulmonary Embolism in Patients Admitted to a Spine Surgery Service

Abstract Study Design: A retrospective medical chart review of 4179 patients admitted to the spine surgery service. Objective: To evaluate the utility of the Wells score in predicting pulmonary embolism (PE) in patients admitted to a spine surgery service. Summary of Background Data: The decision to perform computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) to diagnose PE in patients who have undergone spine surgery requires consideration of multiple factors: false-positive CTPA results may lead to unnecessary anticoagulation treatment, and computed tomography scans are costly and expose patients to ionizing radiation. The Wells score was developed to assign risk categories to patients with suspected PE and thereby indicate the need for CTPA. However, the utility of the Wells score in predicting the likelihood of PE, specifically in spine surgery patients, has not been described to date. We identified all patients who were admitted to the spine surgery service at our institution from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2011 and underwent CTPA. Each patient's CTPA result was classified as positive or negative for PE, and the reason for ordering the CTPA was recorded. The Wells score was calculated retrospectively for each patient, and risk categories were assigned by using the traditional and alternative interpretations of the Wells score. The reason for the CTPA, the Wells score, and Wells risk category were compared for patients who were classified as being positive or negative for PE. Results: Sixty-six of the 4179 patients who were admitted to the spine surgery service underwent CTPA for suspected PE. Nineteen of the 66 patients (28.8%) were diagnosed with acute PE, and the overall PE rate was 0.45% (19 of 4179 patients). The mean Wells score for patients diagnosed with PE was 5.3, whereas the mean score for the remaining patients was 4.9 (P = 0.793). Neither the traditional nor the alternative interpretation of the Wells score was predictive of PE (P = 0.394 and P = 0.178, respectively). Our study examined the utility of the Wells score in predicting PE in spine surgery patients. Conclusion: The results of the CTPA did not show a significant correlation with the Wells score or the reason for the test. Our findings indicate the need to develop a predictive scoring system that assesses the risk of PE and assists in the decision-making process for ordering CTPA in spine surgery patients.