Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cash Distributions and Returns

Discounted cash ow analysis suggests that high cash-ow-to-price ratios should predict high future stock return, low future cash ow growth, or both. Existing studies on the predictive power of the dividend-price ratio, however, produce evidence largely inconsistent with this prediction. In this paper, we address this issue by focusing on the total cash distributions that include both dividends and share repurchases net of seasoned equity o¤erings. Utilizing a long time series of the total-cash-distributionsto-price (tp) ratio constructed from CRSP data since 1927, we establish strong and persistent evidence of stock return predictability at the annual horizon. Based on a wide variety of evaluation methods, the tp ratio is both statistically and economically signi cant in predicting future stock market returns, and serves as a pervasive state proxy. Keywords: Stock Return Predictability, Payout Policy, Market Timing Hypothesis. JEL Classi cation: G12, G35 This paper is based on one chapter of my dissertation, previously circulated under the title of Pricing Dynamics of Dividend and Non-Dividend Payout Yields: On Stock Return Predictability.  I thank my dissertation committee members, Sugato Bhattacharyya, Bob Dittmar, Gautam Kaul (chair), Lutz Kilian, and Richard Sloan, for their dedicated guidance. I am grateful to Wayne Ferson for providing extremely useful advice. I also thank Malcolm Baker, Sreedhar Bharath, Joseph Chen, Mark Grinblatt, Levent Guntay, Umit Gurun, Paolo Pasquariello, Uday Rajan, Tyler Shumway, Clemens Sialm, Walter Torous, Charles Trzcinka, Luis Viceira, Lu Zheng, and seminar participants at the Financial Resesarch Association 2005 Meeting and the University of Michigan for valuable comments and suggestions. All errors are mine. Please address correspondence to Qin Lei, Stephen M. Ross School of Business at University of Michigan, Department of Finance, 701 Tappan Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Email: leiq@umich.edu.
Orientation and Familiarization to 1RM Strength Testing in Old and Young Women

The purpose of this study was to compare the number of testing sessions required to achieve consistent 1 repetition maximum (1RM) strength measurements in untrained old and young women. Consistency of measurement was defined as consecutive 1 RM strength measures that increased by 1 kg or less. Untrained old (n = 6, age 66 ± 5 years) and untrained young (n = 7, age 23 ± 4 years) women were repeatedly strength-tested for bilateral concentric knee extension 1 RM strength until consecutive measurements were increased by no more than 1 kg. At least 48 hours of rest was allowed between 1 RM measurements. The old subjects required significantly more testing sessions (8–9 sessions) compared with the young subjects (3–4 sessions) to achieve the same absolute consistency of measurement (p < 0.05). Absolute increase in strength between the first and final testing sessions did not differ between groups (young = 11 ± 4 kg and old = 13 ± 2 kg) (p > 0.05). The relative increase was significantly greater in the older subjects (young = 12 ± 5%; old = 22 ± 4%) (p < 0.05). In conclusion, older subjects require more practice and familiarization and show greater relative increases in 1RM strength when compared with younger subjects of the same experience level. This is important to consider, especially when evaluating the magnitude of strength increase in response to esistance training.
Serum deprivation‐induced apoptosis in cultured hippocampi is prevented by kainate

SERUM deprivation of hippocampal organotypic cultures induced cell death within 6 h in dentate gyrus granule cells and hilar interneurons whereas neurons from other hippocampal regions were spared. Dying neurons exhibited condensed chromatin in the nuclei, as revealed by cresyl violet, Hoescht staining, and electron microscopy. Cell death was abolished by cycloheximide. KA, an agonist of AMPA/KA receptors that induces depolarization, also prevented neuronal death. This effect was antagonized by the AMPA/KA receptor antagonist DNQX, but not by APV, an antagonist of NMDA receptors. PTX, a GABAA receptor antagonist, reduced neuronal death by 50% after serum withdrawal. These data indicate that protein synthesis-dependent programmed cell death (PCD) occurs in the dentate gyrus upon trophic support withdrawal and suggest that neuronal activity contributes to cellular homeostasis.
Data allocation scheme based on term weight for P2P information retrieval

Many Peer-to-Peer information retrieval systems that use a global index have already been proposed that can retrieve documents relevant to a query. Since documents are allocated to peers regardless of the query, the system needs to connect many peers to gather the relevant documents. We propose a new data allocation scheme for P2P information retrieval that we call Concordia. Concordia uses a node to allocate a document based on the weight of each term in the document to efficiently assemble all the documents relevant to a query from the P2P Network. Moreover, the node encodes the binary data of a document with an erasure code, and Concordia produces an efficient redundancy for counteracting node failures.
New PCR assay for rapid and quantitative detection of human cytomegalovirus in cerebrospinal fluid

Rapid Chelex extraction combined with an automated hybridization assay for the detection of PCR-amplified human cytomegalovirus DNA from cerebrospinal fluid was established. Quantitation of DNA was performed with a plasmid being used as an external standard. The detection limit was 10 copies per microliter. Quantitative detection of human cytomegalovirus DNA could be achieved over a range from 10 to 10(4) copies per microliter.
Improving Verb Clustering with Automatically Acquired Selectional Preferences

In previous research in automatic verb classification, syntactic features have proved the most useful features, although manual classifications rely heavily on semantic features. We show, in contrast with previous work, that considerable additional improvement can be obtained by using semantic features in automatic classification: verb selectional preferences acquired from corpus data using a fully unsupervised method. We report these promising results using a new framework for verb clustering which incorporates a recent subcategorization acquisition system, rich syntactic-semantic feature sets, and a variation of spectral clustering which performs particularly well in high dimensional feature space.
The Influence of WebCT Information Technology and Structure of Instruction on Students Academic Performance

The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of WebCT Information Technology, students’ perceived computer self-efficacy, students’ motivation to learn and the degree of course structure on students’ academic performance in a totally online class. Web-based teaching becomes increasingly important to institutions of higher education as they strive for a high quality education. An understanding of the factors which drive student success in a web based teaching environment will help future efforts of educators to provide the tools and apply methodologies to further improve student performance. The data for this study is collected from graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in web based Business Computer Information Systems, Decision Sciences and Management courses. The results confirm the positive influence of WebCT Information Technology and the degree of course structure on students’ academic performance.
de Sitter Thermodynamics in the Canonical Ensemble

The existing thermodynamics of the cosmological horizon in de Sitter spacetime is established in the micro-canonical ensemble, while the thermodynamics of black hole horizons is established in the canonical ensemble. Generally in the ordinary thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, both of the micro-canonical and canonical ensembles yield the same equation of state for any thermodynamic system. This implies the existence of a formulation of de Sitter thermodynamics based on the canonical ensemble. This paper reproduces the de Sitter thermodynamics in the canonical ensemble. The procedure is as follows: We put a spherical wall at the center of de Sitter spacetime, which has negligible mass and perfectly reflects the Hawking radiation coming from the cosmological horizon. Then the region enclosed by the wall and horizon settles down to a thermal equilibrium state, for which the Euclidean action is evaluated and the partition function is obtained. The integration constant (subtraction term) of Euclidean action is determined so as to reproduce the equation of state (e.g. entropy-area law) verified already in the micro-canonical ensemble. Our de Sitter canonical ensemble is well-defined in the sense that it preserves the “thermodynamic consistency”, which means that the state variables satisfy not only the four laws of thermodynamics but also the appropriate differential relations of state variables with thermodynamic functions; e.g. partial derivatives of the free energy yield the entropy, pressure, and so on. The special role of cosmological constant in de Sitter thermodynamics is also revealed. Subject Index: 451, 454
NP tree matching for English-Chinese translation of patent titles

This paper proposes a method of NP tree matching to realize the translation of English-Chinese patent titles. Firstly a bilingual example database for patent titles is built. English parse trees are produced by English parser, forming NP tree database. The input patent title to be translated is firstly parsed into a tree. Then NP trees are searched for which match with the input NP tree in NP tree database. If similar NP trees exist, HowNet is used to find the best NP tree by calculating word semantic similarity. Final translations are obtained through calculating cohesion of candidate words. If there are no similar NP trees, subtrees that match the input NP tree are searched for and translations generate by subtree substitutions recursively. Experimental results show that our method outperforms a baseline Pharaoh, by using BLEU evaluation system.
Comparative Immunogenicity of HIV-1 Clade C Envelope Proteins for Prime/Boost Studies

Background Previous clinical efficacy trials failed to support the continued development of recombinant gp120 (rgp120) as a candidate HIV vaccine. However, the recent RV144 HIV vaccine trial in Thailand showed that a prime/boost immunization strategy involving priming with canarypox vCP1521 followed by boosting with rgp120 could provide significant, although modest, protection from HIV infection. Based on these results, there is renewed interest in the development of rgp120 based antigens for follow up vaccine trials, where this immunization approach can be applied to other cohorts at high risk for HIV infection. Of particular interest are cohorts in Africa, India, and China that are infected with clade C viruses. Methodology/Principal Findings A panel of 10 clade C rgp120 envelope proteins was expressed in 293 cells, purified by immunoaffinity chromatography, and used to immunize guinea pigs. The resulting sera were collected and analyzed in checkerboard experiments for rgp120 binding, V3 peptide binding, and CD4 blocking activity. Virus neutralization studies were carried out with two different assays and two different panels of clade C viruses. A high degree of cross reactivity against clade C and clade B viruses and viral proteins was observed. Most, but not all of the immunogens tested elicited antibodies that neutralized tier 1 clade B viruses, and some sera neutralized multiple clade C viruses. Immunization with rgp120 from the CN97001 strain of HIV appeared to elicit higher cross neutralizing antibody titers than the other antigens tested. Conclusions/Significance While all of the clade C antigens tested were immunogenic, some were more effective than others in eliciting virus neutralizing antibodies. Neutralization titers did not correlate with rgp120 binding, V3 peptide binding, or CD4 blocking activity. CN97001 rgp120 elicited the highest level of neutralizing antibodies, and should be considered for further HIV vaccine development studies.
On the Phase Diagram for Microphase Separation of Diblock Copolymers: An Approach via a Nonlocal Cahn--Hilliard Functional

We consider analytical and numerical aspects of the phase diagram for microphase separation of diblock copolymers. Our approach is variational and is based upon a density functional theory which entails minimization of a nonlocal Cahn–Hilliard functional. Based upon two parameters which characterize the phase diagram, we give a preliminary analysis of the phase plane. That is, we divide the plane into regions wherein a combination of analysis and numerics is used to describe minimizers. In particular we identify a regime wherein the uniform (disordered state) is the unique global minimizer; a regime wherein the constant state is linearly unstable and where numerical simulations are currently the only tool for characterizing the phase geometry; and a regime of small volume fraction wherein we conjecture that small well-separated approximately spherical objects are the unique global minimizer. For this last regime, we present an asymptotic analysis from the point of view of the energetics which will be comp.
Sex Differences In Children's Task-Group Performance

It is widely believed that males are more competent at task-group activity. This article critically examines the bases for asserting a sex difference in task-group ability. The argument focuses on the need to separate the effects of ability from the effects of opportunity to perform. A study is then presented that controls for the hypothesized contaminating effects of status and sex-biased activity. Children ages 3 to 8 were randomly assigned to sex, age, and race homogeneous three-person groups and asked to engage in a complex, sex-neutral task. On 13 task performance dimensions there was only one significant difference. The remaining 12 dimensions showed mixed but insignificant differences. The conclusion is that both males and females can manage complex task-group activity.
Molecular rearrangements on chromosome 11q23 predominate in infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia and are associated with specific biologic variables and poor outcome.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in infants generally shows distinctive biologic features and has a poor prognosis. Cytogenetic studies indicate that many infant leukemias have chromosome 11q23 translocations. Because of these findings and the distinct clinical features of infant leukemia, we investigated 30 cases of infant ALL for molecular defects of 11q23. Fourteen cases had cytogenetic abnormalities of 11q23, and all of them showed 11q23 rearrangements at the molecular level. An additional seven cases also had 11q23 molecular rearrangements, including one with normal cytogenetic analysis. Molecular abnormalities of 11q23 were significantly correlated with adverse prognostic factors, including age under 6 months, hyperleukocytosis, CD10- phenotype, and early treatment failure. Molecular analysis identified a group of infants with germline 11q23 that had a very good treatment outcome with a projected event-free survival of 80% at median follow-up of 46 months compared to 15% in infants with rearranged 11q23 (P < .001). These findings suggest that a high proportion (70%) of infants with ALL have 11q23 rearrangements and that these rearrangements are not always detectable by cytogenetic analysis. The presence of germline 11q23 DNA may identify a subgroup of infant ALL patients with a good outcome using current therapy and a different etiology for their ALL.
IL-22-Mediated Tumor Growth Reduction Correlates with Inhibition of ERK1/2 and AKT Phosphorylation and Induction of Cell Cycle Arrest in the G2-M Phase

IL-22 is a recently discovered cytokine of the IL-10 family that binds to a class II cytokine receptor composed of IL-22R1 and IL-10R2c and influences a variety of immune reactions. As IL-22 has also been shown to modulate cell cycle and proliferation mediators such as ERK1/2 and JNK, we studied the role of IL-22 in proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle regulation in EMT6 murine breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we report that murine breast cancer cells express functional IL-22R as indicated by RT-PCR studies, immunoblotting, and STAT3 activation assays. Importantly, IL-22 exposure of EMT6 cells resulted in decreased levels of phosphorylated ERK1/2 and AKT protein kinases, indicating an inhibitory effect of IL-22 on signaling pathways promoting cell proliferation. Furthermore, IL-22 induced a cell cycle arrest of EMT6 cells in the G2-M phase. IL-22 reduced EMT6 cell numbers and the proliferation rate by ∼50% as measured by [3H]thymidine incorporation. IL-22 treatment of EMT6 tumor-bearing mice lead to a decreased tumor size and a reduced tumor cell proliferation in vivo, as determined by 3′-deoxy-3′-fluorothymidine-positron emission tomography scans. Interestingly, IL-22 did not induce apoptosis, as determined in annexin V binding assay and caspase-3 activation assay and had no effect on angiogenesis in vivo. In conclusion, our results indicate that IL-22 reduced tumor growth by inhibiting signaling pathways such as ERK1/2 and AKT phosphorylation that promote tumor cell proliferation in EMT6 cells. Therefore, IL-22 may play a role in the control of tumor growth and tumor progression.
Assessing the relationship between pain catastrophizing and early physical, psychological and cognitive symptoms following a mild traumatic brain injury

Identifying determinants that shape the recovery course following a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is clinically relevant as adverse MTBI outcomes significantly burden the healthcare system. This study aimed to determine whether pain catastrophizing (PC) influenced early MTBI clinical outcome. It was hypothesized that PC would be associated with greater pain severity and post concussion symptoms reports, increased psychological distress, and decreased level of functionality post head injury. This prospective design included 58 patients for which data from the Rivermead Post Concussion symptoms, Multidimensional Pain Inventory, and Pain Catastrophizing scale questionnaires were retrieved. Pearson's correlations revealed to be positive and significant between PC and greater pain severity, post-concussion symptom reports, and psychological distress, respectively. Correlational analyses also demonstrated a negative relationship between PC and level of functionality post-MTBI. Overall, these findings suggest that PC adversely affects early MTBI outcome, and might be a risk factor for post concussion syndrome development. %%%%L'identification de facteurs influencant le retablissement suite a un traumatisme crânien cerebral leger (TCCL) s'avere cliniquement pertinent compte tenu du fardeau impose au systeme sante. Cette etude visait a etablir si la dramatisation envers la douleur (DD) influence le retablissement precoce suite a un TCCL, en etant possiblement associee a plus de douleur, symptomes aigus, detresse psychologique, et, a une reduction du niveau de fonctionnalite. Cette recherche prospective aupres de 58 patients fut basee sur les questionnaires Rivermead, Inventaire Multidimensionnel de la douleur, et Echelle de DD. Des correlations de Pearson positives et significatives furent observees entre la DD et la severite de douleur, les symptomes post-TCCL, et la detresse psychologique. Les analyses correlationnelles ont aussi illustre une relation negative entre la DD et le niveau de fonctionnalite. En somme, la DD semble affecter defavorablement le retablissement precoce suite a un TCCL, et pourrait etre un facteur de risque pour le developpement d'un syndrome post-commotionnel.
Intrusion Detection In Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Since security threats to WSNs are increasingly being diversified and deliberate, preventionbased techniques alone can no longer provide WSNs with adequate security. However, detectionbased techniques might be effective in collaboration with prevention-based techniques for securing WSNs. As a significant branch of detection-based techniques, the research of intrusion detection in wired networks and wireless ad hoc networks is already quite mature, but such solutions can be rarely applied to WSNs without any change, because WSNs are characterized by constrained resources, such as limited energy, weak computation capability, poor memory, short communication range, etc. The development of intrusion detection techniques suitable for WSNs is therefore regarded as an essential research area, which will enable WSNs to be much more secure and reliable. In this survey, a few of the key design principles relating to the development of intrusion detection techniques in WSNs are discussed and detection technique categories (statistical techniques, rule based, data mining, computational intelligence, game theory, graph based, and hybrid, etc.).
Spatial Selectivity of the State? The Regulationist Enigma and Local Struggles over Economic Governance

In this paper I assess the value of regulation theory for studying transformations in governance at the local level, focusing on the issue of local economic development. Adopting a third-generation approach, regulation theory is recognised as having varied success at theorising local governance. More advanced third-generation approaches offer some useful concepts that require integration through mid-level concepts. This is to be contrasted to approaches which ‘read off’ local transformation from broader macroeconomic change. Both approaches are, however, trapped in the regulationist enigma, defined in the paper as the difficulty of employing regulation theory to theorise local transformations in local governance. In order to solve the enigma, I utilise concepts from Jessop's strategic-relational state theory. This approach stresses, amongst other things, the political nature of state intervention. Jessop's approach is, however, not sufficiently sensitive to space and I introduce the notion of spatial selectivity to understand adequately the dynamics of local change. Spatial selectivity implies that the state has a tendency to privilege certain places through accumulation strategies, state projects, and hegemonic projects. The process of geographical privileging, which is implied by the notion of spatial selectivity, takes on both material and ideological forms. This tentative concept is explored through a reworking of theoretical approaches to Thatcherism. I conclude by highlighting issues that spatial selectivity needs to address, namely uneven development and structure—strategy—agency dialectics.
Combining H∞ and interval techniques to design robust low order controllers: Application to piezoelectric actuators

This paper addresses the design of robust controllers for interval systems. For that, the H∞-standard approach is combined with interval techniques in order to derive controllers that ensure robust performances. The main advantages of the proposed approach are: 1) the natural and ease of modeling of the uncertain parameters thanks to intervals, 2) the low order of the controller since it can be lower than the order of the system, 3) and the fact that the structure of the controller can be fixed a priori. The paper is particularly focused, but not limited, on the design of a robust PID controller structure thanks to the proposed approach which is the combination of H∞-tools and interval tools. The systems to be controlled are with order n which makes the proposed approach more general. Experiments on a piezoelectric actuator (piezocantilever) are carried out and show the efficiency of the proposed method.