Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trading Volume and Momentum: The International Evidence

We investigate the role of trading volume in predicting the magnitude and persistence of the price momentum phenomenon in markets around the world. Using comprehensive data for 38,273 stocks from 37 countries, we show that past trading volume relates to both the level and persistence of momentum profits. The volume-based early stage momentum strategy outperforms the traditional momentum strategy in 34 out of 37 countries. In addition, we find evidence of a volume effect and we show that the degree of individualism in a country can explain the size of the volume effect in the markets investigated in this paper.
Job separation in a non‐stationary search model: a structural estimation to evaluate alternative unemployment insurance systems

This paper considers a job search model in which the environment is not constant throughout the unemployment spell and where jobs do not last for ever. In this situation, reservation wages can be lower than they would be in a model without consideration of such separations, but they can initially be higher precisely because of the non-constant environment. The model is estimated structurally by using Spanish data for the period 1985-1996. The main finding is that, after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, the unemployment hazard rate is almost flat during the first six months. However, after this duration, the highly decreasing job offer arrival rate comes to be the only significant factor, given that acceptance probabilities become equal to one. The estimated parameters are used to evaluate different unemployment insurance designs. We conclude that a non-monotonic pattern in unemployment benefits, joint with a tax paid by workers and based on unemployment duration, makes this duration 13.2% lower than it currently is in Spain. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Study of Flip Chip Solder Joint Cracks Under Temperature Cycling Using a Laser Ultrasound Inspection System

The current techniques for nondestructive quality evaluation of bumped solder joint connections in electronics packages are either incapable of detecting solder joint cracks, or unsuitable for inline inspection due to cost and throughput reasons. As an alternative, a novel solder joint inspection system is being developed. The system projects short laser pulses onto specimen surface through optic fibers to induce structural vibration. The induced surface displacements are then measured by a laser Doppler vibrometer. A number of digital signal processing algorithms, such as error ratio and correlation coefficient, were used to analyze the vibration responses and identify defective specimens. This paper presents a systematic study of parameters such as error ratio, correlation coefficient, resonant frequency, electrical resistance, and the extension of solder joint cracks, to quantitatively characterize the relationships among them. These relationships verified that the laser ultrasound inspection system provides a reliable and efficient way to evaluate flip chip solder joint cracks nondestructively.
ADOPTION OF HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES WITHIN A SOUTH AFRICAN SMALL BUSINESS: A CASE STUDY

Until recently, human resource management has been considered inappropriate and too costly for small businesses and consequently research in this direction has been at a relatively minimum level. It is also evident that the effectiveness and competitiveness of SMEs can be increased through the application of sound HRM practices. In order to establish how SMEs can successfully apply HRM, the objective of this study is to establish, in an exploratory manner, the applicability of HRM in a small business in order to ensure its effective operation and consequent competitiveness. The research method applied is an interpretive and qualitative approach by means of a single case study of a photographic equipment store. The owner-manager perceives that personnel problems pose a major barrier to the success of the business; however, he also believes that outside aid in HRM would not resolve the problems. The HRM process of the SME growth model adds value in the sense that it also illustrates the relationship between the owner-manager's personal characteristics, external market conditions, nature of the work environment, and the business structure. Given the small business-specific problems that were identified, the information obtained in this study paves the way for a quantitative study of a number of SMEs and comparative research.
Multi-factor Productivity, Indicative Estimates to 2012

This article presents indicative estimates of multi–factor productivity (MFP) using estimates of quality adjusted labour inputs and capital services. Using a growth accounting framework, output growth can be decomposed into contributions due to changes in labour and capital inputs, and a residual component variously described in the literature as ‘disembodied technical change’, the ‘Solow residual’, total factor productivity (TFP) or – as in this article - MFP. This approach complements traditional measures of productivity, which focus only on one factor of production – labour – and take account only of changes in volumes (that is, hours worked) but not changes in the composition of labour input over time. Capital services have been estimated using data consistent with Blue Book 2011. Data for 2010 show a small positive contribution to UK output growth from MFP in 2010, following sharply negative contributions in 2008 and 2009. There are a number of methodological changes since the last publication of MFP estimates in May 2011, of which the most significant is a change in the industrial breakdown to reflect a revised Standard Industrial Classification (SIC). About this release This is the latest in an annual series of MFP releases, containing indicative estimates of MFP growth for 1998 to 2010 consistent with Blue Book 2011. Data are presented for the whole economy, the market sector and ten industry groups. MFP measures the change in real (inflation adjusted) economic output that cannot be accounted for by changes in measured inputs of labour and capital.
Implementation effectiveness of revised (post-2010) World Health Organization guidelines on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV using routinely collected data in sub-Saharan Africa

Background: To synthesize and evaluate the impact of implementing post-2010 World Health Organization (WHO) prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) guidelines on attainment of PMTCT targets. Methods: Retrospective and prospective cohort study designs that utilized routinely collected data with a focus on provision and utilization of the cascade of PMTCT services were included. The outcomes included the proportion of pregnant women who were tested during their antenatal clinic (ANC) visits; mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) rate; adherence; retention rate; and loss to follow-up (LTFU). Results: Of the 1210 references screened, 45 met the inclusion criteria. The studies originated from 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The highest number of studies originated from Malawi (10) followed by Nigeria and South Africa with 7 studies each. More than half of the studies were on option A while the majority of option B+ studies were conducted in Malawi. These studies indicated a high uptake of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing ranging from 75% in Nigeria to over 96% in Zimbabwe and South Africa. High proportions of CD4 count testing were reported in studies only from South Africa despite that in most of the countries CD4 testing was a prerequisite to access treatment. MTCT rate ranged from 1.1% to 15.1% and it was higher in studies where data were collected in the early days of the WHO 2010 PMTCT guidelines. During the postpartum period, adherence and retention rate decreased, and LTFU increased for both HIV-positive mothers and exposed infants. Conclusion: Irrespective of which option was followed, uptake of antenatal HIV testing was high but there was a large drop off along later points in the PMTCT cascade. More research is needed on how to improve later components of the PMTCT cascade, especially of option B+ which is now the norm throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
Memristive voltage divider: a bipolar ReRAM-based unit for non-volatile flip-flops

Hibernation is the key mechanism for enabling normally-off and transient computing. The speed and energy dissipation of hibernation directly impacts the efficiency of the systems employing such computing paradigms. CMOS-compatible emerging memory technologies such as ReRAM provide non-volatile flip-flops (NvFFs) that realize fast and energy efficient hibernation using in-place store/restore. This paper presents memristive voltage divider (MVD), a non-volatile unit for NvFFs. Compared to conventional dual ReRAM units, MVD enables 67% reduction in energy dissipation and 36% reduction in store time, which translates into 79% reduction in the energy-delay product. MVD also remedies the endurance and variability concerns of ReRAM by providing read-while-write capability that enables low-overhead, fast, and energy efficient write verification mechanisms for NvFFs. As proof of concept, we also demonstrate an exemplar NvFF architecture using MVD for which energy dissipation trend in store and restore operations are reported.
States as LBO Specialists: Evidence from Portugal

The paper’s purpose is to quantify the performance of a State in its action as a de facto LBO specialist, taking companies private to restructure them and subsequently reselling them in the share market. A sample comprising all the listed companies nationalized in Portugal in 1975 and 1976 that were subsequently privatised through a relisting by means of a share issue is constructed. The returns earned by the Portuguese Republic are computed, comparing the market values of nationalised companies at the time of their privatization with their theoretical value in a non-nationalization scenario. A negative abnormal return for the Portuguese Republic’s investment in shares is found. This negative return is much worse than the ones computed in similar work for France.
Evidence for protein 4.1B acting as a metastasis suppressor

We compared a non-metastasising sarcoma cell population with three related populations of increasing metastatic potential. The metastatic cells in vitro exhibited a significantly reduced incidence of actin stress fibres but enhanced motility and chemotaxis. We also investigated gene expression underlying progression to a metastatic phenotype by performing a microarray analysis of the four sarcoma populations. We identified a subset of genes with significantly altered expression levels between non-metastasising and metastasising cells in tissue culture and in primary tumours. One such gene, encoding protein 4.1B, is downregulated in the metastatic sarcoma populations. To investigate possible roles of 4.1B in the mechanisms of metastasis, we used RNA interference (RNAi) to reduce its expression in the non-metastatic cells. Cells with reduced 4.1B expression displayed an altered F-actin morphology, with significantly fewer stress fibres. We also found that the 4.1B RNAi cells migrated at twice the speed of the untreated cells. Metastatic cells exogenously expressing 4.1B migrated at half the speed of control metastatic cells and displayed suppressed chemotaxis. Therefore, we propose that the reduction of 4.1B in the metastatic cells promotes the metastatic phenotype as a result of inducing a loss of actin stress fibres and a concomitant increase in cell motility.
Co-transfer of human X-linked markers into murine somatic cells via isolated metaphase chromosomes.

Transformation frequencies of 4 x 10(-5) were obtained in chromosome-mediated gene transfer experiments using human cell line HeLa S3 as donor and mouse cell line A9 as recipient. This high frequency of interspecific transformation was achieved by treating the recipient cells with dimethylsulfoxide in addition to other facilitators. The high frequency of transformation correlated positively with transgenome size on the basis of both co-transfer of linked markers and chromosome analysis. The syntenic human markers glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (D-glucose-6-phosphate:NADP(+) 1-oxidoreductase, EC 1.1. 1.49) and phosphoglycerate kinase (ATP:3-phospho-D-glycerate 1-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.2.3) were sometimes transferred together with the selected X-linked prototrophic marker hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (IMP: pyrophosphate phosphoribosyltransferase, EC 2.4.2.8) into murine somatic cells. Donor human chromosome material could be demonstrated cytologically in some of the transformed cell lines. Transformants exhibited various rates of loss of the human hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase marker when grown under nonselective conditions. These results reveal a broader range of possible interspecific transgenome sizes than has been recognized in the past. The largest transgenomes consist of cytologically detectable donor fragments and contain syntenic markers that are not closely linked to the selected marker.
μ-Decanedioato-bis[aquabis(1,10-phenanthroline-κ2 N,N′)manganese(II)] dinitrate–sebacic acid–water (1/1/2)

In the title complex, [Mn(2)(C(10)H(16)O(4))(C(12)H(8)N(2))(4)(H(2)O)(2)](NO(3))(2)·C(10)H(18)O(4)·2H(2)O, the asymmetric unit contains one-half of the centrosymmetric dinuclear complex cation, one uncoordinated water molecule, one-half of a free sebaic acid (decanedioic acid) molecule that is also completed by inversion symmetry, and one disordered nitrate anion [occupancy ratio 0.454 (4):0.544 (6)]. The Mn(II) atoms are each octa-hedrally surrounded by four N atoms from two 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) ligands, one O atom from one carbonyl group of the bridging sebacate ligand and one O atom of a water mol-ecule. The crystal structure is stabilized by intermolecular O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds.
Studying the Family Enterprise Holistically

This research contributes to the family business literature by empirically demonstrating that family enterprises that give more emphasis to family and business as a whole have better family results and similar business results when compared to those enterprises that limit governance to only the business. The article includes a review of the literature, and it identifies a set of four basic dimensions that focus on different aspects of family enterprise. The study then combines measures of these dimensions to describe both the governance and the nature of the family and the business. A representative sample of 732 Spanish family enterprises enabled the research to reveal empirical support for the theory positing that balanced attention to governing the subsystems is an effective route to family enterprise management.
Hospital Volume and Failure to Rescue after Head and Neck Cancer Surgery

Objective To investigate the relationship between hospital volume and mortality, complications, and failure-to-rescue rates among patients undergoing head and neck cancer (HNCA) surgery. Study Design Cross-sectional analysis. Setting Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Subjects and Methods Discharge data for 159,301 patients who underwent an ablative procedure for a malignant oral cavity, laryngeal, hypopharyngeal, or oropharyngeal neoplasm from 2001 to 2010 were analyzed using cross-tabulations and multivariate regression modeling. Failure to rescue was defined as death after a major complication, including acute myocardial infarction, acute renal failure, venous thromboembolism, pneumonia, gastrointestinal bleed, pulmonary failure, hemorrhage, or surgical site infection. We compared the incidence of mortality, major complications, and failure-to-rescue rates across hospital volume tertiles. Results The majority of hospitals performing HNCA surgery were low-volume hospitals, which performed a mean of 6 HNCA cases per year (n = 7635). Intermediate-volume hospitals performed a mean of 37 cases per year (n = 729), and high-volume hospitals performed a mean of 131 cases (n = 207). High-volume hospital care was associated with significantly decreased odds of death (odds ratio, 0.56; 95% confidence interval, 0.46-0.86) and failure to rescue (odds ratio, 0.56; 95% confidence interval, 0.33-0.97) compared to low-volume hospital care. However, there was no significant difference in major complication rates between patients undergoing HNCA surgery at high-volume hospitals and those at low-volume hospitals. Conclusion Patients with HNCA who receive care at high-volume hospitals compared with low-volume hospitals have a 44% lower odds of mortality, which appears to be associated with differences in the response to and management of complications rather than differences in complication rates.
Wide-Range Feature Point Tracking with Corresponding Point Search and Accurate Feature Point Tracking with Mean-Shift

We propose a Mean-Shift based feature point tracking method that can track feature points with high accuracy even when they move over a long distance or a wide range on an image. Our method selects an initial value of Mean-Shift from a wide area by a corresponding point search based on the Kalman filter when the image appearance significantly changes. The corresponding point search responds to the rapid change of the feature points because it corresponds with those detected from sequential images. We used a movement prediction of the tracking point by Kalman filter to reduce the correspondence failure. Mean-Shift search tracks the feature points accurately in a narrow range using the corresponding point as initial value. We evaluated our method by tracking feature points of synthetic image sequences that simulate a movement of the tracking target on the image. The proposed method showed smaller tracking error than both Mean-Shift search and a conventional corresponding feature point search.
Valuation And Optimal Exercise Time For The Banxico Put Option

Since 1996, the Central Bank of Mexico issues a put option in order to buy American Dollars as a way of increasing its international reserves. This is an exotic option that gives the right to the Mexican banks to sell this currency to the Central Bank at the price of the day before the date of exercise. The option has a maturity of one month and can be exercised on any day during this period, subject to an additional condition that depends on the average price of the Dollar during the previous 20 days. In this work we study the valuation and the optimal time of exercise of this option under the Binomial and the Black–Scholes Models. The optimal time of exercise is found for the Binomial model and a rule of exercise is proposed for the Black–Scholes Model. Numerical results are included to illustrate the performance of this rule of exercise.
The Pricing of Structured Products in Germany

The payoff patterns on basic combination option positions, such as writing covered calls, are often very attractive to retail investors. But lack of sophistication about options, the difficulty in buying shares in an index portfolio on which to write options, and a wide variety of other regulatory and institutional constraints can make creating those payoffs very difficult for a small investor. This has created a market for retail banking products with the preferred payoff patterns. This article examine two such products that are actively traded in Germany, based on the DAX and the NEMAX indexes. Both “reverse convertibles” and “discount certificates” make a cash payment at maturity equal to either the market value of the index, if the underlying index is below a specified strike price, or a fixed cash amount, if the index is above the strike. That is, their payoffs resemble writing covered calls on the index. Wilkens, Erner, and Röder look at the pricing of these structured products and find a fairly wide range across issuers, but nearly all involve a substantial premium over the cost of replication using exchange-traded options on the Eurex. The size of the premium varies with moneyness, and there is a “life cycle” effect, as well, because the issuers make secondary markets in their securities and investors may sell them back prior to maturity.
Service failures and recovery actions in the hotel industry: A text-mining approach

The purpose of this article is to cluster service failures and recovery actions in the hotel industry. Keywords were extracted from the descriptive responses of hotel guests and systematically clustered to identify major areas of service failures and recovery actions in the hotel industry. Two sets of textual data (service failure and service recovery) were collected from 75 hotel guests using the critical incident technique and content-analyzed with a text-mining program. Text-mining analysis identified 50 keywords in eight clusters from the service failure data and 50 keywords in seven clusters from the service recovery data. The identified keywords were conceptually graphed to map meaningful findings that are logically precise and computationally tractable. The major theoretical and practical implications are also discussed in this study.
ECONOMIC AND PHYSICAL MODELING OF LAND USE IN GCAM 3.0 AND AN APPLICATION TO AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY, LAND, AND TERRESTRIAL CARBON

The release of the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) version 3.0 represents a major revision in the treatment of agriculture and land-use activities in a model of long-term, global human and physical Earth systems. GCAM 3.0 incorporates greater spatial and temporal resolution compared to GCAM 2.0. In this paper, we document the methods embodied in the new release, describe the motivation for the changes, compare GCAM 3.0 methods to those of other long-term, global agriculture-economy models and apply GCAM 3.0 to explore the impact of changes in agricultural crop yields on global land use and terrestrial carbon. In the absence of continued crop yield improvements throughout the century, not only are cumulative carbon emissions a major source of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, but bioenergy production remains trivial — land is needed for food. In contrast, the high crop yield improvement scenario cuts terrestrial carbon emissions dramatically and facilitates both food and energy production.
Flexible hydrogel actuated graphene-cellulose biosensor for monitoring pH

The level of pH in body fluids can indicate the onset of infection or a chronic condition. A mechanically flexible pH sensitive graphene-cellulose interdigitated capacitive (IDC) biosensor for monitoring acidity in various types of body fluids is introduced in this paper. The planar IDC is printed on a nonrigid polymer substrate material and coated with a very thin passivation layer to prevent an electrical short with the material under test. The electrically conductive ink is synthesized by using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) to suspend hydrophobic graphene (G) sheets in a water-based solvent. Once deposited on the substrate the conductivity of the printed G-CMC IDC electrodes is increased using thermal reduction. To enable the biosensor to respond to changes in fluid acidity, a biocompatible pH-sensitive chitosan hydrogel is immobilized on the IDC electrodes. As the hydrogel responds to changes in pH, the gel swells or de-swells over the interdigitated electrodes causing a measureable change in circuit capacitance. Issues associated with mechanical and chemical stability are discussed.
Camera selection for unmanned helicopter power line inspection

This paper analyzes the demand of unmanned helicopter power line inspection system, and the detection range of camera is researched in detail. Johnson calculation criteria is used to calculate the suitable CMOS pixel dimensions and the focal length of lens. According to the calculation results, extensive experiments for camera payload were done using the unmanned helicopter. The dimensions of the CMOS camera and the focal length of lens were verified. We chose the suitable camera and lens by the experiments.