Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ageing and Unemployment

While ageing is accepted as a major problem for most industrialized societies, its labour market consequences are not yet fully understood. This paper analyses the effects of changes in the age composition of the Federal Republic of Germany on the incidence of unemployment in different sex-age groups. The German population has aged substantially in recent decades because of declining fertility and a halt in guestworker recruitment. The German wage-setting process appears to be characterized by the presence of a strong union movement that hampers flexible wage adjustments. Thus, age structure variations can be expected to lead to fluctuations in age-specific unemployment rates. In general, this intuition is confirmed by the estimations presented here. A strong positive relationship between the size of a cohort and its relative unemployment experience can only be established formally for a few sex-age groups, however.
Phyiogenetic Nomenclature and the PhyloCode

In a recent paper Forey (2001; BZN 58: 81-96) provided a description of the draft Phyiogenetic Code of Biological Nomenclature (PhyloCode; http://www.ohiou.edu/phylocode/), followed by a largely negative commentary. Several of Forey's criticisms of the system of phyiogenetic nomenclature embodied in the PhyloCode stem from misunderstandings about that system, and several confuse taxonomic with nomenclatural issues. In fact, the PhyloCode would regulate the naming of taxa and the subsequent application of taxon names in ways that are thoroughly consistent with the taxonomic approach that he advocates. In this essay, we comment upon some aspects of Forey's description of the draft PhyloCode, and we explain why none of his criticisms represent serious problems. 'u, 1
Relationship between CAPM-β and market changes in the Japanese liner shipping industry

In the past few decades, the market environment of the liner shipping industry has changed. The most important changes are in market power and regulation, such as the Shipping Act of 1984 and the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998 in the United States. We estimate and draw the time-varying systematic risk β in the Japanese shipping industry by using Kalman filters and relate the estimated path of β to market changes during 1980–2006. To interpret market environment in the Japanese liner shipping industry, we focus on two points. The first is that the introduction of policies for promoting competition increases β, and the second is that an increase in market power due to cooperation and concentration among firms reduces β. Our results support the first point and suggest that the increasing trend of β during 1980–1990 reflects regulatory change in the liner shipping industry. On the other hand, the trends of β during 1990–1998 are decreasing, which seems to be consistent with the second point suggesting that the market risk was alleviated with inter-firm cooperation coming into effect. After 1998 the trend flattens, which can be interpreted by offsetting the two conflicting factors stemming from the first and second points.
Corporate social and environmental disclosure and corporate performance: Evidence from South Africa and Morocco

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate performance and social and environmental disclosure for two African leading countries namely, South Africa (common law country) and Morocco (civil law country). Design/methodology/approach – The sample consists of 168 annual reports spanning from 2004 to 2009. A content analysis of companies’ annual reports is used to measure the extent of voluntary social and environmental disclosure. Findings – Results show that social and environmental disclosure has a significant positive effect on corporate performance only in the South African setting. Originality/value – The findings emphasize the need to explicitly consider the legal and institutional setting prevailing in each context. For instance, social and environmental organizations in South Africa enjoy more power to influence companies’ social and environmental reporting policy, whereas, their counterparts in Morocco, enjoy less power to place pressure on companies to .
Minor Immediate Effects of a Dog on Children’s Reading Performance and Physiology

Literacy is a key factor in occupational success and social integration. However, an increasing number of children lack appropriate reading skills. There is growing evidence that dogs have positive effects on reading performance. We investigated the short-term effects of dogs on reading performance in 36 third-graders and monitored physiological parameters [heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and salivary cortisol] as well as behavioral variables. Each child took part in two test sessions at the presence of a tutor, in one of which a dog and its handler were present. To assess reading performance two reading tests were used: two subtests of the standardized “Ein Leseverständnistest für Erst- bis Sechstklässler”, where the children have to carry out time-limited reading tasks, to assess sentence and text comprehension, and repeated reading (RR), where the children have to read the same text twice, to assess reading speed and short-term improvement. Although the dog had no effect on reading performance scores, within the first test session the children improved from the first to the second run of RR when a dog was present but not without dog. The behavior of the children indicated a calming effect of the dog in the first test session with less nervous movements and the children being less talkative. We found no impact of the dog on HR and HRV. However, the excitement about the dog in combination with the unknown situation in the first test session was reflected in a higher difference in the mean HR difference between the two test sessions for the children, who in the first test session had a dog present, compared to the children, who had the dog in the second test session. In the second test session, the children were more aroused with a dog present than with no dog present, as indicated by the area under the curve increase (AUCi) of salivary cortisol values. We conclude that the presence of a dog had a minor short-term positive effect on the children’s motivation and reading performance. More substantial effects could probably be achieved with repeated sessions.
Risk Taking and Decisionmaking: Foreign Military Intervention Decisions

Preface Abbreviations 1. Introduction Part I. Theory: 2. The anatomy of risk: what is risk and how is it framed? 3. The formation of risk judgements and risk preferences: a sociocognitive approach 4. Foreign military intervention: national capabilities constraints 5. The international milieu and foreign military intervention: when and how much does the milieu matter? Part II. The Case Studies: A Comparative Analysis: 6. Foreign military interventions with low to moderate risks: Grenada, Panama, and Czechoslovakia 7. High-risk foreign military interventions: Vietnam and Lebanon 8. Conclusions and implications Notes Bibliography Index.
Into the First League: The Competitive Advantage of the Antivirus Industry in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

The antivirus industry is the only innovation-intensive sector in which home-grown companies from Central Europe have been able to gain and retain global leadership. We review the literature on sources of national competitive advantage and evaluate the relative importance of different factors, drawing on evidence gained from semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and existing research about the IT sector's global and regional trends. Highly-skilled, technical human capital played a crucial and positive role. Paradoxically, a lack of available foreign finance also had a positive impact by steering the best people towards a sector with smaller capital needs. Unlike other leading sectors in Central Europe, where state support and foreign capital were important, these factors were absent in this sector. This article contributes to understanding of the emergence of a home-grown, highly competitive, high-technology sector under the conditions of market transformation, liberalization and internationalization in small economies.
The volatility of prices in the English and Welsh electricity pool

The volatility of spot prices has been a notable feature of the English and Welsh Electricity Pool since its formation in 1990. This study investigates the possibility that the volatility of spot prices is strongly affected by the functioning of the contract market for electricity. This paper suggest that generators with market power may have an incentive to create volatility in the spot market in order to benefit from higher risk premia in the contract market. A simple theoretical model is used to illustrate this argument. Nonparametric techniques are used to test for changes in volatility after the expiry of the coal contracts in 1993 and during the price cap of 1994–1996. Strongly significant increases in volatility are found in the latter period.
China's Economic Growth 1978-2025: What We Know Today About China's Economic Growth Tomorrow

Summary This paper examines China's future growth prospects and the potential drivers of future growth using two approaches. It first asks in how far China's recent economic development matches standard growth patterns identified in development economics and trade theory. Second, GDP is decomposed into income components, which in turn are explained, for the reform period, by the quantity and quality of labor; future GDP can then be re-composed from future labor data available today. Overall, China's economic growth is likely to continue at current rates through 2015 before it gradually slows. Such a growth has numerous implications.
'Specialities still continue to increase amazingly': division of labour among building-related firms

Growth of division of labour among building-related firms in Bristol between 1850 and 1939 was virtually continuous, with fastest growth between c. 1900 and 1920. By contrast, the onset and subsequent retardation of accelerated growth in London occurred earlier. Probable influences favouring growth were the extent of the market, falling transaction costs and, particularly, technical innovation and diffusion, apparently associated with recession in total building activity. Innovations were a strong source of division of labour in the fields of building component and materials processing, and the installation of building services.
A 82-nW Chaotic Map True Random Number Generator Based on a Sub-Ranging SAR ADC

An ultra-low power true random number generator (TRNG) based on a sub-ranging SAR analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is proposed. The proposed TRNG is composed of a coarse-SAR ADC with a low-power adaptive-reset comparator and a low-power dynamic amplifier. The coarse-ADC part is shared with a sub-ranging SAR ADC for area reduction. The shared coarse-ADC not only plays the role of discrete-time chaotic circuit but also reduces the overall SAR ADC energy consumption by selectively activating the fine-SAR ADC. Also, the proposed dynamic residue amplifier consumes only 48 nW and the adaptive-reset comparator generates a chaotic map with only 6-nW consumption. The proposed TRNG core occupies 0.0045 mm2 in 0.18- $\mu \text{m}$ CMOS technology and consumes 82 nW at 270-kbps throughput with 0.6-V supply. It successfully passes all of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) tests, and it achieves the state-of-the-art figure-of-merit of 0.3 pJ/bit.
Market‐wide and sectoral integration: Evidence from the UK, USA and Europe

Purpose - The paper seeks to investigate conditional correlations and conditional volatility spillovers across international stock markets and industrial sectors from the perspective of the UK investor. Design/methodology/approach - Utilizing the DCC model, the paper extracts the time-varying conditional correlations between the UK, US and European stock markets and industrial sectors. It also uses the multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (MVGARCH) to assess the transmission of volatility from the US and European stock markets to the UK. Findings - The findings suggest that the UK equity market is more integrated with Europe, in terms of both aggregate stock markets and sectors. Correlations are higher during bear markets and tend to fall during periods of recovery. The sectoral analysis also provides interesting insights into the dynamics of volatility transmission across sectors. Research limitations/implications - The results suggest that the search for a better understanding of the dynamics of correlations between markets and sectors must continue. Practical implications - The investigation raises interesting questions for investors and regulators, as well as theoretical finance. For example, the finding that correlations increase in bear markets suggests that hedging strategies need to be revisited. The existence of sectoral idiosyncratic volatility offers further evidence that arbitrage may at times become more risky and thus limited. Originality/value - The findings from analysing both market-wide and sectoral integration raises the overarching question of whether studies of market integration and portfolio diversification, as well as the authorities overseeing financial stability, should be focusing on sectoral rather than market-wide analysis.
A miniaturized on-body matched antenna design and its performance evaluation at ISM band

In the field of biomedical research, continuous communication with a living body and data processing to take immediate actions on necessary points is the key concern. The advancing miniaturization of electronic devices combined with the latest evolution in on-body matched antenna is experiencing scrutiny in the biomedical telemetry. A miniaturized design of an on-body matched antenna along with its simulation-based parameter analysis is proposed in this paper. Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band (2.4–2.5 GHz) allows a wider bandwidth with a considerably tiny size of the antenna and that is why the operating frequency of this designed antenna is tuned within this band. The proposed antenna is smaller in size and permits reasonable bend ability that improves its suitability for biomedical telemetry applications. The designed antenna's dimension is 12.150mm∗10.474mm∗1.488mm. The Microwave Studio of Computer Simulation Technology (CST) software is used to design the antenna with human phantom model and calculate various performance results, such as the return loss, radiation pattern, operating frequency, directivity, gain, total efficiency, power analysis and also sensitivity of the antenna in bending condition without changing the dielectric properties of human phantom model. Finally, the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) is evaluated to check the biocompatibility of the antenna.
Courtyard-level sewer data-enhanced two-dimensional hydraulic model for urban flood hazard assessment in Kunming, China

This paper describes a study of urban flooding in downtown Kunming, China, simulating a major flood event that occurred in July 2008 using an improved two-dimensional (2D) hydraulic model enhanced with courtyard-level sewer data (CLSD). Although municipal authorities are not responsible for ‘private’ courtyard sewers, available records were specifically added to this model, enhancing its accuracy and usefulness. Geographic information system (GIS) flood maps, a mapping overlay approach and statistical method compared both predicted results and the recorded flood area. A statistical method also provided a measure of the correlation between the extent of the predicted flood areas and recorded flood areas (parameter ‘ F ’). Results of the improved 2D/CLSD model showed a correlation value for F of 51, 32.6% higher than the basic one-dimensional municipal-level sewer data (1D/MLSD) model; 26.2% higher than an interim version of the model that included a 2D ground surface (2D/MLSD). The 2D/CLSD model predicted flooding in 10 of the 12 courtyards with observed flooding. This was a major improvement over the 1D/MLSD model (three out of 12) and the 2D/MLSD model (five out of 12). Thus a CLSD-enhanced 2D hydraulic model potentially improves accuracy in predicting, mapping and understanding flood risk in urban areas.
Gender inequality and discrimination in Singapore

Abstract This article finds that the root of income inequality and wage discrimination is that female workers are highly concentrated in low paying jobs across core and periphery industries. This finding suggests that job segregation is at the firm level. Gender segregation and discrimination are arguably caused by statistical discrimination, preexisting structural differences, sexism, and Chinese male workers success in protecting their economic success by excluding females from high paying jobs.
Hyperspectral feature selection for forest classification

Hyperspectral imagery contains many correlated bands, which not only increase computing complexity but also degrade classification accuracy if not enough training data are available [David A. Landgrebe, 2003]. To mitigate this problem, linear image transformations, such as principle components analysis (PCA), minimum noise fraction (MNF), and canonical analysis, are employed in hyperspectral data applications. Though these transformations are very effective for data decorrelation and feature extraction, they do not maintain the physical meaning of the original spectral bands, for each band of the transformations is a linear combination of the original spectral bands. In this study, we propose two methods of hyperspectral feature selection as means of data dimension reduction. These methods calculate band significance in terms of the eigenvalue contribution of each original band to the transformed image, which is termed the "band score. " The band scores enable band ranking. Feature selection is, therefore, achieved by selecting the highest ranked bands. In addition, the band ranking also indicates the preferred band locations across the wavelength range for specific applications. This information benefits future imaging sensor development. In this study, both low and high altitude AVIRIS datasets acquired over the Greater Victoria Watershed (GVWD), British Columbia, Canada, are used for assessing feature selection methods. From each dataset a set of thirteen bands is selected. The classification results with the selected bands are compared with those obtained from all-band MNF and canonical transformations.
Skills necessary to grow micro entrepreneurs into small business entrepreneurs : management

This article outlines a qualitative study that was undertaken to determine the necessary skills for growth of micro entrepreneurs to become small business entrepreneurs. Various interviews were conducted over time with micro entrepreneurs and small business entrepreneurs. The results of these interviews were analysed using the constant comparative method. Thirteen skills were identified as necessary for growth of micro entrepreneurs to become small business entrepreneurs. It was further concluded that micro entrepreneurs do not need to possess all thirteen skills, but must have as many of these skills as possible.
Prevalence of neurologic lesions after total shoulder arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND Clinically evident neurologic injury of the involved limb after total shoulder arthroplasty is not uncommon, but the subclinical prevalence is unknown. The purposes of this prospective study were to determine the subclinical prevalence of neurologic lesions after reverse shoulder arthroplasty and anatomic shoulder arthroplasty, and to evaluate the correlation of neurologic injury to postoperative lengthening of the arm. METHODS All patients undergoing either a reverse or an anatomic shoulder arthroplasty were included during the period studied. This study focused on the clinical, radiographic, and preoperative and postoperative electromyographic evaluation, with measurement of arm lengthening in patients who had reverse shoulder arthroplasty according to a previously validated protocol. RESULTS Between November 2007 and February 2009, forty-one patients (forty-two shoulders) underwent reverse shoulder arthroplasty (nineteen shoulders) or anatomic primary shoulder arthroplasty (twenty-three shoulders). The two groups were similar with respect to sex distribution, preoperative neurologic lesions, and Constant score. Electromyography performed at a mean of 3.6 weeks postoperatively in the reverse shoulder arthroplasty group showed subclinical electromyographic changes in nine shoulders, involving mainly the axillary nerve; eight resolved in less than six months. In the anatomic shoulder arthroplasty group, a brachial plexus lesion was evident in one shoulder. The prevalence of acute postoperative nerve injury was significantly more frequent in the reverse shoulder arthroplasty group (p = 0.002), with a 10.9 times higher risk (95% confidence interval, 1.5 to 78.5). Mean lengthening (and standard deviation) of the arm after reverse shoulder arthroplasty was 2.7 ± 1.8 cm (range, 0 to 5.9 cm) compared with the normal, contralateral side. CONCLUSIONS The occurrence of peripheral neurologic lesions following reverse shoulder arthroplasty is relatively common, but usually transient. Arm lengthening with a reverse shoulder arthroplasty may be responsible for these nerve injuries.
Survey Development of Artificial Neural Networks Based Sign Language Recognition System

Sign language is means of communication. Some of them are not ever learn to sign language. This increases the isolation of deaf people and they may be confined in many of their express to communicate only with other deaf people. Preprocessing, feature extraction and classification are three issues in sign language recognition system. This work presents a method to improve the sign language recognition rate using Hough transform, Wavelet Transform artificial neural network. Hough transform and Wavelet Transform are applied to obtain features. Feed Forward Network trained by back propagation algorithm are developed to recognize sign images. Experimental results how that effectiveness of the proposed approach for sign language recognition with good recognition accuracy.
The Effect of Foreign Currency Hedging on the Probability of Financial Distress

This paper investigates the effect of foreign currency hedging with derivatives on the probability of financial distress. I use Merton’s (1974) structural default model to compute firms’ distance to default as a proxy for their probability of financial distress. Using an instrumental variables approach to control for endogenous hedging and leverage, I find that the extent of foreign currency hedging is associated with a lower probability of financial distress. Whereas previous research finds that the probability of financial distress is a determinant of a firm’s hedging policy, this paper provides direct evidence supporting the hypothesis that the extent of hedging reduces a firm’s probability of financial distress.