Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
VIX futures term structure and the expectations hypothesis

Tests of the expectations hypothesis reveal that the slope of the VIX futures term structure predicts the direction but not the magnitude of the evolution of the short-end of the curve, but predicts neither the direction nor the magnitude of short-term changes in the long-end of the curve. Relative value seeking spread trades, constructed to exploit such violations, deliver excess returns with annualized Sharpe ratios equal or greater than those of volatility-writing strategies deployed by VIX ETN's for a majority of the 32 spread trade combinations tested. I demonstrate that profits from beta-neutral variations of the spread trades, which are not compensation for taking on equity downside risk by design, are propagated by inflows of capital into VIX futures markets, after controlling for factors that measure changes in the availability of hedge fund capital, risk appetite, and momentum. At the heart of profits, and by extension the term structure anomalies, is a disproportionally elevated basis propagated by long VIX demand that enters the futures market through ETN channels.
Decentralized Control of Cooperative Robotics System Using Neural Networks for the Purpose of an Object Balancing Flat Plate Tasks

: In this article, the manipulation to handle the object on a plate using neural networks, design of 1-DOF robot arm under cooperative control, will be explained. The robot’s system specifies the object position and velocity, an assignment oriented components for cooperative control. The novelty of this experiment is that under the decentralized control, the robot estimates the position and speed of the object for control end-effector of robot arm using the camera to track position and speed of the object according to training and assigned collaborative tasks which differ from other experiments that use sensors. The experiment includes three robot manipulators which were capable balancing the objects on flat plate with dataset to training and control servo motor assigned to the corresponding position and the end-effector in decentralized to control robotics. Overall, neural network method can be a training scheme using a cooperative robotics in a decentralized control.
Dyspnea due to Residual Neuromuscular Blockade in Elderly Patient with Unrecognized Pre-existing Unilateral Vocal Cord Paralysis

In terms of general anesthesia, the neuromuscular blocking agent is one of the most important factors that facilitates tracheal intubation for airway maintenance and helps to accommodate appropriate ventilation patterns of mechanical ventilation, as well as providing appropriate muscle relaxation for surgical manipulation [1]. Monitoring and management of muscle relaxation during general anesthesia can help safe recovery from residual neuromuscular blockade in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) and help reduce complications. Residual neuromuscular blockade is defined as an insufficient neuromuscular recovery that can be prevented by confirming train-of-four (TOF) ratio >0.9 using objective neuromuscular monitoring [1,2]. Extubation without sufficient reversal after neuromuscular block may cause complication such as dyspnea. In this regard, acceleromyography can be used to monitor the degree of neuromuscular blockade, and γ-cyclodextrins, such as sugammadex (Org 25969; NV Organon, a part of ScheringPlough Corporation, Oss, The Netherlands), which can be used to reverse the neuromuscular block by binding directly to the neuromuscular blocking agent, have helped to recover the muscular strength of patient [3]. This report is to present a case of 82-year-old patient that had dyspnea due to residual neuromuscular blockade with unrecognized unilateral vocal cord paralysis, and dyspnea symptom improved through sugammadex administration with a review of the literature.
On-chip debugging for microprocessor design

This article proposes a closer-to-metal approach of RTL inspection in microprocessor design for use in education, engineering, and research. Signals of interest are tapped throughout the microprocessor hierarchical design and are then output to the top-level entity and finally displayed to a VGA monitor. Input clock signal can be fed as slow as one wish to trace or debug the microprocessor being designed. An FPGA development board, along with its accompanying software package, is used as the design and test platform. The use of VHDL commands ’type’ and ’record’ in the hierarchy provides key ingredients in the overall design, since this allows simple, clean, and tractable code. The method is tested on MIPS single-cycle microprocessor blueprint. The result shows that the technique produces more consistent display of the true contents of registers, ALU input/output signals, and other wires – compared to the standard, widely-used simulation method. This approach is expected to increase confidence in students and designers since the reported signals’ values are the true values. Its use is not limited to the development of microprocessors; every FPGAbased digital design can benefit from it.
Male Compensatory Consumption in American History

The overcompensation thesis posits that men react to gender insecurities by demonstrating their masculinity in extreme ways, some of which include highly gendered forms of consumer behavior known as male compensatory consumption. Though such consumption can be relatively benign, even healthy and positive, several forms of male compensatory behavior might harm public safety, the environment, and social accord. Support for the thesis exists, but is not overwhelming and further research is needed. This article approaches compensatory consumption in the United States from a historical perspective. It presents evidence from four separate periods – circa 1900, the 1930s, the 1950s, and circa 2000 – showing cultural continuities and change in the meaning of masculinity, but also similarities and differences in the perceived threats, the groups of men most affected, and their responses. These historical findings provide macromarketing insights into the societal consequences of market behavior.
Why Communicative Language Teaching Has Yet to Work in Korea : Exploring Teachers' Viewpoints

To ascertain the existing challenges of employing communicative language teaching (CLT) in English classrooms in Korea, 52 English teachers in middle or high schools in Seoul were asked to complete a survey, two of whom were also interviewed to elicit more specific comments. The results of the survey and the interviews showed that CLT is still difficult to adopt in Korea. Although teachers were aware of the importance of implementing CLT to facilitate improving students’ communicative competence, they depended on giving lectures and explanations primarily based on textbooks and failed to use a variety of activities that CLT features. Under the current educational system in Korea—which places heavy emphasis on helping students get into the universities of their choice—both teachers and students do not feel it necessary to take advantage of CLT in teaching and learning English. This unfortunate fact invariably leads to the teacher’s preference for traditional L2 teaching methods and to many Korean students’ inability to communicate effectively in English.
What is important to people with dementia living at home? A set of core outcome items for use in the evaluation of non-pharmacological community-based health and social care interventions

Abstract Objectives inconsistency in outcome measurement in dementia care trials impedes the comparisons of effectiveness between trials. The key aim of this study is to establish an agreed standardised core outcome set (COS) for use when evaluating non-pharmacological health and social care interventions for people with dementia living at home. Method we used a mixed-methods research design, including substantive qualitative research with five key stakeholders groups. We consulted with people living with dementia for many aspects of this research. We applied a modified two-round 54 item Delphi approach to attain consensus on core outcomes. The COS was finalised in a face-to-face consensus meeting in 2018. Results of the 288 who completed round 1 (21 people living with dementia, 58 care partners, 137 relevant health and social care professionals, 60 researchers, 12 policy makers), 246 completed round 2 (85% response rate). Twenty participants attended the consensus meeting. We reached consensus for the inclusion of 13 outcome items. Conclusion we identified 13 outcome items which are considered core; many relate to social health. Providing there are adequate measures, measuring these core outcome items will enhance comparisons for effectiveness making trial evidence more useful. The items will provide commissioners and service planners with information on what types of interventions are most likely to be valued highly by people living with dementia. Trial registration The study is registered on the COMET initiative database.
The Severity of Traffic Crashes in Italy: An Explorative Analysis among Different Driving Circumstances

Analyzing traffic accidents is very important due to their direct impact on the social environment. In the literature, many studies focus on the different aspects that influence traffic accidents, such as human, vehicle, road and environment risk factors. In this paper, we propose a methodology for testing the relationship between road, external environment, driver and vehicle characteristics, and certain circumstances that lead to the traffic crashes. Particularly, we elaborate on logistic regression models for evaluating how these different characteristics impact on crash severity, considering the combination of traffic circumstances that caused the crash. In each combination, a vehicle proceeded regularly, whereas the other vehicle did an incorrect maneuver (the vehicle proceeded: with distracted driving; without maintaining the safety distance; with speeding; by maneuvering to join the circulation flow; against the flow). The present work analyzes data related to road crashes which occurred in Italy during 2016 involving two vehicles. The results show that the variables significantly influencing crash severity are different depending on the combinations of circumstances that cause the crash.
Building a political image on Instagram: A study of the personal profile of Santiago Abascal (Vox) in 2018

Due to Instagram’s growing popularity in Spain, politicians have also begun to turn to this social network increasingly more. Accordingly, this paper analyses the visual and textual discourse of 259 posts published throughout 2018 on the personal Instagram profile of Santiago Abascal, the leader of the party Vox. Insofar as he is the Spanish politician with the highest number of followers on Instagram, the aim here is to analyse how he uses this social network in order to identify possible strategies that justify his growing number of followers. In the analysis, special attention was paid to aspects that might have contributed to the (self)presentation of Abascal and the promotion of his party, such as posting personal information and the direct involvement with his followers. The results show that consistent with the use to which Spanish politicians put Instagram, Abascal’s profile highlights his ‘political’ dimension and, specifically, his agenda. Personal content (such as references to leisure or sports) are used strategically to highlight certain features of his persona and ideology. The predominance of unedited images, the framing of the photos and appeals to his followers are some of the clues that reveal that, rather than providing access to his personal life, Abascal’s use of Instagram is the result of a carefully planned promotional strategy.
Simulating Chiral Induced Spin Selectivity using Non-Equilibrium Green's Functions

In this thesis a method is proposed to improve upon the Non-Self-Consistent Green's function transport calculation used by the Amsterdam Density Functional package (ADF) made by Software for Chemistry and Materials (SCM) so ADF is able to simulate Chiral Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS). CISS is an effect that causes spin polarisation to occur in currents that flow through chiral molecules, such as DNA. In this thesis, Helicene is chosen since it has a helical structure but it is also a relatively simple molecule to simulate. In the calculations the helicene is attached to two gold contacts via a sulfur atom on each side. Gold is chosen for its strong spin-orbit coupling, which is thought to cause the effect. The native Green's function transport calculation uncouples the spin-orbitals into their two spin directions, it essentially preforms the same calculation twice for both spin direction. Because the spin directions are treated separately this method neglects any interactions between electrons of different spin. Therefore no spin polarisation will arise in the absence of a magnetic field. The proposed method improves on this by accounting for the full spin-orbitals, and therefore their potential overlap with each other. Because the potential interactions between orbitals occupied by electrons of different spin, spin-flip interactions are taken into account in the Green's function when calculating the transmission of the Helicene. This then gives rise to potential spin polarisation in the current. Due to a lack of time and an overabundance of run-time errors in the FORTRAN code used to implement the proposed method in ADF 2019, no results could be obtained to confirm or deny this.
RELEVANCE AND PERSPECTIVES OF EXPERIMENTAL WOUND MODELS IN WOUND HEALING RESEARCH

The wound healing process consists of four highly integrated and overlapping phases: Hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and tissue remodeling. These phases and their biophysiological functions must occur in the proper sequence, at a specific time and continue for a specific duration at an optimal intensity. There are many factors that can affect wound healing which interferes with one or more phases in this process, thus causing improper or impaired tissue repair. This review was aimed to collect data and made a critical analysis. This will provide concise information regarding different models and parameters used for wound healing study. The data related to different wound models are collected using popular search engines as well as relevant science search engines and database including Google Scholar, Science Direct, and PubMed. A new drug substance can be evaluated for wound healing activity using different in vitro models such as cell culture, chick chorioallantoic membrane model, tube formation on metrigel and capillary growth model. The in vivo wound models such as incision, excision, dead space, burn wound, ischemic wound, and diabetic wound models are frequently used. Each model has specific importance. The limitations and advantages of each are described in this review. Although animal wound repair is an imperfect reflection of human wound healing and its clinical challenges, these models can be fundamental tools for the development of new approaches to rational wound therapy.
Debt Covenant Restriction, Financial Misreporting, and Auditor Monitoring

Theory suggests that financial-report-based debt covenants engender incentives for the manager to relax covenant constraints through accounting choices in order to avoid costly covenant violations. Prior studies directly testing this hypothesis in the context of financial misreporting fail to find consistent evidence. Using a more refined measure of debt covenant restriction, we find that debt covenant restriction is positively associated with the probability of financial statement misstatements. This positive association is driven by performance covenants rather than capital covenants, and is more consistent with the manager striving to avoid a “false positive” violation than to delay the violation. Our results also imply that managers resort to both income-increasing and non-income-increasing misreporting to relieve covenant constraints, and rely more on the latter when faced with greater earnings management constraints. Additionally, the auditor charges higher audit fees to firms with more binding covenants even outside the violation state, and audit fees increase with constraints relative to both performance and capital covenants, reflecting greater financial reporting risk and bankruptcy risk, respectively. Within capital covenants, we find some evidence of even higher audit fees for tighter intangible-inclusive versus intangible-exclusive capital covenants. Lastly, our evidence suggests that the positive association between covenant constraints and misreporting is attenuated when the auditor has more experience with debt covenants, has greater bargaining power over the client, or faces greater litigation risk.
Analysing Consumer Purchase Behaviour towards the Spiritual Products

The consumer purchase behaviour has undergone a sea change in the recent years. It has been observed that the consumption habits are not solely driven by lifestyle goals but also by the spiritual motivations of the consumers. Various studies have supported the notion that spirituality is an indispensable element for leading a happy life and enhancing well being. Such revelations have spurred a new trend and opportunity for the marketers to offer a bundle of “spiritual products and services” which are being sold through specialised retailers and on-line providers. Fragrances, Incense, aroma therapeutic soaps ,candles, healing crystals, relaxing music ,magazines ,pendulums, pendants and many more related products have experienced a burgeoning response and attraction by the consumers. This papers attempts to explore the factors and patterns that shape the consumer purchase behaviour towards the spiritual products. The connotation of spirituality for this paper is distinct from religion and primarily refers to spirituality as an ability to find inner peace and solace in the fast paced world. The study attempts to look into the purchase habits and behaviour of the consumers towards spiritual products by collecting responses to the self administered questionnaire.
Impacts of Humidity Adjustment Through Radar Data Assimilation Using Cloud Analysis on the Analysis and Prediction of a Squall Line in Southern China

This study examines the impacts of humidity adjustment in a cloud analysis system on the analysis and forecast of a squall line that occurred in southeast China on 23–24 April 2007. Radial velocity data are assimilated using the ARPS three‐dimensional variational system while reflectivity data are assimilated by a cloud analysis system. Experiments with two different humidity adjustment schemes are performed, with the original and enhanced versions. Another experiment does not adjust moisture. Both schemes generally decrease the humidity in front of the convective line and increase the humidity within the convective and stratiform regions of squall line compared to no humidity adjustment, and the original scheme produces the higher humidity within precipitation regions, especially the stratiform region. Both schemes improve the forecast of squall line structure, including the leading convective line, a transition zone, and a trailing stratiform region. Among the three experiments, the enhanced scheme produces the highest precipitation forecast skill. The latent heating rates are also diagnosed to investigate the microphysical responses to the humidity adjustment. The cooling outside of the observed precipitation regions corresponding to the humidity reduction also acts to suppress spurious precipitation. Water vapor condensation into cloud water and cloud water evaporation generally dominate the latent heating/cooling below the freezing level. Compared to the enhanced scheme, the original scheme releases much more latent heat in the middle troposphere, causing more warming. This is linked to the higher cloud water condensation rate, due to the higher amount of moisture addition/adjustment by the original scheme.
Social media and Russian territorial irredentism: some facts and a conjecture

ABSTRACT After Kremlin policymakers decided to incorporate the territory of Crimea into Russia, updates on public attitudes in Russian-speaking communities elsewhere in Ukraine would have been in high demand. Because social media users produce content in order to communicate ideas to their social networks, online political discourse can provide important clues about the political dispositions of communities. We map the evolution of Russian-speakers’ attitudes, expressed on social media, across the course of the conflict as Russian analysts might have observed them at the time. Results suggest that the Russian-Ukrainian interstate border only moved as far as their military could have advanced while incurring no occupation costs – Crimea, and no further.
Transient Response of Inductrack Systems for Maglev Transport: Part I—A New Transient Model

As a new strategy for magnetic levitation, Inductrack systems with Halbach arrays of permanent magnets have been applied to Maglev trains and intensively researched in various projects. In an Inductrack system, the magnetic interaction forces are coupled with the motion of a moving vehicle carrying Halbach arrays, which in many situations results in complicated transient behaviors of the system. In this two-part paper, a new transient model of two degrees-of-freedom for Inductrack systems is proposed. The highlight of this work is that the transient model is developed based on the fundamental principle of physics, without the assumption of steady-state quantities and averaged magnetic forces and with the finite dimensions of Halbach arrays in consideration. In Part I, the transient model is derived through the establishment of a set of nonlinear integro-differential governing equations, and the magnetic interaction forces in the Inductrack system are determined in analytical form. In Part II, the solution of the governing equations, model validation with the previous results in the literature, and transient response analysis via numerical simulation is presented. Although only two degrees-of-freedom have been considered, the approach of modeling and analysis presented in this paper can be extended to general cases of multi-degrees-of-freedom.