Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating Currency Crisis : A Bayesian Markov Switching Approach

In this paper we examine the nature of currency crisis. In line with Jeanne (1997) and Jeanne (2000), we provide an empirical support of the view that both fundamentals and annimal spirits play an important role in the genesis of currency crisis. We do so by employing an out-of-sample forecasting exercise to analyse the Mexican crisis in 1994. We also extend the empirical framework suggested by Jeanne and Masson (2000) to test for the hypothesis that currency crisis was driven by sunspots. To this end we contribute to the existing literature by comparing Markov regime switching model with time-varying transition probabilities with two alternative models. The rst is a Markov regime switching model with constant transition probabilities. The second is a linear benchmark model. Empirical results show that Markov regime switching model with time varying transition probabilities outperfoms both linear and nolinear alternative models but it fails to predict the Mexican currency crisis in 1994. The implication of these results are that fundamentals rst put an economy into a crisis zone but the timing of speculative attact is driven by
Time-Resolved 3 D-PTV Analysis of Near Wall Reverse Flow Events in APG Turbulent Boundary Layers

In this investigation, local reverse flow features rarely present in the viscous sub-layer of turbulent boundary layers with zero pressure gradients (ZPG) were analyzed in an adverse pressure gradient boundary layer (APG) with the aim to resolve their frequency of occurrence, characteristic size, but also to examine the fundamental causes leading to their appearance. Therefore, particle images in a wall parallel field of view were recorded with two high speed cameras in a stereo configuration and quantitatively evaluated with a time resolved three dimensional particle tracking (TR-3D-PTV) algorithm. From this analysis, the Lagrangian trajectories of tracer particle from two data sets of 55 000 images were adequately resolved in the linear part of the boundary layer down to a wall normal distance of z+ = 1.5. The visualization of specific particle tracks allows for the examination of reverse flow events in the nearwall region with high confidence if a number of important experimental features are taken into account. Similar to the ZPG case it was found that the reverse flow events occur still relatively rarely under the action of the pressure gradient investigated here (only 0.14% for the combined data sets of 110 000 images) but their size can become quite large relative to the observations in boundary layers without pressure gradient. Furthermore, instantaneous measurements of reverse flow events show that these events are associated with the motion of low momentum streaks in the near wall region but moreover, also low momentum turbulent superstructures in the logarithmic region of the turbulent boundary layer flow seem to play a significance role in the generation of reverse flow events. This explains the observation that these reverse flow events appear frequently in groups. Moreover, it was also observed that some of the reverse flow events are associated with streamwise vortices inside low speed streaks. This can be explained by the tilted nature of these vortices with respect to the main flow direction. However, the reverse flow events associated with tilted streamwise vortices inside low speed streaks seem to be smaller in size than the aforementioned reverse flow events. The results and discussion will serve to better understand the interaction of coherent flow structures leading to reverse flow events.
Quality of Life in Psoriasis Patients and Its Correlation with Disease Severity

Background & Objective: Psoriasis is a chronic and relapsing disease with a prevalence of 2%. Since it is a chronic and non-fatal skin disease, its impact on quality of life in patients is underestimated compared to other diseases. This study points out to the importance of the quality of life in these patients and their correlation with disease severity. Materials & Methods: Quality of life of psoriasis patients was assessed by using the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and psoriasis severity was measured, using Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI). DLQI were compared regarding age, gender and affected areas in patients. Results: Among 135 patients, 67 (49.6%) were male and 68 (50.4%) were female. The mean age of subjects was 41.49±15.43 years (ranging from 17 to 83 years). The mean DLQI score was 10.73±7.3 (ranging from 0 to 26). Independent t-test showed that the mean DLQI score was significantly greater in women than men (P=0.031) Spearman test showed positive correlation between DLQI and age as well as PASI and DLQI. Conclusion: Results of this study showed a positive and significant correlation between PASI score and quality of life of patients, which implies that with increasing the severity of the disease, the effect of psoriasis on patients' quality of life increases as well.
Structural , electronic , and magnetic properties of tetragonal Mn 3 − x Ga : Experiments and first-principles calculations

This work reports on the electronic, magnetic, and structural properties of the binary intermetallic compounds Mn3−xGa. The tetragonal DO22 phase of the Mn3−xGa series, with x varying from 0 to 1.0 in steps of x=0.1, was successfully synthesized and investigated. It was found that all these materials are hard magnetic, with energy products ranging from 10.1 kJ m−3 for low Mn content x→1 to 61.6 kJ m−3 for high Mn content x→0 . With decreasing Mn content, the average saturation magnetization per atom increases from 0.26 B for Mn3Ga to 0.47 B for Mn2Ga. The increase in the saturation magnetization as the Mn content is reduced indicates a ferrimagnetic order with partially compensating moments of the two different Mn atoms on the two crystallographically different sites of the DO22 structure. This type of magnetic order is supported by ab initio calculations of the electronic structure that predict a nearly half-metallic ferrimagnet with the highest spin polarization of 88% at the Fermi energy for Mn3Ga. The Curie temperature of the compounds is restricted to approximately 770 K because of a structural phase transition to the hexagonal DO19 phase. Thermal irreversibilities between zero-field-cooled and field-cooled measurements suggest that the Mn3−xGa series belongs to the class of magnetically frustrated ferrimagnets. The most pronounced magnetic anomaly is found for Mn3Ga.
Generating Architectural Drawings from Photographs

Current methods of creating accurate architectural drawings are costly or labor intensive. This project examines the application of Structure from Motion techniques to generating architectural plans, which has the potential to yield faster and more accurate drawings than current methods. In this report, We consider capture side optimizations in the Structure from Motion process, such as capture method, detail-increasing markers, stateof-the-art feature extraction methods and feature matching algorithms. We discuss techniques for extracting 2D architectural drawings from reconstructed point clouds, including filtering, object removal, wall-fitting, and interpolation. Finally, we construct and evaluate a pipeline utilizing the examined methods that is capable of automatically generating rough floor plans from imagery.
Teacher Perceptions of Learned Helplessness : A Rasch Analysis of the Student Behaviour Checklist

In a longitudinal study of third grade students Fincham, Hokoda and Sanders (1989) reported that teacher perceptions of learned helplessness had a strong and consistent relation to concurrent achievement and to mathematics achievement test scores two years later. Helplessness was measured with the Student Behavior Checklist, in which teachers rated the student behaviour on a five point scale on 12 items measuring learned helplessness and 12 items measuring mastery. While the two subscales were highly correlated (r = -0.81), Fincham et al (1989) reported that the checklist was not a robust psychometric instrument. Under an assumption of the importance of teacher detection of learned helplessness and the relationship between this helplessness and school achievement, a study was conducted in 1994 with 58 teachers in 31 schools who rated 258 primary and lower secondary students in South Australia. This project aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the instrument and to determine if teachers could in fact detect learned helplessness through the use of the Student Behavior Checklist. The resultant data were analysed with confirmatory factor analyses and with the Rasch procedure. The results indicated that, while teachers could not judge learned helplessness as such, a unidimensional scale of academic behaviour based on a modified Student Behavior Checklist did allow for useful discriminations to be made amongst students.
A COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE BAYES FACTOR TEST

The Bayes factor test is an interesting thing. Some Bayesians advocate it unequivalently, whereas others reject the notion of testing altogether, Bayesian or otherwise. This post takes a critical look at the Bayes factor, attempting to tease apart the ideas to get to the core of what it’s really doing. If your used to frequentist tests and want to understand Bayes factors, this post is for you. The Bayes factor test goes all the way back to Jeffreys’ early book on the Bayesian approach to statistics [Jeffreys, 1939]. Evidence for an alternative hypothesis H1 against that of the null hypothesis H0 is summarized by a quantity known as the Bayes factor. The Bayes factor is just the ratio of the data likelihoods, under both hypotheses and integrating out any nuisance parameters:
CHRISTINA DARGENIDOU, STUART MCLEAY AND IVANA RAONIC EXPECTED EARNINGS GROWTH AND THE COST OF CAPITAL: AN ANALYSIS OF ACCOUNTING REGIME CHANGE IN THE EUROPEAN

This study focuses on the relation between the cost of equity capital and earnings expectations when the properties of accounting that determine earnings vary across different regulatory regimes. More particularly, it addresses the European setting where different types of GAAP regime have continued to function in the presence of the gradual harmonization of the underlying legal framework, and where the adoption of internationally recognised accounting standards by certain firms has anticipated the requirement for International Financial Reporting Standards. On the basis of estimates of the cost of equity that are implied by analysts’ earnings forecasts, the paper provides evidence that financial market integration may have already contributed to mitigating the economic consequences of accounting diversity, and that switching to IFRS could have a short lived impact on capital markets. Moreover, based on firm level transparency and disclosure rankings provided by Standard and Poor’s, it is shown how the quality of financial reporting conditions the implied cost of equity under different GAAP.
Principles of multicultural counseling and therapy

Wedding, Forward. Gielen, Draguns, & Fish, Introduction. Part I: Conceptual - Foundations and Ethical Considerations. Sussman, The Role of Culture in Illness Interpretation and Therapy. Fish, Theoretical Issues, Principles, and Themes Relevant to Multicultural Counseling and Therapy. Fish, A Multicultural Counselor's Guide to Race. Hirsch, Healing the Body and Mind: An Overview of Biopyschosocial Foundations and Applications. Stevens, Professional Ethics in Multicultural and International Context. Part II: Models of Multicultural Counseling. Tanaka-Matsumi, Functional Approaches to Evidence-Based Practice in Multicultural Counseling and Therapy. Coleman & Lindwall, Multiculturalism and School Counseling: Creating Culturally Relevant Comprehensive Guidance and Counseling Programs. Koss-Chioino, Baca, & Vargas, Group Therapy with Mexican American and Mexican Adolescents: Focus on Culture. Part III: The Practice of Multicultural Counseling. Laungani, A Clash of Cultures: A Case Study. Gielen & Al-Khawajah, The Practice of Counseling in Kuwait: An Interview with Jasem M. A. Al-Kahwajah. Kuriansky, A Clinical Toolbox for Cross-Cultural Counseling and Training. Denham, Rethinking Counseling in Refugee Work: Post-Traumatic What? Part IV: Psychological Healing and Counseling - Indidgenous, Western, or Both? Jilek & Draguns, Interventions by Traditional Healers: Their Impact and Relevance Within Their Cultures and Beyond. Rubin, Deepening Psychoanalytic Listening: The Marriage of East and West. Part V: Academic Findings and Resources for Multicultural Counseling. Draguns, What Have We Learned About the Interplay of Culture with Counseling and Psychotherapy? Gielen, Draguns, & Fish, Principles of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy: A Selective Bibliography. About the Editors. About the Contributors. Author Index. Subject Index.
Partners in learning : making our emotions work for us in the PhD process

Emotions are an integral part of the PhD process. A range of emotions are common and to be expected. How do emotions affect the PhD process for both postgraduate students and their supervisors? How can we make our emotions work positively for us in the PhD process? To explore answers to these questions, three lecturers currently supervising postgraduates and three postgraduates at various stages in their doctoral studies collectively pooled their experiences. An interactive workshop was developed that was recently conducted for postgraduate students at Murdoch University and at the Australian Association for Social Research annual conference 2002. This paper explores the role that emotions play in the PhD process and how supervisors and postgraduates alike can benefit from reflecting on this issue. We explore, from the student's perspective, the role of emotions at the beginning, middle and end of a PhD programme. The data collection and analysis phases are a time when emotions may run riot. Trepidation is especially common when fieldwork or data collection is involved, as is anger when postgraduate's views about how the world works are challenged and then sadness (and relief! ) when the data collection phase is finished. We suggest some strategies that students can use to help their emotions work for them rather than be an encumbrance. By partnering students in this emotion work, supervisors can greatly help students in their PhD journey.
Reducing the Dispersion Errors of the Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method for Multifrequency Plane-Wave Excitations

We demonstrate the applications of discrete-time signal-processing (SP) techniquesfor the purpose of generating accurate plane waves in the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The SP techniques are used either to reduce the highjrequency conlenf of the source excitation or to compute more precise incident-field values in the computational domain. The effects of smoothing windows of various lengths, digital lowpass filters of various bandwidths and characteristics, and polynomial interpolation schemes of various orders are investigated. Arbitrary signals with multifrequency content are considered.
Triple and emissive probe measurements of plasma parameters in a magnetized capacitive coupled discharge

Capacitive coupled plasmas (CCP) are widely popular in semiconductor industries. These plasmas are created by radio-frequency (rf) potential applied between two similar/dissimilar parallel plate electrodes inside a vacuum chamber. At low pressures, the electrons adjacent to the plates are stochastically heated by the rapidly oscillating rf electric fields adjacent to the sheaths and resistively heated in the bulk plasma. Measurement of plasma parameters using single Langmuir probe has been limited due to large oscillation in plasma potential.
A New Weighted NMF Algorithm For Missing Data Interpolation And Its Application To Speech Enhancement

In this paper we present a novel weighted NMF (WNMF) algorithm for interpolating missing data. The proposed approach has a computational cost equivalent to that of standard NMF and, additionally, has the flexibility to control the degree of interpolation in the missing data regions. Existing WNMF methods do not offer this capability and, thereby, tend to overestimate the values in the masked regions. By constraining the estimates of the missing-data regions, the proposed approach allows for a better trade-off in the interpolation. We further demonstrate the applicability of WNMF and missing data estimation to the problem of speech enhancement. In this preliminary work, we consider the improvement obtainable by applying the proposed method to ideal binary mask-based gain functions. The instrumental quality metrics (PESQ and SNR) clearly indicate the added benefit of the missing data interpolation, compared to the output of the ideal binary mask. This preliminary work opens up novel possibilities not only in the field of speech enhancement but also, more generally, in the field of missing data interpolation using NMF.
Reliability and validity of the continence self-efficacy scale in Turkish women with urinary incontinencenhs

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Continence Self-Efficacy Scale. Data was collected from 128 women who had urinary incontinence using the following instruments: the Continence Self-Efficacy Scale, the Broome Pelvic Muscle Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale, the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Short Form, and the Beck Depression Inventory. The validity of the Continence Self-Efficacy Scale was investigated using confirmatory factor analysis and convergent and divergent validity analyses. The reliability of the Continence Self-Efficacy Scale was examined in terms of internal consistency and test–retest correlations. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a three -factor model that had acceptable goodness-of-fit indices. The convergent validity of the Continence Self-Efficacy Scale was supported by a positive correlation between the Continence Self-Efficacy Scale and the Broome Pelvic Muscle Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale. The divergent validity of the Continence Self-Efficacy Scale was supported by negative relationships between the Continence Self-Efficacy Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory. The Cronbach’s alpha values regarding internal consistency were 0.94 for the overall scale and 0.92–0.93 for the subscales. Test–retest correlations were 0.75 for the overall scale and 0.52–0.74 for the subscales.The Continence Self-Efficacy Scale is a valid and reliable instrument for use in Turkish women with urinary incontinence.
The epitranscriptome m 6 A writer METTL 3 promotes chemo-and radioresistance in pancreatic cancer cells

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant epitranscriptome modification in mammalian mRNA. Recent years have seen substantial progress in m6A epitranscriptomics, indicating its crucial roles in the initiation and progression of cancer through regulation of RNA stabilities, mRNA splicing, microRNA processing and mRNA translation. However, by what means m6A is dynamically regulated or written by enzymatic components represented by methyltransferaselike 3 (METTL3) and how m6A is significant for each of the numerous genes remain unclear. We focused on METTL3 in pancreatic cancer, the prognosis of which is not satisfactory despite the development of multidisciplinary therapies. We established METTL3-knockdown pancreatic cancer cell line using short hairpin RNA. Although morphologic and proliferative changes were unaffected, METTL3-depleted cells showed higher sensitivity to anticancer reagents such as gemcitabine, 5-fluorouracil, cisplatin and irradiation. Our data suggest that METTL3 is a potent target for enhancing therapeutic efficacy in patients with pancreatic cancer. In addition, we performed cDNA expression analysis followed by Gene Ontology and protein-protein interaction analysis using the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery and Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins databases, respectively. The results demonstrate that METTL3 was associated with mitogen-activated protein kinase cascades, ubiquitin-dependent process and RNA splicing and regulation of cellular process, suggesting functional roles and targets of METTL3.
Draft Revising the PLAC 8 Gene Family : From a Central Role in Differentiation , Proliferation , and Apoptosis in Mammals to a Multifunctional Role in Plants

Complete List of Authors: Cabreira-Cagliari, Caroline; Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Dias, Nathalia; Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul Bohn, Bianca; Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul Fagundes, David ; Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul Margis-Pinheiro, Marcia; Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Zanettini, Maria; Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Cagliari , Alexandro ; Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul, Biotecnology
Domain-Independent Relaxation Heuristics for Probabilistic Planning with Dead-ends

Recent domain-determinization techniques have been very successful in many probabilistic planning problems. We claim that traditional heuristic MDP algorithms have been unsuccessful due mostly to the lack of efficient heuristics in structured domains. Previous attempts like mGPT used classical planning heuristics to an all-outcome determinization of MDPs without discount factor ; yet, discounted optimization is required to solve problems with potential dead-ends. We propose a general extension of classical planning heuristics to goal-oriented discounted MDPs, in order to overcome this flaw. We apply our theoretical analysis to the well-known classical planning heuristics hmax and hadd, and prove that the extended hmax is admissible. We plugged our extended heuristics to popular graphbased (Improved-LAO∗, LRTDP, LDFS) and ADDbased (sLAO∗, sRTDP) MDP algorithms: experimental evaluations highlight competitive results compared with the winners of past competitions (FF-REPLAN, FPG, RFF), and show that our discounted heuristics solve more problems than non-discounted ones, with better criteria values. As for classical planning, the extended hadd outperforms the extended hmax on most problems.
CORRELATION OF HTERT EXPRESSION WITH CERVICAL CYTOLOGICAL ABNORMALITIES AND HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS INFECTION Cervical cancer is caused by a dynamic biological process that causes transformation from normal epithelium through cervical precursor lesions and ends with malignant transformation and invasio

Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT) is the main catalytic sub-unit of telomerase, a reverse transcriptase enzyme. Telomerase expression is regulated at many levels, with numerous studies suggesting that up-regulation of human TERT gene (hTERT) at transcriptional level results in immortal cell phenotype associated with cancer. The aim of this study is to determine the correlation between hTERT expression and different cervical precursor lesions, as well as with cervical cancer in patients with confirmed Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. The study included molecular analyzes on cervical samples from 214 women and matched Papanicolaou (Pap) test results. HPV detection and genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and genotyping. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed using TaqMan probes and were calculated relative to the reference gene. Results showed significantly increased hTERT mRNA expression levels in high-grade and low-grade lesions compared to normal control samples (p<0.01) associated with 6.31 fold higher risk for developing ASC-US and 9.20 for LSIL. Strong correlation between HPV infection and hTERT expression in the high-grade lesions and cervical cancer was also observed. hTERT relative expression values showed 98% specificity and 100 % sensitivity as indicator of cervical lesions particularly for the ACS-H, HSIL and cervical cancer. In conclusion, hTERT expression correlate with the cytological grade of the cervical lesions and HPV infection and has a potential to be used as a diagnostic and prognostic marker.