Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ON THE ASSESSMENT OF RISK: SOME FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS

STATISTICALLY, a beta coefficient is the slope coefficient of a linear function relating the return on a security or portfolio to the return on a market index. Substantial interest has focused on beta coefficients because of hypothesis suggesting them as indices of asset risk. This concept arises from two sources: the market model developed in Sharpe [4] as a technique for portfolio analysis; and, the full equilibrium Capital Asset Pricing Model developed in Sharpe [5], Lintner [2], and Mossin [3]. Recently in this Journal, Marshall Blume [1] reported results of an empirical investigation of the stationarity of beta coefficients over time. In investigating this question, Blume estimated portfolio betas using monthly data over several successive seven year periods, and comparing the betas on successive intervals. His results indicated that beta coefficients were highly stable for portfolios containing large numbers of securities but unstable for individual securities. ' The present paper presents results of research which investigated the impact of the length of the estimation interval on stability of the beta estimated. Using monthly data, betas were estimated using estimation intervals of one year, two years, four years, six years and nine years. The results indicate that the stability of the beta increases substantially as the length of the estimation interval increases.
Automated detection of infectious disease outbreaks: hierarchical time series models

The purpose of infectious disease surveillance is to inform the public health policy makers on the incidence and trends of infectious diseases and to trigger appropriate actions to control infectious disease outbreaks. The enormous amount of data collected with automated laboratory‐based surveillance systems require automated algorithms for detecting unexpected aberrations that may signal infectious disease outbreaks. In this paper, we explore the potential of hierarchical time series models to detect deviations from expected incidence. As these count data are extremely noisy it can be expected that these models are suitable to detect signal from noise and accommodate for possible autocorrelation. The proposed procedure consists of three steps; (1) the model parameters are estimated by empirical Bayes on a training period of, e.g. a year; (2) the expected values are updated for small time steps (e.g. daily) as new data arrive; (3) threshold levels are updated conditionally on the past expected values and an alarm is triggered when the threshold level is exceeded. To test the potential of the models we estimated sensitivity, specificity and timeliness on simulated time series and compared the results with an alternative approach of a linear regression model adjusted for trends and season. We also used two observed series for Rubella notifications and Salmonella infections and compared our findings with the expert opinions on these series. The hierarchical time series models approach shows high sensitivity and specificity and correctly identifies outbreaks at an early stage. This, in our opinion, makes the proposed model a reliable tool for adequate automated detection of infectious disease outbreaks. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ON THE (MIS)MEASUREMENT OF INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT COSTS

Several world institutions and researchers use import cif/fob ratios to measure a country's international transport costs. In this paper, the relationship between annual cif/fob ratios and compositions of imports are examined via correlation analysis. The findings show that where the quality of the data is reliable, a country's composition of imports has a significant effect on that country's cif/fob ratios; hence researchers cannot use the ratio as a reliable measure of direct shipping costs. Researchers should be wary of substituting country cif/fob ratios for direct measures of transport costs. Copyright (c) 2009 The Author. Journal compilation (c) 2009 Economic Society of South Africa.
The legal liability of auditors in Germany

The European Union tried to harmonize the qualifications of auditors in member states through the Eighth Company Law Directive. However, other aspects of the regulation of auditors have not been dealt with in EC directives and show a wide diversity. Rules concerning the liability of auditors are one example of this diversity. Germany provides an extreme example in the case of this liability problem, since it is operating with a capped liability and providing third parties with only few possibilities to sue an auditor. This limited liability is probably one reason for a small number of cases. The purpose of this article is to describe and to review critically the German system of auditor's liability, and to identify specific environmental German factors which might explain the current system.
Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 expression and function in splenic dendritic cells: a potential role in immune homeostasis

Neuro‐immune interactions, particularly those driven by neuropeptides, are increasingly implicated in immune responses. For instance, triggering calcium‐channel transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) on sensory nerves induces the release of calcitonin‐gene‐related peptide (CGRP), a neuropeptide known to moderate dendritic cell activation and T helper cell type 1 polarization. Despite observations that CGRP is not confined to the nervous system, few studies have addressed the possibility that immune cells can respond to well‐documented ‘neural’ ligands independently of peripheral nerves. Here we have identified functionally relevant TRPV1 on primary antigen‐presenting cells of the spleen and have demonstrated both calcium influx and CGRP release in three separate strains of mice using natural agonists. Furthermore, we have shown down‐regulation of activation markers CD80/86 on dendritic cells, and up‐regulation of interleukin‐6 and interleukin‐10 in response to CGRP treatment. We suggest that dendritic cell responses to neural ligands can amplify neuropeptide release, but more importantly that variability in CGRP release across individuals may have important implications for immune cell homeostasis.
Trade Union Members’ Participation at Branch and Regional Levels: A Comparison of Women and Men in UNISON

Based on a questionnaire survey of members of the UK public sector trade union UNISON, this article examines factors that influence the ability and willingness of trade union members to take on unpaid roles at the level of the branch and region. The article compares the experiences and views of men and women in relation to potential barriers to union participation. Participation at both branch and regional levels is found to be associated with collective orientations and the extent to which members feel encouraged by UNISON to become active within the union. The findings point to the importance of union efforts to encourage members to take on lay representative roles and participate in union governance.
Outcomes of routine episiotomy: a systematic review.

CONTEXT Episiotomy at the time of vaginal birth is common. Practice patterns vary widely, as do professional opinions about maternal risks and benefits associated with routine use. OBJECTIVE To systematically review the best evidence available about maternal outcomes of routine vs restrictive use of episiotomy. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION We searched MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Cochrane Collaboration resources and performed a hand search for English-language articles from 1950 to 2004. We included randomized controlled trials of routine episiotomy or type of episiotomy that assessed outcomes in the first 3 postpartum months, along with trials and prospective studies that assessed longer-term outcomes. Twenty-six of 986 screened articles provided relevant data. We entered data into abstraction forms and conducted a second review for accuracy. Each article was also scored for research quality. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS Fair to good evidence from clinical trials suggests that immediate maternal outcomes of routine episiotomy, including severity of perineal laceration, pain, and pain medication use, are not better than those with restrictive use. Evidence is insufficient to provide guidance on choice of midline vs mediolateral episiotomy. Evidence regarding long-term sequelae is fair to poor. Incontinence and pelvic floor outcomes have not been followed up into the age range in which women are most likely to have sequelae. With this caveat, relevant studies are consistent in demonstrating no benefit from episiotomy for prevention of fecal and urinary incontinence or pelvic floor relaxation. Likewise, no evidence suggests that episiotomy reduces impaired sexual function--pain with intercourse was more common among women with episiotomy. CONCLUSIONS Evidence does not support maternal benefits traditionally ascribed to routine episiotomy. In fact, outcomes with episiotomy can be considered worse since some proportion of women who would have had lesser injury instead had a surgical incision.
The Dynamics of Post-War US Inflation: The Limited Role of Time Inconsistency

In this paper we investigate whether the long-run relationship between inflation and unemployment has changed since Paul Volcker's appointment as Chairman of the Fed. Long-horizon vector autoregressive forecast errors provide evidence of a positive long-run relationship for the period of rising inflation, but no long-run relationship for the subsequent two decades of falling inflation. This suggests the model of discretionary monetary policy of Barro and Gordon (Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 91 (1983), pp. 589-610) is rejected in the latter period.
A Firm‐Level Analysis on the Relative Difference between Technology‐Driven and Market‐Driven Disruptive Business Model Innovations

Using the business model concept as a theoretical framework, this paper examines the relative disruptiveness potential between technology‐driven and market‐driven innovations. The study analyses retrospectively four case studies comprising two technologically sophisticated IT innovations and two technologically less sophisticated market‐driven innovations starting from their inception to the point of disruption over a period of 5–15 years. It finds that, while the disruption process of technology‐driven innovation conforms to the patterns predicted by disruptive innovation theory, the disruption process of market‐driven disruptive business model innovation depicts a bottleneck shape, where the positive effects of initial strategic choice, model specialization and investments on disruptiveness potential reach the maximum level and start to stagnate due to the same initial strategic choice and cost factors. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.
Liquidity of European real estate equities: REITs and REOCs

Listed real estate companies can be divided into two categories: real estate operating companies (REOCs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs). REOCs have been around for quite a while, whereas REITs are a somewhat new phenomenon in Europe, the main differences pertaining to permissible activities and taxation. This paper studies the relative differences of REOCs and REITs in terms of liquidity: Also asset returns, volatility and correlation to other equities are assessed. The liquidity tests performed reveal REITs to be significantly more liquid than REOCs, potentially due to restrictions regarding REIT ownership structure. Ceteris paribus, superior REIT liquidity implies REITs constitute a preferred investment vehicle.
Portuguese Export Market Shares: An Analysis by Selected Geographical and Product Markets

Portuguese export market shares have been showing a disappointing behaviour recently, with substantial reductions in the last two years. This fact is often considered as a signal of deteriorating external competitiveness and as a hinder to growth in a small open economy like Portugal, thus contributing to the real growth divergence against the euro area observed since 2002. Besides being determined by a country’s capacity to compete effectively with other supply sources, market share growth depends also on other factors, like a country’s geographical and sectoral specialization and its ability to adapt its exports to demand changes. This article analyses the evolution of Portuguese export shares in a sample of selected product and geographical markets, taking into account the impact of product and geographical composition on the aggregate behaviour of export shares. For this purpose, the percentage change of the aggregate Portuguese export market share is decomposed into three main additive and analytically interpretable terms: a market share effect, taking into account the effective changes of share in each product/geographical market, and two additional terms that analyse how the geographical and product composition of Portuguese exports affected developments in the overall market share. Eight countries and twelve products are considered as the relevant market in the period from 1999 to 2005, representing together more than 70 per cent of total Portuguese manufacturing exports. Our analysis is basically a modified version of the traditional constant market share analysis, as it also allows to isolate the effective changes of export share in each individual market from the effects related with the product and geographical structure of exports. Applications of constant market share analysis to Portuguese exports can be found in Manteu and Abreu (1993) and Cabral (2004), and ECB (2005) shows an analysis of this type for euro area exports. The information of our sample, covering the selected 96 individual markets, helps to understand if losses of market share were a generalised phenomenon or if they can be attributed to some specific product or geographical destination. Additionally, the use of this detailed dataset, not only for Portugal but also for all other countries, permits to detect the ones that compete the most with Portuguese exports in each individual market of our sample. This kind of analysis is related to Esteves and Reis (2005) where the computation of the Portuguese effective exchange rate index with a triple-weights scheme for exports with a product breakdown for each country allowed the identification of some of the main competitors of Portuguese exports in 2004. In our sample of 96 individual markets, Portuguese exports show a considerable cumulative loss of total market share in the 2000-2005 period, 16.2 per cent. This decline of Portuguese total export share stems essentially from effective market share losses in specific markets (product-country), with a con
Long-memory forecasting of US monetary indices

Several studies have tested for long-range dependence in macroeconomic and financial time series but very few have assessed the usefulness of long-memory models as forecast generating mechanisms. This study tests for fractional differencing in the U.S. monetary indices (simple sum and divisia) and compares the out-of-sample fractional forecasts to benchmark forecasts. The long-memory parameter is estimated using RobinsonOs Gaussian semiparametric and multivariate log-periodogram methods. The evidence amply suggests that the monetary series possess a fractional order between one and two. Fractional out-of-sample forecasts are consistently more accurate (with the exception of the M3 series) than benchmark autoregressive forecasts but the forecasting gains are not generally statistically significant. In terms of forecast encompassing, the fractional model encompasses the autoregressive model for the divisia series but neither model encompasses the other for the simple sum series.
Hairlytop interface: An interactive surface display comprised of hair-like soft actuators

There has been much research on interactive surface displays, which are displays that can change the geometric state of their surfaces actively. Most of these displays consist of multiple haptic units, which are composed of pins that actively move up and down. The envelope of these pins mimics the surface shape of an arbitrary object. However, it is difficult to improve the spatial resolution of such displays and to enlarge the display area because of the physical complexity. In this research, we propose the hairlytop interface, which is a collection of hair-like soft actuators composed of shape memory alloy. The proposed interface is capable of improving spatial resolution and can be used in developing larger surface displays. This paper details the hairlytop interface and discusses assumed applications.
Nominalising the numeric: an alternative to mathematical reduction in economics

Mathematical reduction in economics is the attempt to reduce reasoning about human economic behaviour to the logic of numbers and numerical relations. The method of numerics shows how, in simple cases, the mathematical and non-mathematical components of economic theory can be both formally distinguished and integrated. However, in its compressed idiomatic form, this method treats numerics (the numerical terms in measuremental expressions) as determinatives (numerical adjectives) rather than as substantives. This paper shows how the numeric can be nominalised or given the grammatical status of a substantive. The method of numerics is then used to explore the fundamental flaws of mathematical reduction in economists' efforts to achieve logical rigour in the formalisation of economic theory. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.
A linear high voltage charge pump for MEMs applications in 0.18/spl mu/m CMOS technology

Tunable MEMS components start to appear in wireless communication systems. They allow for new functionality such as tunable RF filters or they improve performance like electrostatically tuned variable capacitors that are used in voltage-controlled oscillators. However, the required tuning voltage for these capacitors is often much higher than the supply voltage of these capacitors is often much higher than the supply voltage of the deep sub-micron (Bi)CMOS technology which is typically used for these applications. Therefore we designed a high voltage charge pump that can generate an output voltage between -0.7V and +14.8 V out of a 1.8 V power supply. It is built in a 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS technology, requires the same control signals as a regular charge pump and provides a constant output current of 0.7/spl mu/A over its complete voltage range of MEMS variable capacitors at low power, at a small area cost and in a way which is completely transparent to the system designer.
Beyond TQM implementation: the new paradigm of TQM sustainability

The concept of sustainable development has been touted as a new planning agenda (Beatley & Manning, 1998). As such, it becomes a fundamental concept that should be an important aspect of all further policy developments (Loffler, 1998). Sustainable development is based on a perceived need to address environmental deterioration and to maintain the vital functions of natural systems for the well being of present and future generations. Sustainability is defined as ‘the ability of an organization to adopt to change in the business environment to capture contemporary best practice methods and to achieve and maintain superior competitive performance’ (Zairi & Liburd 2001). This concept implies that sustainability is a mean for an organization to maintain its competitiveness. Quinn (2000) has a similar idea on sustainability. He describes it as the development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Gladwin et al. (1995), on the other hand, define it as ‘development, which meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future organizations to meet their own needs’. Total Quality Management (TQM) represents an integrative approach for the pursuit of customer satisfaction (Chin et al., 2001). However, facing intense pressure of global competition, organizations need to consider incorporating the idea of sustainability in TQM in order to sustain their competitive advantage and performance improvement. In addition, the interest of organizational survival, growth and prosperity has therefore got to be concerned with not just the present but also the future. The concept of sustainability does however remain unclear and it is therefore worth exploring further how it can be applied. It is the purpose of this paper to highlight some of the key issues of sustainable TQM, to trace transformational evolutions that bring different orientations over time. The paper will then describe how various critical factors can create a sustainable competitive advantage, when working in harmony. Finally, a wide range of best practices will be illustrated to support a proposed model for TQM sustainability.
The Role of Bank Loans and Deposits in the Monetary Transmission Mechanism of Pakistan

This study is an attempt to examine the impact of bank lending channel in the monetary transmission mechanism of Pakistan, Analyzing five-year monthly data with the use of cointegration test, Vector Error Correction Model and Variance Decomposition Analysis.This study concludes that the bank loans and deposits are unable to play their role significantly in the monetary transmission mechanism of Pakistan. Further this study provides evidence in favor of macroeconomic variables in playing important role in the conduct of monetary transmission mechanism.
Self-arranging preservation networks

We pose the question: what if digital library objects could self-arrange without intervention from repositories and minimal intervention from administrators? We present background information about networks, techniques on how networks can be created based on locally discovered information, and how a small set of controlling policies can profoundly affect network configuration. This poster reflects a work in progress, providing information about the project's genesis, current status and future efforts.
Navigating through the Finnish Pension System

The paper constructs a competing risks duration model, explaining the probability of retirement due to old-age, ill health or long-term unemployment. It also attempts to measure the degree of substitution between the various retirement channels, among other things, by using data on pension application rejections. The effect of the economic incentives was tested in a number of alternative specifications. In addition to simple replacement ratio, life-cycle incentives were calculated for each exit channel separately. Both the grace period compensations (unemployment benefits and sick allowances) and the actual pension benefits were considered. The paper concludes that the baseline hazards as well as the effects of a number of explanatory variables differ signficantly between the distinct retirement channels. It also finds some evidence on the channel substitutability between different retirement channels.
Ligature Analysis-based Urdu OCR Framework

Urdu script belongs to Arabic script which is cursive in nature, written right to left with each word formation from top-right to bottom-left, along complex placement of diacritics. Characters are joined together to make ligature and combination of ligatures make words. In this paper, Nataleeq Urdu OCR framework is proposed consisting of three steps. These steps are normalization and segmentation, feature extraction and classification, and text formation. In Urdu script, last character in any ligature or in isolated form always appears in full shape. Each ligature is classified according to segmented last character by finding similarity co-relation with corresponding one, two and three characters ligature image bank in sequence. Ligature image bank comprising 3500 images, developed during this research, and is used to classify ligatures according to the sequence of characters appearance. The proposed framework provides promising results for Urdu Nastaleeq text recognition with accuracy of 97.4% for isolated characters, 82.3% for two-character ligatures and 80.6% for three-character ligature