Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal Monetary Policy and Exchange Rate Volatility in a Small Open Economy

We lay out a tractable small open economy version of the canonical sticky price model, and use it as a framework to study the properties of three alternative monetary regimes: (a) optimal monetary policy, (b) a Taylor rule, and (c) an exchange rate peg. Several interesting results emerge from our analysis. First, the optimal policy is shown to entail a positive correlation between domestic and world interest rates. That doesn't prevent sizable fluctuations of nominal and real exchange rates from occurring, though the implied volatility of those variables is much smaller than the empirical one. Second, a Taylor rule generally leads to excess volatility of nominal variables, and excess smoothness of real variables, relative to the optimal policy. Finally, we show that a pure exchange rate peg causes the equilibrium to be indeterminate and may thus be a source of macroeconomic instability.
The significance of beta-catenin, E-cadherin, and P-cadherin expressions in neoplastic progression of colorectal mucosa: an immunohistochemical study.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS The purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of beta-catenin, E-cadherin and P-cadherin in colorectal carcinogenesis using tissue array method. PATIENTS AND METHODS Core tissue biopsies were taken from paraffin-embedded tissue blocks of 167 cases including 26 normal mucosae (NM), 99 colorectal polyps (10 hyperplastic polyps (HP), 8 traditional serrated (TSA), 17 tubular (TA), 37 tubulovillous (TVA), and 27 villous adenomas (VA)), 14 adenomas with intramucosal carcinoma (ACA), and 28 colorectal cancers (CCA). Immunohistochemistry was performed using antibodies to beta-catenin, E-cadherin, and P-cadherin. Distribution of positivity was assessed using percentage expression while an arbitrary grading scale was used for staining intensity. RESULTS beta-catenin expression was cytoplasmic, membranous, and nuclear. Both E-cadherin and P-cadherin expressions were confined to cytoplasmic-membranous compartments. Membranous expression of beta-catenin significantly decreased in CCA (p < 0.01). Nuclear beta-catenin expression significantly increased in close correlation with neoplastic sequence reaching its highest expression in ACA and CCA (p < 0.001). Polyps with intraepithelial neoplasia (IEN) showed significantly higher nuclear beta-catenin expression in parallel with increasing grades of IEN (p < 0.001). E-cadherin and P-cadherin expression increased in polyps, whereas a significant decrease in their expression was observed in CCA (p < 0.001) while E-cadherin expression significantly increased in CCA compared to NM (p < 0.001), no such difference was observed in P-cadherin expression. CONCLUSIONS Nuclear beta-catenin expression correlating with the grade of IEN in polyps and carcinomas supports its role in colorectal carcinogenesis. E-cadherin and P-cadherin expressions in adenomas suggest that these molecules might have role in adenoma formation though not necessarily be involved in neoplastic progression.
Ambient Backscatter Assisted Wireless Powered Communications

Ambient backscatter communication technology has been introduced recently, and is quickly becoming a promising choice for self-sustainable communication systems, as an external power supply or a dedicated carrier emitter is not required. By leveraging existing RF signal resources, ambient backscatter technology can support sustainable and independent communications and consequently open up a whole new set of applications that facilitate Internet of things (IoT). In this article, we study an integration of ambient backscatter with wireless powered communication networks (WPCNs). We first present an overview of backscatter communication systems with an emphasis on the emerging ambient backscatter technology. Then we propose a novel hybrid transmitter design by combining the advantages of both ambient backscatter and wireless powered communications. Furthermore, in the cognitive radio environment, we introduce a multiple access scheme to coordinate hybrid data transmissions. The performance evaluation shows that the hybrid transmitter outperforms traditional designs. In addition, we discuss open issues related to ambient backscatter networking.
An Evaluation of the Affinity for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Willingness to Dilute Shareholding among Zimbabwean Companies; A Case Study Of Bulawayo-Based Companies.

This research seeks to evaluate the level of appetite for foreign direct investments or other forms of financial interventions among Zimbabwean (local) companies to revive industry operations, to evaluate the level of preparedness and willingness of local business owners to give up shareholding in lieu of working capital and capital expenditure investment by foreign investors, to evaluate the appreciation of the positive effects of creating synergies with foreign companies which have the requisite financial capacity for economic revival and sustainable growth, to explore the potential benefits to companies and the economy at large of the synergies that can be forged with foreign investors, and to identify possible interventions for attracting FDI as a measure to recapitalize the ailing local industry. Literature on foreign direct investment, the benefits of foreign direct investments and trends on foreign direct investment inflows into the Zimbabwean economy is reviewed with a view to forming a basis against which the research findings are analyzed. The researchers carried out a cross sectional survey that focused on the manufacturing, motoring, engineering, energy, hospitality and tourism companies in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe with a view to evaluating their appreciation of the concept of bringing in foreign investors who have the requisite capital they need for economic revival. The research findings were analyzed and conclusions were drawn, which formed the basis for making recommendations to both government and industry on policy direction for improving the attractiveness of the Zimbabwean economy for foreign direct investment. While respondents agreed that they have need for capital injection for working capital and capital expenditure, the bulk of them (70%) did not show willingness to give up shareholding in exchange for capital injection through foreign direct investment. Instead, they recommended other policy measures and changes to be implemented by government, which they envisaged to change their fortunes in economic turnaround. Some of these recommendations have been implemented before without yielding much positive results. Based on the trends in other developing countries, where foreign direct investment has yielded positive results towards sustainable economic growth as evidenced by the literature, the researchers recommend that the government through its various ministries and the business association educate the business community on the benefits of foreign direct investment to their organizations and to the economy in general. It is also the researchers’ recommendation that the government considers reviewing economic policies so that the economic environment is more conducive for foreign investors to bring in the capital required in Zimbabwe for sustainable economic growth and development.
EXACT CONTROLLABILITY OF A NON-LINEAR GENERALIZED DAMPED WAVE EQUATION: APPLICATION TO THE SINE-GORDON EQUATION

In this paper, we give a sucient conditions for the exact control- lability of the non-linear generalized damped wave equation ¨ w + ˙ w + A w = u(t) + f(t,w,u(t)), on a Hilbert space. The distributed control u 2 L 2 and the operator A is positive definite self-adjoint unbounded with compact resolvent. The non- linear term f is a continuous function on t and globally Lipschitz in the other variables. We prove that the linear system and the non-linear system are both exactly controllable; that is to say, the controllability of the linear system is preserved under the non-linear perturbation f. As an application of this result one can prove the exact controllability of the Sine-Gordon equation.
Testing the Rationality of Price Forecasts: Reply

Carl Bonham and Richard Cohen (1995) are quite correct in noting the errors in our paper (Keane and Runkle, 1990), which were caused by our ignorance of cointegration. We stand chagrined. However, Bonham and Cohen are overstating their case when they claim that "Keane and Runkle's results do not support the empirical validity of the rational-expectations hypothesis" (p. 289). Bonham and Cohen focus on our tests of price-forecast rationality conditioned on past oil prices and Ml, which they claim are the core of our paper and provide our most stringent tests of rationality. Those particular tests account for only two paragraphs of our 20-page paper-obviously, these tests do not provide the core results of our paper. Rather, the main result of our paper is that individual price forecasts are unbiased and rational, conditioned on the forecaster's own past errors. No previous researchers had ever found even this limited support for the rational-expectations hypothesis. These core results are unaffected by the cointegration issues noted by Bonham and Cohen. Given that caveat, however, note how few of our results are actually overturned by Bonham and Cohen. Although our test statistics for determining whether forecasters properly condition on Ml growth are incorrect, Bonham and Cohen reach the same conclusion that we do: price forecasts conditioned on Ml growth are rational. Bonham and Cohen do reach different conclusions about forecast rationality than we do when they condition on oil price changes. But they themselves show that forecasters were only irrational in conditioning on oil prices after 1973 (their table 2, rows 5 and 6). To call such forecasting failure "irrationality" may or may not be correct. We think that Bonham and Cohen's results merely confirm the widespread view that forecasters did not completely understand the effects that oil price shocks would have on the economy because such large oil price shocks had never been seen before. Although Bonham and Cohen overturn only one of our original tests, they do provide additional evidence against forecast rationality with their tests that condition on interest-rate spreads and the unemployment rate. We have no doubt that a search over a large number of conditioning variables will uncover some instances in which forecast rationality is rejected. But conducting such a search will also incorrectly bias tests toward rejecting rationality. Since our original paper, we have also examined the rationality of earnings forecasts made by individual stock analysts-a group that has even more incentive than economic forecasters to make accurate predictions. Although all previous studies in that literature had found individual earnings forecasts to be irrational, we found (Keane and Runkle, 1994) that analysts' forecasts are rational. This additional research provides further support for the paper criticized by Bonham and Cohen.
On Noncooperative Capital Income Taxation in Open Economies

This paper discusses the strategic use of capital income taxation and lump-sum fiscal policies for gaining national advantage in an integrated world capital market. Each fiscal authority seeks to maximize a social welfare function defined over the utilities of home country residents incorporating national redistributing objectives. A national optimum policy is to impose a non-discriminatory source-based capital income tax or subsidy along with an optimal lump-sum tax and transfer plan. Residence-based capital income taxes do not augment the set of lump-sum fiscal instruments, although both policies can be used to influence the world interest rate to national advantage, redistributing welfare internationally. When unrestricted lump-sum fiscal policies are unavailable, source-based capital income taxes may be needed to achieve distributional objectives, so that departures from global production efficiency can arise in a cooperative equilibrium.
Accelerometer-measured physical activity among adolescents in a multicultural area characterized by low socioeconomic status

Abstract Purpose: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to describe and analyze accelerometer-measured sedentary time and physical activity (PA) among adolescents in a multicultural area characterized by low socioeconomic status (SES). Method: Seventh-graders (n=114 (girls n=66), mean age: 12.8±0.5 y) were recruited from three schools in a multicultural area of the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. Sedentary time and PA were measured with ActiGraph™ accelerometers. Result: Of total wear-time, 70 (±6)% was sedentary, with girls being more sedentary than boys. Girls had less light PA (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) than boys. Similar patterns were shown during in-school and out-of-school hours. During wear-time, 53% had a mean of ≥60 min of MVPA per day, but only 6% of the girls and 24% of the boys were sufficiently physically active every day. Girls had more sedentary bouts of ≥10 min and fewer MVPA bouts of ≥5 min per day than boys. Those who participated in organized sports spent a mean of 15 more minutes of MVPA per day compared to those who did not. No association was observed between body mass index (BMI) and sedentary time and PA. Conclusion: Only a few adolescents from a Swedish multicultural area characterized by low SES met the PA recommendations every day, and girls were more sedentary and less physically active than boys. Adolescents involved in organized sports had more of MVPA per day than their non-involved peers. Sedentary time and PA were not related to BMI.
Managing for Milk Quality

Introduction Throughout the world, the business of dairy farming is rapidly evolving. Consumption of dairy products remains strong but fewer farms are producing more milk using less labor and more purchased services. In the United States, the number of dairy farms dropped from 192,700 in 1990 to 92,000 in 2002 (Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics, 2003). The productivity of these larger farms has increased steadily and an increasing percentage of milk is produced on farms that contain more that 200 lactating cows (Figure 1).
Hurricane Katrina and the levees: taxation, calculation, and the matrix of capital

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the havoc created by Hurricane Katrina from the viewpoint of Austrian Economics. The aim is to look specifically at the malinvested capital that came about because of the construction of the complex levee system around New Orleans. Design/methodology/approach - The paper applies Austrian Economics, and especially the economic analysis of Carl Menger. Findings - It is found that there indeed was much malinvested capital in New Orleans, and the situation was made worse because the levee system upon which everything else depended was unfit to withstand a storm the size of Katrina. Research limitations/implications - Research implications include the examination of other situations in which large amounts of government capital help to leverage other investments, but the original government capital itself proves to be unsustainable. Practical implications - The practical implications include a warning to people who we believe should base large amounts of private investment upon government projects that have a political basis, but either cannot withstand natural forces or simply are untenable. Originality/value - The new aspect of this paper is the larger-scale application of Austrian business cycle theory to a specific instance, as opposed to applying it to the economy at large.
Suboptimal design of regulators for jump linear system with time-multiplied quadratic cost

Considers the suboptimal regulator design problem of jump linear system with time-multiplied performance index. The time-multiplied performance index is derived. A necessary condition for a control law with constant gain matrix to minimize the time-multiplied cost is established and a gradient-based algorithm to find a suboptimal control law is developed. Some numerical results are worked out to show the usefulness of the theoretical results.
Relationship Between Carbohydrate Antigen 125 and Coronary Artery Calcification in Patients without Known Coronary Artery Disease

Background This study was designed to investigate the association between serum carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) and coronary artery calcification (CAC) score in patients without known coronary artery disease. Material/Methods The study groups included 348 consecutive subjects with chest pain but without known coronary artery disease, and who underwent an estimation of CAC score in our hospital. Results The clinical and laboratory characteristics of all subjects are presented according to serum CA125 concentrations tertiles. The CAC score was found to be increased in the tertiles (31.6 ±82.10, 73.3±125.6, 122.9±135.9 U/mL, p<0.001). Serum CA125 concentrations are increased in calcium-positive patients compared with calcium-negative ones (9.3±4.79 vs. 11.2±7.36, p=0.003). A positive correlation between serum CA125 and CAC score was observed (r=0.319, p<0.001) in all participants. Similarly, the serum concentrations of CA125 were found to be positively correlated with CAC score in both women and men (r=0.328, p<0.001; r=0.265, p=0.001, respectively). Multiple linear regression analysis results indicated that serum CA125 concentrations are independently related to CAC score in the study population (beta=0.173, p=0.001), and age, sex, diabetes mellitus, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were also associated with CAC score in multiple linear regression analysis. Conclusions Serum CA125 concentrations are correlated with CAC score in the population without known coronary artery disease, and serum CA125 may be considered as a marker to estimate CAC in the study population.
Effect of concanavalin A in vivo in suppressing the antibody response in mice.

Adult mice injected intraperitoneally with concanavalin A 2 days prior to primary immunization with a thymus-dependent, sheep erythrocyte antigen by the same route, showed a marked suppression of their immunoglobulin response as measured by a plaque-forming spleen cell assay. The effect was less pronounced or not demonstrable if the concanavalin A was injected at longer intervals before, at the same time as, or after antigen. A comparable immunosuppression was seen in the secondary response to sheep erythrocytes injected 10 days apart, provided the concanavalin A was injected 2 days prior to the second injection of antigen. Treatment with concanavalin A 2 days prior to the first injection of antigen had no effect upon the secondary response. It was also shown that concanavalin A treatment did not suppress the immunoglobulin response to a thymus-independent, Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide antigen. The most striking immunosuppression was observed when both concanavalin A and antigen were injected by the same route, either intraperitoneally or intravenously.
Learning From Semi-Supervised Weak-Label Data

Multi-label learning deals with data objects associated with multiple labels simultaneously. Previous studies typically assume that for each instance, the full set of relevant labels associated with each training instance is given. In many applicationssuch as image annotation, however, it’s usually difficult to get the full label set for each instance and only a partial or even empty set of relevant labels is available. We call this kind of problem as "semi-supervised weak-label learning" problem. In this work we propose the SSWL (Semi-Supervised Weak-Label) method to address this problem. Both instance similarity and label similarity are considered for the complement of missing labels. Ensemble of multiple models are utilized to improve the robustness when label information is insufficient. We formulate the objective as a bi-convex optimization problem with an efficient block coordinate descent algorithm. Experiments validate the effectiveness of SSWL.
Thyroid nodule size and prediction of cancer.

CONTEXT Thyroid nodule size is routinely measured, although its impact on thyroid cancer risk is unclear. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to evaluate the association of nodule size upon cancer risk. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis at an academic hospital with 4955 consecutive patients evaluated between 1995 and 2009. INTERVENTION Ultrasound and ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration of nodules >1 cm was done. Indeterminate and malignant nodules were referred for surgery, and histopathology was reviewed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE The presence and histological subtype of cancer was evaluated. RESULTS Of 7348 evaluated nodules, 927 (13%) were cancerous. Of those 1.0 to 1.9 cm in diameter, 10.5% were cancerous. In contrast, of those >2.0 cm, 15% were cancerous (P < .01). However, nodules 2.0 to 2.9, 3.0 to 3.9, and >4 cm were cancerous in 14%, 16%, and 15% of cases (P = .14), respectively, demonstrating no graded increase in risk beyond the 2-cm threshold. When malignant, the proportion of papillary carcinoma decreased (nodules 1.0-1.9 cm, 92% of cases; 2.0-2.9 cm, 88%; 3.0-3.9 cm, 83%; >4 cm, 74% [P < .01]), while follicular carcinoma increased (1.0-1.9 cm, 6%; 2.0-2.9 cm, 7%; 3.0-3.9 cm, 12%; >4 cm, 16% [P < .01]) as nodules enlarged. Nodules size did not influence cytology distribution or risk of false-negative aspirates. CONCLUSIONS Increasing thyroid nodule size impacts cancer risk in a nonlinear fashion. A threshold is detected at 2.0 cm, beyond which cancer risk is unchanged. However, the risk of follicular carcinomas and other rare thyroid malignancies increases as nodules enlarge.
The effect of quadriceps muscle fatigue on position matching at the knee

This is a report of the effects of exercise on position matching at the knee. Young adult subjects were required to step down a set of stairs (792 steps), representing eccentric‐biased exercise of the quadriceps muscle, or step up them, concentric‐biased exercise. Immediately after eccentric exercise subjects showed a mean force drop of 28% (± 6%, s.e.m.) of the control value in their exercised quadriceps muscle, which was accompanied by 4.8 deg (± 0.8 deg) of error between reference and matching legs in a position matching task at the knee. Similarly concentric exercise was followed by a force drop of 15% (± 3%) and matching errors of 3.7 deg (± 0.4 deg). These effects were significant. The direction of the errors suggested that subjects perceived their exercised muscles to be longer that they actually were. This finding was not consistent with the hypothesis that the increase in effort required to support the leg after fatigue from exercise was responsible for the errors. It is hypothesized that position sense in an unsupported leg arises, in part, from operation of an internal forward model. When the motor command is increased to compensate for the effects of fatigue, the comparison between predicted and actual feedback from quadriceps leads to the impression that the muscle is longer than it actually is. The exercise effects on proprioception may have implications for sports injuries and for evaluation of the factors leading to falls in the elderly.