Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Upside and Downside Risks in Momentum Returns

I provide a novel risk-based explanation for the profitability of momentum strategies. I show that the past winners and the past losers are differently exposed to the upside and downside market risks. Winners systematically have higher relative downside market betas and lower relative upside market betas than losers. As a result, the winner-minus-loser momentum portfolios are exposed to extra downside market risk, but hedge against the upside market risk. Such asymmetry in the upside and downside risks is a mechanical consequence of rebalancing momentum portfolios. But it is unattractive for an investor because both positive relative downside betas and negative relative upside betas carry positive risk premiums according to the Downside-Risk CAPM. Hence, the high returns to momentum strategies are a mere compensation for their upside and downside risks. The Downside Risk-CAPM is a robust unifying explanation of returns to momentum portfolios, constructed for different geographical and asset markets, and it outperforms alternative multi-factor models.
Creating Community Commons: A Systems-Approach to Re-vitalize Declined Rural Towns

This paper proposes a new methodology to design a public policy for re-vitalizing declined rural towns by using a systems-approach to visualize and quantify the residents" preferences on commu- nity-building. The new methodology, named the Interactive Social Design Model (ISDM), roots in the Vee model (Forsberg et al.(1)), a standard framework to describe the life-cycle of systems developments, and Ostrom (2)"s commons theory. The ISDM provides a new perspective for the re- gional policy since enhanced social capitals with stimulated social interactions are mobilized as the real engines for regional economic growth and em- ployments. This paper selected the Akita City, a core city in the north-eastern region of Japan now in decay, as the social research field to validate this new methodology. The collected data there and our analysis proved well that the ISDM is effective to accomplish the policy goal for regional re-vitalization.
Strategic Human Resource Management in Small Enterprises

The need for strategic human resource management in small enterprises is discussed. Though small enterprises might wish to keep their human resource management practices informal, they will be able to increase their productivity if there is adequate human resource planning and integration of human resource strategies with business strategies. An illustrative case study is presented of a successful small enterprise which has a mix of formal and informal human resource management functions, and which has judiciously integrated its human resource strategies with its business strategies.
Some economic aspects of a proposed German ancillary copyright law

This paper analyses the economic consequences of a new ancillary copyright law in Germany, which aims at enabling newspaper publishers to charge online aggregators (such as Google News) for displaying parts of their content. It will do so by extending protection to small excerpts of newspaper articles (i.e., “snippets”). Using a model originally developed by Dellarocas et al. (2011), we will demonstrate that the key component of this bill is not the extension of copyright, but the inherent mandatory collective administration, serving as a de facto antitrust exemption meant to enable publishers to joint pricing policies in their negotiations with online aggregators. Rather than closing a legal loophole, this law’s purpose is merely to cut publishers in on web companies’ profits. Even though this paper merely focuses on German legislature, results may be applied to international parallels, such as the Copiepresse decision in Belgium, the British Meltwater case, and the “hot news” debate in the United States.
Formulating and Evaluating Agricultural Zoning Programs

Abstract Agricultural zoning, the most common method of preventing the development of agricultural land, is the method that holds the most promise for protecting a major portion of the nation's farmland. This article reports on data and analyses necessary to formulate effective, politically acceptable, and legally sound agricultural zoning programs. Because agricultural zoning is intended to protect a resource (unlike more typical zoning that is intended to give order to development), it is first necessary to demonstrate that the land constitutes a valuable natural resource whose protection is in the public interest. The ordinance must be strong enough to make possible the continuation of agriculture and yet must permit enough development that the program will be accepted politically and can withstand legal challenges. The effectiveness of agricultural zoning can be evaluated by examining changes in ownership and sales patterns following adoption of agricultural zoning.
Rabbit distal convoluted tubule coexpresses NaCl cotransporter and 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase II mRNA.

BACKGROUND Although the renal cortical collecting duct (CCD) is a principal target for aldosterone, recent evidence suggests that salt transport by other nephron segments may also be regulated by aldosterone. Electroneutral and thiazide-sensitive NaCl cotransport by the distal convoluted tubule (DCT) of the rat is increased in animals deprived of dietary NaCl. We tested the hypothesis that the DCT of the rabbit is an aldosterone target tissue. METHODS The single-nephron reverse-transcriptase/polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique was used to determine mRNA expression of NaCl cotransporter and 11 beta-HSD 2 in dissected nephron segments. The rabbit NaCl cotransporter was first cloned and rabbit-specific primers selected. A micro-assay was developed to assess 11 beta-HSD 2 enzyme activity in 0.5 mm samples of the same nephron segments. RESULTS NaCl cotransporter was expressed in 0 of 6 proximal tubule (PT), 6 of 6 DCT and 3 of 6 CCD samples, while 11 beta-HSD was found in 0 of 7 PT, 7 of 7 DCT and 9 of 9 CCD samples. Corticosterone was converted to 11-dehydrocorticosterone at a high rate and to a similar extent by both the DCT and CCD, but not the PT. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that the DCT is a target tissue for the action of aldosterone. Axial heterogeneity of electroneutral (in DCT) and electrogenic (in CCD) Na transporters along the distal nephron may improve sodium recovery in low salt and volume states.
Failure of immunologic criteria to appropriately identify antiretroviral treatment failure in Uganda

Objective:Most antiretroviral treatment program in resource-limited settings use immunologic or clinical monitoring to measure response to therapy and to decide when to change to a second-line regimen. Our objective was to evaluate immunologic failure criteria against gold standard virologic monitoring. Design:Observational cohort. Methods:Participants enrolled in an antiretroviral treatment program in rural Uganda who had at least 6 months of follow-up were included in this analysis. Immunologic monitoring was performed by CD4 cell counts every 3 months during the first year, and every 6 months thereafter. HIV-1 viral loads were performed every 6 months. Results:A total of 1133 participants enrolled in the Rakai Health Sciences Program antiretroviral treatment program between June 2004 and September 2007 were followed for up to 44.4 months (median follow-up 20.2 months; IQR 12.4–29.5 months). WHO immunologic failure criteria were reached by 125 (11.0%) participants. A virologic failure endpoint defined as HIV-1 viral load more than 400 copies/ml on two measurements was reached by 112 participants (9.9%). Only 26 participants (2.3%) experienced both an immunologic and virologic failure endpoint (2 viral load > 400 copies/ml) during follow-up. Conclusion:Immunologic failure criteria performed poorly in our setting and would have resulted in a substantial proportion of participants with suppressed HIV-1 viral load being switched unnecessarily. These criteria also lacked sensitivity to identify participants failing virologically. Periodic viral load measurements may be a better marker for treatment failure in our setting.
Psychological well-being of spouses of stroke patients during the first year after stroke

Objective: To investigate whether spouses' psychological well-being changed between the first weeks after their partner's stroke and four months and one year later, and to study the relationship between spouses’ psychological well-being and objective characteristics of the stroke patients. Design: Prospective, longitudinal study. Setting: Hospital care and follow-ups. Subjects: Sixty-seven consecutively enrolled spouses to first-ever stroke patients B/ 75 years. Main measures: The Psychological General Well-Being (PGWB) Index. Clinical examination of the stroke patients. The Barthel Index. Results: The spouses' psychological well-being was significantly lower in the first weeks after their partner's stroke as compared with norms. At four months, it had increased significantly. Between four months and one year, individual changes were observed in both positive and negative directions; thus, the mean level of the group remained constant. The spouses’ psychological well-being in the first weeks was significantly related to the patients’ sensorimotor impairments, while it was related at four months to cognitive impairment and the patients’ abilities in self-care. At one year, psychological well-being was related to remaining sensorimotor and cognitive impairments. A significant relationship was also seen between the spouses’ and the stroke patients’ emotional health. Conclusions: The spouses' psychological well-being increased after the first chaotic weeks. The presence of visible impairments initially seemed to affect spouses’ emotional health, while cognitive and emotional impairments became more evident in everyday life. In the long term, however, the spouses’ individual life situations and coping abilities seem to be of relatively increasing importance for their continued well-being.
A systematic approach to developing near real-time performance predictions based on physiological measures

Performance measurements using human sensing and assessment capabilities are limited by an inability to account for the multitude of variables that regulate performance state. Monitoring behavior alone is not adequate for prediction of future performance on a given task and no single physiological measurement can provide a complete assessment that influences performance. Here we investigate how to analyze a range of physiological measurements in near real-time using state of the art signal processing methods to predict performance. We developed multiple predictive computational models to assess when physiology markers that coincide with workload levels are reaching a point that performance decreases or increases may occur in the near future. Traditionally, models will vary significantly between studies (due to the diversity of tasks being tested, the number/type of sensors and differing analysis techniques), leading to specialized models that do not transfer between tasks and individuals. When a model is so specialized that it is only predictive to a specific task and not flexible to inter-or intra-individual differences without complete system retraining, it is impractical in applications outside of controlled experiments. To bring practical use of computational models in real world environments it is important to examine which types of physiological data that can both be reliably processed and analyzed in near real-time and that are highly predictive over time. It is also necessary to minimize the number of sensors in the real world so a sensor and signal sensitivity analysis needs to be performed. We identified and collected physiological signals linked to workload including electroencephalogram (EEG), Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability (hR/HRV) and Eye-Tracking while performing multiple tasks at varying difficulty levels. We tested a variety of preprocessing methods and computational models, including radial basis function kernel support vector machines and neural networks, to determine predictive power as well as computational time for each type of model. The models were tested using each signal independently as well as combinations of all the signals.
The distinction of bipolar II disorder from bipolar I and recurrent unipolar depression: results of a controlled family study

The aim of the study was to differentiate bipolar II, bipolar I and recurrent unipolar depression by their familial load for affective disorders. Eighty bipolar, 108 unipolar, 80 control subjects and interviewed first‐degree relatives were diagnosed according to Research Diagnostic Criteria using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia – lifetime version. The morbid risks for bipolar I disorder were equivalent in relatives of bipolar I (3.6%) and bipolar II (3.5%) subjects and lower in relatives of unipolar subjects (1.0%). The morbid risks of relatives for bipolar II disorder distinguished bipolar II subjects (6.1%) from bipolar I subjects (1.8%), from unipolar depressives (0.3%) and from controls (0.5%). To promote further evaluation, bipolar II disorder should be included in DSM‐IV as a distinct diagnostic category.
Market Interest Rates and Commercial Bank Profitability: An Empirical Investigation

The widespread notion that commercial banks "borrow short and lend long" implies that sharp market interest rate increases may induce a significant number of banking failures. This paper develops a method for estimating average asset and liability maturities for a sample of large money center banks. Regression models are tested to determine if market rate fluctuations have a significant impact on bank profitability. The conclusion is negative: large banks have effectively hedged themselves against market rate risk by assembling asset and liability portfolios with similar average maturities. THE IMPACT OF MARKET interest rates on commercial bank revenues, costs, and profitability has increasingly concerned economists and policymakers as financial market conditions have become more volatile in recent years. The widespread notion that depository intermediaries "borrow short and lend long" implies that rapid market rate increases may induce an unacceptable number of financial firm failures. Monetary policy discussions have reflected this concern. For many years, the Federal Reserve Board considered stable market rates a goal (or at least an intermediate target) of monetary policy: "The extent to which money market conditions are permitted to fluctuate in the short run is also affected by the unique role of the Federal Reserve System as the Nation's lender of last resort. Liquidity pressures ultimately devolve on the money market and the Federal Reserve has a responsibility for maintaining orderly conditions in that market. "
Research, Patenting, and Technological Change

This paper develops a search-theoretic model of technological change to explain why both patenting and the growth of productivity have remained roughly constant while research employment in the United States has increased by a factor of six over the past four decades. In the model, researchers sample from probability distributions determining the efficiency of potential new production techniques. Technological breakthroughs, resulting in patents, become increasingly hard to find as the level of technology advances. Given certain restrictions on the search distributions, the equilibrium of the model replicates the U.S. time-series pattern of research, patenting, and productivity.
The Evolution of Cold Tolerance in Drosophila Larvae

Temperature is a primary determinant of insect and other ectotherm distribution and activity. Physiological and behavioral adaptations allow many insects to survive at subzero temperatures, yet the evolutionary influences on insect cold tolerance are unclear. Supercooling points, basal cold tolerance, cold-tolerance strategy, and inducible cold tolerance from rapid cold-hardening or acclimation were measured in a phylogenetically independent context in larvae of 27 phylogenetically diverse Drosophila species acquired from stock collections. Supercooling capacity is attributed primarily to physical factors, such as dry mass and water mass. Species of the obscura group were more resistant to acute cold tolerance than species of other groups within the genus, and plasticity in cold tolerance is constrained by phylogeny rather than by basal cold tolerance. The more cold-tolerant freeze-avoiding species appear to have arisen multiple times in Drosophila and are distinct from chill-susceptible species, which likely indicate the ancestral state. A phylogenetic influence is apparent on several measures of cold tolerance, which show considerable interspecific variation and indicate varying physiological mechanisms among Drosophila species when temperature limits are met.
Long-Term Outcomes of Melanoma In Situ Treated With Topical 5% Imiquimod Cream: A Retrospective Review

BACKGROUND Melanoma in situ (MIS) is a noninvasive form of melanoma for which nonsurgical therapeutic options continue to be explored. The off-label use of topical 5% imiquimod cream in the management of MIS has shown potential but reported recurrence rates vary considerably between 0% and 40%. Furthermore, the long-term efficacy of imiquimod is not well established. OBJECTIVE To determine the recurrence rate of MIS among patients treated with topical 5% imiquimod cream at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center with at least 1 year of follow-up. METHODS A retrospective chart review identified 12 patients with MIS who have been treated with topical 5% imiquimod cream for 6 to 12 weeks. Patients who underwent surgical treatment for MIS were excluded from analysis. RESULTS Of 12 patients with histologically confirmed MIS treated with topical 5% imiquimod cream, there were 2 recurrences (17%) during a median follow-up time of 5.5 years. CONCLUSION Although surgery is still considered the gold standard for the treatment of MIS, imiquimod may represent a potentially effective noninvasive treatment option for patient who are not surgical candidates.
Legislative Activity and the 1994 Republican Takeover

Is sponsorship and cosponsorship behavior by U.S. House members responsive to which party controls the chamber? The Republican takeover of the U.S. House in 1995 provides an ideal natural experiment to test whether House members are more or less likely to sponsor and cosponsor legislation as a function of their majority or minority party status. We suggest that changes in control of the House created a set of institutional incentives that shifted sponsorship and cosponsorship behavior by House members. Using data on House members serving from the 102nd Congress to the 105th Congress, we consider whether Democrats and Republicans reconfigured their sponsorship and cosponsorship behavior after the shift in partisan control, controlling for the effects of other variables. We find that majority party status matters, withmembers of the majority party consistently exhibiting higher levels of sponsorship activity, though our findings on cosponsorship activity are less definitive.
Measurement and the Australian Conceptual Framework

The nature of accounting dictates that it be concerned with the process of “measurement”. However, only in recent decades has debate about the concept of measurement appeared in accounting literature. This article identifies problem areas and pitfalls that need to be addressed, and contributes to the debate about measurement. It examines the importance of “measurement” to accounting, definitions of the term and what measurement involves. This leads to the consideration of statements and inferences that can be made about the outputs of the measurement process, and to proposed guidelines for the development and assessment of a conceptual framework document.
The Pancreas Misled: Signals to Pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis is an increasingly common and sometimes severe disease for which there is little specific therapy. Chronic pancreatitis is a common and grossly debilitating sequel that is largely irreversible, whatever treatment is adopted. In the face of these burdens, the absence of specific treatments is a spur to research. The acinar cell is the primary target of injury from alcohol metabolites, bile, hyperlipidaemia, hyperstimulation and other causes. These induce abnormal, prolonged, global, cytosolic calcium signals, the prevention of which also prevents premature digestive enzyme activation, cytokine expression, vacuole formation and acinar cell necrosis. Such agents increase calcium entry through the plasma membrane and/or increase calcium release from intracellular stores, shown to result from effects on calcium channels and calcium pumps, or their energy supply. A multitude of signalling mechanisms are activated, diverted or disrupted, including secretory mechanisms, lysosomal regulators, inflammatory mediators, cell survival and cell death pathways, together with or separately from calcium. While recent discoveries have increased insight and suggest prophylaxis or treatment targets, more work is required to define the mechanisms and interactions of cell signalling pathways in the pathogenesis of pancreatitis.
Tax Shields, WACC, NPV, EVA®, CVA®, NVA and Profitability Analyses

The purpose of this paper relates to the understanding of the phenomenon of tax effects in value and profitability analyses. How to incorporate taxes into discounted cash flow calculations - dealing with the past, the present and the future - from a Value Based Management perspective? Ignoring this question, neglecting tax effects (which is normal practice in some companies) is not realistic and this conservative approach is the contrary to 'being careful' which is what is supposed to happen. Tax is a fact of life. Without correctly dealing with tax effects, all values are 'out-of-control'. Whoever is not aware of the real tax burden nor fully counts it, endangers the continued existence of the company. This is because the after-effects are self-evidently wrong decisions.What operating surpluses are needed, at least? The bare minimum. Neither gaining nor losing money. Where is the red line? This paper gives the answer to this vexed question. It revolves around monitoring the operating surpluses on almost the top line of the cash flow calculation scheme. Periodical net cash flow information is rather late in being available. Steering on real time developing operating surpluses (to be compared to the best possible pattern that is indicating the red line) is far better than steering from the back seat, lead by various series of cash flows on the bottom line.Though OCFD (Operating Cash Flow Demand) has been massively criticized in http://ssrn.com/abstract=378501, Weissenrieder continues to sing the praises of OCFD in http://ssrn.com/abstract=501602, posted 2004 Feb 28, revealing no counter-arguments. The latter paper is even an enlargement of the problem area. OCFD in combination with taxes as presented by Weissenrieder turns out to be an added danger.This paper presents the author's elaboration of a numerical example in full detail, in reaction to the corresponding working-out(s) published by Weissenrieder, and may the best one prevail. Furthermore, what has been argued by so many people e.g. Pablo Fernandez about tax shields (VTS) is not true. VTS from debt as well as from depreciation has been computed too. This paper also indicates that everything written down in economic literature about 'the value of tax shields' together with 'various WACCs' is not necessary. The so-called 'appropriate discount for tax shields' exists by way of definition only, with all the resulting consequences. It can be done - quite simple really - without all of this.