Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new approach to analysing comovement in European equity markets

Purpose - To provide an alternative channel of investigation of comovement in four large European equity markets over a sample period of nearly 30 years. Design/methodology/approach - The paper adopts a two stage methodological approach. In the first instance, the interaction between the equity market and the industrial production in each of the countries is analysed in a hidden Markov framework. This helps extract the information on expansion and contraction of the economies over the three decades. In the second stage, the inference on probability of expansion and contraction of the economies is used to measure the level concordance between these probability series. This helps deduce the level of comovement between the equity markets. Findings - Although the nature of interaction between the equity market and the industrial production in these countries are different, the overall comovement in the equity markets is well established. Originality/value - The paper introduces a new style in the process of investigation with respect to comovement in different markets and illustrates that with an example of four large European markets.
Emulation of salamander retina with multilayer neural network

We utilized a multilayer cellular neural network platform to emulate the functions of salamander retina based on the PIPE model. The template parameters were designed with analytic and embedding methods. By using a FPGA multimedia board for implementation, the emulator completely imitate the function of the PIPE model. The performance of the emulator was evaluated by average SNR and maximum error accumulated in the final image. Both tests confirm the validity of the emulator and the analysis of processing power demonstrated that the emulator can process the input image sequences in real-time with 18-bit precision.
Managing enterprise risk: why a giant failed

Purpose – This case aims to chronicle the dismantling of Tenneco – a large, prosperous diversified firm. Because it failed to manage risk, its best assets ultimately had to be sold to allow its survival. Behind its actions of problematic acquisitions and questionable financial policies, are underlying dynamics that offer lessons for other companies.Design/methodology/approach – The study is are based on extensive interviews of management, board members, and review of documents and publications. The paper focuses on decisions that cumulatively contributed to enterprise‐wide risk.Findings – The paper finds that Tenneco management's blind spot was its failure to consider the interaction of its decisions and implicit assumptions over time.Practical implications – Six principles of enterprise‐risk management are distilled from the Tenneco case.Originality/value – Although Tenneco's financial crisis occurred decades ago, the lesson for present‐day management is clear: independent board oversight is crucial. Mor.
Foreign Debt, Foreign Direct Investment and Volatility

We investigate how foreign debt and foreign direct investment (FDI) affect the growth and welfare of a stochastically growing small open economy. First, we find that foreign debt influences the growth of domestic wealth by lowering the cost of capital, while FDI affects the country's welfare by providing an additional source of permanent income. Second, a decline in domestic investment may improve domestic welfare as FDI replaces the gap. Even when the welfare deteriorates, its magnitude is mitigated, leaving more room for discretionary fiscal policy. Third, a fiscal policy aimed to stabilize domestic output fluctuations needs to be conducted not to crowd out the welfare benefit of FDI too much. Fourth, an economy with both types of foreign capital experiences wider welfare swings by external volatility shocks than the one with foreign debt alone, while the welfare effects from domestic volatility shocks are mitigated. The welfare effects of fiscal shocks are much smaller with both types of foreign capital. Lastly, the first-best labor income tax covers the government absorption by the labor's share of total output, and the capital income tax covers the rest. Investment is penalized or subsidized depending on the social marginal cost-gain differential.
The conceptual arguments concerning accounting for public heritage assets: a note

Purpose – This paper seeks to reply/comment on the paper by Keith Hooper et al., titled “‘Knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing’: accounting for heritage assets”. Design/methodology/approach – This note uses the economic theory of public goods to complement the explanation and analysis of Hooper et al's article on accounting for public heritage assets by New Zealand museums.Findings – Using public goods theory from economics, the paper explains why the “sector neutral” approach, which underlies the application of commercial accounting standards to public heritage assets, is unsound; why “fair market prices” cannot be obtained for public heritage assets because of their being public goods; and why they should be accounted for outside the statement of financial position as assets held in trust by the custodial entities.Originality/value – The opposition of some of the museums to the accounting standards being imposed on them is soundly based in the economic theory of public goods.
Citizens’ Entrepreneurial Role in Public Service Provision

Abstract In public service provision, citizens are conventionally reactive, portrayed as ‘users’, ‘customers’, ‘co-producers’, or ‘participators. ’ Occasionally, following dissatisfaction, citizens themselves proactively create alternative services, namely, entrepreneurial exit (EE). Laymen then become providers of previously governmental professional services. Drawing upon six EE manifestations, findings suggest that if the newly-introduced service gains social acceptance, existing provision may change in one of the three modes: (a) First-order incremental change, legitimization of EE as an alternative service provision; (b) Second-order participative change, increased public participation in service provision fostered by EE; and (c) Third-order reformative change, existing service provision is reformed to satisfy citizens’ demands.
Management of Osteochondral Lesions of the Talar Dome

Osteochondral lesion of the talus (OLT) is a common condition associated with ankle injury that brings challenges in the diagnosis and treatment. Symptoms related to this condition are nonspecific including pain, swelling, stiffness, and mechanical symptoms of locking and catching. While the natural history of the OLTs is not well understood, surgical treatment is often required especially in chronic cases and acute cases with displaced articular fragments. Arthroscopic treatment of the OLTs aims to restore ankle joint function and pain relief by the removal of the chondral or osteochondral fragment, debridement and stabilization of cartilage rim and subchondral bone, and stimulate healing of the bone and damaged cartilage. In patients with a large lesion or after a failure of previous bone marrow stimulation, biologic restoration techniques including the use of particulate juvenile cartilage techniques, autogenous chondrocyte implantation, and osteochondral autograft or allograft transplantation may have role. This article summarizes the contemporary concepts in the clinical evaluation and treatment of OLTs with particular emphasis on surgical strategies.
WARDROP'S THIRD PRINCIPLE: URBAN TRAFFIC CONGESTION AND TRAFFIC POLICY

After reviewing early research on traffic congestion (wardrop, smeed, Thompson, vickery) and examining later approaches based on static modelling techniques, this paper explores an alternative way of looking at the problem, derived from general systems theory and statistical mechanics. This is done in an attempt to persuade policy makers that urban traffic congestion cannot be tackled by building more roads and increasing road capacities. The main thesis of this paper is that a dynamic statistical model is more appropriate than a static, micro-deterministic model for the study of urban transport equilibrium, and that seeking for a behaviourally plausible interpretation of mogridge's hypothesis leads inevitably in the direction of dynamic statistical equilibrium. The interpretation suggested in this paper could not be stated within the framework of the classical transport planning model because the concepts of journey start time and journey time variability enter in an essential way into the equivalent starting time interpretation.
The Outward Extension of an Ecological Footprint in City Expansion: The Case of Beijing

A biologically productive area was used in the ecological footprint method to measure the demand and impact of human activities on the natural capital, and further, to judge whether the impact is within the scope of the regional bio-capacity. In this presentation, an indicator “ecological footprint distance (D ef )” is proposed. The results indicated that the proposed indicator D ef could identify the outward extension of a city’s ecological footprint with the city’s rapid expansion. From 2008 to 2012, the proportion of imported bio-capacity increased approximately from 48% to 64%, which implied that the ecological impact of Beijing had expanded year by year. The D ef of Beijing increased from 567 km in 2008 to 677 km in 2012, with an average annual increase of about 25 km. From the perspective of seasonal change, Beijing’s ecological footprint distance in winter and spring was much higher than in summer and fall. The main features of provincial-spatial distribution of Beijing’s D ef were as follows: grain and oil and meat and eggs were mainly supplied by Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei and Inner Mongolia; yet vegetable and fruit were mainly supplied by Hainan, Guangdong, Hebei and Shandong. Measures should be taken to decentralize the sources of imported bio-capacity, so as to ensure a sustainable development in Metropolitan cities.
0.8V start-up 92% efficiency on-chip boost DC-DC converters for battery operation micro-computers

This paper presents embedded use DC-DC boost converters for battery operating micro-computers. Pulse frequency modulation (PFM) is employed for fast response. A new control method is applied to improve the efficiency by regulating the inductor current optimally from both of input voltage and load current. A synchronous rectifier converter fabricated by a 180nm CMOS technology achieves the efficiency of 92% at the condition of 1.5V input voltage and 20mA load current as predicted through a model analysis. The efficiency is improved more than 15% compared with the case of ILmax being a fixed value.
Modelos de índice de difusão para prever a taxa de crescimento do PIB agrícola brasileiro

This article uses linear and nonlinear diffusion index models to forecast, one step ahead, the quarterly growth rate of Brazilian Agricultural GDP. These models are composed by common factor which allow a significant reduction in the number of the original explanatory variables. After comparing the forecasts of these two models between themselves and with the ones generated by an AR model, used as benchmark, one comes to the conclusion that among the diffusion index models, the nonlinear model with a threshold effect presents a small improvement, in terms of predictive efficiency, in relation to the linear and the AR models.
Prevalence of three lower urinary tract symptoms in men-a population-based study.

BACKGROUND Lower urinary tract symptoms are a common and costly public health issue. In earlier studies, the prevalence of urinary symptoms can be seen to fluctuate because there is no consensus about how to define and categorize the severity of the symptoms. OBJECTIVES The study was undertaken in order to investigate the prevalence of three common lower urinary tract symptoms (urgency, stress incontinence and post-micturition dribbling) and analyse health care-seeking behaviour. METHODS A self-administered questionnaire was developed to investigate all men aged 40-80 years residing in the community of Surahammar, Sweden. The questionnaire included items on three specific urinary symptoms: urgency, stress incontinence and post-micturition dribbling, and one question about health care-seeking behaviour. RESULTS A response rate of 86% was obtained in the questionnaire study. The overall prevalence of the lower urinary tract symptoms was 24%. The prevalence increased from 20% in the group aged 40-49 years to 28% in the group aged 70-80 years (P < 0.01). Post-micturition dribbling (21%) was the most frequent symptom, and stress incontinence (2.4%) was the least frequent symptom. The number of participants who sought health care was low (4%) and increased significantly with age (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The present study showed that 24% of the Swedish cohort of men of 40-80 years of age reported at least one of the following symptoms: urgency, stress incontinence or post-micturition dribbling. This study is consistent with other research regarding the low consultation frequency for these symptoms. Moreover, the study is also in accord with those findings indicating that for the majority of men with urinary symptoms, their health care providers are not aware of their problem.
Midterm Results of Cementless and Cemented Unicondylar Knee Arthroplasty with Mobile Meniscal Bearing: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background: Cemented unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) yields good clinical outcome but common revision reasons are loosening and pain. Cementless UKA may reduce the revision rate. Objective: The current study was designed to assess clinical and radiographic outcome of cemented and cementless UKA, using bone quality as determined by the Bone Hardness Test (BHT) as selection criterion for cementless implantation. Methods: In this prospective comparative cohort study we analyzed 50 cementless and 29 Oxford consecutive UKA cases. Patients with sufficient bone quality were eligible for cementless UKA. Bone quality was assessed with the BHT, which consisted of exercising pressure with the thumb on the bone surface created after resection of the tibia. Results: The average surgical times were 62.5 ± 12.6 and 78 ± 16 minutes in the cementless and the cemented group, respectively (p < 0.01). The average thickness of the polyethylene insert was 4.3 ± 1.2 (range, 3 – 9) and 3.7 ± 0.8 (range, 3 – 6) mm, respectively (p = 0.02). Both types of implants yielded excellent clinical and functional results. At an average follow-up time of seven years, we found non-significant differences between clinical results of cementless versus cemented implants. Conclusion: Shorter surgical time makes cementless implantation more attractive to surgeons when considering UKA options for their patients. The average thickness of the polyethylene insert in cementless group was 0.6 mm thinner than in the cemented group. The BHT is a simple and useful test to assess whether patients are eligible for cementless UKA.
Exploring the “mid office” concept as an enabler of mass customization in services

Purpose – Mass customization (MC) is a well-established strategy for providing high levels of customization while achieving the scale economies of high volume production. The purpose of this paper is to explore a new service design configuration, the “mid office,” as a service interface which may support front office customization capabilities while protecting the back office from disruption. The authors posit that it may facilitate MC by enabling product/service and organizational modularity. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a single case study of a large European bank’s payment services, traditionally high volume, low variety operations. The bank adopted a MC strategy which involved the creation of a mid office. The analysis spans product/service and organizational design. Findings – When combined with menu-driven customization and reuse modularization, the mid office appears to support partial rather than full MC. It facilitates postponement of customization to the assembly stage .
Towards a general theory of touristic experiences: Modelling experience process in tourism

Experiences are a main issue in tourism. However, the conceptual configuration of experiences in tourism has proved to be difficult. The English word ‘experience’ is rather neutral and vague; it can be understood to cover all kind of things that a person has passed through, regardless of their mental, emotianal or other relevance. There is a more precise terms available for emotional experiences in some languages: Erlebnis in German, upplevelse in Swedish and elamys in Finnish are examples of these. (Cf. e.g. Ireland & Kivi 1998.) The purpose of this paper is to clarify the nature and main characteristics of experiences in tourism for the benifit of general understanding of experience processes in tourism. The scope, contents and types of experiences are discussed first from functional points or view giving special attention to the scope of processes producing various types of experiences. The types and roles of various personal resources are clarified then. The stages of experience processes in tourism are then figured out in the third section of the paper. Finally, a preliminary model is presented decribing the essential elements and dynamics of the process where tourism experiences evolve.
Review series on helminths, immune modulation and the hygiene hypothesis: Mechanisms underlying helminth modulation of dendritic cell function

Dendritic cells (DCs) play a central role in activating CD4 T (T helper, Th) cells. As a component of their response to pathogen‐associated stimuli, DCs produce cytokines and express surface molecules that provide important cues to modulate the effector functions of responding Th cells. Much is known of how DCs respond to, and influence immune response outcome to, bacterial and viral pathogens. However, relatively little is understood about how DCs respond to helminth parasites. This is an area of considerable interest since it impacts our understanding of the initiation of Th2 responses, which are stereotypically associated with helminth infections, and the regulation of allergic and autoimmune pathologies which evidence suggests are less severe or absent in individuals infected with helminths. This review attempts to summarize our understanding of the effects of helminth products on dendritic cell biology.
Caveolae--an alternative endocytotic pathway for targeted drug delivery.

Caveolae are bottleshape-like invaginations of the plasma membrane. After internalization they are involved in endocytosis, transcytosis, potocytosis, and pinocytosis. Our recently expanded knowledge has made clear that various molecules and macromolecular complexes enter the cells after docking on caveolar receptors, before subsequent internalization of the caveolae. The internalization is initiated by the ligand receptor interaction. Folate, cholesterol, serum lipoproteins, and liposomes are among the most common examples. It is important to point out that, in contrast to the classic clathrin-dependent endocytosis, the caveolar internalization pathway seems to avoid the lysosomes. Internalized caveolae fuse with caveosomes, and the caveosomes deliver their contents into other subcellular (non-lysosomal) compartments. The bypass of the acidic and harmful milieu might be a major advantage for drug delivery via the caveolar pathway. Not all cell types have caveolae. Cells, where the Caveolin I protein is not expressed, do not develop caveolar invaginations. However, these cells have caveolar-equivalent plasma membrane domains, so-called "lipid rafts. " Lipid rafts are assembled from the same lipid constituents and proteins as caveolae, but they are flat. Specific ligands may also dock on appropriate receptors of the raft domain. As a complication, certain types of ligand-covered raft receptors can migrate to clathrin-coated pits and get internalized via clathrin-coated vesicles. Nevertheless, suitable ligands or antibodies developed against proteins of the caveolar/raft domains may selectively direct the attached drug carrier to the less harmful caveolar/raft pathway. Thus, understanding of caveolar transport may help in the rational design of more effective drug carriers.
Phytochemical screening and mineral composition of the bark of some medicinal trees in Ondo State, Nigeria

The bark of some medicinal trees (Alstonia boonei, Pycnanthus angolensis, Anacardium occidentale, Mangifera indica, Khaya iroresis, Nauclea diderichii, Morinda lucida and Bridelia micrantha) found in Nigeria were analysed for mineral composition and phytochemical screening. The mineral composition were determined and found to contain some elements such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, copper, manganese, lead and phosphorous in high concentrations. The result of the phytochemical study revealed presence of alkaloids, saponins, tannins, steroids, phlobatanin, terpenoids, flavonoids and cardiac glycoside in most of the samples. The percentages of tannin (1.75 to 3.32); saponin (2.58 to 4.11) and flavonoid (1.86 to 4.13) were generally high in all the samples studied with M. lucida having the highest value for tannin (3.32%) and flavonoid (4.13%). The presence of these phytochemicals in the result is an attestation that the trees are potentially medicinal. The data for the relative mineral concentration from each tree is compared and appraised as potential sources of good health support for humans.
Differential Effects of Denileukin Diftitox IL-2 Immunotoxin on NK and Regulatory T Cells in Nonhuman Primates

Denileukin diftitox (DD), a fusion protein comprising IL-2 and diphtheria toxin, was initially expected to enhance antitumor immunity by selectively eliminating regulatory T cells (Tregs) displaying the high-affinity IL-2R (α-β-γ trimers). Although DD was shown to deplete some Tregs in primates, its effects on NK cells (CD16+CD8+NKG2A+CD3−), which constitutively express the intermediate-affinity IL-2R (β-γ dimers) and play a critical role in antitumor immunity, are still unknown. To address this question, cynomolgus monkeys were injected i.v. with two doses of DD (8 or 18 μg/kg). This treatment resulted in a rapid, but short-term, reduction in detectable peripheral blood resting Tregs (CD4+CD45RA+Foxp3+) and a transient increase in the number of activated Tregs (CD4+CD45RA−Foxp3high), followed by their partial depletion (50–60%). In contrast, all NK cells were deleted immediately and durably after DD administration. This difference was not due to a higher binding or internalization of DD by NK cells compared with Tregs. Coadministration of DD with IL-15, which binds to IL-2Rβ-γ, abrogated DD-induced NK cell deletion in vitro and in vivo, whereas it did not affect Treg elimination. Taken together, these results show that DD exerts a potent cytotoxic effect on NK cells, a phenomenon that might impair its antitumoral properties. However, coadministration of IL-15 with DD could alleviate this problem by selectively protecting potentially oncolytic NK cells, while allowing the depletion of immunosuppressive Tregs in cancer patients.
COINTEGRATION AND WAVELETS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MONEY AND OUTPUT IN PERU

This paper analyses empirically the relationship between money and output in Peru, based on an orthogonal decomposition of series by timescales obtained using wavelets, following Ramsey and Lampart (1998). Specifically, we propose the application of wavelet filtering to analyze cointegrating relationships. No evidence of cointegration between money, real output and prices is found. However, there is evidence of cointegration between non-stationary components of the series that includes different timescale details obtained using wavelets; this result could be considered as an alternative way to represent the existence of hidden co- integration. In this context, it is found that (1) the link between money and real output is not unique, and (2) the direction of causality and exogenity depends on both the timescale and the monetary aggregate considered