Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Life-Cycle Models of Consumption: is the Evidence Consistent with the Theory?

The paper considers avariety of evidence that casts light on the validity of the life-cycle model of consumer behavior. In the first part of the paper, simple non-parametric tests are used to examine representative agent models of consumption and labor supply. It seems extremely unlikely that post-war United States evidence can usefully be explained by such a model, at least if the assumption of intertemporal separability is maintained. Changes in aggregate consumption bear little relationship to after tax real interest rates, and consumption has tended to grow even during periods of negative real interest rates. Joint consideration of consumption and labor supply does nothing to resolve the problems that arise when consumption is taken by itself. It is argued that these results cast doubt, not onlife-cycle theory itself, but on the representative agent assumption; there is little reason to suppose that changes inaggregate consumption should be related to the real interestrate.The second part of the paper is concerned with the time-series representation of disposable income and with it simplications for the behavior of consumption under the assumptions of the life-cycle model. If real disposable income is truly a first-order autoregressive process in first differences,a process that fits the data well and is becoming increasing popular in the macro time-series literature,then the life-cycle model implies that changes in consumption should be more variable than innovations in income, a prediction that is manifestly false. Various possible resolutions of this problem are reviewed, including habit formation and alternative representations of disposable income. The paper concludes with some evidence on the excess sensitivity question, why it is that consumption responds to anticipated changes in income. Monte Carlo evidence supports the suggestion made by Mankiw and Shapiro that the presence of time trends can cause severe problems of inference in models containing variables with unit roots, but the results makeit seem unlikely that this is the cause of the widespread excess sensitivity findings.
Trends and Inequities in Use of Maternal Health Care Services in Bangladesh, 1991-2011

Background and Methods Monitoring use-inequity is important to measure progress in efforts to address health-inequities. Using data from six Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (BDHS), we examine trends, inequities and socio-demographic determinants of use of maternal health care services in Bangladesh between 1991 and 2011. Findings Access to maternal health care services has improved in the last two decades. The adjusted yearly trend was 9.0% (8.6%-9.5%) for any antenatal care (ANC), 11.9% (11.1%-12.7%) for institutional delivery, and 18.9% (17.3%-20.5%) for C-section delivery which is above the WHO recommended rate of 5-15%. Use-inequity was significant for all three indicators but is reducing over time. Between 1991-1994 and 2007-2011 the rich:poor ratio reduced from 3.65 to 1.65 for ANC and from 15.80 to 6.77 for institutional delivery. Between 1995-1998 and 2007-2011, the concentration index reduced from 0.27 (0.25-0.29) to 0.15 (0.14-0.16) for ANC, and from 0.65 (0.60-0.71) to 0.39 (0.37-0.41) for institutional delivery during that period. For use of c-section, the rich:poor ratio reduced from 18.17 to 13.39 and the concentration index from 0.66 (0.57-0.75) to 0.47 (0.45-0.49). In terms of rich:poor differences, there was equity-gain for ANC but not for facility delivery or C-section delivery. All socio-demographic variables were significant predictors of use; of them, maternal education was the most powerful. In addition, the contribution of for-profit private sector is increasingly growing in maternal health. Conclusion Both access and equity are improving in maternal health. We recommend strengthening ongoing health and non-health interventions for the poor. Use-inequity should be monitored using multiple indicators which are incorporated into routine health information systems. Rising C-section rate is alarming and indication of C-sections should be monitored both in private and public sector facilities.
Forecasting Decisions on Dividend Policy of South Korea Companies Listed in the Korea Exchange Market Based on Support Vector Machines

In this study, performance of classification techniques is compared in order to predict dividend policy decisions. We first analyzed the feasibility of all available companies listed in the Korea Exchange (KRX) market as dividend data sets by using classification techniques. Then we developed a prediction model based on support vector machines (SVM). We compare the classification accuracy performance between our SVM model and artificial intelligence techniques, and suggest a better dividend policy forecasting model to help a chief executive officer (CEO) or a board of directors (BOD) make better decision in a corporate dividend policy. The experiments demonstrate that the SVM model always outperforms other models in the performance of dividend policy forecasting, and hence we can predict future dividend policy more correctly than any other models. This enhancement in predictability of future dividend policy can significantly contribute to the correct valuation of a company, and hence those people from investors to financial managers to any decision makers of a company can make use of the SVM model for the better financing and investing decision making which can lead to higher profits and firm values eventually. Moreover, this is particularly important for people who want to obtain a high level of accuracy in advanced areas such as financial decision makings.
Arrhythmic effects of ivabradine in patients with coronary artery disease.

OBJECTIVES Ivabradine is the first specific heart rate-lowering agent that has completed clinical development for stable angina pectoris. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of ivabradine therapy on P-wave duration, dispersion and QT duration, dispersion in coronary artery disease patients. METHODS AND RESULTS The study population consisted of 21 patients with CAD who have confirmed by coronary angiography previously. Written informed consent was obtained in all patients. Twelve-lead electrocardiogram was recorded for each subject at a rate of 50mm/s on admission and repeated after 1 month ivabradine therapy. QT duration, QT dispertion, maximum and minimum QT duration calculated. Maximum and minimum P wave and P wave dispersion has been calculated. Heart rate was decreased after ivabradine therapy. (75+/-15 and 63+/-10, P=0.02). There was no difference between Pmax, Pmin and Pdis values before and after treatment. QTmax value was prolonged after treatment. (410+/-43 and 431+/-14, P=0,005) but there was no difference between cQTmax value. (455+/-38 and 439+/-21) There was no difference between QTdis and cQTdis values before and after treatment. (44+/-18 & 49+/-14; and 49+/-22 & 48+/-15). QTmax was prolonged after ivabradine therapy but cQTmax, Pdis, QTdis and cQTdis were not prolonged. CONCLUSION There is no relationship between ivabradine therapy and increased risk of ventricular and atrial arrhythmia in coronary artery disease patient.
Legal documentation in Islamic finance: the courts’ approach in reconciling contractual inconsistencies

One of the emerging challenges in the practice of Islamic banking and finance in the modern world relates to legal documentation. The practice of Islamic banking and finance is often subjected to the prevailing laws and regulations in a particular jurisdiction. Accordingly, there are situations where complex commercial agreements utilized in the Islamic finance industry create some contractual inconsistencies due to the number of contractual documents used in a single transaction. To this end, this paper examines the court’s approach in reconciling such contractual inconsistencies without jeopardizing the original philosophy underlying the contract. The study adopts a conceptual approach while utilizing content analysis for some samples of relevant Islamic finance contracts and case law. It is argued that striking a fair balance between the Sharī‘ah clause in the Master Agreement and the ‘hierarchy’ clause is paramount. Absolute reliance on the ‘hierarchy’ clause as held recently in CLP Holding v. Singh [2014] EWCA Civ 1103, might pose some potential Sharī‘ah-compliance issues in Islamic finance documentation. The paper concludes that if the hierarchy clause is fundamentally premised on Sharī‘ah compliance as the governing principle underlying the entire contract, the clause will be considered the first resort, and there would not be any last resort as opposed to the prevailing practice under the English law.
Measurement of the acoustic transfer function using compressed sensing techniques

In this paper, we proposed a new efficient measurement method of the acoustic transfer function (ATF) between a fixed source and a predesigned region. Measuring the ATF in reverberant room is a cumbersome procedure in acoustic signal processing, because the ATF rapidly varies with varying source and receiver positions over the room. A major problem in the measurement is how to acquire the higher order ATF coefficients using a limited number of microphones. Based on the general model of ATF, we assume that the ATF is sparse in source domain, and then acquire the higher order ATF coefficients by applying compressed sensing techniques. Simulation results demonstrate that the method is a practical way of measuring the ATF over large area with dramatically reduced number of microphones. The successful estimation of the ATF over a wide frequency range has also been demonstrated.
Toward Semantic Annotations of Web Services : OWLS from the SAWSDL Perspective

Recently, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) produced a standard set of “Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema” (SAWSDL). SAWSDL provides a standard means by which WSDL documents can be related to semantic descriptions, such as those provided by OWL-S and other Semantic Web services frameworks. We explain what OWL-S constructs are appropriate for use with the various SAWSDL annotations, and provide a rationale and guidelines for their use. In addition, we discuss some weaknesses of SAWSDL, and identify some ways in which OWL-S could evolve so as to integrate more smoothly with SAWSDL.
Implementation of power disturbance classifier using wavelet-based neural networks

In this paper, a wavelet-based neural network classifier for recognizing power quality disturbances is implemented and tested under various transient events. The discrete wavelet transform (DWT) technique is integrated with the probabilistic neural network (PNN) model to construct the classifier. First, the multi-resolution analysis (MRA) technique of DWT and the Parseval's theorem are employed to extract the energy distribution features of the distorted signal at different resolution levels. Second, the PNN classifies these extracted features to identify the disturbance type according to the transient duration and the energy features. Since the proposed methodology can reduce a great quantity of the features of distorted signal without losing its original property, less memory space and computing time are required. Various transient events are tested, the results show that the classifier can detect and classify different power disturbance types efficiently.
Emerging security challenges in cloud computing: An insight to cloud security challenges and their mitigation

Cloud computing has changed the whole picture that distributed computing used to present e.g. Grid computing, server client computing. Cloud has given a new meaning to distributed, and off-premises computing. Although, Cloud offers great benefits, it also introduces a myriad of security threats to the information and data which is now being ported from on-premises to off-premises. Where cloud computing can help organizations accomplish more by paying less (in the longer run) and breaking the physical boundaries between IT infrastructure and its users, due to openness of accessible information and data relying on trust between cloud provider and customer, heightened security threats must be overcome in order to benefit fully from this new computing exemplar. Breach in the security of any component in the cloud can be both disaster for the organization (the customer) and defacing for the provider. This paper explores the security issues related to the cloud. The paper also discusses the existing security approaches to secure the cloud infrastructure and applications and their drawbacks. Finally, we explore some key research challenges of implementing new cloud-aware security solutions that can provide the likes of pre-emptive protection for complex and ever dynamic Cloud infrastructure, followed by conclusion where we try to entail the whole research and try to formulate a security strategy which will enable the Cloud providers and customers alike to fight against ever emerging security threats.
BIOMECHANIC ASPECTS AND PATIENT NEEDS LEAD THE PATH TO A UNIQUE WRISTJOINT FOR MYOELECTRIC PROSTHESIS

The wrist plays an important role for the function of the human hand. The wrist joint is a complicated anatomical unit, consisting of various bones, ligaments and muscles. The distal and proximal joints combined with the rotation of the forearm excite movements at various levels that bring the hand into different positions. Apart from the rotation, the newly developed wrist with low construction height for myoelectric prostheses allows for volar and dorsal flexion at various locking positions. Besides those typical functions which allow positioning of the hand, the joint must meet further technical requirements. Therefore the prosthetic wrist joint clearly differs from its natural model. The most important difference is the exchangeability of the terminal device. This flexion joint with its additional degrees of freedom in motion considerably enhances the radius of action and thus increases the practical value of the myoelectric system to the patient. INTRODUCTION The function of an arm prosthesis is primarily determined by the quality of the prosthetic hand. After all, the patient uses it to grasp objects and carry out different activities. To be able to grasp these objects the prosthetic hand must optimally be positioned. In the human hand these movements are mainly and often unconsciously carried out with the wrist joint. Even hand gestures are actively supported by the movements of the wrist joint. The patient, however, often has to integrate shoulder movements into the whole process of movement. To simplify the entire process of movement for the patient, a new flexion wrist unit for myoelectric prostheses has been developed.
Identification of H2N3 influenza A viruses from swine in the United States

Although viruses of each of the 16 influenza A HA subtypes are potential human pathogens, only viruses of the H1, H2, and H3 subtype are known to have been successfully established in humans. H2 influenza viruses have been absent from human circulation since 1968, and as such they pose a substantial human pandemic risk. In this report, we isolate and characterize genetically similar avian/swine virus reassortant H2N3 influenza A viruses isolated from diseased swine from two farms in the United States. These viruses contained leucine at position 226 of the H2 protein, which has been associated with increased binding affinity to the mammalian α2,6Gal-linked sialic acid virus receptor. Correspondingly, the H2N3 viruses were able to cause disease in experimentally infected swine and mice without prior adaptation. In addition, the swine H2N3 virus was infectious and highly transmissible in swine and ferrets. Taken together, these findings suggest that the H2N3 virus has undergone some adaptation to the mammalian host and that their spread should be very closely monitored.
Extending the CHASTE simulation library , comparing vertex dynamics and cellular Potts model

Many mathematical models of biological cells exist. Among the most powerful for modelling the detailed interactions and geometry of individual cells are vertex dynamics models, commonly used for epithelial sheets. In this project we develop extensions to CHASTE (Cancer, Heart and Soft Tissue Environment, http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/chaste/), an open-source modelling software developed at the University of Oxford, that includes vertex dynamics models, to facilitate future simulations. We also compare qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the vertex dynamics models to the cellular Potts model.
Decision making and ambiguity in auditory stream segregation

Researchers of auditory stream segregation have largely taken a bottom-up view on the link between physical stimulus parameters and the perceptual organization of sequences of ABAB sounds. However, in the majority of studies, researchers have relied on the reported decisions of the subjects regarding which of the predefined percepts (e.g., one stream or two streams) predominated when subjects listened to more or less ambiguous streaming sequences. When searching for neural mechanisms of stream segregation, it should be kept in mind that such decision processes may contribute to brain activation, as also suggested by recent human imaging data. The present study proposes that the uncertainty of a subject in making a decision about the perceptual organization of ambiguous streaming sequences may be reflected in the time required to make an initial decision. To this end, subjects had to decide on their current percept while listening to ABAB auditory streaming sequences. Each sequence had a duration of 30 s and was composed of A and B harmonic tone complexes differing in fundamental frequency (ΔF). Sequences with seven different ΔF were tested. We found that the initial decision time varied non-monotonically with ΔF and that it was significantly correlated with the degree of perceptual ambiguity defined from the proportions of time the subjects reported a one-stream or a two-stream percept subsequent to the first decision. This strong relation of the proposed measures of decision uncertainty and perceptual ambiguity should be taken into account when searching for neural correlates of auditory stream segregation.
MODELING HUMAN ARM MOVEMENTS CONSTRAINED BY ROBOTIC SYSTEMS

Fundamental difierences in human arm :>ehavior can be related to two types of movements: constrained and unconstrained. III constrained moveme Its, the human arm moves in such a way that the environment continuously exerts a dynamic constraint on the arm. The "environment", in this instance, is the object that is in continuous coptact with the human arm. In unconstrained movem~nts, the arm moves in its workspace without contact with the environment and, therefore, without cont~ ct forces between the arm and the environment. Exarr.ples of constrained movements can be seen when thE' arm is moving an exercise machine or is constrained by an orthotic device. In systems of this nature, the human arm dynamics are integrated with the mbchine dynamics, resulting in behavior specific to the total system. Therefore, the performance and stabilit,' of the system taken a. :. a whole are both functions of not only the machine dynwnics, but also the human arm dynamics. Instability of nlachines that interact with humans has been rep\. ' -ted in (Kazerooni 1990). In this article, we examine the dynamics of constrained movements of the hunlan arm, where the environment dictates the position, while the human maintains a desired contact force. The human arm in constrained movements, is in continuous contact with its environment. The defining characteristic of the human arm in such movements is associated with the ability of the human to impose desired forces. Examples of con! trained movements can be seen in telerobotic systems, orthotic evices, and robotic systems worn by humans \Kazerooni 1991). We describe a theoretical and experimental analysis for constrained movements of the human arm.
Ear discharge in children presenting with acute otitis media: observational study from UK general practice.

BACKGROUND National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance to treat otitis media in older children immediately with antibiotics only if they have ear discharge is based on limited evidence. AIM To determine the clinical significance and outcome of ear discharge in children with acute otitis media, in routine clinical practice. DESIGN OF STUDY Observational cohort study of children with acute otitis media comparing those with and without ear discharge at presentation. SETTING Primary care in East Somerset. METHOD Two hundred and fifty-six children aged 6 months to 10 years were recruited from primary care. Clinical features and other characteristics were recorded at presentation. Follow-up was undertaken at 2 weeks and 3 months. RESULTS Children with otitis media who present with ear discharge are much more likely to be treated with antibiotics irrespective of age (adjusted odds ratio 15, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3 to 66). Most with discharge have proven bacterial infection (58%, 95% CI = 42 to 72%). They have a more severe systemic illness, with higher axillary temperature (80% increase in odds of ear discharge for each additional degree centigrade, P = 0.02), pulse rate (9% increase in odds for each extra beat, P<0.001), and Yale score (mean 10.5 versus 9.0, P = 0.003). They may also have an increased likelihood of adverse outcome (adjusted odds ratio of pain at 1 week 2.9; further episodes of acute otitis media 3.3; hearing difficulty at 3 months 4.7; all P<0.10). CONCLUSION Ear discharge defines a group of children with otitis media who are sicker and may be at higher risk of adverse outcome. NICE guidance to treat them with antibiotics is supported.
Air finger: enabling multi-scale navigation by finger height above the surface

We present Air Finger, a novel technique that enables controlling CD ratio by finger height above the touch sur-face for multi-scale navigation tasks. Extending previous research on virtual touch, Air Finger divides the space above surface into two layers and associates the high, medium and low CD ratios to the touch surface, the lower air and the higher air respectively. Users can fluidly switch between the three navigation scales by lifting and pressing the finger. Air Finger enables multi-scale navigation control using one hand
Capital Structure and Market Power: Evidence from Jordanian Banks

This paper provides new insights into the way in which the capital structure and market power and capital structure and profitability are related. We used sample data of fourteen banks listed on the Amman Stock Exchange for the period from 2005 to 2008.We examine the dependent variable, which are expressed by total debt deflated by total assets, while the independent variables are Tobin Q, Growth, Profitability, Size, Ownership, Risk and Tangibility ratio. The OLS estimation results indicate that, at lower and higher ranges of Tobin’s Q, banks employ higher debt, and reduce their debt at intermediate range. This is due to the complex interaction of market conditions, agency costs, and bankruptcy costs. We also show the saucer-shaped relation between capital structure and profitability because of the interplay of agency costs, costs of external financing and interest tax-shield. We find that size tangibility variables have a positive influence both on capital structure and on the other hand on growth, while risk and ownership variables have a negative influence on capital structure.