Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bounding Security Prices in Incomplete Markets - Does Stochastic Volatility Matter?

We extend and generalize some results on bounding security prices under several stochastic volatility models that provide closed-form expressions for option prices. In detail, we have computed analytical expressions for benchmark and standard good-deal bounds. For all the models, our findings show that our benchmark results show much tighter bounds. Moreover, an extensive sensitivity analysis is carried out. Finally, Greeks for bounds provide us strong practical applications taking into account the relevance of pricing and hedging strategies for financial institutions.
R&D and productivity growth: Evidence from the UK

Although the econometric evaluation of R&D has attracted wide interest in many countries, it has not attracted much in the UK. The main objective of this paper is to fill this void, i.e., to estimate the impact of R&D on productivity growth of the UK manufacturing sector. However, there are some additional objectives. Firstly, we estimate the impact of R&D on productivity growth of large and small firms and we discuss a number of theoretical arguments regarding the role of firm size. Secondly, given that the technological infrastructure influences the innovative capacity of a firm, we compare the impact of R&D on productivity growth of high-tech firms with the corresponding impact on productivity growth of low-tech firms. Thirdly, we investigate whether the contribution of R&D to productivity growth has changed over time. Based on firm-level data (78 firms, 1989–2002), we find that the contribution of R&D is approximately 0.04. Although the R&D-elasticity of large firms (0.044) is higher than the corresponding elasticity of small firms (0.035), the difference is small. In contrast, the R&D-elasticity is considerably high for high-tech sectors (0.11), but statistically insignificant for low-tech sectors. Finally, the investigation of the elasticity of R&D over time revealed an interesting discontinuity showing that although until 1995 the R&D-elasticity was approximately zero, after 1995 it increased dramatically to 0.09. We investigate the potential causes of such non-linearity and we suggest a number of possible explanations.
Tag-to-reader harmonic link in passive UHF RFID

This paper presents a new communication concept for the passive UHF RFID technology, by means of the exploitation of harmonics signals generated by passive UHF RFID chips. The presence of information carried on the harmonics is experimentally shown by conducted measurements on three different EPC Class-1 Gen2 RFID chips. Therefore, and in compliance with the standard requirements, these results are used in the optimal design of a new tag that increases the power level of the harmonic response, while operating also at the fundamental frequency. The performance of this solution is illustrated from simulation and measurement. Results show an improvement of 11 dB on the 3rd harmonic response compared to commercial tags, thereby, enabling new applications, concepts and functionalities for the RFID technology. To the knowledge of the authors, no similar study has been presented in the literature.
Circulator-Free Reflection-Type Tunable Optical Dispersion Compensator Using Tandem Arrayed-Waveguide Gratings

A tunable optical dispersion compensator that uses cascaded arrayed-waveguide gratings and an integrated phase shifter is reported. It is a catoptric circuit but does not require a circulator. The dispersion is successfully controlled from +142 to +1148 ps/nm. Error-free transmission is confirmed after dispersion compensation in a transmission experiment using 43 Gbps CSRZ-DQPSK modulation.
Costs and effectiveness of fingolimod versus alemtuzumab in the treatment of highly active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in the UK: re-treatment, discount, and disutility

Abstract Objective: Patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) treated with disease modifying therapies (DMTs) who continue to experience disease activity may be considered for escalation therapies such as fingolimod, or may be considered for alemtuzumab. Previous economic modeling used Markov models; applying one alternative technique, discrete event simulation (DES) modeling, allows re-treatment and long-term adverse events (AEs) to be included in the analysis. Methods: A DES was adapted to model relapse-triggered re-treatment with alemtuzumab and the effect of including ongoing quality-adjusted life year (QALY) decrements for AEs that extend beyond previous 1-year Markov cycles. As the price to the NHS of fingolimod in the UK is unknown, due to a confidential patient access scheme (PAS), a variety of possible discounts were tested. The interaction of re-treatment assumptions for alemtuzumab with the possible discounts for fingolimod was tested to determine which DMT resulted in lower lifetime costs. The lifetime QALY results were derived from modeled treatment effect and short- and long-term AEs. Results: Most permutations of fingolimod PAS discount and alemtuzumab re-treatment rate resulted in fingolimod being less costly than alemtuzumab. As the percentage of patients who are re-treated with alemtuzumab due to experiencing a relapse approaches 100% of those who relapse whilst on treatment, the discount required for fingolimod to be less costly drops below 5%. Consideration of treatment effect alone found alemtuzumab generated 0.2 more QALYs/patient; the inclusion of AEs up to a duration of 1 year reduced this advantage to only 0.14 QALYs/patient. Modeling AEs with a lifetime QALY decrement found that both DMTs generated very similar QALYs with the difference only 0.04 QALYs/patient. Conclusions: When the model captured alemtuzumab re-treatment and long-term AE decrements, it was found that fingolimod is cost-effective compared to alemtuzumab, assuming application of only a modest level of confidential PAS discount.
A Triplet Ranking-Based Neural Network for Speaker Diarization and Linking

This paper investigates a novel neural scoring method, based on conventional i-vectors, to perform speaker diarization and linking of large collections of recordings. Using triplet loss for training, the network projects i-vectors in a space that better separates speakers in terms of cosine similarity. Experiments are run on two French TV collections built from REPERE [1] and ETAPE [2] campaigns corpora, the system being trained on French Radio data. Results indicate that the proposed approach outperforms conventional cosine and Probabilistic Linear Discriminant Analysis scoring methods on both within-and cross-recording diarization tasks, with a Diarization Error Rate reduction of 14% in average.
A garbage can model for Schumpeterian process: the network effects

Through interactive learning activities of technology based entrepreneurs and their potential customers, novel combinations of technology components are developed into vehicles of customer values. This study treats technological possibilities and customers' latent needs as the dimensions of an inter organisational Garbage-Can space, inside of which learning agents from the demand and supply sides interact. It simulates an ongoing Schumpeterian process ('creative destruction') to investigate the influences of social network, boundary-spanning organisations and demand-side innovativeness.
Incompatibilidades con la función de auditoría en España: un análisis multivariante

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar mediante un estudio empirico multivariante el posicionamiento de profesores y auditores sobre los aspectos legales que regulan la realizacion de otras actividades distintas a la auditoria de cuentas anuales. A traves de la opinion manifestada por los dos colectivos anteriormente indicados, se puede identificar en ellos tres grupos en funcion del nivel de prohibicion global de las incompatibilidades analizadas y del nivel de importancia asignada a las prohibiciones sobre los que se han denominado "servicios relacionados directa/indirectamente con la informacion financiera sometida a auditoria": auditores consolidados, auditores no consolidados y profesores. Los profesores manifiestan un alto nivel de prohibicion global, mientras que los auditores, tanto consolidados como no consolidados, se muestran en sentido contrario. Por otro lado, los profesores y los auditores no consolidados dan mayor importancia a las prohibiciones sobre los servicios "relacionados directamente con la informacion financiera sometida a auditoria", que a las prohibiciones sobre los "relacionados indirectamente", mientras que los auditores consolidados invierten el sentido de la importancia de esas prohibiciones.
Transforming union women: the role of women trade union officials in union renewal

This paper draws on a qualitative case study of senior union women in the trade union Manufacturing, Science &Finance (MSF) to provide insights into the way women officials use their agency to recruit women members and to encourage their activism. The focus on senior trade union women is important since these women are potentially in a more powerful position to have an impact on patriarchal union culture.
Surgical Treatment of Inverted Papilloma

Inverted papilloma (IP) is the most common benign tumor of the nose and the paranasal sinuses and constitutes almost 0.5% to 4% of the primary nasal tumors. In this study, our objective was to retrospectively review the results of surgical treatment of IP. Sixty-eight patients with a histopathologically proven diagnosis of IP were retrospectively evaluated. Two patients who had an associated squamous cell carcinoma were excluded from the study. Ten patients were operated on for revision surgery, and 56 eventually had a primary tumor. Patients operated on for primary tumor were included in this study. Nasal obstruction was the most frequent symptom observed in 50 patients (89%). The origin of the tumor was most common at the maxillary sinus, the lamina papyracea, and the ethmoid sinus. Endoscopic endonasal resection, endoscopic endonasal resection with the Caldwell-Luc procedure, medial maxillectomy after lateral rhinotomy (LR), and endoscope-assisted medial maxillectomy with LR approaches were used. The patients operated on only with medial maxillectomy after an LR procedure have a recurrence rate of 28% (2 patients). Endoscopic endonasal resection has a recurrence rate of 9% (2 patients). Recurrence observed after endoscopic endonasal resection with Caldwell-Luc procedures was 7% (1 patient). One recurrence (8%) was determined after an endoscope-assisted medial maxillectomy after LR. No major postoperative complications were observed after surgery. In conclusion, IP can be treated both with internal and external approaches. The type of surgery should be determined according to the tumor stage. Combined internal and external approaches have less recurrence rates in advanced cases. Endoscopic endonasal resection should be used in early-stage tumors.
Constructing a Network of Shared Agreement: A Model of Communication Processes in Negotiations

Traditional, static negotiation theories focus on descriptions of various external factors that influence the outcome of negotiations. They are useful in predicting the negotiation outcome in a limited way, because the result of the negotiation is ultimately determined not only by objective facts, but is worked out during the negotiation itself. We propose a Dynamical Negotiation Network (DNN) model that links the negotiation outcome with the process of attaining that outcome. This model represents the negotiation process in terms of a dynamically constructed network of interconnected nodes of meaning. The structure of the network and dynamics of its creation determine the outcome of a negotiation. In the presented study, we examined 58 participants who negotiated in dyads. There were many objective facts; those that were taken into consideration, the order they appeared in the negotiation, what structure of relationships they formed, helped determine a ‘shared reality’ that drove negotiation outcomes. We show that the DNN model explains the outcomes of their negotiations more precisely than do the static elements of the situation.
Incorporating Ethics and Professionalism into Accounting Education and Research: A Discussion of the Voids and Advocacy for Training in Seminal Works in Business Ethics

From 1999–2002, companies, the stock markets, audit firms, the accounting profession, and federal regulators were shaken with near‐daily revelations in the form of earnings restatements or confessions of financial instability by firms that had been certified as ongoing entities. A guilty plea by one auditor and the criminal conviction of his audit firm have resulted in statutory reform, new policies on financial reporting, and stricter regulatory requirements for audit firms. When all the reform dust settles, however, and the new statutes, regulations, and rules are implemented, auditors and those who educate them will still be left with the same question: why were auditors willing to allow the types of financial reports and reporting decisions that produced fundamentally unfair and inaccurate portraits of the companies they were auditing? The answer to this question requires exploration of ethics education in both business schools and schools of accountancy. While there are voids in that training, there .
ENDOGENOUS INTERLEUKIN-12 IMPROVES THE EARLY ANTIMICROBIAL HOST RESPONSE TO MURINE ESCHERICHIA COLI PERITONITIS

Interleukin (IL)-12 is a heterodimeric proinflammatory cytokine formed by a p35 and a p40 subunit. To determine the role of IL-12 in abdominal sepsis, p35 gene-deficient (IL-12 knockout, KO) mice and normal wild-type (WT) mice were injected intraperitoneally with Escherichia coli. Peritonitis was associated with a bacterial dose-dependent increase in IL-12 p40 and IL-12 p75 concentrations in peritoneal fluid and plasma. Whereas at 6 h postinfection, IL-12 KO and WT mice displayed similar bacterial counts, at 20 hours IL-12 KO mice had significantly more bacteria in liver homogenates and were more susceptible to progressing to systemic infection. In addition, IL-12 KO mice demonstrated higher levels of proinflammatory cytokines in peritoneal fluid and increased lung and liver injury. IL-12 deficiency did not influence the recruitment of cells to the site of the infection. These data suggest that endogenous IL-12 is involved in the early antibacterial host response during abdominal sepsis.
The current state of Bayesian methods in medical product development: survey results and recommendations from the DIA Bayesian Scientific Working Group

Bayesian applications in medical product development have recently gained popularity. Despite many advances in Bayesian methodology and computations, increase in application across the various areas of medical product development has been modest. The DIA Bayesian Scientific Working Group (BSWG), which includes representatives from industry, regulatory agencies, and academia, has adopted the vision to ensure Bayesian methods are well understood, accepted more broadly, and appropriately utilized to improve decision making and enhance patient outcomes. As Bayesian applications in medical product development are wide ranging, several sub‐teams were formed to focus on various topics such as patient safety, non‐inferiority, prior specification, comparative effectiveness, joint modeling, program‐wide decision making, analytical tools, and education. The focus of this paper is on the recent effort of the BSWG Education sub‐team to administer a Bayesian survey to statisticians across 17 organizations involved in medical product development. We summarize results of this survey, from which we provide recommendations on how to accelerate progress in Bayesian applications throughout medical product development. The survey results support findings from the literature and provide additional insight on regulatory acceptance of Bayesian methods and information on the need for a Bayesian infrastructure within an organization. The survey findings support the claim that only modest progress in areas of education and implementation has been made recently, despite substantial progress in Bayesian statistical research and software availability. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Sustainable Labor Practices? Hotel Human Resource Managers Views on Turnover and Skill Shortages

Through this research, the authors investigate the recruiting practices and causative factors of labor turnover and skill shortages in four- and five-star hotels in Australia using a web-based questionnaire survey. Their findings in this study confirmed that labor shortages are a major industry concern. In selecting new employees, personal presentation, interpersonal and customer skills are paramount. The key findings present an industry that currently does not plan for sustainable labor practices and employee retention with casualization being the dominant strategy to cope with changing demand for labor. Hotels need to look beyond cost reduction and adopt a more strategic approach to Human Resource Management.
From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality

Do Supreme Court decisions matter? In 1896 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that railroad segregation laws were permissible under the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1954 the Court's decision in Brown v. the Board of Education held that the same constitutional provision invalidated statutes segregating public schools How great an impact did judicial rulings such as Plessy and Brown have? How much did such Court decisions influence the larger world of race relations? In From Jim Crow to Civil Rights, Michael J. Klarman examines the social and political impact of the Supreme Court's decisions involving race relations from Plessy, the Progressive Era, and the Interwar Period to World Wars I and II, Brown and the Civil Rights Movement. He explores the wide variety of consequences that Brown may have had--raising the salience of race issues, educating opinion, mobilizing supporters, energizing opponents of racial change. He concludes that Brown was ultimately more important for mobilizing southern white opposition to racial change than for encouraging direct-action protest. The decision created concrete occasions for violent confrontation--court ordered school desegregation and radicalized southern politics, leading to the election of politicians who calculated that violent suppression of civil rights demonstrations would win votes. It was such violence--vividly captured on television--that ultimately transformed northern opinion on race, leading to the enactment of landmark civil rights legislation in the mid 1960s. A fascinating investigation of the Supreme Court's rulings on race, From Jim Crow to Civil Rights, spells out in exhaustive detail the political and social context against which the Supreme Court Justices operate and the consequences of those decisions on the civil rights movement and beyond.
Latitudinal clines in alternative life histories in a geometrid moth

The relative roles of genetic differentiation and developmental plasticity in generating latitudinal gradients in life histories remain insufficiently understood. In particular, this applies to determination of voltinism (annual number of generations) in short‐lived ectotherms, and the associated trait values. We studied different components of variation in development of Chiasmia clathrata (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) larvae that originated from populations expressing univoltine, partially bivoltine or bivoltine phenology along a latitudinal gradient of season length. Indicative of population‐level genetic differentiation, larval period became longer while growth rate decreased with increasing season length within a particular phenology, but saw‐tooth clines emerged across the phenologies. Indicative of phenotypic plasticity, individuals that developed directly into reproductive adults had shorter development times and higher growth rates than those entering diapause. The most marked differences between the alternative developmental pathways were found in the bivoltine region suggesting that the adaptive correlates of the direct development evolve if exposed to selection. Pupal mass followed a complex cline without clear reference to the shift in voltinism or developmental pathway probably due to varying interplay between the responses in development time and growth rate. The results highlight the multidimensionality of evolutionary trajectories of life‐history traits, which either facilitate or constrain the evolution of integrated traits in alternative phenotypes.
The influence of a mathematical model in production strategy: conceptual development and empirical test

Acquire and produce what is strictly necessary are the goals of the organizations, since they aim companies more competitive and thereby reducing production costs. The research method is applied in nature, with a qualitative and quantitative approach, in which the objective of the research will be: exploratory and descriptive, with technical procedures, divided into: bibliographic, documentary, survey and concluding with a case study. On this assumption the main objective of this research is to develop and analyze a mathematical model that minimizes costs and maximizes the postponement of stocks in a company in the pulp, paper and paper products. Having been found only four papers, two articles and two theses that deal with the issue of demand management, supply chain and inventory postponement. These studies address the issue by modeling the productive time of the supply chain. For production segments this research may enable development of management practices demand and production strategy, allowing cost reductions and productivity gains possible. With the development of the mathematical model could ever analyze the behavior of demand and its influence on the productive strategy, strategy formulation regarding the purchase of raw materials and finished product storage in the last four years the company's results for the proposed model.
Participatory Democracy and Chaebol Regulation in Korea: State-Market Relations under the MDP Governments, 1997––2003

The government-chaebol nexus formed under Democratic Party governments reflects new state-market relations in Korea that are predicated on a democratic model emphasizing participation and equity. The participatory democratic logic of corporate reform assumes that civic organizations, functioning as a third sector, should act as watchdogs and whistle-blowers to correct any unequal market structures.
NMR Investigation of How Free Composite Fermions Are at ν=1/2

NMR measurements of the electron spin polarization (P) have been performed on a 2D electron system at and around half-filled lowest Landau level. Comparing the magnetic field and the temperature dependence of P to models of free and interacting composite fermions (CF), the imbalance of spin-up and spin-down CF Fermi seas is mapped as a function of Zeeman energy. Independent measurements of the CF effective mass, g factor, and Fermi energy are obtained from the thermal activation of P in tilted fields. The filling factor dependence of the P for 2 / 5<nu<2 / 3 reveals a broken particle-hole symmetry for the partially polarized CF Fermi sea.