Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Combined Signal Approach to Technical Analysis: A Review & Commentary

The Combined Signal Approach (CSA) to technical analysis combines individual trading rules into a consensus signal that is more profitable than the individual signals alone. It could be that the CSA performs better than individual signals because information related to future price moves is dispersed among various trading rules. In addition, the CSA mitigates the problem of choosing between individual trading rules when they provide conflicting signals. This paper reviews the extant body of literature on the CSA. The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of, and foster additional research on, the CSA model.
Ultrastructure of the fetal membranes of the oviparous kingsnake, Lampropeltis getula (Colubridae) as revealed by scanning electron microscopy

In reptilian sauropsids, fetal (extraembryonic) membranes that line the eggshell sustain developing embryos by providing for gas exchange and uptake of water and eggshell calcium. However, a scarcity of morphological studies hinders an understanding of functional specializations and their evolution. In kingsnakes (Lampropeltis getula), scanning electron microscopy reveals two major fetal membranes: the chorioallantois and yolk sac omphalopleure. In early development, the chorioallantois contains tall chorionic epithelial cells, avascular connective tissue, and enlarged allantoic epithelial cells. During its maturation, the chorionic and allantoic epithelia thin dramatically and become underlain by a rich network of allantoic capillaries, yielding a membrane ideally suited for respiratory gas exchange. Yolk sac development initially is like that of typical lizards and snakes, forming an avascular omphalopleure, isolated yolk mass (IYM), and yolk cleft. However, unlike the situation in most squamates studied, the omphalopleure becomes transformed into a “secondary chorioallantois” via three asynchronous events: flattening of the epithelium, regression of the IYM, and vascularization by the allantois. Progressive expansion of chorioallantois parallels growing embryonic needs for gas exchange. In early through mid‐development, external surfaces of both the chorionic and omphalopleure epithelium show an abundance of irregular surface protrusions that possibly increase surface area for water absorption. We postulate that the hypertrophied allantoic epithelial cells produce allantoic fluid, a viscous substance that facilitates water uptake and storage. Our findings are consistent with a previous study on the corn snake Pantherophis guttatus, but include new observations and novel functional hypotheses relevant to a reconstruction of basal squamate patterns. J. Morphol. 276:1467–1481, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Work and family perspectives on reentry

Employment and marriage play central roles in standard analyses of recidivism, and a long line of research suggests that ex-offenders who find good jobs and settle down in stable marriages threaten public safety much less than those who remain single and unemployed. Successful prisoner reentry thus involves the linked processes of reintegration into social institutions such as work and family and desistance from crime. Therefore, research on reentry and recidivism often aims to identify factors that place people at risk of joblessness and marital disruption – low education, impulsive behavior, drug abuse and so on. From this perspective, the job of public policy is to remedy these preexisting defects in ex-offenders, thereby promoting employment, marriage, and ultimately reducing crime. In this chapter we reexamine the roles of employment and marriage in prisoner reentry. Although we certainly agree that good jobs and strong marriages assist successful reentry and reduce recidivism, we try to extend the usual analysis in three ways. First, we adopt a life course perspective in which the timing of work and marriage emerge as critical for desistance from crime. This perspective suggests that age-graded public policy interventions are needed to normalize the life course trajectories of ex-offenders. Second, we consider whether the criminal justice system – particularly corrections – might negatively affect the employment opportunities and marriage prospects of ex-offenders. In this case, public policy should also work to remedy the damage caused by official criminal justice processing or to seek alternatives to incarceration that may be less costly to public safety in the long term.
ALGEBRA FOR TRANSFORMING THE STRUCTURE OF THE SEARCH SPACES ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMBINATORIAL OPTIMIZATION PROBLEMS

This article proposes the classification of the search spaces associated with the combinatorial optimization problems based on the type of their constituent solutions. The spaces belonging to each identified class are accompanied by the corresponding graph models. Against this background, the article introduces the original algebra allowing the representation of the search spaces in the unified homogeneous form. The proposed algebra consists of a set of transformations given in an analytical form and illustrated by the modifications of the graph models constructed for the search spaces.
The effects of a diet rich in inulin or wheat fibre on markers of cardiovascular disease in overweight male subjects.

BACKGROUND Previous studies suggest that the beneficial health effects of a diet rich in whole grains could be a result of the individual fibres found in the grain. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of a diet high in either wheat fibre (as an example of an insoluble fibre) or inulin (a nondigestible carbohydrate) on markers of cardiovascular disease. METHODS Ten male participants classified as at higher risk of cardiovascular disease [mean (SD) body mass index 30.2 (3) kg m(-2) , mean (SD) waist circumference 106.4 (7) cm, mean (SD) age 39.8 (9) years] were recruited to a randomised, controlled, cross-over study comparing the consumption of bespoke bread rolls containing either inulin, wheat germ or refined grain (control) (15 g day(-1) ) for 4 weeks with a 4-week washout period between each regime. At the end of each regime, participants underwent an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), measures of pulse wave velocity (PWV), 24-h ambulatory blood pressure (AMBP), plasma lipid status and markers of glucose control. RESULTS There was no difference in measures of glucose control, lipid status, 24-h AMBP or PWV after the intervention periods and no changes compared to baseline. There was no significant difference between OGTT glucose and insulin time profiles; however, there was a significant difference in area under the curves between the wheat fibre and control interventions when comparing change from baseline (control +10.2%, inulin +4.3%, wheat fibre -2.5%; P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS Only limited differences between the interventions were identified, perhaps as a consequence of the amount of fibre used and intervention length. The wheat germ intervention resulted in a significant reduction in glucose area under the curve, suggesting that this fibre may aid glucose control.
Bayesian Migration in Credit Ratings Based on Probabilities of Default

There is no theoretical or empirical model in the literature that posits a stochastic model of rating changes based directly on the joint process of probabilities of default (PD), although it is natural that ratings should be based on default intensity. The authors propose such a model that is simple and practical to implement. Changes in PDs are related to changes in ratings, and a modified Bayesian model may be used to calibrate the historical time series of PD changes to historical rating transition matrices. Rating agencies could use the model to predicate rating changes based on the stochastic process for probabilities of default.
Var finns den statliga kulturpolitiken? Inte bara på kulturdepartementet

The aim of this article is to compare how the Swedish national government organizes its relationship to culture (seen as a distinct sphere in society) in the various relevant ministries and policy areas. It is noted that the Ministry of Culture is not, as often is assumed, responsible for most of the government’s policies directed at this sphere, neither are its policies representative of the government’s policies towards culture. This explicit cultural policy does, however, have certain characteristics when compared to how other ministries relate to culture. Explicit cultural policy is primarily concerned with professional culture consecrated in the art field, as well as by a normative concept of autonomy for that field. While autonomy also exists in parts of the cultural sphere financed by other ministries and actors, it can take very different forms. Government policy on culture appears to be highly dependent on how responsibility for it is shared between ministries and other actors. These borders are often examples of historical path dependency. It is thus important that cultural policy research do not limit itself to explicit cultural policy, but also that it takes note of the borders between areas of responsibility in government and other relevant organizations, and how these influences cultural policy.
The Role of Married Women's Labor Supply on Family
Earnings Distribution in Japan

In this article, we empirically examine the impact of wives' participation in the labor market on family earnings inequality, by paying attention to the dynamic aspect of labor supply by wives. We find that wives' earnings have a moderate equalizing effect on family earnings inequality. Unlike in the United States, cohort effects in earnings inequality are relatively small in Japan. The correlation between husbands' and wives' earnings is small for almost every cohort in our cross-sectional data. The analysis of panel data suggests that married women's employment has a strong persistence, which has a significant impact on the level of family earnings.
Employee Volunteering and Social Capital: Contributions to Corporate Social Responsibility

As employee volunteering (EV) is increasingly regarded as a means of improving companies’ community and employee relations, we investigate the contribution of EV to corporate social responsibility, specifically whether and how it contributes to social capital. We investigate the dynamics of EV in three UK companies. We explore the social relations and resources which underpin social capital creation; the roles of opportunity, motivation and ability in bringing the actors together and enhancing their capacity for cooperation; and the ways in which alternative EV modes inform the different dimensions of social capital – networks, trust and norms of cooperation. Our paper contributes to our understanding of EV and the factors that enable it to create social capital. Finally we assess the contribution of EV to the overall corporate social responsibility agenda of companies.
HRM and Knowledge Migration Across Cultures: Issues, Limitations, and Mauritian Specificities

Most discussions of knowledge, knowledge management and knowledge transfer, especially of human resource management (HRM) knowledge and its transfer, have failed to consider them in a cross‐cultural context. After a discussion of this issue, the paper analyses the migration or transfer of what is often claimed to be best practice in HRM from Western countries to developing, culturally different countries. It does this with specific reference to the case of HRM in Mauritius, especially in the Mauritian Civil Service, and uses this case not only to identify some of the limits to cross‐cultural knowledge management, but also to develop a more appropriate model of “knowledge migration” of HRM knowledge across cultures based on viable systems theory, including a future research agenda.
The Role of SNCA Rep 1 Microsatellite in Parkinson ’ s Disease Progression

α-synuclein is a constituent of Lewy bodies and mutations of its gene cause familial PD. A previous study showed that a variant of α-synuclein gene (SNCA), namely the 263bp allele of Rep1 was associated to faster motor progression in PD. On the contrary, a recent report failed to detect a detrimental effect of Rep1 263 on both motor and cognitive outcomes in PD. Aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the Rep1 variants on disease progression in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients. We recruited and genotyped for SNCA-Rep1 426 PD patients with age at onset ≥40 years and disease duration ≥4 years. We then analyzed frequency and time of occurrence of wearing-off, dyskinesia, freezing of gait, visual hallucinations and dementia. SNCA Rep1 263 carriers showed increased risk of both dementia (HR=3.03) and visual hallucinations (HR=2.69) compared to 263 non-carriers. In conclusion, SNCA Rep 1 263 allele is associated to a worst cognitive outcome in PD.
'q,' Corporate Investment, and Balance Sheet Behavior

A GOAL OF RESEARCH on the business sector of the flow-offunds model is to analyze real and financial investment decisions of firms. In theory, and in reality, these decisions should be, and are, linked within a simultaneous framework. The cost of capital to a firm is not determined wholly exogenously but depends on its means of financing, and the timing of a firm's capital outlays is contingent upon the availability of funds. Economists have traditionally approached the theory of investment by hypothesizing that decisions first are made about expenditures for physical capital, and then decisions are made about their financing. Such sequential separation of real and financial capital decisions was most elegantly justified in a series of articles by Modigliani and Miller [5]. However, as Stiglitz [7] and others have shown, the proposition depends not only on the existence of perfect capital markets but also on other conditions such as the absence of taxes, equality of borrowing and lending rates, independence of expectations of real returns and firms' financial policies, and the absence of the possibility of bankruptcy (see Scott [6]). In a previous article [2] we presented a two-period model of the firm in which the debt-equity ratio was determined within a framework where firms consider trade-offs of cost and tax advantages of additional debt against real costs of potential bankruptcy. We also indicated, to some extent, how leverage could be expected to influence the firm's real investment decisions. It was shown that the optimum amount of debt in the firm's capital structure depends upon the corporate tax rate, bor-
REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION: A MANIFESTO FOR BUSINESS REVOLUTION

This work is on the most important topic in business circles today - the radical redesign of a company's processes, organization and culture to achieve a quantum leap in performance. Adam Smith work broke down into specialized tasks. Hammer and Champy explain that instead of tinkering with - or simply computerizing - an aspect of the work design, the answer is to radically redesign the whole process. Business re-engineering isn't about fixing anything - it's about starting again, about reinventing the nature of work and corporate structures from top to bottom. This book shows how some of the world's premier corporations are re-engineering to save hundreds of millions of dollars a year, achieve unprecedented levels of customer satistfaction, and speed up and make more flexible all aspects of their operations. Re-engineering is the 90s what strategy was for the 70s and quality was for the 80s. After a decade of restructuring and downsizing, of cutting costs and capacity, managers need to rethink boldly to yield the dramatic improvements for companies, both big and small, to compete successfully in a changing world.
Have British Jews fully assimilated in the UK Labour Market

This paper analyses the patterns of occupational attainment and earnings among the Jewish community in Britain using UK Labour Force Survey data (2002-2010). The findings suggest that although British-Jews cannot be distinguished from the majority main stream population of British-White in terms of their overall occupational attainment and earnings, it seems that they have managed to integrate through patterns of self-employment and concentration in the service sector economy, particularly in banking and financial services. It is argued that this self-employment profile is a Jewish strategy used to minimise dependency on majority group employers and by doing so to helping to escape any religious penalties.
Does Financial Development Contribute to Poverty Reduction?

The article examines the contribution of financial development to poverty reduction in developing countries. Building on earlier research which has established links between financial development and economic growth, and between economic growth and poverty reduction, the article tests for a causal process linking financial sector growth and poverty reduction. The empirical results indicate that, up to a threshold level of economic development, financial sector growth contributes to poverty reduction through the growth-enhancing effect. The impact of financial development on poverty reduction will be affected, however, by any change in income inequality resulting from financial development.
Effectivity of Qualitative Urinary Trypsinogen-2 Measurement in the Diagnosis of Acute Pancreatitis: a Randomized, Clinical Study

Abstract Background : There is no any definite diagnostic test for acute pancreatitis. In the present study we investigated the value of the qualitative urinary trypsinogen-2 measurement in the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis by an immuno-chromatographic dipstick test. Methods : A prospective, randomized, clinical trial was planned on 99 patients (53 male, 46 female; male/female: 1.11; age range: 16–83; mean age: 37.4). Patients were divided into two groups: 50 cases were referred to our emergency surgical unit due to abdominal pain and diagnosed with acute pancreatitis by abdominal computerized tomography (CT) (Group 1); 49 cases were referred to our emergency surgical unit due to abdominal pain and whose abdominal CTs did not show any sign of acute pancreatitis (Group 2). Qualitative urinary trypsinogen-2 measurement, abdominal CT and blood amylase values were obtained in all cases. Results : In group 1, urinary trypsinogen-2 measurement was found positive in 28 cases out of 50 cases diagnosed with acute pancreatitis (56% sensitivity). In group 2, results were found positive in 3 out of 49 patients with abdominal pain, who lacked an acute pancreatitis diagnosis (90.9% specificity). Severe intra-abdominal inflammation was present in three cases of group 2 where we obtained false positive results which may stimulate the pancreatic exocrine secretion. Conclusion : Qualitative measurements of urinary trypsinogen-2 in patients with abdominal pain may be useful in the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis. It is an easy, inexpensive, rapid and noninvasive method.
An investigation of Economic stakes of industrialization in sub-Saharan Africa adopted by Kenya

Industrialization as a multidimensional subject results from a variety of factors which equally have wide dimensions and as a result requires a multiplicity and sometimes unrelated factors and tools to achive it. Even though often underestimated and/or relegated to the background, one of such factors that exerted important impacts on industries especially those found in Sub-Sahara Africa is economic stakes that they adopt. This paper investigated economic stakes of industrialization in Sub-Sahara Africa with references to Kenya. The industrialization orientation of a country depends not only on its industrialization policies but also on a host of other factors including geogrephical features, economic size and natural resource endowment. For example, in some cases the resistance of Sub-Sahara African policy makers to industrial liberalization is advanced as an explanation of the poor overall economic performance of the continent. However, estimates strongly suggest that countires in Sub-Sahara Africa industrialize as much as expected if account is taken of these factors.
Rankings and comparisons: the top lists

The task of searching for the top companies in an industry, in a geographic region or in the world is an important and common one for business librarians and one which is satisfied by lists that rank companies and industries in a rational way (top, biggest, leading, largest). Discusses the issues involved with the concept of ranking and identifies sources of ranking information for North American companies and from US publishers for worldwide rankings, with particular reference to: Dun’s Business Rankings; national business periodicals (Fortune, Forbes, INC) with contact details and selective URLs for World Wide Web access; regional magazines; compilations (Gale’s Business Rankings Annual); finding aids; international ranking sources; sector rankings; and online sources. Notes briefly the sources for non-US rankings and screening for company rankings. Includes a reference hint for searchers in small and medium-sized libraries that most ranking questions will be answered from the Fortune or Forbes lists and that Gale’s Rankings titles should be used as finding aids to special issues in their own and other libraries.
Metalloproteolytic Release of Endothelial Cell Protein C Receptor*

Previous studies observed that there is about 100 ng/ml soluble endothelial cell protein C receptor (EPCR) in human plasma and that the levels increase in inflammatory diseases. In this study we examine the potential mechanisms involved in release of EPCR from cells. We find that EPCR is released from the surface of endothelium and transfected 293 cells by a metalloprotease in a constitutive fashion. The mass of soluble EPCR is 4 kDa less than intact EPCR. Release is blocked by either the hydroxamic acid based inhibitor, KD-IX-73-4 or by 1,10-phenanthroline, but not by matrix metalloprotease inhibitors. Release is stimulated by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, thrombin, interleukin-1β, and hydrogen peroxide. Stimulation with these agents reduces EPCR expression levels sufficiently to decrease the rate of protein C activation to a limited extent. The influence of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate on both EPCR release and inhibition of protein C activation are enhanced by microtubule disruption with nocodazole. EPCR release is augmented by transfection of EPCR expressing 293 cells with caveolin, suggesting that release is caveolae dependent. These studies indicate that metalloproteolytic release of EPCR is a highly regulated process that is sensitive to both coagulation factors and inflammatory mediators.