Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Technique for Reducing Discretization Bias from Monte Carlo Simulations: Option Pricing under Stochastic Interest Rates

Abstract Control variates are often used to reduce variability in Monte Carlo estimates and their effectiveness is traditionally measured by the so-called speed-up factor. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate that a control variate can also be applied to reduce the bias stemming from the discretization of the state variable dynamics. This is particularly valuable when stochastic interest rate models are discretized, since bias reduction through more grid points is computationally expensive.
Extraretinal neovascularization induced by hypoxic episodes in the neonatal rat.

PURPOSE To test the hypothesis that hypoxia induces retinal neovascularization. METHODS To produce relative hypoxia in the avascular retina, newborn rats were exposed for 11 days to 80% oxygen interrupted daily by short episodes in room air. Episodes in room air lasted 1/2 hour or 1 hour followed by abrupt reintroduction, or 1/2 hour followed by progressive reintroduction to 80% oxygen lasting 3 hours to prolong the period of hypoxia. At the end of the 11 days of interrupted oxygen exposure, the animals were left in room air for 6 days. RESULTS The incidence of neovascularization exhibited a dose-response relationship to the period out of 80% oxygen. Periods of approximately 3 hours produced neovascularization (in at least one eye) in 94% of the animals. The total area of the peripheral avascular retina was larger in animals exposed to prolonged periods of hypoxia than in those exposed for shorter periods. The incidence of neovascularization was strongly associated with the total area of the peripheral avascular retina and occurred in the inferior quadrant in 78% of the cases. Additional features of stage 3 retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), including arteriovenous shunts and ridges, were observed in some retinas. CONCLUSIONS These data demonstrate that hypoxic episodes can induce extraretinal neovascularization in the rat and suggest that brief periods of oxygen deficiency could exacerbate progression of ROP. With the high incidence and predictability of localization of neovascularization, this model could be useful for the study of angiogenesis and for evaluation of antiangiogenic or antioxidant substances.
Characterization of the Lancefield group C streptococcus 16S-23S RNA gene intergenic spacer and its potential for identification and sub-specific typing

The 16S-23S RNA gene intergenic spacers of isolates of Streptococcus equi (n=5), S. zooepidemicus (n=5), S. equisimilis (n=3) and S. dysgalactiae (n=2) were sequenced and compared. There were distinct regions within the spacer, arranged in the order 1–9 for all S. equi and one S. zooepidemicus isolate and 1,2 and 4–9 for the remaining isolates. Region 4 was identical to the tRNAala gene found in the 16S-23S intergenic spacers of other streptococci. Regions 1, 5, 6 and 7 had distinct variations, each conserved in different isolates. However, amongst the intergenic spacers there were different combinations of variant regions, suggesting a role for DNA recombination in their evolution. The intergenic spacer of all isolates of S. equi and one S. zooepidemicus isolate were almost identical. Primers derived from the variant sequences of regions 1 and 5 to 6 were used to group all S. zooepidemicus (n=17) and S. equi (n=5) into 1 of 8 types by polymerase chain reaction; three S. zooepidemicus isolates typed the same as S. equi. S. equi and S. zooepidemicus were clearly distinguishable from S. equisimilis and S. dysgalactiae which had shorter regions 5 and 6 and no region 7. Most homology for the group C sequences was found in previously published sequences for the 16S-23S intergenic spacers of S. anginosis, S. constellatus, S. intermedius, S. salivarius and S. agalactiae. A 75-90 nucleotide length shared with S. anginosus and S. intermedius in opposite orientations in the two main variants of region 6 supported the role for DNA recombination in the evolution of the spacer. The 16S-23S intergenic spacers indicate that S. zooepidemicus was the archetypal species for S. equi and that both are genetically more distant from S. equisimilis and S. dysgalactiae. The intergenic spacer can be used to identify specifically the group C. streptococci and as an epidemiological marker for S. zooepidemicus.
How Physicians' Organizations Compete: Protectionism and Efficiency

This article develops a framework that distinguishes four types of competitive strategies that physicians' organizations can adopt in their interactions with health plans. Two types of strategies protect physicians' incomes and autonomy from incursion and control by insurers; the other two enhance the efficiency of health care markets by controlling costs and embedding physicians' caregiving in a community of professionals. The mix of strategies that each organization adopts at any given time depends on the market conditions and regulatory policies it faces, as well as its organizational capacity. The article reviews recent developments in the field that indicate that today's markets and regulations create neither the pressures nor the capacity for physicians' organizations to adopt strategies that enhance efficiency. The managed care backlash has led to a relaxation of pressures to control costs, and the lack of a business case for quality has discouraged embedded caregiving. These developments instead have encouraged and enabled physicians' organizations to adopt strategies that protect their members from the bargaining power and micromanagement of health plans. The article therefore proposes changes in purchasing and regulatory policies to alter the pressures and improve the capacity of physicians' organizations to pursue efficiency and eschew protectionism.
Vorsorge des kolorektalen Karzinoms: Koloskopie oder immunologischer Stuhltest

Das Risiko, im Laufe des Lebens ein kolorektales Karzinom zu entwickeln, liegt bei etwa 5%. Der Tumor entwickelt sich nur selten im jüngeren Alter und in den meisten Fällen über Jahre aus gutartigen Vorstufen. Klinische Symptome zeigt das kolorektale Karzinom meist erst spät im Krankheitsverlauf, und die Prognose der Betroffenen ist bei später Diagnose schlecht. In der Statistik zur Mortalität bösartiger Erkrankungen belegt das kolorektale Karzinom sowohl für Männer als auch für Frauen den zweiten Platz. Aufgrund dieser Kombination an Eigenschaften eignet sich das kolorektale Karzinom für Interventionen im Rahmen der Prävention oder Früherkennung. In einigen europäischen Ländern sind keine Präventionsprogramme aufgelegt, in anderen werden unterschiedlich aufwendige Instrumente genutzt, um Inzidenz und Mortalität des kolorektalen Karzinoms zu senken. In Deutschland wird der guajakbasierte Stuhltest schon lange angeboten, alternativ kann seit etwa 10 Jahren die komplette Koloskopie erfolgen. Die Datenlage ist für einige der genutzten Vorsorgeinstrumente aber schwach (Whitlock E. Ann Int Med 2008; 149: 638). Auch wenn es dem überzeugten Endoskopiker evident scheint, dass die komplette Koloskopie mit der einzeitigen Polypektomie das beste Instrument in der Vorsorge sein muss, so ist genau dies bisher nicht bewiesen. Anders als für die flexible Sigmoidoskopie (Schoen RE. N Engl J Med 2012; 366: 2345; Atkin W. Lancet 2010; 375: 1624) ist bisher noch keine randomisierte, prospektiv angelegte Untersuchung publiziert, die den Wert der kompletten Koloskopie in der Vorsorge untersucht, geschweige denn beweist. Auch liegen große Studien, die verschiedene Vorsorgestrategien vergleichen, kaum vor. In der hier vorgestellten, hochrangig publizierten Arbeit wurden die Ergebnisse eines einmaligen immunologischen Stuhltests mit einer einmaligen Koloskopie verglichen. Im weiteren Verlauf ist geplant, den Stuhltest alle 2 Jahre zu wiederholen, um nach 10 Jahren die langfristigen Verläufe in beiden Gruppen zu vergleichen. Publiziert wurden jetzt also ausschließlich die Ausgangsbefunde der eigentlich langfristig angelegten Studie.
Proportional representation in Scotland: public reaction and voter behaviour

Abstract This article addresses two questions. How has the public in Scotland reacted to the experience of proportional representation? And how has the system influenced their voting behaviour? Support for the principle of proportional representation was no stronger in 2003 than it was in 1999, while doubts about the merits of the additional members system in particular appear to have grown. Understanding of how the system works appears to have declined, though whether this has resulted in confusion in the polling station is less clear. There is only limited evidence that voters used the ability of the system to vote in a more sophisticated manner than is possible under single‐member plurality.
Effects of Community and Family Background on Achievement

N recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to understanding the causes of earnings differentials between blacks and whites. Conventional economic analysis of the issue has been divided into supply and demand factors. Demand side arguments point to differential returns to blacks and whites with the same level of market-valued characteristics as a principal cause of the lower earnings of blacks. Supply side arguments, on the other hand, focus on the quality and quantity of the market-valued characteristics of black compared to white workers. Although this dichotomization is obviously a necessary and useful step in understanding the causes of earnings differentials between blacks and whites, it fails to place sufficient emphasis on the process by which market-valued characteristics are actually obtained. In particular, given the effect of parents' economic status on their children, this approach does not illuminate the intertemporal consequences of racial discrimination for the acquisition of market-valued characteristics. Also, given the potential of the effects of the community of origin on achievement, it may, in addition, obscure many of the negative externalities affecting the acquisition process that result from being part of a discriminated-against group. This paper addresses these problems by examining a recursive model of the effects of socioeconomic background on education and earnings of black and white men ages 23-32. The main difference between this analysis and other efforts in this area is that it examines not only the effects of the socioeconomic status of an individual's parents, but also the effects of characteristics of the individual's community of origin. While other studies have included variables measuring differences due to region and/or size of place of origin, this paper also controls for differences between individuals at the more disaggregated neighborhood level. The findings of the study suggest that neighborhood differences are at least as important as family characteristics in explaining the gaps between black and white achievement and that the omission of neighborhood characteristics results in a misleading picture of the source of background effects.
Lessons From Institution Building in Kenya

Participant observation of institution building in a public sector organization in Kenya provides a basis for a critical discussion of key facets of the institution-building process. Problems identified include: flawed needs assessments; overambitious project designs; poor selection and briefing of consultants; and countervailing vested interests on the parts of external agents. Recommendations include narrowing the gap between development rhetoric and reality; more careful project formulation; greater emphasis on in-house training; more careful selection of project team leaders; and the provision of funding for post-project sustainability evaluations.
An examination of the main factors affecting trust/commitment in supplier‐dealer relationships: an empirical study of the Swedish wood industry

This research examines the importance of a set of underlying variables, such as willingness of the supplier to adapt to the dealer, built‐up relationship bonds, costs of terminating the relationship, level of shared values, formal and informal communication between the participating parties, opportunistic behavior by the supplier and perceived level of satisfaction in the relation‐ship, for achieving high trust and commitment within a supplier‐dealer relationship. Data for the analysis are generated from 114 purchasing managers at Swedish lumber dealers, an industry where collaborative relation‐ships are not very developed, but considered necessary for future success. Methodology is described and results are discussed. Concludes that companies trying to achieve high trust and commitment relationships, should create high satisfaction relationships, by decreasing their opportunistic behavior, adjusting to the needs of the other part, and developing shared values.
Multi-party privacy conflict detection and resolution in social media

Online community networks enclose practiced marvelous enlargement within modern years and turn into a de facto entrance on behalf of millions of consumer. These network permit consumers to confine right to use mutual information, they present no offer every method to realize retreat concern more than information linked by several consumer. The deficient in of combined retreat organization maintain in present apparatus of community medium basic physical and organizational structures and facilities makes customer not capable toward manage near whom data share or to whom not. Only strategy which combines the confidentiality predilection of various consumers can help to resolve this difficulty for this type. To combine several consumers individual privacy predilection which are not simple task these retreat preference can difference. These methods require recognizing how end consumers' would in fact reach an accord, during organize to suggest satisfactory solutions toward the disagreement. To motivate different consumers concessions and concord we recommend the primary relating apparatus that acclimatize toward different condition determine conflict used for combined retreat executive in community medium in classify to how many times each move toward matched consumers behavior. Online Social Network gives plain inauguration organize method allow clients to manage correct toward utilize to information limited in their possess places, clients, unhappily, contain refusal influence more than information exist in exterior their places. Such as, if clients place a note in a friend's space, he /she cannot recognize which clients are able to view the note.
Earnings persistence across generations: Transmission through health?

Using a unique data set that links adult labour market outcomes and health status of a cohort of Danes and their parents, we study the interrelationships between transmission of health and economic status across generations. We first establish new evidence on intergenerational earnings resemblance in Denmark, obtaining estimates of father-child earnings elasticities of . 29 for sons and . 27 for daughters. Next, we show that children from low-income families are more likely to experience health problems in adulthood, and that poor health outcomes, such as back illness, heart disease, and psychological illness, affect labour earnings negatively. The data further reveal strong correlations of health outcomes across generations. When we condition on health status, estimates of the intergenerational earnings elasticity drop by a substantial amountâ€”28 percent for sons and 25 percent for daughters. These findings point to parental investments in health and resemblance of health across generations as factors behind the pattern of low intergenerational earnings mobility observed in many countries.
Crowdfunding for financing innovative and social entrepreneurship: Literature Review

A new collaborative economy is created and emerging methods of financing are established. Crowdfunding presents itself as an alternative and / or complement to current funding boot. It is an open call to the public to raise funds for a specific project. These calls are often published and promoted through the Internet and with the help of social networks and are only open for a specified period. This paper tries to contribute in clarifying this new mode of funding and enriching academic research in this little explored area.
Implementing the Social Audit in an Organization

Robert L. Blomstrom is Professor of Hospitality and Director of the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management at Michigan State University. Professor Blomstrom holds a Masters degree in Management and a Ph.D. in Economics, both from the University of Colorado. In addition to having written several books, he has published articles in Cornell Hotel, Restaurant Administration Quarterly ,Arizona Business , and several other journals. The changing lifestyle of American society is requiring a concurrent change in the lifestyle of business because business exists to serve the needs of people. One significant change is in the direction of more social involvement and social
Japan widens its investigation after nuclear accident

Japanese authorities are widening their investigation into the long term health risks posed by the recent nuclear accident at Tokaimura amid claims that the impact on local residents has been underestimated. The Science and Technology Agency announced in early November that it will interview people who were living or working within a 350 metre radius of the uranium processing plant when the uncontrolled critical reaction took place on 30 September. Interviewees …
Analysing the Sources of Economic Growth in Africa Using Growth a Accounting and a Panel VAR approach

Using growth accounting framework and panel data analysis, while accounting for dynamics and endogeneity issues in growth modelling, this paper analyses the sources of growth in selected COMESA member countries. The growth accounting suggests a moderate level of TFP and that the contribution of capital and labour has been more or less the same. The results from the econometrics study are also along the same line with capital accumulation, openness and education observed to be among the most important ingredient of growth. The econometric study has also shown the importance of some other variables like political and institutional stability, financial development, IMF assistance funds and spill over effects as potential factors that may affect growth.
Argumentation in Social Media

Argumentation is a multidisciplinary domain at the intersection of philosophy, communication studies, logic, artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, social sciences, political sciences, and law. Its study opens the door to a wide range of challenging, potential applications in several domains. One of the contexts in which argumentation assumes immediate relevance is the Web, since social media, social networks, and distributed platforms are some of the favorite sources and outlets for opinions, advice, and comments of any sort for a large share of the world population. The aim of this Special Section is to gather recent developments in the area of argumentation that is focused on social media. This Special Section of the ACM Transactions on Internet Technology collects a selection of seven articles on argumentation in social media. Each article has undergone at least two rounds of review by at least three experts following the highest standards. The article “Debating Technology for Dialogical Argument: Sensemaking, Engagement and Analytics” by Mark Snaith, John Lawrence, Barbara Konat, Katarzyna Budzynska, and Chris Reed provides a thorough overview of the emerging research area of debating technologies, which aims to develop instruments to enhance, support, and engage with human debating, and which has been the topic of a recent Dagstuhl seminar. The authors propose the Argument Web as a powerful unifying framework to exploit all the different aspects of this exciting research field. The induction of argument structures in online debates is the subject of the article “Using Argument Structure to Interpret Online Debate” by John Lawrence, Joonsuk Park, Katarzyna Budzynska, Claire Cardie, Barbara Konat, and Chris Reed. The authors introduce a novel corpus of user comments collected from an e-rulemaking
SOCIAL NETWORKS AND GROWTH OF FEMALE-OWNED VENTURES: A SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA PERSPECTIVE

We examine the influence of the dimensions of social networks on the growth aspirations of female entrepreneurs. Using multi stage stratified random sampling, 540 women were surveyed in the five geographic regions of Uganda. Drawing on social network theory, point bi-serial correlation and logistic regression analysis were carried out to test our hypotheses. Although we find a relationship between belonging to a social network and growth, we also find that the relationship between the other indicators of social networks, including social support, discussion of business ideas, equality of network members and growth, are not statistically significant. We propose this may be because the challenges that face female entrepreneurs in this context negate the influence of social networks on growth. On the other hand, we posit that the metrics used to measure entrepreneurship related constructs are biased not only against women but even the developing country context.
Ethnic Identity and Party Competition. An Analysis of the Electoral Performance of Ethnoregionalist Parties in Western Europe

The study of ethnoregionalist parties, therefore, allows us to explore an aspect of the Western European party systems that is of primary importance but to which so far the academic literature has not paid due attention. Specifically, as it will be illustrated more thoroughly over the next few pages, the image that these parties are bound exclusively to their function as representatives of a peripheral ethnic minority is utterly inadequate, whichever way one defines it. A closer look at their recent evolution and programmes will show instead that ethnoregionalist parties are much more dynamic and ready, on many occasions, to review their collocation in the political space as well as objectives, short and long-term strategies. This results in frequent raids on political territories normally under the control of major parties and in the taking away of a portion of disaffected or disappointed voters, with varying degrees of success. In other words, we will show that ethnoregionalist parties act (at least in specific cases, at specific moments) as protest or challenging parties as they provide an alternative to the traditional established ones.
Comment on Behrman and Taubman

Behrman and Taubman (in this issue) are to be congratulated for continuing to add to our fund of knowledge by going out and collecting new and relevant data sets. I do not think that our profession appreciates enough the effort involved in the collection of data; nor does it reward enough those few economists who are not satisfied to live off "found" data-data collected and assembled by others-but who actually go out and collect new data of their own. The effort that Taubman and his associates have put in-first in rescuing and expanding the NRG Twin samples and now extending the data collection to another generation, that is, the offspring of these same twins-has been a major achievement of social science research and will continue to bear fruit for years to come. I want to make my appreciation for this effort clear before I discuss the actual results on birth-order effects, which turn out to be somewhat meager, since I believe that these data will yield much new knowledge on many other topics of great interest to us. It just happens to be the case that birth-order effects are small, their a priori sign is uncertain, and hence they are rather difficult to detect even in reasonably sized samples.