Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Model reference adaptive impedance control in lower limbs rehabilitation robot

Active exercise can improve the rehabilitation efficacy of the paralyzed patients, while we need to consider its safety. Impedance control takes the active compliance into account, providing a safe and comfortable training environment for the patients. However, the traditional impedance control has poor robustness, so it is urgent to enhance the adaptive capability of the system. This paper proposes the model reference adaptive impedance control in lower limbs rehabilitation robot. Firstly, we introduce the system model of the lower limbs rehabilitation robot; and then we analyze the application of the impedance control in human-robot interaction; finally, we propose the adaptive impedance control based on the model reference adaptive control theory, and the control law based on Lyapunov stability is deduced. The adaptive controller can adjust the impedance control real-time, so that it can improve the robustness of the system. The effectiveness of the control algorithm is verified by experiments.
Measuring Market Efficiency and Welfare Loss

This study presents a general methodology capable of addressing a number of fundamental questions in consumer policy. Are consumers paying more than the minimum price for a given bundle of attributes? If so, what brands cost more than the consumer needs to pay? What would be the degree of improvement in the consumer's well being if some intervention sets the price of such inefficient brands at the efficient level? We apply the methodology to data on automobiles and several other goods and analyze the determinants of efficiency.
The failure of the monetary exchange rate model for the Canadian‐U.S. dollar

In this paper the validity of the monetary exchange rate model in the long run for the Canadian-U.S. dollar exchange rate is examined. The primary test employed is the Johansen (1991) and Johansen and Juselius (1990) cointegration technique. The effects of dummy variables and lag specification on the statistical inference are considered, and Monte Carlo simulations based on the estimated parameters are employed. Despite the use of the longest data set yet for the Canadian case, no evidence is found in favour of the monetary exchange rate model using the Johansen procedures. This result is confirmed by several other cointegration procedures.
Past Medical, Gynecological and Pregnancy-Related History and IndependentMetabolic Syndrome Components among Menopausal Women: A HospitalBasedStudy

Abstract Objectives: Some pathological situations of female reproductive life predispose mother and offspring to higher risk of development of metabolic syndrome. Therefore, we aimed to assess relationships between all significant medical and gynecologic/pregnancy-related antecedents and metabolic syndrome components in menopausal women. Study design: During a cross-sectional study carried out from August 2014 to January 2015, medical, gynecological and pregnancy-related history was obtained from menopausal women followed for metabolic syndrome at the University of Kinshasa Hospital. Metabolic syndrome was defined as the presence of at least 3 out of 5 criteria according to harmonized definition. Using logistic regression analysis we evaluated the association between history characteristics and metabolic syndrome components (p<0.05 as significant). Results: 42 menopausal women were consecutively enrolled. Dominating characteristics were family history of hypertension (FH-HT) and diabetes mellitus (FH-DM), personal antecedents of spaniomenorrhea, pregnancyassociated urinary tract infection (UTI), premature delivery, pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIHT), gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), macrosomia, stillbirth and congenital malformations. Significant associations (OR; p) were FH-HT with abdominal obesity (6.2; 0.008) and hypertriglyceridemia (4.9; 0.018); FH-DM with abdominal obesity (55.2; 0.000), hypertriglyceridemia (12.2; 0.001) and low HDL (1.8; 0.02); spaniomenorrhea with obesity (14.8; 0.004), HBP (9.8; 0.018) and hypertriglyceridemia (12.9; 0.006). For obstetrical history the picture was: PIHT with abdominal obesity (24; 0.000) and hypertriglyceridemia (8.2; 0.008); GDM with hypertriglyceridemia (11; 0.012); premature delivery with obesity (4.3; 0.04) and HBP (13; 0.006); stillbirth with HBP (7.2; 0.048) and low HDL (12.1; 0.009); macrosomia with obesity (15.9; 0.000) and hypertriglyceridemia (6.9; 0.008). Conclusion: Apart from known medical risk factors, past spaniomenorrhea emerged as the main gynecological factor whereas premature delivery, gestational diabetes, PIHT, infant’s macrosomia, stillbirth and congenital malformations were obstetrical ones associated with components of MS. They are likely to permit early detection and management of MS.
Measuring Macroprudential Risk: Financial Fragility Indexes

With the Great Recession and the regulatory reform that followed, the search for reliable means to capture systemic risk and to detect macrofinancial problems has become a central concern. In the United States, this concern has been institutionalized through the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which has been put in charge of detecting threats to the financial stability of the nation. Based on Hyman Minsky's financial instability hypothesis, the paper develops macroeconomic indexes for three major economic sectors. The index provides a means to detect the speed with which financial fragility accrues, and its duration; and serves as a complement to the microprudential policies of regulators and supervisors. The paper notably shows, notably, that periods of economic stability during which default rates are low, profitability is high, and net worth is accumulating are fertile grounds for the growth of financial fragility.
ON COMPARING MACROECONOMIC MODELS USING FORECAST ENCOMPASSING TESTS

It is clearly of interest to macroeconomists to be able to evaluate whether one large-scale macroeconometric model ‘is better’ than another. Although comparisons between models are sometimes invidious, because the purposes for which the models were built differ, it is the case that formal comparisons of two models' statistical properties are rare. This is in spite of considerable theoretical advances in the econometric methodology, namely the development and use of non-nested and encompassing tests. Chong and Hendry (1986) advocate the use of the forecast encompassing regressions, where the outturns are regressed on competing (one-step-ahead) forecasts. This paper reports the findings of applying this rather easy-to-use method of comparing large scale macroeconometric models. The forecast data we use are those published by three macroeconometric modelling groups, namely: Liverpool; the National Institute; and The London Business School. Forecasts for up to three years ahead are published for unemployment, growth, and inflation, throughout the 1980's. Forecast encompassing tests fail to separate one model from another, based on one-year-ahead forecasts. Each model ‘wins’ once. However, the conclusions are not the same as using root-mean-square-forecast-error criteria, illustrating Clements and Hendry's (1994) observation that minimum root-mean-square-forecast-error is neither necessary nor sufficient for a model to have constant parameters, to provide accurate forecasts, or to encompass its rivals.
Outlier robust cointegration analysis

Standard unit root tests and cointegration tests are sensitive to atypical events such as outliers and structural breaks. This paper uses outlier robust estimation techniques to reduce the impact of these events on cointegration analysis. As a byproduct of computing the robust estimator, we obtain weights for all observations in the sample. These weights can be used to identify the approximate dates of the atypical events. We evaluate our method using some illustrative simulated data. Furthermore, since our robust approach involves a few additional decisions on the values of key parameters, we investigate the sensitivity of our method through extensive Monte-Carlo simulations. Finally, we present an empirical example based on real-life data to show that OLS-based cointegration tests can spuriously indicate stationarity.
Trust and economic organisation

Markets induce trust through repeat dealing and the development of reputation. Organisations economise on the use of trust through the appropriate assignment of ownership rights. Trust is not therefore simply a useful‘outside’entity which economic analysis takes for granted. The production and‘allocation’of trust are, at least partially, an outcome of the operation of the economic system. An important‘unintended consequence’of government regulation which does not attract sufficient study and comment is the implicit undermining of trust-inducing market mechanisms and organisational structures.
Collagen XVIII Is a Basement Membrane Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycan*

The present study shows that collagen XVIII is, next to perlecan and agrin, the third basal lamina heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) and the first collagen/proteoglycan with heparan sulfate side chains. By using monoclonal antibodies to an unidentified HSPG in chick, 14 cDNA clones were isolated from a chick yolk sac library. All clones had a common nucleotide sequence that was homologous to the mRNA sequences of mouse and human collagen XVIII. The deduced amino acid sequence of the chick fragment shows an 83% overall homology with the human and mouse collagen XVIII. Similar to the human and mouse homologue, the chick collagen XVIII mRNA has a size of 4.5 kilobase pairs. In Western blots, collagen XVIII appeared as a smear with a molecular mass of 300 kDa. After treatment with heparitinase, the protein was reduced in molecular mass by 120 kDa to a protein core of 180 kDa. Collagen XVIII has typical features of a collagen, such as its existence, under non-denaturing conditions, as a non-covalently linked oligomer, and a sensitivity of the core protein to collagenase digestion. It also has characteristics of an HSPG, such as long heparitinase-sensitive carbohydrate chains and a highly negative net charge. Collagen XVIII is abundant in basal laminae of the retina, epidermis, pia, cardiac and striated muscle, kidney, blood vessels, and lung. In situ hybridization showed that the main expression of collagen XVIII HSPG in the chick embryo is in the kidney and the peripheral nervous system. As a substrate, collagen XVIII moderately promoted the adhesion of Schwann cells but had no such activity on peripheral nervous system neurons and axons.
Knowledge management implementation in NTPC: an Indian PSU

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to analyse the extent, strategy and imperatives of knowledge management (KM). Design/methodology/approach – The investigation was carried out with the aid of a case study of NTPC, a navratan PSU of the government of India. This paper discusses components of the knowledge management implementation plan and the KM imperatives to achieve its strategic business objectives. Information technology has been accorded an important role in much of the contemporary knowledge management literature. When these assumptions are challenged, the role of information technology in knowledge management processes also comes into question. The paper outlines this perspective of knowledge management and examines the way it characterises knowledge sharing processes and role of information technology in creating a virtual organisation for knowledge sharing purposes.Findings – The research findings indicate that KM could improve organisational and managerial as well as the financial aspects .
Race, Class and the Allocation of Public Housing in Britain

This article uses data from surveys of public housing applicants and tenants and from an ethnographic study of the procedures of a major British housing authority to explain the reasons for racially discriminatory housing allocations. It shows how central judgments of 'respectability' are to the allocation processes of housing departments, even when, officially, allocations are based on a system of 'housing need'. We trace how class and racial factors in the wider society become invested with official or semi-official status as they are absorbed into the housing authority's rationing processes, both of a formal and a more informal nature. We advance an explanation for discriminatory allocations which emphasises on the one hand, the integration of public housing bureaucracies into an inegalitarian social totality and, on the other, the conceptual connexion between racial, class and other forms of social discrimination.
African Patrimonial Régimes in Comparative Perspective

In 1968, Guenther Roth perceptively argued the utility of using the concept of patrimonialism to analyse rulership in developing states.1 Roth described two principal types: ‘the historical survival of traditionalist regimes’, of which he saw Ethiopia as the foremost example; and the ‘personal rulership on the basis of loyalties that do not require any belief in the ruler's unique personal qualifications, but are inextricably linked to material incentives and rewards’. 2. His distinction remains apt and serves to focus our attention on two modal political forms that continue to find expression in post-independence Africa. However, these useful categories are not mutually exclusive, and need further amplification if they are to provide much insight into the rich variety of political experimentation that still goes on throughout the continent. Moreover, since the terminology is self-consciously borrowed from Max Weber, both the traditional and modern matrices of African patrimonialism need to be explored briefly lest the reference to the Weberian connection constricts rather than enlarges the analysis.
The relationship between CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in Italy

This study examines the relationship between CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in Italy over the period 1970–2006. Results of unit root tests show that all variables are non-stationary in their level form, but stationary in first differences form. The causal relationship between variables is examined using causality test in a vector autoregressive framework. Our empirical results show that CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth are not cointegrated. Moreover, the Toda and Yamamoto Granger non-causality test shows a bidirectional causality between CO2 emissions and economic growth, as well as between CO2 emissions and energy consumption. Forecast error variance decompositions evidence that the errors in real per capita GDP are mainly due to uncertainty in GDP itself, while the errors in predicting the energy consumption and the CO2 emissions are sensitive to disturbances in the other two equations.
Recent Developments in Modelling Nonstationary Vector Autoregressions

In this paper we review some recent developments in the modelling of nonstationary vector autoregressions (VARs) which we feel have great potential for furthering applied researchers understanding of the relationships linking the variables making up a VAR. The developments surveyed are the use of model determination criteria in selecting lag length, trend order and cointegrating rank, causality testing in vector error correction models, FM-VAR estimation of levels VAR, common trends and cycles analysis, permanent and transitory decompositions, impulse response asymptotics, and the links between cointegrated VARs and structural models. The techniques are illustrated by applications to the modelling of U.K. equities, dividends and interest rates. Copyright 1998 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd
Treatment of Neuropathic Pain

Neuropathic pain is a common symptom associated with peripheral neuropathy and can be as or more disabling than the effects of nerve damage from the neuropathy. Though treatment of the underlying pathophysiology causing neuropathies may not be possible, treatment of neuropathic pain is. The author reviews the major medications used, dosing schedules, and data from randomized controlled trials.
The challenges of American legal permanent residency for family- and employment-based petitioners

One of the most debated issues in contemporary immigration policy surrounds the acquisition of the ‘greencard’ or legal permanent resident status (LPR). For many migrants who enter the country on temporary visas, legal permanent residency is crucial to upward mobility and removes the looming threat of deportation and illegality. Despite this, the pathway to permanent residency for temporary visa holders who do not adjust their status due to their direct relationship with American citizens as spouses, minor children or parents is an uncertain one. After filing to adjust status, migrants often have to deal with visa backlogs and lengthy wait periods in queues which are capped by country of origin and level of demand. Official statistics document that wait times for family- and employment-based visas can span from five years to several decades keeping petitioners in long ‘probationary’ periods of uncertainty. Using data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services Performance Analysis System, and placing emphasis on the two largest immigration channels: family and employment, this article examines the total number of applications for LPR which were approved, pending and denied for the 1992–2007 fiscal years. From this, it is argued that assimilation is not only a social process but a complicated legal one. It is also suggested that lengthy wait periods in visa queues retards the incorporation of legal immigrants into the American stratification order and inhibits chances for upward mobility and incorporation.
“Asset Allocation with Hedge Funds on the Menu,” Phelim Boyle and Sun Siang Liew, October 2007

TAK KUEN SIU* It is a great pleasure to congratulate Professor Phelim Boyle and Sun Siang Liew on this stimulating and timely paper, which provides a valuable account of the asset allocation problem of an investor when hedge funds are included as investment vehicles. The results presented in this paper are of much interest to both the actuarial and the finance profession. Recently hedge funds have come under the spotlight in global financial markets with rapid growth in the hedge fund industry over the past decade in terms of both number and assets under management. This phenomenal growth has also stimulated the development of the industry of funds of hedge funds, also called funds of funds. According to Tremont Capital Management (2006), assets under management increased from around $100 billion in 1995 to close to $1 trillion by mid-2006. Hedge funds are also becoming an important investment vehicle for pension funds and insurance companies. Many pension funds and insurance companies have increased their investments in hedge funds, which offer returns not easily generated from traditional or conventional assets and provide diversification into a portfolio of conventional assets. So it is important for actuarial practitioners to gain a better and deeper understanding of the risk and return characteristics of hedge funds, and to know how to make better or rational investment decisions on hedge funds so as to enhance their risk and return profiles. It is commonly known that returns from hedge funds exhibit nonlinear behavior, which may be attributed to highly leveraged and unconventional trading strategies adopted by hedge fund managers. It has been documented empirically that hedge fund returns are not normally distributed, and they are skewed and heavy-tailed with time-varying mean and variance. Professors Boyle
Design and redesign of a quasi-market for the reintegration of jobseekers: empirical evidence from Australia and the Netherlands

Some Western countries have linked their policy on reintegrating jobseekers to far-reaching changes in the design of the system. The most striking of these is the introduction of a market system by privatizing the implementing organizations and allowing them to compete with each other and other providers. Prototypes for this development are Australia, with its Job Network (introduced in 1998), and the Netherlands, which has a privatized reintegration market (2001). The aim in introducing these market systems is twofold: to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of implementation while increasing the responsiveness of the service providers and the freedom of choice of jobseekers. In this paper we analyse the conditions for and functioning of the market arrangements in both countries from the theoretical perspective of quasi-markets. This analysis shows that the results of the introduction of market forces have so far been relatively modest. The Australian case displays significant efficiency gains, but this was partly at the expense of quality. Problems with risk selection, such as ‘cherry picking’ and ‘parking’ (problems which also affect the public systems) have still not been adequately resolved. The principle of market forces places special demands on the design and organization of the specific market arrangements.
Apartment Rents: Another Challenge to the Monocentric Model

Extension of hedonic modeling strategy to the case of apartment rents in the Dallas region reveals the influence of a complex network of activity centers and highway axes. Nodes other than the CBD exert greater influence on rents than the CBD and amenity variables and externalities have both positive and negative effects. These findings demand reevaluation of the place normally assigned to higher-density rental housing in urban models.
The Gene ti cs of Suicidal Behavior

There is consistent evidence suggesting that genetic factors play an important role in predisposition to suicidal behavior. Family, twin, and adoption studies have demonstrated that there is a genetic dimension to suicide. Although there is some overlap between suicide and mood disorders, even among psychiatric groups with the highest risk, some patients never attempt suicide, indicating the importance of a diathesis or genetic link to suicide that is independent of the underlying psychiatric disorder. Over the last 3 decades research has shown that there is a relationship between suicide, aggressiveness, and impulsivity. It is possible that genetic factors may be related to personality traits such as impulsiveness and aggressiveness, which in turn may lead to suicide attempts. An increasing number of molecular genetic studies have been carried out among cases involving suicidal behavior and candidate genes thought to be related to suicide. The most important candidate genes include the serotonin transporters (SERTs), tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH), some serotonin receptors (5HT1A, 5HT1B, and 5HT2A), catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A), and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). The aim of this review was to assess the genetic dimension of suicide behavior, both current and historical.