Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Volatility index and the return–volatility relation: Intraday evidence from Chinese options market

We use unique intraday data to investigate the validity of the Shanghai Stock Exchange's the revised Chinese implied volatility index (iVX). We find that iVX is an effective barometer for the underlying exchange‐traded fund (ETF) market and can be used as a valid “fear index” when there is anxiety over large drops. Furthermore, we use robust quantile regressions and document the asymmetric relation between returns and iVX changes. We also show that behavioral theories offer better explanations for this asymmetric relation than do fundamental theories. More important, we examine the role of iVX in selecting trading strategies.
On-wafer passives de-embedding based on open-pad and Transmission Line measurement

In this paper, a new de-embedding technique based on open-pad and Transmission Line (TL) measurement is discussed. This technique can be used as an alternative to the conventional de-embedding approaches in order to characterize on-chip passives in the millimeter wave range of frequencies. Using open-pad measurement, parallel parasitics are extracted and removed in the first step. Cross-talk parasitics between two pads that are kept at a constant distance can be assumed constant, and thus both cross-talk and parallel parasitics can be removed. Subsequently, the transfer function matrix of a single-ended TL is used to de-embed series parasitics from the measurement results. The measurement results are in a close agreement with the simulations up to 110 GHz.
Dynamic Neural Networks to Generate Robotics Trajectories

Questo lavoro presenta reti neurali artificiali in grado di generare traiettorie di stato dalla mappatura degli stati spaziali di una data struttura. I modelli focalizzati sono quelli delle reti neurali non supervisionate, come Growing Neural Gas (GNG), (Fritzke), Gow When Required (GWR), (Marsland); e una nuova rete di topologia dinamica denominata State Trajectory Generator (STRAGEN Offline e STRAGEN Online), (Benante). Quest'ultimo modello, proposto da Benante, e un contributo importante per mappare lo spazio della dinamica dei robot, rendendo possibili generazioni di traiettorie. I modelli consentono l'utilizzo di diversi criteri per sintetizzare una traiettoria ideale in base all'area di interesse dei diversi attributi che lo stesso dominio puo presentare. Ogni modello funziona in tre fasi: Formazione, Generazione traiettoria e Fase di convalida degli errori, ad eccezione di STRAGEN Off-line, che ha una fase di potatura aggiuntiva, eseguita prima della fase di generazione della traiettoria. Questi strumenti vengono utilizzati per calcolare le prestazioni dei robot e per implementare ed eseguire traiettorie ottimizzate di robot. Simulazioni e risultati per domini robotici (con un braccio robot bidimensionale e un manipolatore robotico PUMA 560) sono considerati alla fine come esempi di domini diversi.
Estudo de segurança nos principais protocolos da Internet das Coisas

From an introductory observation of the central security and privacy issues in the Internet of Things, the main protocols in this paradigm are studied, taking in consideration their security mechanisms and vulnerabilities. The study continues with a revision of such protocols, providing a brief analysis of each protocol’s state in terms of security and, at the end, a summary of what was presented in explanatory tables. In the future, the study shall be updated with new reported vulnerabilities and other protocols that might acquire relevance in the IoT scenario, in such a way that the produced material remains updated as a reference for those involved with IoT.
Effects of gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog therapy on adult stature in precocious puberty

P RECOCIOUS puberty has been, somewhat arbitrarily, defined as the development of secondary sex characteristics before 8 yr of age in girls and before 9 yr of age in boys (1,2). The premature secretion of gonadal steroids in children results in the paradox of tall stature during childhood due to an accelerated rate of linear growth, but eventual short stature as an adult due to early fusion of the epiphyseal growth plates (l-7). In the past, therapy with progestational agents, such as medroxyprogesterone acetate or cyproterone acetate, resulted in suppression of the secretion of pituitary gonadotropic hormones, prevention of menstruation in girls, control of aggressive behavior in boys, and either arrest or regression of secondary sex characteristics (4-7). However, the effects of those drugs on adult stature were minimal (4-7). The isolation and subsequent synthesis of GnRH in the early 1970s allowed for the subsequent development of agonists and antagonists of GnRH. In general, amino acid substitution in position 6 or 10 results in an agonist analog, whereas modification of positions 2 or 3 results in an antagonistic analog (8). The observation that continuous exposure to long-acting GnRH agonist analogs results in desensitization of gonadotropin-secreting cells led to clinical trials with several agonists for the treatment of precocious puberty. This review will summarize the published experience with the use of GnRH agonist analogs for the treatment of precocious puberty with emphasis on the effects on adult stature. In addition, historical data on the final heights of untreated patients and patients treated with progestational agents are reviewed for comparison.
A review about the impact of multiple sclerosis on health-related quality of life

Purpose: There is increasing recognition that the global wellbeing of patients with chronic neurological disease is an important outcome in research and clinical practice alike. Many studies involving individuals with multiple sclerosis have demonstrated that the overall wellbeing is not a simple manifestation of impairment or disability. The strongest correlations with health-related quality of life appear to be patient rated emotional adjustment to illness and patient rated handicap. In recent years, health-related quality of life questionnaires that measure the physical, social, emotional, and occupational impact of illness have been developed and validated in populations with MS. Most questionnaires are now available in a range of languages. This development is likely to lead to increasing recognition of neuropsychiatric complications of MS in clinical practice and better quantification of treatment responses in clinical trials. Conclusion: Further work is required to decide which scale is most suited to which purpose. Assessment of multiple sclerosis-specific health-related quality of life should be included in future clinical trials to provide a complete picture of patients' health status.
Drivers and consequences of Green supply chain management: An empirical examination

Increasing institutional and technical pressures have caused enterprises to expand their focus into their green supply chain management in response to numerous interrelated economic, environmental and social challenges such as commodity prices, energy prices, climate change, increased environmental pollution, demand for transparency, and consumer awareness. This research is intended to empirically deepen our understanding of the drivers of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices and the environmental and economic performance of GSCM implementation in Chinese firms. This study confirms that (1) both internal and external drivers play a significant role in the implementation of GSCM practices; (2) green purchase and investment recovery have a significant impact on firms' environmental and economic performance; (3) with the improvement of the firms' environmental performance, their economic performance will improve.
Transfer of Spatial Information from a Virtual to a Real Environment

Participants explored either a real multistory building or a to-scale computer simulation of the same building. Following exploration, we assessed their knowledge of the spatial properties of the environment. Participants in a control group were asked to complete the same assessment tasks without the opportunity to explore either the real building or the computer simulation. Spatial knowledge was assessed using four measures: pointing to objects not directly visible from the test site, Euclidean distance estimates, route distance estimates, and drawings of the building. Transfer of learning from the simulation to the real environment was evident. Pointing to objects not visible from the test site proved to be the most sensitive measure; map-drawing accuracy was very similar to pointing accuracy. However, some other measures did not distinguish the estimates of control participants from the group that explored the real building.
Women’s reasons for choosing abortion method: A systematic literature review

Aims: We aim to describe and classify reasons behind women’s choice between medical and surgical abortion. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted in PubMed and PsycINFO in October 2015. The subjects were women in early pregnancy opting for abortion at clinics or hospitals in high-income countries. We extracted women’s reasons for choice of abortion method and analysed these qualitatively, looking at main reasons for choosing either medical or surgical abortion. Results: Reasons for choice of method were classified to five main groups: technical nature of the intervention, fear of complications, fear of surgery or anaesthesia, timing and sedation. Reasons for selecting medical abortion were often based on the perception of the method being ‘more natural’ and the wish to have abortion in one’s home in addition to fear of complications. Women who opted for surgical abortion appreciated the quicker process, viewed it as the safer option, and wished to avoid pain and excess bleeding. Reasons were often based on emotional reactions, previous experiences and a lack of knowledge about the procedures. Some topics such as pain or excess bleeding received little attention. Overall the quality of the studies was low, most studies were published more than 10 years ago, and the generalisability of the findings was poor. Conclusion: Women did not base their choice of abortion method only on rational information from professionals but also on emotions and especially fears. Support techniques for a more informed choice are needed. Recent high-quality studies in this area are lacking.
[Standards, options and recommendations for the management of procedure-related pain (lumbar puncture, bone marrow aspiration or biopsy, blood sampling) in children patients with cancer (summary report)].

CONTEXT The Standards, Options and Recommendations (SOR) project, started in 1993, is a collaboration between the Federation of French Cancer Centres (FNCLCC), the 20 French cancer centres, and specialists from French public universities, general hospitals and private clinics. The main objective is the development of clinical practice guidelines to improve the quality of health care and the outcome of cancer patients. The methodology is based on a literature review and critical appraisal by a multidisciplinary group of experts, with feedback from specialists in cancer care delivery. OBJECTIVES To establish the Standards, Options and Recommendations clinical practice guidelines for the management of procedure related pain (lumbar puncture, bone marrow aspiration or biopsy, blood sampling) in children oncology patients. To define, on the basis of the critical appraisal of the best available evidence and expert agreement, the clinical situations in which a pain preventive strategy should be implemented. METHODS MEDLINE was searched using specific search strategies from January 1966 to August 2004. Literature monitoring was performed to identify controlled clinical trials published in 2005. RESULTS A total of 57 references were identified. Clinical guidelines have been defined for each invasive procedure.
Improving Sonar Performance in Shallow Water Using Adaptive Beamforming

Multipath propagation degrades the performance of active, bottom-imaging sonars in shallow-water environments. One way to avoid multipath interference is to use a vertical array with a narrow enough angular response to separate the direct bottom return from the multipath. However, this requires a large array and is often infeasible for practical reasons. In this study, we focus on the use of adaptive beamforming on the receiver side to reduce multipath interference and hence improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Using a small, dense receiver array, we apply classical and adaptive beamformers to real data collected by the NATO Undersea Research Centre in a shallow-water environment. Our results show that the adaptive minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer offers an improvement in the estimated SNR compared to a conventional beamformer in most cases. However, the MVDR beamformer is suboptimal when the receiver consists of only a few elements. We propose using the low complexity adaptive (LCA) beamformer, which is based on the same optimization criteria as the MVDR beamformer, but is robust in a coherent environment without the need for spatial smoothing. For two to 4-element receivers, we observe an improvement of about 0.5-2.5 dB in the estimated SNR when using the LCA beamformer. In cases where the model indicates that the direct bottom return and the dominating multipath arrive from nearly the same angle, little or no improvement is observed. This is typically the case for first- or second-order multipaths reflected off the seafloor toward the receiver. The results from this study also show that with a small vertical array, a narrow mainlobe width is more important than low sidelobe levels, in terms of maximizing the SNR. Consequently, an unweighted conventional beamformer performs better than a conventional beamformer with a Hanning window applied for sidelobe suppression.
Patient reminder systems and asthma medication adherence: a systematic review

Abstract Objective: One of the most common reasons for medication non-adherence for asthma patients is forgetfulness. Daily medication reminder system interventions in the form of text messages, automated phone calls and audiovisual reminder devices can potentially address this problem. The aim of this review was to assess the effectiveness of reminder systems on patient daily asthma medication adherence. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which assessed the effect of reminder systems on daily asthma medication adherence. We searched all English-language articles in Pub Med (MEDLINE), CINAHL, EMBASE, PsychINFO and the Cochrane Library through May 2013. We abstracted data on the year of study publication, location, inclusion and exclusion criteria, patient characteristics, reminder system characteristics, effect on patient adherence rate and other outcomes measured. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the characteristics and results of the studies. Results: Five RCTs and one pragmatic RCT were included in the analysis. Median follow-up time was 16 weeks. All of the six studies suggested that the reminder system intervention was associated with greater levels of participant asthma medication adherence compared to those participants in the control group. None of the studies documented a change in asthma-related quality of life or clinical asthma outcomes. Conclusion: All studies in our analysis suggest that reminder systems increase patient medication adherence, but none documented improved clinical outcomes. Further studies with longer intervention durations are needed to assess effects on clinical outcomes, as well as the sustainability of effects on patient adherence.
Risk of thrombolysis-associated intracerebral hemorrhage: the need to compare apples with apples.

To the Editor: We read with interest the dose-escalation safety study of tenecteplase (TNK) within 3 hours of stroke.1 Both this study and the pilot study of desmoteplase within 3 to 9 hours2 clearly demonstrate that higher doses of thrombolytic agents have increased rates of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH). Moreover, both studies revisit a hypothesis considered, but never tested with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA), that lower thrombolytic doses may provide comparable efficacy with less sICH risk. Lower rtPA doses (<0.9 mg/kg) were never adequately tested for their risk/benefit profiles in stroke patients. The initial rtPA pilot trial, in 1987, used 0.35 (n=6), 0.60 (n=12), 0.85 (n=30), 0.95 (n=25), and 1.08 mg/kg (n=1) within 90 minutes after stroke.3 Notably similar to the desmoteplase and TNK pilot studies, no sICHs were seen …
Plasma homocysteine levels in depression and schizophrenia in South Indian Tamilian population

Context: Hyperhomocysteinemia has been associated with psychiatric diseases in non-Indian populations. Objectives: We aimed to determine if total plasma Homocysteine (Hcys) is associated with schizophrenia or depression in South Indian Tamil patients and if so, to correlate their severity and phenomenology to Hcys levels. Settings and Design: 40 patients each with schizophrenia and depression and 40 healthy controls were recruited from the psychiatry department of a quaternary referral centre. Association between Hcys and psychiatric disorders was determined using a Case- control design. Hcys levels were correlated with age, gender and severity and duration of the disease by appropriate statistical methods using SPSS17. Materials and Methods: Schizophrenia and depression were defined using ICD10 DCR version. Severity of depression was assessed by Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and that of schizophrenia using Positive and Negative Schizophrenia scales (PANSS). Hcys levels were determined using automated chemiluminiscence immunoassay (74-76). Statistical Analysis: Differences between the mean values of plasma homocysteine levels among schizophrenia, depression and control groups were compared using analysis of variants. The association between the severity and duration of schizophrenia and depression and the plasma homocysteine levels were determine using Pearson correlation. Conclusions: In Tamilian population, schizophrenia and depression are associated with total plasma Hcys levels which correlated with the duration and severity of psychosis.
Development of digital bathymetry maps for Lakes Azuei and Enriquillo using sonar and remote sensing techniques

This article presents an improved algorithm for optimization and development of a digital bathymetric model (DBM) for Lake Azuei (LA) (Haiti) and Lake Enriquillo (LE) (Dominican Republic) using the ANUDEM method. Both sonar data and contour lines of the lakes’ layout extracted using Landsat imagery were compiled for bathymetry development. We show that the performance of the ANUDEM method was strongly dependent on the density and irregularity of the spatial distribution of the data. Changing the resolution of the output grids and deriving auxiliary topographically corrected contours improved the ANUDEM performance and minimized the systematic errors of the method. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference between measured and interpolated depths, characterized by a root mean square error of less than 0.71 m (LE) and 0.96 m (LA), and a median difference of −0.009 m (LE) and 0.012 m (LA) on average. The shape reliability analysis revealed a relationship between accuracy and the depth and slope values, increasing in the center of the lakes where they are deep and the slope is gentle.
Technology, diet, and the burden of chronic disease.

FROM AN EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE, FOOD IS EITHER difficult to get or difficult to eat. Humans lack the strength and speed of large carnivores and the specialized digestive track of herbivores. Indeed, the diet of early hominids was mostly limited to fruits and insects. For this reason, humans have long strived to develop technologies to improve food availability, digestibility, safety, transportability, and storage life. However, the rate of change in food technology has greatly accelerated, with major implications to human nutrition and health.
Measuring Information Quality in the Web Context: A Survey of State-of-the-Art Instruments and an Application Methodology

Various powerful instruments exist today to evaluate information quality in the web context. They can be categorized into five types of tools, namely performance monitoring systems, site analyzers, traffic analyzers, web mining tools and survey tools (to generate opinion-based user feedback). The combined use of these tools can enable an organization to measure the multiple dimensions of information quality in the Internet or Intranet context. This however requires a clear methodology that is based on systematic sequential steps and on an information quality framework that outlines relevant measurement criteria. In this paper we show which information quality criteria can be measured with the help of these tools and we provide an overview on the most important of these instruments. We present the IQM-methodology to match information quality criteria with adequate measurement tools.
Product Units: A Computationally Powerful and Biologically Plausible Extension to Backpropagation Networks

We introduce a new form of computational unit for feedforward learning networks of the backpropagation type. Instead of calculating a weighted sum this unit calculates a weighted product, where each input is raised to a power determined by a variable weight. Such a unit can learn an arbitrary polynomial term, which would then feed into higher level standard summing units. We show how learning operates with product units, provide examples to show their efficiency for various types of problems, and argue that they naturally extend the family of theoretical feedforward net structures. There is a plausible neurobiological interpretation for one interesting configuration of product and summing units.
Measuring the impact of regional export promotion: The Spanish case*

This article estimates the effect of Spanish regional trade agencies abroad on exports using the gravity model. The results indicate that regional agencies increase trade. The estimated impact seems to be larger than that of Spanish embassies and consulates. Moreover, a disaggregated analysis shows that this effect is not evenly distributed across Spanish regions. Copyright (c) 2007 the author(s).
Integrated production distribution problem in a partial backorder and order refusal environment

An integrated production distribution problem in an environment of only order refusal and backorder and order refusal is studied in this work. Plant side capacity and storage restrictions are also considered in this analysis. The effect of this consideration on the supply chain profit is investigated. The model considers fixed cost, setup cost, and core demand. The complexity of the integrated production and distribution planning problems are empirically studied using this model. It is identified that the increase in the number of products increases the complexity than the increase in the number of retailers. Further a sensitivity analysis is carried out to assess the capability of the model.