Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Comparison of Expected Shortfall Estimation Models

We investigate whether there is a pattern regarding the quality of several models and methods in expected shortfall (ES) estimation, considering distinct asset classes, estimation windows and significance levels. We use unconditional, conditional and quantile/expectile regression-based models. We assess the performance of the models using the usual ES backtest and a proposed test based on the dispersion truncated by VaR. A Monte Carlo experiment indicates that our test has more power than the usual tests. The empirical results emphasize several patterns, such as certain estimation models produce risk estimates more parsimonious than the others do. In addition, VaR estimation is important for ES estimation, once incorrect violation can lead to low p-values in the backtests. Moreover, small estimation windows lead to inferior ES estimation results, as well as there are distinctions in the results for different quantiles of interest. Regarding performance, there is a predominance of conditional models, especially those that respect the stylized facts of financial returns.
Educating for Democracy: Preparing Undergraduates for Responsible Political Engagement

Foreword. Preface. The Authors. Introduction. 1. Citizenship, Politics, and Civic Engagement. 2. The Role of Higher Education In Preparing Citizens. 3. The Open Inquiry Imperative. 4. Creating Environments of Open Inquiry. 5. Teaching for Political Knowledge and Understanding. 6. Teaching Democratic Participation Skills. 7. Fostering Political Motivation. 8. Learning Through Discussion and Deliberation. 9. Learning Through Political Research and Action Projects. 10. Learning Through Speakers and Mentors. 11. Learning Through Placements, Internships, and Service Learning. 12. Learning Through Structured Reflection. 13. Putting the Pieces Together. Appendix A: Course and Program Summaries. Appendix B: Survey Scales and Results. References. Index.
Research on the Nature, Characteristics, and Causes of Accounting Errors: The Need For a Multi-method Approach

Knowledge of the occurrence and detection of errors in accounting populations is of great importance to auditors in assessing risks, evaluating the efficacy of statistical sampling methods, and planning effective and efficient audit procedures to address risks. A significant body of research exists that examines these issues. Prior studies have focused primarily on auditordetected errors. A basic assumption of these studies is that detected errors are an accurate reflection of all significant errors present. That is, there are not a substantial number of undetected errors, or that undetected errors share the same characteristics (e.g., error direction) as detected errors. However, little evidence exists regarding the accuracy of this assumption. Further, there has been little consideration of factors that may affect differences between detected and actual errors and the implications of these differences on research conclusions. This paper presents a model of the variables involved in the error generation and error detection processes. Variables that have been explored in prior research are discussed along with those requiring further investigation. Finally, the paper identifies confounding variables to be controlled in future studies and makes suggestions for improving extant error study methods.
Metabolic and hormonal side effects in children and adolescents treated with second-generation antipsychotics.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate metabolic and hormonal side effects in children and adolescents after 6 months of treatment with 3 different second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs). METHOD 66 children and adolescents (44 male [66.7%], mean +/- SD age = 15.2 +/- 2.9 years) treated for 6 months with risperidone (N = 22), olanzapine (N = 20), or quetiapine (N = 24) composed the study sample. 34 patients (51.5%) suffered from schizophrenia or other psychosis (according to DSM-IV criteria). Patients were consecutively attending different programs from March 2005 to October 2006. Prior to enrollment in the study, patients were either antipsychotic-naive (37.9%, N = 25) or had been taking an antipsychotic drug for fewer than 30 days. Significant weight gain was defined as a > or = 0.5 increase in body mass index (BMI) z score (adjusted for age and gender) at 6 months. Based on recent criteria for pediatric populations, patients were considered "at risk for adverse health outcome" if they met at least 1 of the following criteria: (1) > or = 85th BMI percentile plus presence of 1 or more negative weight-related clinical outcomes, or (2) > or = 95th BMI percentile. RESULTS After the 6 months, BMI z scores increased significantly in patients receiving olanzapine and risperidone. At the 6-month follow-up, 33 patients (50.0%) showed significant weight gain. The number of patients at risk for adverse health outcome increased from 11 (16.7%) to 25 (37.9%) (p = .018). The latter increase was significant only in the olanzapine group (p = .012). Total cholesterol levels increased significantly in patients receiving olanzapine (p = .047) and quetiapine (p = .016). Treatment with quetiapine was associated with a significant decrease in free thyroxin (p = .011). CONCLUSION Metabolic and hormonal side effects of SGAs in children and adolescents should be carefully monitored when prescribing these drugs.
TEN UNORTHODOX PERSPECTIVES ON EVOLUTION PROMPTED BY COMPARATIVE POPULATION GENETIC FINDINGS ON MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

INTRODUCTION . 46 PERSPECTIVES ON GENETIC TRANSMISSION . 46 Asexual Transmission . 46 Populations within Populations . 48 MOLECULAR PERSPECTIVES . 50 Nonuniversal Code . 50 Conserved Function, Rapid Evolution . 51 Lack of Mobile Elements, lntrons, Repetitive DNA . 53 PERSPECTIVES ONINTERGENOM1C INTERACTIONS . 54 Endosymbiotic MtDNA Origins . 54 lntergenomic Conflicts of Interest . 55 lntergenomic Cooperation . 57 PHYLOGENETIC P RSPECTIVES . 57 Phylogeography and Historical Demography . 57 Gene Trees Versus Organismal Phylogenies . 60 SPECIAL CONCERNS AND RESEARCH DIRECTIONS . 62 CONCLUSION . 63
THE REPRODUCTIVE RELATIONSHIPS OF DROSOPHILA SECHELLIA WITH D. MAURITIANA, D. SIMULANS, AND D. MELANOGASTER FROM THE AFROTROPICAL REGION

Hybridization tests among the four sibling species of the Drosophila melanogaster complex were made to determine the reproductive status of the recently discovered D. sechellia (which is endemic to a few islands and islets of the Seychelles archipelago) with regard to its three close relatives, D. mauritiana (endemic to Mauritius) and Afrotropical strains of the two cosmopolitan species D. melanogaster and D. simulans. Interstrain variation in the ability to hybridize with other species was also analyzed for D. melanogaster and D. simulans. D. mauritiana and D. simulans appear to be more weakly isolated from each other than either species is from D. sechellia. A striking unilateral mating success is observed in the cross of D. sechellia with D. simulans. The most extreme isolation is between D. melanogaster and its three siblings. Variation in the ability of strains to hybridize is observed in heterospecific crosses between D. simulans and either D. melanogaster or D. mauritiana.
Nutrition of the New Zealand White rabbit

Although the rabbit has been included in this symposium on new farm animals, it appears to have been well-known in Britain for a thousand years. In a publication prepared for the British Association meeting in Edinburgh in 1951 we learn (Fenton, 1951) that the rabbit was probably introduced around Norman times. It may even have come directly to Scotland from France in the twelfth century, for during the reign of David I, good relations were known to exist between the two countries. Rabbits were kept on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth and skins were an important export. I n fact, early records suggest that skin production may have been more important than meat production. Certainly rabbits have been farmed from early times in warrens from which some inevitably escaped to provide, in later centuries, a headache for the progressive farmer and a source of income for the progressive poacher until the introduction of myxomatosis in 1954. Improved selection and breeding in recent times has produced strains which can grow at rates comparable with the modern broiler chicken. The New Zealand White strain given an adequate diet can grow at over 40 g/d between weaning and 8 weeks of age. This high rate of growth and the well-known prolificacy of the rabbit make rabbit-meat production worth considering as an alternative to red meat and poultry meat in the human diet. High biological efficiency has to be balanced in economic terms against the cost of accommodation and the intensive nature of the labour required in modern production units. During thii century the annual per capita consumption of rabbit meat in the UK rose from at least 0.6 kg, the amount imported in 1913 (Ainsworth-Davis, 1924), to 2 kg in the early 1950s (Portsmouth, 1962) and dropped to about 0.4 kg 10 years later as a result of the almost complete annihilation of the wild rabbit by myxomatosis, and a subsequent resistance by the housewife thereafter to the purchase of rabbit meat. The Commercial Rabbit Association estimates that current consumption is on the increase again, from about 0.25 kg in 1972 to 0.3 kg in 1973. Only about one-third of the 15 ooo tons now consumed annually is produced in this country, the rest being imported mainly from China. These annual per capita consumption values for the UK compare with current values of 6 kg for France, 2 kg for Italy and I kg for Germany. It has been estimated that there is an appreciable market in Europe for quality rabbit meat and producers in this country are already exporting. However, if the industry is to expand, more information is needed on the nutrition of modern strains of rabbit both during the fast-growing stage of the young meat rabbit and during the reproductive cycle of the adult.
THE ADOPTION OF IMPROVED TREE FALLOWS IN WESTERN KENYA: FARMER PRACTICES, KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTION

ABSTRACT Improved tree fallows to improve soil fertility have considerable potential in many areas of sub-Saharan Africa. This paper assesses the experiences of 99 farmers in western Kenya, following initial testing of improved fallows during 1997. Over the following three seasons, 53% of the farmers could be considered as medium adopters (planting improved fallows in one season), 26% were strong adopters (planting in at least two seasons) and 21% were non-adopters (not planting at all). The proportion of women farmers planting improved fallows was roughly the same as the proportion of men. The interest of poor and female farmers, relative to other studies showing adoption bias towards wealthy and male farmers, may reflect their limited access to other soil fertility inputs, such as mineral fertilizer and animal manure. Farmers' management of the practice differed considerably from researchers' recommendations, particularly with respect to fallow length and time of planting trees relative to crops. Improvements to both soil and crop yields were perceived as the most important benefits of improved fallows. Sesbania sesban (L.) Merrill, and Crotolaria grahamiana Wight & Arn. were the most appreciated species. A linear logistic model was used to indicate the factors associated with farmers' decisions to continue planting improved fallows following initial testing, and with the decision to plant one versus planting more than one improved fallow. A multiple linear regression model was used to assess the factors influencing the area planted to improved fallows and the proportion of farm area under improved fallows. The most important variables associated with planting improved fallows were ethnic group and proportion of area under natural fallow. Wealth status, gender, farm size, and available labour had relatively little influence on decisions to plant improved fallows. The practice is knowledge-intensive and requires seed and technical support from research and extension services.
How to read a paper: Papers that go beyond numbers (qualitative research)

Epidemiologist Nick Black has argued that a finding or a result is more likely to be accepted as a fact if it is quantified (expressed in numbers) than if it is not.1 There is little or no scientific evidence, for example, to support the well known “facts” that one couple in 10 is infertile, or that one man in 10 is homosexual. Yet, observes Black, most of us are happy to accept uncritically such simplified, reductionist, and blatantly incorrect statements so long as they contain at least one number. Researchers who use qualitative methods seek a deeper truth. They aim to “study things in their natural setting, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them,”2 and they use “a holistic perspective which preserves the complexities of human behaviour. ”1 #### Summary points Qualitative methods aim to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them Qualitative research may define preliminary questions which can then be addressed in quantitative studies A good qualitative study will address a clinical problem through a clearly formulated question and using more than one research method (triangulation) Analysis of qualitative data can and should be done using explicit, systematic, and reproducible methods Questions such as “How many parents would consult their general practitioner when their child has a mild temperature? ” or “What proportion of smokers have tried to give up? ” clearly need answering through quantitative methods. But questions like “Why do parents worry so much about their children's temperature? ” and “What stops people giving up smoking? ” cannot and should not be answered by leaping in and measuring the first aspect of the problem that we (the outsiders) think might be important. Rather, we need to listen to what people have to say, …
The onion router: Understanding a privacy enhancing technology community

Internet technologies have made mass surveillance prevalent and much easier to carry out, while at the same time making personal privacy more difficult to protect. The ubiquity of personal data processing has raised public awareness about the infringement of information privacy. To protect users' information privacy, several initiatives have been developed to provide Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). One of the most well‐known PETs is the Onion Router (Tor) network, which provides users with online anonymity. The Tor network is supported by a group of volunteers who contribute their resources to sustain the availability and quality of the service. However, Tor Volunteers may find themselves in a tough spot at times because Tor network is often monitored by law enforcement, which makes this PET community different from any other open‐source initiatives. To explore this volunteer community's motivation for providing their services despite the risks, we conducted an online survey. Our study results reveal that one of the main motivations for these volunteers is to advocate and provide privacy for online users. In addition, Tor‐relay operators report on their views about anonymous networks, the challenges they face, and how their belief in providing an opportunity for everyone to access information without interference or censorship is a key component of their volunteer participation.
Serosurveillance of HBsAG Positive Patientsin Voluntary Blood Donors

Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood or blood products from one person to another. Blood transfusion can lead to the transfer of many infectious agents which can lead to Transfusion Transmitted Diseases. HBsAg is one of such infectious diseases, which leads to Hepatitis B Infection. The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a DNA virus and a member of the hepadna family of viruses, and is a very common virus with an estimated 300 million carriers worldwide. Only 1 - 1.5 million of these are in the United States. Hepatitis B is much more prevalent in other areas of the world such as parts of Asia including Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and some of the Mediterranean countries. Hepatitis B is a major health problem worldwide and is associated with life-threatening complications. Blood Donors are needed to be screened, or else that might make the donation unsafe for the recipient. In the present study among 8299 blood donors screened, the overall seroprevalence of HBsAg is observed to be 0.69%. 56 are male patients and remaining two is females. The seroprevalence rate in males and females is found to be 0.72% and 0.381% respectively. 58 donors had repeatedly reactive serologic test for HBsAg. It was found that 12.02% (7/58) patients were hospital staffs.
IS-ASGD: Importance Sampling Accelerated Asynchronous SGD on Multi-Core Systems

Parallel SGD (PSGD) algorithm has been broadly used to accelerate the stochastic optimization tasks. However its scalability is severely limited by the synchronization between threads. Asynchronous SGD (ASGD) algorithm is then proposed to increase PSGD's scalability by allowing non-synchronized model updates. In practical, lock-free ASGD is preferable since it requires no lock operations on the concurrent update of the global model and thus achieves optimal scalability. It also maintains almost the same convergence bound if certain conditions (convexity, continuity and sparsity) are met. With the success of lock-free ASGD, researchers developed its variance reduction (VR) variants, i.e., VR-integrated lock-free ASGD to achieve superior convergence bound. We noted that the VR techniques that have been studied in lock-free ASGD context are all variance-reduced-gradient based such as SVRG, SAGA, etc. Unfortunately, the estimation of variance-reduced-gradient needs to calculate the full gradient periodically and doubles the computation cost at each iteration which decreases the scalability of ASGD to a very large extent. On the other hand, importance sampling (IS) as another elegant and practical VR technique has not been studied nor implemented in conjunction with lock-free ASGD. One important advantage of IS is that, not like variance-reduced-gradient VR algorithms, IS algorithm achieves the goal of VR through weighted sampling which does not introduce any extra on-line computation and thus preserves the original scalability of ASGD. We are thus motivated to study the application of IS in lock-free ASGD and propose our IS-ASGD algorithm to achieve a superior convergence bound while maintaining the original high scalability of ASGD. We also conduct experimental evaluations that verify the effectiveness of IS-ASGD algorithm with datasets that are popularly adopted in relative researches.
Hepatocellular carcinoma and liver transplantation: Entering the area after the Milan and University of California at San Francisco criteria?

Hepatitis B and C viruses yield carcinogenic effects and cause hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is becoming one of the most challenging health problems in many countries. Although new promising strategies for liver resection have been developed recently, liver transplantation remains the only cure for HCC in many cases, particularly because of the severe underlying liver disease and presence of portal hypertension. Additionally, HCC is often multifocal, and thus total hepatectomy followed by orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) remains the best rational approach. Two obstacles hamper the “unrestricted” therapy of HCC with transplantation. First, the necessary immunosuppression may lead to a rapid and aggressive tumor recurrence in patients with an advanced disease. Second, the chronic imbalance between the increasing number of candidates for liver transplantation and the limited organ supply has made it necessary to limit OLT to patients with a good prognosis. Over many years, most centers and national policymakers of organ allocation have applied the restrictive selection criteria reported in 1996 by Mazzaferro et al., who demonstrated a 4-year survival rate of 75%. Mazzaferro et al. defined in their study the so-called “Milan criteria,” which limit OLT to patients presenting with a single HCC less than 5 cm in diameter or 2 to 3 lesions less than 3 cm in diameter (Table 1). In recent years, several groups from different countries have challenged these restrictive criteria. A group from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) retrospectively analyzed 2000 patients presenting with a single tumor less than 6.5 cm in diameter or 2 lesions less than 4.5 cm in diameter with a total tumor diameter less than 8 cm. They reported an astonishing 5-year patient survival of 75%. The same group published in 2007 the results of a prospective validation study of 168 patients who met the UCSF criteria on pretransplant imaging. The results confirmed their initial observation; for example, the 38 patients who exceeded the Milan criteria but met the UCSF criteria had a 5-year recurrence-free probability of 93.6%. The group from The University of California, Los Angeles, CA, reviewed their 22-year experience with 467 patients with HCC who underwent an OLT. In this large series, patients meeting the Milan criteria had 5-year survival comparable to that of patients respecting the UCSF criteria, whereas those presenting tumors beyond UCSF criteria had significantly lower 5-year survival. A plea for expanded criteria came also from the International Registry of Hepatic Tumors in Liver Transplantation, from which data from 1206 transplant recipients with HCC were available. In this report, patients with 2 to 4 tumors less than 5 cm or single lesions less than 6 cm had recurrence-free survival equivalent to that of patients presenting with HCC within the Milan
REGULATION OF BACTERIAL GROWTH EFFICIENCY IN A LARGE TURBID ESTUARY

Bacterial secondary production transforms organic C from the environment into new bacterial biomass. Bacterial respiration generates energy and converts assimilated organic C into COz. Two decades of research have given us a good understanding of the magnitude and regulation of bacterial production in pelagic ecosystems, but much less is known about bacterial respiration. Bacterial growth efficiency [BGE = BP/(BP + BR)] relates measurements of bactenal production and respiration. Recent reviews demonstrate a large range in BGE among and within systems; the regulation of this variance is not well understood. We made direct measurements of both BP and BR over a full seasonal cycle in the Hudson River, New York, and in a series of manipulative experiments. BGE was well correlated with BP and ranged from 0.04 to 0.66, with a majority (69%) between 0.2 and 0.5. BR and BP were correlated (r = 0.65; p < 0.0001) but BR was less variable than BP. Thus, much of the variation in BGE could be explained by the vanation in BP. The relationship (based on 24 h bioassays) between BP and BGE fit a rectdinear hyperbola [BGE = 0.10 + 0.68BP(5.21 + BP)] and explained 70% of the variation in BGE (p < 0.001). During the relatively long incubation (24 h) r equred to measure BR, conditions diverge from ambient. BP, BR and BGE all increase during this incubation period. We used the relationships between BGE and BP and BR (above) to calculate realistic ambient estimates of BGE from short-term measurements ( < l h) of BP. Based on this approach, modeled BGE for the Hudson averaged 0.16 2 0.05 (range = 0.07 to 0.23), about 50% lower than the values based on 24 h bioassays. Using thls relationship we estimate pelagic BR in the tidal, freshwater Hudson River to be between 176 and 229 g C m-' yr-'.