Employment Protection Legislation and Labor Markets in Transition: Assessing the Effects of the Labor Code in Armenia

The effects of employment protection legislation (EPL) on a country's labor market are clear in theory but empirical evidence is only starting to catch up. In particular, EPL is not robust as an indicator of overall unemployment, but previous panel data analyses have shown it affects the flow of workers into and out of employment. Examining monthly and quarterly data from Armenia, I find that the country's package of EPL has this same effect, and worker flows have slowed under the country's new Labor Code. The paradox of where Armenia's workforce is going still remains but can be hypothesized as entering the informal sector.employment protection legislation, labor markets, transition

Relationship between tonic and phasic craving for alcohol.

BackgroundMultiple measures are utilized to assess alcohol craving, often interchangeably. Little is known about the relationship between tonic and phasic craving. This study fills this gap in the literature by examining the association between tonic levels of alcohol craving and phasic craving for alcohol that is provoked by alcohol administration.MethodsForty-three non-treatment seeking problem drinkers underwent an initial interview and two laboratory testing sessions, where either alcohol or a saline placebo was administered intravenously. Tonic craving was assessed via the Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS) and Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS) at the initial interview. Phasic craving was assessed during the laboratory sessions (i.e., alcohol and saline administrations, single blinded) at baseline and at 3 subsequent breath alcohol concentrations (0.02, 0.04, and 0.06 g/dl).ResultsThere was a main effect of PACS in predicting phasic craving across both saline and alcohol administration conditions (p < 0.05). The OCDS was predictive of phasic craving when alcohol, but not saline, was administered (p = 0.058); the obsessive subscale (p = 0.01), but not the compulsive subscale (p > 0.10), predicted phasic craving during alcohol, as compared to saline administration.ConclusionIn sum, tonic craving captured by the OCDS was predictive of phasic craving during alcohol administration whereas the PACS more generally captured the increase in phasic craving. Therefore, these measures of tonic craving may function differently in capturing the experience of phasic craving. Implications for the utilization of the PACS and OCDS as well as assessments of craving in alcoholism research are discussed

Machine Learning for Hand Gesture Classification from Surface Electromyography Signals

Classifying hand gestures from Surface Electromyography (sEMG) is a process which has applications in human-machine interaction, rehabilitation and prosthetic control. Reduction in the cost and increase in the availability of necessary hardware over recent years has made sEMG a more viable solution for hand gesture classification. The research challenge is the development of processes to robustly and accurately predict the current gesture based on incoming sEMG data. This thesis presents a set of methods, techniques and designs that improve upon evaluation of, and performance on, the classification problem as a whole. These are brought together to set a new baseline for the potential classification. Evaluation is improved by careful choice of metrics and design of cross-validation techniques that account for data bias caused by common experimental techniques. A landmark study is re-evaluated with these improved techniques, and it is shown that data augmentation can be used to significantly improve upon the performance using conventional classification methods. A novel neural network architecture and supporting improvements are presented that further improve performance and is refined such that the network can achieve similar performance with many fewer parameters than competing designs. Supporting techniques such as subject adaptation and smoothing algorithms are then explored to improve overall performance and also provide more nuanced trade-offs with various aspects of performance, such as incurred latency and prediction smoothness. A new study is presented which compares the performance potential of medical grade electrodes and a low-cost commercial alternative showing that for a modest-sized gesture set, they can compete. The data is also used to explore data labelling in experimental design and to evaluate the numerous aspects of performance that must be traded off

Convergence between the Penn Alcohol Craving Scale and diagnostic interview for the assessment of alcohol craving.

IntroductionThe Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS) is one of the most widely used instruments to measure craving for alcohol. Recent research has suggested that scores on the PACS can be used as a "stand in" for the diagnostic criterion of alcohol craving with a proposed cutoff of >20 on the PACS indicating a "positive" alcohol craving symptom. The present study examined the convergence between the PACS and face-to-face diagnostic interview for the assessment of alcohol craving.MethodA sample of non-treatment seeking heavy drinkers (N = 338) enrolled in experimental studies of AUD completed the PACS as well as a face-to-face diagnostic interview for AUD, which included the craving item from the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA).ResultsUsing the PACS cut-off score of >20, 12.9% (N = 43) of the sample met criteria for alcohol craving compared to 21% (N = 74) of the sample meeting criteria based on the diagnostic interview. Using the PACS cutoff of >20, sensitivity (i.e., true positive rate) was 41% and specificity (i.e., true negative rate) was 95%. Exploratory analyses suggested that a cut-off score of ≥15 achieved the optimal balance of sensitivity (67%) and specificity (81%) in our sample.ConclusionsAdvancing the assessment of alcohol craving and the conversion from DSM-IV to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria represents an important research direction. The present study recommends that a PACS score cut off of ≥15 should be used as an indicator of clinically significant alcohol craving in community samples of non-treatment seekers

Firm-Level and Institutional Determinants of Corporate Capital Structure in Poland

This paper discusses how well major capital structure theories incorporate firm-level and institutional factors into short-term firm financing decisions in a specific context, that of a transition economy. Using a new dataset of non-financial companies quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange between 2007-2015, we argue that neither the trade-off nor the pecking order theories fully explain corporate debt policies in Poland. The results of dynamic panel data modelling highlight the importance of the strength of property rights and stock market capitalisation as driving forces behind corporate financing decisions

Firm-level and institutional determinants of corporate capital structure in Poland: New evidence from the Warsaw stock exchange

This paper discusses how well major capital structure theories incorporate firm-level and institutional factors into short-term firm financing decisions in a specific context, that of a transition economy. Using a new dataset of non-financial companies quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange between 2007-2015, we argue that neither the trade-off nor the pecking order theories fully explain corporate debt policies in Poland. The results of dynamic panel data modelling highlight the importance of the strength of property rights and stock market capitalisation as driving forces behind corporate financing decisions

Person-specific gesture set selection for optimised movement classification from EMG signals

© 2016 IEEE.Movement classification from electromyography (EMG) signals is a promising vector for improvement of human computer interaction and prosthetic control. Conventional work in this area typically makes use of expert knowledge to select a set of movements a priori and then design classifiers based around these movements. The disadvantage of this approach is that different individuals might have different sets of movements that would lead to high classification accuracy. The novel approach we take here is to instead use a data-driven diagnostic test to select a set of person-specific movements. This new approach leads to an optimised set of movements for a specific person with regards to classification performance

The Price of Empire: Unrest Location and Sovereign Risk in Tsarist Russia

Research on politically motivated unrest and sovereign risk overlooks whether and how unrest location matters for sovereign risk in geographically extensive states. Intuitively, political violence in the capital or nearby would seem to directly threaten the state's ability to pay its debts. However, it is possible that the effect on a government could be more pronounced the farther away the violence is, connected to the longer-term costs of suppressing rebellion. We use Tsarist Russia to assess these differences in risk effects when unrest occurs in Russian homeland territories versus more remote imperial territories. Our analysis of unrest events across the Russian imperium from 1820 to 1914 suggests that unrest increases risk more in imperial territories. Echoing current events, we find that unrest in Ukraine increases risk most. The price of empire included higher costs in projecting force to repress unrest and retain the confidence of the foreign investors financing those costs.Comment: 13 Tables, 8 Figure