Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Liquidity in Asset Pricing: The Special Case of the Portuguese Stock Market

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine the role of liquidity in asset pricing in a tiny market, such as the Portuguese. The unique setting of the Lisbon Stock Exchange with regards to changes in classification from an emerging to a developed stock market, allows an original answer to whether changes in the development of the market affect the role of liquidity in asset pricing. Design/methodology/approach – The authors propose and compare two alternative implications of liquidity in asset pricing: as a desirable characteristic of stocks and as a source of systematic risk. In contrast to prior research for major stock markets, they use the proportion of zero returns which is an appropriated measure of liquidity in tiny markets and propose the separated effects of illiquidity in a capital asset pricing model framework over the whole sample period as well as in two sub-samples, depending on the change in classification of the Portuguese market, from an emerging to a developed one. Findings – The overall results of the study show that individual illiquidity affects Portuguese stock returns. However, in contrast to previous evidence from other markets, they show that the most traded stocks (hence the most liquid stocks) exhibit larger returns. In addition, they show that the illiquidity effects on stock returns were higher and more significant in the period from January 1988 to November 1997, during which the Portuguese stock market was still an emerging market. Research limitations/implications – These findings are relevant for investors when they make their investment decisions and for market regulators because they reflect the need of improving the competitiveness of the Portuguese stock market. Additionally, these findings are a challenge for academics because they exhibit the need for providing alternative theories for tiny markets such as the Portuguese one. Practical implications – The results have important implications for individual and institutional investors who can take into account the peculiar effect of liquidity in stock returns to make proper investment decision. Originality/value – The Portuguese market provides a natural experimental area to analyse the role of liquidity in asset pricing, because it is a tiny market and during the period studied it changed from an emerging to a developed stock market. Moreover, the authors have to highlight that previous evidence almost exclusively focuses on the US and major European stock markets, whereas studies for the Portuguese one are scarce. In this context, the study provides an alternativemethodological approach with results that differ from those theoretically expected. Thus, these findings are a challenge for academics and open a theoretical and a practical debate.
Optimal filtering for partially measured polynomial system states

In this paper, the optimal filtering problem for polynomial systems with partially measured linear part over linear observations is treated proceeding from the general expression for the stochastic Ito differential of the optimal estimate and the error variance. As a result, the Ito differentials for the optimal estimate and error variance corresponding to the stated filtering problem are first derived. The procedure for obtaining a closed system of the filtering equations for any polynomial state with partially measured linear part over linear observations with delay is then established, which yields the explicit closed form of the filtering equations in the particular case of a bilinear system state. In the example, performance of the designed optimal filter is verified for a quadratic-linear state with unmeasured linear part over linear observations against the conventionally designed extended Kalman-Bucy filter.
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES THE LONG TERM IMPACTS OF GRANTS ON POVERTY: 9-YEAR EVIDENCE FROM UGANDA'S YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES PROGRAM

In 2008, Uganda granted hundreds of small groups $400/person to help members start individual skilled trades. Four years on, an experimental evaluation found grants raised earnings by 38% (Blattman, Fiala, Martinez 2014). We return after 9 years to find these start-up grants acted more as a kick-start than a lift out of poverty. Grantees' investment leveled off; controls eventually increased their incomes through business and casual labor; and so both groups converged in employment, earnings, and consumption. Grants had lasting impacts on assets, skilled work, and possibly child health, but had little effect on mortality, fertility, health or education. Christopher Blattman Harris School of Public Policy The University of Chicago 1155 E 60th St. Chicago, IL 60637 and NBER blattman@uchicago.edu Nathan Fiala University of Connecticut 1376 Storrs Rd Unit 4021 Storrs, CT 06269 nathan.fiala@uconn.edu Sebastian Martinez Inter American Development Bank smartinez@iadb.org A randomized controlled trials registry entry is available at https://www.socialscienceregistry. org/trials/2187
The Effects of Industry Type, Company Size and Performance on Chinese Companies’ IC Disclosure: A Research Note

This paper examines the effects of industry type, firm size and corporate performance on intellectual capital (IC) disclosure among Chinese (mainland) companies. It was found that industry type did not have a significant influence on IC reporting practices of Chinese firms; the larger firms generally reported more IC information than the relatively smaller firms; and there was a positive relationship between corporate performance and IC disclosure. This paper contributes to fairly limited literature regarding the associations between the level of IC disclosure and a variety of relevant impact factors, in particular in the Chinese mainland context. In addition, the findings of this research provide some references for policy-makers while developing an IC reporting framework applicable to the Chinese environment.
Biochemical characteristics of sediment and benthic macrofauna community of organic waste dumpsites : Assessment of sediment quality of a lagoon system *

This study evaluates the environmental quality of sediment of a lagoon system through biochemical and macrofauna parameters. The Lagos Lagoons is under serious environmental perturbation arising from inefficient waste management system in the metropolitan city of Lagos. Direct discharge of untreated wastes into the lagoon systems threatens the ecological integrity of the environment. Six months sampling and analysis of sediment samples collected from five waste dump sites in the Lagos Lagoon were used for this study. Range of values recorded for biochemical parameters investigated were 0.49 – 2.9% for protein, 0.17 3.23% for lipids, and 0.4 – 4.21% for carbohydrate. The overall pattern demonstrated by values obtained for the variables was carbohydrate > protein> lipids. Sediment moisture varied between 68.37 and 99.24%. A total of 243 individuals of benthic macrofauna comprising three phyla, eight classes, eight genera and eight species were enumerated. The phylum mollusca constituted 79.0% of the total macrobenthic population sampled while the phyla annelida and arthropoda constituted 9.5% and 11.5% respectively. Of all the species recorded, P. aurita was the most abundant macrofauna species. The organism contributed 98 specimens and constituted approximately 40% of the total population. Taxa occurrence fluctuated between two taxa observed in OGD and six taxa recorded in ABLE station. Generally, the control station ABLE accommodated the largest number of taxa and individuals. The results of this study show that the sediment of the waste dump sites has been altered and therefore not suitable for the habitation of benthic macrofauna community.
Philosophical and Ethical Perspectives on How We Could Know Recovery from Schizophrenia and Their Impact on Knowledge Development

This paper discussed various philosophical and ethical perspectives on how to know recovery from schizophrenia. According to the empirical approach, recovery can be measured by objective and standardized tools which evaluate the severity of psychiatric symptoms or levels of social and vocational functioning. These measurements have minimum scores or sets of criteria of what recovery looks like, so this approach may be useful to evaluate patient’s treatment outcomes by healthcare providers. On the contrary, phenomenological approach stands qualitative research methods to understand an individual’s subjective, lived, or unique experiences while he or she lives with schizophrenia. Historical perspective holds that a point of view on recovery has been changed from negative to positive as our social perspectives for schizophrenia changes. Feminist perspective suggests that recovery can be understood by exploring female’s subjective experiences like successful marriage life or having responsibility for children. Ethical perspectives regarding the meaning of recovery were also addressed. Each philosophical and ethical perspective guides different research methodology and methods. Therefore, to employ appropriate methodology and methods, understanding philosophical and ethical backgrounds would be important.
Sufficient and necessary conditions for global exponential stability of discrete-time recurrent neural networks

A set of sufficient and necessary conditions are presented for global exponential stability (GES) of a class of generic discrete-time recurrent neural networks. By means of the uncovered conditions, GES and convergence properties of the neural networks are analyzed quantitatively. It is shown that exact equivalences exist among the GES property of the neural networks, the contractiveness of the deduced nonlinear operators, and the global asymptotic stability (GAS) of the neural networks plus the spectral radius of Jacobian matrix of the neural networks at the unique equilibrium point less than one. When the neural networks have small state feedback coefficients, it is shown further that the infimum of exponential bounds of the trajectories of the neural networks equals exactly the spectral radius of Jacobian matrix of the neural networks at the unique equilibrium point. The obtained results are helpful in understanding essence of GES and clarifying difference between GES and GAS of the discrete-time recurrent neural networks
REVENUE EQUIVALENCE OF LARGE ASYMMETRIC AUCTIONS \ast

One of the most important results in auction theory is that when bidders are symmetric (homogeneous), then under quite general conditions, the seller's expected revenue is independent of the auction mechanism (Revenue Equivalence Theorem). More often than not, however, bidders are asymmetric, and so revenue equivalence is lost. Previously, it was shown that asymmetric auctions become revenue equivalent as n \rightarrow \infty , where n is the number of bidders. In this paper, we go beyond the limiting behavior and explicitly calculate the revenue to O(1/n3) accuracy, essentially with no information on the auction payment rules or bidders' equilibrium strategies, for a large class of asymmetric auctions that includes first-price, second-price, and optimal auctions. These calculations show that the revenue differences among asymmetric auctions scale as \epsilon 2/n3, where \epsilon is the level of asymmetry (heterogeneity) among the bidders. Therefore, bidders' asymmetry has a negligible effect on revenue ranking of auctions with as few as n = 6 bidders.
Development of Fingerprint Traceability in a Modern Sawmill

Norra Timber in Sävar is a highly developed sawmill with a Computed Tomography (CT) system integrated in the saw line. The CT generates predictions on how the resulting wood piece will look after the log is sawn. This data could be utilized together with other points in the production chain to trace individual pieces which in turn could facilitate product quality control. The aim of this thesis is to implement a practical tool for tracing sawn wood pieces between the CT and final sorting at Norra Timber by means of fingerprint traceability, a traceability concept that can be used to identify an individual wood piece by its unique features, such as knots. I investigated fingerprint methods, and implemented the best one in a stand-alone desktop application. The method used in the application is based on cross correlation on knots positions and lengths on plank surfaces. When matching CT predictions with 154 sawn planks, the resulting success rate varied between 26 and 96 percent depending on how the knots and plank faces were combined in the methods. Two parameters were implemented which showed that 100 percent correct matches can be achieved at the expense of excluding at least 42 percent of the ingoing planks. The resulting stand-alone application can successfully trace wood pieces between the final sorting and the CT. Because test-sawing to get samples is expensive, there was limited data for parameter investigation. Further work should focus on validating the results and that the parameters can be generalized for future data.
Serum concentrations and peritoneal loss of growth hormone and growth-hormone-binding protein activity in older adults undergoing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis: comparison with haemodialysis patients and normal subjects.

Serum concentrations and peritoneal losses of growth hormone (GH) and of growth-hormone-binding protein (GH-BP) activity in 13 patients undergoing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) were compared with those of 13 patients on haemodialysis and 13 normal subjects. The individuals in the three groups were matched by age (40-83 years), gender, and serum glucose concentration. In addition CAPD and haemodialysis patients were matched by haematocrit, serum creatinine and albumin concentrations, and period of time on dialysis (0.5-127 months). GH in the serum and in the peritoneal effluent were measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA) and NB2 bioassay. GH-BP activity was analysed by binding assay and expressed as a percentage of the specific binding of GH. In the haemodialysis patients, serum GH was significantly greater and serum GH-BP activity significantly less than in the CAPD patients and control subjects. Between the two latter groups no significant differences in GH or in GH-BP activity were observed. GH bioactive/immunoactive ratios in the three groups were similar. Both GH and GH-BP were detected in the peritoneal effluent of CAPD patients, in whom an overnight (8-h) peritoneal loss of GH (8.0 +/- 1.4 x 10(-3) micrograms/h/1.73 m2) was strongly correlated with serum GH (r = 0.840). Circulating GH and GH-BP activity were influenced by serum creatinine and haematocrit. In addition a positive relationship was observed between GH-BP activity and body mass index and between GH and time on dialysis. These data reaffirm that older adults undergoing haemodialysis, unlike CAPD patients, exhibit persistent abnormalities in GH-GH-BP axis. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The Levator Aponeurosis Consists of Two Layers That Include Smooth Muscle

Purpose: To investigate the two-fold structure of the levator aponeurosis, which is partly composed of independent smooth muscles. Materials and Methods: Fifteen upper eyelids of 12 Asian postmortems, with age at death ranging from 72 to 91 years, were examined. In 9 eyelids, posterior lamella tissue of the upper eyelid was removed to observe the stratified structures of the levator aponeurosis. Six full-thickness eyelids were used to observe the attachment site or the continuity between the levator aponeurosis and its surrounding tissues. The eyelids were incised perpendicularly in the center of the eyelid; samples were stained with Masson trichrome and antismooth muscle actin antibody and examined microscopically. Results: Masson trichrome staining demonstrated the two-layered nature of the levator aponeurosis. The anterior layer was characterized by thick, robust fibrous tissue, and the posterior by thinner fibrous tissue. Although both layers contained muscle structures, the posterior layer contained more than the anterior. Immunostaining with antismooth muscle actin antibody revealed that the muscle in both layers was smooth muscle. The anterior layer continued to the orbital septum and the submuscular fibroadipose tissue; the posterior layers, located in front of Müller muscle and its tendon, attached to the anterior inferior one-third of the tarsus. Part of the anterior layer went through the orbicularis oculi muscle and attached to the subcuticular tissue. Conclusions: The levator aponeurosis is stratified, consisting of two layers than contain smooth muscle components in their proximal portions. It pulls mainly the preaponeurotic fat and anterior eyelid lamella. This partially regulates the tension of the eyelid and contributes to the ordered movement of the upper eyelid.
Effects of pasture species and irrigation on milk production over four summers in the Waikato

Milk production by Jersey cows grazing a common allowance of irrigated or non-irrigated pastures over four summers (1997–2000) is described. The pastures were: (1) high-endophyte perennial ryegrass–white clover (2) tall fescue, phalaris, cocksfoot, white clover, red clover (3) same as (2) plus paspalum (4) endophyte-free ryegrass, timothy, white clover, red clover and (5) existing high-endophyte ryegrass–white clover. Irrigation improved milksolids yield by 5% over 4 years, with inconsistent effects on milk composition, no effects on pasture in vitro digestibility and nitrogen content, and usually no effect on pasture botanical composition. In 1997, cows on (1) produced the lowest milksolid (MS) yields. Cows grazing ryegrass–white clover (1 and 5) produced less than those on tall fescue-based pastures (2 and 3) (0.74 vs 0.86 kg MS/cow/day) in 1998, and the yields of cows on ryegrass/timothy-based pastures (4) were best (0.96 kg MS/cow/day). The same trends in milksolids yield occurred in 1999, except for cows on (1) which were similar to (4). Cows on existing pasture often produced the lowest milksolid yields. Trends in milksolids production over the 4 years reflected trends in total clover (red + white) contents.
Measurement of PPEs after recognition - Factors explaining the preference of the cost model

Title: Measurement of PPEs after recognition Factors explaining the preference of the cost model Seminar date: 2012-05-30 Course: BUSN69 Degree Project in Accounting and Auditing (15 ECTS) Authors: Hege Kvemo Dahl and Charlotte Nyman Advisor: Kristina Artsberg Five key words: IAS 16, Cost model, Revaluation model, Positive Accounting Theory and Institutional Theory Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify and explain why Swedish companies prefer the cost model to the revaluation model when measuring PPEs after recognition. Methodology: This research is mainly based on a deductive approach, and we have applied a quantitative research method comprising of structured interviews by telephone. Theoretical perspectives: The theoretical approach is based on Positive Accounting Theory and Institutional Theory, in order to reveal which one that has the best explanatory power. We have also tried to identify any linkages between these accounting choice theories. Empirical foundation: Empirical data is primarily gathered trough 18 interviews, with representatives from 16 listed and two unlisted companies. Five different industries have been involved, namely energy, industrials, materials, financials and information technology. Conclusions: This research suggests that Institutional Theory has the best explanatory power regarding the preference of the cost model, as it is resulting from the respondents’ desire to present reliable numbers, tradition, professional groups preferring this model and industrial practice within the energy industry. Thus, this theory’s isomorphic mechanisms and the assumption of institutional inertia have all been able to explain this preference to some extent. Positive Accounting Theory, by contrast, has only been able to explain the preference of the cost model because it is easier, more practical and cheaper to apply than the revaluation model, hence it is a rational choice. In addition, this theory can also explain tradition through cost of thinking and social innovation.
Neural mechanisms underlying melodic perception and memory for pitch

The neural correlates of music perception were studied by measuring cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes with positron emission tomography (PET). Twelve volunteers were scanned using the bolus water method under four separate conditions: (1) listening to a sequence of noise bursts, (2) listening to unfamiliar tonal melodies, (3) comparing the pitch of the first two notes of the same set of melodies, and (4) comparing the pitch of the first and last notes of the melodies. The latter two conditions were designed to investigate short-term pitch retention under low or high memory load, respectively. Subtraction of the obtained PET images, superimposed on matched MRI scans, provides anatomical localization of CBF changes associated with specific cognitive functions. Listening to melodies, relative to acoustically matched noise sequences, resulted in CBF increases in the right superior temporal and right occipital cortices. Pitch judgments of the first two notes of each melody, relative to passive listening to the same stimuli, resulted in right frontal-lobe activation. Analysis of the high memory load condition relative to passive listening revealed the participation of a number of cortical and subcortical regions, notably in the right frontal and right temporal lobes, as well as in parietal and insular cortex. Both pitch judgment conditions also revealed CBF decreases within the left primary auditory cortex. We conclude that specialized neural systems in the right superior temporal cortex participate in perceptual analysis of melodies; pitch comparisons are effected via a neural network that includes right prefrontal cortex, but active retention of pitch involves the interaction of right temporal and frontal cortices.
The clinical risk score: emerging as a reliable preoperative prognostic index in hepatectomy for colorectal metastases.

HYPOTHESIS The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the clinical risk score (CRS), a prognostic tool developed by Fong et al, when translated to another center. DESIGN This study assesses 5 independent preoperative prognostic criteria, nodal status of the primary lesion, disease-free interval, number of hepatic metastases, size of the largest metastasis, and preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen level, to determine a preoperative CRS for each patient included in the study. SETTING The hepatobiliary unit of The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia. PATIENTS Medical records of patients admitted to The Queen Elizabeth Hospital undergoing potentially curative hepatic resection for colorectal metastases during the period of July 1993 to April 2003 were included in the study. Main Outcome Measure The primary outcome measure of the study was survival. The calculated CRS was analyzed with respect to patient postoperative survival. RESULTS During the 10-year period, 77 patients underwent hepatic resection. Overall survival rates for 1, 3, and 5 years were found to be 80.9%, 57.5%, and 42.3%, respectively. One- and 5-year survival rates for CRSs of 0 and 1 were found to be 93.8% and 72.5%, respectively; for scores of 2 and 3, 76.6% and 31.2%, respectively;and for scores of 4 and 5, 75% and 0%, respectively. No patient with a CRS greater than 3 survived more than 2 years. CONCLUSION This study validates the CRS, finding it to be highly predictive of patient outcome and survival.