Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dividend policy in an early capital market , Britain 1825-70 *

Using a hand-collected dataset containing the stock prices and dividends of 681 companies traded on the London stock market between 1825 and 1870, we analyze dividend policy in an early capital market. As tax was effectively zero, the market was largely unregulated, and there were no institutional shareholders, we can rule out these potential determinants of dividend policy ex ante. A study of circa 3,500 dividend announcements and the frequency of dividend changes provide support for the information communication explanation for dividends and little support for the agency or liquidity explanations for dividends. We also find little evidence that dividends were paid for behavioral reasons. JEL codes: G12; G35; N23 a Queen’s University Management School, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, N. Ireland. Email: j.turner@qub.ac. uk b Queen’s University Management School, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, N. Ireland. c Queen’s University Management School, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, N. Ireland. * Thanks to the ESRC (RES-000-22-1391) for financial support. Thanks to Graeme Acheson for his invaluable input to this project. Research assistance was provided by Lei Qu, Jill Turner, and Nadia Vanteeva. Thanks to Jan Annaert, Stefano Battilossi, Fabio Braggion, Philip Brown, Gareth Campbell, Marc Deloof, Oscar Gelderblom, Joost Jonker, Abe de Jong, Kim Oosterlinck, Michael Moore, and Christophe Spaenjers for their helpful comments.
Evaluating the effectiveness of interactive map interface designs: a case study with eye movement analysis

This paper proposes combining traditional usability methods with the analysis of eye movement recordings to evaluate interactive map interfaces, and presents a case study in support of this approach. This case study evaluates of two informationally equivalent but differently-designed online interactive map interfaces presented to users. In a mixed factorial experiment thirty participants were asked to solve three typical map use tasks using one of the two interfaces, while we measured user Satisfaction, Efficiency (completion time) and Effectiveness (accuracy) with standard SEE usability metrics. While traditional (bottom line) usability metrics can reveal a range of usability problems, they may be enhanced by additional procedural measures such as eye movement recordings. Eye movements have been shown to reveal the amount of cognitive processing a display requires and where these cognitive resources are required. Therefore, we can establish how a display may or may not facilitate task completion by analyzing eye movement recordings. User satisfaction information related to stimuli (i.e., collected through standardized questionnaires) can also be linked to eye tracking data for further analysis. We hope that the presented methodology and case study will help cartographers and map interface designers to better identify design issues in their products, and that these insights will eventually lead to more effective and efficient online map interfaces.
Thermal boundary resistance in YBCO THz microbolometers at room temperature

Terahertz waves are utilized for a wide range of applications, from security, medical imaging to gas spectroscopy, etc. Previous investigations in the Teraherzt and Millimeter wave group at Chalmers, has shown that antenna-integrated Y Ba2Cu3O7 (YBCO) bolometer could serve as a potential detector for this range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The detector is composed of a 70 nm thick YBCO _lm with micron sized dimension and is deposited on a crystalline Al2O3 (sapphire) substrate. Phonons, the quasi-particles associated with the lattice vibrations, transport the heat from the _lm to the substrate, but are scattered in this process. This scattering is macroscopically represented by the thermal resistance. The thermal resistance is responsible for the response and speed of these bolometers. Two parameters are varied that we believe could affect this thermal resistance. The first parameter is the thickness of the CeO2 buffer layer. This layer is situated between the YBCO layer and the sapphire substrate. Its purpose is to provide a good lattice match and chemical isolation of the YBCO layer with respect to the substrate. The range studied is 10 - 50 nm. The second parameter is the deposition temperature during the deposition of the film using pulsed laser deposition, this parameter is known to affect the YBCO film quality, however no study has investigated its influence on the thermal properties of the detector. The range studied is 780◦C − 855◦C. The thermal resistance is experimentally studied by fabricating the bolometers with above mentioned parameters and measuring them using DC (IV, Resistance-Power) and RF techniques (voltage response versus modulation frequency). Results are analyzed and compared to reported measurements as well as with the Two Temperature model. Considerable variability is present for all devices, even when fabrication parameters are kept constant. The performance was not improved by either the buffer thickness or the temperature deposition in the studied range. The effective thermal resistance ex- tracted from the DC measurements is found to be situated between 0.1. 10−3cm2K/W − 1.0.10−3cm2K/W (excluding outliers). These values are not in accordance with the RF-measurements. The study suggests that additional knowledge on the phenomena involved in the heat transport is required.
Age-Related Patterns in Human Myeloid Dendritic Cell Populations in People Exposed to Schistosoma haematobium Infection

Background Urogenital schistosomiasis is caused by the helminth parasite Schistosoma haematobium. In high transmission areas, children acquire schistosome infection early in life with infection levels peaking in early childhood and subsequently declining in late childhood. This age-related infection profile is thought to result from the gradual development of protective acquired immunity. Age-related differences in schistosome-specific humoral and cellular responses have been reported from several field studies. However there has not yet been a systematic study of the age-related changes in human dendritic cells, the drivers of T cell polarisation. Methods Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were obtained from a cohort of 61 Zimbabwean aged 5–45 years with a S. haematobium prevalence of 47.5%. Two subsets of dendritic cells, myeloid and plasmacytoid dentritic cells (mDCs and pDCs), were analyzed by flow cytometry. Findings In this population, schistosome infection levels peaked in the youngest age group (5–9 years), and declined in late childhood and adulthood (10+ years). The proportions of both mDCs and pDCs varied with age. However, for mDCs the age profile depended on host infection status. In the youngest age group infected people had enhanced proportions of mDCs as well as lower levels of HLA-DR on mDCs than un-infected people. In the older age groups (10–13 and 14–45 years) infected people had lower proportions of mDCs compared to un-infected individuals, but no infection status-related differences were observed in their levels of HLA-DR. Moreover mDC proportions correlated with levels of schistosome-specific IgG, which can be associated with protective immunity. In contrast proportions of pDCs varied with host age, but not with infection status. Conclusions Our results show that dendritic cell proportions and activation in a human population living in schistosome-endemic areas vary with host age reflecting differences in cumulative history of exposure to schistosome infection.
Reflexivity of the isometry group of some classical spaces

We investigate the reflexivity of the isometry group and the automorphism group of some important metric linear spaces and a1gebras. The paper consists of the following sections: 1. Preliminaries. 2. Sequence spaces. 3. Spaces of measurable functions. Hardy spaces. 5. Banach algebras of holomorphic functions. 6. Frechet algebras of holomorphic functions. 7. Spaces of continuous functions.
Gassing behavior of various alternative insulating liquids under thermal and electrical stress

Dissolved gas in oil analysis (DGA) has been used for many years successfully for diagnosis and condition monitoring of mineral oil filled transformers. Due to the usage of alternative dielectric liquids, for example natural and synthetic esters, it is necessary to investigate if and how this diagnostic method can be applied to these insulating systems. This contribution presents the gassing behavior of different insulating liquids from experiments, which represent electrical and thermal faults. Also the suitability of existing mineral oil interpretation methods for DGA is considered. One mainly investigated fluid is Envirotemp FR3™. Where possible the amount and relation of gases are compared to mineral oil and other synthetic esters' gassing behavior.
General eigenvalue correlations for the real Ginibre ensemble

We rederive in a simplified version the Lehmann–Sommers eigenvalue distribution for the Gaussian ensemble of asymmetric real matrices, invariant under real orthogonal transformations, as a basis for a detailed derivation of a Pfaffian generating functional for n-point densities. This produces a simple free-fermion diagram expansion for the correlations leading to quaternion determinants in each order n. All will explicitly be given with the help of a very simple symplectic kernel for even dimension N. The kernel is valid for both complex and real eigenvalues and describes a deep connection between both. A slight modification by an artificial additional Grassmannian also solves the more complicated odd-N case. As illustration, we present some numerical results in the space of complex eigenvalue n-tuples.
Selectivity of Face Distortion Aftereffects for Differences in Expression or Gender

The perceived configuration of a face can be strongly biased by prior adaptation to a face with a distorted configuration. These aftereffects have been found to be weaker when the adapt and test faces differ along a number of dimensions. We asked whether the adaptation shows more transfer between faces that share a common identity, by comparing the strength of aftereffects when the adapt and test faces differed either in expression (a configural change in the same face identity) or gender (a configural change between identities). Observers adapted to expanded or contracted images of either male or female faces with either happy or fearful expressions, and then judged the perceived configuration in either the same faces or faces with a different gender and/or expression. The adaptation included exposure to a single face (e.g., expanded happy) or to alternated faces where the distortion was contingent on the attribute (e.g., expanded happy versus contracted fearful). In all cases the aftereffects showed strong transfer and thus only weak selectivity. However, selectivity was equal or stronger for the change in expression than gender. Our results thus suggest that the distortion aftereffects between faces can be weakly modulated by both variant and invariant attributes of the face.
Streptococcus bovis bacteraemia: identification within organism complex and association with endocarditis and colonic malignancy

Aim: To identify Streptococcus bovis bacteraemia episodes and their clinical associations, including differences in associations by S. bovis biotypes (or species). Methods: The study was performed at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane. Streptococcus bovis blood culture results for 1999–2006 were retrieved. Patient data including diagnosis and investigations were retrospectively obtained from clinical records and compared with the microbiological result, including S. bovis biotype/species. Results: Twenty evaluable S. bovis bacteraemia episodes were identified. Ten were S. bovis biotype I (Streptococcus gallolyticus subspecies gallolyticus) and 10 S. bovis II. For S. bovis I infections, six patients had a diagnosis of infective endocarditis. Nine had assessment for colonic pathology and all had malignant or premalignant colonic lesions. Of patients with S. bovis II infections, two were diagnosed with endocarditis and six had a hepatobiliary source of infection. Of five patients assessed in this group, three had premalignant colonic lesions. Conclusions: Endocarditis and hepatobiliary infections were the main causes of S. bovis bacteraemia. Endocarditis was diagnosed in the majority of S. bovis I bacteraemias and all patients assessed in this group had premalignant/malignant colonic lesions. Determining S. bovis biotype/species provides information on likely clinical associations of bacteraemia episodes.
Approximate inverse preconditioning in the parallel solution of sparse eigenproblems

A preconditioned scheme for solving sparse symmetric eigenproblems is proposed. The solution strategy relies upon the DACG algorithm, which is a Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient algorithm for minimizing the Rayleigh Quotient. A comparison with the well established ARPACK code, shows that when a small number of the leftmost eigenpairs is to be computed, DACG is more efficient than ARPACK. Effective convergence acceleration of DACG is shown to be performed by a suitable approximate inverse preconditioner (AINV). The performance of such a preconditioner is shown to be safe, i.e. not highly dependent on a drop tolerance parameter. On sequential machines, AINV preconditioning proves a practicable alternative to the effective incomplete Cholesky factorization, and is more efficient tha n Block Jacobi. Due to its parallelizability, the AINV preconditioner is exploited for a parall el implementation of the DACG algorithm. Numerical tests account for the high degree of parallelization attainable on a Cray T3E machine and confirm the satisfactory scalability properties of t he algorithm. A final comparison with PARPACK shows the (relative) higher efficiency of AI NV-DACG.
Validation of MSAT: an instrument to measure medical students' self‐assessed confidence in musculoskeletal examination skills

Context Self‐assessment promotes reflective practice, helps students identify gaps in their learning and is used in curricular evaluations. Currently, there is a dearth of validated self‐assessment tools in rheumatology. We present a new musculoskeletal self‐assessment tool (MSAT) that allows students to assess their confidence in their skills in and knowledge of knee and shoulder examination.
Doctors' age at domestic partnership and parenthood: cohort studies

Objective To report on doctors’ family formation. Design Cohort studies using structured questionnaires. Setting UK. Participants Doctors who qualified in 1988, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2000 and 2002 were followed up. Main Outcome Measures Living with spouse or partner; and doctors’ age when first child was born. Results The response to surveys including questions about domestic circumstances was 89.8% (20,717/23,077 doctors). The main outcomes – living with spouse or partner, and parenthood – varied according to age at qualification. Using the modal ages of 23–24 years at qualification, by the age of 24–25 (i.e. in their first year of medical work) a much smaller percentage of doctors than the general population was living with spouse or partner. By the age of 33, 75% of both women and men doctors were living with spouse or partner, compared with 68% of women and 61% of men aged 33 in the general population. By the age of 24–25, 2% of women doctors and 41% of women in the general population had a child; but women doctors caught up with the general population, in this respect, in their 30s. The specialty with the highest percentage of women doctors who, aged 35, had children was general practice (74%); the lowest was surgery (41%). Conclusions Doctors are more likely than other people to live with a spouse or partner, and to have children, albeit typically at later ages. Differences between specialties in rates of motherhood may indicate sacrifice by some women of family in favour of career.
Stability analysis of time delayed power system based on Cluster Treatment of Characteristic Roots method

Centralized control using system-wide data has been suggested to enhance the dynamic performance of large interconnected power system. However, the impact of time delays in acquisition and transmission of key signals cannot be ignored. A novel direct method (DM) based on cluster treatment of characteristic roots (CTCR) is introduced in this paper to analyze the stability of a power system considering the feedback transmission delay. The complete stability view of a time delayed single-machine infinite-bus (SMIB) system is obtained through the direct method in time delay space. The validity of this method is verified by time domain simulation results.
Fast segmentation of planar surfaces in range images

A new algorithm for planar face segmentation in range images is introduced. The segmentation is based on a combination of recursive adaptive regression model prediction for detecting range image step discontinuities which are present at object face borders and of a region growing on surface lines. Border pixels are detected in two perpendicular directions and detection results are combined together. Two predictors in each direction use identical contextual information from the pixel neighbourhood and they mutually compete for the most optimal discontinuity defection.
Systematic Review of Mucosal Immunity Induced by Oral and Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccines against Virus Shedding following Oral Poliovirus Challenge

Inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) may be used in mass vaccination campaigns during the final stages of polio eradication. It is also likely to be adopted by many countries following the coordinated global cessation of vaccination with oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) after eradication. The success of IPV in the control of poliomyelitis outbreaks will depend on the degree of nasopharyngeal and intestinal mucosal immunity induced against poliovirus infection. We performed a systematic review of studies published through May 2011 that recorded the prevalence of poliovirus shedding in stool samples or nasopharyngeal secretions collected 5-30 days after a "challenge" dose of OPV. Studies were combined in a meta-analysis of the odds of shedding among children vaccinated according to IPV, OPV, and combination schedules. We identified 31 studies of shedding in stool and four in nasopharyngeal samples that met the inclusion criteria. Individuals vaccinated with OPV were protected against infection and shedding of poliovirus in stool samples collected after challenge compared with unvaccinated individuals (summary odds ratio [OR] for shedding 0.13 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.08-0.24)). In contrast, IPV provided no protection against shedding compared with unvaccinated individuals (summary OR 0.81 [95% CI 0.59-1.11]) or when given in addition to OPV, compared with individuals given OPV alone (summary OR 1.14 [95% CI 0.82-1.58]). There were insufficient studies of nasopharyngeal shedding to draw a conclusion. IPV does not induce sufficient intestinal mucosal immunity to reduce the prevalence of fecal poliovirus shedding after challenge, although there was some evidence that it can reduce the quantity of virus shed. The impact of IPV on poliovirus transmission in countries where fecal-oral spread is common is unknown but is likely to be limited compared with OPV.
Incidence and Characteristics of Injuries during the 2010 FELDA/FAM National Futsal League in Malaysia

Objective In Malaysia, futsal is a popular sport played by individuals across all ages and genders. Despite its popularity, information on futsal related injury in Malaysia is not available. The purpose of this study is to examine the injury incidence and injury patterns among amateur men and women futsal players in Malaysia. Methods Players reported injury to the tournament medical team during the FELDA/FAM National Futsal League 2010 were interviewed and assessed by a Sports Medicine registrar. Player's socio-demographic profiles and information about the injury were documented in the injury report form adapted from medical report form used by FIFA: Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-Marc). Results A total of 86 injuries were reported from 141 matches, equivalent to an incidence of 91.5 injuries per 1000 player hours (95% CI 72.2 to 110.8), or 61.0 injuries per 1000 player matches (95% CI 48.1 to 73.9). Most were minor injuries resulted from contact with another player. Injuries often involved the lower extremity (44%) followed by the trunk (14%) and the upper limb (13%). Ankle (n = 7; 39%) and knee (n = 6; 33%) sprains were the most prevalent diagnoses of time-loss injuries. A significant association between time-loss and type of injury was found χ 2 (1,N = 86) = 3.99, p = 0.04. In addition, time-loss injury was significantly associated with playing surface χ 2 (1,N = 86) = 10.11, p = 0.018. Conclusion The injury rate during the FELDA/FAM National Amateur Futsal Men's League in Malaysia was lower compared with previous Futsal World Cups competition. Most injuries resulted from contact with another player were minor and did not lead to time-loss from participation. Time-loss injury was significantly associated with type of injury and playing surface.
Periodic microtwinning as a possible mechanism for the accommodation of the epitaxial film-substrate mismatch in the La1−xSrxMnO3/SrTiO3 system

Abstract The structure and microstructure of laser-deposited La1−xSr x MnO3(x ≈ 0.1) films on SrTiO3(100) single-crystal substrates have been studied by means of electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The film–substrate interfaces are found to be perfectly coherent and in particular to be free of interfacial dislocations, the small misfit being accommodated either elastically or by the formation of periodic microtwins. Cross-section as well as plan-view specimens of films of four different thicknesses (9, 50, 100 and 220 nm) were studied in detail. The thinnest films were found to be rhombohedral when present as coherent epitaxial films in cross-section specimens, the misfit being accommodated by periodic microtwinning. When released from their substrate, as in plan-view specimens, films of the same thickness are domain-fragmented orthorhombic. It is suggested that the misfit stresses tend to favour a microtwinned rhombohedral structure, whereas unstressed films of the same thickness, released from the substrate, tend to become domain-fragmented orthorhombic. The observations illustrate in a striking manner the effect of misfit stresses on the microstructure of thin epitaxial films, explaining also the dependence of the physical properties on the film thickness and on the misfit.
Hierarchical mixtures of naive Bayes classifiers

Naive Bayes classifiers tend to perform very well on a large number of problem domains, although their representation power is quite limited compared to more sophisticated machine learning algorithms. In this pa- per we study combining multiple naive Bayes classifiers by using the hierar- chical mixtures of experts system. This system, which we call hierarchical mixtures of naive Bayes classifiers, is compared to a simple naive Bayes classifier and to using bagging and boosting for combining multiple clas- sifiers. Results on 19 data sets from the UCI repository indicate that the hierarchical mixtures architecture in general outperforms the other meth- ods.