Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bayesian Bounds for Monetary Unit Sampling in Accounting and Auditing

Monetary unit sampling (MUS) has become widely used by auditors. With MUS, individual monetary (e.g., dollar) units are selected at random and the line item to which a monetary unit belongs is then audited. In this way line items with large dollar values have greater probability of being sampled than do line items with small dollar values. It is the purpose of this paper to extend the limited research performed to date on constructing Bayesian bounds for the population total error amount when monetary unit sampling is utilized by (1) studying the characteristics of the Bayesian bound proposed by Cox and Snell [1979], (2) developing alternative Bayesian models in which the Cox and Snell assumptions are modified to see how sensitive the bounds are to these assumptions, and (3) conducting a simulation study to assess the robustness of the Cox and Snell bound to a wide variety of population conditions. We do not consider in this paper errors of understatement; we confine the discussion entirely to errors of overstatement. The Bayesian approach can be directly generalized to consider both overstatement and understatement errors, but additional computational complexities may be encountered. Also, monetary unit sampling may not be the most effective type of sampling when understatement errors play a dominant role. We
Aren’t small stock markets the same?

In a recent interesting article, Minier (2003) uses results from regression tree techniques to conclude that, for countries with high stock market capitalization, there exists a significantly positive relationship between the level of financial development and economic growth. However, the relationship becomes significantly negative for low-capitalization subsample. Using same data set, this short article re-examines Minier's results by the threshold regression approach of Hansen (2000), but finds no evidence supporting that the full sample can be classified into two distinct regimes as in Minier (2003). Our formal test result suggests that one should be more cautious regarding the conclusions made by Minier (2003). 1 The data and computer code (with output) used in this article are available upon request from the corresponding author.
Effect of copper on multiple successional stages of a marine fouling assemblage

Abstract Copper based paints are used to prevent fouling on the hulls of ships. The widely documented effect of copper on hull assemblages may be primarily due to direct effects on the invertebrates themselves or indirect effects from copper absorbed into the microbial biofilm before settlement has commenced. Artificial units of habitat were exposed to varied regimes of copper to examine (1) the photosynthetic efficiency and pigments of early-colonising biofilms, and (2) subsequent macroinvertebrate assemblage change in response to the different regimes of copper. Macroinvertebrate assemblages were found to be less sensitive to the direct effects of copper than indirect effects as delivered through biofilms that have been historically exposed to copper, with some species more tolerant than others. This raises further concern for the efficacy of copper as a universal antifoulant on the hulls of ships, which may continue to assist the invasion of copper-tolerant invertebrate species.
Emergent Leadership and Team Engagement: An Application of Neuroscience Technology and Methods

Although the topic of employee engagement has gained increasing attention, little is known about engagement in team settings. In the current study, we examined individual engagement, emergent leadership, and team-level engagement in 31 teams of MBA students who attempted to solve a case problem dealing with corporate social responsibility. A feature of this study is the use of diverse methodologies to measure our key constructs. Individual engagement was measured psychometrically through self-ratings. Then for each team, an emergent leader and non-leader were identified based on ratings (primarily in terms of transformational leadership) from fellow teammates. Members were also assessed neurologically using electroencephalogram technology to determine their level of engagement during the team process. Our findings show that when individuals are highly engaged, there is a tendency for teammates to view them as leaders, rather than non-leaders. Further, emergent leadership is associated with a higher level .
Assessment of interleukin-6 receptor inhibition therapy on periodontal condition in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and chronic periodontitis.

BACKGROUND Overproduction of interleukin (IL)-6 may play a pathologic role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and chronic periodontitis (CP). The present study assesses IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) inhibition therapy on the periodontal condition of patients with RA and CP. METHODS The study participants were 28 patients with RA and CP during treatment with IL-6R inhibitor, and 27 patients with RA and CP during treatment without IL-6R inhibitor. Periodontal and rheumatologic parameters and serum levels of cytokine and inflammatory markers and immunoglobulin G against periodontopathic bacteria were examined after medication with IL-6R inhibitor for 20.3 months on average (T1) and again 8 weeks later (T2). RESULTS No differences were observed between the groups in any parameter values at T1, except for serum IL-6 levels. The anti-IL-6R group showed a significantly greater decrease in gingival index, bleeding on probing (BOP), probing depth (PD), clinical attachment level (CAL), and serum levels of IL-6 and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-3 from T1 to T2 than the control group (P <0.05). A significant correlation was found between changes in serum anticyclic citrullinated peptide levels and those in PD and CAL in the anti-IL-6R group (P <0.05), whereas both groups exhibited a significant association between changes in serum MMP-3 levels and those in BOP (P <0.05). CONCLUSION Changes in periodontal and serum parameter values were different between the patients with RA and CP during treatment with and without IL-6R inhibitor.
Exporters in Services: New Evidence From Italian Firms

This paper provides new evidence on the determinants of the export performance of firms in services based on a cross-section of Italian firms in the NACE Sections G, I and K for the year 2003. The empirical analysis of the determinants of the export status and intensity shows that the success of service firms in foreign markets is specifically related to their experience in the national market, their belonging to national and international networks and to their relationship with large industrial firms. A higher level of productivity and a higher skill intensity only seem to matter when exporting to more distant industrial countries.
Wider and deeper? Enlargement and integration in the European Union

ABSTRACT This contribution presents an institutionalist account of the conditions under which widening either impedes or encourages deepening. We argue that the impact of widening on deepening depends on the position of the enlargement state relative to the preference distributions of existing member states. Also, we argue that while expanding to a laggard may in some cases create short-term gridlock, it may also provide the impetus for institutional changes that facilitate deepening over the long-term. We assess our argument empirically drawing on the European Union's own history and data on federal systems and international organizations.
Reproductive isolation between phylogeographic lineages scales with divergence

Phylogeographic studies frequently reveal multiple morphologically cryptic lineages within species. What is not yet clear is whether such lineages represent nascent species or evolutionary ephemera. To address this question, we compare five contact zones, each of which occurs between ecomorphologically cryptic lineages of skinks from the rainforests of the Australian Wet Tropics. Although the contacts probably formed concurrently in response to Holocene expansion from glacial refugia, we estimate that the divergence times (τ) of the lineage pairs range from 3.1 to 11.5 Ma. Multi-locus analyses of the contact zones yielded estimates of reproductive isolation that are tightly correlated with divergence time and, for lineages with older divergence times (τ > 5 Myr), substantial. These results show that phylogeographic splits of increasing depth represent stages along the speciation continuum, even in the absence of overt change in ecologically relevant morphology.
Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics Labor-Force Heterogeneity and Asset Prices: the Importance of Skilled Labor

We investigate the impact of labor-force heterogeneity on asset prices in a neoclassical model with labor and capital adjustment costs, and with aggregate productivity and adjustment cost shocks. We document that the negative firms’ hiring rate-future stock return relation identified in previous studies is significantly steeper in industries that rely relatively more on high skill workers than on low skill workers. A long low hiring rate firms and short high hiring rate firms portfolio earns an average annual stock return of 8.6% in high skill industries, and only 0.9% in low skill industries. Moreover, this pattern is not explained by the standard CAPM. This finding is consistent with a neoclassical model of investment with labor force heterogeneity if it is more costly to replace high skill than low skill workers. This differential cost makes the returns of the firms in the high skill to be more exposed to the aggregate adjustment cost shock. We provide empirical support for this economic mechanism using a model-implied adjustment cost shock proxy. We thank Philip Bond, John Boyd, Gianluca Clementi, Andres Donangelo, Bob Goldstein, Francois Gourio, Alexander Michaelides (BI-CAPR workshop discussant), Vincenzo Quadrini, Miguel Palacios (SFS discussant), Fabrizio Perri, Johan Walden (WFA discussant), Toni Whited, and Chen Xue for helpful comments and suggestions. We also thank seminar participants at the University of Minnesota, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Australian National University, University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, the Society of Economic Dynamics (SED) 2014 meetings in Toronto, the Society of Financial Studies (SFS) 2015 Finance Cavalcade in Atlanta, the Western Finance Association (WFA) 2015 meetings in Seattle, the BI-CAPR 2015 workshop on Investment and Production Based Asset Pricing for comments. All errors are our own. Corresponding author. Department of Finance, University of Minnesota, and NBER. Address: 321 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis MN 55455. Office: 3-233. e-mail: fbelo@umn.edu Department of Finance, Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas. Address: 800 West Campbell Road, SM 31, Richardson, TX 75080. e-mail:Jun.Li3@utdallas.edu Department of Finance, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University. Address: 2100 Neil Avenue, Columbus OH 43210. e-mail:lin.1376@osu.edu Department of Finance, Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas. Address: 800 West Campbell Road, SM 31, Richardson, TX 75080. e-mail: xiaofei.zhao@utdallas.edu
Individual variation in corticosterone secretion in laying hens

1. Plasma corticosterone responses to a handling and isolation stressor were measured in laying hens once, before two groups were mixed into a single larger group, and again after the groups were mixed. Hens were bled before the stressor was applied and within 3 min of removal from groups (0 min sample), and again 15 and 45 min later 2. Social interactions were recorded throughout the experiment using continuous, all-occurrences sampling during group observations and the social rank index of each hen was calculated. 3. Plasma corticosterone was low immediately after birds were first picked up and sampled on each occasion, and rose to a peak after repeated handling, 15 min later. It then declined and was almost back to basal levels 40 min after first handling. 4. Corticosterone responses were greater 6 d before mixing (first day of sampling) than they were 1, 7 or 21 d after mixing. Corticosterone concentrations and responses were not elevated 1 d after the two groups of hens were mixed. 5. Variation in corticosterone concentrations and responses within and between hens was quantified by calculating coefficients of variation of corticosterone concentrations and areas under corticosterone response curves. Variation tended to be less within than between hens. 6. There was a transient increase in aggressive interactions immediately after mixing. One bird was clearly dominant in each observed dyadic interaction and hierarchies tended to strong linearity in all groups. Social rank was not related to corticosterone concentrations or responses. 7. Area under the corticosterone response curve can be used to compare differences between and within laying hens in their responsiveness to a handling and isolation stressor.
Nicotine-induced impulsive action: sensitization and attenuation by mecamylamine

A conjunctive variable-interval differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (VI-DRL, n=18) responding schedule and a stop-signal task (n=18) were used to evaluate the disinhibiting effects of nicotine on response withholding in rats. Sucrose solution was used to reinforce responding, and after a stable baseline was achieved under saline-administration conditions, 0.3 mg/kg nicotine was delivered before each session. Experiment 1 showed that repeated, but not the initial, administration of nicotine decreased performance on both tasks, and the effect of sensitization followed a similar timeline; 10 consecutive doses resulted in poorer proportion-correct VI-DRL trials and percent correct stop trials than the initial dose of nicotine. Furthermore, sensitization to 0.3 mg/kg nicotine decreased performance regardless of whether a spaced or consecutive-dosing regimen was followed. Experiment 2 was designed to test whether mecamylamine hydrochloride (0.1–1.0 mg/kg) could attenuate the effects of repeated 0.3 mg/kg nicotine administration, and the degree to which mecamylamine attenuation of the effect of nicotine to produce impulsive action was relative to dose. Results from experiment 2 showed that response disinhibition, as evaluated using the VI-DRL and stop-signal tasks, is related in a systematic manner to nicotinic-acetylcholine receptor activation.
Photographic Images, Culture, and Perception in Tourism Advertising

Abstract Different cultural groups perceive photographic images of travel products and destinations differently. This creates a challenge for tourism marketers, who need to communicate specific messages to specific groups. In this paper, we describe group-specific perceptions of photographic images of travel destinations among university students in Canada and China. Although most educated travelers in their twenties seem to be motivated primarily by novelty seeking and the experience of the unfamiliar, the cultural background of the traveler largely determines what is considered novel or unfamiliar.
Lubricant Depletion Characteristics Induced by Rapid Laser Heating in Thermally Assisted Magnetic Recording

In this study, fundamental research was conducted on lubricant depletion due to rapid laser heating in thermally assisted magnetic recording (TAMR) systems. The effects of lubricant film thickness on lubricant depletion were investigated using a conventional lubricant, Zdol2000. The lubricant depletion characteristics resulting from laser heating were found to largely depend on the lubricant film thickness. Lubricant depletion mechanisms were also studied. In this study, it was found that lubricant depletion is predominantly due to lubricant evaporation for cases in which the lubricant film thickness is greater than one monolayer. In addition, the effect of laser irradiation duration on lubricant depletion was investigated using both continuous and 300-kHz pulsed laser irradiations, since actual TAMR systems require pulsed laser irradiation lasting a few nanoseconds. The differences between the fundamental lubricant depletion characteristics of continuous and pulsed laser irradiations were elucidated on the basis of the experimental results obtained in this study. Furthermore, it has been suggested that diamond-like-carbon (DLC) thin films on the disk surfaces are also affected by rapid laser heating, because the temperature of the films increases to more than 500 K upon laser heating. Therefore, we also studied the damage to DLC thin films due to rapid laser heating and found that the reflectivity of the DLC thin films changed; this change was presumably due to the decrease in the DLC density as well as the asperity in the laser-irradiated region.
Seroprevalence of antibody to varicella zoster virus in England and Wales in children and young adults

This is the first large-scale study to investigate the seroprevalence of varicella zoster (VZV) in the general population of England and Wales. The study focused on those aged 1–20 years, that age group in whom most infections occur. Prevalence rose rapidly with age, with 53% of children showing evidence of prior infection by the age of 5 years and most young adults having experienced infection. In addition to using a fixed cut-off recommended by the manufacturer, a mixture modelling technique was also used to define the proportion of the population seropositive in each age group. This was shown to be a more accurate approach to categorizing data from an epidemiological perspective.
Emerging banking systems- Mergers and acquisitions, foreign bank entry and productivity change

This thesis studies three related issues regarding recent banking reforms in emerging markets, namely mergers and acquisitions (M&As), foreign bank entry and productivity change. First of all, we analyse 84 banking M&A transactions in Asian and Latin American emerging markets between 1998 and 2005. Two event study methodologies that use the OLS market model and GARCH model are applied to examine the value effects of these transactions on bank shareholders. The results suggest that these transactions are moderately successful as targets' shareholders gain significant abnormal returns, whereas acquirers, on the other hand, tend not to lose value. When we take account of time-varying beta using the GARCH model approach this provides statistically similar findings to the OLS market model. However, different event study methodologies tend to yield different results in terms of the determinants of value creation. Secondly, we also examine the impact of foreign bank entry on banking competitive conditions in Argentina, Brazil, China and India between 2000 and 2006. We use the Lerner index to measure banking sector competition. As well as using a fixed effects estimator, the generalised method of moments (GMM) dynamic panel data estimator is applied to obtain the Lerner index in order to mitigate possible misspecifications due to long-run equilibrium assumption imposed by the fixed effects estimator. Our results tentatively suggest that the Lerner index estimated using the dynamic procedure is the preferred measure of competitive conditions. Using a dynamic panel regression model, we then examine the impact of foreign bank presence and other bank and country specific factors on banking competition. Overall, our results show that foreign bank entry does not appear to significantly influence banking sector competition. We also suggest that there well may be a limit to the competitive influence of foreign banks over the short-term. Finally, we investigate the productivity change in these four emerging market banking systems over the period 2000-2006. We employ a parametric approach to examine banks' optimisation processes (cost minimisation and profit maximisation); and then decompose the total gross changes of variable costs and profits to measure the cost and alternative profit productivity change respectively. The results show that all these banking systems suffered a slight decrease in cost productivity (apart from India) but also enjoyed profit productivity gains over the same period. This suggests that banks in the countries under study focused more on revenue generation compared to cost minimisation over the period. We also find some evidence that banks may have also exerted their market power to improve their profit productivity.
The Effects of District-Level Union Status on the Job Satisfaction of Teachers

It is the purpose of this study to examine the effects of the unionisation status of US school districts on teacher job satisfaction. Using an ordered probit analysis and a sample of public school teachers, results of the present study suggest that teachers working in unionised districts are, overall, less satisfied with their jobs than are teachers in non-unionised districts. However, teachers in unionised districts were less likely to leave for better pay and were more enthusiastic about teaching than teachers in non-unionised districts. Hence, even though teachers in unionised districts were generally less satisfied with their jobs, they were more satisfied with regards to certain specific aspects of their positions.
Employment dynamics of Greek married women

Purpose – This paper investigates the employment dynamics of Greek married women.Design/methodology/approach – Longitudinal/panel data for the period 1995‐2001 and dynamic discrete choice models are used for estimation purposes.Findings – It is found that the probability of being employed is influenced by observed individual characteristics (e.g. human capital, fertility and unearned income), while genuine state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity constitute major sources of observed serial persistence. The results show that lagged employment affects current employment decisions in a systematic way, and that the non‐contemporaneous effects of unearned income and fertility correlate with unobserved heterogeneity. The estimated average partial effects reveal that an employed woman in t−1 has a probability of being employed in t that is almost 50 percentage points higher than for a non‐employed woman.Practical implications – The presence of state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity imply that the bri.
The Resource Dependence Role of Corporate Directors: Strategic Adaptation of Board Composition in Response to Environmental Change

Most research on corporate directors has focused on two roles: agency and resource dependence. While these two roles are theoretically and practically distinct, previous research has used the same classification scheme for measuring board composition regardless of role examined. Our paper examines the resource dependence role of directors and posits that the widely used insider/outsider categorizations do not adequately capture this role of directors. A taxonomy of directors is presented specifically for studying the resource dependence role. We then apply the taxonomy to a sample of US airline firms undergoing deregulation, and examine how board composition changes parallel the changing resource dependence needs of the firms. We conclude that the board’s function as a link to the external environment is an important one, and that firms respond to significant changes in their external environment by altering board composition.