Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Introduction of New Product Qualities by Incumbent Firms: Market Proliferation Versus Cannibalization

This study analyzes the optimal provision of goods in a market characterized by vertical product differentiation. We consider a duopoly model in which incumbents may introduce a new product with certain quality, and decide whether to keep or to withdraw the existing product from the market. We find that the strategic and cannibalization effects dominate, such that no room is left for discrimination among consumers. The innovator always withdraws the existing product from the market, in order to reduce price competition and to avoid cannibalizing its new product demand. In contrast to horizontally differentiated markets, firms are better off not to offer a range or interval of product qualities in vertically differentiated markets. Hence, firms fare better, despite offering a smaller variety of goods. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG - (Die Einfuehrung neuer Qualitaetsprodukte von Unternehmen: Marktnischenbesetzung versus Kannibalisierung der Nachfrage) Diese Studie analysiert das optimale Angebot von Guetern, die sich in der Qualitaet untescheiden. Wir betrachten ein Modell, in dem zwei insaessige Unternehmen neue Produkte mit unterschiedlicher Qualitaet in den Markt einfuehren koennen. Zudem koennen die Innovatoren entscheiden, ob ihre existierenden Produkte weiterhin im Markt angeboten oder abgezogen werden sollen. Wir zeigen, dass strategische Effekte und Kannibalisierungseffekte keine Diskriminierung zwischen den Konsumenten zulassen. Der Innovator zieht das existierende Produkt immer aus dem Markt, um einen erhoehten Preiswettbewerb und eine Kannibilisierung der eigenen Nachfrage zu vermeiden. Im Gegensatz zu horizontal differenzierten Maerkten, stellen sich Unternehmen in vertikal differenzierten Maerkten besser, eine geringere Produktvielfalt anzubieten.
A prospective study of macular thickness in amblyopic children with unilateral high myopia.

PURPOSE To compare macular thickness of the normal fellow eye to that of the amblyopic eye using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in children with unilateral high myopia. Relationships between macular thickness and magnitude of myopic anisometropia, axial length, and visual acuity (VA) were investigated. METHODS Thirty-one children with a mean age of 9.56 years were recruited. Macular thickness, axial length, best-corrected VA, and refraction were measured. Paired t-test was performed to compare the macular thickness of the amblyopic eye to that of the fellow eye. Partial correlations were used to test the relationships between interocular difference in macular thickness and anisometropia, axial length, and VA. RESULTS Average (± SD) LogMAR VA in the amblyopic eye was 0.96 ± 0.31. Mean spherical equivalent in amblyopic eyes was -10.79 ± 3.40 diopters. A statistically significant difference in macular thickness was found between amblyopic and fellow eyes, with amblyopic eyes having greater foveal thickness but reduced inner and outer macular thickness. Only the nasal outer macular thickness had a statistically significant association with the magnitude of anisometropia. CONCLUSIONS Amblyopic children with unilateral high myopia tend to have a thicker fovea and thinner inner and outer macula in the amblyopic eye compared to the normal fellow eye. The findings indicate that anatomic changes may be present in the retinas of amblyopic children with unilateral high myopia. Future study is warranted to determine whether the mechanism of the macular changes is due to high myopia, amblyopia, or a combination of the two.
A Minimax Classification Approach With Application To Robust Speech Recognition

A minimax approach for robust classification of parametric information sources is studied and applied to isolated-word speech recognition based on hidden Markov modeling. The goal is to reduce the sensitivity of speech recognition systems to a possible mismatch between the training and testing conditions. To this end, a generalized likelihood ratio test is developed and shown to be optimal in the sense of achieving the highest asymptotic exponential rate of decay of the error probability for the worst-case mismatch situation. The proposed approach is compared to the standard approach, where no mismatch is assumed, in recognition of noisy speech and in other realistic mismatch situations. >
Running head : MOTIVATION CROWDING AND ADVERTISING INCENTIVES 1

Common sense suggests that the offer of an incentive, such as a rebate or other promotional offer, should increase the willingness of people to perform a certain behavior. Indeed, incentives are often placed in advertising to increase the speed and extent of consumer response. But, do incentives always work in an additive manner to increase the motivation to respond to advertising? Or, are there circumstances in which incentives reduce the motivation to respond? The potential for such an outcome has been established by psychological and economic studies of the introduction of extrinsic incentives for what would otherwise be viewed as intrinsically motivated behavior. In certain contexts, the introduction of external incentives is said to diminish the inherent or intrinsic motivation to act. This outcome has become known as the " crowding-out effect " , or " motivation crowding " (Frey and Jegen, 2001). The present study discusses previous research on this phenomenon and examines its implications for advertising, in the context of a campaign designed to encourage volunteerism among students. Motivation Crowding Theory Depending on the locus of its causality, human behavior can be either intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. Intrinsically motivated behaviors are performed for no other reasons than for the sake of the behavior itself (Deci, 1971; 1972), and can occur in the Running head: MOTIVATION CROWDING AND ADVERTISING INCENTIVES 3 absence of any external reward (e.g., attending a speech because one is interested in the topic). When people engage in such behaviors, they experience feelings of competence and autonomy, and perceive the cause of their behavior to be internal (Cameron and Extrinsically motivated behaviors, on the other hand, are driven by an external agent of causality (e.g., attending a speech to earn class credit). When engaging in such behaviors, people may experience a loss in their sense of agency (Deci and Ryan, 1991). The extrinsic agent is often perceived to be controlling, and once the external rewards are removed, people may not engage the behavior any longer. Behaviors, however, are seldom purely intrinsic or purely extrinsic in terms of their causality. Indeed, most human actions are driven, to various degrees, by both types of motivation, so that people's overall determination to engage in a behavior is the result of a " summative " degree of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. It would be therefore logical to assume that an increase in any of the two types of motivation will …
Coordination, Efficiency and Policy Discretion

Would citizens coordinate to punish a government when they observe suspicious behavior? This paper shows that under some circumstances such coordination is impossible. This fact has important implications for policy discretion. We study an environment with the following characteristics: 1) the aggregate productivity (fundamental) is stochastic, 2) only the government observes it and, 3) every agent privately receives a noisy signal about the fundamental. Item 1) implies that the best policy (tax on investment) with commitment is state contingent, while 2) and 3) make information incomplete. The main consequence of incomplete information is to make coordination among small anonymous agents harder. Since coordination is key to punishing the government when it deviates, independently of the accuracy of the signal, the set of sustainable payoffs is drastically reduced. Regardless of the size of the noise, state contingent policies cannot be an equilibrium. Moreover, the best equilibrium policy is independent of the fundamental, i.e., the optimal policy calls for strong rules rather than discretion. Finally, we show that the payoff of the best equilibrium without commitment is uniformly bounded away from the payoff of the equilibrium with commitment.
Sustainable Decision-Making: Non-Monetary Incentives for Pro-Social Behavior in the Energy Sector

Taking into account insights into the reality of human decision-making, is an important challenge for todayâ€™s policymakers. Are there `cheaperÂ´, more efficient and possibly as well more effective, non-financial ways of influencing the behaviour of private and corporate citizens, nudging them towards socially desired choices, for example, in the domain of energy consumption? Can such mechanisms complement or substitute for monetary incentives in fostering sustainable decision-making in policy relevant areas such as energy consumption? If so, what mechanisms might be feasible to implement in actual policymaking? Against this background, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs (Ministerie van Economische Zaken) wants to know which â€œnudgesâ€ are the most suitable for application in the field of energy conservation. To this end, in this report we (1) take stock what is known about the effects of non-monetary incentives in general, and legacy reminders in particular, in increasing individualsâ€™ regard for collective interests and for intergenerational beneficence, in particular in the domain of energy consumption (literature review); (2) investigate in a laboratory setting the effects of selected non-monetary incentives on a selection of relevant decision tasks (laboratory experiments); and (3) apply the insights from the literature review and laboratory experiments to specific instruments of policy-making in the Netherlands.
International atlas of evaluation

The global scene for evaluation has changed in last decade, and certainly in Europe with the emergence of strong demands for evaluations from the European Union and where evaluation is now an institutional part of public sector governance. This volume examines twenty-one countries and three international organizations - the European Union, the World Bank, and Development Assistance Evaluation-that heavily influence the global direction of evaluation. It is a historical overview of supply and demand in relation to evaluation; shifts in institutional settings, professionalism in the field, descriptions of evaluation in the Executive Ministerial and Legislative Parliamentary branches of government, and observations on where the national systems are at present and where they may be going.
A Persistent ~1 Hz Quasi-periodic Oscillation in the Dipping Low-Mass X-Ray Binary 4U 1323–62

We have discovered a ~1 Hz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) in the persistent emission, the dips, and the type I X-ray bursts of the low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1323-62. The rms amplitude of the QPO is approximately 9%, only weakly depending on photon energy. The amplitude is consistent with being constant throughout the persistent emission, the dips, and the bursts in all but one observation, where it is much weaker during one dip. These properties suggest that we have observed a new type of QPO, which is caused by quasi-periodic obscuration of the central X-ray source by a structure in the accretion disk. This can only occur when the binary inclination is high, consistent with the fact that 4U 1323-62 is a dipping source. The quasi-periodic obscuration could take place by partial covering of an extended central X-ray source by a near-opaque medium or by covering of a point source by a medium having suitable characteristics to produce the relatively energy-independent oscillations.
Cross-sectional Stock Returns on Fundamental Value vs. Market Value in Mergers and Acquisitions: Evidence from Japan

This study looks at the difference between the fundamental value and the market value of firms during the merger and acquisition process, and investigates the role of that difference on the method of payments (cash vs. stock) and on the subsequent stock performance around the merger and acquisition (M&A) announcement date. The number of M&A transactions has dramatically increased since the stock swap and stock transfer schemes were introduced in 1999. We investigate the scenario that managers who specialize in analyzing the corporate value of the firms possibly shorten the value correction time and partially reduce misvaluation in the capital market. The Means of Payment hypothesis suggests that the managers should choose stock payment over cash payment when the acquiror is over-valued in the market. However, we found that Japanese managers more positively use cash payment when the firm has sufficient financial slack (is cash rich). The Misvaluation hypothesis suggests that positive excess returns of the acquiror could be detected around the announcement day of M&A transactions, when the acquiror and/or the target is/are under-valued in the market. We found strong evidence which supports the Misvaluation hypothesis. In calculating the fundamental value of the firms, we employed the Residual Income Model, using financial analysts forecast value of future profits, after controlling the book-to-market ratio. We found strong evidence which supports the Misvaluation hypothesis. In particular, the hedging portfolio strategy supports the long position of the acquiring firms (M&A transactions are categorized as high acquiror' s valuation-high target' s valuation group) and simultaneously holds the short position of the acquiring firms (M&A transactions are conversely categorized as low acquiror' s valuation-low target' s valuation group). This combination shows more persistent and more positive abnormal returns than the long position strategy of simply holding acquired stock after all M&A transactions. However, the simple long position strategy in Japan is still positive, when compared to the US.
CHEMICAL INHOMOGENEITIES IN THE MILKY WAY STELLAR HALO

We have compiled a sample of 699 stars from the recent literature with detailed chemical abundance information (spanning −4.2≲ [Fe/H] ≲+0.3), and we compute their space velocities and Galactic orbital parameters. We identify members of the inner and outer stellar halo populations in our sample based only on their kinematic properties and then compare the abundance ratios of these populations as a function of [Fe/H]. In the metallicity range where the two populations overlap (−2.5≲ [Fe/H] ≲−1.5), the mean [Mg/Fe] of the outer halo is lower than the inner halo by −0.1 dex. For [Ni/Fe] and [Ba/Fe], the star-to-star abundance scatter of the inner halo is consistently smaller than in the outer halo. The [Na/Fe], [Y/Fe], [Ca/Fe], and [Ti/Fe] ratios of both populations show similar means and levels of scatter. Our inner halo population is chemically homogeneous, suggesting that a significant fraction of the Milky Way stellar halo originated from a well-mixed interstellar medium. In contrast, our outer halo population is chemically diverse, suggesting that another significant fraction of the Milky Way stellar halo formed in remote regions where chemical enrichment was dominated by local supernova events. We find no abundance trends with maximum radial distance from the Galactic center or maximum vertical distance from the Galactic disk. We also find no common kinematic signature for groups of metal-poor stars with peculiar abundance patters, such as the α-poor stars or stars showing unique neutron-capture enrichment patterns. Several stars and dwarf spheroidal systems with unique abundance patterns spend the majority of their time in the distant regions of the Milky Way stellar halo, suggesting that the true outer halo of the Galaxy may have little resemblance to the local stellar halo.
Self-Selection and Earnings During Volatile Transition

Using Bulgarian Integrated Household Surveys for 1995, 1997 and 2001 this paper explores determinants of labor force status – not working, public sector employment, private sector employment and self-employment – and earnings for each of the three employment sectors. We find that while skilled labor’s pattern of reallocation into the public sector remains roughly the same over time, the inflow of highly educated laborers into the private sector and selfemployment increases. These changes coincide with the erosion of the returns to observed skills in the private sector and self-employment, while the public sector continues to reward all types of education at higher than the elementary level.
Adsorption and Oxidation Investigations over Pt/Al2O3 Catalyst: A Microcalorimetric Study

The differential adsorption heats of oxygen and NO, as well as catalytic oxidation behavior during NO oxidation and NO2 dissociation reactions over supported Pt-catalysts, were investigated by microcalorimetric measurements. The average heat of adsorption (Delta H) of oxygen ranged from 310 kJ/mol at 200 degrees C to 289 kJ/mol at 400 degrees C. Over this temperature range formation of platinum oxides and coverage dependence caused variations in the apparent heat of adsorption. NO heat of adsorption from 50 to 150 degrees C was near constant with an average value of 202 kJ/mol over the temperature range.
Compton Echoes from Gamma-Ray Bursts: Unveiling Misaligned Jets in Nearby Type Ib/c Supernovae

There is now compelling evidence of a link between long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and Type Ib/c supernovae (SNe). These core-collapse explosions are conjectured to radiate an anisotropic, beamed component associated with a decelerating, relativistic outflow and an unbeamed, isotropic component associated with the slowly expanding stellar debris. The anisotropic emission remains at a very low level until the Doppler cone of the beam intersects the observer's line of sight, making off-axis GRB jets directly detectable only at long wavelengths and late times (≳1 yr). Circumstellar material, however, will Compton scatter the prompt gamma-ray and afterglow radiation flux and give rise to a reflection echo. We show that the Compton echo of a misaligned GRB carries an X-ray luminosity that may exceed by many orders of magnitude that produced by the underlying subrelativistic SN during the first few weeks. Bright scattering echoes may therefore provide a means for detecting a population of misaligned GRBs associated with nearby Type Ib/c SNe and yield crucial information on the environment surrounding a massive star at the time of its death. The question of whether or not the interpretation of GRB 980425 as an ordinary GRB observed off-axis is consistent with the lack of an X-ray echo is addressed, along with the constraints derived on the possible existence of misaligned GRB jets in SN 1993J, SN 1994I, SN 1999em, and SN 2002ap.
Moral Hazard and Risk Management in Agri-environmental Policy

This paper develops the key finding of Hogan, Ozanne and Colman (2000) that risk aversion among farmers ameliorates the moral hazard problem in relation to agri-environmental policy compliance. It is shown that risk averse farmers who face uncertainty in their production income are more likely to comply with such a policy as a means of risk management. In addition, it is shown that a principal who has control over both the level of monitoring and the size of penalty if detected can reduce non-compliance by adjustments to these instruments which increase the variance of farmers’ income but leave the expected penalty unchanged. It is concluded that risk management by both principals and agents has the potential to diminish the moral hazard problem, especially given proposed developments in agri-environmental policy in the European Union.
Electronic Communications of the EASST Volume 67 ( 2014 ) Proceedings of the 13 th International Workshop on Graph Transformation and Visual Modeling Techniques ( GTVMT 2014 ) ScenarioTools Real-Time Play-Out for Test Sequence Validation in an Automotive Case Study

In many areas, such as automotive, healthcare, or production, we find softwareintensive systems with complex real-time requirements. To efficiently ensure the quality of these systems, engineers require automated tools for the validation of the requirements throughout the development. This, however, requires that the requirements are specified in an analyzable way. We propose modeling the specification using Modal Sequence Diagrams (MSDs), which express what a system may, must, or must not do in certain situations. MSDs can be executed via the play-out algorithm to investigate the behavior emerging from the interplay of multiple scenarios; we can also test if traces of the final product satisfy all scenarios. In this paper, we present the first tool supporting the play-out of MSDs with real-time constraints. As a case study, we modeled the requirements on gear shifts in an upcoming standard on vehicle testing and use our tool to validate externally generated gear shift sequences.
Multiple facets of histone variant H2AX: a DNA double-strand-break marker with several biological functions

In the last decade, many papers highlighted that the histone variant H2AX and its phosphorylation on Ser 139 (γH2AX) cannot be simply considered a specific DNA double-strand-break (DSB) marker with a role restricted to the DNA damage response, but rather as a ‘protagonist’ in different scenarios. This review will present and discuss an up-to-date view regarding the ‘non-canonical’ H2AX roles, focusing in particular on possible functional and structural parts in contexts different from the canonical DNA DSB response. We will present aspects concerning sex chromosome inactivation in male germ cells, X inactivation in female somatic cells and mitosis, but will also focus on the more recent studies regarding embryonic and neural stem cell development, asymmetric sister chromosome segregation in stem cells and cellular senescence maintenance. We will discuss whether in these new contexts there might be a relation with the canonical DNA DSB signalling function that could justify γH2AX formation. The authors will emphasize that, just as H2AX phosphorylation signals chromatin alteration and serves the canonical function of recruiting DSB repair factors, so the modification of H2AX in contexts other than the DNA damage response may contribute towards creating a specific chromatin structure frame allowing ‘non-canonical’ functions to be carried out in different cell types.