Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ambiguity, Disagreement, and Allocation of Control in Firms

We present a novel source of disagreement grounded in decision theory: ambiguity aversion. We show that ambiguity aversion generates endogenous disagreement between a firm's insider and outside shareholders, creating a new rationale for corporate governance systems. In our paper, optimal corporate governance depends on both firm characteristics and the composition of the outsiders' overall portfolio. A strong governance system is desirable when the value of the firm's assets in place, relative to the growth opportunity, is sufficiently small or is sufficiently large, suggesting a corporate governance life cycle. In addition, more diversified outsiders (such as generalist mutual funds) prefer stronger governance, while outsiders with a portfolio heavily invested in the same asset class as the firm (such as venture capitalists or private equity investors) are more willing to tolerate a weak governance system, where the portfolio companies' insiders have more leeway in determining corporate policies. Finally, we find that ambiguity aversion introduces a direct link between the strength of the corporate governance system and firm transparency, whereby firms with weaker governance should also optimally be more opaque.
Relating spatial patterns of snow instability to meteorological drivers

In mountainous regions avalanche hazard threatens people and critical lifelines. In order to mitigate consequences, the avalanche release probability is forecasted for regions of 100 to several 1000 km. Currently, avalanche forecasting is limited to the regional scale and predicting for smaller areas is hampered by our limited understanding of the variable nature of the mountain snow cover and its ties with weather and terrain characteristics. To relate spatial patterns of snow instability to meteorological drivers, field measurements at the basin scale were conducted providing quantitative measures and revealing spatial patterns of snow instability. Eventually, the meteorological drivers responsible for the patterns were identified for a specific avalanche situation. As a prerequisite for this approach, however, a quantitative measure to estimate snow instability based on snow mechanical properties had to be established. As obvious signs of instability are often absent and stability testing is laborious, a promising option to acquire the snow mechanical properties related to instability is the snow micro-penetrometer (SMP). The quality of the SMP-derived snow properties was assessed in comparisons with two other common measurement techniques, modeling of micro-computed tomography derived snow structure and particle tracking of propagation saw tests. Results showed that all snow properties required to model failure initiation and crack propagation are obtained from one SMP signal, but especially with respect to the elastic properties future work is needed. As a definition of snow instability along the lines of the current understanding of avalanche release processes is lacking, we developed two snow instability criteria for application with snow micro-penetrometer signals. For the first time we developed quantitative measures for failure initiation and crack propagation, the two relevant processes controlling point snow instability. The measures were validated with independent snow instability observations providing confidence in the mechanical approach based on micro-mechanical measurements. Moreover, our results highlight the dependence of snow instability on both, failure initiation and crack propagation. Based on field data acquired in a basin above tree line (≤ 0.3 km) Davos, Eastern Swiss Alps, during five sampling days we investigated the link between each
Environmental quenching and hierarchical cluster assembly: Evidence from spectroscopic ages of red-sequence galaxies in Coma

We explore the variation in stellar population ages for Coma cluster galaxies as a function of projected cluster-centric distance, using a sample of 362 red-sequence galaxies with high signal-to-noise spectroscopy. The sample spans a wide range in luminosity (0.02-4 L*) and extends from the cluster core to near the virial radius. We find a clear distinction in the observed trends of the giant and dwarf galaxies. The ages of red-sequence giants are primarily determined by galaxy mass, with only weak modulation by environment, in the sense that galaxies at larger cluster-centric distance are slightly younger. For red-sequence dwarfs (with mass <10^10 Msun), the roles of mass and environment as predictors of age are reversed: there is little dependence on mass, but strong trends with projected cluster-centric radius are observed. The average age of dwarfs at the 2.5 Mpc limit of our sample is approximately half that of dwarfs near the cluster centre. The gradient in dwarf galaxy ages is a global cluster-centric trend, and is not driven by the ongoing merger of the NGC 4839 group to the south west of Coma. We interpret these results using environmental histories extracted from the Millennium Simulation for members of massive clusters. Hierarchical cluster assembly naturally leads to trends in the accretion times of galaxies as a function of projected cluster-centric radius. On average, simulated galaxies now located in cluster cores joined halos above any given mass threshold earlier than those now located in the outskirts of clusters. We test environmental quenching models, in which star formation is halted in galaxies when they enter halos of a given mass, or become satellite galaxies. The models broadly reproduce the gradients observed in Coma, but for dwarf galaxies the efficiency of environmental quenching must be very high to match the strong trends observed.
A Poisson Stochastic Frontier Model with Finite Mixture Structure

Standard stochastic frontier models estimate log-linear specifications of production technology, represented mostly by production, cost, profit, revenue, and distance frontiers. We develop a methodology for stochastic frontier models of count data allowing for technological and inefficiency induced heterogeneity in the data and endogenous regressors. We derive the corresponding log-likelihood function and conditional mean of inefficiency to estimate technology regime-specific inefficiency. We further provide empirical evidence that demonstrates the applicability of the proposed model.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Investment Project

Evaluating the effectiveness of investment projects is a prerequisite for the selection of the investment portfolio generated by the investor, and based on a number of traditional criteria: NPV (Net Present Value), IRR (Internal Rate of Return), PP (Payback Period), PI (Profitability index) and NFV (Net Future Value). We propose a model of multi-criteria decision-making on the selection of a portfolio of investment projects selected in terms of their effectiveness, based on the modification of the classical NPV (Net Present Value). In particular, the features and options compared NFV (Net Future Value) - efficiency test. In this direction, we should expect interesting results from a scientific and practical point of view. Our approach to assessing the effectiveness of investment projects based on the method of selection of optimal projects taking into account the set of criteria, intended to build interactive decision-making procedures, as the possibility of using rigorous methods, and knowledge and experience of the decision maker (DM). There are various approaches to selecting the resulting unnormalized preference relations on the basis of a plurality of predetermined. The simplest of these is the approach based on the principle of Borda that we have proposed in [17]. In this article we provide a description and the main approaches to the selection criteria by which assesses the effectiveness of possible variants of the portfolio of investment projects. It uses the methodology of constructing a set of solutions based on the Pareto principle.
NON-ADHERENTS IN MANDATORY SUBSTANCE ABUSE EVALUATION FOLLOWING A DUI OFFENSE: THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND REASONS FOR NON-COMPLIANCE

This study investigates the characteristics of individuals who fail to comply with mandated assessment and remedial measures following a DUI conviction. The characteristics of remedial program non-adherents, including sociodemographic data and driving history, will be described and compared with a matched sample of program adherents. Moreover, an attempt to discern a predictive model for risk of non-adherence will be undertaken. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference, see ITRD Abstract No. E201067.
The role of academic motivation in predicting preservice EFL teachers’ achievement

This study sought to investigate the possible relationship between academic motivation and academic achievement among preservice English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. A total of 200 university students enrolled in an EFL teacher education program at a major state university voluntarily participated in the study. Data were collected using the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) and the self-reported grade-point average (GPA). The results revealed that types of Extrinsic Motivation (External Regulation, Identified Regulation and Introjected Regulation) correlated significantly and positively with academic achievement of the participants. Likewise, Intrinsic Motivation to Know and Intrinsic Motivation to Accomplish correlated positively with the participants’ academic achievement. The only negative correlation of the study was expectedly between amotivation and academic achievement. The findings of regression analyses also indicated that academic motivation accounted for 10% of the variance in academic achievement of the participants.
Voice, Agency and Vulnerability: The Immigration of Children through Systems of Protection and Enforcement

As the organizer of a 2009 summer workshop held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University on unaccompanied, undocumented children in the United States, I am delighted to introduce the first in a series of publications that will contribute to a growing nationwide debate on the challenges facing this vulnerable population. First, a word of explanation about the workshop participants before describing matters of substance. I designed the workshop to bring together academics and practitioners who speak different professional languages, use different methodologies in their research and practice, disseminate their findings in different venues, and rarely have the opportunity, or perhaps even the inclination, to sit down together to share knowledge, to ask unexpected questions, and to debate the consequences of public policy decisions. The participants included three immigration attorneys, two law professors, two immigration judges, a specialist on child refugees within the Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Service, a child psychiatrist, a developmental economist, a sociologist, and five anthropologists. In addition to their expertise in children, migration, and the law, participants were chosen for the ways their experience or training blurs the divide of the academic and practitioner and spans the private and public sectors. For example, some participants are employed by NGOs under contract to the government while others moved from government work to private research positions or currently combine teaching with legal practice. In this group, practitioners regularly publish and academics often consult. Five of the sixteen migrated to the United States, four speak English as a second language, fourteen have extensive international experience, and all have professional expertise in the legal and social issues raised by the migration of people across borders. Participants included Jacqueline Bhabha, Susan Coutin, Michael Creppy, Daniel Dowell, Olivia Faries, Elzbieta Gozdziak, Barbara Hines, Elizabeth Krause, Stuart Lustig, Cecilia Menjivar,
Antecedents of Algerian Consumers’ Brand Loyalty: Testing a Structural Model of Mobile Service Providers’ Customers

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of service quality, perceived value, brand trust and customer satisfaction on brand loyalty in the Algerian services sector. After a short literature review, we conduct an empirical study using the questionnaire survey method to verify the hypotheses. Data are obtained from 200 consumers who bought and used OOREDOO mobile phones service provider. The data are, then, analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results demonstrate that service quality has a direct effect on customers’ satisfaction, while the perceived value has an indirect effect on customers’ satisfaction via brand trust. Furthermore, customers’ satisfaction had direct effects on brand loyalty. The research, then, confirms the pivotal role of perceived service quality and perceived value in brand loyalty development and stresses the mediation effect of brand trust on the effects of perceived value on the path to brand loyalty. Keywords: Service Quality; Perceived Value; trust; satisfaction; loyalty; Structural Equation Modeling.
Assessing a Mercury Affected Area from Small-scale Gold Mining in Poboya, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia

Poboya, Central Sulawesi is one of the primary sites used for small-scale gold mining activities in Indonesia. Poboya consumes 200-500 kg of mercury/day by amalgamation. Palu, the capital city of Central Sulawesi, is a city with a population of 0.35 million people and located around 11 km away from the edge of a small-scale gold mining area in Poboya. Fifteen samples of upper layer soil and fifteen samples of plant (Calotropis gigantean) were taken along the road that connects Poboya to Palu, at every 500 m. Mercury concentration in the soil samples showed a gradual decrement as the distance from Poboya became greater. The plant samples also revealed a similar trend to the soil samples. The highest concentration of mercury in the soil was found at Poboya—i.e. 17.62 ng/mg, and the concentration of mercury in Calotropis gigantean grown at Poboya was 6.5 ng/mg. Based on the soil samples and pollution index, the data showed that the research area had heavy pollution levels up to 4 km. Moreover, the transfer factor was in the range of 0.13-3.44 at distances of 0-4 km, respectively.
A Glance at the Political Interest in Cyprus-Evidence of the European Social Survey

This article discusses the importance of European Social Survey and explains the methodology behind it. Furthermore, the article concentrates on Cyprus results, more specifically discussing the level of political interest and satisfaction on key institutions of the state, as these are derived from European Social Survey - 5th wave explaining how the political interest in Cyprus may impact electoral participation.
Natural selection for communication favours the cultural evolution of linguistic structure.

There are two possible sources of structure in language: biological evolution of the language faculty, or cultural evolution of language itself. Two recent models (Griffiths & Kalish, 2005; Kirby, Dowrnan, & Griffiths, 2007) make alternative claims about the relationship between innate bias and linguistic structure: either linguistic structure is largely determined by cultural factors (Kirby et al., 2007), with strength of innate bias being relatively unimportant, or the nature and strength of innate machinery is key (Griffiths & Kalish, 2005). These two competing possibilities rest on different assumptions about the learning process. We extend these models here to include a treatment of biological evolution, and show that natural selection for communication favours those conditions where the structure of language is primarily determined by cultural transmission.
Formulation of Infant Food Based on Local Cereals: Stability and Effectson Cognitive Development

Our goal was to develop nutritious; accessible and stable infants flour which would improve cognitive and behavior abilities for African children. Five formulations (F1 to F5) based on local cereals from Senegal were manufactured according to FAO/WHO nutritional requirements and composed to reach equal energetic value (400 Kcal/Kg). Flours formulation stability was studied by storage at 20°C and5 relative humidities (0%to 95%) for 10 months. Flour dextrose equivalent; color and fat composition were followed and all formulated flours showed very good stability for a storage relative humidity below 75%. During in vivo nutritional tests; a comparative weight study between mice fed with standard nutritive flour (control); and those fed with F1 to F5 formulations showed a similar slope of weight gain even if adaptation time to new feed initially retard mice growth. F2 and F3 showed the highest weight deficiency compared to the control. Y and Morris Tests; used to characterize the behavior showed that F3; F4 and F5 formulations significantly increased psychomotor activity compared to the control. Long term memory was not significantly different between all formulations; except for F5 which showed a clear improvement. F2 formulation composed of corn was the least efficient for working memory due to its low proteins quality. The low number of triplets can slightly affect the F2 alternation percent; even if this effect was not observed for the control. The other formulations gave results close to the control food. F4 and F5 formulations showed good nutritional qualities; F4; enriched with vitamins and minerals; as well as F5 enriched with fish oil gave very good results on all growth and comportment parameters. They might be effective for better cognitive and somatic development of children.
Information Sharing, Trust and Commitment: Perception of Brazilian Autoparts on Automakers of Various Ethnic Groups

The objective of this work is to verify the perception of managers of Brazilian manufacturers companies of auto parts on the information sharing, trust and commitment in the relationship with some automakers (assemblers), in function of their ethnic origin. In quantitative research, inferential analysis and non-parametric statistical test of Mann-Whitney (U) were developed. It was found that, in terms of information sharing, the suppliers identify differentiated forms in the treatment of information technology, providing significant differences regarding the information systems used in eastern and western groups. Other evidence has been obtained that the trust of autoparts modifies-if as the assembler and the information sharing is weak with respect to the autoparts and automakers. Statistically, it was not possible to view trait that characterizes relations of trust between assembler and supplier of auto parts, since the lack of trust or information sharing occurred even between intense relationships, which included large numbers of items marketed and high frequency of delivery of materials.
Local and regional trends in Plio‐Pleistocene δ18O records from benthic foraminifera

We present new orbital‐resolution Pliocene‐Pleistocene benthic stable oxygen isotope (δ18Ob) records from Ocean Drilling Program Sites 1264 and 1267, from Walvis Ridge in the Southeast Atlantic. We compare long‐term (>250 kyr) interbasin δ18Ob‐gradients between Pacific and North Atlantic regional stacks, as well as intra and interbasin gradients from the perspective of Walvis Ridge. The δ18Ob values from Sites 1264 and 1267 are almost always higher than deep North Atlantic and Pacific sites, with large gradients (>0.5‰) emerging abruptly at ∼2.4 Ma and persisting until ∼1.3 Ma. From this, we infer the presence of a new water mass, which resulted from the influence of dense, 18O‐enriched Nordic sea overflow waters via the abyssal East Atlantic. Meanwhile, long‐term average δ18Ob values in the North Atlantic appear to have remained within 0–0.25‰ lower than in the Pacific. However, the magnitude of this difference is sensitive to the inclusion of records from the equatorial West Atlantic. These results, together with constraints based on temperature, salinity, and density, suggest an influence of the seawater δ18O (δ18OSW) versus salinity relationship of source waters on δ18Ob values within the Atlantic. In particular, the abrupt emergence at ∼2.4 Ma of higher δ18Ob values at Sites 1264 and 1267, relative to North Atlantic records, appears to require a low‐latitude surface water δ18OSW signal. This implies a connection between northward heat transport and deep water export into the abyssal East Atlantic. Hence, our results have implications for the interpretation of δ18Ob records and highlight the potential for δ18Ob to constrain deep Atlantic water mass sources and pathways during the Plio‐Pleistocene.
Micro mechanics of drained and undrained shearing of compacted and overconsolidated crushable sand

A numerical crushable soil sample has been created using the previously published McDowell and de Bono (2013) model and subjected to a range of stress paths. Compacted sand simulations are performed using conventional triaxial stress paths, constant mean stress and constant volume conditions and a critical state line established. Overconsolidated samples have been created by crushing the soil down the isotropic normal compression line, unloading, and shearing at constant radial stress, constant mean stress or constant volume and a critical state line is again established. The critical state line is unique at high stresses for the simulated compacted and overconsolidated sands and is parallel to the isotropic normal compression line, in agreement with available data and a previously published theory. The critical state line at low stress levels is non-unique and a function of the particle size distribution, in agreement with available data. Constant volume tests exhibit the well-known phenomena of phase transformation points and peak strengths are observed for ‘drained’ soils on the dense side of critical. The numerical soil produces a state boundary surface that compares well to available data.
The effect of the mandatory implementation of IFRS on the accounting quality of Dutch companies

In the last years, a lot has been written about the effects of IFRS on the accounting quality, but it has not been done for the Dutch companies. Hence, this thesis will be about the effect of IFRS on accounting quality in Dutch companies in the period 2002 till 2007. The sample consists of 80 companies. The accounting quality will be measured by earnings management and income smoothing. Both of these measures can be calculated by the discretionary accruals. To calculate the discretionary accruals, the Modified Jones model has been used. The outcome was that there is no significant difference in earnings management and income smoothing in the periods before and after implementation of IFRS. As they are the measures, there is also no significant difference in the accounting quality between the two periods. So it can be concluded that there is no significant difference in accounting quality after implementation of IFRS. This is in line with prior literature as there are articles that also did not find a difference between the two periods. The fact that this is based on a small sample in comparison to other researches needs to be taken into account when looking at the results.
Approximate Kerr-Like Metric with Quadrupole

A new approximate metric representing the spacetime of a rotating deformed body is obtained by perturbing the Kerr metric to include up to the second order of the quadrupole moment. It has a simple form, because it is Kerr-like. Its Taylor expansion form coincides with second order quadrupole metrics with slow rotation already found. Moreover, it can be transformed to an improved Hartle-Thorne metric, which guarantees its validity to be useful in studying compact object, and it is possible to find an inner solution.