Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Taxes in Capital Structure: Evidence from Taxed and Non-Taxed Arab Economies

The Arab economies present a unique opportunity to test the tax model of capital structure. These economies may be dichotomized into taxable and non-taxable states. The results support a number of implications of the tax-based theories of capital structure. We document relatively higher leverage in economies that impose a corporate income tax. We also document that leverage is significantly positive in the proxy for corporate marginal tax rate. In addition, we find that non-debt tax shield is a positive and significant determinant of capital structure in non-taxed economies, but is insignificant in taxed economies. Additionally, we find that leverage is systematically related to size, collateral, and profitability. The overall results are suggestive of the portability of capital structure theory(ies) across diverse economies.
Mass tree mortality leads to mangrove peat collapse at Bay Islands, Honduras after Hurricane Mitch

1 We measured sediment elevation and accretion dynamics in mangrove forests on the islands of Guanaja and Roatan, Honduras, impacted by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 to determine if collapse of underlying peat was occurring as a result of mass tree mortality. Little is known about the balance between production and decomposition of soil organic matter in the maintenance of sediment elevation of mangrove forests with biogenic soils. 2 Sediment elevation change measured with the rod surface elevation table from 18 months to 33 months after the storm differed significantly among low, medium and high wind impact sites. Mangrove forests suffering minimal to partial mortality gained elevation at a rate (5 mm year−1) greater than vertical accretion (2 mm year−1) measured from artificial soil marker horizons, suggesting that root production contributed to sediment elevation. Basin forests that suffered mass tree mortality experienced peat collapse of about 11 mm year−1 as a result of decomposition of dead root material and sediment compaction. Low soil shear strength and lack of root growth accompanied elevation decreases. 3 Model simulations using the Relative Elevation Model indicate that peat collapse in the high impact basin mangrove forest would be 37 mm year−1 for the 2 years immediately after the storm, as root material decomposed. In the absence of renewed root growth, the model predicts that peat collapse will continue for at least 8 more years at a rate (7 mm year−1) similar to that measured (11 mm year−1). 4 Mass tree mortality caused rapid elevation loss. Few trees survived and recovery of the high impact forest will thus depend primarily on seedling recruitment. Because seedling establishment is controlled in large part by sediment elevation in relation to tide height, continued peat collapse could further impair recovery rates.
Conceptualizing Future Labour Markets

Abstract An enquiry into what future labour markets might look like is, necessarily, an enquiry into what future labour market institutions might look like. Any such enquiry requires a conceptual apparatus (i.e. theory, metatheory, and model) capable of dealing with labour markets and institutions. The conceptual apparatus of orthodox labour economics is incapable of this. An alternative conceptual apparatus, the ‘socio-economics of labour markets’, augmented with critical realist metatheory, is capable of dealing with future labour markets. This claim is demonstrated via the example of future labour markets based on Basic Income.
Accountants ’ proactivity in intra-organisational communication networks : A strong structuration perspective

Purpose The paper provides insights into the importance of accountants’ networks, the parties who comprise those networks and how accountants go about building and maintaining their communication networks. It also illustrates the use of strong structuration theory, which specifically considers the networks that surround agents. The conclusion highlights the significance of communication as agency in the context of accounting practice through a strong structuration perspective. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach to the inquiry was adopted. Interviews were conducted with 30 Australian accountants from 22 not-for-profit organisations. A thematic approach was used to analyse the transcripts. Structuration theory, supplemented by strong structuration, informed the study. Findings – The interviewees attested to the importance of communication and developing networks within their organisations. They actively sought to expand and enhance their networks. The accountants played a pivotal role in networks and they pursued both horizontal and vertical relations. The accountants’ organisational positions and perceptions of their roles, worldviews and knowledge of other members of their organisations were used strategically to alter the internal structures of networked others. Originality/value The study contributes to the meagre literature regarding accountants’ networks within organisations. It provides insights that may assist accountants in enhancing their own networks. Although structuration theory is well-established in accounting research, the enrichments offered by strong structuration are illustrated in this study. Research limitations/implications The interviewed accountants worked in not-for-profit organisations and this may influence the findings. Future research might consider accountants working in for-profit organisations. The study provides insights into strategies to develop intraorganisational networks.
Modelling the isotopic composition of snow using backward trajectories: a particular precipitation event in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

Abstract We consider a specific accumulation event that occurred in January 2002 in western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. Snow samples were obtained a few days after accumulation. We combine meteorological analyses and isotopic modelling to describe the isotopic composition of moisture during transport. Backward trajectories were calculated, based on European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts operational archive data so that the history of the air parcels transporting water vapour to the accumulation site could be reconstructed. This trajectory study showed that the air masses were not (super)saturated along most of the transport path, which is in contrast with assumptions in Lagrangian fractionation models and probably true for most precipitation events in Antarctica. The modelled fractionation along the trajectories was too limited to explain the measured isotopic content of the snow. It is shown that the observed isotopic composition of precipitation resulted from fractionation of initially more depleted water. This lower initial isotopic composition of water vapour might result from atmospheric mixing with more depleted air along the trajectory or from earlier condensation cycles, not captured by the trajectories. This is in accordance with isotope fields resulting from general circulation models, indicating a gradient in isotopic composition from the Equator to Antarctica.
Quantifying Small-scale Temperature Variability using Distributed
Temperature Sensing and Thermal Infrared Imaging to Inform River
Restoration

Abstract. Watershed-scale stream temperature models are often one-dimensional because they require less data and are more computationally efficient than two- or three-dimensional models. However, one-dimensional models assume completely mixed reaches and ignore small-scale spatial temperature variability, which may create temperature barriers or refugia for cold water aquatic species. Fine spatial- and temporal-resolution stream temperature monitoring provides information to identify river features with temperature ranges that differ from the reach average. We used a distributed temperature sensing system to observe small-scale stream temperature variability, measured as temperature range through space and time, within two 400 meter reaches in summer 2015 in Nevada's East Walker and mainstem Walker Rivers. In addition, thermal infrared aerial imagery collected in summer 2012 quantified the spatial variability of river temperatures throughout the Walker Basin. Both the distributed temperature sensing data and thermal infrared aerial imagery were used to corroborate prior temperature model results. Additionally, these data highlighted that beaver dams and irrigation return flow channels maximize thermal variability and can provide thermal refugia, while groundwater seeps provide small cooler areas and diversion canals often create warm local temperatures downstream. To extend temperature predictions and obtain a better understanding of thermal variability at the watershed-scale, temperatures bounds from observations by river features were added to the longitudinal temperature predictions. These results show that while bulk stream temperatures are often too warm to support trout and other cold-water species, thermal refugia may exist to improve habitat connectivity and passage for migratory species between Walker River and Lake. Overall, river restoration efforts should focus on maintaining and enhancing features that create this thermal variability and habitat connectivity.
Patterns of Lacewing (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) Flight Activity, Flight Height and Spatial Distribution of Eggs on Maize Plants

Lacewings (Chrysopidae) are important beneficial insects in nearly all cropping systems. However, monitoring of lacewing numbers is difficult due to the nocturnal behaviour of adults and the difficulty of finding eggs and larvae on plants. Techniques facilitating easy finding of eggs and adults will result in improved pest management decisions and monitoring of these beneficial organisms. This study was conducted to determine flight activity patterns as well as preferred oviposition sites of lacewings on maize plants to facilitate time-effective searching for eggs. The daily flight activity pattern and flight height of lacewings were recorded and sweep-net samples were taken to determine lacewing numbers in different adjacent vegetation types (maize, lucerne, natural veld). The preferred area of oviposition was determined by inspecting maize plants for lacewing eggs and recording the distribution of eggs on leaves. Chrysoperla pudica (Navás) was the predominant species in maize. Lacewings were most active between 16:00 and 22:00 and flew largely between 0.5 and 2.5 m above ground level. Oviposition occurred predominantly on leaves near maize ears. Data on spatial distribution of eggs facilitate monitoring of eggs numbers in maize cropping systems and is also of use in general pest management.
BIOEMULSAN PRODUCTION BY IRANIAN OIL RESERVOIRS MICROORGANISMS

The biosurfactants are believed to be surface active components that are shed into the surrounding medium during the growth of the microorganisms. The oil degrading microorganism Acinetobacter calcoaceticus RAG-1 produces a poly-anionic biosurfactant, hetero-polysaccharide bioemulsifier termed as emulsan which forms and stabilizes oil-water emulsions with a variety of hydrophobic substrates. In the present paper results of the possibility of biosurfactant (Emulsan) production by microorganisms isolated from Iranian oil reservoirs is presented. Fourthy three gram negative and gram positive, non fermentative, rod bacilli and coccobacilli shaped baceria were isolated from the oil wells of Bibi Hakimeh, Siri, Maroon, Ilam , East Paydar and West Paydar. Out of the isolated strains, 39 bacterial strains showed beta haemolytic activity, further screening revealed the emulsifying activity and surface tension. 11 out of 43 tested emulsifiers were identified as possible biosurfactant producers and two isolates produced large surface tension reduction, indicating the high probability of biosurfactant production. Further investigation revealed that, two gram negative, oxidase negative, aerobic and coccoid rods isolates were the best producers and hence designated as IL-1, PAY-4. Whole culture broth of isolates reduced surface tension from 68 mN /m to 30 and 29.1mN/m, respectively, and were stable during exposure to high salinity (10%NaCl) and elevated temperatures(120C for 15 min) .
Implication of oxygen vacancies on current conduction mechanisms in TiN/Zr1−xAlxO2/TiN metal-insulator-metal structures

The dominating conduction mechanisms through TiN/Zr1−xAlxO2/TiN capacitors have been investigated over a wide temperature range (25 K to 430 K) in order to obtain information about the traps which cause the current transport. Single positive charged oxygen vacancies are the principal transport sites which participate in all mechanisms observed. However, the conduction mostly defined by intrinsic traps could also be strongly influenced by defects originating from undesirable high-k/metal gate interface reactions which could act as real traps or as transport sites.
New patterns of magnetic resonance images in high-grade glioma patients treated with bevacizumab (Avastin®)

Objectives: To identify new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) patterns in patients with high-grade glioma treated with bevacizumab (Avastin®). Methods: The retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board. An extended case series of 27 patients (19 men, 8 women) with age range of 22–76 years and an average age 52 years were studied by 1.5T/3T MRI (Siemens scanner Erlangen, Germany). Protocol included axial T1-wi spin echo (SE), axial T2-wi fast SE, three-dimensional fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (3D FLAIR), axial diffusion tensor imaging, axial T2-wi gradient echo (GE), dynamic-susceptibility contrast T2-perfusion, axial T1-wi post-gadolinium (Gd) (0.2 ml/kg of body weight) and 3D T1-wi (weighted) GE post-Gd. Evaluation comprised oedema or low-grade tumour infiltration using FLAIR sequences, perfusion using relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) and enhancement using T1-wi post-medium contrast images. Results: At baseline, the study included 27 patients, of which 14 patients were excluded and 13 patients analysed. One patient under treatment showed persistent hyperperfusion, three mixed perfusion, six hypoperfusion and three normal perfusion. FLAIR sequences were used in oedema analysis. When treated, 10 patients showed decrease in perilesional oedema, 1 showed increase in perilesional oedema and 2 had stability in perilesionnal oedema. Lesion enhancement was analysed using axial T1-wi SE post-Gd images; 12 patients showed decrease and 1 patient showed stability in lesion enhancement. Conclusions: Bevacizumab (Avastin) alters the process of angiogenesis resulting in different perfusion patterns in patients with disease progression that must be known in order to avoid erroneous interpretation.
The Properties of Market-Based and Survey Forecasts for Different Data Releases

We compare the accuracy of the survey forecasts and forecasts implied by economic binary options on the U.S. nonfarm payroll change. These options are available for a number of ranges of the announced figure, and each pays $1 if the released nonfarm payroll change falls in the given range. For the first-release data both the market-based and survey forecasts are biased, while they are rational and approximately equally accurate for later releases. Both forecasts are more accurate for later releases. Because of predictability in the revision process, this indicates that the investors in the economic derivatives market are incapable of taking the measurement error in the preliminary estimates efficiently into account. This suggests that economic stability could be enhanced by more accurate first-release figures.
Measuring the Microlensing Parallax from Various Space Observatories

A few observational methods allow the measurement of the mass and distance of the lens-star for a microlensing event. A first estimate can be obtained by measuring the microlensing parallax effect produced by either the motion of the Earth (annual parallax) or the contemporaneous observation of the lensing event from two (or more) observatories (space or terrestrial parallax) sufficiently separated from each other. Further developing ideas originally outlined by Gould as well as Mogavero & Beaulieu, we review the possibility of measuring systematically the microlensing parallax using a telescope based on the Moon surface and other space-based observing platforms, including the upcoming WFIRST space-telescope. We first generalize the Fisher matrix formulation and present results demonstrating the advantage for each observing scenario. We conclude by outlining the limitation of the Fisher matrix analysis when submitted to a practical data modeling process. By considering a lunar-based parallax observation, we find that parameter correlations introduce a significant loss in detection efficiency of the probed lunar parallax effect.
A Hierarchical Neural-Network-Based Document Representation Approach for Text Classification

Document representation is widely used in practical application, for example, sentiment classification, text retrieval, and text classification. Previous work is mainly based on the statistics and the neural networks, which suffer from data sparsity and model interpretability, respectively. In this paper, we propose a general framework for document representation with a hierarchical architecture. In particular, we incorporate the hierarchical architecture into three traditional neural-network models for document representation, resulting in three hierarchical neural representation models for document classification, that is, TextHFT, TextHRNN, and TextHCNN. Our comprehensive experimental results on two public datasets, that is, Yelp 2016 and Amazon Reviews (Electronics), show that our proposals with hierarchical architecture outperform the corresponding neural-network models for document classification, resulting in a significant improvement ranging from 4.65% to 35.08% in terms of accuracy with a comparable (or substantially less) expense of time consumption. In addition, we find that the long documents benefit more from the hierarchical architecture than the short ones as the improvement in terms of accuracy on long documents is greater than that on short documents.
Effect of Caption Rate on the Comprehension of Educational Television Programmes by Deaf School Students

Abstract Television captioning has great potential to provide deaf children with access to the audio track of programmes. However, use of captions may be limited by the lower English literacy skills of the deaf population compared to the general population. Here, we investigate how the rate of caption delivery affects the comprehension of educational programmes by better- and poorer-reading deaf school children. Participants watched three short documentaries, with captions presented at 90, 120, or 180 words per minute (wpm). Across both reading levels, comprehension was uniformly higher at 90 and 120 wpm than at 180 wpm. Independent of caption rate, better readers scored higher overall than poorer readers. These results suggest that the rate of captions in children's television programmes can safely use 120 wpm as a slowest speed. Future research should seek to pinpoint the optimal rate, which appears to lie between 120 and 180 wpm. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Leverage and Stock Returns: Evidence from Istanbul Stock Exchange

This paper examines the empirical relationship between Market risk premium, Market/Book Equity, Market/Total Assets and stock returns of 183 firms listed in Borsa Istanbul over the period 2003-2013/6 using panel data analysis. In addition, the aim of this paper is to search for the leverage effect on stock returns. We find statistically significant evidence showing that market risk premium, Market/Book Equity, Market/Total Assets explain stock returns. The results are consistent with the literature. Market value/book value has a negative coefficient whereas market value/total assets has a positive coefficient. Since leverage is the difference between book value and total assets, the leverage effect of the MV/TA leads to the sign change of the coefficient. The result implies the effect of leverage on the stock returns. Companies with low Price/Equity ratios generate higher returns and stocks with lower leverage levels perform better than the ones with higher leverage ratios in Borsa Istanbul.
Carbon Dating: When Is It Beneficial to Link ETSs?

We propose a theory of the economic advantage (EA) of regulating carbon emissions by linking two emissions trading systems versus operating them under autarky. Linking implies that permits issued in one system can be traded internationally for use in the other. We show how the nature of uncertainty, market sizes, and sunk costs of linking determine EA. Even when sunk costs are small so EA>0, autarky can be preferable to one partner, depending on jurisdiction characteristics. Moreover, one partner’s permit price volatility under linking may increase without making linking the less preferred option. An empirical application calibrates jurisdiction characteristics to demonstrate the economic significance of our results, which can make linking partner match crucial for the effectiveness and success of the Paris Agreement.
The Fundamental Scaling Relations of Elliptical Galaxies

We examine the fundamental scaling relations of elliptical galaxies formed through mergers. Using hundreds of simulations to judge the impact of progenitor galaxy properties on the properties of merger remnants, we find that gas dissipation provides an important contribution to tilt in the fundamental plane (FP) relation. Dissipationless mergers of disks produce remnants that occupy a plane similar to that delineated by the virial relation. As the gas content of progenitor disk galaxies is increased, the tilt of the resulting FP relation increases and the slope of the Re-M⋆ relation steepens. For gas fractions fgas > 30%, the simulated FP scalings (Re ∝ σ1.55I) approach those observed in the K band (Re ∝ σ1.53I). The dissipationless merging of spheroidal galaxies and the remerging of disk galaxy remnants roughly maintain the tilt of the FP occupied by the progenitor ellipticals. , Dry merging of spheroidal systems at redshifts z < 1 is then expected to maintain the stellar-mass FP relations imprinted by gas-rich merging during the epoch of rapid spheroid and supermassive black hole growth at redshifts z ≈ 1-3. We estimate that ≈40%-100% of the FP tilt induced by structural properties, as opposed to stellar population effects, owes to trends in the central total-to-stellar mass ratio Mtotal/M⋆ produced by dissipation. Gas cooling allows for an increase in central stellar phase-space density relative to dissipationless mergers, thereby decreasing the central Mtotal/M⋆. Lower mass systems obtain greater phase-space densities than higher mass systems, producing a galaxy mass-dependent central Mtotal/M⋆ and a corresponding tilt in the FP. We account for these trends in the importance of dissipation with galaxy mass in terms of the inefficient cooling of collisionally heated gas in massive halos and dynamically varying gas consumption timescales in smaller systems.