Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
China's role in attaining the global 2°C target

In the recent climate change negotiations it was declared that the increase in global temperature should be kept below 2°C by 2100, relative to pre-industrial levels. China's CO2 emissions from energy and cement processes already account for nearly 24% of global emissions, a trend that is expected to keep increasing. Thus the role of China in global GHG mitigation is crucial. A scenario analysis of China's CO2 emissions is presented here and the feasibility of China reaching a low-carbon scenario is discussed. The results suggest that recent and continued technological progress will make it possible for China to limit its CO2 emissions and for these emissions to peak before 2025 and therefore that the global 2°C target can be achieved. Policy relevance In signing the Copenhagen Accord, China agreed to the global 2°C target. Results from this article could be used to justify low-carbon development policies and negotiations. While many still doubt the feasibility of a low-carbon pathway to support the global 2°C target, the results suggest that such a pathway can be realistically achieved. This conclusion should increase confidence and guide the policy framework further to make possible China's low-carbon development. Related policies and measures, such as renewable energy development, energy efficiency, economic structure optimization, technology innovation, low-carbon investment, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) development, should be further enhanced. Furthermore, China can play a larger role in the international negotiations process. In the global context, the 2°C target could be reaffirmed and a global regime on an emissions mitigation protocol could be framed with countries’ emissions target up to 2050.
Gender Effects of Trade Openness in Sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT More than thirty years into the modern era of globalization, scholars are now in a position to evaluate the distributive effects of the policy shifts that have led to greater economic integration. One region of the world for which little robust empirical evidence exists on gendered employment effects is Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). To identify whether there is an impact of economic and trade structure on women's relative access to work, this contribution empirically explores these issues for thirty-eight SSA countries, and for two subgroups. Panel data for the period 1991–2010 is examined using fixed effects, random effects and two-stage least-squares estimation techniques. Findings suggest that trade liberalization has gendered employment effects, with the direction depending on the structure of the economy. However, the more robust finding is that a country's infrastructure has played a determining role in gendered labor market outcomes in SSA since the early 1990s.
Microtargeting's Implications for Campaign Strategy and Democracy

Much of this dissertation has been focused on providing support for the Personal Experience Model. This chapter examines the implications of this model, both for campaign strategy and democracy as an institution. First, I assume that campaigns are able to leverage the Personal Experience Hypothesis by microtargeting voters. A game theoretic model demonstrates under what circumstances campaigns should microtarget, rather than attempting to elevate the status of an issue across the electorate. Regarding the normative implications for democracy, I conclude that microtargeting is neither inherently good nor bad, rather, it is a tool that can be used to achieve positive or negative results.
Do auditors care about real earnings management in their audit fee decisions?

Abstract This study investigates whether auditors incorporate the implications of potential litigation risk arising from their client firms’ using real earnings management (REM) to manage earnings. Using a large sample of US firms, we find that REM is positively related to audit fees and that this relation is incremental over and beyond the effects of accrual-based earnings management and other control variables. We also find that the positive relation between REM and audit fees is stronger for firms with sophisticated investors or higher stock price sensitivity to accounting earnings. Finally, we find that this positive relation is more pronounced for firms with financial constraints where REM is more likely to stem from managerial opportunism and is perceived as riskier by auditors. These findings are robust to endogeneity controls and various sensitivity tests.
Aggregate uncertainty, capacity utilization and manufacturing investment

Theory suggests that the level of uncertainty affects the investment decision for firms, although the sigh of the effect is ambiguous. A GARCH-M estimator is used to model the conditional variance of GDP as a proxy for uncertainty. This measure is then employed in a simple model of the investment decision. The results are that the level of aggregate uncertainty has a significant negative effect on manufacturing investment. In particular periods there were very large effects - on average, uncertainty reduces investment by about 5%, but in 1974 the effect peacked at 48%.
The sovereignty option: the Quebec referendum and market views on the Canadian dollar

We use exchange traded options on Canadian dollar futures to estimate the market's risk-neutral distribution for the Canadian dollar in the days before and after the Quebec sovereignty referendum. We employ a relatively new technique that places little a priori structure on the estimated distribution. This lack of structure allows the estimated distribution to reflect the multi-modal nature of expectations associated with the referendum's results. The technique is especially suited to circumstances in which a particular event will reduce a large degree of uncertainty prior to the expiration date of the options. Our estimated distributions are consistent with a significant perceived probability that the Canadian dollar would move up or down by as much as 5 percent as a result of the vote.
Is there an Arms Race between Greece and Turkey?

Richardson's action-reaction model of an arms race has prompted a considerable body of research that has attempted to empirically estimate such models. In general these attempts have been unsuccessful. This paper provides an extensive reconsideration of the estimation issues and using some recent developments in time-series econometrics, provides a comprehensive analysis of data for Greece and Turkey. It finds evidence of some form of cointegration between the military expenditures in both countries, but not of Richardson arms race type.
Price discovery in the options markets: An application of put-call parity

This study investigates the relative rate of price discovery in Taiwan between index futures and index options, proposing a put‐call parity (PCP) approach to recover the spot index embedded in the options premiums. The PCP approach offers the benefits of reducing model risk and alleviating the burden of volatility estimation. Consistent with the trading‐cost hypothesis, a dominant tendency is found for futures and a subordinate but non‐trivial price discovery from options. The relative weight of options price discovery is sensitive to the methodology employed as the means of inferring the option‐implicit spot price. The empirical evidence suggests that the information contained in the PCP‐implied spot encompasses that provided by the Black‐Scholes‐implied spot. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:354– 375, 2008
Modelling Financial Time Series

This book contains several innovative models for the prices of financial assets. First published in 1986, it is a classic text in the area of financial econometrics. It presents ARCH and stochastic volatility models that are often used and cited in academic research and are applied by quantitative analysts in many banks. Another often-cited contribution of the first edition is the documentation of statistical characteristics of financial returns, which are referred to as stylized facts.
Prevalence of refractive errors among school children in Northeastern Iran

Citation information: Rezvan F, Khabazkhoob M, Fotouhi A, Hashemi H, Ostadimoghaddam H, Heravian J, Azizi E, Khorasani AA & Yekta AA. Prevalence of refractive errors among school children in Northeastern Iran. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt 2011. doi: 10.1111/j.1475‐1313.2011. 00879.x
Pricing and Costs of Drugs in the United States and Sweden: A Comparison Based on Drug Acquisition Costs at the Patient Outcome Level

Abstract:Cost consequences of antihypertensive drug pricing were compared in the United States and Sweden. Because of price differences, US drug acquisition costs to prevent one cardiovascular event were 339%, 127%, and 22% higher using the most prescribed calcium channel blocker, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, and beta blocker, but 65% lower with hydrochlorothiazide. As thiazides are as effective as, but cheaper than, the alternatives, the costs of effective antihypertensive drug treatment may be pronouncedly reduced in both countries. This emphasizes not only the importance of drug pricing but also the cost-increasing influence of commercial marketing. More producer-independent and evidence-based drug information to prescribers is necessary.
Phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy in multiple system atrophy and Parkinson's disease

We performed in vivo phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy on the occipital lobes of 15 patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA; eight with olivopontocerebellar atrophy [OPCA] and seven with the striatonigral degeneration variant [SND]), 13 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), and 16 age‐matched healthy subjects. The MSA group showed significantly reduced phosphocreatine (PCr), increased inorganic phosphate (Pi), and unchanged cytosolic free [Mg2+], and pH. We did not find any significant difference between the OPCA and SND variants. However, patients with PD showed significantly increased content of Pi, decreased cytosolic free [Mg2+], and unchanged [PCr] and pH. Comparing the MSA and PD groups, [PCr] was significantly lower in MSA than in PD, whereas cytosolic free [Mg2+] was significantly lower in PD. Despite a certain degree of overlap of [PCr] and [Mg2+] values between the two groups, by considering both variables at the same time it was possible to classify correctly 93% of cases by discriminant analysis. We conclude that phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy discloses abnormal phosphate metabolite and ion contents in both MSA and PD, respectively, and may provide noninvasive diagnostic help to differentiate MSA from PD.
Políticas contra o racismo e opinião pública: comparações entre Brasil e Estados Unidos

This article studies the support to the principle of the public intervention for affirmative actions directed to black people through two public policies: quotas in universities, and quotas in good jobs. This study is based on the Survey on Racial Attitudes, conducted in Rio de Janeiro in 2000 by CEAP and DATAUFF, and it compares the Brazilian research data to American data. General results show, as it was expected, a major trend among black people to support the compensatory policies, and a trend against it among white people. In Brazil the 'white elite' resists to support compensatory policies, but there is a positive conjuncture to discuss these policies.
Going Green in Public Organizations

Public servants are expected to be good stewards of resources, including the energy and environmental resources consumed in a public organization’s day-to-day operations. Many government organizations have enacted policies to mitigate the environmental impact of their operations. Even in the absence of formal policies, however, individual public employees might engage in a number of discretionary, pro-environmental behaviors known as eco-initiatives. What motivational factors cause a public employee to exhibit eco-initiative? To answer this question, we draw on a theoretical framework based on connectedness to nature, organizational commitment, public service motivation (PSM), and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). We use employee-level data from a large city in the southeast United States to examine employee participation in individual eco-initiatives. We contextualize these discretionary initiatives as interesting forms of OCB, which are directed toward the environment (OCB-E). Our findings suggest that connectedness to nature, organizational commitment, and PSM are significant predictors of eco-initiative in the public workplace. In addition, we find that PSM conditions the impact of organizational commitment on eco-initiatives for certain types of employees. We conclude with a discussion that underscores the importance of individual employee motivation in discretionary efforts that advance OCB-E and effective public stewardship generally.
Financial, governance and environmental determinants of corporate social responsible disclosure

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the vital determinants on the extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in a US context. The selected variables are CEO duality, the presence of women in the board, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, emission reduction initiatives, company's risk premium, financial leverage and industry's profile. Design/methodology/approach – The environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure score is used as a proxy for the extent of CSR disclosure calculated by Bloomberg. The influence of plausible variables on the ESG disclosure score and its sub-categories was examined by using the least squares dummy variable model (LSDV) incorporating 100 companies listed on Standard & Poor's 500 Index for the period 2009-2012. Findings – The results show that the emission reduction initiatives and GHG emissions influence positively the extent of ESG score. In addition, slight differences exist concerning the determinants of different types of disclosures. F.
The Elementary School Teacher, the Thug and his Grandmother : Informal Brokers and Transnational Migration from Indonesia

This article considers the emergence of informal brokers in the context of an increasingly formalized regime of transnational labour migration from Indonesia. Following the 1997 Asian economic crisis and the fall of the Suharto regime, there has been a dramatic increase in documented transnational migration to Malaysia at the expense of undocumented migration. In this process, a growing number of private agencies have come to control the increasingly deregulated market for migrant recruitment. These agencies, in turn, depend on informal brokers who recruit migrants in villages across Indonesia to work on palm oil plantations and as domestic servants in countries such as Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. This article takes these informal brokers as a starting point for considering the current Indonesian migration regime, using ethnographic data from the island of Lombok. Along with offering a description of brokering practices, the article argues that the dual process of centralization of migration control and fragmentation of labour recruitment has created a space of mediation for individuals who can navigate bureaucratic process while embodying the ethical qualities that convince Indonesian villagers to become migrants.
Intraethnic Dominance and Control: Violence Against Co-Ethnics in the Early Sri Lankan Civil War

In some ethno-separatist wars, rebel groups direct a large share of violence against members of their own ethnic community. But why do rebels target the co-ethnics they claim to represent in the war against the government? Our aim in this paper is to provide the components for a conceptual framework that we assess using unique disaggregated casualty data on violence committed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam against co-ethnic Tamils in territories claimed for the Tamil Eelam state in the early phase of the Sri Lankan conflict, 1985–88. We propose that there are two distinct processes of intraethnic violence: violence against co-ethnic civilians and violence against co-ethnic rivals. While the former aims at controlling the population to win the war against the government, the latter aims at establishing leadership dominance over the ethnic minority. We examine the role of ethnic homogeneity in shaping the use of violence directed against the two types of co-ethnic targets in the buildup phase of ethno-separatist war. We conclude that ethnic demographic structures matter for how the rebels treat co-ethnics in the early phase of war before they have established territorial control.
The Behavior of Bid‐Ask Spreads in the Electronically‐Traded Corn Futures Market

This is the first paper to analyze liquidity costs in agricultural futures markets based on the observed bid-ask spread (BAS) faced by market participants. The results reveal a highly liquid corn market that mostly offers order execution at minimum cost. The BAS responds negatively to volume and positively to price volatility, but also affects volume traded and price volatility. While statistically significant, these responses on a cents/bushel or a percentage basis are generally small. Liquidity costs are also virtually impervious to short-term changes in demand for spreading and trend-following trader activity, as well as differences from day-of-the-week changes in market activity. Much larger cents/bushel and percentage changes in BAS occur during commodity index trader roll periods and on USDA report release days. The roll period findings indicate a sunshine trading effect, while announcement effects identify the importance of unexpected information and adverse selection on order execution costs. Overall, our research demonstrates that the transition to electronic trading in the corn futures market has led to low and stable liquidity costs, despite the market turbulence in 2008'2009.
Biologia Plantarum Xx (x): Xxx-xxx, 20xx Overexpression of Wheat Tanced Gene in Arabidopsis Enhances Tolerance to Drought Stress and Delays Seed Germination

Abscisic acid (ABA) regulates various plant physiological processes, especially participates in the plant responses to harsh environments. The 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED) is a key enzyme in ABA biosynthesis pathway. Here, a TaNCED with an 1 887-bp open reading frame was cloned from wheat, which encodes a peptide of 628 amino acids. A chloroplast transit peptide sequence was found at the N-terminus of the TaNCED protein. Multiple sequence alignments indicate that the TaNCED protein shared high similarities with other NCEDs from different species. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis shows that expression of TaNCED was strongly up-regulated by treatments with ABA, polyethylene glycol, and drought stress, and it was down-regulated during germination of the wheat seeds. Ectopic overexpression of the TaNCED gene in Arabidopsis resulted in an increase of endogenous ABA and free proline content. A lower water loss rate and stomatal conductance of leaves were found in the transgenic plants in comparison with the wild type. Subsequently, the transgenic plants displayed an enhanced tolerance to drought stress but delayed seed germination. These data provide evidence that the TaNCED might play a primary role in regulation of ABA content during water stress and seed dormancy.
UK Evidence on the Characteristics versus Covariance Debate

"We evaluate the Fama-French three-factor model in the UK using the approach of Daniel and Titman (1997) to determine whether characteristics or covariance risk better explains the size and value premiums. Across all three factors, we find that return premiums bear little relationship to the corresponding loadings. We show that small and value stocks earn higher returns irrespective of their return covariance. Our study contributes to the existing literature by reporting original findings on the Fama-French three-factor model in the UK and by reporting results that complement existing evidence from similar studies in the USA and Japan. " Copyright 2007 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Compliance with the Disclosure Requirements of Germany's New Market: IAS Versus Us Gaap

This research examines compliance with both International Accounting Standards (IAS) and United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) for companies listed on Germany's New Market. Based on a sample of 100 firms that apply IAS and 100 that apply US GAAP, we investigate the extent to which companies comply with IAS and US GAAP disclosure requirements in their year-2000 financial statements. Compliance levels range from 100% to 41.6%, with an average of 83.7%. The average compliance level is significantly lower for companies that apply IAS as compared to companies applying US GAAP. This study provides the first systematic evidence regarding the enforcement of US GAAP outside the US, and accordingly not subject to Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) review. The results unveil a considerable extent of non-compliance. The overall level of compliance with IAS and US GAAP disclosures is positively related to firms being audited by Big 5 auditing firms and to cross-listings on US exchanges. Compliance is also associated with references to the use of International Standards of Auditing (ISA) or US GAAS in the audit opinion. The findings add to the growing concerns regarding the lack of effective supervision in the German capital market.
Genomic and phylogenetic evidence of VIPER retrotransposon domestication in trypanosomatids

Transposable elements are important residents of eukaryotic genomes and eventually the host can domesticate them to serve cellular functions. We reported here a possible domestication event of the vestigial interposed retroelement (VIPER) in trypanosomatids. We found a large gene in a syntenic location in Leishmania braziliensis, L. panamensis, Leptomanas pyrrhocoris, and Crithidia fasciculata whose products share similarity in the C-terminal portion with the third protein of VIPER. No remnants of other VIPER regions surrounding the gene sequence were found. We hypothesise that the domestication event occurred more than 50 mya and the conservation of this gene suggests it might perform some function in the host species.