Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strongly correlated properties of the thermoelectric cobalt oxide Ca 3 Co 4 O 9

We have performed both in-plane resistivity, Hall effect, and specific heat measurements on the thermoelectric cobalt oxide ${\mathrm{Ca}}_{3}{\mathrm{Co}}_{4}{\mathrm{O}}_{9}$. Four distinct transport regimes are found as a function of temperature, corresponding to a low temperature insulating one up to ${T}_{\mathit{min}}\ensuremath{\approx}63\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$, a strongly correlated Fermi liquid up to ${T}^{*}\ensuremath{\approx}140\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$, with $\ensuremath{\rho}={\ensuremath{\rho}}_{0}+A{T}^{2}$ and $A\ensuremath{\approx}3.63\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}2}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\Omega}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\mathrm{cm}∕{\mathrm{K}}^{2}$, followed by an incoherent metal with ${k}_{F}l\ensuremath{\leqslant}1$ and a high temperature insulator above ${T}^{**}\ensuremath{\approx}510\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$. The specific heat Sommerfeld coefficient $\ensuremath{\gamma}=93\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mJ}∕(\mathrm{mol}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{K}}^{2})$ confirms a rather large value of the electronic effective mass and fulfils the Kadowaki-Woods ratio $A∕{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{2}\ensuremath{\approx}0.45\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\Omega}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\mathrm{cm}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{K}}^{2}∕({\mathrm{mJ}}^{2}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{mol}}^{\ensuremath{-}2})$. Resistivity measurements under pressure reveal a decrease of the Fermi liquid transport coefficient A with an increase of ${T}^{*}$ as a function of pressure while the product $A{({T}^{*})}^{2}∕{b}_{2}$ remains constant and of order $h∕{e}^{2}$. Both thermodynamic and transport properties suggest a strong renormalization of the quasiparticles coherence scale of order ${T}^{*}$ that seems to govern also thermopower.
Could the physical world be emergent instead of fundamental, and why should we ask? (short version)

In physics, there is the prevailing intuition that we are part of a unique external world, and that the goal of physics is to understand and describe this world. This assumption of the fundamentality of objective reality is often seen as a major prerequisite of any kind of scientific reasoning. However, here I argue that we should consider relaxing this assumption in a specific way in some contexts. Namely, there is a collection of open questions in and around physics that can arguably be addressed in a substantially more consistent and rigorous way if we consider the possibility that the first-person perspective is ultimately more fundamental than our usual notion of external world. These are questions like: which probabilities should an observer assign to future experiences if she is told that she will be simulated on a computer? How should we think of cosmology's Boltzmann brain problem, and what can we learn from the fact that measurements in quantum theory seem to do more than just reveal preexisting properties? Why are there simple computable laws of physics in the first place? This note summarizes a longer companion paper which constructs a mathematically rigorous theory along those lines, suggesting a simple and unified framework (rooted in algorithmic information theory) to address questions like those above. It is not meant as a "theory of everything" (in fact, it predicts its own limitations), but it shows how a notion of objective external world, looking very much like our own, can provably emerge from a starting point in which the first-person perspective is primary, without apriori assumptions on the existence of "laws" or a "physical world". While the ideas here are perfectly compatible with physics as we know it, they imply some quite surprising predictions and suggest that we may want to substantially revise the way we think about some foundational questions.
The international financial crisis: timeline, impact and policy responses in Asia and the Pacific

Filardo,Andrew; George,Jason; Loretan,Mico; Ma, Guonan; Munro,Anella; Shim,llhyock; Wooldridge,Philip; Yetman,James; Zhu,Haibin.July, 2010.The international financial crisis,Thesis,[Basel],[Switzerland]Bank for International Settlements,BIS papers/no.52,62
Analytical approach to the Bose polaron problem in one dimension

We discuss the ground state properties of a one-dimensional bosonic system doped with an impurity (the so-called Bose polaron problem). We introduce a formalism that allows us to calculate analytically the thermodynamic zero-temperature properties of this system with weak and moderate boson-boson interaction strengths for any boson-impurity interaction. Our approach is validated by comparing to exact quantum Monte Carlo calculations. In addition, we test the method in finite size systems using numerical results based upon the similarity renormalization group. We argue that the introduced approach provides a simple analytical tool for studies of strongly interacting impurity problems in one dimension.
AdS branes corresponding to superconformal defects

We investigate an AdS 4 ? L 2 D5-brane in AdS 5 ? X 5 space-time, in the context of AdS/dCFT correspondence. Here, X 5 is a Sasaki-Einstein manifold and L 2 is a submanifold of X 5 . This brane has the same supersymmetry as the 3 dimensional = 1 superconformal symmetry if L 2 is a special legendrian submanifold in X 5 . When X 5 = S 5 , this brane is supposed to correspond to a superconformal wall defect in 4-dimensional = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. We construct these new string backgrounds and show they have the correct supersymmetry, also in the case with non-trivial gauge flux on L 2 . The simplest new example is AdS 4 ? T 2 brane in AdS 5 ? S 5 . We construct the brane solution expressing the RG flow between two different defects. We also perform similar analysis for an AdS 3 ? L 3 M5-brane in AdS 4 ? X 7 , for a weak G 2 manifold X 7 and its submanifold L 3 . This system has the same supersymmetry as 2-dimensional = (1,0) global superconformal symmetry, if L 3 is an associative submanifold.
A High-resolution Multiband Survey of Westerlund 2 with the Hubble Space Telescope. III. The Present-day Stellar Mass Function

We present a detailed analysis of the spatial distribution of the stellar population and the present-day mass function (PDMF) of the Westerlund 2 (Wd2) region using the data from our high-resolution multiband survey with the Hubble Space Telescope. We used state-of-the-art artificial star tests to determine spatially resolved completeness maps for each of the broadband filters. We reach a level of completeness of 50% down to mag ( ) and mag ( ) in the optical and mag and mag (both ) in the infrared throughout the field of view. We had previously reported that the core of Wd2 consists of two clumps: namely the main cluster and the northern clump. From the spatial distribution of the completeness-corrected population, we find that their stellar surface densities are and , respectively, down to mag. We find that the PDMF of Wd2 has a slope of , which translates to a total stellar cluster mass of . The spatial analysis of the PDMF reveals that the cluster population is mass-segregated and most likely primordial. In addition, we report the detection of a stellar population of spatially uniformly distributed low-mass ( ) stars, extending into the gas ridges of the surrounding gas and dust cloud, as well as a confined region of reddened stars, likely caused by a foreground CO cloud. We find hints that a cloud–cloud collision might be the origin of the formation of Wd2.
Axial masses in quasielastic neutrino scattering and single-pion neutrinoproduction on nucleons and nuclei

We analyse available experimental data on the total charged-current neutrino-nucleon and antineutrino-nucleon cross sections for quasielastic scattering and single-pion neutrinoproduction. Published results from the relevant experiments at ANL, BNL, FNAL, CERN, and IHEP are included dating from the end of sixties to the present day, covering muon neutrino and antineutrino beams on a variety of nuclear targets, with energies from the thresholds to about 350 GeV. The data are used to adjust the poorly known values of the axial masses.
The dynamics of commodity prices

Abstract In this paper we study the stochastic behavior of the prices and volatilities of a sample of six of the most important commodity markets and we compare these properties with those of the equity market. we observe a substantial degree of heterogeneity in the behavior of the series. Our findings show that it is inappropriate to treat different kinds of commodities as a single asset class as is frequently the case in the academic literature and in the industry. We demonstrate that commodities can be a useful diversifier of equity volatility as well as equity returns. Options pricing and hedging applications exemplify the economic impacts of the differences across commodities and between model specifications.
Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Biotech Foods in China: A Contingent Valuation Approach

Based on a large-scale survey, this study employs the contingent valuation method to estimate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for biotech foods in China and to account for the effects of respondents’ characteristics on the likelihood of purchasing biotech foods and WTP. The survey, covering 1,100 consumers in 11 small-to-large cities (including Beijing and Shanghai) along China’s eastern coast, was conducted in the fall of 2002. Although the survey covers eight different kinds of biotech foods, soybean oil made from imported biotech soybeans and insect-resistant biotech rice are the focus. A majority—about 60% or higher—of respondents were willing to purchase biotech foods without any price discounts. However, about 20% of them would only accept non-biotech foods. Price premiums that respondents were willing to pay for non-biotech foods averaged about 23-53% for non-biotech soybean oil and 42-74% for non-biotech rice. The lower bound WTP comes closer to the true value in light of hypothetical bias associated with the contingent valuation method.
Matching soundscapes and music with food types

We present the results of an on-line survey that assessed how people associate different music styles and soundscapes with food types. The participants were asked to pair a song/soundscape with one of the food types that were showed as options. They also rated – on a likert scale – how good they thought the sonic stimulus went with their choice of food. Results show that people matched most of sound-food pairs as expected, although some seem to be more influenced by cultural background than others. We believe that these insights may be useful when developing multisensory experiences that are intended to influence human decision-making. For example, a catering facility may use soundscapes to increase the consumption of a certain menu, in order to minimize the production of waste, or simply to foment a more healthy behavior when it comes to food choices.
The Informational Content of an Open Limit Order Book

Using data from the Australian Stock Exchange, the authors assess the information content of an open limit‐order book with a particular focus on the incremental information contained in the limit orders behind the best bid and offer. The authors find that the order book is moderately informative—its contribution to price discovery is approximately 22%. The remaining 78% is from the best bid and offer prices on the book and the last transaction price. Furthermore, the authors find that order imbalances between the demand and supply schedules along the book are significantly related to future short‐term returns, even after controlling for the autocorrelations in return, the inside spread, and the trade imbalance. ©2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 29:16–41, 2009
Context-driven Object Detection and Segmentation with Auxiliary Information

One fundamental problem in computer vision and robotics is to localize objects of interest in an image. The task can either be formulated as an object detection problem if the objects are described by a set of pose parameters, or an object segmentation one if we recover object boundary precisely. A key issue in object detection and segmentation concerns exploiting the spatial context, as local evidence is often insufficient to determine object pose in the presence of heavy occlusions or large object appearance variations. This thesis addresses the object detection and segmentation problem in such adverse conditions with auxiliary depth data provided by RGBD cameras. We focus on four main issues in context-aware object detection and segmentation: 1) what are the effective context representations? 2) how can we work with limited and imperfect depth data? 3) how to design depth-aware features and integrate depth cues into conventional visual inference tasks? 4) how to make use of unlabeled data to relax the labeling requirements for training data? We discuss three object detection and segmentation scenarios based on varying amounts of available auxiliary information. In the first case, depth data are available for model training but not available for testing. We propose a structured Hough voting method for detecting objects with heavy occlusion in indoor environments, in which we extend the Hough hypothesis space to include both the object’s location, and its visibility pattern. We design a new score function that accumulates votes for object detection and occlusion prediction. In addition, we explore the correlation between objects and their environment, building a depth-encoded object-context model based on RGBD data. In the second case, we address the problem of localizing glass objects with noisy and incomplete depth data. Our method integrates the intensity and depth information from a single view point, and builds a Markov Random Field that predicts glass boundary and region jointly. In addition, we propose a nonparametric, data-driven label transfer scheme for local glass boundary estimation. A weighted voting scheme based on a joint feature manifold is adopted to integrate depth and appearance cues, and we learn a distance metric on the depth-encoded feature manifold. In the third case, we make use of unlabeled data to relax the annotation requirements for object detection and segmentation, and propose a novel data-dependent margin distribution learning criterion for boosting, which utilizes the intrinsic geometric structure of datasets. One key aspect of this method is that it can seamlessly incorporate unlabeled data by including a graph Laplacian regularizer. We demonstrate the performance of our models and compare with baseline methods on several real-world object detection and segmentation tasks, including indoor object detection, glass object segmentation and foreground segmentation in video.
Empirical Tests for Stochastic Dominance Optimality

If a given risky prospect is compared with multiple choice alternatives, then a joint test for optimality is more appropriate than a series of pairwise Stochastic Dominance tests. We develop and implement a bootstrap empirical likelihood ratio test for this hypothesis. The test statistic and implied probabilities can be computed by searching over discrete distributions that obey a system of linear inequalities using quasi-Monte Carlo simulation and convex optimization methods. An extension of the Kroll–Levy simulation experiment shows favorable small-sample properties for data sets of realistic dimensions. In an application to Fama–French stock portfolios, pairwise tests classify a portfolio of small growth stocks as admissible, whereas our test classifies the portfolio as significantly non-optimal for every risk averter.
The effects of foreign direct investment on economic growth: evidence for Togo

The objective of this paper is to examine the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth. I use data running over 33 years from 1975 to 2008. Generally, the results, obtained by using the ordinary least squares (OLS) methods show foreign direct investment (FDI), Trade volume, and Human capital to have a positive impact on economic growth. There is some evidence that inflation and Government consumption to found to have a negative impact on economic growth. The empirical analysis shows that FDI alone plays an ambiguous role in contributing to economic growth.
Does Voluntary Adoption of a Clawback Provision Improve Financial Reporting Quality?

We examine whether financial reporting quality improves after firms voluntarily adopt a compensation clawback provision. Clawback provisions allow companies to recoup excess incentive pay in the event of an accounting restatement, and are intended to ex ante deter managers from publishing misstated accounting information and to ex post penalize managers who do so. For the period 2007-2009, our difference-in-differences analysis reveals significant improvements in both actual and perceived financial reporting quality following clawback adoption, relative to a propensity-matched set of control firms. We also find an increase in compensation for CEOs who are subject to new clawback provisions, as well as an increase in the sensitivity of cash compensation to accounting performance. In cross-sectional tests, our findings indicate that “robust” clawback provisions, those that apply to restatements caused by either intentional or unintentional errors, have an incrementally larger impact on financial reporting quality and compensation than do clawback provisions that apply only to restatements involving fraud.
Board Composition and Corrective Action: Evidence from Corporate Responses to Bad Acquisition Bids

Abstract This study investigates the role of corporate boards following large declines in share value surrounding acquisition announcements. The results indicate that firms with independent boards are less likely to complete these value-decreasing bids, suggesting that boards influence corporate responses to information in stock prices. Board independence is also associated with unusually high frequencies of asset restructuring for bids that are completed, suggesting that independent boards promote restructuring in mergers the market believes are difficult to integrate. These results complement existing evidence on the board's exante role in averting bad outcomes by showing that independent boards intervene following value-decreasing events.
Corporate Governance and Firm Valuation

Gompers et al. [Gompers, P., Ishii, J., Metrick, A. , 2003. Corporate governance and equity prices. Quarterly Journal of Economics 118, 107-155] created G-Index, a summary measure of corporate governance based on 24 firm-specific provisions, and showed that more democratic firms are more valuable. Bebchuk et al. [Bebchuk, L. , Cohen, A. , Ferrell, A. , 2005. What matters in corporate governance? Working Paper, Harvard Law School] created an entrenchment index based on six provisions underlying G-Index, and found it to fully drive the Gompers et al. (2003) valuation results. Both G-Index and the entrenchment index are based on IRRC data that is comprised of anti-takeover measures, focusing on external governance [Cremers, K.J.M. , Nair, V.B. , 2005. Governance mechanisms and equity prices. Journal of Finance 60, 2859-2894]. We create Gov-Score, a summary governance measure based on 51 firm-specific provisions representing both internal and external governance, and we show that a parsimonious index based on seven provisions underlying Gov-Score fully drives the relation between Gov-Score and firm value. Our results support the Bebchuk et al. (2005) findings that only a small subset of provisions marketed by corporate governance data providers are related to firm valuation, and the Cremers and Nair (2005) evidence that both internal and external governance are linked to firm value. The 51 governance provisions we consider include five that are relevant to accounting and public policy: stock option expensing, and four that are audit-related. We find none of these five measures to be related to firm valuation. We document that only one of the seven governance provisions important for firm valuation was mandated by either the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 or the three major US stock exchanges. We provide researchers with an alternative measure of governance to G-Index with three distinct advantages: (1) broader in scope of governance, (2) covers more firms, and (3) more dynamic, reflecting recent changes in the corporate governance environment.
Do Information Releases Increase or Decrease Information Asymmetry? New Evidence from Analyst Forecast Announcements

Prior literature documents that both earnings announcements and management earnings forecasts increase information asymmetry at announcement. In contrast, we predict and document that analyst earnings forecasts decrease information asymmetry at announcement. As expected, this directional contrast is temporary, in that all three information release types lead to a decrease in information asymmetry following the short-window announcement period. Our evidence demonstrates that the direction of the effect of a public information release on announcement-period information asymmetry is determined by how the information contained in the release relates to prior information held by sophisticated and unsophisticated investors, which supports extant disclosure theory.
Portfolio Returns and Manager Activity: How to Decompose Tracking Error into Security Selection and Market Timing

We develop a new method for detecting portfolio manager activity. Our method relies exclusively on portfolio returns and, consequently, avoids the pitfalls associated with disclosed portfolio holdings. We investigate the link between activity and performance of actively managed U.S. equity funds from 2000 to 2007 and document robust evidence that future performance is positively related to past stock picking and negatively associated with past market timing. Finally, we find that portfolio manager activity is highly persistent over time, which supports the conclusion that stock picking increases performance while market timing decreases performance.
Estrategia de diversificación y resultados de la empresa española

La relacion entre la estrategia de diversificacion seguida por la empresa y los resultados economico-financieros ha dado lugar a un gran numero de investigaciones empiricas. El objetivo central de este trabajo es el de analizar esta relacion para el caso de la economia espanola, en la cual las empresas son de menor dimension y mucho menos diversifica-das que las de estudios anteriores, en su mayoria norteamericanas. Los resultados no confirman la superioridad de la estrategia de diversifica-cion relacionada, ya que son las empresas especializadas las que obtie-nen los mejores resultados en todo el periodo analizado (1987-1990).
Paying for Performance: The Education Impacts of a Community College Scholarship Program for Low-Income Adults

We evaluate the effect of performance-based incentive programs on educational outcomes for community college students from a random assignment experiment at three campuses. Incentive payments over 2 semesters were tied to meeting two conditions—enrolling at least half-time and maintaining a C or better grade point average. Eligibility increased the likelihood of enrolling in the second semester after random assignment and total number of credits earned. Over 2 years, program group students completed nearly 40% more credits. We find little evidence that program eligibility changed types of courses taken but some evidence of increased academic performance and effort.