Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extract Or Not Extract? The Effect of Familism on Stock Option Plans

There is an ongoing debate in managerial literature regarding the aim of stock option plans (SOPs). In this paper we analyse whether and to what extent the family involvement in ownership and managerial positions affects the use of SOPs as tools to extract rents. By examining a sample of plans issued by Italian listed firms, we classify the SOPs according to their characteristics (i.e. vesting period, lock-up, strike price, market index) and identify three different clusters namely Rent SOPs, Non-Rent SOPs, Hybrid. After controlling for CEO family, board size, equity owned by minority shareholders, and other firm-specific characteristics, we find that family firms are less likely to adopt SOPs for rent extraction purpose. We also find that SOPs specifically granted to family members are less likely to pursue rent extraction goals. Our findings are robust against different specifications of family firms. This paper offers important theoretical contributions to management research and insightful policy implications for all family owned listed firms.
Perception of Emotional and Sexual Infidelity among Married Men and Women

The current study was conducted to study the gender differences in the perception of commission of infidelity, the most distressing form of infidelity, and guilt feelings related to infidelity. Causes, approval, and consequences of emotional and sexual infidelity among married men and women were also examined. Initially, hypothetical scenarios (Buss, Larsen, Westen, and Semmelroth, 1992) which were culturally modified were used to collect data from 300 married participants. Results showed that men perceived to commit sexual infidelity more than women, whereas, women perceived to commit emotional infidelity more than men. Men perceived sexual infidelity and women perceived emotional infidelity to be the most distressing form of infidelity. Moreover, men did not perceive guilt in response to any kind of infidelity, whereas, women perceived guilt in response to both kinds of infidelity. Men perceived both emotional and sexual dissatisfaction to be the causes of infidelity, whereas, women considered emotional dissatisfaction to be the primary cause. Finally, men perceived sexual infidelity, whereas, women perceived emotional infidelity to be the most difficult to forgive form of infidelity.
Resale Price Maintenance and the Service Argument: Efficiency Effects

Proponents of RPM argue that RPM helps to sustain a high level of service at the point of sale and that such a high level is efficient. This paper provides a simple model which leads to the following conclusions: 1) RPM may increase or decrease the level of service. 2) Whether the service level is more efficient under RPM does not depend on the fact that service increases due to RPM. It may be lower under RPM and more efficient. 3) Whether the service level is more efficient depends on the characteristics of the heterogeneous consumers. A feature of the model which deviates from those found in the literature is the introduction of a class of consumers who do not search but decide on a purchase spontaneously.
Studies on magneto-electro-elastic cantilever beam under thermal environment

A smart beam made of magneto-electro-elastic (MEE) material having piezoelectric phase and piezomagnetic phase, shows the coupling between magnetic, electric, thermal and mechanical under thermal environment. Product properties such as pyroelectric and pyromagnetic are generated in this MEE material under thermal environment. Recently studies have been published on the product properties (pyroelectric and pyromagnetic) for magneto-electro-thermo-elastic smart composite. Hence, the magneto-electro-elastic beam with different volume fractions, investigated under uniform temperature rise is the main aim of this paper, to study the influence of product properties on clamped-free boundary condition, using finite element procedures. The finite element beam is modeled using eight node 3D brick element with five nodal degrees of freedom viz. displacements in the x, y and z directions and electric and magnetic potentials. It is found that a significant increase in electric potential observed at volume fraction of BaTiO3, vf = 0.2 due to pyroelectric effect. In-contrast, the displacements and stresses are not much affected.
An Examination of Antecedents of Loyalty Intention to Travel: The Case of Malaysia

The tourism industry has experienced a rapid and continuous growth during the last decade, making it one of the leading industries of the world. As such, destination marketers increasingly seek to understand the various constructs that determine tourists’ destination loyalty. This study aims at examining the antecedents of travelers’ loyalty toward a destination through an integrated tourist behavior model. The model used for this research was developed based on the existing literature on travelers’ behavioral intentions. The study tested thirteen hypotheses on factors which impact the travelers’ loyalty toward a destination with the empirical data through structured questionnaires from a sample of 202 tourists in Malaysia, the city of Kuala Lumpur. The results from multiple regression analysis revealed that (1) food image, destination image and information sources influenced trip quality; (2) the destination image is an antecedent of perceived trip value; (3) both trip quality and perceived trip value positively impact on tourists’ satisfaction and behavioral intention; (4) satisfaction is a predictor of behavioral intention; and (5) tourist’s behavioral intention to visit the destination positively affects tourist’s destination loyalty. The study contributes to the current body of literature by offering an integrated model of tourist loyalty. Based on the findings of this study, theoretical insights were offered for researchers and practical implications were proposed to encourage destination marketers to direct their resources on the right efforts that can lead to tourists’ loyalty.
THE USE OF INDIGENOUS GRASS SPECIES AS PART OF REHABILITATION OF MINE TAILINGS: A CASE STUDY OF NEW UNION GOLD MINE

s of the International Mine Water Conference 19 – 23 October 2009 Proceedings ISBN Number: 978-0-9802623-5-3 Pretoria, South Africa Produced by: Document Transformation Technologies cc Conference organised by: Cilla Taylor Conferences THE USE OF INDIGENOUS GRASS SPECIES AS PART OF REHABILITATION OF MINE TAILINGS: A CASE STUDY OF
The Effects of Different Exercises on Balance, Fear and Risk of Falling among Adults Aged 65 and Over

Abstract This study compared the effects of Pilates and a walking exercise program on dynamic balance, flexibility, and muscle strength, fear of falling and falling risk among an elderly population. A total of 45 volunteers aged 65 years and older were recruited from a live-in community center in the province of Mugla in southwestern Turkey. Participants were invited to attend a 14-week exercise program of either Pilates or walking for 1 hour 3 times per week. Dynamic balance, flexibility, muscle strength, fear of falling and risk of falling were measured before and after the 14-week exercise program and at the same time in a control group that did not join either exercise program. Significant differences (p<0.05) were found between pre-and post-exercise scores for all parameters in the Pilates group and in the flexibility scores in the walking group. No significant differences were found in the control group. Thus, it may be concluded that in comparison to walking, Pilates offers a more efficient way of improving certain physical fitness parameters among the elderly.
Influence of Exopolysaccharide-Producing
Bacteria and SiO2 Nanoparticles on Proline
Content and Antioxidant Enzyme Activities
of Tomato Seedlings (Solanum lycopersicum L.)
under Salinity Stress

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects regarding inoculation of exopolysaccharide (EPS)-producing bacterium, the extracted EPS and silicon nanoparticles on Solanum lycopersicum L. seeds under salinity stress, in a completely randomized factorial design with three replicates. The inoculated seeds with silicon nanoparticles (8 gr L-1), bacterial EPS (0.01 M), and 1 mL of bacterial suspension (1×108 CFU mL-1) were sown in pots and irrigated with water at different salinity levels (0.3, 2, 4, 6, and 8 dS m-1). Results showed that treatment application could enhance salinity tolerance of tomato seeds and improve plant growth so that combined treatments of EPS and silicon nanoparticles (S.E.N), bacteria and silicon nanoparticles (S.B.N), and EPS with silicon nanoparticles and bacteria (S.E.B.N) were the best treatments for plant growth and improvement regarding salinity levels. The mentioned treatments significantly (p<0.01) increased root and shoot fresh or dry weight in comparison to the control sample. In addition, treatments significantly (p<0.01) decreased proline content and antioxidant enzyme activities. Thus, it can be concluded that applied treatments are suitable for agricultural and environmental applications and bring about less damage caused by salinity stress.
Filtering of Time-Varying Nonlinear Systems with Randomly Occurring Output Degradation

This paper deals with the filtering problem for nonlinear systems with randomly occurring output degradation phenomenon. Such a phenomenon is described by a stochastic variable which obeys the Bernoulli distribution with probability known priorly. A sufficient condition is derived for the nonlinear system to reach the required performance. An iterative algorithm is then proposed to obtain the filter parameters recursively by solving the corresponding linear matrix inequality. A numerical example is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Large mixing ratios of atmospheric nitrous acid (HONO) at Concordia (East Antarctic Plateau) in summer: a strong source from surface snow?

Abstract. During the austral summer 2011/2012 atmospheric nitrous acid (HONO) was investigated for the second time at the Concordia site (75°06' S, 123°33' E), located on the East Antarctic Plateau, by deploying a long-path absorption photometer (LOPAP). Hourly mixing ratios of HONO measured in December 2011/January 2012 (35 ± 5.0 pptv) were similar to those measured in December 2010/January 2011 (30.4 ± 3.5 pptv). The large value of the HONO mixing ratio at the remote Concordia site suggests a local source of HONO in addition to weak production from oxidation of NO by the OH radical. Laboratory experiments demonstrate that surface snow removed from Concordia can produce gas-phase HONO at mixing ratios half that of the NOx mixing ratio produced in the same experiment at typical temperatures encountered at Concordia in summer. Using these lab data and the emission flux of NOx from snow estimated from the vertical gradient of atmospheric concentrations measured during the campaign, a mean diurnal HONO snow emission ranging between 0.5 and 0.8 × 109 molecules cm−2 s−1 is calculated. Model calculations indicate that, in addition to around 1.2 pptv of HONO produced by the NO oxidation, these HONO snow emissions can only explain 6.5 to 10.5 pptv of HONO in the atmosphere at Concordia. To explain the difference between observed and simulated HONO mixing ratios, tests were done both in the field and at lab to explore the possibility that the presence of HNO4 had biased the measurements of HONO.
Participatory budgeting in Russia : two experiments in municipalities

This essay is written as part of the PhD course, ‘Arctic extractive industries. Issues of Arctic resource management’, and addresses the issues of public sector budgeting, mainly participatory budgeting in the northwest of Russia. Taking into account the top-down reform tradition (Antipova & Bourmistrov, 2013; Timoshenko, 2008) in the Russian public sector, this article represents essay describing two stories when reform of budgeting practices starts from local practices experimentation, mainly the launch of an experiment internationally known as participatory budgeting (PB)16 (Sintomer et al., 2008). PB experiments were launched almost simultaneously in several municipalities in 2013 in the northwest of Russia, but we know little about how these experiments emerged and why. We investigate two municipality cases of PB emergence and practice development. Reviewing the current literature on PB, we position our paper in the growing PB literature on variations of PB practices in different contexts: how it emerged, why and how it differs from
De-converging the newsroom

This article introduces the concept of de-convergence to analyse recent changes in the newsroom at the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. While the concept of convergence or multimedia journalism has been introduced worldwide, de Volkskrant decided to separate their print and online newsroom. In this de-converged model the traditional print journalist has made a comeback, no longer charged with multimedia tasks. De Volkskrant initially anticipated the digital age by developing a cross-media strategy in which an integrated newsroom would serve multiple platforms. However, the lack of a solid business model and cultural resistance of reporters hindered these ambitions. By creating a new digital newsroom for all the web titles the chain owns, it is argued that convergence on a vertical level (within a brand) has given way to horizontal convergence (within the publishing house). The article analyses the factors which influenced decision-making and how these forms of (de)convergence affect journalism practice and the newspaper brand. Findings are based on an in-depth ethnographic study.
Inflated population density of island antechinus: a case of allochthonous marine inputs leading to increased food availability?

Abstract. Resource availability and other processes that affect maintenance, growth and decline of animal populations are central to ecology and conservation. This study quantified features indicative of population fitness and the availability of food resources for island and mainland populations of an insectivorous marsupial, the swamp antechinus (Antechinus minimus). The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that colonial seabirds increase productivity of island habitats, ultimately providing greater food resources. The study found that antechinus biomass density was 4–13 times greater on the island site compared with the mainland site and was associated with higher recapture rates, suggesting that more individuals were surviving on the island during spring and summer months. An index of antechinus food availability (abundance and biomass of invertebrates) was also higher on the island site. Island antechinus also accessed marine food subsidies, in the form of seabird carrion, during the energetically demanding post-weaning growth period in spring and summer. Furthermore, based on soil nutrient and stable isotope analyses, there was strong evidence of nutrient enrichment from marine sources in the island ecosystem, commonly linked to increased productivity. Therefore, greater antechinus biomass and abundance on offshore islands are likely to be, in part, due to greater survival caused by higher availability of food resources.
easyJet Airlines: Small, Lean, and with Prices that Increase over Time

easyJet Airlines, which has emerged as one of Europe’s most successful low-cost, shorthaul airlines, has a simple pricing structure. For a given flight, all prices are quoted oneway, a single price prevails at any point, and in general, prices are low early on and increase as the departure date approaches. In this paper, we examine the optimality of this pricing scheme and analyze the factors that determine how the price should change over time by building a model of dynamic pricing that incorporates demand uncertainty. We find that while a pricing strategy such as easyJet’s is indeed profit-maximizing, the magnitude of the increase in price from the first date of seat sales to the departure time is dependent upon the capacity of available seats between the given city pair, and varies inversely with it. We examine the issue of last-minute deals by assuming that while consumers have uncertainty with respect to the firm’s capacity and therefore the availability of last minute deals, the firm might not know a-priori if it offers such deals or else randomize its decision to offer such deals. We find that when the firm does not know a-priori if it will offer a lastminute deal, then it discounts both Period 1 and Period 2 prices below the non-constraint optimal price. When the firm knows it will offer a last-minute deal, then Period 1 price is above the non-constraint optimal price, and Period 3 price is below the non-constraint optimal price. However, the higher Period 1 price may act as a signal to consumers, who then wait for the last-minute deal. Thus in both cases, as compared with the two-period game, employing last-minute deals is not optimal for the firm. We empirically analyze the data for several easyJet flights and find empirical support for our main model assumption and the result of an inverse relationship between the magnitude of the price increase over time and the available seat capacity. An important strategic implication of our analysis for easyJet is that while its current pricing strategy is optimal given its size, it would not be optimal for the airline to offer such low initial prices were it to add substantial capacity to any given route. This would be a challenge for a firm that has built up expectations among customers as an airline with a great value proposition for those willing to buy early.
Monetary Policy Transparency and Uncertainty: A Comparison between the Bank of England and the Bundesbank/ECB

It is widely believed that institutional arrangements influence the quality of monetary policy outcomes. Judged on its ‘transparency’ characteristics, therefore the Bank of England should do better than the Bundesbank/ECB. We show that this is not confirmed by agents’ ability to anticipate central bank decisions. Furthermore, benefits from transparency should also show in a narrowing of the diversity in cross sectional forecasts. We show that the diversity in interest rate forecasts is no greater under the Bundesbank/ECB than the Bank of England. This suggests that other factors than ‘transparency’ may affect interest rate uncertainty. Increasing difficulty in forecasting inflation appears to play a part in the UK while being less of a problem in Germany.
The Contraction of Meaning: The Combined Effect of Communication, Emotions, and Materiality on Sensemaking in the Stockwell Shooting

In this paper, we seek to understand how individuals, as part of a collective, commit themselves to a single, and possibly erroneous, frame, as a basis for sensemaking and coordinated actions. Using real-time data from an anti-terrorist police operation that led to the accidental shooting of an innocent civilian, we analyse how individual actors framed their circumstances in communication with one another and how this affected their subsequent interpretations and actions as events unfolded. Our analysis reveals, first, how the collective commitment to a framing of a civilian as a terrorist suicide bomber was built up and reinforced across episodes of collective sensemaking. Second, we elaborate on how the interaction between verbal communication, expressed and felt emotions, and material cues led to a contraction of meaning. This contraction stabilized and reinforced the overall framing at the exclusion of alternative interpretations. With our study we extend prior sensemaking research on environmental enactment and the escalation of commitment and elaborate on the role of emotions and materiality as part of sensemaking.
C-BAND DUAL-POLARIZATION SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR APPLICATION FOR PEAT DEPTH CLASSIFICATION: A CASE STUDY IN SIAK REGENCY, RIAU PROVINCE, INDONESIA

Knowledge of peat depth distribution is vitally important for accurately estimating carbon stock within tropical peatlands. These estimates aid in understanding the role of tropical peatlands in global environmental change processes. This study evaluates the potential of C-band dual-polarization synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data for peat depth classification on oil palm plantations in Siak Regency, Riau Province, Indonesia. Specifically, features derived after the ground-range radar cross section (sigma-naught or σ0) and slant-range perpendicular radar cross section (gamma-naught or γ0) for both polarization channels of C-band Sentinel-1 data were compared and evaluated on monthly basis, during 2015, for discriminating peat depth classes using the decision tree classifier. Overall, γ0 features yielded a higher value of distance factors (DF) for peat depth classes, for both polarization channels, than those produced by the σ0, indicating a better performance in discriminating peat depth classes. Moreover, the seasonal variation of rainfall intensity was discovered to be influencing feature selection for peat depth classification. Thus, the combination of γ0 features derived in the much rain months was selected for separating the shallowand medium-peat classes, whereas those derived in the less rain months was selected for discriminating the deepand very deep-peat classes. In addition, the developed methodology gave the best accuracy for the very deep-peat class, with 76% and 67.86%, producer’s accuracy (PA) and user’s accuracy (UA), respectively, followed by the shallow-peat class that yielded a PA of 64% and UA of 80%. Subsequently, the deep-peat class produced a PA of 58% and UA of 59.18%, whereas the medium-peat class yielded the lowest PA and UA, of 54% and 49.09%, respectively. This study showed that the C-band dual-polarization SAR data have potential for classifying peat depth classes, particularly on oil palm plantations, and might serve as an efficient tool in peat depth classification used for sustainable management of tropical peatlands.
Oxidative damage and associated inflammatory risk factors in obese Emirati women

Objectives: To establish whether body mass index (BMI) or waist circumference (WC) is a better predictor of cardio metabolic risk factors that are associated with increased visceral fat among obese women from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 333 obese subjects visiting community health centers in Al Ain city, UAE, were recruited between 2012 and 2015. After a written consent subjects had anthropometric, clinical and biochemical measurements. Fasting serum and plasma samples were collected for the measurement of markers of oxidative damage, antioxidants and inflammation. Outcome measures were compared between 4 equal BMI and WC quartiles. Results: We observed significantly higher blood pressure, c-reactive protein levels, IL6 levels, and protein carbonyls contents and lower b-carotene levels in the fourth quartile than in the first quartile for both BMI and WC (p<0.01). Glutathione peroxidase and adiponectin both decreased and TNF-a increased with increasing WC quartiles but not BMI quartiles; however, the results were statistically significant only for TNF-a (p=0.032). Conclusion: Both elevated BMI and elevated WC are associated with increased cardio metabolic risk factors in obese Emirati women; however, WC is a stronger predictor than is BMI.