Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the ability of goalkeepers in English Premier League football

This paper examines the performance of goalkeepers in the English Premier League. A commonly used metric to assess goalkeeper ability is the saves-to-shots ratio. It is shown that goalkeepers playing in weak teams have to defend against on-target shots that have a relatively high probability of scoring as compared to their counterparts in higher-performing teams. This tends to produce a downwards bias in the save-to-shots ratio of goalkeepers in weak teams, an effect which may lead to their ability being underestimated. A logistic regression model is used to adjust goalkeepers’ saves-to-shots ratios for differences in save difficulty. The adjusted ratio is more stable across seasons, suggesting that it is a more reliable estimate of true goalkeeper ability than the unadjusted ratio.
Observational Consequences of a Magnetic Flux Rope Emerging into the Corona

We show that a numerical simulation of a magnetic flux rope emerging into a coronal magnetic field predicts solar structures and dynamics consistent with observations. We first consider the structure, evolution, and relative location and orientation of -shaped, or sigmoid, active regions and filaments. The basic assumptions are that (1) X-ray sigmoids appear at the regions of the flux rope known as "bald-patch-associated separatrix surfaces (BPSSs), where, under dynamic forcing, current sheets can form, leading to reconnection and localized heating, and that (2) filaments are regions of enhanced density contained within dips in the magnetic flux rope. We demonstrate that the shapes and relative orientations and locations of the BPSS and dipped field are consistent with observations of X-ray sigmoids and their associated filaments. Moreover, we show that current layers indeed form along the sigmoidal BPSS as the flux rope is driven by the kink instability. Finally, we consider how apparent horizontal motions of magnetic elements at the photosphere caused by the emerging flux rope might be interpreted. In particular, we show that local correlation tracking analysis of a time series of magnetograms for our simulation leads to an underestimate of the amount of magnetic helicity transported into the corona by the flux rope, largely because of undetectable twisting motions along the magnetic flux surfaces. Observations of rotating sunspots may provide better information about such rotational motions, and we show that if we consider the separated flux rope legs as proxies for fully formed sunspots, the amount of rotation that would be observed before the region becomes kink unstable would be in the range 40°-200° per leg/sunspot, consistent with observations.
ON THE PRICING EFFECT OF EARNINGS QUALITY

School of Economics PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of the study is to examine the interplay between earnings quality, information risk and cost of equity capital. Total accruals quality metric which is a numerical estimation based on a firm's residual accruals is used to depict earnings quality in this thesis. Total ac- cruals quality is further decomposed into innate accruals quality and discretionary accruals quality in order to examine their pricing implications separately. The thesis contributes to the ongoing discussion of whether firm-specific information risk is a priced risk factor, and what is the mechanism through which information risk affects expected returns. DATA AND METHODOLOGY The thesis employs an extensive sample of data drawn from the US market in 1970-2006. The earnings quality proxies used in the study rely solely on accounting data, which are re- trieved from Compustat North America Annual file. These proxies are used to construct fac- tor mimicking portfolios, whose returns represent the exposure to that particular risk factor. The monthly firm returns data are retrieved from CRSP Monthly Stock file and the other re- turn items are retrieved from Wharton Research Data Services (wrds). Asset-pricing method- ology is then applied to study the effect of total accruals quality, innate accruals quality and discretionary accruals quality on expected returns. RESULTS The results provide consistent evidence that total accruals quality is a priced risk factor. The main results from two-stage cross-sectional regressions do not have implications as regards the magnitude of the accruals quality risk premium, but the average positive coefficients indi- cate that poor accruals quality increase expected returns. The results for innate accruals quali- ty are similar to that of total accruals quality, except that the risk premium implied by the av- erage positive coefficient estimates appears actually larger. This suggests that the pricing ef- fect of total accruals quality may be attributable to the innate components of accruals quality. The results on discretionary accruals quality are somewhat mixed, and the hypothesis that discretionary accruals are just noise in earnings cannot be rejected.
Competition and Economic Growth: an Empirical Analysis for a Panel of 20 OECD Countries

This paper aims at analyzing, from an empirical point of view, the relationship between product market competition and economic growth, using the data on multi-factor productivity for a panel of 20 OECD countries over a period 1995-2005, and considering the role of the distance from the technological frontier in the growth process. Section A examines the impact of economic freedom and of the distance to frontier on the level and on the growth rate of multi-factor productivity. The analysis distinguishes between the indicators of business freedom and trade freedom, as proxies for the competitive pressures coming from domestic market and from foreign market. Then, trade liberalizations are more beneficial for the countries far from the frontier, because they can exploit the opportunities given by international trade also in order to adopt the existing technologies developed by the advanced economies. On the other hand, business liberalizations are more advantageous for the countries close to the frontier, because the elimination of regulatory barriers increases the possibility of entry in the market and then rises the potential competition to the incumbent firms. Section B studies the effect of product market regulation, employment protection legislation and of the distance to frontier on the level and on the growth rate of multi-factor productivity. Product market liberalization as well as labour market deregulation determine an increase of total factor productivity: moreover, the interaction of market rigidities with the distance to the frontier mostly displays an innovationenhancing effect, since the positive effect of market liberalizations on TFP is higher for the countries close to the frontier, where the existing technology level would reinforce the incentive for innovation.
The solar differential rotation in the 18th century

The sunspot drawings of Johann Staudacher of 1749–1799 were used to determine the solar differential rotation in that period. These drawings of the full disk lack any indication of their orientation. We used a Bayesian estimator to obtain the position angles of the drawings, the corresponding heliographic spot positions, a time offset between the drawings and the differential rotation parameter δΩ, assuming the equatorial rotation period is the same as today. The drawings are grouped in pairs, and the resulting marginal distributions for δΩ were multiplied. We obtain δ Ω= −0.048 ± 0.025 d −1 (−2.75 ◦ /d) for the entire period. There is no significant difference to the value of the present Sun. We find an (insignificant) indication for a change of δΩ throughout the observing period from strong differential rotation, δΩ ≈− 0.07 d −1 , to weaker differential rotation, δΩ ≈− 0.04 d −1 .
Embodied Experience and Communicative Intentions of the Singing Performer

Theories of Embodied Cognition assert that simulation mechanisms underlie inter-subjective communication. On this basis we posit that by solely assessing only visual component of a performance, a naïve audience could make similar judgments to those ones elicited by audiovisual or aural perception. Five vocal performances by performers of different levels of expertise were assessed using various of perception (audiovisual, visual and aural perception) by 90 musically uneducated subjects randomly assigned to a specific modality. Subject’s task consisted of pronounce an aesthetical judgment of the performances using an 11-point scale. Results assessed by ANOVA test of repeated measures showed significant differences between the factors SINGERS (F 16,296 p< 0,000) and CONDITION (F 8,622 p< 0,001) meaning that singers were judged differently among them and that, judgments were quantitatively different through each perceptual modality. Instead, factors’ interaction (SINGERS x CONDITION) was non significant (F 1,090 p<0,372) indicating that each singer was similarly evaluated via the three perceptual modalities. Consequently, results support the idea of a cross-modal correspondence in the reception of vocal performance. Besides, the lack of knowledge of the lyrics and the style of the musical piece on the part of the audience, allows us to suppose that judgments were based on sensory-motor simulations.
In vitro evaluation of the antifungal activity of Sclerocarya birrea extracts against pathogenic yeasts

The antifungal activity of Sclerocarya birrea which is used in South African traditional medicine for the treatment of skin diseases was evaluated against three yeasts; Candida parapsilosis, Cryptococcus albidus and Rhodoturula mucilaginosa. Barks of S. birrea were extracted with hexane, dichloromethane (DCM), chloroform, ethyl acetate, acetone, methanol and ethanol and tested against these three yeasts. The antifungal assay was performed by the microdilution technique and bioautography. Thin layer chromatography was used to analyze the phytocompounds of the extracts as well as to assay the plant for antioxidant compounds. More compounds with antioxidant activity were observed in polar separation system, ethyl cetate:methanol:water (EMW). All test organisms were resistant against all non-polar extracts. Acetone, ethanol and methanol S. birrea extracts had average MIC values of 0.39, 0.22 and 0.27 mg/ml, respectively. C. albidus was the most sensitive organism with an average MIC value of 0.17 mg/ml. Average total activity was highest for methanol (387 ml/g) followed by ethanol (363 ml/g) and acetone (299 ml/g) bark extracts. Acetone and methanolic bark extracts were more active in EMW system at Rf values of 0.07, 0.32 and 0.70 against C. parapsilosis. The results showed that the plant could be further explored for possible antifungal agents and provides preliminary scientific validation of the traditional medicinal use of this plant.
Male chickadees match neighbors interactively at dawn: support for the social dynamics hypothesis

Males of many songbird species participate in a distinct chorus beginning before sunrise. Despite its ubiquity, the function of dawn chorusing remains poorly understood. We tested the social dynamics hypothesis, which states that males sing at dawn to mediate their social relationships with neighbors through interactive communication. Using a 16-microphone acoustic location system, we recorded 29 entire dawn choruses in 10 neighborhoods of 6--10 territorial male black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) of known dominance rank. We analyzed song frequency matching and overlapping between neighboring males in 10 choruses and compared the intensity of these behaviors with social factors. Chickadees matched the frequency of their neighbor's songs more often than expected by chance. The level of matching was higher between neighbors who belonged to different flocks during the previous winter than between neighbors who had been flockmates. Males of the same dominance rank matched each other more than males of disparate ranks. There was no relationship between matching and pairing status or distance between opponents. Overlapping was used less than expected by chance. No measures of song overlapping were related to measured social factors. Our results show that neighboring male chickadees interact vocally at dawn by frequency matching. This is the first study to show that the intensity of songbird vocal interactions at dawn varies with social factors, supporting the social dynamics hypothesis. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.
Survival of Brooding and Broadcasting Reef Corals Following Large Scale Disturbances: Is There Any Hope for Broadcasting Species During Global Warming?

The reproductive ecology of extant equatorial eastern Pacific (EEP) zooxanthellate scleractinian corals is examined relative to projected global warming conditions. Life history characteristics and patterns of abundance and distribution of 13 recently studied species in Costa Rica, Panamá, and the Galápagos Islands are considered. Twelve of these are broadcast spawners, which are numerically abundant, widely distributed, and the principal EEP reef builders. Porites panamensis, the lone brooder, is a small nodular coral with a restricted distribution. The majority of the broadcasting species are highly fecund, release gametes during large parts of the year, and produce sexual recruits that appear to disperse relatively far to diverse habitats. Asexual fragmentation is also common in most EEP broadcasting species compared to P. panamensis. We hypothesize that diverse habitats and varying environmental conditions (e.g., upwelling/nonupwelling centers, varying thermal conditions, high/low turbidity, high/low productivity, El Niño/La Niña activity) increase the probability of survival of sexual recruits and the asexual fragments of broadcasting species. Surviving refuge populations could serve as sources to repopulate degraded coral communities. The EEP reef coral fauna, dominantly broadcasting species, possess traits (e.g., high fecundity, widely dispersed) that could help resist environmental challenges during global warming.
The Political Externalities of Immigration: Evidence from the United States

In a standard median voter model, low-income immigration increases the size of the welfare state. Other research suggests evidence for a group-interested voter model, which predicts that welfare will shrink with an increase in low-income immigration. We contend that neither model accurately describes political reality after testing these theories with United States data from 1970 to 2010. We use a variety of measures for welfare and related public spending such as K-12 education, Medicaid, and unemployment insurance. Contrary to expectations from previous work focused on Europe, we find that the amount of immigrant-driven ethnic and racial diversity does not have a significant effect on these spending areas, whether considered in total expenditure or per capita. This could be due to countervailing pressures from these two models of voter motivation or due to factors unrelated to immigration, such as differences in institutions.
Endogenous governance transparency and product market competition SERIEs-Journal of the Spanish Economic Association Provided in Cooperation with : Spanish Economic Association

This paper analyzes the determinants of governance transparency. In our model, entrepreneurs optimally decide the precision of their earning reporting by trading off the possibility of expropriating profits against the capacity to attract external funding. We find that information is only valuable if enough quality of it is disclosed. Otherwise, the entrepreneur will always pretend to be unsuccessful and the capital market will break down. If, by contrast, a minimum precision level is ensured, fund diversion will be zero but full disclosure is still not achieved. We show that an important driving force behind governance transparency is product market competition. Tougher competition leads to more firms competing for funding, which in turn changes how resources are allocated since each individual firm becomes less important in the portfolio choice. Firms react to this loss of market power by increasing transparency. Furthermore, firms characterized by low corporate profits or firms in a country with a strong legal system will be more likely to avoid voluntary disclosure regimes.
Evidence for differences between winter wheat cultivars in acquisition of soil mineral nitrogen and uptake and utilization of applied fertilizer nitrogen

The response of cultivars to applied nitrogen was examined in 11 seasons, 1982–92, in two experiments per year, normally testing seven cultivars at seven rates of fertilizer nitrogen. In all, 27 cultivars were tested in 22 experiments throughout Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Suffolk. Cultivars ranged in their date of introduction from Maris Huntsman (1969) to Hereward (1988). For each cultivar in each experiment, the economic optimum yield (Yopt), the amount of fertilizer N needed to produce it (Nopt), the grain %N at Nopt, the offtake of N in the grain at nil N (Noff(N0)) and Nopt (Noff(opt)) and the estimated recovery of fertilizer in the grain at Nopt (AFRopt) were estimated by fitting linear plus exponential curves to data for grain yield and two-straight-line models to data for grain N offtake. From cross-site analysis, normalized cultivar means were calculated for each variate. Over the 20-year period relating to the cultivars in the trial, the contribution of new genotypes to grain yield improvement was 1·92 t/ha, Yopt increasing by 96 kg/ha per year. There was no change in grain %N at Nopt. The effect of changes through breeding from 1969 to 1988 was to increase Noff(opt) by 42 kg/ha (2·1 kg/ha per year), that was associated with a decrease in Noff(N0) (equivalent of soil N offtake) of 15 kg/ha (0·77 kg/ha per year). Part of the increased requirement for fertilizer N was fulfilled by an increase in AFRopt of 18% over the 20-year period. The net effect was for Nopt itself to increase by 56 kg/ha (2·8 kg/ha per year). Since survey evidence indicates no general increase in N use on wheat by farmers since the mid-1980s, it appears that current fertilizer use by farmers may be underestimating the requirement for N now. Alternatively in previous years N requirements may have been overestimated. The change in N available for loss to the environment, from the balance of grain Noff(opt) and Nopt, was from 11 kg N/ha in 1969 compared to 25 kg N/ha in 1988. It seems possible that the potential increase in nitrate levels in groundwater associated with plant type may not have been realised because farmers have conserved the amount of N they use.
Micropropagation of Brasilidium forbesii (Orchidaceae) through transverse and longitudinal thin cell layer culture

An efficient in vitro propagation method was established for Brasilidium forbesii (Hook.) Campacci using transverse and longitudinal thin cell layer (tTCL and lTCL, respectively) culture systems. Six-month-old protocorms from in vitro germinated seeds were used for this study. TCLs (1.0-mm thick) from protocorms were grown on Woody Plant Medium (WPM) supplemented with benzyladenine (BA) (0.5–4.0 µM). The lTCL technique was more efficient for inducing protocorm-like bodies (PLBs) and regenerating shoots than the tTCL technique. The frequency of PLB formation was influenced by BA concentration, and the lTCL explant grown on a medium containing 2.0 µM BA produced the highest percentage of new protocorms (77%) with a total of 22.7 PLBs per explant, after the first subculture on the same medium. Plantlet development was optimal on WPM medium containing 3.0 g L -1 activated charcoal, and indole-3-butyric acid was not necessary for rooting. Regenerated plants were successfully acclimatized in a greenhouse after 16 weeks using vermiculite as the substrate (100% survival).
Creating Market Socialism

Acknowlegments ix 1. How Narratives Shape Institutional Change 1 2. Narratives and the Socialist Stratification System 31 3. Harbin: From Paris of the East to the Rust Belt 54 4. The Path of Power: Revising the Meaning of Political Capital 81 5. Constructing Entrepreneurship: The Moral Meaning of Money 122 6. Trust in Knowledge: Human Capital and the Emerging Suzhi Hierarchy 157 7. The Narrative Construction of Class and Status under Market Socialism: The Emerging Suzhi Hierarchy 181 Appendix 1. Fieldwork Sites and Interview Sample and Questions 191 Appendix 2. Glossary of Chinese Terms 197 Notes 201 Bibliography 205 Index 217
On Excess Compensation Earned by Underwriters in Firm Commitment Initial Public Offerings of Common Stock: An Empirical Analysis

This paper examines compensation for the underwriting activity in firm commitment initial public offerings (IPOs) of common stock in the U.S. When compensation for origination, management and marketing efforts are excluded from total underwriter compensation, we find that the portion of the total compensation assigned for the underwriting activity itself exceeds theoretical compensation only for issues that sell out very quickly. We interpret this finding as empirical evidence supporting the incentive for underwriters to underprice IPOs. Finally, we find excess compensation to underwriters is positively related to the riskiness of the IPO and negatively related to the degree of competition among investment bankers and the size of the IPO.
The Effect of Different Price Presentations on Consumer Impulse Buying Behavior: The Role of Anticipated Regret

Previous research has shown that personal qualities and shopping situations affect choice of consumer impulse buying behavior during sales promotion. When implementing a price reduction, retailers tend to favor one practice over the other. Yet how different implementations of a price promotion influence consumer impulse buying behavior has been insufficiently studied. Here, we framed a price reduction in the amount of money versus percentage on products to investigate how the underlying mechanism (anticipated regret) influences likelihood to impulse buying. Compared with percentage-off presentation, the findings indicate that presentation shown at the amount of money leads to higher anticipated regret and consumer impulse buying intention. We also find that the price level of product is the boundary condition, which plays a moderating role.
AN M DWARF COMPANION TO AN F-TYPE STAR IN A YOUNG MAIN-SEQUENCE BINARY

Only a few well characterized very low-mass M dwarfs are known today. Our understanding of M dwarfs is vital as these are the most common stars in our solar neighborhood. We aim to characterize the properties of a rare F+dM stellar system for a better understanding of the low-mass end of the Hertzsprung–Russel diagram. We used photometric light curves and radial velocity follow-up measurements to study the binary. Spectroscopic analysis was used in combination with isochrone fitting to characterize the primary star. The primary star is an early F-type main-sequence star with a mass of (1.493 ± 0.073) M⊙ and a radius of (1.474 ± 0.040) R⊙. The companion is an M dwarf with a mass of (0.188 ± 0.014) M⊙ and a radius of (0.234 ± 0.009) R⊙. The orbital period is (1.35121 ± 0.00001) days. The secondary star is among the lowest-mass M dwarfs known to date. The binary has not reached a 1:1 spin–orbit synchronization. This indicates a young main-sequence binary with an age below ∼250 Myr. The mass–radius relation of both components are in agreement with this finding.