Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Political Connections, Founder-Managers, and Their Impact on Tunnelling in China's Listed Firms

We investigate the impact of manager political connection and founder status on tunneling in China's listed firms from 2004 to 2010. By classifying the political connections into three dimensions with two categories of controlling ownerships, we find that overall manager political connection is negatively related to tunneling in private firms but positively related to tunneling in SOEs. The CPC/CPPCC-type connection is likely to protect firms from tunneling, while the official-type connection facilitates tunneling from firms. The impact of these two types of political connection on tunneling is stronger at the central level than the local level. A chairman's political connection has significantly greater influence on tunneling than a CEO's connection. We also find that firms with founder-managers have a stronger resistance to tunneling than those with non-founder-managers, which is still observed in firms with politically connected founder-managers. Our results show that the incentives of various managers towards tunneling depend on their motivation for establishing relevant political connections.
Thermal thresholds and critical period of thermolabile sex determination in two atherinid fishes, Odontesthes bonariensis and Patagonina hatcheri

Atherinidae is a family of fishes known to include at least three species with documented thermolabile sex determination. In Odontesthes bonariensis, fish exposed to about 17°C from hatching to juvenile stage become all-female, whereas groups exposed to about 25°C become male-biased. In contrast, sex in another atherinid, Patagonina hatcheri, appears to be under stronger genotypic control because the sex ratios are always balanced (1:1) within the same range of temperatures. The main purpose of this study was to determine the effect of temperature on the sex ratios of both species over their full range of viable temperatures. In addition, we determined the critical time of thermolabile sex determination in O. bonariensis at female- and male-forming temperatures. O. bonariensis larvae survived at temperatures between 13 and 29°C, but growth was negligible at 13 and 15°C. The proportions of females were 100% at 13-19°C, 95% at 21°C, 81.2% at 23°C, 29.4% at 25°C, 10% at 27°C, and 0% at 29°C. These results indicate a gradual transition from female- to male-forming temperatures evenly spread over the range of viable temperatures and hence the absence of any marked thermal threshold for thermolabile/ genotypic control of sex; they also suggest weak or no genotypic control of sex in this species. In addition, prolonged exposure to 29°C caused disappearance of germ cells. The critical time of thermolabile sex determination in O. bonariensis was estimated to be 3-5 wk, 2-4 wk, and 1-4 wk after hatching at 17, 19, and 27°C, respectively. Survival of P. hatcheri was limited to tempera- tures between 13 and 27°C (only 8.7% at the latter temperature) with slow but steady growth at 13 and 15°C. The proportions of females were 88.9 and 89.5% at 13 and 15°C, respectively, about 50% at temperatures between 17 and 23°C, and 30.8% at 25°C, hence, showing one clear threshold for thermolabile/genotypic control of sex at 15-17°C and possibly another at or around 25°C. These results confirmed that gonadal sex in this species is under genotypic control at intermediate tem- peratures but also showed that this control can be overridden at low (and possibly also at high) temperatures. J. Exp. Zool. 278:167-177, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
THE ROLE OF THE LEARNING STYLES IN BLENDED LEARNING

Education that is in line with the blended model and carried out with the help of videos enables, above all, flexible participation in study. Various participation modes enabled by video are suitable for different kinds of learners. The interaction when studying with videos differs from that in face-to-face teaching. Among other things, videos allow pauses in study and enable study in peace. This study examines the role of various learning preferences, so-called learning styles, in blended learning. The study is based on a learning style mapping made for students and on data collected over several years about their study participation styles in education that is in accordance with the blended model.
Variation in growth, photosynthesis and water-soluble polysaccharide of Cyclocarya paliurus under different light regimes

Abstract: As a highly valued and multiple function tree species, Cyclocarya paliurus is planted and managed for timber production and medical use. Responses of growth, photosynthesis and phytochemical accumulation to light environment are useful informations to determine suitable habitat conditions for the cultivation of C. paliurus. A split-plot design with five light quality and three light intensity levels was adopted to compare the variations in plant growth, photosynthesis and water-soluble polysaccharide yield in C. paliurus leaves. Both light intensity and quality treatments significantly affected total biomass, photosynthetic rate and water-soluble polysaccharide yield in C. paliurus leaves. Treatments under red light and blue light with 1000 μmol m-2 s-1 achieved the highest values of biomass growth, photosynthetic rate, specific dry leaf mass per area and accumulation of water-soluble polysaccharide. These results indicate that red light and blue light with higher light intensity level were effective for increasing plant growth, photosynthesis and production of water-soluble polysaccharide in C. paliurus leaves. Manipulating light conditions might be an effective means to improve biomass and achieve higher water-soluble polysaccharide yield in C. paliurus plantations.
Regional issues in environmental management

This paper addresses environment management in East Asia. We first set out to examine whether the latecomer’s economies in East Asia enjoy technological spillover effects or suffer pollution haven damages in their environmental pollution management, in other words, which of latecomer’s advantage or latecomer’s disadvantage for pollution control dominates in East Asian economies. We found two contrasting results among the environmental indices: 1) per capita consumption of ozone-depleting substances and industrial organic water pollutant emissions indicate monotonic decreasing trends with per capita real GDP while per capita carbon dioxide emissions show monotonic increasing trend, and 2) consumption of ozone-depleting substances and industrial organic water pollutant emissions represent the dominance of the latecomer’s advantage while carbon dioxide emissions reveal that of the latecomer’s disadvantage. We second discuss what the regional framework of environmental cooperation should be in East Asia. We argue that non-binding approach as regional framework of environmental cooperation may be an optimal choice for East Asia, in the sense that it provides the “easier”, “faster” and “deeper” framework regardless of economical, political, and historical constraints.
THE CAUSALITY BETWEEN SAVINGS AND GDP IN IRAN

This paper examines causal relationships between gross domestic savings (GDS) and GDP for Iran using annual data over the period 1970-2008. The Gregory-Hansen (1996) cointegration technique, allowing for the presence of potential structural breaks in data, is applied to empirically examine the long-run co-movement between GDS and GDP. The results suggest that there is a long-run relationship between these variables. The evidence also indicates that the value of the income elasticity of saving before the regime shift is 1.32, amounting to 0.51, much less than unity, after the regime shift happening with Islamic revolution (1979-2008). It means that savings rate decreases when income increases during the second regime. The Granger Causality test indicates strong unidirectional effects from GDP to GDS. But there is no evidence that GDS promotes long-term economic growth. Moreover, the main results in this paper confirm that there is an instantaneous as well as unidirectional causal link running from GDP to GDS. So the findings of this paper support the consumption theories such as Keynesian point of view that it is higher economic growth that leads to higher saving growth. According to the results, it seems that oil revenues have mostly contributed to investment and economic growth during the sample period. JEL classifications: C12; C22; C52; E21; F43
The impact of QTL allele frequency distribution on the accuracy of genomic prediction

Abstract. The accuracy of genomic prediction of quantitative traits based on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers depends among other factors on the allele frequency distribution of quantitative trait loci (QTL). Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate different QTL allele frequency distributions and their effect on the accuracy of genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) using best linear unbiased genomic prediction (GBLUP) in simulated data. A population of 1000 individuals composed of 500 males and 500 females as well as a genome of 1000 cM consisting of 10 chromosomes and with a mutation rate of 2.5 × 10−5 per locus was simulated. QTL frequencies were derived from five distributions of allele frequency including constant, uniform, U-shaped, L-shaped and minor allele frequency (MAF) less than 0.01 (lowMAF). QTL effects were generated from a standard normal distribution. The number of QTL was assumed to be 500, and the simulation was done in 10 replications. The genomic prediction accuracy in the first-validation generation in constant, and the uniform allele frequency distribution was 0.59 and 0.57, respectively. Results showed that the highest accuracy of GEBVs was obtained with constant and uniform distributions followed by L-shaped, U-shaped and lowMAF QTL allele frequency distribution. The regression of true breeding values on predicted breeding values in the first-validation generation was 0.94, 0.92, 0.88, 0.85 and 0.75 for constant, uniform, L-shaped, U-shaped and lowMAF distributions, respectively. Depite different values of regression coefficients, in all scenarios GEBVs are biased downward. Overall, results showed that when QTL had a lower MAF relative to SNP markers, a low linkage disequilibrium (LD) was observed, which had a negative effect on the accuracy of GEBVs. Hence, the effect of the QTL allele frequency distribution on prediction accuracy can be alleviated through using a genomic relationship weighted by MAF or an LD-adjusted relationship matrix.
The Correlation between Basal Isoprene Emissions and Climate of the Native Range across Oak Species

Isoprene is a biogenic volatile organic compound that is emitted by various plant species and plays an important role in the chemistry of the atmosphere. When it reacts with pollutants in the air, such as nitrogen oxides, the precursor to ozone (O3) is formed. In this experiment, we measured leaf emissions from 20 different oak species at the Morton Arboretum (Lisle, Illinois). The aim was to better understand differences in isoprene emissions across oak species. Since emissions have been found to protect leaves against brief periods of heat stress, we hypothesized that oaks native to areas with greater variations in temperature will have higher isoprene emissions than species native to regions with smaller variations in temperature. This study did not find evidence to support this hypothesis, though it could be due in part to lack of adequate climate data and information about the specific geographical ranges of species. When we continued to analyze the data, we found a positive correlation between isoprene emissions from oaks and actual temperature at the Morton Arboretum on the days that isoprene emissions were measured. This result, however, only looks at the measurements pooled across all species, and does not consider individual species. 1 Babiez: The Correlation between Basal Isoprene Emissions and Climate of t Published by Via Sapientiae, 2016
EM Scattering from a Long Dielectric Circular Cylinder

A new iterative technique based on the T -matrix approach is proposed for the electromagnetic scattering by dielectric cylinders, in particular cylinders with large aspect ratios. For such cases the conventional T -matrix approach fails. We use hypothetic surfaces to divide a cylinder into a cluster of N identical sub-cylinder, for each the T matrix can be directly calculated. Since any two neighboring sub- cylinder are touching via the division interface, the conventional multi- scatterer equation method is not directly applicable. The coupling among sub-cylinder and boundary conditions at the interfaces are taken care of in our approach. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated through agreement between theoretical predictions and numerical simulations as well as measurements for scattering from dielectric circular cylinders with finite length. The results clearly demonstrate that the new iterative technique can extend regular T - matrix approach to solve cylindrical cases with large aspect ratio.
Role of Image Value and Functional Value in Developing the Purchase Intentions and WOM Marketing

This study investigates the psychological process by which Image Value and Functional Value influence the Brand Attitude, Brand Attachment, Purchase intentions and word of mouth recommendations of the customers in the garment sector. Following three questions were hypothesized for this study: (1) Will the image value and functional value have a significant contribution in developing the brand attitude and attachment? (2) Do the brand attitude and attachment significantly affect the purchase intentions and WoM? (3) Which mediator is strongly mediating the image/function value and purchase intentions/WoM relationship? The study was conducted in the District Gujrat (Pakistan) in the branded garment sectors. The mixed method sampling approach was adopted. Data from 524 respondents were collected by using self-administrated questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed by employing SEM to assess the impact of the above mentioned factors on Purchase Intentions. The findings revealed that customers pay more attention to those brands to which they have strong attachment, loyalty, attitude and perceived quality. On the basis of findings and concluded results, Purchase Intentions can be created and reinforced through strong building of Brand Equity by focusing on highlighted antecedents of Brand Equity. Keywords: Customer’s value, Word of Mouth, Brand Equity, Purchase Intentions.
The HADES RV Programme with HARPS-N@TNG II. Data treatment and simulations

The distribution of exoplanets around low-mass stars is still not well understood. Such stars, however, present an excellent opportunity of reaching down to the rocky and habitable planet domains. The number of current detections used for statistical purposes is still quite modest and different surveys, using both photometry and precise radial velocities, are searching for planets around M dwarfs. Our HARPS-N red dwarf exoplanet survey is aimed at the detection of new planets around a sample of 78 selected stars, together with the subsequent characterization of their activity properties. Here we investigate the survey performance and strategy. From 2700 observed spectra, we compare the radial velocity determinations of the HARPS-N DRS pipeline and the HARPS-TERRA code, we calculate the mean activity jitter level, we evaluate the planet detection expectations, and we address the general question of how to define the strategy of spectroscopic surveys in order to be most efficient in the detection of planets. We find that the HARPS-TERRA radial velocities show less scatter and we calculate a mean activity jitter of 2.3 m/s for our sample. For a general radial velocity survey with limited observing time, the number of observations per star is key for the detection efficiency. In the case of an early M-type target sample, we conclude that approximately 50 observations per star with exposure times of 900 s and precisions of about 1 m/s maximizes the number of planet detections.
Distribution and level of arsenic in selected environmental indicators

In this study, total arsenic was determined in soil, common grass (Cenchrus ciliaris), plant leaf (Dogwood; Cornus florida) and an invertebrate (Stag beetle; Rhinotia hemistictus). This was with a view of investigating its distribution and level in the environment. Samples were randomly collected from stratified sections of the study area, processed and analysed using validated acid extraction technique. Detection of arsenic was by use of ICP-OES. Percentage recovery range of 78-92% was obtained and can be adjudged acceptable for application. Overall mean concentration of arsenic ranged from 0.35 ± 0.12 to 2.52 ± 1.85 mg kg-1; 0.01 ± 0.03 to 0.34 mg kg-1; 0.02 ± 0.03 to 0.46 mg kg-1 and 0.04 ± 0.02 to 0.72 ± 0.54 mg kg-1 across sampling sections 1 to 4 for soil, grass, leaf and insect samples respectively. Arsenic was detected in all samples, however levels obtained were below prescribed toxicity limits. Samples were highly contaminated based on contamination factors of > 6. The strong correlation coefficients (> 0.9) showed association between arsenic and analysed samples while analysis of variance revealed no statistical significant difference between arsenic and samples. The study revealed widespread distribution of arsenic in analysed samples which portend serious health implications across the food chain. Key words: Pollution, trace metal, grass, arsenic, environment, health, invertebrate, Namibia.
Habitat Requirements and Occurrence of Crematogaster pilosa (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Ants within Intertidal Salt Marshes

Abstract Spartina alterniflora Loisel. (Poales: Poaceae) salt marshes provide unique conditions for organisms to develop specialized morphological and behavioral traits. Crematogaster pilosa Emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) ants nest in S. alterniflora stems and display polydomy (i.e., multiple nests per colony), which has not been observed in terrestrial populations of this species. We identified new colonies of C. pilosa in S. alterniflora dominated salt marshes of Sapelo Island, Georgia (USA), and characterized the vegetation structure associated with ant presence. Crematogaster pilosa colonies were found most often 2 to 10 m from tidal creek channels in areas with expansive intermediate-height S. alterniflora. Marsh patches with abundant brown leaf vegetation above the high water level were most likely to have ants present (P = 0.03). These areas have extensive vegetation that remains dry during tidal advances, are protected from tidal surges, and most often occur along depositional banks of tidal creeks. Ant populations do not occur in the upland portion of the S. alterniflora marsh, presumably due to a lack of elevated habitat. Persistence of C. pilosa within S. alterniflora salt marshes is tied to the availability of connected habitat that avoids tidal submersion. The narrow band of intermediate-height S. alterniflora plants along tidal creeks provides both the needed horizontal structure and dry vegetation, allowing a terrestrial ant to colonize this seemingly atypical environment.
Signature of ionospheric irregularities under different geophysical conditions on SBAS performance in the western African low-latitude region

Abstract. Rate of change of TEC (ROT) and its index (ROTI) are considered a good proxy to characterize the occurrence of ionospheric plasma irregularities like those observed after sunset at low latitudes. SBASs (satellite-based augmentation systems) are civil aviation systems that provide wide-area or regional improvement to single-frequency satellite navigation using GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) constellations. Plasma irregularities in the path of the GNSS signal after sunset cause severe phase fluctuations and loss of locks of the signals in GNSS receiver at low-latitude regions. ROTI is used in this paper to characterize plasma density ionospheric irregularities in central–western Africa under nominal and disturbed conditions and identified some days of irregularity inhibition. A specific low-latitude algorithm is used to emulate potential possible SBAS message using real GNSS data in the western African low-latitude region. The performance of a possible SBAS operation in the region under different ionospheric conditions is analysed. These conditions include effects of geomagnetic disturbed periods when SBAS performance appears to be enhanced due to ionospheric irregularity inhibition. The results of this paper could contribute to a feasibility assessment of a European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System-based SBAS in the sub-Saharan African region.
Cross-cultural validation of switching costs: a four-country assessment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a cross-cultural scale of customers’ perceived switching costs (PSCs). Customers’ PSCs function as a powerful defensive marketing tool that restrains customers from switching. Design/methodology/approach – Four sets of survey data were collected in the UK, Egypt, Germany, and China. An overall response rate of 86 percent was achieved across the four countries. Cross-cultural equivalence of the PSCs scale was assessed using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. Findings – Tests of configural, metric, and factor variance invariance confirmed that the PSCs scale is appropriate for meaningful cross-cultural comparisons. Research limitations/implications – Data were collected in four countries from the financial service context. Future researchers should test the short-form PSCs (PSCs-S) scale across different cultural and industrial contexts to enhance its generalizability. Practical implications – The cross-cultural PSCs-S scale presented here will enhanc.
Seasonal Analysis of Flexible Pavement Response to Falling Weight Deflectometer

Seasonal variation in pavement material properties can affect the in-situ measured pavement responses including deflections, stresses and strains. While previous field studies have mostly focused on the seasonal changes in Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD)'s deflection basin, the simultaneous variations of stresses and strains were not usually monitored. The present study assesses seasonal impact on horizontal and vertical strains at the bottom of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) as well as unbound layers' stress at different depths. Several FWD tests were conducted from October, 2013 to December, 2014 in instrumented test road facility in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The obtained results showed that the pressure on top of base layer in the thaw season can exceed the one in the freeze season twice as much. Similarly, significant seasonal variations of horizontal and vertical strains at the bottom of the HMA were noticed. The present study concludes that using backcalculated layers' moduli may result in overestimation of the vertical stress within unbound layers and HMA horizontal strain, while underestimating HMA vertical strain.