Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Risk and Return from Factors

Abstract The ability to identify which factors best capture systematic return covariation is central to applications of multifactor pricing models. This paper uses a common data set to evaluate the performance of various proposed factors in capturing return comovements. Factors associated with the market, size, past return, book-to-market, and dividend yield help explain return comovement on an out-of-sample basis (although they are not necessarily associated with large premiums in average returns). Except for the default premium and the term premium, macroeconomic factors perform poorly. We document regularities in the behavior of the more important factors, and confirm their influence in the Japanese and U.K. markets as well.
Distinguishing beliefs from preferences in food choice

In the past two decades, there has been an explosion of studies eliciting consumer willingness-to-pay for food attributes; however, this work has largely refrained from drawing a distinction between preferences for health, safety and quality on the one hand and consumers' subjective beliefs that the products studied possess these attributes, on the other. Using data from three experimental studies, along with structural economic models, we show that controlling for subjective beliefs can substantively alter the interpretation of results and the ultimate implications derived from a study. The results suggest the need to measure subjective beliefs in studies of consumer choice and to utilise the measures when making policy and marketing recommendations.
Seasonal food shortages and coping strategies adopted by rural households in Northern Ghana

A household survey was conducted in four villages in the Bolgatanga District of northern Ghana with the objective of identifying causes and effects of seasonal food shortages and coping strategies adopted by households to increase food availability. Data was collected using structured questionnaires from 200 households selected by the simple random technique and was analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square test and probit model estimation. Findings of the study showed that effects of food shortages on households included difficulties in maintaining wards in schools and inability to register under the National Health Insurance Scheme as indicated by about 80.0% of the respondents. The chi-square analysis showed that household size and farm size were related to farm per capita output at 5 and 10% significant levels respectively. The probit analysis showed that education, farm size, income from off-farm activities, income from rearing and sale of livestock/poultry and receipt of remittances were the significant variables that determined household food availability at 5% significant level. The study recommends that efforts at reducing food insecurity among rural households should focus on increasing rural household income by engaging in off-farm income generating activities, literacy promotion, food supply and credit provision.
Does intellectual capital matter? High-performance work systems and bilateral innovative capabilities

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to develop a systematic understanding of the mechanisms through which high-performance work systems (HPWSs) facilitate the incremental and radical innovative capabilities of organizations. Using a knowledge-based view of the firm, the paper introduces the mediating role of intellectual capital (composed of human, organizational and social capital) while examining this issue. Design/methodology/approach - – Data were collected using a questionnaire survey approach from 164 firms in the People's Republic of China. The paper used analyses based on structural equation modeling to measure the main constructs and test the hypothesized relationships among the variables. Findings - – The results indicate that HPWSs contribute to both the incremental and radical innovative capabilities of organizations. In addition, intellectual capital mediates the relationships between HPWSs and different types of innovative capabilities. Specifically, organizational and social capital mediate the relationship between HPWSs and incremental innovative capability, whereas social capital mediates the relationship between HPWSs and radical innovative capability. Originality/value - – The study supports and expands on the strategic human resource management (SHRM) literature and knowledge-based view of the firm in terms of whether, why and how HPWSs can develop a competitive advantage on the basis of innovation.
Finding Their Way? Female Employment Patterns in West Germany, East Germany, and Poland

The aim of this article is to examine how (i) children and (ii) the existence and potential earnings of husbands affect women's employment patterns in West Germany, East Germany, and Poland. In particular, it assesses whether employment patterns in East Germany and Poland resemble those exhibited in West Germany after the collapse of the socialist regime. Given the considerable changes to labour market and family policies experienced by post-socialist countries that have resulted in an increased conflict between family and work, this is an important area of research. In the post-socialist countries, we find differences in female employment patterns compared to West Germany, expressed in the lower magnitude of child and husband effects. We argue that women in Poland and East Germany are going their own way, rejecting the ‘male breadwinner’ model, and only partly adjusting their behaviour to changing structural conditions.
Associations among Peer Relationships, Academic Achievement, and Persistence in College

Developmental theory describes the central importance of peer relationships in the lives of young adults (e.g., Erikson, 1963). In this study we tested the importance of peer relationships to academic outcomes. First-year undergraduates completed a self-report survey to indicate the number and closeness of their friendships. We compared these variables to academic outcomes, including grade point averages (GPA) and persistence throughout the first college year. Having trust in, sharing common interests with, and the extent of conflict with a new college friend was associated with GPA and persistence to the second college year. Results are discussed in the context of assisting students in the transition into college.
Pro-Poor Water Service Strategies in Developing Countries: Promoting Justice in Uganda's Urban Project

Water service to the urban poor presents challenges to political leaders, regulators and managers. We identify technology mixes of yard taps, public water points (with and without pre-paid meters) to meet alternative constraints, and reflecting populations served and investment requirements. Three investment scenarios have different implications for improving water access to over 400,000 citizens in Kampala. One component, pre-paid water meters, can promote social equity and institutional sustainability. If procedural justice is given as much weight as distributive justice in the selection of pro-poor programs, pre-paid meters (the ultimate cost recovery tool) can have a place in the investment plan. The study examines how public stand pipes (and a combination of other options) can meet both financial constraints and social objectives. Financial considerations cannot be wished away when seeking effective strategies for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
MIRACLE: mass isotopomer ratio analysis of U‐13C‐labeled extracts. A new method for accurate quantification of changes in concentrations of intracellular metabolites

First, we report the application of stable isotope dilution theory in metabolome characterization of aerobic glucose limited chemostat culture of S. cerevisiae CEN.PK 113‐7D using liquid chromatography‐electrospray ionization MS/MS (LC‐ESI‐MS/MS). A glucose‐limited chemostat culture of S. cerevisiae was grown to steady state at a specific growth rate (μ) = 0.05 h−1 in a medium containing only naturally labeled (99% U‐12C, 1% U‐13C) carbon source. Upon reaching steady state, defined as 5 volume changes, the culture medium was switched to chemically identical medium except that the carbon source was replaced with 100% uniformly (U) 13C labeled stable carbon isotope, fed for 4 h, with sampling every hour. We observed that within a period of 1 h ∼80% of the measured glycolytic metabolites were U‐13C‐labeled. Surprisingly, during the next 3 h no significant increase of the U‐13C‐labeled metabolites occurred. Second, we demonstrate for the first time the LC‐ESI‐MS/MS‐based quantification of intracellular metabolite concentrations using U‐13C‐labeled metabolite extracts from chemostat cultivated S. cerevisiae cells, harvested after 4 h of feeding with 100% U‐13C‐labeled medium, as internal standard. This method is hereby termed “Mass Isotopomer Ratio Analysis of U‐13C Labeled Extracts” (MIRACLE). With this method each metabolite concentration is quantified relative to the concentration of its U‐13C‐labeled equivalent, thereby eliminating drawbacks of LC‐ESI‐MS/MS analysis such as nonlinear response and matrix effects and thus leads to a significant reduction of experimental error and work load (i.e., no spiking and standard additions). By coextracting a known amount of U‐13C labeled cells with the unlabeled samples, metabolite losses occurring during the sample extraction procedure are corrected for. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Occupational sex-segregation, specialized human capital and wages: evidence from Britain

Female-dominated occupations are poorly paid, but there is disagreement about why. Sociological explanations argue that pay in such occupations is low because society undervalues ‘women’s work’, while economic theory argues that this is due to scant requirements for specialized skills. This article sheds light over these debates by examining the impact of occupational feminization on wages in Britain and exploring the mechanisms that produce it, using innovative statistical models that account for both observable and unobservable skill. Results confirm that occupational sex-segregation explains a sizeable portion of the gender wage gap and that wages in female-dominated occupations are lower than wages in other occupations. Inconsistent with human capital theory, low pay in female-dominated occupations cannot be explained fully by low skill specialization or by observable or unobservable characteristics of their workers. Remaining wage penalties in such occupations are consequently taken as evidence of institutional devaluation of ‘women’s work’.
Novel pumping schemes for fluoride-based thulium-doped fiber amplifier at 690 and 1050 nm (or 1400 nm)

Signal amplification in the S- and S/sup +/-band is demonstrated for the first time by simultaneous pumping of thulium-doped fiber amplifier (TDFA) with 690 and 1050 nm (or 1400 nm). Both pumping schemes are investigated and shown to be highly efficient: Roughly 20 dB of signal gain is available with only 80 mW of 1050 nm plus 42 mW of 690 nm, while signal input power is fixed at -35 dBm. Furthermore, these excitations can take advantage of low-cost readily available pump laser diodes at 690 nm for digital video disk applications. This makes TDFA a promising candidate for coarse wavelength-division-multiplexing applications in metropolitan area network and access network environment.
Journal of Globalization and Development Public Finance and Economic Development : Reflections based on Experience in China

Public finance pressures are a central concern in developing countries. With large informal economies, the tax base is narrow and the resulting revenue on average only about half the fraction of GDP seen in developed countries. In response to the resulting tax distortions favoring the informal sector, countries commonly impose a variety of restrictions favoring the formal sector and hindering the entry of new firms that likely join the informal sector. While these policies help protect the country's tax base, they also unfortunately can hinder economic growth, by discouraging entrepreneurial activity. The experiences in China show this trade off dramatically. When restrictions on firm entry were eliminated, economic growth rates jumped but tax revenue fell by two-thirds, since the growth largely took place in sectors that were hard to tax. How should a country then handle these revenue costs of growth-promoting policies? The choices are few: cut expenditures, borrow in the hopes of higher revenue in the future, come up with new sources of revenue such as user fees, or undertake only partial reforms that yield some growth but also help preserve the existing tax base. The paper argues that the latter approach is likely to be the most successful, in spite of the lower resulting growth rate.
Brain Race - An Educational Mobile Game for an Adult English Literacy Program

This paper investigates the role and impact of Brain Race (BR), a customized mobile game-based learning tool, on the learning and teaching experiences of teachers and learners in a community adult English literacy program in Qatar. Relying on observations, formal interviews, and surveys with teachers and learners, this paper examines the implementation process of introducing BR in a classroom, the interaction of teachers and learners with BR and their opinions on BR, and BR’s perceived impact on learner motivation, engagement, and learning outcomes. Results indicate that although BR motivates learners and allows them to practice English concepts, certain issues, such as equipment used, scheduling, and content relevance, must be addressed in order to make the experience more efficient and valuable to both teachers and learners. The paper argues that learners and teachers have a variety of preferences, and thus it is important that they are able to decide for themselves how they want to include game-based learning tools, such as BR, into their classrooms. We conclude with recommendations to improve the implementation process so that learners can benefit more from BR and similar games.
Intellectual style and achievement of Arts and Science undergraduates.

Summary. An investigation of the quality of passes attained by 101 Arts and Science students who entered the University of New England in 1968, indicated that while convergent bias was associated, in both faculties, with more high level passes in first year, there was no difference in the relative success of convergers and divergers in second year. At the same time, it was found that among these students the relationship between choice of faculty and intellectual style was in accord with Hudson's (1966) suggestions despite the less specialised schooling of Australian students when compared with their English counterparts.
A Risk Allocation Approach to Optimal Exchange Rate Policy

We derive the optimal exchange rate policy for a small open economy subject to terms-of-trade shocks. Firm owners and workers are risk averse but workers more so. Wages are given or partially indexed in the short run, and capital markets are imperfect. The government sets the exchange rate to allocate risk between workers and owners. With less risk-averse firms, and greater difference in risk aversion between workers and firms, the optimal exchange rate should vary little with pure terms-of-trade shocks but more with general shocks to prices. Optimal exchange rate variation is greater with indexed wages, but is smaller when firms behave monopolistically and when wage taxes (profit taxes) change procyclically (countercyclically) with export prices (import prices). The model gives policy rules for determining optimal variations of the exchange rate, and indicates when it is, and is not, optimal to join a currency union with trading partners, implying zero exchange rate variation.
Multiple functional domains are involved in tomosyn regulation of exocytosis

Tomosyn is a cytoplasmic protein that was shown to bind to Syntaxin1 and SNAP‐25 through an R‐SNARE domain, forming a complex that is almost identical in structure to the neuronal SNARE complex. Tomosyn inhibits exocytosis in various cell types and these effects were attributed to direct competition between tomosyn’s SNARE domain and Synaptobrevin/VAMP. In the present study, we investigated the contribution of different domains of tomosyn to its activity. We show that a tomosyn mutant that lacks the entire SNARE domain is a potent inhibitor of vesicle priming, similar to the full‐length tomosyn. The SNARE domain of tomosyn failed to inhibit exocytosis, indicating that this domain is not required for the inhibition. In contrast, over‐expression of a N‐terminally truncated mutant did not lead to inhibition of exocytosis although this mutant still bound to Syntaxin. Our results indicate that tomosyn can inhibit exocytosis independently of its SNARE interaction with Syntaxin and that the integrity of the WD40‐domain is crucial for tomosyn’s inhibitory function. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the entire N‐terminal region of tomosyn, the WD40‐repeats and the linker, is required for tomosyn’s inhibitory effect.
A Duopoly Experiment on Cooperative and Noncooperative R&D

In this paper an experimental environment to test theoretical predictions concerning R&D behavior of firms in duopoly with allowance for R&D spillovers is created. The design and hypotheses of the experiment are based on the well-known model of d Aspremont and Jacquemin in which R&D behavior of firms either competing or cooperating in R&D, is calculated. No di.erence in behavior between di.erent spillover levels is found. Further, I find that irrespective of the technological spillover level subjects do not always commit to an R&D contract but if they commit to an R&D level in a binding contract, cooperative R&D levels are chosen. When subjects do not or cannot commit to a contract, the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium performs well in predicting R&D decisions.
Revisiting and revising Alderson’s formula to measure the productivity of the aggregate marketing system

In response to a swirling controversy over high costs, wastes and inefficiencies in marketing, Wroe Alderson (1948) proposed a novel formula to measure the productivity (or efficiency) of the marketing system. His dual input—output formulation represented a significant conceptual advance over marketing efficiency measures that had gone before or have come after. Alderson’s main contribution was to add a measure of household purchasing productivity to the standard economic formulation of the aggregate marketing productivity of business firms. There were, however, conceptual, operational and empirical problems with the formula, particularly with Alderson’s inclusion of household buying behavior. Because the conceptual challenges appeared so intractable and also because the difficulties of measurement seemed so insurmountable, the formula has long been relegated to the scrapheap of marketing history. Conceptual advances in marketing theory, particularly in light of Alderson’s later theoretical work, along with the availability of data sources hitherto unavailable, now make empirically testing the efficiency formula a realistic possibility. Consequently, it is worth revisiting the formula and reexamining the conceptual challenges so that one of Alderson’s most brilliant theoretical contributions to marketing thought may finally be conceptually resurrected and empirically tested.
Effect of site-directed mutagenic alterations on ADP-ribosyltransferase activity of the A subunit of Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin

Previous studies of the S1 subunit of pertussis toxin, an NAD(+)-dependent ADP-ribosyltransferase, suggested that a small amino-terminal region of amino acid sequence similarity to the active fragments of both cholera toxin and Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin represents a region containing critical active-site residues that might be involved in the binding of the substrate NAD+. Other studies of two other bacterial toxins possessing ADP-ribosyltransferase activity, diphtheria toxin and Pseudomonas exotoxin A, have revealed the presence of essential glutamic acid residues vicinal to the active site. To help determine the relevance of these observations to activities of the enterotoxins, the A-subunit gene of the E. coli heat-labile enterotoxin was subjected to site-specific mutagenesis in the region encoding the amino-terminal region of similarity to the S1 subunit of pertussis toxin delineated by residues 6 through 17 and at two glutamic acid residues, 110 and 112, that are conserved in the active domains of all of the heat-labile enterotoxin variants and in cholera toxin. Mutant proteins in which arginine 7 was either deleted or replaced with lysine exhibited undetectable levels of ADP-ribosyltransferase activity. However, limited trypsinolysis of the arginine 7 mutants yielded fragmentation kinetics that were different from that yielded by the wild-type recombinant subunit or the authentic A subunit. In contrast, mutant proteins in which glutamic acid residues at either position 110 or 112 were replaced with aspartic acid responded like the wild-type subunit upon limited trypsinolysis, while exhibiting severely depressed, but detectable, ADP-ribosyltransferase activity. The latter results may indicate that either glutamic acid 110 or glutamic acid 112 of the A subunit of heat-labile enterotoxin is analogous to those active-site glutamic acids identified in several other ADP-ribosylating toxins.
A note on the effect of GCM tuning on climate sensitivity

A tuning experiment is carried out with the Community Atmosphere Model version 3, where the top-of-the-atmosphere radiative balance is tuned to agree with global satellite estimates from ERBE and CERES, respectively, to investigate if the climate sensitivity of the model is dependent upon which of the datasets is used. The tuning is done through alterations of cloud parameters that affect, for instance, the model cloud water content, but the difference in cloud water content between the two model configurations is found to be negligible compared to the wide spread of the same quantity in a number of state-of-the-art GCMs. The equilibrium climate sensitivities of the two model configurations differ by ca. 0.24 K, and both lie well within the range of present estimates of climate sensitivity in different GCMs. This indicates that it is possible to tune the model to either of the two satellite datasets without drastically changing the climate sensitivity. However, the study illustrates that the climate sensitivity is a product of choices of parameter values that are not well restricted by observations, which allows for a certain degree of arbitrariness in the estimates of climate sensitivity.