Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender in Audit Committee and Financial Reporting Timeliness: The Case of Unique Continental European Model

The goal of the current research is to identify whether or not the gender of Audit Committee members affects the timeliness of financial reporting. Unlike several studies which have focused on gender in the Board of Directors, the current study more specifically discusses gender in the Audit Committee in a country which adopts a Continental European System. This study employs panel data analysis for 370 observations of 185 Indonesian listed companies in the 2014-2015 period. This research reports that gender of the Audit Committee members is still debatable with regards to their role in improving the timeliness of financial reporting. Further, size, independence, expertise, and Audit Committee activities have an insignificant impact on the timeliness of financial reporting
Some characteristics of tuberose as affected by pre-harvest application of calcium chloride and gibberillic acid

In the present study the effect of gibberellic acid (GA3) and calcium chloride (CaCl2) sprays (0, 150, 300 and 450 ml L-1), applied 25 and 15 days before harvesting, on physiological and morphological characteristics of tuberose ‘Pearl Double’ was studied. Cut flowers were harvested and transported to the laboratory where they were placed in distilled water. The experiment considered some parameters for evaluation, such as relative water content of leaves and petals, water intake, percentage of open florets, electrolyte leakage, ethylene production, chlorophyll and carotenoid content. Results indicate that the best treatment was the combination of 150 ml L-1CaCl2 and 450 ml L-1GA3 for most of parameters
Utility of pollution indices in assessment of soil quality around Madaga gold mining site, Niger state, North-central Nigeria

The quality of soil in the vicinity of Madaka mining sites were investigated in this study using Environmental Pollution Indices. Geological mapping of the study area indicated that the area was dominated by schist and granite. The static water level measurement revealed a westward groundwater flow direction which also coincides with the regional structural trend of the area. Laboratory analyses of soil and stream sediment were carried out in National Geosciences Research Laboratory Kaduna. The results of the soil analyses revealed high concentrations of mercury, cadmium, lead and arsenic. The results of the laboratory analysis were further elucidated using pollution indices such as geo-accumulation index, contamination factor, degree of contamination, elemental contamination index and metal pollution index. These environmental indices revealed that the soil is seriously polluted with mercury, cadmium and lead, moderately polluted with arsenic, lightly polluted with iron and copper and very lightly polluted with manganese, zinc, nickel and cobalt in the order of: Hg > Cd >Pb> As > Fe > Cu > Mn > Zn > Ni > Co. The mean concentrations of the first four metals (Hg, Cd, Pb and As) exceeds their average crustal abundance, which is an indication of possible pollution. The concentrations map of the analyzed heavy metals indicated a westward decrease in concentration away from the mine sites. This was in agreement with the flow direction and the possible reduction in pollution intensity away from the mine sites could be attributed to the natural attenuation mechanism of soil in the course of groundwater migration as well as hydrogeological attributes of the area. The study recommends that the miners be grouped into association and trained on modern mining techniques that are environmental friendly. The polluted soils in the area should be remediated and proper sensitization on the dangers associated with artisanal mining should be carried out in the area. Periodic monitoring of the soil quality in the area is advocated. Keywords : Utility, Environmental Pollution Indices, Impact, Artisanal Gold Mining, Madaga, Niger State, North-central Nigeria
Late careers and income dynamics among older people

Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Schmelzer, P. (2009). Late careers and income dynamics among older people: consequences of unstable careers on the income situation in Great Britain. (flexCAREER Working Paper). Bamberg: Universität Bamberg, Fak. Sozialund Wirtschaftswissenschaften; Universität Göttingen, Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät, Institut für Soziologie. https://nbnresolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-350741
Observation of the Chiral-Anomaly-Induced Negative Magnetoresistance in 3D Weyl Semimetal TaAs

Xiaochun Huang, Lingxiao Zhao, Yujia Long, Peipei Wang, Dong Chen, Zhanhai Yang, Hui Liang, Mianqi Xue, Hongming Weng, Zhong Fang, Xi Dai, and Genfu Chen Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100084, China (Received 14 May 2015; published 24 August 2015)
Effect of Probiotics and Thyme Essential Oil on Carcass Parameters of Broiler Chickens

Abstract The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of probiotics and thyme essential oil supplemented in the feed mixtures on the carcass parameters of the broiler chickens. Probiotics and thyme essential oil in the percentage of 0.05% was used as feed supplements for Ross 308 broiler chickens, as the broilers was reared in four separated groups as follows: control, probiotics, thyme essential oil and combination of probiotics and thyme essential oil group based on the feed supplement, while the fattening period was 42 days. The tested parameters include carcass %, edible parts %, breast %, thigh %, valuable parts (breast and thigh) % and giblet %. The carcass %, edible parts %, breast % and thigh % were not affected. For the valuable parts % and the giblet % there was a significant different (p<0.05) between control group and probiotics group also between control group and the combination of probiotics and thyme essential oil group, while for the valuable parts % also there was a significant different (p<0.05) between thyme essential oil group and probiotics group.
Shifting dominance among Scarid species on reefs representing a gradient of fishing pressure

The present paper analyzes data collected between 2001 and 2002 on 81 reef fish species targeted by fishers at 5 sites in the Kingdom of Tonga (South Pacific). We first ranked the sites with respect to fishing pressure using two independent methods: (i) Tongan demography and reef surfaces available for fishing, and (ii) the differential effects of fishing on the whole set of 81 species grouped by their life history traits (LHT). We then focused on Parrotfish (Scaridae), which are heavily targeted in coral reef fisheries. We used the identified gradient of fishing pressure to study the effect of fishing on the community structure and test the hypothesis of "shifting dominance" amongst the 20 Scarid species present in the surveys. In addition to the classical effect of decreasing fish size in a family strongly targeted by fishers, the shifting dominance phenomenon includes a decrease in the abundance of the large-bodied and highly targeted species, favouring their replacement by smaller-bodied species from the same family, which are less impacted by fishing. In a context of interspecific competition amongst Scarids, the stress of fishing appears as a factor favouring the replacement of species with large maximum size, and LHT promoting low resilience, by smaller species with the opposite attributes. The discussion focuses on the various processes that can explain the shifting dominance phenomenon. The total density of resilient species, which increased along the gradient of increasing fishing pressure, can be used as an indicator of the over-exploitation of fish communities for reef fisheries management.
Hillslope runoff and erosion as affected by rolled erosion control systems: a field study

A replicated field study using rainfall simulation and overland flow application was conducted in central Oahu, Hawaii, on a clay‐dominated Oxisol with a 9% slope. Three main treatment groups were examined: a bare treatment, a group of four rolled erosion control systems (RECSs) with open weave designs, and a group of five randomly oriented fibre RECSs. A total of 1122 measurements of runoff and erosion were made to examine treatment differences and to explore temporal patterns in runoff and sediment flux.
Causal Relationship among Foreign Reserves, Exchange Rate and Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence From Nigeria

This study scrutinized the Granger causality of foreign reserves, exchange rate (EXR) and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nigeria. The results of the augmented Dicky–Fuller and Philip–Perron unit root test for stationary of the variables showed that all the variables were non-stationary at levels, but become stationary after first differences. The Johansen co-integration test revealed long-run relationship among the variables. The results of the Granger causality test indicated unidirectional causality from EXR to foreign reserves. Consistently from lag one to lag two; unidirectional causality existed from FDI to foreign reserves. At lag three, bidirectional causality was discovered between foreign reserves and FDI. Evidence of unidirectional causality running from EXR to FDI in lags one and three, was revealed. No causality existed between the duos at lag two. Based on the findings it is recommended that the policy makers establish the optimum EXR level that positively promotes foreign reserves and FDI.
Effects of a Low-Head Dam Removal on River Morphology and Riparian Vegetation: A Case Study of Gongreung River

The long term existence of a low-head dam in the river channel significantly affects river geomorphology and river ecosystem. Because more and more low-head dam structures have deteriorated in recent years, the attention for low-head dam removal is increasing as one of alternatives for river restoration. Thus, this study intends to investigate the impacts of low-head dam removal on river geomorphology and riparian vegetation with developing a quantitative method to predict the changes of river morphology as well as invasion, growth, expansion and destruction of riparian vegetation after a low-head dam removal. To verify the numerical simulation model, the low-head dam removal case in Gongreung River was employed with investigation of low-head dam removal responses on river geomorphology and riparian vegetation. Following the low-head dam removal, the results of monitoring and numerical simulation indicated that new sand bars has formed as well as increasing the extent of existing sand bars in the upstream of the low-head dam. The sand bars have been colonized in a year after the low-head dam removal by grass type plants. After a decade to several decades, the riparian vegetation in sand bars often developed to tree type plants in several low-head dam removal cases. As other cases, Gongreung River also showed the growth of tree type plants in 5 years after the removal.
Extended VCS Stark broadening tables for hydrogen – Lyman to Brackett series

We announce the availability of Stark broad- ening tables for the Lyman, Balmer, Paschen, and Brackett series of hydrogen, computed with the VCS the- ory (Vidal et al. 1973). The tables cover the series up to n = 22 and an extended grid of ne and T ,w ith Trunning as high as 160 000 K, suitable for central stars of Planetary Nebulae and similar 1 .
Art and Money

This paper investigates the impact of equity markets and top incomes on art prices. Using a long-term art market index that incorporates information on repeated sales since the eighteenth century, we demonstrate that both same-year and lagged equity market returns have a significant impact on the price level in the art market. Over a shorter time frame, we also find empirical evidence that an increase in income inequality may lead to higher prices for art, in line with the results of a numerical simulation analysis. Finally, the results of Johansen cointegration tests strongly suggest the existence of a long-term relation between top incomes and art prices.
Does a scopic regime produce conformism? Herding behavior among trade leaders on social trading platforms

ABSTRACT Social trading platforms (STPs) are transparent online markets governed by a scopic regime, where order flow is publicly disclosed and participants are subject to constant reciprocal scrutiny. Participants on STPs can be categorized into trade leaders and copiers, where the former execute unique trades and manage the funds allocated to them by the latter in return for compensation. Given limited individual capacity and the competition to attract copiers, we investigate whether the scopic regime produces excess and perpetual conformism among trade leaders. Using data from a popular STP, and from an anonymous traditional foreign exchange broker, we show that the scopic regime produces excess levels of herding. Under the scopic environment, we find that herding is high when market information is scarce, which is evidence of herding due to informational cascades. We find herding to be relatively low among risk-seeking trade leaders, which may be a sign of overconfidence. Herding is high for larger trades, suggesting that traders herd to avoid the disappointment associated with underperforming on large positions. Finally, we show that herding in the scopic environment persists at much higher levels compared to traditional environments. Our findings indicate that exposure to a scopic information-rich environment augments the limitations and personal biases of individual traders, thus producing excess and perpetual herding.
Integrative Multi-View Reduced-Rank Regression: Bridging Group-Sparse and Low-Rank Models

Multi-view data have been routinely collected in various fields of science and engineering. A general problem is to study the predictive association between multivariate responses and multi-view predictor sets, all of which can be of high dimensionality. It is likely that only a few views are relevant to prediction, and the predictors within each relevant view contribute to the prediction collectively rather than sparsely. We cast this new problem under the familiar multivariate regression framework and propose an integrative reduced-rank regression (iRRR), where each view has its own low-rank coefficient matrix. As such, latent features are extracted from each view in a supervised fashion. For model estimation, we develop a convex composite nuclear norm penalization approach, which admits an efficient algorithm via alternating direction method of multipliers. Extensions to non-Gaussian and incomplete data are discussed. Theoretically, we derive non-asymptotic oracle bounds of iRRR under a restricted eigenvalue condition. Our results recover oracle bounds of several special cases of iRRR including Lasso, group Lasso and nuclear norm penalized regression. Therefore, iRRR seamlessly bridges group-sparse and low-rank methods and can achieve substantially faster convergence rate under realistic settings of multi-view learning. Simulation studies and an application in the Longitudinal Studies of Aging further showcase the efficacy of the proposed methods.
Nutrients dynamics in the southern Bay of Biscay (1993-2003): Winter supply, stoichiometry, long-term trends, and their effects on the phytoplankton community

[1] The southern Bay of Biscay is a very active region in terms of hydrography due to the interannual variations of its Central Waters, the recurrence of mesoscale features such as slope currents and upwellings, and the freshwater discharges from land. This highly dynamic physical environment influences to a great extent the biogeochemical cycles of nutrients beyond the seasonal cycle typical of middle latitudes. By using a monthly time series (1993–2003) of nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, and silicate consisting of three stations placed along a cross-shelf transect, we assess the role of the physical forcing on nutrient seasonal and interannual dynamics within the upper 200 m, as well as the interactions with the biological component. The seasonal cycles of all nutrients and the stoichiometric balances (N:P and Si:N) are characterized along this coastal-oceanic gradient. The year-to-year variations in the extent of the winter replenishment are analyzed in relation to the background Central Waters and presence/absence of the Iberian Poleward Current. In the long term we report decreasing linear trends of nitrate, nitrite, and silicate as well as an uncoupled nonlinear variation (i.e., cyclical) for all nutrients. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of this complex long-term forcing on the phytoplankton: the linear trends are probably related to a decreasing primary production rate, while the nonlinear forcing may be responsible for controlling the community structure of phytoplankton.
CONCRETE BRIDGE DECK SLABS REINFORCED WITH FRP COMPOSITE BARS: MAGOG BRIDGE

A new highway bridge was constructed using FRP bars as reinforcement for the concrete deck slab. The bridge, located on highway 55 North over the Magog River (Quebec, Canada), is a girder type with a total length of 83.7 m and five main steel girders continuously supported over three spans. The two end spans are 26.2 m each and the middle one is 31.3 m. The deck is a 220- mm thickness concrete slab continuous over four spans of 2.845 m each with an overhang of 1.352 m on each side. One full end span (26.2 m) was totally reinforced with FRP bars in top and bottom mats. The other two spans of the bridge were reinforced with galvanized steel. The concrete deck slab was designed according to Sections 8 and 16 of the New Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code, CHBDC 1 . This design resulted in using glass FRP bars in all directions except in the transverse direction on the bottom mat where carbon FRP bars were used. The bridge was well instrumented at critical locations for internal temperature and strain data collection using fiber optic sensors. These sensors are being used to monitor the deck behaviour from the time of construction to several years after completion of construction. The construction of the bridge was completed on September 2002 and opened for traffic during the second week of October 2002. Before opening to the traffic, the bridge was tested for service performance using standard truckloads as specified in the new CHBDC 1 . During all load tests, strains in FRP and steel reinforcements and deflections of FRP and steel reinforced spans (slabs and girders) were recorded. Design, construction details, and the results of this first series of field tests are discussed in this paper.
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN OF MULTI-AGENT MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES (MOOCs) WITH GAIA METHODOLOGY

Bu calisma Gaia yontemi perspektifinden Kitlesel Acik Cevrimici Kurs (KACK) yapilarinin mimarisini gostermeyi hedeflemektedir. KACK’lar acik ve uzaktan egitim alanlarinda yaygin populer cevrimici ogretme ve ogrenme egilimleridir. Yazilim etmenlerinin bir araya gelerek olusturduklari yapiya cok etmenli sistemler denilmektedir. Gaia yontemi cok etmenli sistemlerin (CES) gelistirilmesinde organizasyon metaforunu temel almaktadir. KACK’larin yonetim ve kitlelere iletilmesinde KACK’lar icin daha gelistirilmis tasarim saglayabilecek etmenlerin kullanimi konusunda sinirli sayida calisma yurutulmustur. Bu makale KACK’larin mimari yapilarini cok etmenli sistemler ile analizini sunmakta ve gelecek calismalar icin hedefler belirlemektedir. Calisma KACK’larin tasarimini, ulastirilmasini, degerlendirilmesini ve kisisel yonetimini gelistirme amaci ile cok etmenli tabanli yazilim sistemlerin kullanimini iceren bir tasarim onermektedir
A Market-Based Funding Liquidity Measure

We construct a traded funding liquidity measure from stock returns. Guided by a model, we extract the measure as the return spread between two beta-neutral portfolios constructed using stocks with high and low margins, to control for their sensitivity to the aggregate funding shocks. Our measure of funding liquidity is correlated with other funding liquidity proxies. It delivers a positive risk premium that cannot be explained by existing risk factors. A model augmented by our funding liquidity measure has superior pricing performance for various portfolios. Despite evident comovement, this measure contains additional information that is not subsumed by market liquidity.Received March 29, 2017; accepted August 8, 2018 by Editor Wayne Ferson.
Financial Assurance versus Liability as Solutions to the Judgment-Proof Problem

﻿A firm is said to be judgment-proof if it can cause an accident and then skirt its environmental liabilities by pleading bankruptcy. Judgment-proofness is a public-policy problem because it saddles society with uncompensated liability and stifles the firm’s incentive to undertake due care. We employ a simple lending model that incorporates moral hazard to compare three instruments designed to remedy the judgment-proof problem; namely, environmental bonds, mandatory liability insurance and liability. Incentives are unambiguously stronger under liability than they are under either bonds or mandatory insurance. Credit is more rationed and the span of potentially damaging projects is lower under bonds and mandatory insurance than they are under liability. The relative impact of these instruments on social welfare ambiguously depends on entrepreneurial wealth.
Asset Pricing with Durable Goods and Nonhomothetic Preferences

I present a consumption-based asset pricing model that is capable of matching the empirically observed Sharpe ratios of the aggregate market portfolio as well as the Fama-French value-minus-growth portfolio. The model also matches the level of the risk-free rate and the equity premium with a plausible aversion to wealth bets. In empirical analysis, the model performs well in explain- ing the cross section of average returns of the 25 Fama-French portfolios. The model features a novel non-diversi¯able macroeconomic source of risk: the distortion of the variety of the consumption portfolio. In the model, investors derive utility from two consumption goods - nondurables and durables - which are perfect complements. The novel consumption risk of the stock market stems from the inability to sell durables in recessions in order to restore the optimal variety of the consumption basket.
Regional Turnover and Fluctuation in Populations of Five Plants Confined to Serpentine Seeps

Abstract: Spatial patterns in population turnover were analyzed for five plant species confined to a patchy and isolated habitat, serpentine seeps: annuals Helianthus exilis and Mimulus nudatus and perennials Senecio clevelandii, Astragalus clevelandii, and Delphinium uliginosum. A 3‐year survey showed that, over a preceding 15‐year period, 32 of 132 known populations in a 4200‐ha area disappeared, and 65 new populations appeared. Populations that disappeared were significantly more isolated from conspecific populations than were surviving populations. Populations that disappeared were also marginally significantly closer to human‐caused disturbances than were populations that survived. Vacant sites in which new populations appeared were significantly less isolated from conspecific populations than sites remaining vacant. Spatial patterns in population density were analyzed for three of the species for 3 years at 50 sites in a 20 × 40 km region. From 1997 to 1998, population densities of each species changed synchronously throughout the region. From 1998 to 1999, one species ( Mimulus nudatus) again showed synchrony, and populations of the other two species ( Helianthus exilis, Delphinium uliginosum) remained asynchronous and spatially uncorrelated. The five species we studied all appear to be persisting well at the regional scale, despite recent disturbance to the study region. These results suggest that for rare plants in isolated habitats, the spatial configuration of populations may have an important influence on local population persistence.