Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are Profitability and Investment Good Proxies for Risk Factors The Analysis on Fama and French's Five-Factor Model

The aim of this paper is to review a five-factor asset pricing model developed by Fama and French, which extends the three-factor model by incorporating two additional indicators that captured profitability and investment in average stock returns. Moreover, this paper provides a detail discussion and addresses some important issues and problems in capital asset pricing are becoming considerable topics for academic and practical research into the future. Keywords-Fama and French; five-factor model; asset
Financing High-Tech Growth: The Role of Debt or Equity

Using a data set of the firms listed on the Neuer Markt in Germany, this paper demonstrates that venture backed firms differ from firms with other financial resources, especially debt. Thus, the results of this study provide evidence for the hypothesis that small and innovative firms are more likely to be financed by venture capitalists instead of banks. We also provide evidence that the presence of venture capitalists enhance the growth rates of firms positively.
A Framework for Thinking about the Maturity of Cultural Usability

: Interaction design and usability have become important contributors to economic and cultural development in emergent economies in today’s global distribution of the use and production of IT, but research and practice that incorporate cultural and non-western perspectives on software and interactive products are still in their infancy. This chapter presents theory of cultural cognitive styles and standard usability, and a framework for thinking about the maturity of cultural usability. The framework has five levels. Level I concerns the localization of the user interface, level II focuses on the localization of the usability evaluation methods, level III emerges with new user groups, level IV concerns historical changes in the concept of usability itself, and level V deals with managing a complexity of user groups. The chapter uses recent empirical results from studies of culture and usability to illustrate the need for the framework for thinking about the maturity of cultural usability.
Storage and Hydrolysis of Seawater Samples for Inorganic Carbon Isotope Analysis

Preservation of seawater samples was tested for total inorganic carbon (∑CO2), stable carbon isotope (δ13C), and radiocarbon (14C) applications using foil bags and storage by refrigeration and freezing. The aim was to preserve representative samples with minimal storage effects but without using toxic methods such as mercuric chloride poisoning. Hydrolysis of samples to CO2 was based on existing methods. Results of IAEA-C2 standard used with deionized water stored in the foil bags showed complete reaction yields, 14C results within 2σ of the consensus value, and δ13C that were internally consistent, indicating that there were no procedural effects associated with the foil bags. 14C results were statistically indistinguishable across the storage times, for frozen and refrigerated seawater samples from a coastal site, Elie Ness, Fife, UK. The scatter of ∑CO2 concentrations and δ13C was within scatter observed in other studies for lake- and seawater samples preserved by acidification or using mercuric chloride. However, both ∑CO2 and δ13C were less variable for frozen samples compared with refrigerated samples. The foil bags are lighter, safer to transport, and similar in cost to glass bottles and allow sample collection in the field and transfer to the hydrolysis vessel without exposure of the sample to atmosphere. Storage of seawater samples in the foil bags was considered a reliable, alternative method to poisoning for ∑CO2, δ13C, and 14C, and freezing the samples is recommended for storage time beyond a week.
Loan Loss Provision and Earnings Management in Nigerian Deposit Money Banks

Researchers and financial economists have for long identified that bank managers use loan loss provisions which is a substantial accrual in the banking industry to manage reported earnings in line with the prediction of the agency theory. In Nigeria, this practice remains a mere theoretical insinuation because there are hardly any empirically documented evidences to support the assertion. In order to fill this void in literature, the present study explores the relationship between loan loss provision and earnings management in Nigerian DMBs. Secondary data were obtained from the 8 banks’ annual reports for the period of 2006 to 2011 and robust regression was used as a tool for data analysis. The result indicates that there is a positive relationship between the provision for loan losses and earnings management in Nigerian DMBs. It is therefore, recommended that, if emphasis is on the integrity of financial reports, regulators should put a ceiling on the provision for loan losses rather than leaving it at the total discretion of managers who provide it to suit their selfish interest. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n17p49
The Information Rat Race

Information is a valuable good that requires scarce inputs, such as human talent, to produce. Competition among investors for these inputs creates an equilibrium channel that has not yet been modeled explicitly. This paper studies the dynamic implications of this channel for information choice, risk-taking, and welfare. We study a dynamic portfolio choice problem with heterogeneous agents and endogenous information choice. Our central assumption is that investors compete for information in a market for information inputs. This creates a feedback loop in which relatively wealthy agents acquire more information, obtain superior portfolio performance, and get comparatively even wealthier. Two dynamic effects arise: First, interim losers anticipate their inability to acquire future information and take on more risk in an attempt to catch up with interim winners, while interim winners take on less risk to protect their lead. Second, acquiring information is a strategic complement. In addition, we perform a welfare analysis and discuss the model’s implications for capital income inequality and delegated portfolio management.
Multivariate return periods of sea storms for coastal erosion risk assessment

Abstract. The erosion of a beach depends on various storm characteristics. Ideally, the risk associated with a storm would be described by a single multivariate return period that is also representative of the erosion risk, i.e. a 100 yr multivariate storm return period would cause a 100 yr erosion return period. Unfortunately, a specific probability level may be associated with numerous combinations of storm characteristics. These combinations, despite having the same multivariate probability, may cause very different erosion outcomes. This paper explores this ambiguity problem in the context of copula based multivariate return periods and using a case study at Durban on the east coast of South Africa. Simulations were used to correlate multivariate return periods of historical events to return periods of estimated storm induced erosion volumes. In addition, the relationship of the most-likely design event (Salvadori et al., 2011) to coastal erosion was investigated. It was found that the multivariate return periods for wave height and duration had the highest correlation to erosion return periods. The most-likely design event was found to be an inadequate design method in its current form. We explore the inclusion of conditions based on the physical realizability of wave events and the use of multivariate linear regression to relate storm parameters to erosion computed from a process based model. Establishing a link between storm statistics and erosion consequences can resolve the ambiguity between multivariate storm return periods and associated erosion return periods.
The help-seeking from social capitals and self-regulated learning among pre-service teachers

This study aims to investigate the help-seeking subjects for pre-service teachers in need of suggestions for practicum and to determine the prediction of pre-service teachers’ social capitals for help-seeking on their self-efficacy for help-seeking and self-regulated learning. A total of 223 pre-service teachers, from a teacher education university at the middle of Taiwan, were invited to fill in the validated questionnaire in October 2015. The analytical results of this study by Chi-square Test achieve significant differences in the five types of help-seeking subjects for the pre-service teachers in need of suggestions for practicum. Another finding of this study by multiple regression analysis indicates that the scores of seeking help from faculties in practicum school and peer interns in practicum school can jointly predict self-efficacy for help-seeking This study concludes that the pre-service teachers preferred seeking help from family members, faculties in practicum school, classmates at university and peer interns in practicum school to university professors. Moreover, pre-service teachers perceived self-efficacy for help-seeking and self-regulated learning when seeking help from faculties and peer interns in practicum schools. Interestingly, peer interns in practicum school are considered as bonding social capital but maybe play a role of suggestion-provider, similar to bridging social capital during the practicum.
Cajoling or coercing: would electoral engineering resolve the young citizen–state disconnect?

ABSTRACT The relationships between citizens and their states are undergoing significant stresses across advanced liberal democracies. In Britain, this disconnect is particularly evident amongst young citizens. This article considers whether different electoral engineering methods – designed either to cajole or compel youth to vote – might arrest the decline in their political engagement. Data collected in 2011 from a national survey of 1025 British 18-year-olds and from focus groups involving 86 young people reveal that many young people claim that they would be more likely to vote in future elections if such electoral reforms were implemented. However, it is questionable whether or not such increased electoral participation would mean that they would feel truly connected to the democratic process. In particular, forcing young people to vote through the introduction of compulsory voting may actually serve to reinforce deepening resentments, rather than engage them in a positive manner.
Intimacy in Television Programs: Adolescents’ Perception

Despite the negative criticism leveled at them, certain television genres which treat intimate problems and issues as a kind of spectacle may also help adolescents learn how to cope with interpersonal situations and gain awareness of key social problems. This study focuses on examining the arguments that adolescents use to explain their possible participation (or lack of participation), ei ther as guests or members of the audience, in Celebrity Gossip Shows (Salsa Rosa) and Talk Shows (Diario de Patricia), within the interpretative framework of Turiel’s theory (2002). To this end, interviews were conducted with adolescents from the Basque Autonomous Region and the answers given were grouped into three domains: conventional, moral or private. The results found show that the vast majority would not consider attending these programs for private reasons, and when asked to think in what hypothetical case they would consider participating, any change of opinion was always «Diario de Patricia» or almost always «Salsa Rosa» prompted by moral motives. All of those who said they would participate in the two programs justified their answer using conventional arguments. We can conclude that the adolescents participating in the study continue to value personal privacy, even in association with certain television programs in which the limits between private and public are transgressed. RESUMEN Determinados géneros televisivos que mediatizan la intimidad en forma de espectáculo, a pesar de las críticas negativas que reciben, también pueden servir a los adolescentes para aprender cómo afrontar situaciones interpersonales y tomar conciencia de problemas sociales relevantes. El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo conocer los argumentos que los adolescentes exponen para explicar su posible presencia o no como público o protagonista en los programas de crónica rosa (Salsa Rosa) y «talk show» (Diario de Patricia), en el marco interpretativo de la teoría de Turiel (2002). Para ello, se han llevado a cabo entrevistas con adolescentes de la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca cuyas respuestas se han categorizado en los dominios convencional, moral o privado y, posteriormente, han sido analizadas mediante el programa Nudist. Los resultados hallados muestran que la gran mayoría no acudirían a estos programas por argumentos privados y, cuando se les pide que piensen en qué caso hipotético acudirían, el cambio de opinión, siempre «Diario de Patricia» (DP) o casi siempre «Salsa Rosa» (SR), va acompañado de motivos morales. Por otra parte, la totalidad de los que acudirían a ambos programas lo justifican con argumentos convencionales. Se concluye que los adolescentes participantes en este estudio continúan concediendo valor a la privacidad, aun cuando se asocia a determinados programas televisivos en los que se transgreden los límites entre lo privado y lo público.
Taxonomic and distributional assessments of Chaerephon plicatus (Chiroptera: Molossidae) from Vietnam

To date, Wrinkle-lipped Bat ( Chaerephon plicatus ) is the only species of the family Molossidae in Vietnam. It is found throughout much of Asia but rarely recorded in the country. Every published record of this species from Vietnam was only resulted from a single individual with little data on morphology. Particularly, the previous publications did not include any information about either colony size or roosting site of the species within Vietnam. Between 2001 and 2014, a series of field surveys was conducted throughout the country with an intensive search for free-tailed bat species. The obtained results indicate that Wrinkle-lipped Bat is a widespread bat species but its known roosting sites in Vietnam are quite distjunct. Its colony size is in both seasonal and geographical variations ranging from several hundreds to over three million individuals. The species inhabits seasonally and permanently in northern and southern regions, respectively. This paper provides taxonomic and ecological assessments with an emphasis on morphological measurements, colony size, roosting habitats and national distributional range of Wrinkle-lipped Bat within Vietnam.
Martinique: a Clear Case for Sediment Melting and Slab Dehydration as a Function of Distance to the Trench

In subduction zones, melting and dehydration of the subducted slab introduce material into the mantle wedge and modify its chemical and isotopic composition. As a consequence, island arc lavas differ significantly from mid-ocean ridge basalts and ocean island basalts. In some arcs, the composition of lavas is strongly influenced by the sedimentary material introduced with the slab; in others, magma composition is mainly affected by aqueous fluids released by the slab. The Lesser Antilles arc is known for its extreme continental-crust-like signature but for some Lesser Antilles lavas subducted sediments are barely involved and enrichment in fluid-mobile elements (Ba, U, Sr, Pb, etc.) is the dominant feature. Here we evaluate whether La/Sm is a quantitative proxy of sediment involvement in volcanic arcs, and we relate dehydration and melting processes to the temperature and pressure conditions of the slab. We use Martinique as a case study because in this island both dehydration and sediment melting fingerprints coexist. We measured major and trace elements for about 130 age-constrained samples, carefully chosen to cover all volcanic phases of Martinique (25 Ma to present). Using these results we demonstrate that: (1) weathering does not modify the La/Sm ratio; (2) fractional crystallization of amphibole and/or garnet does not increase La/Sm by more than 20%; (3) rare earth element transfer from wall-rock to magma during fractionation is not significant; (4) melting of the mantle source increases La/Sm by only about 20%. As a consequence, we show that the proportion of slab sediment incorporated in the mantle wedge controls the La/Sm ratio of the source. The observed correlations between La/Sm and Nd and Hf isotopic compositions indicate that the effect of sediment addition is the overwhelming factor: La/Sm is a good proxy for slab sediment proportion in Martinique. We observe a geographical gradient between slab dehydration and sediment melting on the island.
THE IMPACT OF EXTERNAL GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATIONS IN DIFFERENT KNOWLEDGE DOMAINS: IS THERE A DOMAIN EFFECT?

In this paper three studies question the generalizability of Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) to the knowledge domain of the social sciences. The first research builds on the assumption that this knowledge domain differs in the way instructional designers develop depictive external graphical representations and the way students understand these representations. The key variable in this process is being (un)acquainted with the iconic sign system that is used to develop the representations in this knowledge domain. The research results reveal that studying learning materials enriched with external graphical representations in the social sciences domain does not result in higher test performance and does not result in lower levels of cognitive load. The second research builds on these former results and questions under which condition the performance on retention and transfer tests can be increased. Therefore a new design principle activation is put forward. Results show that the performance on the retention and transfer tests is higher when the learner actively builds his/her personal external graphical representations. The active construction of personal external graphical representations positively influences the performance on retention and transfer tests. The results of the second study are the starting point of the third research that focuses on the differential impact of the types of personal external graphical representations learners add to textual learning materials. Multimedia Learning in Social Sciences: Impact of the Knowledge Domain The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML), put forward by Mayer (2001a), presents a clear framework to direct instructional design of both printed and interactive multimedia materials. Despite the theoretical and practical appeal of the theory for instructional designers, daily teaching experience of the authors of the present paper, responsible for freshman courses in the knowledge domain of educational sciences, is not always in line with the CTML. It appears that students cope with external graphical representations such as schemas, tables and graphs added to learning materials. And, as will be discussed in the next sections, recent research is not always able to replicate the positive findings that have been reported in earlier CTML-studies in other knowledge domains. The authors suggest that the nature of the knowledge domain and the nature of the external graphical representations interact with the validity of the CTML-design principles. By testing the original CTML-design principles in another knowledge domain questions about extending and/or generalizing the cognitive theory of multimedia learning are raised.
Genetic Diversity in Iranian Fennel ( Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) Populations Based on Sequence Related Amplified Polymorphism (SRAP) Markers

To evaluate the genetic variations in eleven fennel populations in Iran, 55 accessions were analyzed by SRAP markers. Twelve primer combinations produced 171 polymorphic bands. The cumulative dendrogram delineated fennel accessions into five major groups in accordance to the geographical regions from which the populations were originated. About 43.57% of total genetic variation was detected among the populations, while 56.43% of total variation were observed within the populations. The studied populations showed high genetic differentiation (Gst= 0.52) and low gene flow (Nm= 0.46). Among the studied populations, Yazd and Kerman accounted for the highest values of PPB (%), Shanon index (I), and heterozygosity. The self-pollinated seeds were in the range of 2.01% in Paveh-2 to 9.24% in Isfahan-2 accessions. The essential oil content ranged from 0.62% in Isfahan-3 to 2.21% in Tabriz-3. Generaly, the dwarf populations viz . , Tabriz and Paveh, had higher essential oil yield and their pollination was less affected by environmental factors than the average.
The cold veil of the Milky Way stellar halo.

We build a sample of distant (D > 80 kpc) stellar halo stars with measured radial velocities. Faint (20 < g < 22) candidate blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars were selected using the deep, but wide, multi-epoch Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometry. Follow-up spectroscopy for these A-type stars was performed using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument. We classify stars according to their Balmer line profiles, and find that seven are bona fide BHB stars and 31 are blue stragglers (BS). Owing to the magnitude range of our sample, even the intrinsically fainter BS stars can reach out to D ∼ 90 kpc. We complement this sample of A-type stars with intrinsically brighter, intermediate-age, asymptotic giant branch stars. A set of four distant cool carbon stars is compiled from the literature and we perform spectroscopic follow-up on a further four N-type carbon stars using the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) Intermediate dispersion Spectrograph and Imaging System (ISIS) instrument. Altogether, this provides us with the largest sample to date of individual star tracers out to r ∼ 150 kpc. We find that the radial velocity dispersion of these tracers falls rapidly at large distances and is surprisingly cold (σr ≈ 50–60 km s−1) between 100 and 150 kpc. Relating the measured radial velocities to the mass of the Milky Way requires knowledge of the (unknown) tracer density profile and anisotropy at these distances. Nonetheless, by assuming the stellar halo stars between 50 and 150 kpc have a moderate density fall-off (with power-law slope α < 5) and are on radial orbits (graphic), we infer that the mass within 150 kpc is less than 1012 M⊙ and suggest it probably lies in the range (5–10) × 1011 M⊙. We discuss the implications of such a low mass for the Milky Way.
Identification of Weak Nodes in Power System Based on Standard Deviation of Voltage Magnitude

Identification of weak buses in an electric power system is important for operational and planning purposes. In this paper, a framework that uses the standard deviation of the magnitude of voltage at load buses is used to identify weak buses. In the framework, reactive power for all load buses are generated simultaneously based on a probability distribution function. The 39-Bus New England test system is used to test the framework in DigSilent PowerFactory in conjunction with Python programming language. The result shows that weak buses can be identified with the framework