Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Credibility Model with Random Fluctuations in Delay Probabilities for the Prediction of IBNR Claims

Abstract We consider a general credibility model for the prediction of IBNR-claims which allows for random fluctuations in the underlying delay distribution. Such fluctuations always bring about decreasing credibility. It is shown that even negative credibility is achieved for more substantial fluctuations in the delay distribution. Special attention is paid to the mixed Poisson case for claim numbers including the discussion of parameter estimation.
Temporary Labor Migration: A Rights-based Approach

Temporary labor migrants in general are more negatively affected by slowed economic growth than native-born. This adds to popular perceptions of temporary migration having an overall negative financial impact on host countries even during times of significant economic growth. Strong policy responses include tightened borders and limited access to services where migrants are admitted entry. This article documents a growing disjuncture between territorial jurisdiction and membership rights, where significant rights are withheld from this group of migrants on he grounds that they will never be members. The mismatch between rights given up and rights granted for this group causes a short to long-term rights gap for non-citizen residents. The article argues that this rights gap is not only unjust, but also harmful to the actors involved in the migration process (states and migrants). Linking normative political theory with cosmopolitan utilitarian deliberations, I discuss the legitimacy of withholding rights from non-citizen residents as well as state responsibilities towards minimizing the identified rights gap. I suggest how nation-states and migrants can minimize the costs of employing migration as a labor market and livelihood strategy, and how they can draw mutual benefits from an increasingly human centered rights-based policy approach. The article concludes that if the rights and entitlements of migrants were expanded, enabling different choices of entry and exit, outcomes for origin and receiving countries as well as for the migrants themselves could be improved. Ultimately, it makes a case for a moral and utilitarian acceptance of a liberal extension of rights.
Overreactions in the Options Market

This paper examines the "term structure" of options' implied volatilities, using data on S&P 100 index options. Because implied volatility is strongly mean reverting, the implied volatility on a longer maturity option should move by less than one percent in response to a one percent move in the implied volatility of a shorter maturity option. Empirically, this elasticity turns out to be larger than suggested by rational expectations theory--long-maturity options tend to "overreact" to changes in the implied volatility of short-maturity options. Copyright 1989 by American Finance Association.
Internal reproductive system in adult males of the genus Camponotus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Formicinae)

Descriptions are provided of the histology and ultrastructure of the male internal reproductive tracts from three species of Camponotus, representing three subgenera. This study is the first to provide ultrastructural information on the testes (including spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis), seminal vesicles, and accessory glands in ants. Testes contain about ten follicles each, and each follicle is capable of producing hundreds of cysts in which spermatozoa develop. Structural evidence of meiosis in late pupal testes includes cytoplasmic bridges between spermatocytes, centriole elimination, and fusion of mitochondria. Developing spermatids are in close contact with cyst cells in the region of the acrosome. Mature spermatozoa are similar in ultrastructure to those described previously for two other subfamilies of ants (Myrmicinae and Dolichoderinae). The ultrastructure of the seminal vesicle suggests that it is not merely a passive organ for sperm storage. Large numbers of both mitochondria and membranous whorls suggest a pH‐regulating and/or hormonal function. The accessory gland is made up of secretory cells that contain a diversity of secretory granules. SDS‐PAGE reveals several proteins found in the accessory glands but absent in the adjacent genitalia. Preliminary analyses indicate that carbohydrate is an important component of accessory gland secretions.
Does the Market for Women's Labor Need Fixing?

T he difference in pay between men and women workers in the American economy is currently averaging 30 to 35 percent, depending on the measure used. Underlying these large pay differences are the continuing segregation of work by sex, a sparsity of promotions for women, and differences in the respect accorded men and women. Low wages for women workers mean a low standard of living for the large and growing fraction of women who do not share the income of a husband, and for the children who live with them. Because of their lack of access to all jobs on an equal basis, women have a disproportionately small share of the interesting jobs, of the jobs that allow a person to grow and to advance. Gains for working women are occurring, but even assuming the continuation of the current rate of change, the substantial equality of women and men in the labor market is decades away. This article concerns the appropriate policy response to this situation. Some economists imply that the appropriate response is none at all. They view the inferior labor market position of women as something women have freely chosen, as a normal and generally benign adaptation to "their responsibilities" for housework and child rearing. Low-wage work is seen as appropriate for people who behave as they do. The laws against discrimination and the apparatus designed to enforce them are, in this view, superfluous or of minor value. After all, the discipline of the competitive marketplace has kept things fair and always will. There is, however, considerable evidence for the alternative view that widespread, severe, ongoing discrimination by employers and fellow workers continues to hamper women. If this is true, systematic government action to interfere in the marketplace can be justified on grounds of equity and efficiency. The question then arises as to the
Psychophysics of sweet and fat perception in obesity: problems, solutions and new perspectives

Psychophysical comparisons seem to show that obese individuals experience normal sweet and fat sensations, they like sweetness the same or less, but like fat more than the non-obese do. These psychophysical comparisons have been made using scales (visual analogue or category) that assume intensity labels (e.g. extremely) which denote the same absolute perceived intensity to all. In reality, the perceived intensities denoted by labels vary because they depend on experiences with the substances to be judged. This variation makes comparisons invalid. Valid comparisons can be made by asking the subjects to rate their sensory/hedonic experiences in contexts that are not related to the specific experiences of interest. Using this methodology, we present the evidence that the sensory and hedonic properties of sweet and fat vary with body mass index. The obese live in different orosensory and orohedonic worlds than do the non-obese; the obese experience reduced sweetness, which probably intensifies fat sensations, and the obese like both sweet and fat more than the non-obese do. Genetic variation as well as taste pathology contribute to these results. These psychophysical advances will impact experimental as well as clinical studies of obesity and other eating disorders.
U.S. Government and Agency Securities: An Analysis of Yield Spreads and Performance

The volume of securities issued by federally sponsored corporations or agencies has increased rapidly during the past decade. These securities are now the basis of a major bond market, and some investors use them as substitutes for government securities. However, throughout the decade agency securities have had higher yields to maturity and higher expected holding-period returns than comparable government securities so that they have apparently not been used as perfect substitutes for government securities by all investors during the period. This paper documents these persistent yield spreads and changes in these spreads. It also describes the spreads as a function of the relationship between the agency and government markets. However, analysis of ex post holding-period returns to agency and government securities over the same period generates a pattern that is different from expected returns in some significant ways and from the pattern of yield spreads. If an investor were indifferent between the risks associated with these sets of securities, and if any additional expected returns to the agency securities were more than adequate to compensate for any additional transaction costs associated with the agency securities, then he might have been better off owning the agency securities. However, because yield spreads and differential holding-period returns do not always coinThe U.S. agency bond market has grown rapidly during the past decade. However, agency securities remain imperfect substitutes for U.S. government securities. Persistent yield spreads between these markets, changes in these spreads, and holdingperiod returns are documented, analyzed, and described as functions of the relationship between the markets.
Organizational Culture, Decision of Funding and Financial Performance: An Evidence from Small and Medium Enterprises

This study aims to examine the influence of organizational culture on Funding Decision and Company Financial Performance and the effect of Funding Decisions on Company Financial Performance. This research is conducted at the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Bali province, including Wood Crafting and Woodworking Industry and Textile Industry and Textile Products. The study population consists of 173 business units. The sampling technique uses a random stratified proportional random sampling and obtains 121 business units. This study uses a quantitative method that is enriched with a qualitative approach, especially on Organizational Culture from the concept of local knowledge in Bali, which is Catur Purusa Artha. The study finds out that organizational culture form by local wisdom in Bali, which is “Catur Purusa Artha”, affects the owner or management of SMEs in the province of Bali in determining Decisions Funding and Financial Performance. This study confirm Resource Based View (RBV) Theory, where the organizational culture excavated from local wisdom (Catur Purusa Artha).
Clostridium botulinum Group I Strain Genotyping by 15-Locus Multilocus Variable-Number Tandem-Repeat Analysis

ABSTRACT Clostridium botulinum is a taxonomic designation that encompasses a broad variety of spore-forming, Gram-positive bacteria producing the botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT). C. botulinum is the etiologic agent of botulism, a rare but severe neuroparalytic disease. Fine-resolution genetic characterization of C. botulinum isolates of any BoNT type is relevant for both epidemiological studies and forensic microbiology. A 10-locus multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) was previously applied to isolates of C. botulinum type A. The present study includes five additional loci designed to better address proteolytic B and F serotypes. We investigated 79 C. botulinum group I strains isolated from human and food samples in several European countries, including types A (28), B (36), AB (4), and F (11) strains, and 5 nontoxic Clostridium sporogenes. Additional data were deduced from in silico analysis of 10 available fully sequenced genomes. This 15-locus MLVA (MLVA-15) scheme identified 86 distinct genotypes that clustered consistently with the results of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and MLVA genotyping in previous reports. An MLVA-7 scheme, a subset of the MLVA-15, performed on a lab-on-a-chip device using a nonfluorescent subset of primers, is also proposed as a first-line assay. The phylogenetic grouping obtained with the MLVA-7 does not differ significantly from that generated by the MLVA-15. To our knowledge, this report is the first to analyze genetic variability among all of the C. botulinum group I serotypes by MLVA. Our data provide new insights into the genetic variability of group I C. botulinum isolates worldwide and demonstrate that this group is genetically highly diverse.
Principal Components as a Measure of Systemic Risk

The U. S. government’s failure to provide adequate oversight and prudent regulation of the financial markets, together with excessive risk taking by some financial institutions, pushed the world financial system to the brink of systemic failure in 2008. As a consequence of this near catastrophe, both regulators and investors have become keenly interested in developing tools for monitoring systemic risk. But this is easier said than done. Securitization, private transacting, complexity, and “flexible accounting” prevent us from directly observing the many explicit linkages of financial institutions. As an alternative, the authors introduce a measure of implied systemic risk, the absorption ratio, which equals the fraction of the total variance of a set of asset returns explained or “absorbed” by a fixed number of eigenvectors. The absorption ratio captures the extent to which markets are unified or tightly coupled. When markets are tightly coupled, they are more fragile in the sense that negative shocks propagate more quickly and broadly than when markets are loosely linked.
Amortization Policy For Advertising And Research And Development Expenditures

Several reasons exist for differences between the value of the firm reflected by stock market values and the historical value reported in accounting financial statements. One major one is that financial statements are limited to those items that meet the present-day recognition criteria employed by the accounting profession. Thus, potentially relevant items such as advertising and research and development (R&D) are not reported on balance sheets because they do not meet the qualitative criterion of reliability. To date, little empirical evidence exists to support an intangible capital treatment of advertising and R&D, much less provide any information as to how their capitalized values might be amortized (for a notable exception, see Peles [1970]). Indeed, in Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 2, the FASB took the position that practically all R&D should be expensed as incurred. Although no formal reporting standard exists on the proper accounting for advertising expenditures, its accounting treatment is similar to that employed for R&D. Nevertheless, the definition of assets developed in Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts No. 3 suggests that, in some cases, advertising and R&D could be capitalized. In addition, recent work on recognition criteria as part of the conceptual framework project suggests there may be new ways of reporting these types of items. This paper considers the advertising and R&D expenditure treatment
Control of the mushroom phorid fly, Megaselia halterata (Wood), with plant extracts.

BACKGROUND The most serious insect pest problems affecting the cultivation of mushroom [Agaricus bisporus (Lange) Imbach] in Turkey are mushroom flies (sciarids, cecids and phorids). Mushroom phorid fly, Megaselia halterata (Wood), is the most common insect pest species during April-October. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential for eight botanical materials (two commercial neem-based products and six hot-water plant extracts) to control M. halterata populations in three successive growing periods. RESULTS Treatment efficacy was evaluated by assessing adult emergence and sporophore damage rates compared with that of a standard insecticide, chlorpyrifos-ethyl (positive control). All plant extracts caused significant reductions in the mean number of emerging adults and sporophore damage rates compared with the water-treated control (negative control). Reduction in adult emergence in both neem treatments, Neemazal and Greeneem oil, was greater than that in the positive control. While Neemazal and Origanum onites L. extract had significantly lower sporophore damage rates than the positive control, there were no significant differences between the chlorpyrifos-ethyl, Greeneem oil and Pimpinella anisum L. extract treatments. CONCLUSION The results suggest that both neem products and hot-water extracts of O. onites and P. anisum may be potential alternatives to conventional pesticides for the control of mushroom phorid fly.
Job Displacement and the Inter‐Temporal Movement of Workers Through the Earnings and Income Distributions

This paper uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine how job displacement influences intragenerational earnings and income mobility. Job displacement increases the probability of downward labor earnings mobility for several years after separation occurs. Furthermore, the probability of being in the bottom half of the earnings distribution increases significantly, not only in the year of displacement, but also for several years afterwards. However, after considering additional measures of financial well‐being (income from other family members and government transfer payments), the short‐ and long‐term impact of displacement on movements throughout the distribution is reduced.
Applying self-compassion in sport: an intervention with women athletes.

This study investigated the effects of a self-compassion intervention on negative cognitive states and self-compassion in varsity women athletes. Athletes who self-identified as being self-critical were randomly assigned to a self-compassion intervention (n = 29) or attention control group (n = 22). The self-compassion intervention consisted of a psychoeducation session and writing components completed over a 7-day period. Measures of self-compassion, state self-criticism, state rumination, and concern over mistakes were collected pretreatment, at 1 week posttreatment, and at a 4-week follow-up. A mixed factorial MANOVA with follow-up post hoc tests demonstrated moderate-to-strong effects for the intervention at posttest and follow-up (Wilks's Λ = .566, F (8, 42) = 4.03, p < . 01, η2 = . 43). The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the self-compassion intervention in managing self-criticism, rumination, and concern over mistakes. Fostering self-compassionate mind frames is a potential coping resource for women athletes dealing with negative events in sport.
Rotterdam vs Almost Ideal Models: Will the Best Demand Specification Please Stand Up?

Among the many demand specifications in the literature, the Rotterdam model and the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) have particularly long histories, have been highly developed, and are often applied in consumer demand systems modeling. Using Monte Carlo techniques, we seek to determine which model performs better in terms of its ability to recover the true elasticities of demand. We derive the correct formulae for the AIDS models elasticities, when the Tornqvist or two modified versions of the Stone index are used to linearize the model. The resulting linearized AIDS are compared to the full AIDS.
A Tunable Miniaturized RF MEMS Resonator With Simultaneous High $Q$ (500–735) and Fast Response Speed $(<\hbox{10}-\hbox{60}\ \mu\hbox{s})$

This paper reports on the design, fabrication, and measurement of a novel radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) tunable all-silicon evanescent-mode cavity-based resonator that simultaneously achieves high quality factor and fast response speed. The resonator is based on a 1.5-mm-deep silicon-etched cavity attached to a gold-coated silicon substrate with an array of 75 185-μm-long 20-μm-wide 1- μm-thick gold beams. The 54- mm3 resonator is tunable from 15.2 GHz up to 16.5 GHz (analog tuning range) and up to 17.8-GHz range (digital tuning range) with an array of 75 MEMS fixed-fixed beams. The MEMS beams are biased against their own silicon substrate. This helps keep RF leakage at a minimum and permits high quality factors of 500-735 for the all-silicon configuration. By applying dynamic biasing waveforms, the MEMS tuners respond within 9 μs (actuation time) and 60 μs (release including settling time). To the best of the authors' knowledge, the presented resonator is more than 3 × smaller, achieves nearly 30% higher average quality factor, and is at least 10-100 × faster than state-of-the-art resonators based on similar technology, implemented in similar frequency ranges.
Can Vietnam Achieve More Robust Economic Growth?: Insights from a Comparative Analysis of Economic Reforms in Vietnam and China

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of economic reforms in Vietnam and China to gain insights into critical reform areas that are imperative for Vietnam to achieve more robust economic growth. This study finds that the growth gap between the two countries has been substantial not only for GDP but also for labour productivity and total factor productivity, both of which are essential for sustainable economic performance in the long term. The main causes behind the growth disparity between Vietnam and China are governance-related factors, namely government effectiveness, regulatory quality, administrative reforms, state-owned enterprise reforms and policy experimentation efforts, along with induced elements such as education and technological upgrading. While China’s stronger performance does not imply that Vietnam should embrace the former’s growth model, the considerable performance gap between the two countries suggests that Vietnam has great potential to accelerate its own economic growth. The insights and discussion from this study indicate that Vietnam can achieve far more robust growth if it launches a new wave of reforms to effectively strengthen the aforementioned factors. This paper provides a suite of relevant and actionable policy recommendations for Vietnam to embark on this endeavour.
Ownership and Management Issues Associated With Family Firm Performance and Company Objectives

Agency and stewardship theories are used to explore associations between ownership and management profiles and the performance and objectives of family firms. Using data from privately held family firms in the United Kingdom, a range of performance measures and objectives were examined. Multivariate regression analysis detected that closely held family firms did not report superior firm performance. The results show that the management rather than the ownership structure of a family firm was generally associated with selected firm-performance indicators and nonfinancial company objectives. Although family CEOs were associated with lower propensity to export, presented evidence generally fails to suggest that private family firms should avoid employing family members in management roles.
Combined Effects of Positive and Negative Affectivity and Job Satisfaction on Job Performance and Turnover Intentions

ABSTRACT Capturing data from employee–supervisor dyads (N = 321) from eight organizations in Pakistan, including human service organizations, an electronics assembly plant, a packaging material manufacturing company, and a small food processing plant, we used moderated regression analysis to examine whether the relationships between trait affect (positive affectivity [PA] and negative affectivity [NA]) and two key work outcome variables (job performance and turnover) are contingent upon the level of job satisfaction. We applied the Trait Activation Theory to explain the moderating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between affect and performance and between affect and turnover. Overall, the data supported our hypotheses. Positive and negative affectivity influenced performance and the intention to quit, and job satisfaction moderated these relationships. We discuss in detail the results of these findings and their implications for research and practice.