Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Household Investing on Wealth Inequality

Researching household investment by applying the unique DNB Survey data results in the empirical observation that wealthier people tend to possess more financial assets. Furthermore, wealthier people do not only earn more in case they would achieve similar returns, people with more financial assets tend to achieve higher aggregate portfolio returns as well. Subsequently, the influence of the diversification level with regards to this higher aggregate return has been tested. Although the diversification channel does not seem to significantly increase the aggregate returns, it does increase the Treynor ratio of a portfolio and hence decreases its risk.
Forced turbulence in thermally bistable gas: a parameter study

Context. Thermal instability is one of the dynamical agents for turbulence in the diffuse interstellar medium, where both turbulence and thermal instability interact in a highly non-linear manner. Aims. We study basic properties of turbulence in thermally bistable gas for variable simulation parameters. The resulting cold gas fractions can be applied as parameterisation in simulations on galactic scales. Methods. Turbulent flow is induced on large scales by means of compressive stochastic forcing in a periodic box. The compressible Euler equations with constant UV heating and a parameterised cooling function are solved on uniform grids. We investigate several values of the mean density of the gas and different magnitudes of the forcing. For comparison with other numerical studies, solenoidal forcing is applied as well. Results. After a transient phase, we observe that a state of statistically stationary turbulence is approached. Compressive forcing generally produces a two-phase medium, with a decreasing fraction of cold gas for increasing forcing strength. This behaviour can be explained on the basis of turbulent mixing. We also find power-law tails of probability density functions of the gas density in high-resolution runs. Solenoidal forcing, on the other hand, appears to prevent the evolution into a two-phase-medium for certain parameter regions. Conclusions. The dynamics of thermally bistable turbulence show a substantial sensitivity to the initial state and the forcing properties.
On the Relationship between Language Learning Strategy Use and Motivation

A shift of attention has taken place in second/foreign language (L2) learning research from the products of learning to the processes through which learning takes place. Thus, L2 researchers have turned their attention to the role that language learning strategies play in L2 learning/teaching. Given that L2 learning and teaching is difficult and needs motivation, this study investigates second language (L2) learning strategy use as well as instrumental and integrative types of motivation. Besides, it explores the relationship between L2 learning strategy use and motivation in a sample of 152 EFL learners at two Iranian universities. To collect data, Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and a motivational questionnaire were used. The collected data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially using correlation. Results showed that, first, Iranian EFL participants, in general, had a moderately high level of motivation toward learning English. Second, they were more integratively motivated. Third, compensation strategies were the leading strategy type and social strategies were the least common reported type of strategy. Fourth, motivation correlated positively with all types of language learning strategies. Finally, the implications of the findings for L2 research and pedagogy are presented.
Inverting line drawings of faces1

Faces as visual stimuli convey important information in that they allow us to recognise persons and their emotional states. Faces differ from other objects according to processing requirements as they have to be identified on the subordinate level (Tanaka & Gauthier, 1997). Two lines of evidence concerning “special information” in face recognition are the concepts of surface information and facial configuration.
Isomorphic influences and voluntary disclosure: The mediating role of organizational culture

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test the mediating effect of organizational culture in the relationship between isomorphic influences and voluntary disclosure. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional design was employed. Data were collected using a survey questionnaire for the independent variables of coercive, mimetic normative isomorphism as well as organizational culture (mediating variable). The data for the dependent and control variable were obtained from content analysis of financial reports of 92 companies and was analysed using partial least squares PLSSEM. Findings: The results indicate that coercive and normative isomorphic mechanisms are positively related voluntary disclosure while mimetic mechanism is not. Organizational culture partially mediates the relationship between isomorphic influences and voluntary disclosure practices of listed firms in Nigeria. Research Limitation/implication: The cross-sectional nature of the study means that it does not capture changes in the Nigerian business environment overtime. Future research may consider a longitudinal study. The study is not industry specific as such may capture industry differences. However, the result is still considered valid since industry category was controlled for. Practical implication: the result has implication for a number of interested parties such as regulatory bodies, accounting professional bodies, external auditors academics, and mangers. Originality/value: The study, it has contributed to our understanding of the mediating effect of organizational culture on the relationship between isomorphic mechanisms and voluntary disclosure from the perspective of a developing country like Nigeria.
First-principles study of the phonon dispersion and dielectric properties of wurtzite InP: Role of In 4d electrons

Although wurtzite InP nanowires have recently been grown, an accurate description of the wurtzite InP phonon dispersion is still missing. We calculate the ab initio phonon dispersion of wurtzite and zinc-blende InP using density-functional perturbation theory and a real space supercell approach. Our predicted optical phonon frequencies agree well with measured Raman data from InP nanowires. We find that treating In 4d electrons as valence electrons is required to accurately describe InP lattice dynamics and dielectric constants, but including spin-orbit coupling has little effect. We also compare the sound velocities and specific heat and find that any difference in the thermal conductivity of InP polytypes should be due to differences in phonon-scattering rates.
Gender Pay Gap and Quantile Regression in European Families

In this paper we analyze the trend of the gender gap between wives and husbands for Mediterranean countries with a strong family tradition, using data from the European Household Panel (ECHP) of 2001 and the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) of 2006. In general, wives and husbands, when married, have the same characteristics but wives suffer from two types of discrimination with respect to husbands: a lower wage for the same work and a primary responsibility for children. This paper uses quantile regression and counterfactual decomposition methods to investigate whether a glass ceiling exists or if instead a sticky floor is more prevalent among European families over time (2001 and 2006). We correct for selectivity the unconditional wage distribution of married women and we show that the wage gap decomposition is different if we ignore self-selection. We find that the wage gap is positive in each country, and the greater part of it is composed of a discrimination effect, while the characteristics effect is small. In Mediterranean countries, wives suffer from the sticky floor effect, i.e. the gender gap is bigger at the bottom of distribution, while we can observe that the glass ceiling effect decreased in most countries in 2006.
EMARA Indonesian Journal of Architecture

Social sustainability and sustainable urban developments are major challenges across the world both developed and developing countries. In general there is a conflict between the approach of sustainable development and social sustainability in the urban context. The concept of sustainability brings a key framework for extensive literature on urban design, architecture and planning. Nevertheless there is a considerable overlap between the social dimensions of sustainability and the theories or notions, for instance the ‘sustainable societies’ that are highlighted in the midst of other aspects: social equity and justice. Such society is widely expected to offer a situation for long-term social relations and activities which are sustainable, inclusive and equitable in a wider perception of the term (environmentally, socially and economically). The method adopted to address this aim involves a content analysis of available academic literature, with focus on the planning sustainable development, built environment, social sustainability, and urban planning fields. The findings demonstrate that in spite of some opposing evidence, many studies have confirmed that there has been displacement of the debate on the term of ‘sustainability’ from ‘ecological and environmental aspects into social and economic aspects’. It is related to how the community feel safe and comfortable living in their own communities, how have they felt of proud of the place where they live. The aim of the paper is to improve our understanding of current theories and practices of planning sustainable development and discuss whether the approach of sustainable development aligns with social sustainability objectives.
The history of safety factors for Dutch regional dykes

Regular dyke assessment is part of reducing the risk of flooding in the Netherlands. 18 000 km of dykes are assessed at regular intervals, of which 14 000 km are classified as regional dykes and their main aim is to defend polders from inundating. The methods of assessing regional dykes are strongly inter-twined with the methods of assessing primary dykes; however, regional dykes differ due to lower consequence levels and significantly shorter individual dyke lengths. Initially, local experience was relied upon for maintaining dykes, prior to the utilisation of soil mechanics calculations to determine the safety/stability of the dykes. Over the years, the approaches have been developed leading to different assessment criteria. This paper aims to give insight into the development of the assessment criteria for regional dykes in Dutch norms/guidelines since the devastating storm surge of 1953, starting with the probabilistic assessment of water heights and global factors for slope stability, through to the adaption of statistical models which enabled the use of partial factors in dyke assessment. Partial factors in assessments allow for improved and more detailed knowledge to limit the uncertainties and lead to more detailed assumptions in the calculations. The introduction of risk-based design enables assessment criteria based on the expected damage due to inundation. The paper discusses assumptions, levels of safety and information required to complete the assessment. Including consequence based assessment and risk based design, leads to a larger possible range in the required factors of safety.
The Archaeological Landscape of Koh Ker, Northwest Cambodia

Cet article offre une synthese du deroulement des recherches et des resultats obtenus au cours de plusieurs annees de prospections aeriennes et de terrain sur le site de Koh Ker, province de Preah Vihear, dans le Cambodge du Nord-Ouest. Les principales decouvertes concernent la mise au jour d'un systeme d'ingenierie hydraulique complexe comparable a celui d'Angkor au Xe siecle ; la reconnaissance de zones vraisemblablement dediees a l'agriculture intensive pendant la periode angkorienne ; une reevaluation des « routes » et des « enceintes urbaines » precedemment identifiees ; le taux de connectivite de la « route » septentrionale reliant Koh Ker a la route menant de Beng Mealea a Vat Phu ; la probable continuite d'occupation du site des debuts de la periode historique jusqu'a la periode post-angkorienne ; les preuves de l'effondrement du systeme de gestion des eaux ; et l'examen des donnees recueillies qui indiquent des changements a grande echelle de l'environnement local, dont l'alteration de cours entiers de rivieres.
Ethnic Drift and White Flight: A Gravity Model of Neighborhood Formation

Ethnicity has become an increasingly important factor in neighborhood formation in many developed economies. We specify a gravity model for neighborhoods to assess the role of ethnicity in intra-urban residential relocations. Migration patterns of different ethnic groups are hypothesized to depend on bilateral socioeconomic, demographic and ethnic differences between origin and destination neighborhoods. We account for heterogeneous and interdependent location preferences of natives and several immigrant groups. In addition, we incorporate friction measures of ethnic population shares and a diversity indicator to allow for nonlinear and asymmetric effects of the population composition on ethnic sorting and spatial clustering. We utilize a unique micro data set of place-to-place migrants across neighborhoods in the urban agglomerations of Amsterdam and The Hague, in The Netherlands. Our results provide evidence of ethnic drift leading to clustering of ethnic minority groups and "white flight" of native Dutch residents. Taken together, our findings suggest a preference for living among people of one's own ethnic group, but in a sufficiently diverse neighborhood. We discuss ways to extend and apply our gravity approach to further analyze intra-urban residential relocation flows.
Psychological resilience of Western Australian police officers: relationship between resilience, coping style, psychological functioning and demographics

This study examines the relationships between resilience, coping style, psychological functioning and the demographic variables of gender, age, rank and length of service in a sample of 285 Western Australian Police officers. Regression analysis indicated that resilience was predicted by greater use of rational coping and less use of emotional coping, but not psychological functioning. Increased age, rank and length of service were all correlated with significantly lower resilience scores. Significant differences in coping styles were found for all demographic variables. Implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are discussed.
Effects of realistic land surface initializations on subseasonal to seasonal soil moisture and temperature predictability in North America and in changing climate simulated by CCSM4

Fully coupled global climate model experiments are performed using the Community Climate System Model version 4.0 (CCSM4) for preindustrial, present, and future climate to study the effects of realistic land surface initializations on subseasonal to seasonal climate forecasts. Model forecasts are verified against model control simulations (perfect model experiments), thus overcoming to some extent issues of uncertainties in the observations and/or model parameterizations. Findings suggest that realistic land surface initialization is important for climate predictability at subseasonal to seasonal time scales. We found the highest predictability for soil moisture, followed by evapotranspiration, temperature, and precipitation. The predictability is highest for the 16 to 30 days forecast period, and it progressively decreases for the second and third month forecasts. We found significant changes in the spatial distributions of temperature predictability in the present and future climate compared to the preindustrial climate, although the spatial average changes for North America were rather small (<10%). To attribute the potential cause of changes in land‐driven temperature predictability, they are correlated with the changes in land related climate metrics. The changes in temperature predictability are positively (0.40), and negatively (−0.35) correlated with the changes in nonrainy days evaporative fraction, and changes in dryness index respectively. From this result, the hypothesis arises that wetter conditions favor higher land‐driven temperature predictability in North America. We tested the hypothesis by rearranging the predictability experiment ensembles and found support for the hypothesis in the midlatitude regions and short‐term forecasts (16 to 30 days).
A Comparative Analysis of Potential Nitrification and Nitrate Mobility in Forest Ecosystems

The controls of potential nitrogen mineralization, nitrate production, and nitrate mo- bilization in a wide range of forest ecosystems were investigated through a combination of field and laboratory experiments. Trenched plot experiments were performed in 17 forests, and laboratory incubation studies of potential ammonium and nitrate production were made on soils from 14 of these sites. The site with the greatest potential for nitrate production in the laboratory was a New Hampshire northern hardwoods forest. Several other sites, including New Hampshire balsam fir, Indiana maple- beech, New Mexico aspen, and Oregon western hemlock forests, also had high potential nitrate production. All of these sites also had rapid nitrate movement to below the rooting zone following trenching in the field. Of nine processes which could be important in preventing or delaying solution losses of nitrate from disturbed forests, two appeared most important among the forests we examined. Low net nitrogen mineralization (caused by either nitrogen immobilization or low gross nitrogen mineralization) and lags in nitrification (probably caused by either low initial populations of nitrifying bacteria or the allelochemic inhibition of nitrification) were identified as important in several sites and in different regions. A direct relationship between the amount of nitrogen in annual litterfall and the proportion of forest floor nitrogen mineralized in laboratory incubations was observed, suggesting that refractory organic nitrogen compounds are produced in nitrogen-poor sites. An inverse relationship was found between the amount of nitrogen in litterfall in these and other sites and the carbon:nitrogen ratio of that litterfall, suggesting that the immobilization capacity of litter is increased in nitrogen-poor sites. The presence and length of lags in nitrification were inversely correlated with the mean concentration of mineral nitrogen in mineral soil. These patterns suggest that nitrogen retention within disturbed forest ecosystems can be caused by low nitrogen availability prior to disturbance.
Life of Pennzane and 815z-Lubricated Instrument Bearings Cleaned with Non-Cfc Solvents

This report takes the form of two papers: (1) "Life of Pennzane and 815Z-Lubricated Instrument Bearings cleaned with Non-CFC Solvents" and (2) a published paper, entitled "Instrument bearing life with NON-CFC cleaners". Abstract for paper # 1 : Bearings used in spacecraft mechanisms have historically been cleaned with chlorofluorocarbon CFC-1 13 (Freon) solvents and lubricated with a perfluorinated polyalkylether (PFPE) oils like 815-Z. Little full-scale bearing life test data exists to evaluate the effects of the newer class environmental-friendly bearing cleaners or improved synthetic hydrocarbon space oils like Pennzane. To address the lack of data, a cooperative, bearing life test program was initiated between NASA, Lockheed Martin and MPB. The objective was to obtain comparative long-term, life test data for flight-quality bearings, cleaned with non-CFC solvents versus CFC-1 13 under flight-like conditions with two space oils. A goal was to gain a better understanding of the lubricant surface chemistry effects with such solvents. A second objective was to obtain well-controlled, full-scale bearing life test data with a relatively new synthetic oil (Pennzane), touted as an improvement to Bray 815Z, an oil with considerable space flight history. The second paper, which serves as an attachment, is abstracted below: Bearings used in spacecraft mechanisms have historically been cleaned with chlorofluorocarbon CFC-113 (Freon) solvents and lubricated with a perfluorinated polyalkylether (PFPE) oils like 815-Z. Little full-scale bearing life test data exists to evaluate the effects of the newer class environmental-friendly bearing cleaners or improved synthetic hydrocarbon space oils like Pennzane. To address the lack of data, a cooperative, bearing life test program was initiated between NASA, Lockheed Martin and MPB. The objective was to obtain comparative long-term, life test data for flight-quality bearings, cleaned with non-CFC solvents versus CFC-1 13 under flight-like conditions with two space oils. A goal was to gain a better understanding of the lubricant surface chemistry effects with such solvents. A second objective was to obtain well-controlled, full-scale bearing life test data with a relatively new synthetic oil (Pennzane), touted as an improvement to Bray 815Z, an oil with considerable space flight history.
Mergers, acquisitions, and stocks of agricultural biotechnology intellectual property

A subset of patents owned by six large agricultural biotechnology companies is analyzed from the new Initiatives for Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS) Agricultural Biotechnology Intellectual Property database. These patents account for over 40% of US agricultural biotechnology patents issued 1976– 2000 held by US and European firms. We describe the quantity, quality, and technological composition of these patent stocks, especially noting differences between these firms and their subsidiaries. Subsidiary firms contributed more patent stocks, although parent firms contributed better patents by one measure of patent quality. Patent stocks developed or acquired by these firms exhibited technological focus in one or more areas of agricultural biotechnology, and parent and subsidiary were not always focused on the same technological area.
Renewable energy innovations in Europe: a dynamic panel data approach

We investigate the determinants of renewable energy R&D intensity and the impact of renewable energy innovations on firm performance, using several dynamic panel data models. We estimate these models using a large data set of European firms from 19 different countries, with some patenting activity in areas related to renewable energies during the 1987 to 2007 period. Our results confirm our priors on the determinants of the rapid development of renewable energy R&D intensity during the past decades. Additionally, we find evidence that renewable patent intensity has a significant dynamic impact on the stock market value of firms.
Solving the Puzzle of Relative Importance of Dividends and Retained Earnings in Stock Valuation: A Case of Karachi Stock Exchange

Despite the growing debate on the stock price valuation, it has become a complex puzzle. Various theories, models and explanations have been provided to solve this confusing riddle. This study contributes to this debate by determining the relative importance of stock dividends and retained earnings regarding stock price valuation in Karachi Stock Exchange. Data for the analysis of this study were collected from the 66 nonfinancial companies that were included in KSE-100 index for a period from 2007 to 2010. This study found the evidence that dividends are more important variable than the retained earning regarding the explanatory power of stock prices in Karachi Stock Exchange. Practical implications are also provided in the study.