Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Tax and Petroleum Revenue Effect on Iran’s Public Expenditures (1994–2015), Employing Fiscal Illusion Approach

I ncreased expenditures and the government size is an important issue in public sector economics. In this regard, various theories have been developed in order to justify the reasons for the public expenditure growth, and the theories have been empirically tested. One of the outlooks explaining the government expenditures growth and the economy size, is fiscal illusion approach. According to fiscal illusion theory and experiences, citizens generally do not have a correct perception of fiscal parameters systematically, so that they wrongly demand for more government expenditures. In this study, seasonal data for the period of 1994–2015 were used to test and analyze the fiscal illusion in Iran’s economy by applying autoregressive distributed lags model. Findings, obtained from the model estimation, indicate that the fiscal illusion in Iran’s economy can be explained from the variables of oil revenue and government debt in short-term and long-term, and indirect tax elasticity in short-term. Since the government uses oil revenue to finance its debt and budget deficit, the results may lead to fiscal illusion. In order to prevent fiscal illusion, using these sources should be gradually reduced as much as possible. As tax revenue itself generally does not result in fiscal illusion (based on the findings), the government should specify transparent fiscal rules by using tax revenues rather than oil revenues in order to prevent both the increasing government expenditures and fiscal fluctuations. According to the results, government should use more direct tax revenue. As government’s direct tax revenue, unlike other sources of revenue, does not create fiscal illusions, it does not result in excessive demand by citizens for public expenditures.
Influences on Release‐Site Fidelity of Translocated Elk

Several eastern states are considering the restoration of free‐ranging elk populations via translocation from western populations. Optimal habitat immediately surrounding release sites has been found to enhance elk reintroduction success in western states. Little information exists, however, to aid eastern managers in identifying release sites with the highest chance of restoration success. We monitored the movements of 415 translocated elk released at three sites in southeastern Kentucky to identify landscape characteristics that enhance release‐site fidelity. The distance elk moved after release differed among sites (F2,322 = 4.63, p = 0.01), age classes (F2,322 = 4.37, p = 0.01), and time intervals (F2,322 = 40.74, p < 0.001). At 6 and 12 months post‐release, adults (15.81 ± 17.32 and 16.38 ± 20.29) and yearlings (13.91 ± 16.44 and 14.61 ± 21.11) moved farther than calves (8.06 ± 14.03 and 9.37 ± 14.40). The release site with the highest fidelity was privately owned, 15% open, and had the highest amount of edge compared with the other release sites. The two remaining sites contained large amounts of expansive openland or forest cover with lower amounts of edge. Additionally, both sites were publicly owned and experienced a higher degree of human‐generated disturbance compared with the site to which elk were most faithful. When selecting release sites, managers should avoid areas dominated by a single cover type with little interspersion of other habitats. Rather, areas with high levels of open‐forest edge (approximately 5.0 km/km2) and limited‐human disturbance will likely enhance release‐site fidelity and promote restoration success.
Revision of Malayia Malloch, with the First Reports of Rhinophoridae from India and Indonesia (Diptera: Oestroidea)

Malayia Malloch, 1926 is revised and a new species, M. indica sp. n. , is described and illustrated from a female collected from Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India. The male of M. fuscinervis Malloch, 1926 is described for the first time from material from Malaysia and Philippines, and M. nigripennis Malloch, 1927 is reported from Sumatra, Indonesia. The records from India and Indonesia are new country records for the genus. A key to the three species of Malayia is provided.
How reliable is statistical wavelet estimation

Well logs often are used for the estimation of seismic wavelets. The phase is obtained by forcing a well-derived synthetic seismogram to match the seismic, thus assuming the well log provides ground truth. However, well logs are not always available and can predict different phase corrections at nearby locations. Thus, a wavelet-estimation method that reliably can predict phase from the seismic alone is required. Three statistical wavelet-estimation techniques were tested against the deterministic method of seismic-to-well ties. How the choice of method influences the estimated wavelet phase was explored, with the aim of finding a statistical method which consistently predicts a phase in agreement with well logs. It was shown that the statistical method of kurtosis maximization by constant phase rotation consistently is able to extract a phase in agreement with seismic-to-well ties. A statistical method based on a modified mutual-information-rate criterion was demonstrated to provide frequency-dependent phase wavelets where the deterministic method could not. Time-varying statistical wavelets also were estimated with good results — a challenge for deterministic approaches because of the short logging sequence. It was concluded that statistical techniques can be used as quality control tools for the deterministic methods, as a way of extrapolating phase away from wells, or to act as standalone tools in the absence of wells.
Corporate governance and Islamic banks’ products and services disclosure

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of Islamic banks (IBs) product and services disclosure (PSD). Design/methodology/approach A computer-based content analysis is run upon the annual reports for a sample of 78 IBs operating in 11 countries from 2004 to 2012 to find the number of product and services statements. The levels and trends of PSD are identified. A regression analysis to identify the factors affecting PSD in IBs is also used. Findings The findings suggest that there has been a significant improvement of PSD over time. The results show a positive association between PSD and Shariah board size, board size, chief executive officer (CEO) tenure, duality in position, blockholders and investment account holders. However, they show a negative association between PSD and institutional ownership. In addition, it appears that board independence does not affect significantly banks’ PSD. It is also found that the bank performance, bank age, leverage, listing, adoption of international financial reporting standards, adoption of Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions and country transparency index have a positive effect on the PSD. Originality/value This study offers an original contribution to corporate disclosure literature by being the first to develop and investigate PSD for a large sample of IBs during a long period of time. It links P&S with bank corporate governance characteristics. The findings have many important policy implications. More specifically, this paper encourages regulators in the studied countries to improve corporate governance mechanisms in their Islamic banking systems through the optimization of ownership structure, CEO’s characteristics and the board’s characteristics, to promote PSD. Moreover, the findings support the theoretical predictions of the generalized agency theory. This study’s empirical evidence enhances the understanding of the corporate social responsibility disclosure environment in general and the PSD environment in particular for IBs. This study is the first one that measures PSD in the annual reports for a large cross-countries sample of IBs during a long period of time. It is also the first one that links PSD with IBs corporate governance mechanisms.
Evaluation of the Effect of Anisotropic Consolidation and Principle Stress Rotation on Undrained Behavior of Silty Sands

The dependence of undrained behavior of silty sand on initial state of stress and direction of principal stresses with respect to vertical (α) is assessed under generalized loading paths using hollow cylinder apparatus. During applying shear load, value of intermediate principal stress parameter (b) is held constant and α value is increased from zero to the aimed value and held constant. Specimens are consolidated both isotropically and anisotropically to evaluate the effect anisotropic consolidation on the behavior of these soils. Wet tamping method was selected to prepare specimen. Shear loading was carried out under strain-controlled condition to capture post-peak strain-softening response. The results of this study reveal that the principal stress direction and initial anisotropy in stress condition have considerable effects on the behavior of silty sands. By increasing α, susceptibility of silty sand to instability increases. In addition, increase in silt content, silty sand mixtures present higher tendency to flow compared to pure sand. For specimens with high silt content, it is observed that stress-strain response has a sudden reduction in shear strength after a peak. This study reveals that shear strength, steady state friction angle of the silty sands are affected by α and the amount of fines present in the sand.
Heavy metal accumulation in some selected ponds of district Ludhiana (Punjab), India

In India, fresh water bodies particularly ponds form the lifeline of Indian villages. The present study was carried out to analyze various heavy metals in pond water of three different sites from July 2016 to March 2017 covering three annual seasons. The naturally occurring ponds of villages Kila Raipur and Lohatbaddi (Ludhiana) were selected as study sites while Fish Farm Complex in Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) served as control site. Surface water samples were collected and analyzed for the presence of heavy metals by ICAP–AES. The results of heavy metal analysis indicated that Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Copper, Manganese, Nickel, Lead and Zinc were primarily present in the water samples with concentration higher in the ponds of villages Lohatbaddi and Kila Raipur as compared to the control. This is a pointer of the high pollution load in these ponds as the water of these pond was recipient of solid waste, detergents and other chemicals from village households and the aquatic fauna was directly affected.
East German economic elites and their companies two decades after the transformation ('Wende'): Still following the patterns of the 1990s

Surveys among entrepreneurs and managing directors of companies with 50 to 1,000 employees are used to describe features of managerial elites in East Germany. The paper looks at four dimensions: (1) the reproduction of economic elites during the transformation period and its current consequences; (2) the development of “family capitalism” and processes of social closure; (3) qualification patterns of management; and (4) different attitudes of East and West German elites. Managers who were socialised in state socialist combines are still a large proportion of East German economic elites. Owing to their age distribution, changes in top management will be probable, and their effects on enterprises and social relations are discussed in the paper.
Longitudinal variation of equatorial electrojet and the occurrence of its counter electrojet

Abstract. We examined the longitudinal variability of the equatorial electrojet (EEJ) and the occurrence of its counter electrojet (CEJ) using the available records of the horizontal component H of the geomagnetic field simultaneously recorded in the year 2009 (mean annual sunspot number Rz = 3.1) along the magnetic equator in the South American, African, and Philippine sectors. Our results indicate that the EEJ undergoes variability from one longitudinal representative station to another, with the strongest EEJ of about 192.5 nT at the South American axis at Huancayo and a minimum peak of 40.7 nT at Ilorin in western Africa. Obtained longitudinal inequality in the EEJ was explicable in terms of the effects of local winds, dynamics of migratory tides, propagating diurnal tide, and meridional winds. The African stations of Ilorin and Addis Ababa registered the greatest % of CEJ occurrence. Huancayo in South America, with the strongest electrojet strength, was found to have the least occurrence of the CEJ. It is suggested that activities that support strong EEJ inhibits the occurrence of the CEJ. Percentage of occurrence of the CEJ varied with seasons across the longitudes. The order of seasonal variation of morning occurrence does not tally with the evening occurrence order at any station. A semiannual equinoctial maximum in percentage of morning occurrence of the CEJ was obtained at Huancayo and Addis Ababa. Only Addis Ababa recorded equal equinoctial maxima in percentage of evening occurrence of the CEJ. The seasonal distribution of the occurrences of the CEJ at different time regimes implies a seasonal variability of causative mechanisms responsible for the occurrence of the CEJ.
Maximum Entropy Analysis of Flow Networks with Nonlinear Constraints

The concept of a flow network - a set of nodes connected by flow paths - encompasses many different disciplines, including electrical, pipe flow, transportation, chemical reaction, ecological, epidemiological, economic and human social networks. Over the past two years, we have developed a maximum entropy (MaxEnt) method to infer the stationary state of a flow network, subject to “observable” constraints on expectations of various parameters, “physical” constraints such as conservation (Kirchhoff's) laws and frictional properties, and “graphical” constraints due to uncertainty in the network structure itself. The method enables the probabilistic prediction of physical parameters and (if necessary) the graphical properties of the network, when there is insufficient information to obtain a closed-form solution. A number of analytical, semi-analytical and numerical tools have been developed for the handling of nonlinear constraints, and for extracting analytical and/or numerical solutions. The method is demonstrated by application to the analysis of (i) a 1123-node, 1140-pipe urban water distribution network; (ii) a 327-node urban electrical power network with distributed sources; and (iii) an urban road network.
Family ownership, liquidity, and insider trading in new public firms

IPOs have long been considered as a potential way of exit for founders. Yet the existing literature has largely failed to examine founders' exit decisions and its influence on both the firm's information environment and the liquidity of its stock. In this paper, using a sample of new public firms, we examine founders' sales in the open market and relate them to the level of information asymmetry and various aspects of the liquidity of the firm's stock. We find that family ownership has a significant influence on the extent of founders' exit. In particular, founders with low (high) levels of ownership are more (less) likely to engage in sale transactions, indicating relatively faster (slower) exit. We also find that, in order to facilitate their exit, founders try to improve the market liquidity by engaging in additional information disclosure. This is reflected in the negative relation between the level of firm asymmetric information in the equity market and the extent of founders' sales. While the lower level of asymmetric information appears to translate into lower adverse selection risk, the founder trading patterns increase inventory risk for the market maker, leading to a wider bid-ask spread.
Investigation of respiratory viruses in camel slaughtered at Addis Ababa Akaki Abattoir, Ethiopia

Camel is an important domestic animal uniquely adapted to the hot and arid environment, but its contribution to Ethiopian pastoralists is disproportionate to its resource potential due to the presence of various infectious and parasitic diseases in the area. Therefore this study was conducted with an attempt to isolate and characterize respiratory viruses from infected lungs. Accordingly, camel lung tissues were collected from Akaki abattoir and transported to National Veterinary Institute virology laboratory and stored temporarily at -85°C. The samples were processed and inoculated on confluent VERO cells, incubated at 37°C and examined for the development of cytopathogenic effect (CPE) for 4 to 15 days. From thirty five examined samples twenty seven were CPE positive. Ten supernatant samples exhibiting CPE were taken and tested for presence of both DNA and RNA viruses, using universal degenerate oligonucleotide primed– polymerase chain reaction (DOP-PCR) and conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques. Five out of six samples tested by DOP-PCR were positive for presence of RNA virus, while only one sample was positive for DNA virus. Nine of ten samples were positive for, Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and two of six were positive for Adenovirus , but all tested samples were negative for Peste Des Petits Ruminants Virus (PPRV) and Parainfluenza viruses 1-3.
The Effect of Undulated Wall on Natural Convection Heat Transfer in Vertical Channels

The effect of steady-state natural convection in undulation wall is presented. The two-dimensional numerical analysis is carried out with a method called CVFEM thermally coupled. Incompressible flow formulation written in terms of primitive variables ,this method uses the interpolation equal order velocity-pressure to the resolution of the Navier-Stokes equations, and is applied to the laminar flow problems in natural convection in a vertical channel heated symmetrically, one case is for a single undulation, the other case with several undulations. The thermal boundaries conditions used are uniform wall temperature. The profiles of the local and average Nusselt number are presented for all the studied cases. FORTRAN code is elaborated in this paper.
Trade and International Transport Services: An Analytical Framework

International Transport Services (ITS) play an important role in influencing international trade flows. This paper develops an analytical framework in which ITS costs are endogenously determined. It shows that ITS sector liberalization foster international trade very much the same way tariff liberalization does. From a political economy viewpoint, a unilateral liberalization of the sector may not always be politically feasible, and a multilateral agreement can help prop up support for reform. It is further argued that deregulation and competition policy reform are more likely to be feasible if undertaken jointly.
SOCIAL SELECTIVITY OF TRACK MOBILITY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that track mobility during secondary education is influenced by parental background. However, family background effects might vary due to institutional variations in the educational structure. Therefore, in our paper we compare social selectivity of track mobility in two countries, Germany and The Netherlands. Both countries offer a hierarchically tracked educational system, but differ in details. Further, both countries established educational reforms in the late sixties, changing the conditions for track mobility differently. In our empirical analyses using data from the Family Survey Dutch Population and the German Life History Study we find that changing to a higher track is more likely for students who face the threat of status demotion, whereas changing to a lower track is independent of status maintenance motives. Intra-secondary transitions occur less often in The Netherlands than in Germany and are less motivated by status maintenance. Educational legislation reduces the effects of relative education of the parents only on upward mobility in Germany and only on downward mobility in The Netherlands.
Long-term optical monitoring of TeV emitting blazars

We present ten years of R-band monitoring data of 31 northern blazars which were either detected at very high-energy (VHE) gamma rays or listed as potential VHE gamma-ray emitters. The data comprise 11 820 photometric data points in the R-band obtained in 2002–2012. We analyzed the light curves by determining their power spectral density (PSD) slopes assuming a power-law dependence with a single slope β and a Gaussian probability density function (PDF). We used the multiple fragments variance function (MFVF) combined with a forward-casting approach and likelihood analysis to determine the slopes and perform extensive simulations to estimate the uncertainties of the derived slopes. We also looked for periodic variations via Fourier analysis and quantified the false alarm probability through a large number of simulations. Comparing the obtained PSD slopes to values in the literature, we find the slopes in the radio band to be steeper than those in the optical and gamma rays. Our periodicity search yielded one target, Mrk 421, with a significant (p < 5%) period. Finding one significant period among 31 targets is consistent with the expected false alarm rate, but the period found in Mrk 421 is very strong and deserves further consideration.
Bond functions, basis set superposition errors and other practical issues with ab initio calculations of intermolecular potentials

Intermolecular potentials determine the physical and chemical properties of matter. Quantum mechanical calculation based on ab initio molecular orbital theory has overcome many challenging problems for the past decade and become a leading tool for the study of intermolecular potentials. Bond functions, supplementing traditional atomic basis sets, have been proven highly effective in offsetting major deficiencies in atomic basis sets and are increasingly popularly employed in ab initio calculations of intermolecular potentials, particularly for weakly bound systems. This review revisits the present author's own work that has contributed to the eventual development of the bond function method, followed by highlighting recent applications of the method to a range of weakly bound systems. Emphases are placed on the present author's unique logic and viewpoints about a range of related issues, such as the efficiency of basis set, the basis set superposition error and the counterpoise method, which have played an important role in the conceptual development of the bond function method.
Player Restraints and Competition Law Throughout the World

This article reviews agreements among clubs participating in league sports in many countries throughout the world that limit competition for the services of players. Under the English common law (which governs in most of the British commonwealth), the competition law provisions of the European Union's governing treaty, the American Sherman Act, and the Canadian Competition Act, the governing standard is quite similar. Player restraints cab only be justified if they are related to a legitimate purpose, which is usually defined as one that demonstrably improves the consumer appeal for the sporting competition. Moreover, and significantly, player restraints must be reasonably necessary to achieve the demonstrated purpose; in short, overbroad restraints are not consistent with competition law. Competition law provides a meaningful, effective, and under-utilized constraint on the monopsony power of sports leagues. Although American players must surmount an additional obstacle of waiving rights under labor law, this obstacle is not present elsewhere. In all relevant jurisdictions, sensible application of competition law principles is superior to a laissez faire approach or direct government regulation, and is less intrusive than a restructuring of league sports to eliminate monopsony power.