Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Decision Making, Risk and Gender: Are Managers Different?

This paper explores differences in the nature of decisions taken by males and females. Women are playing an increasingly important role in business management and managers are ultimately tested and evaluated in terms of their success in making decisions. Consequently any difference in the character and quality of decisions taken by male and female managers will have important implications for organizations. This paper reviews the literature, and reports two pieces of empirical work which investigate the connections between gender and decision making. The decision-making characteristics of males and females in a 'non-managerial' population in which the majority of individuals have not undergone formal management education are contrasted with a 'managerial' population of potential and actual managers who have undertaken such education. It is argued that women are often excluded from managerial positions of authority and leadership due to stereotypes, which have been constructed by observing 'non-managerial' populations at large. The paper concludes, however, that these stereotypes may not apply to managers as in the 'managerial' sub-population males and females display similar risk propensity and make decisions of equal quality.
Access to Credit, Natural Disasters, and Relationship Lending

This paper analyzes the effect of unpredictable aggregate shocks on loan demand and access to credit by combining client-level information from an Ecuadorian microfinance institution with geophysical data on natural disasters, more specifically volcanic eruptions. The results of this ‘natural experiment’ show that while credit demand increases due to volcanic activity, access to credit is restricted. Yet, we also find that bank-borrower relationships can lower these lending restrictions and that clients who are known to the institution are about equally likely to receive loans after volcanic eruptions occurred.
Measuring IC following a semi-qualitative approach: An integrated framework

Purpose: Considering the different IC measures adopted in literature, the advantages of adopting semi-qualitative measures, and the lack of an agreed system for IC evaluation, the purpose of the paper is to analyse literature on IC measurement following a semi-qualitative approach, with the final intent to build an IC measurement framework.
Robot's Recovery from Invading Personal Space

It is inevitable that robots will make mistakes in social situations with humans. However making mistakes is part of the social aspect of humans. Important when making a social mistake is how the mistake is acted upon, whether or not the error is remedied. This research has investigated if and to what extent a negative rst impression of a robot can be remedied by the same robot that caused it. To investigate this, a series of controlled experiments have been conducted. A robot approached a participant and then performed a task with the participant. The experiment had 3 conditions (regular, mistake and recovery) to compare the eect of making a social mistake and the attempt to recover from it. After the experiment the impression the participants had of the robot was measured in the qualities of warmth and competence using a questionnaire. A small dierence was found in combined warmth and competence rating, albeit not a signicant one. It was found that for one attribute, sensitivity, the robot significantly scored better in the recovery condition compared to both the regular and mistake condition. These results should be able to help design future robots.
Emulating the GLink chip-set with FPGA serial transceivers in the ATLAS Level-1 Muon trigger

Many High Energy Physics experiments based their serial links on the Agilent HDMP-1032/34A serializer/deserializer chip-set (or GLink). This success was mainly due to the fact that this pair of chips was able to transfer data at ∼ 1 Gb/s with a deterministic latency, fixed after each power up or reset of the link. Despite this unique timing feature, Agilent discontinued the production and no compatible commercial off-the-shelf chip-sets are available. The ATLAS Level-1 Muon trigger includes some serial links based on GLink in order to transfer data from the detector to the counting room. The transmission side of the links will not be upgraded, however a replacement for the receivers in the counting room in case of failures is needed. In this paper, we present a solution to replace GLink transmitters and receivers. Our design is based on the gigabit serial IO (GTP) embedded in a Xilinx Virtex 5 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). We present the architecture and we discuss parameters of the implementation such as latency and resource occupation. We compare the GLink chip-set and the GTP-based emulator in terms of latency, eye diagram and power dissipation.
Business–Regulatory Relations: Learning to Play Regulatory Games in European Utility Markets

Although regulation is on the rise in the European Union, the liberalization of the telecommunication and energy markets has not created a uniform European Regulatory model. The principle focus of this article is to examine the interaction and regulatory learning between national regulatory authorities and business in the U.K. and German utility markets to assess the degree of convergence and demonstrate how the regulatory relationship has evolved beyond that envisaged in the initial delegation of powers to the regulator. The article shows that independent regulatory authorities have moved from distant and often confrontational relationships with business to strategic working relationships driven by exchanges of information and reputation building and that regulatory learning and trust have evolved at distinct speeds in sectors and countries depending on the number of regulatory authorities in a market place, the degree to which there are concurrent powers between authorities, their discretion in the consultation process, and the length of time that regulatory authorities had existed. Consequently, significant variance is continuously seen in the business—regulator relationships in comparing the young legalist German regulatory authorities with the established independent and discretion-based regulators in the U.K.
The Middle East and North Africa’s Resilient Monarchs

This paper helps explain the variation in political turmoil observed in the MENA during the Arab Spring. The region's monarchies have been largely spared of violence while the "republics" have not. A theory about how a monarchy's political culture solves a ruler's credible commitment problem explains why this has been the case. Using a panel dataset of the MENA countries (1950-2006), I show that monarchs are less likely than non-monarchs to experience political instability, a result that holds across several measures. They are also more likely to respect the rule of law and property rights, and grow their economies. Through the use of an instrumental variable that proxies for a legacy of tribalism, the time that has elapsed since the Neolithic Revolution weighted by Land Quality, I show that this result runs from monarchy to political stability. The results are also robust to alternative political explanations and country fixed effects.
Status of vitamin D, antioxidant enzymes, and antioxidant substances in neonates with neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy

Abstract Objective: To investigate the concentration of vitamin D (VD), glutathione peroxidase (GP), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA), and advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) in neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Material and methods: This study was performed prospectively in term neonates treated for HIE. Samples were collected from the neonates in study and control groups at 6–14 h and on day 5 of their lives for 25-OH vitaminD3, antioxidant enzymes including GP and SOD and oxidants substances including MDA and AOPP. Results: This study was performed with 31 term neonates with HIE and 30 healthy term neonates. Maternal VD level was statistically lower in the study group (9.8±6.8 ng/mL) than the control (16.4±8.7 ng/mL) (p = 0.002). SOD and MDA levels were significantly high, and VD level was significantly low in the study group on the first day of life (p = 0.001 and p = 0.028, respectively). SOD and GP levels were significantly high in the study group on day 5 (p < 0.05). VD was significantly low in the study group on day 5 and the proportion of subjects with VD below 5 ng/ml was significantly lower in the control group (p = <0.05). Conclusion: VD has neuroprotective and antioxidant properties. We detected VD levels were low in infants with HIE and their mothers. This finding may be useful for decreasing of brain damage.
Public Housing Residence and College Performance: Evidence From the Nation's Largest Urban Public University

Despite clear implications for human capital accumulation, there has been little research on the postsecondary educational experiences of students living in public housing. While there is significant and growing research exploring outcomes for public housing tenants, even in the education sphere, little of this work focuses on postsecondary outcomes and what role, if any, public housing plays in human capital accumulation. Our case study, New York City, is home to both the nation's largest urban public university system and the largest public housing authority. In this work, we use matching techniques to identify and describe the residential characteristics of students at the City University of New York. We explore how students who live in public housing developments differ from their peers in terms of characteristics associated with success in college, including demographics, neighborhood poverty, and high school preparation. We use regression techniques to test the relation between public housing residence, neighborhood income, and two indicators of early college performance: successful completion of credits attempted and one-year retention. In a naive model (including only residence and high school characteristics), public housing residence is negatively associated with our outcomes of interest, but less so when we control for other factors, including neighborhood income. Specifically, for students pursuing an associate's degree, we find a negative relation between public housing residence and credit completion and a less pronounced negative relation with retention. We find no significant relation between public housing residence and either baccalaureate outcome.
An Analysis Of The January Effect In Stocks And Interest Rates Under Varying Monetary Regimes

In this paper, the remaining of the January effect is clarified. The early literature indicates that differing views on the existence of such an effect were based on different data sets, various time period, and different measurement tools. A model is formulated to test the January effect hypothesis with seven assets from 1871 to 1986, including tests performed for subperiods corresponding to different monetary regimes. The hypothesis tests incorporate an unbiased estimator to avoid the biases caused by heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation. Findings suggest that asset return behavior differs among assets and regimes.
Treatment Sequencing for Childhood ADHD: A Multiple-Randomization Study of Adaptive Medication and Behavioral Interventions

Behavioral and pharmacological treatments for children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were evaluated to address whether endpoint outcomes are better depending on which treatment is initiated first and, in case of insufficient response to initial treatment, whether increasing dose of initial treatment or adding the other treatment modality is superior. Children with ADHD (ages 5–12, N = 146, 76% male) were treated for 1 school year. Children were randomized to initiate treatment with low doses of either (a) behavioral parent training (8 group sessions) and brief teacher consultation to establish a Daily Report Card or (b) extended-release methylphenidate (equivalent to .15 mg/kg/dose bid). After 8 weeks or at later monthly intervals as necessary, insufficient responders were rerandomized to secondary interventions that either increased the dose/intensity of the initial treatment or added the other treatment modality, with adaptive adjustments monthly as needed to these secondary treatments. The group beginning with behavioral treatment displayed significantly lower rates of observed classroom rule violations (the primary outcome) at study endpoint and tended to have fewer out-of-class disciplinary events. Further, adding medication secondary to initial behavior modification resulted in better outcomes on the primary outcomes and parent/teacher ratings of oppositional behavior than adding behavior modification to initial medication. Normalization rates on teacher and parent ratings were generally high. Parents who began treatment with behavioral parent training had substantially better attendance than those assigned to receive training following medication. Beginning treatment with behavioral intervention produced better outcomes overall than beginning treatment with medication.
Effect of hypothyroidism on blood lipid concentrations in horses.

OBJECTIVE To measure and compare concentrations of selected blood lipids before and after thyroidectomy in horses. ANIMALS 5 healthy adult mares. PROCEDURE Mares were confirmed to be euthyroid. Thyroidectomy was performed, and hypothyroidism was confirmed. Selected blood lipid variables were measured before hypothyroidism was induced and weekly for 4 weeks after induction. Plasma concentrations of very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), serum triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), and nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) were measured. The composition of VLDL and LDL also was examined. RESULTS Mean plasma concentrations of VLDL and LDL increased significantly after thyroidectomy. By 4 weeks after thyroidectomy, a ninefold increase in mean plasma concentration of VLDL and a threefold increase in LDL, compared with baseline values, were detected. After thyroidectomy, mean percentage of TG in VLDL increased significantly, whereas free cholesterol and cholesterol ester content decreased. Mean percentage of TG in LDL also increased by 3 to 4 weeks after thyroidectomy. Serum concentrations of TG and TC increased, whereas serum NEFA concentration decreased. CONCLUSIONS Hypothyroidism significantly alters blood lipid concentrations of horses. After thyroidectomy, markedly high VLDL concentration, appearance of TG-rich VLDL, increased serum concentrations of TG and TC, and decreased blood concentration of NEFA were evident. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Examination of blood lipid concentrations of horses may be useful for detecting naturally acquired hypothyroidism.
Globalisation and the provinces of China: the role of domestic versus international trade integration

Regional disparities are particularly high in some larger emerging economies, such as Russia and China, and inter-provincial inequality in China has increased rapidly after 1990. In the literature, a statistical link between globalisation and increased regional disparities in China has been established, but not the precise mechanisms and causal relationships. In the paper, we therefore simulate a world trade model with 166 countries and regions in order to shed light on these mechanisms and the future development of regional disparities in China. Our results suggest that the faster growth in coastal regions may be caused by the role of these regions as transport hubs for international trade. However, uneven growth could also be caused by domestic trade disintegration, as suggested by some other research. In the paper, we demonstrate these mechanisms, but we are not able to draw firm conclusions about the relative role each of them play empirically. The weaker development for some peripheral regions can be reversed by stronger domestic trade integration or better cross-border infrastructure.
Anthropometric analysis of mandibular asymmetry in infants with deformational posterior plagiocephaly.

PURPOSE The incidence of deformational posterior plagiocephaly has increased dramatically since 1992. We tested the hypothesis that mandibular asymmetry, associated with this condition, is secondary to anterior displacement of the ipsilateral temporomandibular joint. The response to molding helmet therapy was also evaluated. PATIENTS AND METHODS A caliper was used to measure mandibular dimensions in 27 infants (16 boys and 11 girls) with deformational posterior plagiocephaly; the mean age was 6.2 months (range, 3 to 12 months). Anthropometric measures included ramal height (condylion-gonion), body length (gonion-gnathion), and condylion-gnathion. Gonial angle was calculated from the law of cosines: C(2) = A(2) + B(2) - 2AB cos c. The position of the temporomandibular joint was accepted as corresponding to auricular position and measured from tragion to subnasal. Cranial asymmetry was measured, in the horizontal plane, from orbitale superius to the contralateral parieto-occipital point at the level of inion. Ten of 27 patients were remeasured 5 months after beginning helmet therapy to evaluate change in mandibular dimensions. RESULTS Two thirds of infants (67%) had right-sided and one third (33%) had left-sided deformational posterior plagiocephaly. The mean auricular anterior displacement was 79.7 mm on the affected side and 83.4 mm on the unaffected side. The mean difference of 3.8 mm between the sides was statistically significant (P <.001). Transverse cranial dimension averaged 136.0 mm on the affected side and 146.8 mm on the unaffected side; this was also significant (P <.001). There was a significant positive correlation between auricular displacement and cranial asymmetry [R(23) =. 59, P <. 01). Auricular (temporomandibular joint) displacement also resulted in an apparent mandibular asymmetry with rotation of the jaw to the affected side. Mean mandibular measurements on the affected and unaffected sides were ramus height of 35.2 and 36.4 mm, body length of 59.0 and 60.3 mm, and gonial angle of 127.1 degrees and 126.8 degrees, respectively. Comparison of the affected with the unaffected sides, using a paired-samples t test, was not statistically significant. Improvement in cranial asymmetry occurred with helmet therapy, but there was no correction of auricular and temporomandibular joint position. CONCLUSIONS This study supports the clinical observation that the mandibular asymmetry in deformational posterior plagiocephaly is secondary to rotation of the cranial base and anterior displacement of the temporomandibular joint (quantified by anterior auricular position) and not the result of primary mandibular deformity.
Optimal cross hedging of Insurance derivatives using quadratic BSDEs

We consider the utility portfolio optimization problem of an investor whose activities are influenced by an exogenous financial risk (like bad weather or energy shortage) in an incomplete financial market. We work with a fairly general non-Markovian model, allowing stochastic correlations between the underlying assets. This important problem in finance and insurance is tackled by means of backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs), which have been shown to be powerful tools in stochastic control. To lay stress on the importance and the omnipresence of BSDEs in stochastic control, we present three methods to transform the control problem into a BSDEs. Namely, the martingale optimality principle introduced by Davis, the martingale representation and a method based on Ito-Ventzell’s formula. These approaches enable us to work with portfolio constraints described by closed, not necessarily convex sets and to get around the classical duality theory of convex analysis. The solution of the optimization problem can then be simply read from the solution of the BSDE. An interesting feature of each of the different approaches is that the generator of the BSDE characterizing the control problem has a quadratic growth and depends on the form of the set of constraints. We review some recent advances on the theory of quadratic BSDEs and its applications. There is no general existence result for multidimensional quadratic BSDEs. In the one-dimensional case, existence and uniqueness strongly depend on the form of the terminal condition. Other topics of investigation are measure solutions of BSDEs, notably measure solutions of BSDE with jumps and numerical approximations. We extend the equivalence result of Ankirchner et al. (2009) between existence of classical solutions and existence of measure solutions to the case of BSDEs driven by a Poisson process with a bounded terminal condition. We obtain a numerical scheme to approximate measure solutions. In fact, the existing self-contained construction of measure solutions gives rise to a numerical scheme for some classes of Lipschitz BSDEs. Two numerical schemes for quadratic BSDEs introduced in Imkeller et al. (2010) and based, respectively, on the Cole-Hopf transformation and the truncation procedure are implemented and the results are compared.