Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phenotypic traits of primate hybrids: Recognizing admixture in the fossil record

For many years, the likelihood that hybridization occurred in human evolution has been debated. Tattersall and Schwartz pointed out one of the core problems with resolving this debate, namely “that nobody has any idea what a Neanderthal/modern human hybrid might look like in theory, and few have dared to suggest in practice that any particular known fossil represents such a hybrid. ”1:7117 Moreover, while molecular data is proving increasingly useful for characterising hybrid zones, the utility of the phenotype for this purpose is not clear.2 Here I address these issues, discussing both theoretical and empirically‐derived expectations for what hybrid morphology looks like, with an emphasis on the skeleton of hybrid primates, and consideration of the hominin fossil record.
How Do Fiscal Adjustments Work? An Empirical Investigation

Recent empirical evidence suggests that fiscal consolidation mainly based on tax hikes has a more recessionary impact on economic growth than those based on expenditure cuts. This paper evaluates the effects of fiscal adjustment plans identified through the narrative approach on macroeconomic activity. I incorporate fiscal plans into the vector autoregression model to investigate transmission channels of fiscal consolidation and accompanying policy. I check whether monetary policy, uncertainty, or financial markets can explain the heterogeneous effects of fiscal adjustment plans. I find that the financial market and macro uncertainty are the most important, explaining about 90% of the total difference.
Customer Satisfaction in Achieving Customer Loyalty through Mediation of Trust: An Empirical Study on Mobile Payment Users

Indian online payment ecosystem has witnessed a very speedy growth in terms of acceptance as well as in volume especially post demonetization which has forced the sellers as well as buyers to switch to alternatives to the cash payments. Due to entry of global tech giants that are facilitating as aggregators for retail transactions, Indian digital payments system has gained an accelerated growth. The present study attempts to contribute to the knowledge of how customer satisfaction and trust influence loyalty as well as mediating effect of trust between satisfaction and loyalty in India. 200 valid responses were used to study the proposed relationship. The proposed hypothesis was tested using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling using software SmartPLS. Our results confirm that customer loyalty of mobile payment users is directly influenced by customer satisfaction and trust. Further, customer trust mediates the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Therefore, mobile payment service providers should work on privacy and security related issue to develop trust of the customers which will further lead to customer loyalty.
The application of digital photogrammetry and image analysis techniques to derive tree and stand characteristics

Ground-based forest inventory surveys can provide highly accurate measurements of tree and stand characteristics, but these are expensive to carry out. Aerial photography has been used for several decades as a tool in forest management and inventory. However, conventional methods of interpretation are both time-consuming and costly, with results varying among interpreters. With continuing development of personal computer technology, aerial photographs have become more accessible for digital analysis. This paper presents the potential operational use of digitized aerial photographs for the estimation of tree and stand characteristics of two forest plantations of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carriere) in Scotland. The digitized aerial photographs were processed using softcopy photogrammetry, and image analysis techniques were used for individual tree crown delineation. For the first site the estimations of stand top height, basal area, volume, biomass, and density (23.7%) were similar to the grou.
Economic Experts vs. Average Americans

In 2012 the National Public Radio program Planet Money created a fake presidential platform based on the issues a small sample of economists, with different political views, agreed upon. In focus groups this platform found no support among the public at large. Is this just a feature of the particular selection made by NPR or is it a generalizable feature? If so, is this because ordinary people have not being trained in economics or because economists lack common sense or miss important political considerations? In this article we try to address these questions. To do so we compare the answers to a common set of policy questions provided by the Economic Expert Panel at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (EEP) with those provided by the Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index (FTI), which quarterly interviews a representative sample of the U.S. population. Economists’ opinions differ greatly from those of other ordinary Americans: On average the percentage of agreement with a statement differs 35 percentage points between the two groups. This difference does not seem to be driven by a different composition of the sample. We also find a large variation in the difference between the two samples across questions. The topics most covered in the economic literature, where economists agree among themselves the most, are also the topics in which their opinions are most distant from those of average Americans. This difference does not seem to be driven by knowledge, since informing people of the expert opinions does not have much impact on the responses of ordinary Americans. The explanation most consistent with our limited evidence is that people do not trust many of the implicit assumptions embedded into the economists’ answers and that economists give them for granted.
General Equilibrium Restrictions for Dynamic Factor Models

This paper proposes the use of dynamic factor models as an alternative to the VAR-based tools for the empirical validation of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) theories. Along the lines of Giannone et al. (2006), we use the state-space parameterisation of the factor models proposed by Forni et al. (2007) as a competitive benchmark that is able to capture weak statistical restrictions that DSGE models impose on the data. Beyond the weak restrictions, which are given by the number of shocks and the number of state variables, the behavioural restrictions embedded in the utility and production functions of the model economy contribute to achieve further parsimony. Such parsimony reduces the number of parameters to be estimated, potentially helping the general equilibrium environment improve forecast accuracy. In turn, the DSGE model is considered to be misspecified when it is outperformed by the state-space representation that only incorporates the weak restrictions.
'She Is Mine': Determinants and Value Effects of Early Announcements in Takeovers

Some bidders voluntarily announce a merger negotiation before the definitive agreement. We propose an “announce-to-signal” explanation to these early announcements: they allow bidders to signal to target shareholders high synergies so as to overcome negotiation frictions and improve success rates. Consistent with signaling, we show that negotiation frictions predict earlier announcements. Early announced transactions are associated with higher expected synergies, offer premium, completion rates, and public competition. Moreover, bidder announcement returns do not suggest overpayment and the existence of agency issues in these transactions. Taken collectively, our findings rule out alternative explanations such as managerial learning from investors and jump bidding.
Corporate Financial Intelligence as a Driver of Organizational Performance: A Conceptual and Exploratory Review

While the concepts of financial intelligence (FI) and financial intelligence quotient (FIQ) as it pertains to the individual has been widely investigated and used by practitioners and academics, the operational definition and scope of these concepts have not been sufficiently rigorous. Neither have they been specifically applied to the organization, even though some researchers agree that financial intelligence could improve corporate performance. This paper proposes the concepts of corporate financial intelligence (CFI), measured by corporate financial intelligence quotient (CFIQ) as an organizational-wide practice for institutionalizing and improving corporate performance and shareholder value. This exploratory study argues for the development of a framework/model for defining corporate financial intelligence (CFI) and measuring corporate financial intelligence quotient (CFIQ), and to demonstrate their linkage to corporate performance and shareholder value. This study will present the opportunity for ongoing research into the relationship between corporate performance, shareholder value and the institutionalization of corporate (organizational) financial intelligence.
The Cyclical Response of Fiscal Policies in the Euro Area – Why Do Results of Empirical Research Differ so Strongly?

Whether discretionary fiscal policies in industrialized countries act counter- or pro-cyclically and whether their reaction is symmetric or asymmetric over the cycle are still largely unsettled questions. This uncertainty remains even when attention is restricted to euro-area countries, where these questions have important implications for the debate on European fiscal rules. We review the recent empirical literature to explain why the results of the various studies differ so greatly. We find that differences are driven partly by the choices made in modelling fiscal behaviour and in the related notions of fiscal policy cyclicality. Results are also affected by data source and vintage (ex post or real-time). The time period chosen is relatively less important. We conclude that the notion of pro-cyclical fiscal policies often upheld in the debate is not justified by the data. Ex post data suggest either a-cyclicality or weak counter-cyclicality. Real-time information gives clearer indications of counter-cyclical behaviour, especially when we progress from a very simple i? ½corei? ½ model to a more complex one, including at least the impact of fiscal rules. As for symmetry or asymmetry, the answer varies with sources of data and time periods. With the more complex model the indications of asymmetric behaviour are more robust. Whenever asymmetry is present, it entails shifts in all the parameters of the fiscal rule and not necessarily in the output gap parameter.
Corporate Taxation and Productivity Catch-Up: Evidence from European Firms

Firms that lie far behind the technological frontier have the most to gain from imitating the technology or management practices of others. That some firms converge relatively slowly to the productivity frontier suggests the existence of factors that cause them to underinvest in their productivity. In this paper we explore how far higher rates of corporate taxation affect firm productivity convergence by reducing the after tax returns to productivity enhancing investments for small firms. Using data for 11 European countries we find evidence for such an effect; productivity growth in small firms is slower the higher are corporate tax rates. Our results are robust to the use of instrumental variable and panel data techniques with quantitatively similar effects found from a natural experiment following the German tax reforms in 2001.
Comparative Effects of Recreational and Medical Marijuana Laws on Drug Use among Adults and Adolescents

Thirty-four states have medical marijuana laws, and 10 states have recreational marijuana laws. Little research compares how these two types of laws affect drug consumption in the general population or in particular age groups. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that recreational laws increase past-year marijuana use by 25 percent among adults and by 10 percent among adolescents. In contrast, medical laws increase adult use by only 5 percent and have a negligible effect on adolescent use. We also find that recreational marijuana dispensaries are an important driver of the increase in marijuana use for adults 26 and older. Our results suggest that medical laws succeed in mitigating recreational (nonmedical) use, that recreational laws produce large increases in marijuana use in the general population, and that underage marijuana use may be an important problem with existing implementations of recreational marijuana laws.
Consequences of the Adoption of the Expanded Auditor’s Report: Evidence from Hong Kong

Effective on December 2016, the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants issued a set of new and revised auditing standards that require a discussion of Key Audit Matters (KAMs). We investigate whether KAMs provide incremental information to investors and if the changes to the auditor’s report have indirect consequences for audit fees and audit quality. We implement a difference-in-differences research design, examining two years of data from companies listed in Hong Kong and Mainland China stock exchanges. We do not find evidence that KAMs provide incremental information to investors or that the new rules affect audit fees or quality. Next, we document that variation in the content of KAMs (e.g., types, number, length of the discussion, and company-specific focus) is not consistently associated with incremental information content, audit fees or audit quality. Our findings support some investors’ demands for additional and more specific information in the auditor’s report.
Correlation Neglect in Voting Decisions: An Experiment

Abstract We investigate the influence of correlation neglect on information aggregation when a voter has to weigh external information about profitability against her risk preferences. In an online experiment, subjects are members of a group and vote either for a fixed payment or for a lottery of the same expected value. They receive signals which alternative may result in an additional bonus or penalty for their group. Our results suggest that subjects flip their vote because of correlation neglect.
Production of Monoclonal Antibodies to Sugarcane Yellow Leaf Virus Using Recombinant Readthrough Protein

Yellow leaf syndrome (YLS) of sugarcane is associated with sugarcane yellow leaf virus (SCYLV), a member of the family Luteoviridae. A fragment of the coat protein and readthrough domain of SCYLV was expressed in a bacterial expression system. The resulting protein was purified and used to immunize mice for monoclonal antibody (MAb) production. Two MAbs, 3A2E3 and 2F7H5, were selected following the screening of hybridoma cells using both plate-trapped antigen enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (PTA-ELISA) and tissue blot immunoassay (TBIA). These MAbs can be incorporated into the TBIA assay currently used for the routine detection of SCYLV but could not be used in triple antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (TAS-ELISA). The two antibodies selected have slightly different specificities. Antibody 3A2E3 gave equivalent results to a polyclonal antiserum (raised to purified virus) in comparative testing using TBIA. The MAbs produced should provide a widely available, uniform reagent for SCYLV diagnosis with the potential to help manage YLS.
A Multi-Step Kernel – Based Regression Estimator That Adapts to Error Distributions of Unknown Form

For linear regression models, we propose and study a multi-step kernel density-based estimator that is adaptive to unknown error distributions. We establish asymptotic normality and almost sure convergence. An efficient EM algorithm is provided to implement the proposed estimator. We also compare its finite sample performance with five other adaptive estimators in an extensive Monte Carlo study of eight error distributions. Our method generally attains high mean-square-error efficiency. An empirical example illustrates the gain in efficiency of the new adaptive method when making statistical inference about the slope parameters in three linear regressions.
Biological Studies in the Vicinity of a Shallow-Sea Tidal Mixing Front IV. Seasonal and Spatial Distribution of Urea and Its Uptake by Phytoplankton

On six cruises in 1980 the vertical and horizontal distributions of urea concentration and uptake rates were determined in the vicinity of a shallow-sea tidal mixing front in the western Irish Sea. Urea concentrations, while patchy, were similar throughout the year and showed no significant patterns of distribution and no relation to stratification of the water column. Urea uptake rates, on the other and, showed a consistent and strong relationship to stratification, both vertically and horizontally, fastest rates being found in the less dense water on the stratified side of the front and above the pycnocline. Large differences between waters above and below the pycnocline were found during months of strong stratification. Similar differences occurred between the stratified and mixed surface waters on each side of the front. From relatively low urea uptake rates in March, when stratification was weak, extremely high rates were observed in June and thereafter decreased attaining another minimum at the end of September when stratification was weakening. Urea uptake indices (uptake per unit of chlorophyll a) were also highest in the surface stratified waters and followed a similar vertical, horizontal and seasonal distribution pattern as that of urea uptake rates. The seemingly unchanging urea concentrations throughout the year and its extremely fast uptake by micro-organisms indicate a rapid flux of this nitrogenous compound in the surface of the stratified waters. The possible routes of urea regeneration are discussed. Budget calculation indicate that urea was an important source of nitrogen for phytoplankton in the surface stratified waters when oxidized forms of nitrogen such as nitrate were depleted and that the rapid flux of reduced nitrogen in the form of urea may be a major factor in sustaining high productivity associated with the frontal system.
Director Influence

We use exogenous changes in the probability that firms adopt executive ownership guidelines (EOGs) to measure the influence of board connections on the spreading of executive compensation policy. EOGs require managers to hold pre-specified equity ownership levels, and their use has increased gradually from less than 5 percent of the largest US firms in 1992 to 73 percent in 2013. We use changes in state tax rates as a determinant of adopting EOGs and find that board connections are a significant channel through which EOGs disseminate. This finding highlights the dissemination of compensation policy through the influence exerted by the board of directors, and complements explanations based on similar firms adopting similar compensation policies.
Aspects of the Breeding Ecology and Conservation of the Glossy Ibis in Algeria

Abstract. The status and breeding success of Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) in Numidia, Algeria and factors affecting its conservation in Algeria and North Africa were investigated during 2002–2007. After a century and a half of apparent interruption, reproduction was once again noted at Lake Fetzara and three new breeding sites: Dakhla, Chatt and Lake Tonga. At the latter site, colonies shifted location annually between 2002 and 2006 and were often split into subcolonies located on distinct islets. Egg-laying occurred between mid-April and the end of June, beginning over a month earlier in 2004 than in 2005. Mean clutch size for the combined three study years (2004, 2005 and 2007) was 3.7 ± 0.6 (N = 49 clutches). Hatching success amounted to 89% (29 clutches) and an average of 2.7 ± 0.9 chicks per nest survived to twelve days. Habitat loss and degradation as well as lack of management plans are identified as major threats to the future of the Glossy Ibis in Algeria.
The Seasonality of Human Births, Melatonin and Cloud Cover

Introduction: Although the seasonality of human births has been known for nearly 175 years, it has not been adequately explained. Societal and environmental reasons have often been cited as the reasons for seasonality. Since increased light is known to initiate reproduction in many animals, photoperiod, light intensity and melatonin are likely variables related to this phenomenon. This retrospective study demonstrates a logical connection between these factors and human conceptions. Methodology: Seasonality data were extracted from previous studies. Daily cloud cover amounts were utilized as indices for environmental light intensity. Variables were evaluated by Pearsonian r. Discussion: Results were evaluated and discussed in a series of 11 sub-studies involving environmental light intensity and the seasonality of human births. Conclusion: Human birth seasonality may be primarily influenced by environmental light intensity with photoperiod in a secondary role. This result is supported by significant r-values for US and Europe, a logical link between US, Canadian, Indian, European, and Hong Kong conceptions as well as the concurrent transition of conceptions and cloud cover. Israeli conceptions, however, contradict US and European patterns.
UNIT ROOT TEST WITH HIGH-FREQUENCY DATA

Deviations of asset prices from the random walk dynamic imply the predictability of asset returns and thus have important implications for portfolio construction and risk management. This paper proposes a real-time monitoring device for such deviations using intraday high-frequency data. The proposed procedures are based on unit root tests with in-fill asymptotics but extended to take the empirical features of high-frequency financial data (particularly jumps) into consideration. We derive the limiting distributions of the tests under both the null hypothesis of a random walk with jumps and the alternative of mean reversion/explosiveness with jumps. The limiting results show that ignoring the presence of jumps could potentially lead to severe size distortions of both the standard left-sided (against mean reversion) and right-sided (against explosiveness) unit root tests. The simulation results reveal satisfactory performance of the proposed tests even with data from a relatively short time span. As an illustration, we apply the procedure to the Nasdaq composite index at the 10-minute frequency over two periods: around the peak of the dot-com bubble and during the 2015–2106 stock market sell-off. We find strong evidence of explosiveness in asset prices in late 1999 and mean reversion in late 2015. We also show that accounting for jumps when testing the random walk hypothesis on intraday data is empirically relevant and that ignoring jumps can lead to different conclusions.
Minimum Relative Entropy Inference for Normal and Monte Carlo Distributions

We represent affine sub-manifolds of exponential family distributions as minimum relative entropy sub-manifolds. With such representation we derive analytical formulas for the inference from partial information on expectations and covariances of multivariate normal distributions; and we improve the numerical implementation via Monte Carlo simulations for the inference from partial information of generalized expectation type.
Optimization of culture conditions for the production of biomass protein by Aspergillus niger NRRL 567

Maximum biomass protein (48.34 mg/ml) was obtained at pH 3.5, temperature 30EC after 96 hours of continuos shaking at 120 rpm by fermentation with Aspergillus niger NRRL 567, cultured on corn stover (4%) in optimized medium containing CaCl2.2H20 (0.02%), MgSO4.7H20 (0.03%), Urea (0.1%), KH2PO4 (0.3%). Cane molasses (0.75%) and Yeast sludge (1%).