Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coastal sponge communities of the West Indian Ocean: morphological richness and diversity

Sponges are a reasonably ubiquitous, abundant and highly morphologically plastic taxon. They are very unusual in showing considerable morphological plasticity, not only within higher taxa but within species and at macro and micro scales. In this study we determined the prevalence of sponge morphologies at four coastal study regions in the west Indian Ocean. We show that tropical and subtropical assemblages (in the present study) can be separated on the basis of morphological composition alone (by > 4% arborescent forms or presence of palmate forms in the former). Inter-tidal sponge assemblages can also be separated from those in the subtidal to a high degree of certainty, also on prevalence of morphologies (absence of tubular or branching forms in the former). The species diversity of many sponge assemblages has been quantified in various environments but, typically, only by specialists. Rarely have equivalent measures been made of morphological diversity. Values of morphological diversity (Shannon H′) were similar, though more variable, to those measured in temperate waters. Substratum nature had a major influence on morphological diversity and evenness, in contrast to geography and bathymetry. As coral reefs were the most diverse and caves and boulders the least, we suggest that substratum heterogeneity and water-flow complexity are probably the chief determinant of sponge assemblage morphological diversity.
Online Learning and Optimization of (Some) Cyclic Pricing Policies in the Presence of Patient Customers

Problem definition: We consider the problem of joint learning and optimization of cyclic pricing policies in the presence of patient customers. In our problem, some customers are patient, and they are willing to wait in the system for several periods to make a purchase until the price is lower than their valuation. The seller does not know the joint distribution of customers’ valuation and patience level a priori and can only learn this from the realized total sales in every period. Academic/practical relevance: The revenue management problem with patient customers has been studied in the literature as an optimization problem, and cyclic policy has been shown to be optimal in some cases. We contribute to the literature by studying this problem from the joint learning and optimization perspective. Indeed, to the best of our knowledge, our paper is the first work that studies online learning and optimization for multiperiod pricing with patient customers. Methodology: We introduce new dynamic programming formulations for this problem, and we develop two nontrivial upper confidence bound–based learning algorithms. Results: We analyze both decreasing cyclic policies and so-called threshold-regulated policies, which contain both the decreasing cyclic policies and the nested decreasing cyclic policies. We show that our learning algorithms for these policies converge to the optimal clairvoyant decreasing cyclic policy and threshold-regulated policy at a near-optimal rate. Managerial implications: Our proposed algorithms perform significantly better than benchmark algorithms that either ignore the patient customer characteristic or simply use the standard estimate-then-optimize framework, which does not encourage enough exploration; this highlights the importance of “smart learning” in the context of data-driven decision making. In addition, our numerical results also show that combining our algorithms with smart estimation methods, such as linear interpolation or least square estimation, can significantly improve their empirical performance; this highlights the benefit of combining smart learning with smart estimation, which further increases the practical viability of the algorithms.
Circadian Rhythms in Amphibians and Reptiles: Ecological Implications

Circadian rhythms of amphibians and reptiles in the field and under semi-natural conditions and the underlying mechanisms, including the ways of entrainment to environmental cues and the oscillators driving the rhythms, have been reviewed. Studies on the behavioral rhythms in the field are meager in both amphibians and reptiles. In anuran amphibians, Xenopus adults showed more robust nocturnal locomotor activity than did tadpoles. This indicates the ecological significance of the differences in activity pattern shown by amphibians at different life stages, because differences between adults and young in the same environment may serve to isolate partially the young from the adults' cannibalism. In reptiles, free-running rhythms are more robust and continue for a longer time compared to amphibians. In both amphibians and reptiles, multi-photoreceptors are involved in photo-entrainment of circadian rhythms. The eyes, pineal complex and deep brain comprise a multi-oscillator system as well as a multi-photoreceptor system.
Dependence Structures in Chinese and U.S. Financial Markets: A Time-Varying Conditional Copula Approach

In this paper, we use a Time-Varying Conditional Copula approach (TVCC) to model Chinese and U.S. stock markets‚ dependence structures with other financial markets. The AR-GARCH-t model is used to examine the marginals, while Normal and Generalized Joe-Clayton copula models are employed to analyze the joint distributions. In this pairwise analysis, both constant and time-varying conditional dependence parameters are estimated by a two-step maximum likelihood method. A comparative analysis of dependence structures in Chinese versus U.S. stock markets is also provided. There are three main findings: First, the time-varying-dependence model does not always perform better than constant-dependence model. This result has not previously been reported in the literature. Second, although previous research extensively reports that the lower tail dependence between stock markets tends to be higher than the upper tail dependence, we find a counterexample where the upper tail dependence is much higher than the lower tail dependence in some short periods. Last, Chinese financial market is relatively separate from other international financial markets in contrast to the U.S. market. The tail dependence with other financial markets is much lower in China than in the U.S.
Identifying Government Spending Shocks and Multipliers in Korea

Accurately estimating the government spending multiplier is important so that fiscal policies can be used appropriately when recessions hit the economy. To fill the gap between the frontier research of calculating the government spending multiplier and current Korean research, and to estimate a more accurate multiplier in Korea, we construct a government spending news series in Korea based on Fisher and Peters (2010) by exploiting a market-weighted sum of excess stock returns of military contractors in Korea. We then use this military spending news series and estimate a structural VAR model to evaluate the effects of government spending. As a result, GDP and government spending show statistically significant responses to military spending news shocks. The accumulated government spending multiplier peaks after four quarters, and the five-year cumulative multiplier is calculated as 1.27. For a robustness check, different types of VAR models are tested and results are qualitatively similar.
Citrus tristeza virus ultrastructure and associated cytopathology in Citrus sinensis and Citrus aurantifolia

Citrus tristeza virus ultrastructure and associated cytopathology was documented with three isolates and two hosts, sweet orange 'Madam vinous' (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck) and Mexican lime (Citrus aurantifolia (L.) Swingle). Virions were long, flexuous, and disorganized or in swirled, parallel masses. Infection was common in phloem parenchyma and companion cells and less frequent in mature sieve elements. Immunogold labeling confirmed previous findings that the major coat protein encapsidated the length of purified virions, while the minor coat protein encapsidated one terminal. Three types of inclusions were observed: (i) viral arrays that reacted with antibodies against the major (p25) and minor (p27) Citrus tristeza virus coat proteins, (ii) fibrous inclusions that reacted with antibodies against the Citrus tristeza virus p20 gene product but were sparsely labeled with antibodies against either coat protein, and (iii) accumulated cytoplasmic vesicles associated with aggregated, vesiculating mitochond.
Performance, carcass and pork characteristics of castrates and gilts self-fed diets differing in protein content and lysine:energy ratio

The effects of five diets, with 12–18% crude protein (CP) and 6.6–10.8 g lysine per MJ digestible energy (DE), on live performance, carcass and meat quality criteria were recorded for 90 pigs in a split-plot design involving male castrates and gilts and three replicates, with three pigs per pen. The five diets, differing in the ratio of barley:soybean meal, were fed as pellets, ad libitum from 25 to 98 kg liveweight. A balanced incomplete block design was used with four additional pens to assess the palatability of the diets offered in pairs sequentially over 10 wk. As expected, castrates had a higher intake (2817 vs. 2580 g d−1) and daily gain (888 vs. 800 g d−1) than gilts and were relatively fatter except when fed the lowest CP diet. While an increase in dietary CP, or lysine:energy ratio, led to significant improvements in growth rate, gain:feed and lean content, there was a concomitant reduction in marbling and sensory appeal. The palatability study suggested that both castrates and gilts tended to f.
Growth and symbiotic performance of faba bean inoculated with Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar. viciae strains tolerant to salt

Abstract Strain GRA19 of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar. viciae was found to be tolerant to low levels of salt (50 mM) by comparing growth under stress conditions to that in the absence of stress. Growth and symbiotic N2 fixation (acetylene reduction activity) under saline conditions of the faba bean (Vicia faba L.) cultivar Alameda inoculated with GRA19 were reduced. Salinity significantly decreased shoot and root dry weight, nodule dry weight, and average individual nodule dry weight. Nitrogen fixation was more severely affected by salinity than plant growth and nodulation. Evidence presented here suggests the need for selecting faba bean cultivars that are tolerant to salt stress for breeding programs in order to improve the symbiotic performance of R. leguminosarum biovar. viciae.
Social Behaviour and Relationships in a Herd of Camargue Horses

Social relationships were studied in a herd of Camargue horses and are described in terms of certain aggressive and non-aggressive interactions and in terms of spatial patterning. Relationships between mares and their foal and yearling offspring were studied in detail. The effect of the activity of the herd on spatial patterning is described and changes in social behaviour due to the horsefly season are discussed.
Do Momentum Based Strategies Still Work in Foreign Currency Markets?

This paper examines the performance of momentum trading strategies in foreign exchange markets. We find the well-documented profitability of momentum strategies with equities to hold for currencies as well and to have continued throughout the 1980s and the 1990s. Our results indicate that the long/short strategy of buying the most attractive currency and shorting the least attractive currency obtains average excess returns that are significantly positive. Of particular note, the profitability to momentum strategies in foreign exchange markets has been particularly strong during the latter half of the 1990s. By examining 354 long/short moving average rules across eight currencies, we show the results are insensitive to the specification of the trading rule and the base currency for analysis. We also show that the correlations of the long/short momentum strategies using differing base currencies are very high - typically around 0.90. This would indicate that strong/weak momentum currencies relative to a base currency at a particular time are typically also strong/weak currencies relative to most other base currencies as well. Finally, using a bootstrap methodology we show that the performance is not due to a time-varying risk premium but depends on the underlying autocorrelation structure of the currency returns. In sum, the results lend further support to prior momentum studies on equities. The profitability to momentum-based strategies holds for currencies as well.
Communicating Trustworthiness

We investigate the dynamic process of building trust in bilateral social interactions in the context of a repeated game with two-sided incomplete information. Our particular interest regards mutual communication of trustworthiness. The underlying stage-game resembles properties of a ''Continuous Prisoner's Dilemma'' with a continuous action space and the possibility of stealing the opponent's investment. The continuous investment variable corresponds to co-operation and is interpreted as individual level of trust while the defective action is interpreted as \emph{break of trust} which terminates the partnership. Players can be of two different types/discount factors. We demonstrate that there exist two distinctive extensions of the Prisoner's Dilemma to continuous action spaces differing in the incentives to invest if both parties co-operate. We then study efficient mutual communication of trustworthiness for both incentive structures in a unified framework and characterize the Pareto frontier of types' payoffs. Efficient equilibria display a typical pattern consisting of three phases. First, in the Communication Phase information about the respective opponent's type is transmitted, after which in the Adjustment Phase stakes grow over time until in the Established Phase partners behave stationary as under complete information. Efficient communication of trustworthiness takes two forms depending on incentives. We further characterize rapid trust enhancement where the adjustment phase vanishes. Efficient adjustment of stakes is governed by the impatience of the low type. There are cases where all players do strictly better than in a corresponding game with complete information. Conceptually, trust formation itself may be valuable instead of costly.
A Review of the State of the Art in Quantifying Operational Risk

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of the different approaches developed to model operational risk, specifically focusing on the actuarial approach. We highlight their relative strengths and weaknesses. In the case of the actuarial approach – that most commonly used by financial institutions – we review the challenges faced (scarcity of data, truncated data, and modeling dependence in both frequency and severity) and offer proposals to overcome them. Our paper’s objective is to provide financial risk researchers with all of the models and proposed developments for operational risk estimation.
Characterizing Households' Large (and Small) Stakes Decisions: Evidence from Flood Insurance

We examine the flood insurance decisions of over 100,000 households, using standard expected utility models and rank dependent utility models that incorporate probability distortions. Consumers’ insurance choices provide important insights into their risk attitudes. Previous research has typically examined modest stakes choices, such as appliance warranties and deductibles, leaving important questions about larger stakes decisions. Features of U.S. flood insurance allow us to model risk attitudes over large stakes from consumers’ coverage limits. We find that consumers are typically willing to pay premiums well above the expected value of their contracts, though consumers’ decisions vary substantially over large stakes. Explaining these choices with standard expected utility models requires massive variation in risk aversion. In contrast, models incorporating probability distortions greatly improve the ability to predict households’ decisions. These models explain consumers’ choices through their overweighting of small probabilities and can more easily accommodate the observed variation in consumers’ decisions. Our large-stakes choice analyses reveal new insights on models of consumers’ risk preferences.
An Empirical Analysis on the Determinants of Enterprise Risk Management’s Integration in Moroccan Companies

In spite of the growing interest of Moroccan companies for the enterprise risk management (ERM), little is known regarding the factors influencing its integration. This work is based on a sample of 51 large and medium companies in Casablanca/Rabat. Using a logistic regression, we find that the size and the institutional ownership positively impact ERM’s integration. In contrast, we found that the industry sectors, the listing on the stock exchange and the presence of Big Four auditors do not exert significant impacts on ERM’s integration. This work provides new empirical results on the Moroccan companies and will certainly lead to additional empirical works on this subject.
Carbon Disclosure, Emission Intensity and Cost of Equity Capital: Multi-Country Evidence

This study examines the joint effect of carbon disclosure and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission on firms implied cost of equity capital (COC). Based on 4,655 firm-year observations across 34 countries, we find firms’ GHG emission intensity to be positively associated with COC. However, we find also that the penalty linked with higher COC is moderated by extensive carbon disclosure. We provide evidence that the extent of carbon disclosure helps reduce the premium required by investors to compensate for poor carbon performance. Our study provides insight to policymakers, investors and managers on the combined effect of carbon disclosure, and emission intensity.
Who Enters, Where, and Why? The Influence of Capabilities and Initial Resource Endowments on the Location Choices of New Enterprises

Using data about all de novo entrants into Canadian manufacturing sectors during 1984-1998, we studied location choices as a function of firms' initial resources and capabilities. Employing nested logit estimation, we examined the impact of various location traits such as: agglomeration, competition, deterrence, and sunk costs, on location choices. Findings reveal that stronger entrants value more locations with positive cluster externalities, but are more detracted by local competition and incumbents' deterrence strategies. Weaker firms are attracted to places with lower entry barriers and sunk costs. The findings imply the existence of both favorable and adverse entry selection processes which are dominant at different phases of the evolution of a cluster
Forecasting Hedge Funds Volatility: A Risk Management Approach

We evaluate the performance of volatility and Value-at-Risk models for hedge fund indexes over the period from January 1994 to December 2003. The exponentially weighted sample variance (EWMA) and E-GARCH models have the best volatility forecast performance for hedge funds in terms of statistical loss functions. In contrast for traditional assets, the best volatility model is the simple sample variance. There is evidence that hedge fund volatility is less persistent that stocks and bonds volatility. We find that the critical decision in selecting a Value-at-Risk model for hedge funds is the distributional assumption. However, in contrast with traditional assets for which the normal distribution presents the best performance, the t-student and, especially the Cornish-Fisher expansion, distributional assumptions present the best performance.
Taxonomic significance of host-egg mimicry by facultative brood parasites of the avian genus Coccyzus (Cuculidae)

Black-billed (Coccyzus erythropthalmus) and Yellow-billed (C. americanus) cuckoos are facultative brood parasites that occasionally lay their eggs in the nests of 10 and 11 other bird species, respectively. This study demonstrates that both cuckoo species produce blue–green eggs that fully or nearly match the eggs of over 70% of their reported host species, a proportion significantly greater than if hosts were being selected at random from the potential host pool. These results suggest that the cuckoos may be selecting hosts on the basis of their egg colour, and support a hypothesis of egg mimicry. Since egg mimicry is unlikely to evolve in a facultative parasite, its existence in Coccyzus would imply a historically intense relationship between these birds and their hosts. This hypothesis is corroborated by recent phylogenetic analyses which suggest that the ancestral Coccyzus was an obligate parasite. Factors responsible for the loss of obligate parasitism in this genus may also have contributed to the g.
Effect of foliar applications of neem oil and fish emulsion on bacterial spot and yield of tomatoes and peppers

Foliar applications of neem oil and fish emulsion, derived from neem seed and menhaden fish, respectively, were tested for their ability to reduce bacterial spot of tomato and bell pepper under both greenhouse and field conditions. Greenhouse-grown tomato and pepper plants sprayed with aqueous suspensions (0.5%, v/v) of neem oil or fish emulsion and then inoculated with Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria showed less disease symptoms than the water-treated controls. Weekly foliar sprays of neem oil and fish emulsion reduced disease severity on the foliage of inoculated field-grown tomato and pepper plants in both years of a two-year study. The disease incidence on the fruit of these plants was reduced but the effect was not always statistically significant. However, the number of lesions per pepper fruit were consistently lower with these treatments. Fish emulsion increased healthy and total fruit yield of tomatoes in 2000 and healthy fruit yield of peppers in 2001, whereas neem oil increased the yield of disease-free peppers in both years. Neem oil and fish emulsion had no observable phytotoxic effect on tomato or pepper foliage in the field. These results suggest that disease-management programs for bacterial spot may be enhanced by including foliar sprays of these products.
The Effect of International Competition on Firm Productivity and Market Power

This chapter proposes a framework to evaluate the potential impact of international competition on firm performance and highlights two points. First, it is important to consider effects on productive efficiency and market power in an integrated framework. The popular concept of (revenue) total factor productivity (TFP) combines both effects, which can lead to problems of estimation and interpretation. Second, greater international competition enlarges the relevant market and can affect both the number and the type of competitors a firm faces, as well as the nature of competition. While it is possible that firms respond by adjusting their production operations, pricing adjustments are all but guaranteed. The chapter contrasts three estimation approaches that start, respectively, from the demand side, the product extensive margin, and the production side. It concludes with a few avenues for future research.