Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corporate Governance and Financial Distress in the Banking Industry: Nigerian Experience

The study investigates the effect of corporate governance on financial distress in the Nigerian banking industry and examines the discriminatory power of corporate governance mechanism of the board, audit committee, executive management and auditor in one model for financial distress prediction. Secondary data obtained from annual financial statements of twenty banks between 2005 and 2015 were used for the study. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and generalized quantile regression model. The empirical evidence from the study suggests that financially distressed banks are characterized by large board size with members who may not be well versed in banking complexities, chairmen and CEOs with significant shareholding both individually and collectively. Furthermore, the evidence also shows that distressed banks suffer major decline in customer deposits despite increase in size. The study concludes that financial distress can be caused by poor corporate governance mechanism.
Understanding the Sociological Processes and Mechanisms of School Drop-Out in the Sfax Region of Tunisia: Preliminary Study

The purpose of this article was to identify the main factors influencing school dropout in Tunisia. With this work we want to draw attention to a social problem that manifests itself with an increasingly strong intensity from year to year in Tunisia, namely school dropout problem, mainly due to deepening poverty (especially in rural areas but not only). In the elaboration of this work we started from processing and interpretation of statistical data provided by the multiple-choice questionnaire. As a result, the causes of school dropout differ from rural and urban space and from region to region. Our analyzes indicate that the probabilities of dropping out are mainly associated with individual behavior, a set of school factors, socioeconomic, family and especially cultural and geographic factors among middle school pupils in the Sfax (Tunisia). Thus, our study tends to understand the mechanisms and sociological processes of dropping out of school. This result indeed confirms the cultural and geographic specificities of Tunisia at this level.
Exogenous origin of hydration on asteroid (16) Psyche: the role of hydrated asteroid families

Asteroid (16) Psyche, which for a long time was the largest M-type with no detection of hydration features in its spectrum, was recently discovered to have a weak 3-μm band and thus it was eventually added to the group of hydrated asteroids. Its relatively high density, in combination with the high radar albedo, led researchers to classify the asteroid as a metallic object. It is believed that it is possibly a core of a differentiated body, a remnant of ‘hit-and-run’ collisions. The detection of hydration is, in principle, inconsistent with a pure metallic origin for this body. Here, we consider the scenario in which the hydration on its surface is exogenous and was delivered by hydrated impactors. We show that impacting asteroids that belong to families whose members have the 3-μm band can deliver hydrated material to Psyche. We developed a collisional model with which we test all dark carbonaceous asteroid families, which contain hydrated members. We find that the major source of hydrated impactors is the family of Themis, with a total implanted mass on Psyche of the order of ∼1014 kg. However, the hydrated fraction could be only a few per cent of the implanted mass, as the water content in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, the best analogue for the Themis asteroid family, is typically a few per cent of their mass.
Real-time grammar processing by native and non-native speakers: Constructions unique to the second language*

We investigated second language (L2) comprehension of grammatical structures that are unique to the L2, and which are known to cause persistent difficulties in production. A visual-world eye-tracking experiment focused on online comprehension of English articles by speakers of the article-lacking Mandarin, and a control group of English native speakers. The results show that non-native speakers from article-lacking backgrounds can incrementally utilise the information signalled by L2 articles in real time to constrain referential domains and resolve reference more efficiently. The findings support the hypothesis that L2 processing does not always over-rely on pragmatic affordances, and that some morphosyntactic structures unique to the target language can be processed in a targetlike manner in comprehension – despite persistent difficulties with their production. A novel proposal, based on multiple meaning-to-form, but consistent form-to-meaning mappings, is developed to account for such comprehension–production asymmetries.
Agricultural Productivity, Fiscal and Trade Policies Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Panel Structural Vector Error Correction Model Analysis

Public expenditure on the agricultural sector targeted towards raising investments for increased agricultural productivity has been low in most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Also, existing empirical evidence on the impact of fiscal and trade policies on the improvement of agricultural systems remains mixed and inconclusive. In view of the above, this study employs a three-variable Panel Structural Vector Error Correction Model (PSVECM) in capturing the dynamic structure of the possible relationships among agricultural productivity, fiscal and trade policies in 37 selected countries within SSA, using annual data from 1990 to 2016. In imposing short- and long-run identifying restrictions, the cointegration structure of the PSVECM reveals an instantaneous impact of government expenditure and terms of trade on crop production in the transitory period. Likewise, terms of trade has a permanent significant effect on crop production and government expenditure within the reviewed period in SSA. The impulse response and variance decomposition analysis trace out a mixed result of both short and long run significant and fluctuating relationships among government expenditure, terms of trade and crop production in SSA. This finding implies that fiscal and trade policies are crucial in influencing agricultural productivity; and recommends that policymakers should adopt expansionary fiscal (in line with the Keynesian theory) and trade policies which stimulate both short and long run agricultural productivity growth in countries within SSA
Joint (Ad)ventures—Family firms' international entry mode choices for emerging markets

Purpose – The aim of this study is to advance knowledge on family firms’ entry mode choices by examining the linkage between target market context, especially in the emerging economies of China and India, and the dominant family firm logic of keeping ownership and control in the family. Design/methodology/approach – We use an exploratory multiple case study analysis approach based on nine German family firms’ internationalization endeavors. We use both primary and secondary data. Findings – Traditionally, extant research concludes that family principals prefer foreign direct investments (FDIs) in order to exert maximum control when entering international markets. In contrast, our study finds a clear preference for international joint ventures (IJVs) as an initial entry mode of choice into unfamiliar markets. Our findings propose this decision to be rooted in cultural unfamiliarity and the complexity of the target markets’ legal environment. The effect of these two factors is amplified by prior IJVs experiences. Originality/value – This article offers several original insights. First, we identify the triggers of the paradoxical IJVs’ entry mode choice among family firms and thus explain the motivation for breaking with the dominant family firm logic of maximizing control. Second, we account for factors in China’s and India’s particular emerging market environments. In the light of family control, the unfamiliarity with these markets triggers the decision to compensate for the high level of uncertainty by engaging in an IJV partnership. Third, our study shows that family firms are indeed willing to share control if it serves the long-term survival of the firm.
Modelling militarized interstate disputes using data mining techniques: Prevention and prediction of conflicts

The use of modern data mining techniques on large datasets has become a recent phenomenon across a broad range of applications. One of the most frequent tasks is to build statistical models using historical data and utilize them to predict new, so far unclassified, cases. This article examines the problem of predicting a military interstate dispute between two states (dyad) by employing selected data mining techniques. Suitable methods are identified and applied to the existing dataset of politically relevant dyads. The result is the building of statistical models for the classification of potential dyadic conflicts. The overall performance of these models is verified and cost analysis is done based on the different impacts of incorrect classification. The results are compared with those of other published research studies in the field of conflict prediction; the models created by data mining techniques significantly outperform all rival algorithms and approaches. Finally, the last part of the article presents the results of applying data mining techniques to association, i.e. to discovering relationships and dependencies in the data.
Consequences of gas flux model choice on the interpretation of metabolic balance across 15 lakes

Abstract Ecosystem metabolism and the contribution of carbon dioxide from lakes to the atmosphere can be estimated from free-water gas measurements through the use of mass balance models, which rely on a gas transfer coefficient (k) to model gas exchange with the atmosphere. Theoretical and empirically based models of k range in complexity from wind-driven power functions to complex surface renewal models; however, model choice is rarely considered in most studies of lake metabolism. This study used high-frequency data from 15 lakes provided by the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) to study how model choice of k influenced estimates of lake metabolism and gas exchange with the atmosphere. We tested 6 models of k on lakes chosen to span broad gradients in surface area and trophic states; a metabolism model was then fit to all 6 outputs of k data. We found that hourly values for k were substantially different between models and, at an annual scale, resulted in significantly different estimates of lake metabolism and gas exchange with the atmosphere.
Discussion Paper Series No . 1804 November 2018 Membership Mechanism

This paper studies an environment in which a seller seeks to sell two different items to buyers. The seller designs a membership mechanism that assigns positive allocations to members only. Exploiting the restrictive set, the seller finds a revenue-maximizing incentive compatible mechanism. We first establish the optimal allocation rule for this membership mechanism given a regularity condition for a modified valuation distribution reflecting the set, which provides the existence of a member set and the optimal payment rule. The optimal allocation enables us to compare the membership with separate selling of the two items, suggesting conditions under which the membership dominates the separate selling: interplay between the number of bidders and the degree of the stochastic dominance of valuation distributions.
Pressure Effects on the SEIS‐InSight Instrument, Improvement of Seismic Records, and Characterization of Long Period Atmospheric Waves From Ground Displacements

Mars atmospheric pressure variations induce ground displacements through elastic deformations. The various sensors of the InSight mission were designed in order to be able to understand and correct for these ground deformations induced by atmospheric effects. Particular efforts were made, on one hand, to avoid direct pressure and wind effects on the seismometer and, on the other hand, to have a high performance pressure sensor operating in the same frequency range as the seismometer. As a consequence of these technical achievements and the low background seismic noise of Mars, the InSight mission is opening a new science domain in which the ground displacements can be used to perform atmospheric science. This study presents an analysis of pressure and seismic signals and the relations between them. After a short description of the pressure and seismic sensors, we present an analysis of these signals as a function of local time at the InSight location. Then the coherent signals recorded by both pressure and seismic sensors are described and interpreted in terms of atmospheric signals and ground deformation processes. Two different methods to remove the pressure effects recorded by SEIS sensors are presented, and their efficiency is estimated and compared. These decorrelation methods allow the pressure generated noise to be reduced by a factor of 2 during the active day time period. Finally, an analysis of SEIS signals induced by gravity waves demonstrates the interest of ground displacement measurements to characterize their arrival azimuth.
Determination of the Number of Common Stochastic Trends under Conditional Heteroskedasticity

Permanent-transitory decompositions and the analysis of the time series properties of economic variables at the business cycle frequencies strongly rely on the correct detection of the number of common stochastic trends (co-integration). Standard techniques for the determination of the number of common trends, such as the well-known sequential procedure proposed in Johansen (1996), are based on the assumption that shocks are homoskedastic. This contrasts with empirical evidence which documents that many of the key macro-economic and financial variables are driven by heteroskedastic shocks. In a recent paper, Cavaliere et al., (2010, Econometric Theory) demonstrate that Johansen's (LR) trace statistic for co-integration rank and both its i.i. d. and wild bootstrap analogues are asymptotically valid in non-stationary systems driven by heteroskedastic (martingale difference) innovations, but that the wild bootstrap performs substantially better than the other two tests in finite samples. In this paper we analyse the behaviour of sequential procedures to determine the number of common stochastic trends present based on these tests. Numerical evidence suggests that the procedure based on the wild bootstrap tests performs best in small samples under a variety of
Ionospheric and plasmaspheric contribution to the total electron content inferred from ground data and radio-occultation-derived electron density

The performance of a new method allowing the determination of the separate contributions from the ionosphere and the plasmasphere to ground measurements of the vertical total electron content (VTEC) is demonstrated. After introducing and testing the proposed method, a preliminary global-scale analysis of the ionosphere-plasmasphere system during a period of low solar activity is presented. The results show some regular features in the seasonal, geomagnetic latitude and local time variations of the fractional ionospheric electron content. These features are modeled by means of a simple fitting function allowing also the characterization of the fractional plasmaspheric contribution to the VTEC.
Taxation and the Structure of Labor Markets: The Case of Corporatism

We propose an explanation for the wide variation in rates of taxation across developed economies, based on differences in labor market institutions. In "corporatist" economies, which feature centralized labor markets, taxes on labor input will be less distortionary than when labor supply is determined individually. Since the level of labor supply is set by a small group of decision-makers, these individuals will recognize the linkage between the taxes that workers pay and the benefits that they receive. Labor tax burdens are indeed higher in more corporatist nations, and non-labor taxes are lower, which is consistent with this theory. There is also some evidence that the distortionary effects of labor taxes are lower in more corporatist economies.
D ec 2 01 7 On the Cauchy problem for a higher-order μ-Camassa-Holm equation

In this paper, we study the Cauchy problem of a higher-order μ-CamassaHolm equation. We first establish the Green’s function of (μ − ∂ x + ∂ x) and local well-posedness for the equation in Sobolev spaces H(S), s > 7 2 . Then we provide the global existence results for strong solutions and weak solutions. Moreover, we show that the solution map is non-uniformly continuous in H(S), s ≥ 4. Finally, we prove that the equation admits single peakon solutions.
Silicon–Organic and Plasmonic–Organic Hybrid Photonics

Chip-scale integration of electronics and photonics is recognized as important to the future of information technology, as is the exploitation of the best properties of electronics, photonics, and plasmonics to achieve this objective. However, significant challenges exist including matching the sizes of electronic and photonic circuits; achieving low-loss transition between electronics, photonics, and plasmonics; and developing and integrating new materials. This review focuses on a hybrid material approach illustrating the importance of both chemical and engineering concepts. Silicon–organic hybrid (SOH) and plasmonic–organic hybrid (POH) technologies have permitted dramatic improvements in electro-optic (EO) performance relevant to both digital and analog signal processing. For example, the voltage–length product of devices has been reduced to less than 40 Vμm, facilitating device footprints of <20 μm2 operating with digital voltage levels to frequencies above 170 GHz. Energy efficiency has been improve.
Attenuation of Rock Salt: Ultrasonic Lab Analysis of Gulf of Mexico Coastal Samples

In an effort to achieve higher‐resolution imaging as well as detailed lithology descriptions, it is important to consider attenuation as an aid in compensating for seismic wave amplitude and phase distortions due to the viscoelastic properties of natural rocks. We have evaluated elastic‐wave attenuation on a variety of Gulf of Mexico (GoM) rock salt samples (>95% halite by weight) in the laboratory using the ultrasonic pulse‐transmission technique and the spectral ratio (SR) method. Under conditions of 297 K (75°F) and relative humidity of 46%, the estimated P‐ and S‐wave quality factors QP and QS range from 26 to 74 and 29 to 44 in the unjacketed core samples, respectively. Increasing triaxial pressure elevates Q (decreases attenuation), possibly due to the crack closure and rock frame compaction. For example, a 40 MPa confining pressure increases QP to 275 at 297 K (75°F). Elevating temperature does not show a significant effect on Q values until raised from 339 to 366 K (150°F to 200°F), during which QP drops sharply (attenuation increases). The attenuation mechanisms may include thermal cracking and grain boundary condition changes. We have determined well‐constrained empirical relationships between Q and velocity (V) for both P‐ and S‐waves. These measurements and empirical relationships can further inform us about salt properties and assist with images of and through salt bodies.
Show Quality Quarter Horse Auctions: Price Determinants and Buy-Back Practices

This study estimates the price determinants of show quality quarter horses sold at auction. Several characteristics including genetic and physical traits, quality of pedigree, and performance record of the horse, as well as the horse's offspring, were found to significantly impact selling price. Sale order positively affected price and appears to be driven by buyers rather than intentional ordering of the horses. A common practice at horse auctions is for the seller to reject the final bid offered and buy back the horse. Model-predicted prices for these buy-back horses indicate they are not undervalued by the final bids, based on their characteristics.
On the Interpersonal Inclusiveness of India's Consumption Expenditure Growth

This paper reviews the evidence on the interpersonal inclusiveness of the growth in consumption expenditure that has occurred in India over the last four decades or so. The notion of dynamic inclusiveness is framed in terms of imagined normative allocations of the inter-temporal product of growth, as dictated by notions of equity of varying orders of demandingness. There are analytical parallels between these exercises and those involved in the study of bankruptcy in “Talmudic estate problems”, as well as in the determination of optimal anti-poverty budgetary allocations. Inclusive growth in this paper is assessed with respect to inclusiveness across income classes. The results of the investigation undertaken in the essay suggest distressingly little evidence of interpersonal inclusiveness in India’s consumption growth experience.
LAMN property for the drift and volatility parameters of a sde driven by a stable Lévy process

This work focuses on the local asymptotic mixed normality (LAMN) property from high frequency observations, of a continuous time process solution of a stochastic differential equation driven by a truncated α-stable process with index α ∈ (0, 2). The process is observed on the fixed time interval [0,1] and the parameters appear in both the drift coefficient and scale coefficient. This extends the results of Clément and Gloter [Stoch. Process. Appl. 125 (2015) 2316–2352] where the index α ∈ (1, 2) and the parameter appears only in the drift coefficient. We compute the asymptotic Fisher information and find that the rate in the LAMN property depends on the behavior of the Lévy measure near zero. The proof relies on the small time asymptotic behavior of the transition density of the process obtained in Clément et al. [Preprint HAL-01410989v2 (2017)].
Shear-Torque Fatigue Performance of Geogrid-Reinforced Asphalt Interlayers

Interlayer reinforcement systems represent a valid solution to improve performance and extend the service life of asphalt pavements, reducing maintenance costs. The main issue is that the presence of reinforcement may hinder the full transmission of stresses between asphalt layers, reducing the overall pavement bearing capacity. This study aimed at evaluating the mechanical behavior of geogrid-reinforced asphalt interlayers under cyclic shear loading. To this purpose, a trial section, characterized by three types of interface (reinforced with carbon fiber grid, reinforced with glass fiber grid and unreinforced), was built. Cores were taken from the trial section to carry out shear-torque fatigue tests. Static Leutner shear tests were also performed on cored specimens having the same interface configuration. From data gathered in the present study, shear-torque fatigue tests have proved to be a powerful tool for investigating reinforced specimens. Results clearly ranked the investigated materials, showing that the glass fiber grid has the lowest shear fatigue performance in comparison with the other two interfaces at 20 °C. However, the shear fatigue resistance of glass fiber grid increases significantly at 10 °C. Finally, an interesting correlation was found between cyclic and static shear test results that should be better investigated in future studies.