Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Return Heterogeneity, Information Frictions, and Economic Shocks

This study investigates the effects of information disparities on returns to net worth and their role in amplifying wealth inequality in the wake of big economic shocks. Using a panel of US individuals, I present new evidence that returns among individuals holding similar asset classes are heterogeneous in part because of how those individuals respond to economic shocks. Specifically, I show that individuals whom survey data suggest are betterinformed earn significantly higher returns after big uncertainty shocks compared to less well-informed individuals. I investigate a potential channel to explain this outperformance. I show that better-informed wealthy investors hedge themselves better against uncertainty shocks by conducting a market-timing strategy. To interpret these facts, I build a dynamic, stochastic, general equilibrium economy in which individuals with near-rational expectations are heterogeneous in their private signals’ quality about future fundamentals. I show that those with more precise information earn higher average returns because they are better equipped to hedge against endogenous uncertainty shocks using a market-timing strategy to exploit their more accurate information about future fundamentals. The model implies that disparities in the quality of information lead to higher wealth inequality.
Hysteresis Effects and Financial Frictions

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, production and employment in advanced economies fell significantly, and remained below their pre-crisis potential level for almost a decade. A recent literature argues that market forces seem to have maintained or amplified this downward trend through hysteresis effects. Particularly intuitive arguments about the emergence of hysteresis effects through financial friction are provided by this literature. However, based on the current state of our knowledge, the theoretical models on hysteresis disregard this important dimension to the understanding of hysteresis. This article contributes to the literature by developing a New-Keynesian model where financial frictions amplify the lingering effects of economic shocks. By calibrating the model on the euro area, the results show that a deterioration of bank capital following a capital quality shock similar to the crisis of high-risk loans generates both persistence and more severity in the fall of production and in the rise of unemployment—more so than the classical models of hysteresis. The impact of shocks is magnified due to the reduction of physical capital in response to a weakening of the financing capacity of investment projects by the banking sector. JEL classification: E23, E24, E32, G01.
CAPM: A Tale of Two Versions

Categorization is the mental operation by which brain classifies objects and events. We do not experience the world as a series of unique events. Rather, we make sense of our experiences within a framework of categories that represent prior knowledge. Given that categorization is the core of cognition, we argue that the traditional view that each firm is viewed in isolation needs to be altered. Instead, like every other object they ever come across, investors view each firm within a framework of categories that represent prior knowledge. This involves sorting a firm into a category based on a subset of firm-attributes. Such categorization-relevant attributes are refined whereas other firm-attributes are confounded with the category-exemplar. Two versions of CAPM arise as a result. In the first version, the relationship between average excess return and stock beta is flat (possibly negative). Value effect and size premium (controlling for quality) arise in this version. In the second version, the relationship is strongly positive. The two-version CAPM accounts for several recent empirical findings including fundamentally different intraday vs overnight behavior, as well as behavior on macroeconomic announcement days. The tug-of-war dynamics of the two versions also suggest that momentum is expected to be an overnight phenomenon, which is consistent with empirical findings. We argue that, perhaps, our best shot at observing classical CAPM in its full glory is a laboratory experiment with subjects who have difficulty categorizing (such as in autism spectrum disorders).
The Effect Of Prepared Parameters On The Microstructure Of Electrodeposited Nanocrystalline Nickel Coating

The nanocrystalline nickel coating was synthesized by pulse-jet electrodeposition from modified Watts bath. Pulse and jet plating was employed to increase the deposition current density, decrease diffusion layer, increase the nucleation rate and in this case the prepared method would result in fine-grained deposits. Transmission and scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to study the microstructure, the surface morphology, the crystal preferred orientation and the variety of the lattice parameter respectively. The influence of pulse parameters, namely peak current density, the duty cycle and pulse frequency on the grain size, surface morphology, crystal orientation and microstructure was studied. The results showed that with increasing peak current density, the deposit grain size was found to decrease markedly in other parameters at constant. However, in our experiment it was found that the grain size increased slightly with increasing pulse frequency. For higher peak current density, the surface morphology was smoother. The crystal orientation progressively changed from an almost random distribution to a strong (111) texture. This means that the peak current density was the dominated parameter to effect the microstructure of electrodeposited nanocrystalline nickel coating. In addition, the lattice parameter for the deposited nickel is calculated from XRD and it is found that the calculated value is less than the lattice parameter for the perfect nickel single crystal. This phenomenon is explained by the crystal lattice mismatch.
PTSD symptom clusters associated with short- and long-term adjustment in early diagnosed breast cancer patients

Objectives We performed an observational prospective cohort study to investigate post-traumatic stress symptoms, emerging after cancer diagnosis, which could influence patients’ short- and long-term adjustment to illness, in order to foster screening measures and management of psychological factors in daily clinical pathways. Methods Patients’ post-traumatic stress symptoms, psychological well-being and perceived quality of life were assessed through standardised questionnaires. The Profile of Mood States questionnaire was administered at pre-operative assessment (T0), surgical admission (T1) and discharge from hospital (T2). The Impact of Event Scale and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were administered at T0, T1, T2 and 2 years after discharge (T3). At 2-year follow-up, women were also asked to rate their perceived quality of life on a 0–10 visual analogue scale. Results Between January 2014 and April 2015, 150 women were enrolled. Results showed that more than 90% of patients experienced post-traumatic stress symptoms after cancer diagnosis (14% with severe symptoms and 76.7% with moderate symptoms) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms that persisted up to the 2-year from discharge follow-up, with significant improvement only 2 years after hospital discharge. In particular, mediation models showed that intrusive thoughts impede mood adjustment to the disease during the pre-surgical phase, with anxiety amplifying the negative effect, while symptoms of avoidance are more detrimental in the long term for patients’ quality of life. Conclusion PTSD symptom clusters have different influence on short- and long-term reaction to illness. Based on this evidence, appropriate interventions to manage PTSDs in the context of oncology should be developed.
CoSMoS and TwinPaW: Initial Report on Two New German Twin Studies

Abstract After briefly recapitulating two earlier German twin studies (BiLSAT and GOSAT), we present two new German twin studies with a longitudinal perspective: CoSMoS and TwinPaW. The twin study on Cognitive ability, Self-reported Motivation and School performance (CoSMoS) aims to investigate predictors and influences of school performance in a genetically sensitive design, beginning with children in late elementary school. The Twin study on Personality And Wellbeing (TwinPaW) focuses on adult personality and its relation to physical health as well as health-related behavior in an adult sample of twins. Both studies are characterized by an effort to recruit new large twin samples through a novel recruitment procedure aimed at reducing self-selective sampling. In two German federal states, contact information on persons born on the same day and with the same name was retrieved from record sections. From the resulting pool of more than 36,000 addresses we contacted approximately 2000 parents of twins aged 9 and 10 for CoSMoS, as well as 2000 adult twin pairs for TwinPaW by telephone and mail. Personal contact by telephone proved to be more efficient with agreement rates of 63% in the children sample and 65% in the adult sample. In this article we briefly describe the rationale and the study aims of CoSMoS and TwinPaW as well as the characteristics of the sample we have recruited so far.
Detection of surface algal blooms using the newly developed algorithm surface algal bloom index (SABI)

Quantifying ocean colour properties has evolved over the past two decades from being able to merely detect their biological activity to the ability to estimate chlorophyll concentration using optical satellite sensors like MODIS and MERIS. The production of chlorophyll spatial distribution maps is a good indicator of plankton biomass (primary production) and is useful for the tracing of oceanographic currents, jets and blooms, including harmful algal blooms (HABs). Depending on the type of HABs involved and the environmental conditions, if their concentration rises above a critical threshold, it can impact the flora and fauna of the aquatic habitat through the introduction of the so called "red tide" phenomenon. The estimation of chlorophyll concentration is derived from quantifying the spectral relationship between the blue and the green bands reflected from the water column. This spectral relationship is employed in the standard ocean colour chlorophyll-a (Chlor-a) product, but is incapable of detecting certain macro-algal species that float near to or at the water surface in the form of dense filaments or mats. The ability to accurately identify algal formations that sometimes appear as oil spill look-alikes in satellite imagery, contributes towards the reduction of false-positive incidents arising from oil spill monitoring operations. Such algal formations that occur in relatively high concentrations may experience, as in land vegetation, what is known as the "red-edge" effect. This phenomena occurs at the highest reflectance slope between the maximum absorption in the red due to the surrounding ocean water and the maximum reflectance in the infra-red due to the photosynthetic pigments present in the surface algae. A new algorithm termed the surface algal bloom index (SABI), has been proposed to delineate the spatial distributions of floating micro-algal species like for example cyanobacteria or exposed inter-tidal vegetation like seagrass. This algorithm was specifically modelled to adapt to the marine habitat through its inclusion of ocean-colour sensitive bands in a four-band ratio-based relationship. The algorithm has demonstrated high stability against various environmental conditions like aerosol and sun glint.
Incarceration and Crime

Recent reforms in California caused a sharp and permanent reduction in the state’s incarceration rate. We evaluate the effects of that incarceration decline on local crime rates. Our analysis exploits the large variation across California counties in the effect of this reform on county-specific prison incarceration rates. We find very little evidence that the large reduction in California incarceration had an effect on violent crime, and modest evidence of effects on property crime, auto theft in particular. These effects are considerably smaller than existing estimates based on panel data for periods of time when the U.S. incarceration rate was considerably lower. We corroborate these cross-county results with a synthetic-cohort analysis of state crime rates in California. The statewide analysis confirms our findings from the county-level analysis. In line with with previous research, the results from this study support the hypothesis of a crime-prison effect that diminishes with increased reliance on incarceration.
Gender Differences in Mobilization for Collective Action: Case Studies of Villages in Northern Nigeria

"Men and women participate in collective action for different purposes in northern Nigeria. Field work conducted in six villages show that while men engage in community activities such as road repairs, maintenance of schools and hospitals, refuse collection and maintenance of the traditional village government, women mobilize around activities such as savings, house and farm work and care giving. It is argued that men mobilize around community activities outside the home because of their public orientation and because they want to maintain their dominance of that space. Women, in contrast, mobilize around activities in keeping with their domestic orientation and traditional roles such as care giving and housework. Religion also influences the extent of women's participation in collective action. Because men have command of community institutions, they are better able to access the resources embedded in these institutions, but women are able to negotiate within established social structures for better conditions. Given the socio-cultural characteristics of communities in northern Nigeria, an effective strategy for collective action is collaboration between men's and women's groups rather than separatism or integration. " Authors' Abstract
Changes in growth, chlorophyll content and grain yield of Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) in response to water stress, chemical and biological fertilizers and salicylic acid

Salicylic acid (SA) is a phyto-hormone that regulates physiological and biological processes in plants and can be used to improve plant growth under different environmental conditions, including water stress. Thus, a field experiment as split plot factorial based on randomized complete blocks design with three replications was conducted in 2014 to investigate the effects of fertilizer and salicylic acid on growth, chlorophyll content and grain yield of coriander ( Coriandrum sativum L.) plants under drought stress. Treatments were three levels of water supply (irrigation after 60, 90 and 120 mm evaporation from class A pan) and four levels of fertilizer application (control, 100 kg ha -1 Urea, Nitrokara (biofertilizer) and 50% Urea + Nitrokara) and foliar spray of salicylic acid (0 and 1 mM). Results indicated that water deficit had a significant reduction effect on leaf area, chlorophyll content, fresh weight of root and leaf and grain yield. Salicylic acid and 50% Urea + Nitrokara resulted in a significant increase of all traits under stress and well watering conditions. Although highest amount of studied traits was observed in plants treated with SA or application of 50% Urea and Nitrokara under well watering, but the changes rate was higher under stress conditions. Therefore, salicylic acid and combination of urea and Nitrokara can be used to promote growth of coriander under different water availabilities, which ultimately can enhance field performance of this plant.
An Improved Beam Element for Beams with Variable Axial Parameters

The traditional beam element was improved to consider the variable axial parameters. The variable axial parameters were formulated in terms of a power series, and the general forms of elementary mass and stiffness matrices which depend on the power order were derived. The mass and stiffness matrices of the improved beam element were obtained in terms of an elementary matrix series. The beam elements for various tapered beams and a beam under linearly axial temperature distribution were derived. The vibrations of the beams with various taper shapes were studied and the variations of natural frequencies and modal shapes were investigated. A uniform beam under linearly axial temperature distribution was modeled and studied. The influences of axial temperature difference on the natural frequencies and modal shapes were investigated. Results show that the improved beam element could consider the variable axial parameters of beam conveniently.
Subsampling Approaches for Compressed Sensing with Ultrasound Arrays in Non-Destructive Testing

Full Matrix Capture is a multi-channel data acquisition method which enables flexible, high resolution imaging using ultrasound arrays. However, the measurement time and data volume are increased considerably. Both of these costs can be circumvented via compressed sensing, which exploits prior knowledge of the underlying model and its sparsity to reduce the amount of data needed to produce a high resolution image. In order to design compression matrices that are physically realizable without sophisticated hardware constraints, structured subsampling patterns are designed and evaluated in this work. The design is based on the analysis of the Cramér–Rao Bound of a single scatterer in a homogeneous, isotropic medium. A numerical comparison of the point spread functions obtained with different compression matrices and the Fast Iterative Shrinkage/Thresholding Algorithm shows that the best performance is achieved when each transmit event can use a different subset of receiving elements and each receiving element uses a different section of the echo signal spectrum. Such a design has the advantage of outperforming other structured patterns to the extent that suboptimal selection matrices provide a good performance and can be efficiently computed with greedy approaches.
Manual Muscle Testing – Force Profiles and Their Reproducibility

The manual muscle test (MMT) is a flexible diagnostic tool, which is used in many disciplines, applied in several ways. The main problem is the subjectivity of the test. The MMT in the version of a “break test” depends on the tester’s force rise and the patient’s ability to resist the applied force. As a first step, the investigation of the reproducibility of the testers’ force profiles is required for valid application. The study examined the force profiles of n=29 testers (n=9 experiences (Exp), n=8 little experienced (LitExp), n =12 beginners (Beg)). The testers performed 10 MMTs according to the test of hip flexors, but against a fixed leg to exclude the patient’s reaction. A handheld device recorded the temporal course of the applied force. The results show significant differences between Exp and Beg concerning the starting force (padj=0.029), the ratio of starting to maximum force (padj=0.005) and the normalized mean Euclidean distances between the 10 trials (padj=0.015). The slope is significantly higher in Exp vs. LitExp (p=0.006) and Beg (p=0.005). The results also indicate that experienced testers show inter-tester differences and partly even a low intra-tester reproducibility. That highlights the necessity of an objective MMT-assessment. Furthermore, an agreement on a standardized force profile is required – a suggestion is given.
Effect of Styrene Butadiene Rubber Latex on Mortar and Concrete Properties

The use of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) emulsions in concrete has been increasing in concrete construction and repair work due to its benefits to flexure strength, adhesion and impermeability. This research evaluated the influence of different contents (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% by cement) of SBR on the mechanical properties and anti-permeability of the paste, mortar and concrete with the same water-to-cement ratio to analysis the SBR on the properties of them. For the mechanical properties, the compressive strength, flexure strength and elastic modulus were studied. The permeability was assessed by total charge-passed derived from rapid chloride permeability test (RCPT), all the samples were prepared and measured complying with the corresponding Chinese Industry Standard. Experimental results showed that the properties of the SBR modified concrete were associated with the corresponding properties of the SBR modified mortar and paste, and their properties changed in the same way with the incorporation of the SBR latex.
Agar Hydrogel Template Synthesis of Mn3O4 Nanoparticles through an Ion Diffusion Method Controlled by Ion Exchange Membrane and Electrochemical Performance

A novel strategy, ion diffusion method controlled by ion exchange membrane combining with agar hydrogel template, was reported for the synthesis of Mn3O4 nanoparticles without any oxidizing agents. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Brunauere-Emmette-Teller (BET) isotherm were carried out to characterize the structure, morphology, pore size and distribution and specific surface area of the as-prepared nanomaterials. It is shown that the morphology and size of Mn3O4 nanoparticles can be controlled by the concentration of agar hydrogel. All the specific capacitances of the Mn3O4 samples prepared with agar hydrogel template are much higher than that of Mn3O4 prepared without any template agent. The Mn3O4 sample prepared at 1.5 g L−1 of agar hydrogel solution exhibits a highest specific capacitance of 183.0 F g−1 at the current density of 0.5 A g−1, which is increased by 293% compared with that of Mn3O4 synthesized without any template agent. The results indicate that the ion diffusion method controlled by ion exchange membrane combining with agar hydrogel template is a convenient and effective approach for preparing inorganic nanomaterials.
Observing patchy reionization with future CMB polarization experiments

We study the signal from patchy reionization in view of the future high accuracy polarization measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We implement an extraction procedure of the patchy reionization signal analogous to CMB lensing. We evaluate the signal to noise ratio (SNR) for the future Stage IV (S4) CMB experiment. The signal has a broad peak centered on the degree angular scales, with a long tail at higher multipoles. The CMB S4 experiment can effectively constrain the properties of reionization by measuring the signal on degree scales. The signal amplitude depends on the properties of the structure determining the reionization morphology. We describe bubbles having radii distributed log-normally. The expected S/N is sensitive to the mean bubble radius: R̄=5 Mpc implies S/N ≈ 4, R̄=10 Mpc implies S/N ≈ 20. The spread of the radii distribution strongly affects the integrated SNR, that changes by a factor of 102 when σlnr goes from ln 2 to ln 3. Future CMB experiments will thus place important constraints on the physics of reionization.