Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protecting ‘Cybersecurity & Resiliency’ of Nation’s Critical Infrastructure – Energy, Oil & Gas

Cyber-secure, resilient energy is paramount to the prosperity of the United States. As the experience and sophistication of cyber adversaries grow, so too must the US power system’s defenses, situational awareness, and response and recovery strategies. Traditionally, power systems were operated with dedicated communication channels to large generators and utility connectivity in today’s industrial entities, including electrical utilities, has exposed many digital communication and control aspects to the threat of cyber attacks.
Molecular and morphological identification of hymenoptran parasitoids from the pomegranate aphid, Aphis punicae in Razavi Khorasan province, Iran

Parazitoidler yaprak bitleri populasyonunu ekonomik esigin altinda tutarak kontrol yonetiminde olumlu bir rol oynar. Nar yaprakbiti, (Aphis punicae) cogunlukla Aphidiinae alt familyasina ait cesitli parazitoitler tarafindan saldiriya ugramaktadir. Parazitoitleri ve hiperparazitoidlerin tanimlanmasi, kucuk boyutlari ve belirsiz morfolojik ozellikleri nedeniyle sorunludur. DNA dizilerinin molekuler veri analizi, biyokontrol ajanlarini tanimlamak icin klasik yontemlere tamamlayici bir yaklasim olarak onerilmistir. Bu calismada, Razavi Horasan ilinden toplanan nar yaprak bitinin aktif parazitoitleri ve hiperparazitoidleri morfolojik karakterler kullanilarak ve iki gen dizisinin COI ve 28S’in analizi de dahil olmak uzere tanimlanmistir. Filogenetik analiz maksimum parsimoni Bayesian yontemleri kullanilarak gerceklestirilmistir. Tanimlanan parazitoidler Binodoxys angelicae, Lysiphlebus fabarum, Ephedrus persicae, hiperparazitoidler Syrphophagus aphidivorus, Alloxysta sp. ve Pachyneuron sp. ’dir. Mitokondriyal COI geninin bu boceklerin tanimlanmasi icin Nukleer 28S’e gore (D2 bolge) ustun oldugu ve morfolojik calismalar ile uyumlu oldugu tespit edilmistir. Bu calisma, Iran'da nar yaprakbiti parazitoit ve hiperparazitoidlerinin molekuler tanimlamasi acisindan ilk calismadir
Dividend Changes and Stock Price Informativeness

We investigate how private information in stock prices impacts quarterly dividend changes. We find that the positive relationship between past returns and current dividend changes strengthens when returns convey more private information. This finding is robust to the use of several price informativeness measures and the inclusion of managerial private information and stock overvaluation measures. Managers seem to learn new information from stock prices that they use when deciding on their dividend policy. This study highlights private information in stock prices as an important determinant of dividend policy and contributes to the literature on the real effects of financial markets.
Household Finance in Developing Countries: Evidence from India

This paper studies how adjustment costs in real estate investments affect portfolio choices of developing economy households. Using novel panel data on Indian households, we document that while most households hold outstanding investments in real estate, the majority of them participated exclusively in financial assets during the five year survey period. We explain these stylized facts by identifying how households allocate their marginal income across various assets. Using local rainfall shocks as a source exogenous variation in household incomes, we empirically establish the presence of adjustment costs in real estate, which drives the infrequent participation of households in this asset class. We further show that the households use financial assets as a transitory asset class on their way to accumulating real estate. Our results are consistent with a theoretical model of portfolio choice where households face an adjustment cost to re-adjust their lumpy real estate holdings.
Stochastic Migration and Maintenance of Genetic Variation in Sink Populations

We explore the effect that demographic parameters and different patterns of migration have on the maintenance of genetic variability in a single sink population that receives migrants from a source population and whose size changes with time. We use, as a measure of genetic variability, the expected number of nucleotide differences between two genes randomly sampled from the sink. We assume that changes in the environment are translated into changes in the number of individuals arriving at the sink. We show that the pattern of migration from source to sink affects the amount of genetic variation maintained within the sink. The level of heterozygosity maintained within the sink is negatively correlated with the migrational variance, being lowest under stochastic migration patterns that lead to long runs of no migration events. If migration is indeed stochastic, a purely deterministic treatment of this process will be highly misleading in particular cases and will generally result in some loss of useful information. We also show that the relative importance of migration, genetic drift, and mutation, as they affect the amount of genetic variation maintained within the sink, is a function of the rate of population decay.
International Factor Models

We compare prominent factor models from Behavioral finance (Daniel, Hirshleifer, and Sun, 2020; Stambaugh and Yuan, 2017) and Neoclassical finance (Sharpe, 1964 and Lintner, 1965; Fama and French, 1993, 2015, 2018; Hou et al., 2020; Hou, Xue, and Zhang, 2015) on the four regions North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Japan based on the maximum squared Sharpe ratio. Relying on the pairwise comparison tests introduced by Barillas et al. (2019), we find that the Hou et al. (2020) five-factor model dominates all other models besides the Daniel, Hirshleifer, and Sun (2020) three-factor model in North America. In Europe, the Daniel, Hirshleifer, and Sun (2020) model, the Stambaugh and Yuan (2017) model and the Fama and French (2018) model share the first rank. In Asia Pacific, the Stambaugh and Yuan (2017) model dominates all other models besides the Daniel, Hirshleifer, and Sun (2020) model. In Japan, the Stambaugh and Yuan (2017) model has the highest in-sample maximum squared Sharpe ratio, but only the difference to the CAPM is significant. These results are supported by means of multiple model comparison tests and a bootstrap simulation.
Investor Sentiment, Soccer Games and Stock Returns

This study examines two determinants of investor sentiment (ex-ante evaluation of future value-related events and ex-post reaction to event outcomes) using the data on soccer games and betting odds. Results suggest that the magnitude and the character of investor reactions vary considerably after the release of negative and positive information on soccer games. Bad news generates a larger price response than good news; implying post-event irrational investor behavior and sentiment-induced overreaction. Moreover, negative news is more slowly absorbed by the stock market than positive news due to psychological biases and lack of information salience around negative results. Finally, share prices are triggered to a larger extent by post-announcement investor irrationality than by pre-event expectation.
Desenvolvimento de afilhos e componentes do rendimento em genótipos de trigo sob diferentes densidades de semeadura

O objetivo deste trabalho foi determinar o padrao de desenvolvimento de afilhos em genotipos de trigo contrastantes para esse carater, em diferentes densidades de semeadura, bem como seus efeitos sobre os componentes do rendimento de graos. O experimento foi conduzido no Municipio de Capao do Leao, RS, em 2006. Dez cultivares de trigo, selecionadas com base na capacidade de afilhamento, foram utilizadas em delineamento de parcelas divididas, com a parcela composta pelo fator cultivar, e as subparcelas pelas densidades de semeadura, com 50, 200, 350, 500 e 650 sementes aptas por metro quadrado. Observou-se que a senescencia de afilhos esteve diretamente relacionada ao potencial de afilhamento dos genotipos. Os genotipos com elevada capacidade de afilhamento apresentaram efeito mais pronunciado da senescencia, com o aumento da densidade de semeadura. O melhor ajuste dos componentes do rendimento foi obtido por meio da adequada densidade de semeadura, que deve ser realizada com base no potencial de afilhamento dos genotipos. Alem disto, o efeito compensatorio de genotipos com reduzido potencial de afilhamento e resultante de maior massa de graos por espiga, em detrimento do numero de espigas por unidade de area.
Investor Optimism, Sales Fixation and Firm Life Cycle

We provide empirical support for the conventional wisdom that there are times when optimistic investors tend to build their hopes into castles in the air, and pay a large premium over intrinsic value for stocks of firms in the early stages of their life cycles with perceived growth opportunities. We use industry IPO waves containing a set of firms in the same industry that went public at about the same time in a cluster to identify those time periods and firms that are relatively homogenous and in the same early growth stages of their life cycles. We find that three years after an industry IPO wave ends, among the firms in the wave with relatively high historical sales growth rates, those with low gross margins are over-valued relative to firms with high gross margins. They under-perform their industry IPO wave peers by 0.92% per month, or about 12% per year, during the subsequent four-year period after adjusting for risk and firm characteristics differentials. Further, the average future returns on these firms are even below the corresponding risk-free returns. Our findings contribute to the literature on inefficient capital markets by identifying situations when prices of some stocks are likely to be affected by bounded rationality or biases in the way investors make decisions, and agency issues limit the ability of more sophisticated arbitrageurs who have to rely on other people's money from exploiting any resultant profit opportunities.
Extractive Industries, Price Shocks and Criminality

The role of extractive industries for development is highly debated. A large literature focusing on countries with weak institutions has shown that such industries can spur conflict and war by providing appropriable resources. This study investigates whether this relationship holds true later in the development process. More specifically, we examine whether the extensive mining industry in South Africa affects local property and violent crime. To estimate the causal effect, our empirical strategy exploits local production changes caused by fluctuations in international mineral prices. In contrast to earlier studies, we find that an increase in mining activity lowers the local crime rate. Several tests suggest that this effect is driven by better income opportunities, affecting the opportunity cost of engaging in criminal activity. In order for this effect to materialize, local institutional quality needs to be sufficiently high. If such conditions are met, the appropriation channel emphasized in the earlier literature is dominated by the change in opportunity costs of crime.
Make or Buy? Human Capital Accumulation Strategies in European Club Football

When it comes to discussing club football emotions tend to get heated quite easily across the globe. This heterogeneity in likes and dislikes is not only reflected in name or financial possibilities, but also in the clubs approach to building a team. We analyze whether clubs' strategies regarding buying or cultivating players have a discernable effect on their success on the pitch. For the analysis we employ match level data covering five seasons of play in top-flight Dutch and English club football leagues. The results suggest that players' tenure has a positive and significant effect on the probability of winning, but only in the English Premier League. The positive effect we find for the Premier League aligns with theories of firm specific human capital. We hypothesize the lack of significant effects in the Dutch league to be tied to clubs' inability to keep successful players with the club or buy replacements of equal quality on the transfer market, because the club-specific human capital component takes time to accumulate.
Organizational Justice, OCB and Individualism: Evidence from Pakistan

In this paper, the impact of organizational justice (procedural, distributive, and interactional) is measured on organizational behavior (obedience, participation, loyalty) and also explore the moderating role of individualism on the above-stated relationship. The data of the study were collected from 175 respondents in Karachi city. This data is collected using a close-ended Likert scale type questionnaire and quantitatively analyzed using structural Equation Modelling. The results showed that the obedient and participative behavior of employees working in an organization can be achieved through a high level of procedural justice and shows a significant relationship among them, whereas interactional and distributive justice is not significant to achieve the desired OCB. This study also shows the significant impact of individualism on the above-stated relationship between Organizational justice and OCB. Moreover, this study provides insight into the management of institutions that by providing fairness and justice perceptions to the employees, can enhance the overall effectiveness of their institutions. Hence a culture based on collectivism seems not to compliment the relationship between justice and OCB.
Taxing the Disposition Effect: The Impact of Tax Awareness on Investor Behavior

Abstract Standard portfolio choice models predict that investors consider the tax implications of trading. However, individuals are disposed toward realizing gains and holding losing investments, behaviors that worsen their performance. We show, in an experimental market, that increasing tax salience reduces the disposition effect between 22% and 47%, leading to higher portfolio balances without increasing total trading activity. Using field data, we find that investors’ disposition is sensitive to taxes around tax rate changes when taxes are likely salient. Our analysis demonstrates that increasing tax awareness can affect households’ portfolio choices, which suggests policy implications for improving financial decision-making.
Idiosyncratic Risk, Private Benefits, and the Value of Family Firms

Many listed companies around the world are controlled by under-diversified family blockholders, who bear idiosyncratic risk in addition to systematic risk. In this paper, we assume that these shareholders require private benefits to compensate for the additional risk. We propose a simple equilibrium model of private benefits that highlights how the idiosyncratic risk borne by a family blockholder impacts the amount of required private benefits and, ultimately, the market value of the family firm.
Can You Get Work if You Network? The Role of Networks in Job Access for French Youth

French youth suffer from a high level of unemployment. This article evaluates how different social and individual characteristics influence job access channels. We distinguish between school and social networks and show that workers use networks differently depending on their characteristics. Using the French Enquete Emploi, we estimate a multinomial probit model controlling for selection. Our findings show that school networks help graduates, whereas social networks are more fruitful for the low educated. Being a woman or having non-French parents reduces the probability of finding a job through either network. Public institutions appear to be particularly important for disadvantaged areas.
Affirmative Action and Dual Sourcing: Towards Supplier Diversity before the Time of Cholera

Procurement programs often aim to rely on a diverse pool of suppliers, besides achieving cost effectiveness. We propose complementing a share auction for dual sourcing with affirmative action to create an endogenous set-aside for a high-cost supplier. In our model more intensive affirmative action strengthens the targeted provider. This has the potential to level the playing field, inducing more competitive procurement overall. Our main result provides a condition under which the endogenous set-aside not only guarantees a very substantial share for the high-cost supplier, but also reduces the buyer's provision cost compared to a standard auction. This result is robust to providers' probabilistic beliefs about each other, and how affirmative action programs are implemented. We also illustrate how our approach can help to reduce the severity and likelihood of health product shortages, such as those occurred during the recent COVID-19 outbreak.
Trading Activity and Liquidity Effects Around Private Firm Acquisition Announcements: The Case of Earnouts Versus Other Methods of Payment

We investigate trading activity and liquidity effects of methods of payment on the stock prices of acquiring firms around private firm acquisition announcements. We find significant rises in trading activity around acquisition announcement dates irrespective of the payment method used; however, fluctuations are lower for earnouts and cash payment options. Stocks of acquirers using earnouts also benefit from enhanced post-announcement liquidity. These effects of earnouts are linked to acquirers’ lower risk of being adversely selected when acquiring private firms, given that information asymmetry is inherently lower when using a staggered payment term linked to performance than otherwise.
Giving Credit Where Credit is Due: Defending Bank-issued Money Against the Resurgent Calls for 'Narrow Banking'

Economists have long debated the relationship of bank credit to the business cycle. The attribution of economic cycles to the "inherent instability" of fractional-reserve banking has been advanced not only by Austrian scholars in the tradition of Murray Rothbard, but also by a number of prominent economists historically including Irving Fisher and University of Chicago icons like Frank Knight, Henry Simons, and a young Milton Friedman. The recent financial crisis has reignited these calls to abolish fractional reserve banking through "narrow banking" or "sovereign money" proposals. This paper rejects this notion and argues that the "pyramid of credit" plays a fundamental role not only in stabilizing economic activity but also in fostering economic development. The instability commonly attributed to pyramiding can be largely mitigated by policy changes far less drastic than the abolition of bank money, and any residual instability is almost certainly worth the dramatic benefits in normal times.
PKCε upregulates voltage‐dependent calcium channels in cultured astrocytes

Astrocytes express voltage‐gated calcium channels (VGCCs) that are upregulated in the context of the reactive astrogliosis occurring in several CNS pathologies. Moreover, the ability of selective calcium channel blockers to inhibit reactive astrogliosis has been revealed in a variety of experimental models. However, the functions and regulation of VGCC in astrocytes are still poorly understood. Interestingly, protein kinase C epsilon (PKCε), one of the known regulators of VGCC in several cell types, induces in astrocytes a stellated morphology similar to that associated to gliosis. Thereby, here we explored the possible regulation of VGCC by adenovirally expressed PKCε in astrocytes. We found that PKCε potently increases the mRNA levels of two different calcium channel α1 subunits, CaV1.2 (L‐type channel) and CaV2.1 (P/Q‐type channel). The mRNA upregulation was followed by a robust increase in the corresponding peptides. Moreover, the new calcium channels formed as a consequence of PKCε activation are functional, since overexpression of constitutively‐active PKCε increased significantly the calcium current density in astrocytes. PKCε raised currents carried by both L‐ and P/Q‐type channels. However, the effect on the P/Q‐type channel was more prominent since an increase of the relative contribution of this channel to the whole cell calcium current was observed. Finally, we found that PKCε‐induced stellation was significantly reduced by the specific L‐type channel blocker nifedipine, indicating that calcium influx through VGCC mediates the change in astrocyte morphology induced by PKCε. Therefore, here we describe a novel regulatory pathway involving VGCC that participates in PKCε‐dependent astrocyte activation. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
High Frequency Trading in FinTech age: AI with Speed

High-frequency trading (HFT) based on artificial intelligence (AI) has been quickly adopted as market practice and its impact on investors' trading behavior and financial market has raised an increasing concern about managing AI in finance. Due to the extreme diversity and complexity of FinTech innovations, a 2019 article in Nature calls an urgent need to examine machine behaviors for better managing AI so that we are able "to control their actions, reap their benefits and minimize their harms". With more advanced development of trading technology and AI, HFT competition leads to trading speed arms race in financial markets, raising concerns and heated debates on ambiguous impact of HFT on welfare, trading behaviors, and market quality. To this end, we incorporate trading speed and asymmetry information to a dynamic limit order market. By employing a genetic algorithm with a classifier system as an adaptive learning tool, we examine the effect of AI with speed on trading behaviors, market liquidity and price efficiency. We show that in a world where traders with different information and trading speeds trade based on AI, increasing the trading speed of high frequency (HF) traders can lead to a trade-off between their information and speed advantage and their competition. By trading faster, the information and speed advantage makes HF traders more profitable from increasing liquidity consumption, while their trading releases more information, making slow traders more informative and therefore improving price efficiency. However, when the trading speed of HF traders is too fast, the competition among them dominates their information and speed advantage, reducing their order profits, liquidity consumption and price efficiency. This generates an inverse U-shaped relationship between HF traders' trading speed and their order profit, market price efficiency and liquidity consumption. The profit incentive that makes HF traders avoid trading too quickly provides an economic mechanism on HFT to improve price efficiency. The results provide predictive understandings and implications for investors and regulators to managing AI trading in the future AI-dominant financial markets: underlined by the economic mechanism, traders will continuously benefit from AI trading to optimize their trading and reduce trading speed arms race, which in general improve market information efficiency.
Bioensaios em painéis confeccionados com eucalipto e bagaço de cana-de-açúcar

Trials referring applicability of the final product, such as durability tests to fungi and termites are crucial in developing panels. Therefore, panels made with different percentages of sugarcane bagasse particles (Saccharum sp.) and eucalyptus fiber (Eucalyptus grandis), bounded with two dosages of urea formaldehyde resin (13% and 16%), were evaluated for biological resistance (bioassays) to termites and fungi, which is fundamental in defining use and application of the final product. We used the termite species Reticulitermes santonensis, rhinotermitidade, and the fungy Pleurotus ostreatus, a white rot basidiomycete, according to AFNOR standardization procedures. In general, the new panels were not resistant to bioassays and there was a similarity in the dynamics of attack and mass loss among the different doses of resin applied, thus evidencing the need of applying protective coating on the panels surface or adding termiticide and fungicide products.