Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multiple Precautionary Motives for Private Firms’ Cash Holdings

In this paper, we focus on the precautionary motive for holding cash in private firms. We check novel implications of such motive that arise under conditions that are typical of private firms. Because of incomplete separation of the finances of these firm from the finances of the owner, we also complement the traditional precautionary motive with a novel variant that considers stakeholders’ risk attitudes. Under this motive, the firm-level demand for savings and cash-holding decisions are driven by determinants like those that drive the demand for savings by households and their holdings of cash. We find empirical evidence consistent with both versions of the precautionary motive though some of the implications of the traditional precautionary motive, in the form of the hedging motive, are unsupported by the data.
Price Matching and Edgeworth Cycles

With price matching policies, retailers offer consumers to match prices offered by cheaper competitors. This article investigates how price matching affects pricing decisions in dynamic markets with cycling prices. The model predicts price-matching retailers to post higher prices and to lead price restorations. The lower bound of price undercutting increases for price-consulted retailers. Consulted stations also anticipate earlier price restoration reactions from implementing stations and, thus, provoke restorations by executing more price decreases earlier. The last effect dominates in welfare calculations, such that price matching has positive welfare implications. The predictions are verified with price data on the German gasoline retail market. Making use of the discontinuity of two policies, I disentangle the competitive effects on implementing and price-consulted market participants. In line with the model, a price-matching retailer increases his promotional prices significantly with the introduction of price matching.
Effect of supplementation of garlic powder on rumen ecology and digestibility of nutrients in ruminants

BACKGROUND: The present study investigated the effect of garlic powder (GAP) supplementation on rumen fermentation pattern, nutrient digestibility and intake in ruminants fed on straw as a roughage source. RESULTS: Dry matter intake and apparent digestibility of nutrients were similar among treatments. The apparent digestibility of crude protein tended to be higher in cattle supplemented with GAP compared to those fed without GAP (P = 0.08). Ruminal populations of protozoa and bacteria were decreased, as influenced by GAP supplementation. Ruminal pH and NH3-N were similar among treatments, while blood urea nitrogen tended to be decreased (P < 0.05). Total volatile fatty acids (VFAs) were not affected by GAP supplementation but individual VFAs were significantly different (P < 0.05), especially C3; meanwhile, C2:C3 ratio was reduced by GAP supplementation (P < 0.05). In addition, N balances were significantly increased as level of GAP supplementation increased and was highest at 120 g d−1 GAP. CONCLUSION: Results of this study suggest that feeding of GAP at 80 g d−1 with urea-treated rice straw could enhance ruminal propionate production and thus lower C2:C3 ratio, decreasing the protozoal population, as well as increasing N retention and absorption in ruminants. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry
Bayesian Multi-Factor Model of Instability in Prices and Quantities of Risk in U.S. Financial Markets

This paper analyzes the empirical performance of two alternative ways in which multi-factor models with time-varying risk exposures and premia may be estimated. The first method echoes the seminal two-pass approach advocated by Fama and MacBeth (1973). The second approach is based on a Bayesian approach to modelling the latent process followed by risk exposures and idiosynchratic volatility. Our application to monthly, 1979-2008 U.S. data for stock, bond, and publicly traded real estate returns shows that the classical, two-stage approach that relies on a nonparametric, rolling window modelling of time-varying betas yields results that are unreasonable. There is evidence that all the portfolios of stocks, bonds, and REITs have been grossly over-priced. On the contrary, the Bayesian approach yields sensible results as most portfolios do not appear to have been misspriced and a few risk premia are precisely estimated with a plausible sign. Real consumption growth risk turns out to be the only factor that is persistently priced throughout the sample.
Risk Characteristics of Covered Bonds: Monitoring Beyond Ratings

This paper proposes a set of indicators relevant for the risk characteristics of covered bonds, as based on granular publicly available transparency data. The indicators capture various aspects of cash flow risks related to the issuer, the cover pool and the payment structure. They offer unified risk metrics for the European covered bond universe, which ensures comparability across covered bonds issued by different issuers and rated by different credit rating agencies. The availability of granular risk indicators adds to the overall transparency of the market in the context of risk monitoring.
Reducing Agency Conflict through Bank Dividend Payout Decisions: The Role of Opacity and Ownership Structure

We empirically examine whether banks’ dividend decisions are influenced by their degree of opacity and ownership structure. We find that banks with concentrated ownership structure pay lower dividends when they have high degrees of opacity, in line with the hypothesis that majority shareholders pay lower dividends to extract higher levels of private benefits. We do not observe such opportunist behavior for widely held banks. These results suggest that there exist other corporate mechanisms in widely held banks that can induce insiders to select payout policies that reduce agency conflict in a context of high degrees of opacity. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of these mechanisms is reduced in banks with controlling shareholders. Further analysis shows that higher levels of shareholder protection and stronger supervisory regimes help to constrain opportunistic behavior of majority shareholders. Our findings have critical policy implications for the Basel 3 implementation of restrictions on dividend payouts.
Genetic evaluation for body condition score in Italian Brown Swiss cattle

Abstract Body Condition Score (BCS) evaluates the body energy reserve in a cow using a numeric classification. It is possible to use the BCS as an indirect indicator of fertility. The genetic evaluation for BCS in Italian Brown Swiss is performed on 73125 BCS evaluations on the same number of primiparous, daughters of 507 sires. Effect of herd by year goes from -1,02 to +0,94 indicating large differences among herds. The primiparous cows show about 3.2 BCS points at calving, their BCS decreases slightly during first 90 milking days but, after this period, the BCS increases until 3.5 BCS points at the end of first lactation. Sires with larger EBVs guarantee a slower decrease of BCS during the first part of lactation, which is preferred to the strong decrease exhibited by the daughter of low EBV sires. The pseudo-genetic correlations, correlations values estimated among EBV, confirmed the relationships between BCS and other important traits like milk yield (-0.20), final score, dairyness and udder. The correlations between BCS and functional traits, milking speed and functional longevity, is -0.14 and +0.17 respectively.
Type Specimens of Birds in the American Museum of Natural History Part 8. Passeriformes: Pachycephalidae, Aegithalidae, Remizidae, Paridae, Sittidae, Neosittidae, Certhiidae, Rhabdornithidae, Climacteridae, Dicaeidae, Pardalotidae, and Nectariniidae

Abstract This eighth part of “Type Specimens of Birds in the American Museum of Natural History” includes taxa covered in volume 12 of the Check-list of Birds of the World (Paynter, 1967) except for the families Zosteropidae and Meliphagidae, which will comprise a separate part. The original description of each form has been consulted unless otherwise noted, coordinates for type localities are given when possible, currently accepted names for the taxa included, and comments on taxonomic history provided. In all, 419 names are treated, five of these being replacement names; 102 of them were introduced by G.M. Mathews. Types of 12 of these names are not in AMNH or were not found. Four paratypes are discussed, the holotypes of which were almost certainly destroyed in World War II. This part of the type list, as well as all previous parts, are searchable and available for download from the AMNH Library web site: http://digitallibrary.amnh. org/dspace/.
Co‐assembly properties of higher plant microtubule‐associated proteins with purified brain and plant tubulins

Summary The knowledge of higher plant microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) remains limited to a few examples that illustrate essentially their binding properties to preformed microtubules as described in carrots. Using taxol-stabilized microtubules a putative MAP-enriched fraction has been isolated in maize cultured cell extracts, one of these polypeptides is immunologically related to neural tau. At present, these proteins are being characterized by co-assembly assays that were not possible before. Similar experiments were done also in a heterologous system using brain tubulin. Three polypeptides out of seven that constituted the MAP fraction were found to co-assemble specifically with tubulin subunits of both origins. Their apparent molecular weights are 67, 83 and 125 kDa. A two-dimensional gel immunoblot of the 83 kDa polypeptide with tau antibodies revealed one major spot. Polypeptides were quantiated by scanning the gels. These results shed light on the present debate on higher plant MAPs and their potential activity in the regulation of microtubule assembly and function in the higher plant cell.
Biased Shorts: Short Sellers' Disposition Effect and Limits to Arbitrage

We investigate whether short sellers are subject to the disposition effect using a novel dataset that allows to identify the closing of short positions. Consistent with the disposition effect, short sellers are more likely to close a position the higher their capital gains. Furthermore, stocks with high short sale capital gains experience negative returns, suggesting that their disposition effect has an effect on stock prices. A trading strategy based on this finding achieves significant three-factor alphas. Overall, short sellersâ€™ behavioral biases limit their ability to arbitrage away the mispricing caused by the disposition effect of other market participants.
Innovation and Corporate Tax Planning: The Distinct Effects of Patents and R&D

Using a large U.S. sample, we find a significant and positive relation between patents and corporate tax planning, and the effect is incremental to the effect of R&D on tax planning. We employ a quasi-natural experiment based on staggered industry-level innovation shocks to identify the positive causal effect of patents on corporate tax planning. We also find that patents are not associated with tax planning for domestic firms, but their association with tax planning is concentrated in multinational firms, which have the ability to shift domestic income to low-tax countries. Moreover, we find that the identified effect mainly exists in the post-check-the-box (CTB) rule period when shifting income among affiliates becomes more flexible and convenient. Finally, we use two income shifting models and find that patents, rather than R&D, facilitate tax planning through an income shifting channel. Overall, our results suggest that R&D and patents facilitate firms’ tax planning in distinct ways: R&D facilitates tax planning as intended through tax credits and deductions, whereas patents are used to avoid taxes aggressively by taxpayers through income shifting.
Comparison of the Characteristics of Seed Germination and the First Stage of Growth in Cynanchum wilfordii (Maxim.) by Different Light Conditions

This study was carried out to compare the characteristics of seed germination and the first stage of growth in Cynanchum wilfordii (Maxim.) by different light conditions such ass fluorescent light, dark and light emitting diode (LED). There was not much difference from the germination rate of C. wilfordii (Maxim.) in different light conditions for 10 days. The highest of germination rate occurred over 91.11 percentage by LED red condition at 26℃. Also mean germination veloc- ity and promptness index were represented the highest results of 2.3 ea/day and 52.67 under red light, respectively. But mean germination time under both LED red and blue light was represented low data that it takes over three days for germi- nating of seed. Even though handling both LED red and blue lights, the germination uniformity was not constant. These results may help our understanding of variations in germination characteristics for C. wilfordii (Maxim.) seeds treated under different light conditions.
Joint Ventures Around the Globe from 1990-2000: Forms, Types, Industries, Countries and Ownership Patterns

Joint ventures (JVs) and alliances are important forms of inter-organizational cooperation because they allow firms to achieve complex mutual tasks, otherwise impossible using simple arm's-length contracts, but without actually acquiring one another. In light of the recent trend in globalization, this feature of JVs and alliances is very important to multi-national corporations (MNCs). These firms have complex operations, making simple arm's-length contracts insufficient. However, MNCs are also very large, making mergers and acquisitions and takeovers very expensive. This paper describes a global trend in JVs and alliances for the period 1990 to 2000, utilizing the Thomson Financial SDC Platinum database. We survey the existing theoretical and empirical literature on JVs and alliances, and provide a detailed description of the world of JVs and alliances as depicted by this database. The results reveal a number of interesting facts related to the forms and types of JVs and alliances, their industrial and geographical distributions, and the patterns of ownership.
Polimorfismos em Anopheles (Kerteszia) cruzii Dyar & Knab (Diptera, Culicidae) detectados através de PCR-RAPD. Variabilidade genética entre indivíduos de mesma progênie

Genetic variation in broods of Anopheles cruzii was studied. Mosquitoes were collected in Morretes and Paranagua (two municipalities in the State of Parana, Southern Brazil) from which broods were reared. DNA was collected from these broods, from which six random-sequence primers were used in PCR. In within-brood analyses, all markers revealed a high-degree of polymorphisms within the broods. Detailed studies of the within-brood variability will help solve taxonomic problems in this group, since differences in fragment patterns are used to distinguish species.
Lipozyme IM‐catalyzed interesterification for the production of margarine fats in a 1 kg scale stirred tank reactor

Lipozyme IM-catalyzed interesterification of the oil blend between palm stearin and coconut oil (75/25 w/w) was studied for the production of margarine fats in a 1 kg scale batch stirred tank reactor. Parameters such as lipase load, water content, temperature, and reaction time were investigated. The reusability of Lipozyme IM was also studied under optimized conditions. The interesterification products were monitored by analysis of triacylglycerol profiles, the contents of diacylglycerols, free fatty acids (FFA), and solid fat contents. The contents of some triacylglycerol species, which were categorized by equivalent carbon number (ECN), namely ECN34, 36, 48, and 50, decreased by 6.0, 5.9, 5.8, and 13.7%, respectively, after enzymatic interesterification, similar to the reduction of those species after chemical interesterification, 6.6, 6.0, 7.1, and 12.9%, respectively. On the other hand, those of ECN38, 40, 42, 44, and 46 increased by 1.1, 1.6, 6.8, 16.7, and 6.5%, respectively, in comparison with the increase of those species after chemical interesterification, 0.2, 1.5, 6.5, 17.0, and 9.2%, respectively. Lipase load and reaction time had great influence on the degree of interesterification. A Lipozyme IM load of 6% was required for a reaction of 6 h and at 60 °C, to reach a stable degree of interesterification. Temperature variation in the range of 50-75 °C did not affect the reaction degree as well as the contents of diacylglycerols, but the content of FFA slightly increased with higher temperature. Addition of water to the enzyme increased the contents of diacylglycerols and FFA in the products linearly. However, it had no effect on the degree of interesterification for the first batch when the enzyme was reused. Lipozyme IM was stable in the 10-batch test after adjusting the water content in the system. The relationship between the content of water in the system and that of FFAs in the products was evaluated and discussed.
Morphological characterization of the blood cells in the endangered Sicilian endemic pond turtle, Emys trinacris (Testudines: Emydidae)

Abstract In this study, measurements of morphological parameters, sizes and frequencies of peripheral blood cells (erythrocytes, leukocytes, thrombocytes) on blood smear preparation devices stained with May-Grünwald stain were evaluated for both sexes in 20 Emys trinacris (Testudines: Emydidae) specimens. Erythrocytes were higher in male than in female specimens. The leukocyte of E. trinacris contains eosinophil, basophil, monocyte, heterophil and lymphocyte. The eosinophil was higher in males than in females whereas lymphocytes were higher in females than in males. The erythrocyte morphological parameters (EL [erythrocyte length], EW [erythrocyte width], L/W [length/width], ES [erythrocyte size]) were compared with the same data from Emys orbicularis s.l, and from species belonging to other chelonian genera. The erythrocyte size did not vary within the studied Palearctic Emys taxa, whereas it proved to differ from that observed in other chelonians.
How Do Firms Change Investments Based on MD&A Disclosures of Peer Firms?

We show that a firm's one-year-ahead capital investments and inventory increase (decrease) when peer firms' Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) narratives become more optimistic (pessimistic). This finding is driven by firms that access peer firms' 10-K filings within seven days of their filing date, and remains after controlling for other determinants of a firm's investments as well as economic connections between the firm and peer firms. Moreover, a firm's investment response varies based on content in peer firms' MD&A narratives. For instance, a firm makes more (less) capital investments when peer firms become more optimistic in their narratives that discuss the industry and investments (competition). Our findings provide broad insights on the information content and proprietary costs of MD&A disclosures. Data Availability: All non-textual data are available from sources identified in the text. Textual data generated by this study are available upon request. JEL Classifications: L1; D25.
Do Liquidity or Credit Effects Explain the Behaviour of the BKBM-LIBOR Differential?

In August 2007 the BKBM-LIBOR differential switched from positive to negative and then widened considerably following the collapse of Lehman brothers in September 2008, before narrowing gradually as the turmoil financial markets subsided. Our structural regression model and decomposition analyses show that changes in liquidity largely explain the changes in the BKBM-LIBOR differential and that credit risk factors only played a minor role. However our analysis also shows that liquidity in the offshore market also prices information regarding counterparty credit risk, suggesting that our initial results could understate the role played by credit risk factors.
On the Organizational Design of Entrepreneurial Ventures: A First Empirical Look!

Several studies claim that entrepreneurial venture should pay attention to their organizational design in order to improve performance. However, a clear understanding on how these ventures organize is still missing. Entrepreneurial ventures’ organizational design still remains an ambiguous concept, which has been rarely analyzed empirically. In this paper, we borrow organizational design elements from the literature on established firms and we use them as a lens to provide a fist empirical overview on the entrepreneurial ventures’ organization. We analyze a sample of 255 Italian entrepreneurial venture, focusing on their top management teams and on the most important organizational design elements: hierarchical structure, size, functional specialization, and delegation. In so doing, we first relate these elements to four contingency factors (i.e., EV’s size, age, industry, and geographical location) and then we adopt a two-step cluster analysis to understand whether the complementarities and interdependencies among organizational design elements give rise to organizational configurations. Results reveal the presence of three distinct configurations, which we named collaborative TMT, centric TMT, and professional TMT.
A comparison of different pre and post-slaughter measurements for estimating fat reserves in Spanish Blanca Celtibérica goats

Five pre-slaughter measurement values and four post-slaughter measurement values were used to estimate the weight of fat in the omental (OM), mesenteric (MES), perirenal (PR), subcutaneous (SC), and intermuscular (IM) fat depots in goats. The pre-slaughter measurements were: live weight (LW), sternal body condition score (BCSs), lumbar body condition score (BCSl), sternal fat thickness (FTs) and lumbar fat thickness (FTl) measured by ultrasound. The post-slaughter measurements were empty live weight (ELW), hot carcass weight (HCW), adipocyte diameter in the sternal subcutaneous fat (ADSCs) and adipocyte diameter in the lumbar subcutaneous fat (ADSCl). Linear and multiple regressions were fit to data collected from 22 adult, non-pregnant and non-lactating Blanca Celtiberica does. The results obtained showed BCSs, ranging from 1.5 to 4.5 (scale: 0-5) to be the best pre-slaughter estimator of an animal's total fat (R2 = 0.90, RSD = 2.252 kg) and HCW to be the best post-slaughter estimator (R2 = 0.92, RSD = 1.
Are Group Members Less Inequality Averse Than Individual Decision Makers?

Do groups exhibit more or less inequality aversion than individuals? Although the previous literature has shown that in many environments individuals in groups make more selfish decisions than when deciding in isolation, we find that individuals express more inequality aversion when making initial proposals in a group decision-making environment compared to an individual decision-making environment. This may be driven by a change in the reference group and by beliefs about the prevailing norm in the group, but we exclude that it is driven by a loss of anonymity. By investigating how groups aggregate individual preferences under a unanimity rule, we show that the members with median social preferences lead the group decisions and a higher inequality aversion compared to the median slows down the convergence process. Overall, final decisions in groups reveal the same level of inequality aversion than individual decisions.