Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
cyclicality of loan loss provisions under three di erent accounting models : the United Kingdom , Spain , and Brazil

A controversy involving loan loss provisions in banks concerns their relationship with the business cycle. While international accounting standards for recognizing provisions (incurred loss model) would presumably be pro-cyclical, accentuating the e ects of the current economic cycle, an alternative model, the expected loss model, has countercyclical characteristics, acting as a bu er against economic imbalances caused by expansionary or contractionary phases in the economy. In Brazil, a mixed accounting model exists, whose behavior is not known to be pro-cyclical or countercyclical. e aim of this research is to analyze the behavior of these accounting models in relation to the business cycle, using an econometric model consisting of nancial and macroeconomic variables. e study allowed us to identify the impact of credit risk behavior, earnings management, capital management, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) behavior, and the behavior of the unemployment rate on provisions in countries that use di erent accounting models. Data from commercial banks in the United Kingdom (incurred loss), in Spain (expected loss), and in Brazil (mixed model) were used, covering the period from 2001 to 2012. Despite the accounting models of the three countries being formed by very di erent rules regarding possible e ects on the business cycles, the results revealed a pro-cyclical behavior of provisions in each country, indicating that when GDP grows, provisions tend to fall and vice versa. e results also revealed other factors in uencing the behavior of loan loss provisions, such as earning management.
Effect of Wheat Bran on Dough Rheology and Final Quality of Chinese Steamed Bread

Wheat bran is a low-cost by-product abundantly produced by the wheat flour industry. As a staple food of China, Chinese steamed bread (CSB) represents about 40% of China’s wheat consumption. This study investigated the effects of incorporating wheat bran into the CSB at different levels (5, 10, and 15%). The dough behavior was measured by analyzing rheological properties. Quality of CSB was analyzed from two perspectives: physical properties and nutritional quality. For physical properties, specific volume, loaf height, moisture, and texture were measured by AACC International Approved Methods. The predicted glycemic response of the bread was analyzed by using an in vitro digestion method. The results illustrated that the incorporation of wheat bran into wheat flour reduced the extensibility of the dough, decreased specific volume, and increased bread hardness, gumminess, and chewiness. However, this study also showed that addition of wheat bran can decrease the predicted glycemic response of steamed brea.
Original Paper L2 Written Production by Japanese Learners of English

This paper presents part of the results of a learner corpus study of English spoken and written performances by Japanese native speakers. For the current study, the written data from 80 participants were used. Their English written production was examined based on Processability Theory (PT; Pienemann, 1998, 2005; Bettoni & Di Biase, 2015) as well as on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR; Council of Europe, 2001). Results demonstrated that there was an implicational pattern in the acquisition of English L2 grammar by the Japanese learners as predicted in PT. It was also shown that there was a linear connection between second language (L2) development as found in PT analysis and L2 proficiency levels as measured by the CEFR rating, while a statistically significant difference was not found.
ADBI Working Paper Series LABOR SUPPLY OF OLDER WORKERS IN THAILAND: THE ROLE OF CO-RESIDENCE, HEALTH, AND PENSIONS

During the last few decades, the composition of the Thai population has changed dramatically due to reduced fertility and the aging of the population. Thailand’s aging society faces many challenges. This is particularly so for older Thai people who still have to work for a living due to insufficient savings. This paper first provides an overview of the basic changes related to the labor force participation (LFP) of older people using the Labor Force Survey (LFS) from 1985 to 2017. Then, this study uses Socio-Economic Survey (SES) panel data from 2005 to 2012 and employs the fixed-effect logit model (FE-logit) to estimate the determinants of older people’s LFP. Our main findings provide strong evidence that pensions and poorer health status reduce the LFP of older people in Thailand. Furthermore, while health status is significant across all analyses, pensions have less impact on lower-status workers, indicating that even if they receive a pension, they may still be too poor to retire. Finally, co-residence decreases the LFP only of older people in rural areas. Those who are older, with a primary education, and who are usually employed in the informal sector suffer from poverty and require more assistance from others.
Effect Of Prior Cancer History on The Survival of Gallbladder Cancer Patients: A Propensity Score Matching Study Based on The SEER Database

Jie Ren Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical College First A liated Hospital Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery Wei Liu Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical College First A liated Hospital Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery Qinglin Li Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical College First A liated Hospital Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery Ruixia Cui Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical College First A liated Hospital Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery Yingmu Tong Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical College First A liated Hospital Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery Kai Qu Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical College First A liated Hospital Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery Chang Liu Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical College First A liated Hospital Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery Jingyao Zhang (  you12ouy@163.com ) Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical College First A liated Hospital Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8227-9396
Hydrophobic copolymers added with starch at the size press of a paper machine: A review of findings and likely mechanisms

This article reviews publications with the goal of understanding the role of hydrophobic copolymers added to size-press starch as a means to make paper products more resistant to penetration by aqueous fluids. The underlying technology is considered, including background related to starch, size-press equipment, and various hydrophobic copolymers and latex products that have been evaluated. The resulting hydrophobization of the paper has been reported to depend not only on the dosage of the hydrophobic additive, but also on its molecular mass and ionic form. The mechanism appears to rely on an ability of starch to serve as a temporary host for hydrophobic compounds in aqueous solution. It has been proposed that hydrophobic copolymers added with size press starch tend to migrate to the air interface during drying of the starch film, thus allowing the low-energy functional groups, such as styrene or alkyl chains, to face outwards. Further research is needed to address various mechanistic questions. There may be opportunities to further raise the performance of this type of technology as practiced within paper production factories.
Drag reduction in a lubricated turbulent channel

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) was utilized to study the drag reduction in a lubricated channel, characterized by the injection of a lubricating fluid layer in the near wall region of a planar channel to favor the transportation of the core fluid. In the present work the fluids have equal density but different viscosity, allowing for the definition of a viscosity ratio λ = η1/η2. In the scope of this work both a lubricated channel with λ = 0.01 and a single phase reference case were considered to quantify the drag reduction enabled by the lubricating layer and observe flow dynamics at large viscosity ratios. All DNS were run with a constant power input (CPI) approach. This allows for the power injected into the flow to be constant across both cases considered by adjusting the pressure gradient according to the flow rate of the channel. This was accomplished here by extending the CPI approach to lubricated channel flow. The dynamics of the liquid-liquid interface is described by a phase-field method (PFM). The simulation results indicate a significant drag reduction for the lubricated case. The flow rate increase has been quantified to be 63%. An analysis of the mean and turbulent kinetic energy budgets gives insight into the drag reduction mechanisms of the lubricated channel. For the multi-phase case, turbulence is sustained in the lubricating layer due to the local increase in Reynolds number. The core flow experiences a laminarization due to the hindering of transfer of turbulent kinetic energy from the boundary layer to the core.
Effect of Spirituality, Demographics, and Culture on Career Satisfaction, Organisational Fairness Climate, and Affective Commitment in Pakistani Organization: The Mediatory Role of Ethical Leadership

The lens through which followers experience the ethical dimension of leadership itself it is argued is likely distorted by a followers’ level in the hierarchy. In this regard, ethical leadership may be better conceptualized as an intermediary through which follower status contributes to these desirable outcomes. This research expands the literature about the causes, consequences, and the unique role of ethical leadership in the workplace. In particular, we examine the mediated model of ethical leadership in the effect of individualism, spirituality, as well as demographics on organizational outcomes like:<br><br>1. organization’s fairness climate (CF), <br><br>2. affective commitment (AC), and <br><br>3. career satisfaction (CS). <br><br>Drawing on the work of Pucic (2015), we argue that demographics like Job, experience, Age, Education, Position, and Working Hour of employees affect their perception of ethical leadership (EL) in the organization, and this perception, in turn, affect the three above mentioned outcomes. In the same way, spirituality and individualistic (IND) cultures also influence these outcomes through EL. Spirituality was further sub-classified into Spiritual Believe (SB), Coping (SC), Experience (SE), and Practices (SP). Empirical validity was established by conducting a survey using a close-ended questionnaire. Data was collected from 500 employees and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modeling. The results suggested that Ethical leadership, individualistic culture, and years of experience have a positive and significant effect on all three outcomes i.e. AC, CF, CS. Moreover, Education and Spiritual Believe seem to have a positive impact on AC. Similarly, Spiritual Experience also has a positive effect on CF. Surprisingly, position and Spiritual Practices seem to have a negative and significant impact on career satisfaction. Moreover, Education, individualism, and position also seem to be positively impacting ethical leadership. Hence, EL positively mediates the effect of education, individualism, and position on AC, CF, and CS respectively. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
A Network Solution to Robust Implementation:

We consider mechanism design environments in which agents commonly know that others’ types are identically distributed, but without assuming that the actual distribution is common knowledge, nor that it is known to the designer (common knowledge of identicality, CKI). Under these assumptions, we study problems of partial and full implementation, as well as robustness. First, we characterize the transfers which are incentive compatible under the CKI assumption, and provide necessary and sufficient conditions for partial implementation. Second, we characterize the conditions under which full implementation is possible via direct mechanisms, as well as the transfer schemes which achieve full implementation whenever it is possible. We do this by pursuing a network approach, which is based on the observation that the full implementation problem in our setting can be conveniently transformed into one of designing a network of strategic externalities, subject to suitable constraints which are dictated by the incentive compatibility requirements entailed by the CKI assumption. This approach enables us to uncover a fairly surprising result: the possibility of full implementation is characterized by the strength of the preference interdependence of the two agents with the least amount of preference interdependence, regardless of the total number of agents, and of their preferences. Finally, we study the robustness properties of the implementing transfers with respect to both misspecifications of agents’ preferences and with respect to lower orders beliefs in rationality.
Eine Untersuchung der chemischen und mikrobiologischen Qualität von in Ankara gekauften Frankfurter Würstchen : Das Auftreten von Yersinia enterocolitica

A total of 40 frankfurter-type sausage samples were collected from different retailers in Ankara and examined for various quality criteria. In order to determine chemical quality, pH, moisture contents, residue nitrite, salt, total fat and protein contents were investigated. The samples were evaluated for total plate count (TPC), mould-yeast count, coliform and Staphylococci count and the presence of Yersinia enterocolitica was also determined. Additionally, Y. enterocolitica isolates were assessed for their potential pathogenicity by using some indicator tests. Chemical analyses results were discussed as described in the recommendations of the Turkish Food Regulation (TFR) and Turkish Sausage Standard (TSS). Generally, it was found that most ofthe samples met the specifications set by the TFR and TSS, except the total protein content. Minimum and maximum values of TPC, mould-yeast count, Staphylococci count and coliform count were obtained as; 2.60 x 10 3 - 3.07 x 10 7 cfu/g, 4.40 x 10 2 - 7.63 x 10 6 cfu/g, <10 -9.30 x 110 4 cfu/g, <10 - 1.51 x 10 5 cfu/g, respectively. Five (12.5) of the frankfurter samples were found to be Y. enterocolitica positive but pathogenic types were not detected.
Association between metabolic syndrome components and the risk of developing nephrolithiasis: A systematic review and bayesian meta-analysis [version 1; peer review: 1 approved]

Background: There is increasing evidence that nephrolithiasis is a systemic disease, as opposed to an isolated urinary metabolic problem, after considerable links were found between nephrolithiasis and systemic diseases such as hypertension, obesity, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance. The interplay between these four factors defines metabolic syndrome (MetS). In this review we aim to clarify the associations of MetS and its components to kidney stone incident. Methods: Online databases of EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar were searched from January 1998 up to October 2020 to identify observational studies examining the association between metabolic syndrome components and kidney stone incident. Bayesian randomeffects meta-analysis and meta-regression were performed to observe the association. Linear dose-response analysis was conducted to shape the direction of the association. Data analysis was performed using STATA, and R statistics. Results: A total of 25 potentially relevant studies (n = 934,588 participants) were eventually identified. The pooled results suggested that metabolic syndrome was associated with an increased risk of nephrolithiasis with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.769 (95% CI: 1.386 – 2.309). The summary OR of hypertension and dyslipidemia for developing nephrolithiasis were 1.613 (95% CI: 1.213 – 2.169) and 1.586 (95% CI: 1.007 – 2.502) respectively. The presence of diabetes mellitus and obesity had an OR of 1.552 (95% CI: 1.027 – 2.344) and 1.531 (95% CI: 1.099 – 2.109) respectively. Our results revealed that the increasing number of MetS traits will increase the risk of developing nephrolithiasis, the higher the fasting plasma glucose, and Open Peer Review
Differentiable Fluids with Solid Coupling for Learning and Control

We introduce an efficient differentiable fluid simulator that can be integrated with deep neural networks as a part of layers for learning dynamics and solving control problems. It offers the capability to handle one-way coupling of fluids with rigid objects using a variational principle that naturally enforces necessary boundary conditions at the fluid-solid interface with sub-grid details. This simulator utilizes the adjoint method to efficiently compute the gradient for multiple time steps of fluid simulation with user defined objective functions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method for solving inverse and control problems on fluids with one-way coupled solids. Our method outperforms the previous gradient computations, state-of-the-art derivative-free optimization, and model-free reinforcement learning techniques by at least one order of magnitude.
Savings Accounts to Borrow Less

Poverty is often characterized not only by low and unstable income, but also by heavy debt burdens. We find that providing access to free savings accounts decreases participants’ short-term debt. In addition, participants who experience an economic shock have less need to reduce consumption, and subjective well-being improves significantly. Precautionary savings and credit therefore act as substitutes in providing self-insurance, and participants prefer borrowing less when a free formal savings account is available. Take-up patterns suggest that requests by others for participants to share their resources may be a key obstacle to saving. JEL classification: D14, D91, G22, O16 ∗We are grateful to Fondo Esperanza, Banco Credichile and Microdatos for outstanding collaboration in the implementation process. We thank Ronald Abraham, Samuel Asher, Lorenzo Casaburi, David Clingingsmith, Shawn Cole, David Cutler, Edward Glaeser, Jessica Goldberg, Johannes Haushofer, Daniel Hojman, Lakshmi Iyer, Sarah Janzen, Sandy Jencks, Dean Karlan, Lawrence Katz, Jake Kendall, Michael Kremer, David Laibson, Dan Levy, Jeffrey Liebman, Stephan Meier, Sendhil Mullainathan, Karthik Muralidharan, Joana Naritomi, Oyebola Olabisi, Owen Ozier, Rohini Pande, Silvia Prina, Simon Quinn, David Roodman, Nicola Fuchs-Schuendeln, Russell Toth, Richard Zeckhauser and participants of various conferences and seminars for helpful comments and discussions. This project would not have been possible without the generous support by the following institutions: the Ford Foundation, Banco Credichile, the Lab for Economic Applications and Policy (LEAP) at Harvard, the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and the Russell Sage Foundation Small Grants Program. The experiment was carried out in accordance with Harvard GSAS IRB approval. Earlier versions of this paper circulated under the titles “Do Savings Constraints Lead to Indebtedness”, “Insurance through Savings Accounts”, and “Saving More to Borrow Less”. †Centro de Estudios Horizontal, fkast@horizontalchile.cl. ‡Corresponding Author. University of Zurich and CEPR, dina.pomeranz@econ.uzh. ch.
Supplementary Material-Inventing AI: Tracing the diffusion of artificial intelligence with U.S. patents

The views expressed are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Office of the Chief Economist or the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Economic Working Papers are preliminary research being shared in a timely manner with the public in order to stimulate discussion, scholarly debate, and critical comment. For more information about the USPTO’s Office of the Chief Economist, visit www.uspto. gov/economics.
Internet Appendix “ Consumption Uncertainty and Precautionary Saving ”

A.1. Questions on future spending Respondents to the household survey were asked about future levels of spending as follows: “Thinking ahead about your household spending during the next 12 months, what do you expect to be the value of such future spending in a typical month? Please provide the future monthly expenditure. (a) Please give the minimum value: €. (y ) (b) Please give the maximum value: €. (y ) (c) What is the probability that the household spending value is greater than X? ” (where X is automatically computed as y y /2 and appears to the respondent’s screen) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Absolutely no chance that household spending will be greater than X Absolutely certain that household spending will be greater than X
Integration of Chemotherapy with Brachytherapy in the Treatment of Locally Advanced Uterine Cervical Cancer

Objective: Carcinoma of Uterine cervix is the second most common cancer affecting females in India. Concurrent chemoradiation has remained the sole definitive treatment available in the locally advanced stages. Our study was planned to take the advantage of radiosensitisation accruing due to chemotherapy at the time of brachytherapy when approximately forty percent of total tumour dose is applied. Methods: Study design was prospective, randomized and comparative.100 patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of cervix (FIGO stage IIB to IVA) were included from 2017 to 2019 and divided into two arms of 50 patients each as per computer generated random number list. All were given concurrent chemoradiation followed by 3 insertions of brachytherapy as per the Manchester System, each application was 7 Gy by HDR. Patients in Arm A (Study Arm) received cisplatin 40 mg/m2 along with EBRT and brachytherapy and Arm B (Control Arm) received cisplatin 40 mg/m2 along with EBRT only. Results: Loco regional control was superior in study arm. Clinical complete response rate was found to be 94% in study arm vs. 74% in control arm at 3 months after treatment and was statistically significant (p value=0.0230) as per SPSS version 20.0. Acute side effects were more in Arm A. Acute skin reaction, nausea, vomiting was mostly of Grade I and II. Anaemia and leukopenia were the most common haematological toxicities. No life-threatening toxicity was encountered. Conclusion: The integration of concurrent chemotherapy with platinum compounds during brachytherapy shows good local control and acceptable toxicity in the treatment of locally advanced cervical cancer and can be considered as the standard of care in future.
Influence of Mindfulness on Approach Motivation for Individuals Experiencing Depression

The goal of this research was to test whether a brief mindfulness intervention increased approach motivation for individuals experiencing depression. Following exposure to a depressed mood induction, participants experienced either a brief mindfulness intervention or the control condition. All participants then had the opportunity to participate in a mock-job interview as a measure of approach motivation. Results indicated no effect of the mindfulness intervention on depressed mood or approach motivation.