Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Satisfaction with Life, Happiness, and Inequality – A Pseudo-Panel Study

The hypothesis tested in this paper is whether the increasing inequality in recent years has had a significant impact on well-being among the population in Denmark. After a survey of the literature we use attitude variables from the European Social Survey in a pseudo-panel setting covering the years 2002 – 2014. We cover respondents from Denmark and supplement the survey data with variables from administrative registers. We find a significant effect from the increasing Gini coefficient since 2002.
Are medicinal plants an alternative to the use of synthetic pharmaceuticals in animal healthcare in the Brazilian semi-arid?

Background: Despite the development of modern veterinary medicine, rural populations in developing countries continue to treat their animals with medicinal plants due to a combination of their low cost, easy availability, perceived efficacy and the absence of veterinary clinics. So, this study aimed to assess the consensus on the ethnobotanical knowledge from small-holders and to assess their preference either on medicinal plants or synthetic pharmaceuticals. Methods: Interviews were conducted between January and March 2015 with 30 people of both sexes, aged 24-96 years in Dom Helder Câmara, the largest rural settlement arisen by land reform efforts with remaining Caatinga vegetation in the state of Alagoas, northeast Brazil. The following indices were calculated to help interpret the data: Smith's Salience Index, Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) and Fidelity Level (FL). Results: Fifty-four species of plants in 45 genera and 25 botanical families were reported as treatments for 33 veterinary diseases. The highest salience value was found for Aloe vera (0.361) and Guapira graciliflora (0.336). The highest ICF values were recorded for the categories Ecto and endoparasite (0.670) and Gastrointestinal (0.630). In 76.5% of cases only the plant was used and in 23.5% of the cases synthetic pharmaceuticals were also considered as a treatment option. The highest FL values were found for G. graciliflora (84.62%) and Citrus limon (75.00%). Conclusions: Our results suggest that medicinal plants are an important alternative to synthetic remedies in this area, especially for treating helminthiasis, which cause great damage in the production of meat and derivatives. FL results may serve as the basis for prioritization of species for pharmacological studies. Key words: ethnoveterinary medicine, herbal medicine, livestock, phytotherapy, traditional knowledge.
Are CEOs Incentivized to Shelter Good Information?

Prior theoretical studies on agency problems hold different opinions against empirical works on two questions: (i). Are CEOs incentivized to shelter good information? (ii). Are CEOs incentivized to evenly shelter firms’ good and bad information? This paper answers these questions by demonstrating that CEOs with high pay-performance incentives tend to successfully shelter good information rather than the bad one from investors. Furthermore, we find that those CEOs with high equity incentives shelter good information by using real earnings management but not accrual-based earnings management. This one-sided information manipulation decreases their firms’ exposure to both stock lottery-like behavior and rare disasters.
Advances in molecular diagnostic tests for pneumonia.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Pneumonia is the main global cause of sepsis, and has been associated with high morbidity and high short and long-term mortality rates. As it may be caused by a wide spectrum of microorganisms, microbial diagnosis is challenging and the choice of adequate therapy remains an important problem. This review focuses on recently published studies of microbiological diagnostic tests and clinical assessments for pneumonia, including community-acquired pneumonia, hospital-acquired pneumonia, and ventilator-associated pneumonia. RECENT FINDINGS Over the past decade, the microbiological diagnosis of pneumonia has improved significantly - thanks to the development and implementation of molecular diagnostic tests for identifying the most frequent pathogens causing pneumonia and for determining their patterns of resistance. Molecular methods for the diagnosis of pneumonia focus on multiple target detection systems and pathogen detection arrays, and, more recently, have been used in combination with mass spectrometry. SUMMARY The implementation of rapid diagnostic techniques in routine clinical practice able to identify and determine the resistance patterns of the causative microbes may transform the management of pneumonia, improving the selection and administration of antimicrobial therapies especially in critically ill patients. The validation of new diagnostic technology platforms is crucial in order to assess their usefulness and to guide antimicrobial treatment in this population.
The Burden of the National Debt: Evidence from Mergers and Acquisitions

We examine the impact of changes in national debt on the mergers and acquisitions (M&As) activity. Although increases in government debt reduces the acquisition likelihood, we find no evidence for the traditional interest rate mechanism. Instead, we document that upsurges in national debt depress M&A activity through increases in fiscal policy related uncertainty (taxes, discretionary spending, entitlement programs etc.). During periods of increasing national debt, acquirers decrease stock-based financing relative to cash-based financing and reduce the acquisition of targets with a higher degree of investment irreversibility. In such periods, announced deals are associated with lower premiums and lower synergistic gains.
Ticks and tick-borne pathogens in South Bohemia (Czech Republic) – Spatial variability in Ixodes ricinus abundance, Borrelia burgdorferi and tick-borne encephalitis virus prevalence

Spatial distribution of Ixodes ricinus tick host-seeking activity, as well as prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) were studied in the TBE endemic area of South Bohemia (Czech Republic). High variability in tick abundance detected in a network of 30 study sites was most closely associated with characteristics of vegetation cover. Of 11,182 tested tick samples, 12% carried DNA of spirochete from B. burgdorferi s.l. complex. B. afzelii and B. garinii prevailed among spiro-
Lying to Speak the Truth: Selective Manipulation and Improved Information Transmission

We analyze a principal-agent model in which an effort-averse agent can manipulate a publicly observable performance report. The principal cannot observe the agent's cost of effort, her effort choice, and whether she manipulated the report. An optimal contract links compensation to both the eventually realized output and the (possibly manipulated) report, since both are informative about effort provision. We show that the optimal contract may incentivize selective manipulation of an unfavorable report by an agent who exerted a high level of effort. Doing so can convert a "falsely" negative report into a positive one, thereby making the report more informative about the agent's effort choice.
Stress and Burnout in Open Source: Toward Finding, Understanding, and Mitigating Unhealthy Interactions

Developers from open-source communities have reported high stress levels from frequent demands for features and bug fixes and from the sometimes aggressive tone of these demands. Toxic conversations may demotivate and burn out developers, creating challenges for sustaining open source. We outline a path toward finding, understanding, and possibly mitigating such unhealthy interactions. We take a first step toward finding them, by developing and demonstrating a measurement instrument (an SVM classifier tailored for software engineering) to detect toxic discussions in GITHUB issues. We used our classifier to analyze trends over time and in different GITHUB communities, finding that toxicity varies by community and that toxicity decreased between 2012 and 2018.
Fracture resistance oF translucent Zirconia and resin nano ceramic endocrowns versus Fiber

objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the fracture resistance and fracture modes of Prettau Highly Translucent Zirconia and Resin Nano Ceramic Lava Ultimate CAD/CAM endo-crowns and post and core supported CAD/CAM classical crowns in extensively damaged endodontically treated maxillary molars. materials and methods: Twenty maxillary first molars of similar size and shape were collected. The teeth were all decoronated, 2mm above the level of proximal cemento-enamel junction (CEJ) and were all endodontically treated. The teeth were then randomly divided equally into four groups (5 each), as follows; Group I: Five teeth restored by post and core supported Prettau Highly Translucent Zirconia (PZ) crowns. Group II: Five teeth restored by PZ endocrowns. Group III: Five teeth restored by post and core supported Resin Nano Ceramic Lava Ultimate (LU) crowns. Group IV: Five teeth restored by LU endocrowns. All specimens were scanned, designed and milled using ZirkonZahn CAD/CAM 5 Tec machine. After cementation, all specimens were thermocycled, then they were subjected to fracture resistance test and fracture mode analysis. The data were collected, tabulated and statistically analyzed. results: Group I exhibited the highest fracture resistance, followed by group IV, then group III, while group II exhibited the lowest fracture resistance values. Groups I and II resulted in unfavorable unrestorable failures while Groups III and IV resulted in favorable restorable failures. conclusions: Regarding the construction concept, endocrowns can be considered as a feasible conservative and esthetic alternative to post and core supported full crowns for the restoration of endodontically treated posterior teeth. Regarding the constructing material, high stiffness materials like zirconia negatively modify the biomechanical behavior of the endocrown restorative system. On the contrary, low stiffness materials such as resin composites accompany the natural flexural movements of the tooth, reducing stress arising at the interfaces. Thus, restorative materials with mechanical properties as similar as possible to those of natural tooth hard tissues, enable the restored system to mimic the mechanical behavior of a natural tooth producing a monoblock. From a clinical point of view, resin composites seem to be the most reliable materials to build-up endocrown restorations that restore the structural integrity and the strength of endodontically treated and severely damaged teeth.
Commodity Prices and Industry Profitability∗

Commodity-price changes may affect both the aggregate level of economic activity and the profitability of different industries. In this paper, we ask what is the relationship between commodity-price changes and long-run industry-level profitability, and answer this question through the lenses of equity-markets data and asset-pricing theory. We decompose the relationship between commodity-price shocks and equity-market valuations into changes in expectations of future cash flows and in revisions of discount rates, respectively. This methodology is applied to the oil market. Not surprisingly, we find that a negative oil-price shock is associated with lower expected future profitability for oil and energy producers. More interestingly, there is a strong positive effect on expected future profitability for a large section of the rest of the economy. In particular, expected future profits for producers of typical consumer goods industries typically increase when oil prices decrease. These findings have, potentially, also important implications for asset allocations. JEL Classification: E44, G11, G12, Q02 ∗For the latest version, please see http://goo.gl/JeBeuv. This paper was previously circulated under the title “Portfolio Choice and Non-Tradable Commodity Risk”. We thank Borja Larrain, Thore Johnsen, Bernard Dumas, Pierre Collin-Dufresne, Kjetil Storesletten, and Ruey Tsay for their insightful discussions and comments. We also thank the participants at the Finance UC 11th International Conference, the 2016 European Meeting of the Econometric Society , and the seminar at the Norwegian School of Economics. The usual disclaimer applies. †BI Norwegian Business School, email: espen.henriksen@bi.no ‡Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), email: jens.kvaerner@nhh.no
Investor Attention to Stock Recommendations ∗ Konstantinos Gavriilidis † University of Stirling

This study investigates the role of investor attention to stock recommendations on explaining the post-recommendation price drift. We construct a measure of attention to stock recommendations based on the abnormal trading volume on the days surrounding the recommendation. Our findings suggest that stock-recommendations which attract high investor attention consistently generate more pronounced post-announcement drifts than recommendations which receive low investor attention. In addition, we provide evidence that this phenomenon is mainly driven by upgrades rather than downgrades, consistent with the idea that increased volume leads to higher visibility and an increased number of unsophisticated investors buying the stock. Our findings remain robust when we control for firm-attention, analyst characteristics, recommendation characteristics and earnings announcements around the recommendation date.
Distributed Spacecraft 3D Pose and Position Estimation based on Camera Images

In space applications the importance of imaging and image processing increases steadily. Especially in the context of OOS scenarios vision-based navigation for nearrange operations is researched. This thesis is based on such an OOS scenario: a satellite is equipped with a detachable robotic manipulator. Two possible situations may occur: either the satellite or the manipulator break. In both cases it is desired, to remove the manipulator either to replace it or to reuse it. The manipulator’s design includes cylindrical parts. The aim of this master thesis therefore is to design and implement an algorithm, which is able to estimate the 3D pose of a cylindrical object of known dimensions given input from a camera system. New algorithms for vision-based navigation, such as algorithms for pose estimation are first tested on machines with high computational power. Later they are often implemented on specialized hardware for image processing such as FPGAs or DSPs. Those are specifically programmed for one special purpose, namely the computer vision task, matching the common approach of on board data handling a specialized processor belonging to an individual sensor or actuator. By contrast, a recent approach proposes the usage of a computing cluster of general purpose processors, which are wirelessly linked. This is currently researched by project YETE of the University of Würzburg. In order to refrain from the use of specialized hardware, the algorithm is analysed for possibilities of distributed execution. The thesis begins with a introduction to frequently used image processing algorithms in space missions. A reference implementation is created using the open source computer vision library OpenCV. Parts of the algorithm which have been identified as the algorithm’s bottlenecks are then distributed using the RODOS real time operating system.
CHARACTERISING NON-NORMALITY IN ASSET RETURNS USING THE GENERALISED SKEW STUDENT DISTRIBUTION

To investigate asymmetry and fat-tailedness in daily stock and portfolio returns we extend the Generalised Skew Student t distribution (GST) by separate parameterisation for observations above and below zero. A sequence of likelihood ratio tests examines progressive parameter restrictions on the extended GST. Empirical evidence comes from the UK, Japanese, South African and US markets. The main conclusions are: the Student t is the single most common model; the symmetric GST is a common model of UK and South African stocks; significantly asymmetrical returns are generally modelled by a 5 parameter GST; few Japanese or US stocks exhibit skewness.
Executive pay disparity and cost of debt financing

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the relationship between executive pay disparity and the cost of debt.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a sample of syndicated bank loans granted to United States (US) listed firms from 1992 to 2014 and adopt the loan yield spread (Chief Executive Officer (CEO) pay slice) as the main proxy for the cost of debt (executive pay disparity). The authors also use the Heckman two-stage model to address the sample selection bias and the two-stage least squares and propensity score matching methods to control the potential endogeneity issues. To test different views about executive pay disparity, the authors adopt the cash-to-stock ratio to proxy for managerial risk-shifting incentives.FindingsThe authors find that the cost of debt is significantly higher for firms with larger executive pay disparity, which is robust to sample selection bias, endogeneity concerns, alternative measures and various controls. This positive relationship increases with the risk-shifting incentives of CEOs instead of other top executives, which supports the managerial power view, and is stronger for firms with higher levels of financial distress. The findings suggest that creditors view executive pay disparity are associated with higher credit risk and CEO entrenchment.Originality/valueThis paper reveals one “dark” side of executive pay disparity: it increases the cost of debt and identifies a significant role played by CEOs' risk-shifting incentives. The authors provide direct evidence of the relevance of pay differential to corporate credit analysis.
Strategic Interactions and Price Dynamics in the Global Oil Market

In a simplified theoretical framework we model the strategic interactions between OPEC and non-OPEC producers and the implications for the global oil market. Depending on market conditions, OPEC may find it optimal to act either as a monopolist on the residual demand curve, to move supply in-tandem with non-OPEC, or to offset changes in non-OPEC supply. We evaluate the implications of the model through a Structural Vector Auto Regression (VAR) that separates non-OPEC and OPEC production and allows OPEC to respond to supply increases in non-OPEC countries. This is done by either increasing production (Market Share Targeting) or by reducing it (Price Targeting). We find that Price Targeting shocks absorb half of the fluctuations in oil prices, which have left unexplained by a simpler model (where strategic interactions are not taken into account). Price Targeting shocks, ignored by previous studies, explain around 10 percent of oil price fluctuations and are particularly relevant in the commodity price boom of the 2000s. We confirm that the fall in oil prices at the end of 2014 was triggered by an attempt of OPEC to re-gain market shares. We also find the OPEC elasticity of supply three times as high as that of non-OPEC producers. JEL Classification: Q41, Q43
A New Approach for Estimating the Equity Premium based on Credit Valuations

Although the equity premium is both from a conceptual and empirical perspective a widely researched topic in finance, there is still no consensus in the academic literature about its magnitude. In this paper, we propose a different estimation method which is based on credit valuations. The main idea is straigtforward: We use structural models to link equity valuations to credit valuations. Based on a simple Merton model, we derive an estimator for the market Sharpe ratio. This estimator has several advantages. First, it offers a new line of thought for estimating the equity premium which is not directly linked to current methods. Second, it is only based on observable parameters. We do neither have to calibrate dividend or earnings growth which is usually necessary in dividend/earnings discount models nor do we have to calibrate asset values or default barriers which is usually necessary in traditional applications of structural models. Third, it is robust to model changes. We examine the model of Duffie/Lando (2001) which is one of the most sophisticated structural models currently discussed in the literature to show this robustness. In an empirical analysis we have used CDS spreads of the 125 most liquid CDS in the U.S. from 2003 to 2007 to estimate the equity premium. We derive an average implicit market Sharpe ratio of appr. 40%. Adjusting for taxes and other parts of the credit spread not attributable to credit risk yields an average market Sharpe ratio below 30%. This confirms research on the equity premium, which indicates that the historically observed Sharpe ratio of 40-50% corresponding to an equity premium of 7-9% and a volatility of 15-20% was partly due to one-time effects. In addition, our research can be used to explain empirical findings about credit risk premia, which are usually measured as the ratio of risk-neutral to actual default probabilities. We show that the behavior of these ratios can be directly inferred from a simple Merton model and that this behavior is robust to model changes.
Is systemic risk pro-cyclical?

This paper investigates the pro-cyclicality of systemic risk, defined according to Brownlees and Engle (2012) as SRISK. Using a sample of US Bank Holding Companies over the period 2006-2016, we show that leverage pro-cyclicality translates into systemic risk: banks become more interconnected during booms and decrease their degree of interconnection during bursts. Moreover, using structural equations to tackle the interplay between systemic risk and leverage, we show that the level of systemic risk pro-cyclicality differs among four groups of banks identified in terms of liquidity and capital shortage. Banks that had access to the liquidity facilities activated by the Federal Reserve (e.g. Discount Window and Term Auction Facility) show a higher degree of pro-cyclicality of systemic risk; this is motivated by their lower cost of financing that allows them to increase debt at least in the short-run. Banks approaching or below the regulatory capital threshold (e.g. banks under regulatory pressure) and banks that participated in the Capital Purchase Program (CPP) show a lower degree of pro-cyclicality of systemic risk. Finally, banks with the status of TBTF unexpectedly show no difference in the degree of pro-cyclicality of systemic risk with respect to the baseline group. JEL Classification Numbers: G21, G18, G28, E58.
Long-term effectiveness and safety of topical calcipotriene for psoriasis. Calcipotriene Study Group.

: The long-term safety and effectiveness of calcipotriene 0.005% ointment has been evaluated in the treatment of 397 patients with stable plaque psoriasis. In this multicenter, open-label clinical investigation, the psoriasis characteristics of scaling, erythema, and plaque elevation and overall disease severity were evaluated periodically. Patients were carefully questioned and observed at each visit for adverse events. Laboratory parameters for safety were also evaluated at regular intervals. At the end of the study, 235 subjects were considered assessable. Psoriatic plaques were cleared by week 8 in 25% of the subjects. The median time to initial clearing was between 16 and 17 weeks. Forty-four subjects were prematurely withdrawn from the study due to adverse events, which were considered related to treatment in only 28. This study showed that calcipotriene 0.005% ointment is safe and effective for long-term use in the treatment of plaque psoriasis.