Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Goal‐Efficacy Framework: An Examination of Domestic and International Accounting Students' Academic Performance

type="main" xml:id="acfi12024-abs-0001"> This study considers the psychological influences on academic performance using a goal-efficacy framework. Data were gathered using a survey questionnaire (N = 375). The paper is motivated by a repeated high failure rate for a second-year core accounting unit and anecdotal evidence that international students perform poorly in comparison with domestic students. The results demonstrate the role of self-regulated learning strategy as a mediating variable for goal orientation and academic performance. While the analyses suggest no significant differences between domestic and international students with respect to the main psychological variables and academic performance, further analyses reveal that four specific factors of the main psychological variables are significantly different between domestic and international students.
The daytime impact of DSM-5 insomnia disorder: comparative analysis of insomnia subtypes from the Great British Sleep Survey.

OBJECTIVE To profile the daytime impact of the proposed DSM-5 insomnia disorder diagnosis, with and without mental health, physical health, or other sleep disorder comorbidities; to better understand how specific daytime symptom patterns are associated with nighttime sleep in insomnia; and to compare childhood-onset and adulthood-onset insomnia disorder with respect to daytime dysfunction. METHOD Data were derived from the Great British Sleep Survey (GBSS), an open-access online population survey completed by adults who had a valid postcode and were residents of the United Kingdom. The primary variables of interest were the 6 areas that, according to the proposed DSM-5 criteria, may be impacted in the daytime by insomnia disorder: energy, concentration, relationships, ability to stay awake, mood, and ability to get through work. These variables were compared for those with versus those without insomnia disorder and across 5 insomnia subtypes (difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, early morning awakening, a combination of these 3 core symptoms, or nonrestorative sleep). Clinically comorbid insomnia presentations (insomnia disorder with poor mental health/poor physical health/additional sleep disorder symptoms) and insomnia disorder of childhood versus adult onset were also evaluated. RESULTS A total of 11,129 participants (72% female; mean age = 39 years) completed the GBSS between March 2010 and April 2011, of whom 5,083 screened as having possible insomnia disorder. Compared with those who did not have insomnia disorder, those with insomnia disorder reported greater impairment in all areas of daytime functioning (Cohen d range, 0.68-1.30). The greatest effects reflected negative impact on energy and mood. Participants with a combination of insomnia symptoms tended to be the most impaired (Cohen d range, 0.10-0.23), whereas no consistent differences emerged between the other 4 subtypes. Finally, individuals who had both insomnia disorder and poor mental health were consistently the most impaired comorbid group (Cohen d range, 0.15-0.65), and childhood-onset insomnia disorder had greater daytime impact than adult-onset insomnia disorder (P < .05 for energy; P < .01 for mood, concentration, and getting through work). CONCLUSIONS The severity of daytime impact of DSM-5 insomnia disorder varies by insomnia type. This finding has implications for the evaluation and management of insomnia in clinical practice.
The industrial services reference model

The need to integrate service providers into an existing customer supply chain requires the collective know-how of the coordination mode, including the ability to synchronize interdependent processes, to integrate information systems and to cope with distributed learning. About this topic the EU-funded InCoCo-S project is developing a new standard business reference model with key focus on operation & integration of business related services in supply chains. Based on the requirement analysis concrete business processes have been developed to integrate services in the existing customer supply chain both on a strategic and operational level.
Waiting to Invest: Investment and Uncertainty

The textbook analysis that accepts all projections with positive net present values as positive is quite generally wrong. The ability to delay a project means that almost every project competes with itself postponed. With uncertain interest rates, even the simplest of projects has an option value. The effect of interest-rate uncertainty on the optimal delay of investment is sizable. This implies that the rate of aggregate investment will depend on both the level of the real interest rate and the degree of interest-rate uncertainty. Furthermore, it is not necessarily true that investment rises with a fall in interest rates. Copyright 1992 by University of Chicago Press.
Impedance Matching of Rectangular Microstrip Antennas partially loaded with DNG metamaterials

A new structure for improving the bandwidth and impedance matching of subwavelength resonant rectangular microstrip antennas filled with double-positive material and double-negative metamaterials is presented. Due to the phase compensation properties of double-negative metamaterials, arbitrarily low resonant frequency can be obtained for a fixed dimension. However, the antenna does not radiate efficiently because of the radiation from the two radiating edges cancels each other. An extra double-positive material slab is inserted between the radiator and substrate to reverse the axial electric fields at the radiating edges and hence to improve the input impedance characteristics. The input impedance of the proposed structure is studied using finite-difference time-domain method.
A short term co-movement detection of financial data

This paper aims to apply statistical and the tree-based data mining techniques to build a model for predicting the movement of Thailand stock price index (SET). Predictors are stock price indexes of Hong Kong Hang Seng (HSI) and Nikkei 225. We also incorporate the index difference from the previous day closing price of HSI and Nikkei as additional predictors. The positive or negative movement of SET compared to the earlier closing index is a binary signal that is constructed and used as a target for our model. The co-movement among SET, HSI, and Nikkei is a short term detection in that it captures intra-day association. The original built model is manipulated to be concise and comprehensible through the application of feature subset selection techniques. We finally obtain a concise tree model to forecast index movement with accuracy as high as 70%.
Essays on location choice: agglomeration, amenities and housing

Why do people live where they live and what are the consequences of these decisions? People and firms allocate themselves unevenly across space. In spite of large costs incurred when living in metropolitan areas, economic agents remain extremely concentrated in a finite number of cities. This thesis explores several factors that may influence these location decisions and their effect on economic agents. The first essay questions the role of cultural amenities in explaining the location of firms and residents across American cities. Next, the second essay examines a consequence of the geographic concentration of workers. It evaluates the influence of urban density on the quality of the match between workers' education and their occupation. Finally, the last essay documents the importance of housing vacancies in France. It examines how distance and access to the city center affect the housing vacancy rate in suburban municipalities.
Two-Dimensional Depth-Averaged Flow Modeling with an Unstructured Hybrid Mesh

An unstructured hybrid mesh numerical method is developed to simulate open channel flows. The method is applicable to arbitrarily shaped mesh cells and offers a framework to unify many mesh topologies into a single formulation. A finite-volume discretization is applied to the two-dimensional depth-averaged equations such that mass conservation is satisfied both locally and globally. An automatic wetting-drying procedure is incorporated in conjunction with a segregated solution procedure that chooses the water surface elevation as the main variable. The method is applicable to both steady and unsteady flows and covers the entire flow range: subcritical, transcritical, and supercritical. The proposed numerical method is well suited to natural river flows with a combination of main channels, side channels, bars, floodplains, and in-stream structures. Technical details of the method are presented, verification studies are performed using a number of simple flows, and a practical natural river is modeled to il.
Post-deregulation Bank-Deposit-Rate Pricing: The Multivariate Dynamics

The relationship between wholesale and retail interest rates since deregulation is of substantial interest to economists and policymakers, because the predictability of the monetary aggregates and their relationship to bank reserves depend on adjustment patterns in the wholesale and retail monetary markets. We provide evidence on the nature of wholesale-retail interest rate relationships by examining the dynamic interactions among two wholesale interest rates (federal funds and six-month treasury bills) and three retail deposit rates (six-month consumer certificates of deposit, money market deposit accounts, and super NOW's). We perform a multivariate time series analysis, with particular attention paid to a causal patterns and the shapes of impulse response functions. A number of stylized facts, related to size of adjustment, speed of adjustment, and pattern of adjustment, are established for the response of retail rates to unanticipated shocks in wholsale rates.
Cultural determinants of ownership concentration across countries

Industrialised countries differ significantly in predominant patterns of ownership of publicly listed firms. In particular, in some countries most firms have a dominant shareholder while in other countries the ownership of a great majority of firms is dispersed; in some countries a significant proportion of shares of many firms is held by stable long-term shareholders while in others investors orientated on short-term return play a dominant role. We suggest that these cross-country differences may be explained by differences in values held by people of these countries. Using the cultural dimensions identified by Geert Hofstede as indicators of these values, we identify, theoretically, the likely effects of national cultures on ownership patterns, and test these redictions empirically. The results of the tests confirm our expectations. Differences in ownership patterns are related to differences in values, with differences in attitude towards uncertainty proving to have the most significant impact on ownership patterns.
The role of communication in resolving commons dilemmas: experimental evidence with heterogeneous appropriators

Abstract Communication has been shown to be an effective mechanism for promoting efficient resource use in homogeneous common-pool resource settings. Communication allows appropriators the opportunity to agree on an aggregate appropriation target and coordinate over the selection of input allocation rules. When appropriators are identical, these rules result in identical input allocations, which facilitates cooperation. We examine the robustness of communication as an efficiency-enhancing mechanism in settings where appropriators differ in input endowments. This heterogeneity creates a distributional conflict over access to common-pool resources. This conflict can cause self-governance to fail. We present findings from a series of experiments where heterogeneous endowments are assigned: (1) randomly, and appropriators have complete information, (2) through an auction, and appropriators have complete information, and (3) randomly, and appropriators have incomplete and asymmetric information. These findings are contrasted with rules from CPR field settings.
Multi-Temporal Polarimetric RADARSAT-2 for Land Cover Monitoring in Northeastern Ontario, Canada

For successful applications of microwave remote sensing endeavors it is essential to understand how surface targets respond to changing synthetic aperture radar (SAR) parameters. The purpose of the study is to examine how two particular parameters, acquisition time and incidence angle, influences the response from various land use/land cover types (forests, urban infrastructure, surface water and marsh wetland targets) using nine RADARSAT-2 C-band fine-beam (FQ7 and FQ21) fully polarimetric SAR data acquired during the 2011 growing season over northern Ontario, Canada. The results indicate that backscatter from steep incidence angle acquisitions was typically higher than shallow angles. Wetlands showed an increase in HH and HV intensity due to the growth of emergent vegetation over the course of the summer. The forest and urban targets displayed little variation in backscatter over time. The surface water target showed the greatest difference with respect to incidence angle, but was also determined to be the most affected by wind conditions. Analysis of the co-polarized phase difference revealed the urban target as greatly influenced by the incidence angle. The observed phase differences of the wetland target for all acquisitions also suggested evidence of double-bounce interactions, while the forest and surface water targets showed little to no phase difference. In addition, Cloude-Pottier and Freeman-Durden decompositions, when analyzed in conjunction with polarimetric response plots, provided supporting information to confidently identify the various targets and their scattering mechanisms.
Assessment of the relevance of information derived from the unmixing of polarimetric radar images

A new method to unmix radar polarimetric images with optical images was proposed. This method has pointed out that the unmixing model is able to split off polarimetric information on a land cover type basis. In this paper unmixed radar polarimetric images obtained are compared with the observed ones in non-mixed conditions. Then, Cloude and Pottier decomposition is performed on the unmixed and observed radar images to asses whether the understanding of physical scattering mechanisms is improved with the unmixing. Finally, a classification experiment is designed to determine whether this fusion framework make the transfer of information from the optical images to the unmixed radar images possible.
An exogenous shock to the system? The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and British tourism policy

This paper explores the impact of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games on British tourism policy development and delivery using an archival documentary review of 54 documents (dated 1999–2010) relating to strategy for tourism, identified from searches of the archives of 23 public sector organisations and government departments in Britain. The paper draws on the literature on policy communities and networks to categorise the British tourism policy community as a loosely formed issue network. The extent to which this loosely formed issue network has experienced an ‘exogenous shock’ as a result of the award of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to London is then explored through an interpretive analysis of British tourism policy between 1999 and June 2010, drawing on an inductive content analysis of policy documents which identified four prominent tourism policy themes for analysis: quality, marketing, niche markets and sustainability. The interpretive analysis suggests, first, that the tourism policy community may be strengthened as a result of the award of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to London. In particular, the political imperative to demonstrate a tourism legacy as a partial justification for the £9.3bn public investment in the 2012 Games has drawn the key government actor, the Department for Culture Media and Sport, into the community to provide a more comprehensive strategic leadership, while the British non-departmental public body, Visit Britain, is showing signs of achieving the legitimacy to deliver implementational leadership. Together, these two actors now appear to have the potential to form an emergent primary core at the same time as more meaningful interdependencies between members of the policy community appear to be developing, resulting in a more stable membership. The result is a tourism policy community that has strengthened from its relatively long-standing structure as a loosely constituted issue zone. The conclusion, therefore, is that it appears that the award of the 2012 Games to London does appear to have acted as an ‘exogenous shock’ to the tourism policy-making system, in that it appears to have resulted in an adjustment in the structure of the tourism policy community. However, what is not clear is whether this is a permanent adjustment that will be sustained once the need to demonstrate a tourism legacy to justify the 9.3bn investment in the 2012 Games has passed. If the adjustment can be sustained, then a strengthened British tourism policy community will be a valuable, if invisible, legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
GECCO 2014 tutorial on evolutionary multiobjective optimization

Many optimization problems are multiobjective in nature in the sense that multiple, conflicting criteria need to be optimized simultaneously. Due to the conflict between objectives, usually, no single optimal solution exists. Instead, the optimum corresponds to a set of so-called Pareto-optimal solutions for which no other solution has better function values in all objectives. Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization (EMO) algorithms are widely used in practice for solving multiobjective optimization problems due to several reasons. As stochastic blackbox algorithms, EMO approaches allow to tackle problems with nonlinear, nondifferentiable, or noisy objective functions. As set-based algorithms, they allow to compute or approximate the full set of Pareto-optimal solutions in one algorithm run---opposed to classical solution-based techniques from the multicriteria decision making (MCDM) field. Using EMO approaches in practice has two other advantages: they allow to learn about a problem formulation, for example, by automatically revealing common design principles among (Pareto-optimal) solutions (innovization) and it has been shown that certain single-objective problems become easier to solve with randomized search heuristics if the problem is reformulated as a multiobjective one (multiobjectivization). This tutorial aims at giving a broad introduction to the EMO field and at presenting some of its recent research results in more detail. More specifically, we are going to (i) introduce the basic principles of EMO algorithms in comparison to classical solution-based approaches, (ii) show a few practical examples which motivate the use of EMO in terms of the mentioned innovization and multiobjectivization principles, and (iii) present a general overview of state-of-the-art algorithms and techniques. Moreover, we will present some of the most important research results in areas such as indicator-based EMO, preference articulation, and performance assessment. Though classified as introductory, this tutorial is intended for both novices and regular users of EMO. Those without any knowledge will learn about the foundations of multiobjective optimization and the basic working principles of state-of-the-art EMO algorithms. Open questions, presented throughout the tutorial, can serve for all participants as a starting point for future research and/or discussions during the conference.
The Story of Semco: The Company that Humanized Work

This article examines and analyzes Semco, a company that changed the way it viewed and treated its workers for the better. It is the contention of Semco’s CEO, that at most large corporations “everyone is part of a gigantic, impersonal machine, and it is impossible to feel motivated when you feel you are just another cog. Human nature demands recognition. Without it, people lose their sense of purpose and become dissatisfied, restless, and unproductive” (Semler, 1993, p. 109). At Semco, employees were no longer just faceless drones acting as machines would. By putting more power and decision making in the hands of their employees, the company became very successful, as it was more efficient and flexible. Workers also reaped the rewards of significantly increased control and decision-making power. This improved their lives financially and personally, as they were better able to deal with stress.
Schooling, information and nonmarket productivity : contraceptive use and its effectiveness

Information from two U.S. fertility surveys on couples' knowledge about the use of specific contraceptives are used to estimate the technology of human reproduction in order to examine the association between schooling and productivity in the household sector. The results indicate that more schooled couples have a wider knowledge of contraceptive methods; use more efficiently those contraceptive methods for which there is little information and large scope for misuse; and are better able to mitigate the effects of their biological constraints (fecundity) on their fertility compared to less-schooled couples. Copyright 1989 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.
Behavioural Bias and Conflicts of Interest in Analyst Stock Recommendations

This paper tests whether sell-side analysts are prone to behavioural errors when making stock recommendations as well as the impact of investment banking relationships on their judgments. In particular, we analyse their report narratives for evidence of cognitive bias. We find first that new buy recommendations on average have no investment value whereas new sell recommendations do, and take time to be assimilated by the market. We also show that new buy recommendations are distinguished from new sells both by the level of analyst optimism and representativeness bias as well as with increased conflicts of interest. Successful new buy recommendations are characterised by lower prior returns, value stock status, smaller firms and weaker investment banking relationships. On the other hand, successful new sells do not differ from their unsuccessful counterparts in terms of these measures. As such, we provide evidence that analysts are prone both to behavioural bias as well as potential conflicts of interest in their new buy stock recommendation decisions. We also show that these two explanations of analyst behaviour are to a great extent independent of each other. Consequently, the recent attempts by regulators to address potential conflicts of interest in analyst behaviour may have only limited impact.