Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Earnings surprises and prior insider trading: Tests of joint informativeness

Building on the notion that both earnings surprises and the level of insider trading are noisy signals of future prospects of the firm, this paper empirically investigates joint informativeness of the two signals surrounding earnings announcements. Classification of a large sample of firms in the time period 1977–81 based both on the levels of earnings surprise and insider trading results in a finer partition informationally, compared to using just one signal. Both additive and interactive effects are observed while analysing the security market response during the three trading days centered on the day of earnings announcements. Over a 19-day postannouncement period, the results are less pronounced. The overall pattern of results implies that each signal may contain information not contained in the other, and/or some of the noise associated with each signal may be interactively resolved at the time of earnings announcements. This inference is robust under many measurement alternatives. Resume. A partir du principe voulant que les benefices imprevus ainsi que l'importance des operations d'inities soient des indicateurs manifestes des perspectives futures de l'entreprise, les auteurs procedent a une etude empirique de la qualite informative conjointe des deux indicateurs dans le cadre des avis de benefices. La classification d'un vaste echantillon d'entreprises pendant la periode 1977–1981 en fonction a la fois du niveau des benefices imprevus et de l'importance des operations d'inities permet un decoupage plus subtil sur le plan informationnel que l'utilisation d'un indicateur unique. Les auteurs observent les effets tant additifs qu'interactifs de cette classification dans l'analyse de la reponse du marche boursier au cours des trois jours de bourse centres sur le jour de la communication des avis de benefices. Pour la periode de 19 jours suivant la periode d'avis, les resultats sont moins accuses. Le modele global des resultats suppose que chaque indicateur peut livrer de l'information que l'autre ne livre pas et qu'une partie de ce que manifeste chaque indicateur peut etre resolue de facon interactive au moment de la communication des avis de benfices. Cette induction resiste a l'epreuve de plusieurs techniques de mesure.
Variations in IBD (ACAD8) in Children with Elevated C4-Carnitine Detected by Tandem Mass Spectrometry Newborn Screening

The isobutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase (IBD) enzyme is involved in the degradation of valine. IBD deficiency was first reported in 1998 and subsequent genetic investigations identified acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (ACAD) 8, now IBD, as the gene responsible for IBD deficiency. Only three individuals homozygous or compound heterozygous for variations in the IBD gene have been reported. We present IBD deficiency in an additional four newborns with elevated C4-carnitine identified by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) screening in Denmark and the United States. Three showed urinary excretions of isobutyryl-glycine, and in vitro probe analysis of fibroblasts from two newborns indicated enzymatic IBD defect. Molecular genetic analysis revealed seven new rare variations in the IBD gene (c.348C>A, c.400G>T, c.409G>A, c.455T>C, c.958G>A, c.1000C>T and c.1154G>A). Furthermore, sequence analysis of the short-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (SCAD) gene revealed heterozygosity for the prevalent c.625G>A susceptibility variation in all newborns and in the first reported IBD patient. Functional studies in isolated mitochondria demonstrated that the IBD variations present in the Danish newborn (c.409G>A and c.958G>A) together with a previously published IBD variation (c.905G>A) disturbed protein folding and reduced the levels of correctly folded IBD tetramers. Accordingly, low/no IBD residual enzyme activity was detectable when the variant IBD proteins were overexpressed in Chang cells.
Profiling Cyber-Slackers in the Workplace: Demographic, Cultural, and Workplace Factors

ABSTRACT Internet abuse in the workplace (a.k.a. cyber-slacking) has become a pervasive problem for employers. When employees abuse the Internet through activities like online gaming, online shopping, personal investment managing, personal emailing, chatting, media watching and viewing pornography, they waste work time and reduce available bandwidth. Existing research has failed to build consensus about who is most likely to cyber-slack. This study examines individuals from the United States, Asia, and India and develops clusters of typical patterns of cyber-slacking and examines the impact of demographic and work related factors on predicting individual cluster membership. The results reveal that young executives are the most likely to cyber-slack and a further qualitative analysis reveals that the pressure of their jobs are compelling them to look for stress relievers and the Internet is an easy resource. In addition, young executive's high degree of autonomy also appears to perpetuate their propensity to cyber-slack.
The Role of MULTIMOD in the IMF's Policy Analysis

This paper describes the basic structure, underlying philosophy, and key behavioral properties of MULTIMOD. It also focuses on several recent applications of macromodels in the IMF’s policy analysis, emphasizing that most questions put forward for analysis with models like MULTIMOD are initially posed in ways that cannot be addressed by simply pushing a computer key. Meaningful macromodel-based policy analysis requires a sensibly structured and parameterized macromodel, but it also generally requires considerable probing of the nature of the policy issues in order to reformulate policy questions in terms of well-defined exogenous shocks.
Improving the performance of HDFS by reducing I/O using adaptable I/O system

In this paper, we propose a new framework HDFS-AIO to enhance HDFS with Adaptive I/O System (ADIOS) that supports many different I/O methods and enable the upper application to select optimal I/O routines for a particular platform without source code modification and re-compilation. Specifically, we first customize ADIOS into a chunk-based storage system so that the semantics of its APIs can fit the requirement of HDFS easily; then we utilize Java Native Interface (JNI) to bridge HDFS and the tailored ADIOS together. We use different I/O patterns to compare HDFS-AIO and the original HDFS, and the experimental results show the feasibility and benefits of the design. We also shed light on the performance of HDFS-AIO using different I/O techniques. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to leverage ADIOS to enrich the functionality of HDFS.
Using intelligence to shape reforms in child protection

The Ryan Report, published in 2009, was not the first review of child welfare services to raise disquiet. Nevertheless it was unique in that its recommendations went beyond the deficits exposed by the report to comment on the entire child protection system. It is generally acknowledged that the model of child welfare that was the object of the Ryan Report no longer operates, and has been replaced by community based services and a system of regulated out of home care. However, on publication of the report, the government appeared to question whether, with what we now know, we can be assured that today’s services are fit for purpose. A number of reforms are underway as a result of the report, but the degree to which they are likely to achieve better outcomes for children and families is open to challenge. This paper will draw on existing sources of knowledge about the state of child protection in Ireland, including statistical data, empirical research, reviews and policy papers. It will also look at how other jurisdictions have used comparable data sources to tackle similar issues and consider how we can benefit from international experience.
Making concessions: Political, commercial and regulatory tensions in accounting for European roads PPPs

Abstract Governments increasingly use private finance to fund roads infrastructure. In particular the European Commission has promoted the use of public private partnerships (PPPs) to deliver the projects forming the trans‐European Network. This use of private finance raises important questions about how public monies and assets are accounted for. The paper examines, first, accounting in both public and private sectors for roads PPPs in Spain and the UK, countries which not only have considerable experience in the use of private finance for the provision of roads but also act as exemplars of a number of differences which may be significant from an international perspective in terms of financial reporting and economic outcomes. Second, it examines the tensions between national, European Union and international accounting pronouncements. Our findings suggest that the business environment has influenced the development of accounting policy. In Spain a powerful toll sector presence within the legal framework has led to substantial variations, having real economic impact. In the UK, the accounting regulator has prevailed over political concerns. For European public sector accounting, conflict remains between political choice and technical accounting. These findings may have global relevance, as the adoption of international accounting pronouncements will not remove these conflicts.
Inaccurate Age and Sex Data in the Census Pums Files: Evidence and Implications

We discover and document errors in public use microdata samples ("PUMS files") of the 2000 Census, the 2003-2006 American Community Survey, and the 2004-2009 Current Population Survey. For women and men ages 65 and older, age- and sex-specific population estimates generated from the PUMS files differ by as much as 15% from counts in published data tables. Moreover, an analysis of labor force participation and marriage rates suggests the PUMS samples are not representative of the population at individual ages for those ages 65 and over. PUMS files substantially underestimate labor force participation of those near retirement ages and overestimate labor force participation rates of those at older ages. These problems were an unintentional by-product of the misapplication of a newer generation of disclosure avoidance procedures carried out on the data. The resulting errors in the public use data could significantly impact studies of people ages 65 and older, particularly analyses of variables that are expected to change by age.
Reactive oxygen species form part of a regulatory pathway initiating trans-differentiation of epidermal transfer cells in Vicia faba cotyledons

Various cell types can trans-differentiate to a transfer cell (TC) morphology characterized by deposition of polarized ingrowth walls comprised of a uniform layer on which wall ingrowths (WIs) develop. WIs form scaffolds supporting amplified plasma membrane areas enriched in transporters conferring a cellular capacity for high rates of nutrient exchange across apo- and symplasmic interfaces. The hypothesis that reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a component of the regulatory pathway inducing ingrowth wall formation was tested using Vicia faba cotyledons. Vicia faba cotyledons offer a robust experimental model to examine TC induction as, on being placed into culture, their adaxial epidermal cells rapidly (hours) form ingrowth walls on their outer periclinal walls. These are readily visualized by electron microscopy, and epidermal peels of their trans-differentiating cells allow measures of cell-specific gene expression. Ingrowth wall formation responded inversely to pharmacological manipulation of ROS levels, indicating that a flavin-containing enzyme (NADPH oxidase) and superoxide dismutase cooperatively generate a regulatory H2O2 signature. Extracellular H2O2 fluxes peaked prior to the appearance of WIs and were followed by a slower rise in H2O2 flux that occurred concomitantly, and co-localized, with ingrowth wall formation. De-localizing the H2O2 signature caused a corresponding de-localization of cell wall deposition. Temporal and epidermal cell-specific expression profiles of VfrbohA and VfrbohC coincided with those of extracellular H2O2 production and were regulated by cross-talk with ethylene. It is concluded that H2O2 functions, downstream of ethylene, to activate cell wall biosynthesis and direct polarized deposition of a uniform wall on which WIs form.
Chapter 7 Modeling of Middle-Ear Mechanics

Quantitative understanding of the mechanical behavior of the external and middle ear is important, not only in the quest for improved diagnosis and treatment of conductive hearing loss but also in relation to other aspects of hearing that depend on the conductive pathways. Mathematical modeling is useful in arriving at that understanding. The middle ear is of course more than just a mechanical system: it has physiological aspects (e.g., muscle contraction, healing) and biochemical aspects (e.g., gas exchange) that directly affect its mechanical behavior. Even when it is studied only from a mechanical point of view, however, it presents considerable challenges. For one thing, it has a complicated and irregular geometry involving a number of distinct structures encompassing a wide range of sizes. Its overall dimensions are in the range of tens of millimeters but it has important dimensions measured in micrometers (e.g., the thickness of the eardrum). One can go even further down the scale and consider the dimensions of the collagen fibers that are mechanically important in the eardrum. The displacements that one must be able to measure to characterize middle-ear mechanics are as small as nanometers in response to sound pressures but as large as millimeters in response to static pressures. The time scales for the mechanical responses of the middle ear range from tens of microseconds for high-frequency sounds to tens of seconds for changes of static pressure, and even millions of seconds for the mechanical changes involved in development and healing. The challenge of the external and middle ear is increased by the many different tissue types involved with very different mechanical behaviors: bone; fibrous connective tissue, with its collagen, elastin, and ground substance; muscle, both striated and smooth; cartilage, both calcified and uncalcified; and synovial fluid. The mechanical properties of low-density air (in the canal and cavities) and high-density water (in the cochlea) are also involved. This chapter starts by reviewing some background modeling topics: Sections 7.2 and 7.3 discuss some general issues related to the modeling of geometry and of material properties as required for realistic models, while Section 7.4 is a discussion of model verification and validation, including the issues of uncertainty analysis and parameter fitting. (See Funnell et al. (2012) for a tutorial review of the underlying mechanical principles and modeling approaches. ) Section 7.5 is a review of models that
A study of applying ARIMA and SVM model to software reliability prediction

For more than three decades, Box and Jenkins' Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) technique has been one of the most widely used linear models in time series forecasting. However, it is well documented that many software failure observations are nonlinear and ARIMA is a general univariate model developed based on the assumption that the time series data being predicted are linear. Therefore, in this study, the utilization of Support Vector Machine (SVM) as a nonlinear model and ARIMA as a linear model are integrated in software reliability forecasting. Experiments on real-world data set validate the effectiveness of the hybrid model. These results also show that the proposed methodology can be a more effective way in order to combine linear and nonlinear models together than traditional methodologies. Therefore, it can significantly improve the prediction performance and can be applied as an appropriate alternative approach for software reliability forecasting field, especially when higher prediction performance is needed.
Distribution Channels: An Extension of Exclusive Retailership

The underlying channel structure in most studies to date has consisted either of exclusive dealers that sell only one manufacturerÂ¹s brand or of a single retailer selling multiple brands. Little attention has been given to the larger segment of most consumer goods markets in which retailers compete to sell multiple brands at the same location. This research seeks to add to the growing literature of channel competition by analyzing three channel structures, the least constrained of which deals with two competing manufacturers and two retailers, each of whom distributes both products in a noncooperative game with two Nash's and one Stackleberg equilibrium. Using differentiated products and a linear demand function, we introduce the concept of "store substitutability"-a measure corresponding to product substitutability representing competitiveness at the retail level-between the two retailers. We are able to obtain closed form solutions for all cases. We show that the presence of competitive effects at both retail and manufacturer levels of distribution has a significant impact on profits and prices. We also study the effects of various power relationships in the channel. Furthermore, we compare these results to those obtained by previous research. Finally, we propose some testable implications and suggest avenues for future research.
Toward dynamic marine spatial planning tools: An example with butterfish assessment in the mid-atlantic bight

Since marine organisms are tightly coupled to the properties of the turbulent ocean fluid, the locations of critical habitat can change rapidly in time and space. Historically it has been difficult to measure these dynamic properties, but advances in ocean observing technologies allow us to measure many aspects of habitat (e.g. surface temperature, currents) and model others (e.g. bottom temperature, phytoplankton, zooplankton) over large spatial scales with fine temporal resolution. We observed a strong relationship between bottom temperature and butterfish (Peprilus triacanthus) abundance on the Mid Atlantic Bight continental shelf and used modeled temperature from 1958-2007 to observe changes in the spread of predicted habitat. Predicted habitat maps showed high seasonal and high interannual variability. These models can influence stock assessments used for management, and we are on track to have these findings considered in the December 2013 butterfish stock assessment. Similar environmental relationships are observed in other species (e.g. longfin squid), so we expect many species would also have similar habitat patterns.
Pricing of a resettable guarantee of a salary-connected individual pension account

Abstract The present paper numerically prices a resettable guarantee of a salary-connected individual pension account (IPA). The results indicate that a principal guarantee without a reset feature is not worth much unless the volatility of assets in the IPA is huge, while the death benefit contributes a very small proportion to the guarantee value. Deferred proportional funding is an alternative to reducing problems from the difficulty in modeling salary behavior, because the required deferred proportional cost is impacted less by the salary behavior. Moreover, if the lapse from a guarantee is possible, then the guarantee is not necessarily more valuable for a younger individual.
The Structure of Self-Reported Emotional Experiences: A Mixed-Effects Poisson Factor Model

Multivariate count data are commonly analysed by using Poisson distributions with varying intensity parameters, resulting in a random-effects model. In the analysis of a data set on the frequency of different emotion experiences we find that a Poisson model with a single random effect does not yield an adequate fit. An alternative model that requires as many random effects as emotion categories requires high-dimensional integration and the estimation of a large number of parameters. As a solution to these computational problems, we propose a factor-analytic Poisson model and show that a two-dimensional factor model fits the reported data very well. Moreover, it yields a substantively satisfactory solution: one factor describing the degree of pleasantness and unpleasantness of emotions and the other factor describing the activation levels of the emotions. We discuss the incorporation of covariates to facilitate rigorous tests of the random-effects structure. Marginal maximum likelihood methods lead to straight-forward estimation of the model, for which goodness-of-fit tests are also presented.
Mapping burned area in Alaska using MODIS data: a data limitations-driven modification to the regional burned area algorithm

With the recently observed and projected trends of growing wildland fire occurrence in high northern latitudes, satellite-based burned area mapping in these regions is becoming increasingly important for scientific and fire management communities. Coarse- and moderate-resolution remotely sensed data products are the only viable source of comprehensive and timely estimates of burned area in remote, sparsely populated regions. Several MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)-based burned area products for Alaska are currently available. However, our research shows that the existing burned area products underestimate the extent of the effect of fire by 15–70%. Environmental conditions limit the effective observation of land surface in Alaska to the period between May and September. These limitations are particularly noticeable in mapping late-season fires. Here we present an ecosystem-based modification to a previously developed burned area mapping approach designed to enhance the algorithm performance in Alaska. The mapping results show a consistently high performance of the adjusted algorithm in mapping burned areas in Alaska during large (2004 and 2005) and small (2006 and 2007) fire years. The adjusted burned area product maps burned areas identified by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity products with the overall accuracy of 90–93% and Kappa of 0.67–0.75%.
EnvDB, a database for describing the environmental distribution of prokaryotic taxa.

EnvDB is a database that classifies the environmental samples and their associated 16S rDNA sequences currently stored in GenBank. The samples were categorized in a three-level, hierarchical classification of media: the five upper levels (terrestrial, aquatic, thermal, host-associated and other) are further decomposed in 20 intermediate (such as marine, marine sediments, freshwater, soil, gut, etc.) and 47 lower levels (for instance, soil is further decomposed in forest, agricultural, wetlands, grasslands, tropical, arid, etc.). Each sample was also characterized with nine environmental features: polluted, diseased (for clinical samples), acidic, alkaline, hot environment, cold environment, saline, anoxic and restricted (when the study is focused only in particular taxonomic groups). The classification of samples was aided by text-mining techniques, complemented with careful curation and completion by human experts. EnvDB currently includes 359 928 sequences from 3502 samples. The sequences were clustered at several identity levels to obtain operative taxonomic units (OTUs). Sequences and OTUs have been taxonomically assigned to the maximum possible resolution by different procedures. The user can obtain information about sequences, OTUs, samples and environments, combining these tables using a flexible querying system that allows generating very diverse queries. Thus, the user can easily inspect the presence and abundance of particular taxa in particular samples and environments. The database also allows the users to run analyses with their own data: users can input their sequences and find the closest sequences or samples in the database. EnvDB can be accessed in the web address http://metagenomics.uv. es/envDB.