Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Methodology for quantifying the volatile mixing state of an aerosol

ABSTRACT Mixing state refers to the relative proportions of chemical species in an aerosol, and the way these species are combined; either as a population where each particle consists of a single species (‘externally mixed’) or where all particles individually consist of two or more species (‘internally mixed’) or the case where some particles are pure and some particles consist of multiple species. The mixing state affects optical and hygroscopic properties, and quantifying it is therefore important for studying an aerosol's climate impact. In this article, we describe a method to quantify the volatile mixing state of an aerosol using a differential mobility analyzer, centrifugal particle mass analyzer, catalytic denuder, and condensation particle counter by measuring the mass distributions of the volatile and non-volatile components of an aerosol and determining how the material is mixed within and between particles as a function of mobility diameter. The method is demonstrated using two aerosol samples from a miniCAST soot generator, one with a high elemental carbon (EC) content, and one with a high organic carbon (OC) content. The measurements are presented in terms of the mass distribution of the volatile and non-volatile material, as well as measures of diversity and mixing state parameter. It was found that the high-EC soot nearly consisted of only pure particles where 86% of the total mass was non-volatile. The high-OC soot consisted of either pure volatile particles or particles that contained a mixture of volatile and non-volatile material where 8% of the total mass was pure volatile particles and 70% was non-volatile material (with the remaining 22% being volatile material condensed on non-volatile particles). © 2016 American Association for Aerosol Research Video abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo
Insider Trading in the Spanish Stock Market

This paper investigates the profitability and information content of insider trading in the Spanish stock market. Our results show that insiders earn excess profits when investing on corporate non-public information, while outsiders mimicking them fail to obtain positive excess returns. The paper also investigates the relevance of a third party investing on the insider's behalf. The study further focuses on some methodological aspects, such as the need to take estimation periods that are not affected by other events or by other prediction periods, and the need to allow volatility during insider trading events to have inter-day memory.
Renewal Theorem for a System of Renewal Equations Théorème De Renouvellement Pour Un Système D’Équations De Renouvellement

We show that the classical renewal theorems of Feller hold in the case of a system of renewal equations, when the distributions involved are supported on the whole real line. We extend Feller’s methods and also use Perron-Frobenius theory and potential theory.On généralise les théorèmes de renouvellement de Feller au cas d’un système d’équations de renouvellement faisant intervenir des mesures qui ont pour support toute la droite réelle. Pour cela on suit la même démarche que Feller en faisant intervenir de plus la théorie de Perron-Frobenius et la théorie du potentiel.
Factoring Profitability

Recent studies in financial economics posit a connection between a gross prof- itability strategy and quality investing. We explore this connection with two widely used factor models. The first is the four-factor Fama-French-Carhart model, which is a mainstay of empirical research in academia. The second is the Barra USE4 multi-factor model. Our findings are: Consistent with results reported by other researchers, the Fama-French-Carhart model does not provide a satisfactory replication of the gross profitability strategy over the period July 1995-December 2012; Over the same period, the Barra USE4 multi-factor model, which is a standard for practitioners, replicates a substantial portion of the gross profitability strategy with quality and momentum factors; The book to market factor, which is one of three value factors in the Barra USE4 model and the only value factor in the Fama-French-Carhart model, does not make a significant contribution to the gross profitability strategy; However, the Barra USE4 earnings yield factor, which is another measure of value, does make a significant contribution to the gross profitability strategy. Importantly, our results rely on relatively short data histories. More time is required to determine their efficacy in the long term.
Learning English (and Arabic) in Malaysian Islamic Schools: Language Use and the Construction of Identities

The Malaysian schooling system celebrates the diversity of Malaysian ethnic groups by allowing different school types to co-exist since the independence of the Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) from British colonial rule in 1957. Whilst ideologically young Malaysians can pick and choose where they want to learn, these schools are clustered around ethnicity, language and even religion. Only the majority national schools (or sekolah kebangsaan) reflect the diversity of the ideological Malaysian ‘race’ (or bangsa Malaysia). For national type schools (or sekolah jenis kebangsaan), these are almost exclusively subscribed by Tamil speaking students who are mostly Indians or by Mandarin speaking students who are mostly Chinese. The focus of this empirical paper is on a final school type, national religious schools (or sekolah kebangsaan agama), that represents the religious ideology of the Malaysian majority race, the Malay-Muslims. These are primary and secondary ‘Islamic schools’ that place heavy emphasis on Islamic education often through the medium of Arabic, for the Malay-Muslim majority in Malaysia. This paper focuses on the lived experiences of 30 first year university undergraduates who completed five to six years of secondary education in national religious schools. Data were collected from periodic focus group discussions and also written narrative ‘reflections’ of their Islamic school days with three cohorts of selected undergraduates from March 2016 to May 2017 at two university campuses in northern Malaysia. The stories they shared draw attention to how English, and to an extent Arabic language, influenced their school-based learning experiences and constructed their identities.
A Study on Influence of Financial Cognition on Personal Financial Planning of Indian Households

The term financial planning has been an area of research interest since few years. Studies have underlined the influence of various cognitive factors in individuals’ financial decisions. The present study is also trying to underline the influence of various cognitive factors in personal financial planning of Indian households. The term financial cognition considered three components namely financial attitude, risk attitude and financial knowledge and raise the concern about the influence of various cognitive factors on individual personal financial planning. Especially in India, being a conservative attitude towards financial decisions, individual households do have higher influence of various cognitive and behavioral aspects in their suboptimal decision towards personal financial planning. The present study is putting forward those aspects of personal financial planning decisions of Indian households. The main objective of the model is to create the bare minimum structure to demonstrate the influence of financial cognition on personal financial planning among Indian households. The study mainly tried to explore the fundamental principle of subjective thinking towards financial decision. The model would represent the influence of financial cognition towards people financial decisions and can be helpful in exploring the financial information process. The study used PLS-SEM to explore PFP process in all the area of financial interest i.e. cash flow management, investment, insurance, retirement, tax and estate planning. The salaried individuals from different sectors are considered as sample for the study. The analysis has been done with 452 responses from Indian households.
Pickering emulsions stabilized by shape-controlled silica microrods

Silica microrods with aspect ratios (AR) varying from 1 to 16 but similar surface chemical characteristics are synthesized and their potential in preparing stable oil-in-water Pickering emulsions is explored. The stability of hexadecane/water emulsions is found to strongly depend on the AR and concentration of particles. Emulsions stabilized with these silica microrods are quiescently stable for quite a long period of time (over months), while emulsions with spherical particles of similar diameters destabilize after only dozens of hours. The superior stabilization efficiency of microrods with larger ARs is attributed to their higher steric hindrance, interface adsorption energy and capillary forces.
Applying Bst Algorithm in Training Rbf Networks

Backpropagation with selective training (BST) is applied on training RBF networks. It improves the performance of the RBF network substantially, in terms of convergence speed and recognition error. Three drawbacks of the basic backpropagation algorithm, i.e. overtraining, slow convergence at the end of training, and inability to learn the last few percent of patterns are solved. In addition, it has the advantages of shortening training time (up to 3 times) and de-emphasizing overtrained patterns. The simulation results obtained on 16 databases of the Farsi optical character recognition problem proves the advantages of the BST algorithm. Three activity functions for output cells are examined, and the sigmoid activity function is preferred over others, since it results in less sensitivity to learning parameters, faster convergence and lower recognition error.
Do Creditor Rights Influence the Use of Relationship Lending?

Do creditor rights influence the use of relationship lending? With data from EFIGE, gathered during a 2010 survey spanning seven European countries, this article addresses this question. First, it determines that banks and firms are more willing to implement relationship lending technology in weak legal environments. Second, to explain these results, the authors demonstrate that relationship lending technology can complement poor creditor rights and, by doing so, assure contract completion between creditors and debtors. These results are robust across several tests
Interior design of three-dimensional CuO ordered architectures with enhanced performance for supercapacitors

Oriented assembly of low-dimensional building blocks into their higher order three-dimensional (3D) multifunctional architectures is a fascinating technique to improve the electrochemical performance of random low-dimensional materials. Here, we have successfully realized two 3D CuO ordered nanostructures (CONs) assembled by 1D and 2D building blocks via a facile solvothermal method with mixed solutions of deionized water and ethylene glycol (EG). The synergistic effect of EG and n-butylamine on the crystal nucleation and growth process dominates the fabrication of various 3D architectures. Compared with disorganized 2D nanoflakes, 3D CONs exhibit higher specific surface areas, more convenient electron and ion mobility, and greater structural stability, which contribute to the rapid and reversible redox reaction in pseudocapacitors. Impressively, the electrochemical characteristics are greatly improved by 3D CON electrodes, showing high specific capacitance (541 and 585 F g−1 at 1 A g−1), good rate capability (retaining 81% and 79% at 20 A g−1), and stable cycle life (85.3% and 86.8% capacitance retention after 8000 cycles). More importantly, the asymmetric supercapacitor based on 3D CONs expresses excellent cycling stability (85.3% capacitance retention after 10 000 cycles) and high energy density (31.47 W h kg−1 at a power density of 892 W kg−1). The design of the 3D porous ordered nanostructures would provide a novel and ideal approach for enhancing comprehensive performance of other electrode materials in energy conversion and storage fields.
Covalent streptavidin immobilization on electrospun poly(m-anthranilic acid)/polycaprolactone nanofibers and cytocompatibility

An electrospun poly(m-anthranilic acid)/poly(ε-caprolactone) nanofiber mat was fabricated with functionalization of the surface with streptavidin which can enhance the cell attachment and proliferation. Poly(ε-caprolactone) as biodegradable, biocompatible, and electrospinnable polymer was blended with poly(m-anthranilic acid) because of the carboxylic acid (–COOH) groups on its backbone which allow the covalent immobilization of streptavidin onto nanofibers. 1-Ethyl-3-(dimethyl-aminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride/N-hydroxyl succinimide coupling reaction was used for immobilization and the presence of bound protein was investigated by Fourier transform infrared–attenuated total reflection spectroscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, as well as the confocal microscopy. Human osteoblast-like cells (SaOS2) were cultured on poly(m-anthranilic acid)/poly(ε-caprolactone) and streptavidin-immobilized poly(m-anthranilic acid)/poly(ε-caprolactone) nanofibers to evaluate the in vitro biocompatibility of nanofibers. Fluorescence staining of F-actin was performed to observe the cell morphology. The results confirmed the successful immobilization of streptavidin on the nanofibers and streptavidin immobilization enhanced the cell attachment and proliferation onto the poly(m-anthranilic acid)/poly(ε-caprolactone) nanofibers.
Who Should Choose the Money Managers? Institutional Sponsors’ Equity Manager Performance

Institutional sponsors increasingly seek outside help in investment management by delegating manager selection and capital allocation decisions to external lead managers. Whether this enhances performance, however, is yet to be examined. We fill the gap using a unique dataset of Korean institutional sponsors that enables a detailed comparison of domestic equity funds selected by the sponsors against those by lead managers. We find that lead managers allocate their capital more efficiently and are able to identify managers with greater skill. Their positive implications on performance appears to emanate from the lead managers’ ability to detach themselves from the sponsors’ internal organizational issues.
Manager Alpha

Is alpha a property of the hedge fund or the individual hedge fund manager? By means of panel regressions on a novel data set, identifying the work histories of individual hedge fund managers, I show that there exist significant managerial fixed effects in abnormal returns. A change in a hedge fund’s management induces structural breaks in abnormal returns and fund flows. The replacement of outperforming managers leads to a deterioration in performance. The past performance of replaced managers inversely relates to future fund flows. Past average performance is the main driver behind the probability of a manager replacement event.
Rules as Icons: Wittgenstein's Paradox and the Law

In this paper Section 1 distinguishes between two modes of interpreting legal rules: rehearsal and discourse, arguing that the former takes priority over the latter in law, as in many other contexts. Section 2 offers two arguments that following a legal rule in the rehearsing mode presents a riddle. The first argument develops from law, and submits that legal rules do not tell us anything, because they are tautological. The second one develops from philosophy (Wittgenstein's later works), confronting us with the paradox that incompatible courses of action may be derived from any rule. My solution presents a theory of rules as icons (Section 3). I use “icon” rather than “picture,” partly to avoid confusion with what is known among philosophers as “the picture theory of meaning. ” Interpretation in the rehearsing mode hinges on imagination: imagining oneself in the space of reasons for action rather than reasoning oneself. In this act of imagination, we project ourselves into the rule in ways that are similar to the way we grasp the sense of paintings, music, stories, or poems. Finally (Section 4) I will defend the position that my view solves the puzzles in the second section, by arguing (a) that it is a better account of what Wittgenstein wrote than two competing theories (intuitionism and conventionalism), and (b) that it provides a more satisfactory account of how lawyers deal with legal rules in actual practice.
Investment Horizon Related Momentum in Volatility Scaled Momentum Strategies

Recent studies have shown that the Sharpe ratio and alpha for the momentum strategy can be increased, by scaling the momentum strategy, by the inverse of its historical volatility. However, we find that the higher Sharpe ratio and the alphas of the volatility scaled momentum strategy, in comparison to traditional momentum strategy, depends on the length of the investment horizon. Such that, the longer the investment horizon the better is the performance of the volatility scaled momentum strategy. It is further shown that the higher returns associated with volatility scaled strategies for different horizons have no risk-based explanation and instead linked with the variance of long side of scaled strategies. The main underpinning of these findings is the persistence in the volatility of momentum strategy and its negative predictive relationship with momentum returns that only exist when volatility of momentum strategy is higher.
The Irrational and Rational Sides of IPO Flippers

Initial public offering (IPO) flippers are investors who are initially allocated shares at the offer price and immediately resell them. Using a large sample of 2003 IPOs in China from January 1995 to December 2012, we find that on average, flipping accounts for 65.92% of total negotiable shares. We also note that investors flip a greater percentage of their allocation when the IPO is hot and extra hot rather than cold, which confirms the existence of disposition effects. We also examine the impact of the first-day flipping activity on subsequent IPO performance. Using different performance measures, we confirm the negative relationship between flipping activity and IPO aftermarket performance. Specifically, we find that a 10% increase in flipping activity lowers the three-year IPO aftermarket annual performance by 3.6%. Our results are in line with the divergence of opinion hypothesis and asymmetric information.
Volatility-Adjusted Momentum

Motivated by standard portfolio theory, this paper incorporates ex-ante volatility estimates in the construction of winner-minus-loser stock momentum portfolio. I find that over the 1927-2015 period this leads to an increase in the Sharpe ratio from 0.34 to 1.14 and strongly reduced crash risk. This result is driven, in part, by the under weighting of high-volatility loser stocks, which tend to perform well, and cannot be attributed to small caps. In an out-of-sample test on USD-denominated corporate bonds, similar improvements are found.
Long-Only Style Investing: Don't Just Mix, Integrate

We investigate two popular approaches to long-only style investing that are often considered as potential starting points for smart beta investors: the “portfolio mix” that builds a style portfolio from standalone style portfolios and the “integrated portfolio” that integrates styles directly in the portfolio construction process. Our key finding is that integrating styles is a much more effective way to harvest long-only style premia. Compared to the portfolio mix, the integrated portfolio substantially improves returns and information ratio by avoiding stocks with offsetting style exposures and including stocks with balanced positive style exposures.
Option-Implied Risk Measures: An Empirical Examination on the S&P500 Index

The forward-looking nature of option market data allows one to derive economically-based and model-free risk measures. This article proposes an extensive analysis of the performances of option-implied VaR and CVaR, and compare them with classical risk measures for the S&amp;P500 Index. Delivering good results both at short and long time horizons, the proposed option-implied risk metrics emerge as a convenient alternative to the existing risk measures.
Definable -Fiber Bundles and Definable -Fiber Bundles

Let be a compact definable group and : → definable -maps between definable -sets. We prove that if is compact, is a definable -fiber bundle over and and are -homotopic, then () and () are definably -isomorphic.Let be a compact subgroup of (ℝ) and : → definable maps between definable manifolds. We show that if is compact and affine, is a definable -fiber bundle over and and are definably -homotopic, then () and () are definably -isomorphic.
An New Evaluation on Comprehensive Quality of Ion-selective Electrode and its Application in Development of Doxycycline-Selective PVC Membrane Electrode

A comprehensive quality index(I CQ ),consisting of the response slope,linear concetration range,limˉit of detection and response time for an ion_selective electrode(ISE)or sensor,was proposed for evaluating the quality of the ISE or sensor.Based on the optimization of the composition of PVC sensing membrane,the pair compounds,doxycycline-tetraphenylborate(DC-TPB)and dibutylphthatate(DBP),were used to construct the doxycycline _ selective PVC membrane electrode by an orthogonal experimental design with the comprehensive quality index.The electrode has the linear concentration range of5.0×10 -6 ～3.2×10 -2 mol/L with a slope of54.5mV/decarde and a detection limit of2.4×10 -6 mol/L,and successfully applied in the pharmaceutical formulation of doxycycline hydrochloride.The recoveries obtained were99.6%～100.1%. Moreover,super_ Nernstian response was also observed with the DC-PTelectrode at pH4,of which DC-phosphotungstate and DBP were used as the electroactive substance and plasticizer,respectively.
Managerial Incentives and Risk-Taking Behaviors of Fund Managers

This study was based on the hypothesis that a fund manager has incentive to take more risk with funds to conceal his actual management ability. A theoretical model was built to test this hypothesis. According to the model, when a fund manager’s ability is not observable, a poor fund manager may increase a fund’s risk to conceal his real ability, so that poor performance may be attributed to external market factors rather than ability. Previous studies have usually suggested that the different risk-taking behavior of fund managers is encouraged by the asymmetric delivery of information on fund returns. Unlike previous studies, this study focuses on real-world situations where a fund investor has more access to information about fund returns, and his decisions are often affected by concerns about fund reputation. This study highlights the fact that a fund manager has incentive to utilize fund investors’ imperfect perception on his own managerial ability even under the condition that fund returns are all disclosed to fund investors. Additionally, this study applies Korean Equity fund data to empirically demonstrate that funds with lower risk-adjusted returns take more risks in the next period than do those with higher risk-adjusted returns, a finding that supports the results of the theoretical model.