Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plankton community respiration along a nutrient gradient in a shallow Danish estuary

Plankton community respiration was examined in a shallow, very eutrophic Danish estuary during April to September. Maximum rates (3.98 g O2 m-3 d-l) were measured during the phytoplankton spring bloom in the most eutrophicated inner parts. Community respiration was significantly related to biomass and gross productivity of phytoplankton and net production of bacterioplankton. The relationship was weak to temperature and bacterial biomass. Regression analysis suggested that phytoplankton and bacteria, on average, accounted for 64 to 83 % of the community respiration at the 2 most eutrophic localities. The regressions also provided estimates of mean phytoplankton respiration (0.76 mg O2 mg-l chlorophyll a h-', 6.0 % of gross productivity), mean bacterial respiration (1.4 times net production) and mean bacterial growth yield (42 %). Pelagic respiration exceeded benthic respiration and became proportionally larger with increasing eutrophication and phytoplankton productivity in the inner parts of the estuary. These results stress the importance of phytoplankton blooms for pelagic respiration, overall oxygen balances and oxygen depletion phenomena.
A Contribution to the Explanation of the Long-Term Path of Growth in Uruguay: The Role of Risk Aversion, ICT, and Innovation

During the last five decades, the Uruguayan economy has shown evidence of decline, particularly in terms of GDP per capita at PPP, relative to knowledge-based economy countries. This paper examines - in an attempt to try to contribute to a better understanding of this phenomenon -, three main points. These are: What are the determinants of innovation? ; What are the links between innovation and TFP? ; and, What variables explain the growth of firms in Uruguay? The use of ICT (in positive) and RISK (in negative) explain the determinants of innovation dynamism in Uruguay. RISK - a variable usually non-existent in models for developed countries - is taken as a proxy of the risk aversion attitude of the entrepreneur and plays a severe negative influence on innovation. Process innovation has a positive effect on the explanation of the TFP, and the growth of firms is explained not only by labor or capital (human and physical), but also depends positively on the use of ICT, and negatively on RISK.
Flexible Modelling of Dependence in Volatility Processes

This paper proposes a novel volatility model that draws from the existing literature on autoregressive stochastic volatility models, aggregation of autoregressive processes, and Bayesian nonparametric modelling to create a dynamic SV model that can explain long range dependence. The volatility process is assumed to be the aggregate of autoregressive processes where the distribution of the autoregressive coefficients is modelled using a flexible Bayesian approach. The model provides insight into the dynamic properties of the process. An efficient algorithm is defined which uses recently proposed adaptive Monte Carlo methods. The proposed model is applied to the daily returns of stock indices.
Disentangling Risk-Aversion and Loss Aversion in First-Price Auctions: An Empirical Approach

We develop a model which combines general risk-averse preferences with anticipated loss aversion to explain bidding behavior in the first-price auction, where both risk-aversion and loss aversion induce ‘overbidding. ’ We then show that the nonparametric utility function and loss aversion coefficient are point-identified by the experiment data with exogenous variation in the number of bidders. Moreover, we develop a structural method with a flexible utility function based on Bernstein polynomials. Our method predicts the data well and the counterfactual analysis shows that loss aversion explains 85 ∼ 90% of overbidding in the data.
Impact of Hedging Strategy on Capital Charges for Variable Annuity Portfolios

Efficient and robust techniques are crucial for hedging a book of variable annuities. For insurers, the profitability of variable annuity contracts heavily depend on the hedging schemes used to mitigate their associated financial liabilities. Beyond financial performance, the inclusion of protection, in the form of protective put options, in hedging portfolios contributes to reduce the capital charges imposed on the insurer. Although this external source of profit affect the total performance of the hedge, it has not been quantified in the literature. This paper fills that gap by quantifying the contribution of capital charge reductions to hedging performance for a number of hedging methodologies. We provide statistics using price simulations following normal and student distributions with fatter tails.
Mission Capture

Private organizations that produce public goods commonly accept restricted contributions. We analyze a model in which the voluntary acceptance of a restricted contribution can force an organization to alter the nature of public goods produced, which we call mission capture. Our analysis identifies factors that determine the likelihood of mission capture, assesses the ex ante welfare implications of possible mission capture, and considers the critical role disclosure can play in managing the welfare implications of possible mission capture.
The Causal Relationships between Components of Customer-Based Brand Equity for a Destination: Evidence from South Korean Tourists in Danang City, Vietnam

The main purpose of this study is to examine the causal relationships between components of customer-based brand equity for a tourist destination. We have collected data from 252 South Korean tourists in Danang City and tested some hypotheses by applying structural equation modeling (SEM). Results show that: (1) destination brand awareness has a significant and positive effect on destination brand image, but not on destination perceived quality and destination brand loyalty; (2) destination brand image has positive and direct influences on destination perceived quality and destination brand loyalty; and (3) destination perceived quality has significant positive impacts on destination brand loyalty. Lastly, these findings have managerial implications for decision makers.
Getting Extreme VaR Right: Eliminating Convexity and Approximation Biases Under Heavy-tailed, Moderately-Sized Samples (Presentation Slides)

Across many types of risk (e.g. insurance risk, credit risk, the risk of catastrophic loss, enterprise-level portfolio risk, and operational risk) researchers and practitioners commonly estimate the size of rare but very impactful loss events using the Compound Loss Distribution (CLD) framework. The CLD combines an estimated frequency distribution, representing the number of losses that can occur during a specified time period, with an estimated severity distribution, representing the magnitudes of these losses, to obtain an estimated compound loss distribution (CLD). The CLD allows researchers to extrapolate beyond sparse extant data to ‘fill in’ the far right tail of the loss distribution to more reliably calculate selected risk metrics such as extreme Value-at-Risk (‘VaR’ is simply the value (quantile) associated with a large percentile of the distribution, such as 99.9%tile or higher). However, under real world conditions where loss data samples often are small to moderately sized and severity distributions typically are heavy-tailed, extreme VaR is a convex function of the key severity parameters, so regardless of the choice of (unbiased) estimators used to estimate these parameters, this convexity will upwardly bias the VaR estimate due to Jensen’s inequality (see Jensen, 1906). The magnitude of this bias often is very material, sometimes even multiples of the true value of VaR, and this effect holds even when the model is based on a ‘single’ rather than a ‘compound’ loss distribution (i.e. assuming just a constant number of losses and no frequency distribution). Surprisingly, this convexity-induced quantile bias has been almost entirely overlooked in the relevant literatures despite an intense focus during the past dozen years on the estimation of very large amounts of operational risk capital in the banking industry, which has used this exact CLD model to estimate extreme VaR. We discuss herein some of the reasons for this oversight, and propose a straightforward estimator that effectively neutralizes the systematic upward bias while simultaneously notably increasing the precision and robustness of the VaR estimate. We do this within a framework that identifies, isolates, and properly treats the distinct effects of each source of error on the ultimate VaR estimate: approximation error, model error, and estimation (sampling) error. Although this has not been done previously in the literature, it is absolutely necessary to achieve our ultimate goal here, which is to obtain reasonably accurate, precise, and robust estimates of extreme VaR when using either compound or single loss distributions.
Complex Stylized Facts of the Mexican Economy: A Hirschmanian Perspective (To Attack the 'Fear of Growing', More and Better)

We elaborate some complex stylized facts related to the Mexican economy. The analyzed period runs from 1960 to 2013 with selected subperiods. Our main findings are: 1) there are involuntary idle capacities in the manufacturing industries; 2) the growth of the Mexican economy is not balanced but unbalanced; 3) there is an inflation-free environment. This complex stylized fact is consistent with the previous ones; 4) there is a mixed of efficient and inefficient sequences of investment along the analyzed period; 5) the stimulus of manufacturing exports on macroeconomic performance has been offset by its imports; 6) the deficits in manufacturing balance and in the current account have been financed without difficulty. However, this financing capacity constitutes a second best economic condition; 7) according to a backward linkages analysis, the towing capacity of manufacturing sector over the Mexican economy would be a larger one if the manufacturing imports penetration had not been so intense since the trade liberalization; and 8) the size of the positive effect of the manufacturing sector on the economy and on the non-manufacturing sectors diminished since the early eighties. An emphasis of the paper lies in the evaluation of the data quality. Our complex stylized facts highlight the need for an upgrading of the current economic policies.
High-frequency Trading around Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Announcements

We study high-frequency trading (HFT) activities and their consequent price impacts on the ASX around RBA announcement. RBA announcement provides an ideal setting for studying the speed advantage of high-frequency traders (HFTs), as the announcement has significant impact on stock prices and there is highly limited information leakage prior to announcement. We observe a sharp increase in the number of HFT activities in the first ten seconds after announcement. HFTs’ trades generate significantly higher price impacts, which suggests that the speed advantage enables HFTs to “pick off” slow traders and avoid being “picked off” by other fast traders, imposing adverse selection costs on slow traders.
A Macroprudential Stable Funding Requirement and Monetary Policy in a Small Open Economy

The Basel III net stable funding requirement, scheduled for adoption in 2018, requires banks to use a minimum share of long-term wholesale funding and deposits to fund their assets. A similar regulation has been in place in New Zealand since 2010. This paper introduces the stable funding requirement (SFR) into a DSGE model featuring a banking sector with richly-specified liabilities, and estimates the model for New Zealand. We then evaluate the implications of an SFR for monetary policy trade-offs. Altering the steadystate SFR does not materially affect the transmission of most structural shocks to the real economy and hence has little effect on the optimised monetary policy rules. However, a higher steady-state SFR level amplifies the effects of bank funding shocks, adding to macroeconomic volatility and worsening monetary policy trade-offs conditional on these shocks. We find that this volatility can be moderated if optimal monetary or prudential policy responds to credit growth.
Did Economic Reforms Affect Manufacturing Productivity in India?

India has witnessed a series of policy reforms since 1991, which aimed to increase productivity of the manufacturing sector. Did these reforms increase productivity in manufacturing plants? We address this question using rich data from the Annual Survey of Industries in India spanning three decades from 1983-84 to 2012-13. We focus on three reforms: delicensing, allowing foreign direct investments, and tariff reduction. We find no systematic or significant impact of the reforms on plant-level productivity in manufacturing. This result holds whether we look at the reforms individually using a difference-in-difference technique or simultaneously using fixed effects. Productivity is correlated with plant size, industry concentration, and misallocation, but we find that the reforms had no significant effect on any of these channels. This sheds light on why the economic reforms in India may have failed to impact productivity.
THE ROLE OF PARTHENOGENESIS AND FEMALE APTERY IN MICROGEOGRAPHIC, ECOLOGICAL ADAPTATION IN THE FALL CANKERWORM, ALSOPHILA POMETARIA HARRIS (LEPIDOPTERA: GEOMETRIDAE)"

The larval stage of the fall cankerworm, Alsophila pometaria Harris, feeds on several species of deciduous trees in North America. The ecology of the fall cankerworm parallels the ecology of the winter moth, Operophtera brumata: (1) hatching too long before host tree foliation results in hatchling dispersal and mortality and (2) late hatch results in low fecundity due to deteriorated nu- tritional quality of the leaves. Certain adaptations by a few moth species have increased synchrony between hatch and foliation in the face of spatial variation in the latter. First, female Sightlessness has reduced the effect of intrastand variation in time of foliation. Second, at least in the fall canker- worm, parthenogenetic clones in a gynogenetic system specialize on different tree species as hosts. Since the clones differ in hatching time in the appropriate way, they match interstand differences in time of foliation. Clones specializing on an early foliating tree species eclosed earlier to lay eggs than did clones on a later foliating species. It is hypothesized that increases in the population density of the fall cankerworm should tend to occur during series of years with similar spring phenologies. Under these conditions the frequency of asexuals should increase relative to the sexuals.
Administrative Reforms and Governance in Bangladesh: How Far the Dream of Success?Global Journal of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences Vol.2, No.4, pp.26-52, June 2014

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the status and impact of reforms in governance which has been taken by various governments in Bangladesh since its independence. In doing so, the paper highlights on two reform packages New Public Management (NPM) of OECD member countries and Good Governance (GG) of donor agencies and its impact on Bangladeshi governance. Bangladesh was a colony of British and Pakistan over two centuries. As a result, at the initial stage of independence; the inherited administrative structure failed to manage the postcolonial economy and expectation of citizens of independent Bangladesh, which hinders to implement most of the reform efforts. Civil-military elitism dominated the bureaucracy that caused the lessening of accountability of the administration; as a result, corruption, inefficiency and ineffectiveness of administration appear to exemplify Bangladeshi governance. The learning lessons for public administration is lack of appropriate political leadership, unrealistic and ambitious reform initiatives, incapacity of government, chaotic political culture, absence of permanent reform institution, and lack of strong political will are responsible for futile to implement any reform initiative. Apart from these, some important elements of New Public Management (NPM) and Good Governance (GG) has been bespoke by recent past governments in governance process through policy initiatives to make the administration more accountable and citizen centric which is a very good sign of good governance in Bangladesh. Therefore, the impact of reform strategies of western world (NPM) and donor agencies (GG) influenced the third world countries like Bangladesh which ultimately transforming the literature of Public Administration to Public Management.
The diatoms and dinoflagellates of Hudson Bay

Phytoplankton samples from 130 stations in Hudson Bay taken during summer 1975 were examined. Diatoms formed the largest group of phytoplankton comprising 27 genera and 59 species, 24 of which are not previously recorded from Hudson Bay. Twelve genera and 45 species of dinoflagellates were identified of which 33 have not been previously reported from the Bay.Various patterns of distribution were observed; some species were only found inshore, while others were distributed throughout the Bay with the exception of the low salinity waters of the southwest coast. Highest cell counts were found inshore; diatoms reached 200 000 cells per litre around the Belcher Islands. Dinoflagellates reached 125 000 cells per litre south of Mansel Island, and exceeded 60 000 cells per litre in the Chesterfield Plume and along the southwest coast. Thus certain areas of Hudson Bay have much higher phytoplankton standing crops than previously believed, often greatly exceeding counts from Foxe Channel and Hudson Strait. The lowe.
Active Facebook Users Prefer News Stories Framing Refugees and Immigrants as an Economic and National Problem

After the refugee crisis a new frame of ‘economization’ has become part of the media coverage of refugees and immigrants where they are pictured as a macro-economic burden. It has, however, never been demonstrated whether this framing has also reached media users. In this explorative study, it is shown that news shared on Facebook about economic problems of having refugees and immigrants in Denmark, rather than about the refugee crisis of 2014-2015, creates a high number of interactions (likes, comments, and shares) on Facebook in 2015 but much more pronounced in 2016. In the conclusion it is discussed why these findings are important to our understanding of the economic coverage of the refugee crisis.
The Effect of Product Market Competition and Financing Constraints on Dividend Payout

We examine how product market competition and financing constraints influence firm payout policy. Using Compustat firms for the period 1996 to 2017, we show that competition decreases firms’ propensity to make payouts via dividends more if the firm is financially constrained. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that in the presence of financing constraints, creating internally generated funds (through the reduction of dividends) is more important for firms positioned in competitive markets. <br>
Effects of land use on soil water soluble organic C and microbial biomass C concentrations in the Sanjiang Plain in northeast China

Abstract Four land-use types were selected: Deyeuxia angustifolia wetland, upland forest, two farmlands (cultivated 1 and 9 years, respectively) of soils previously under Deyeuxia angustifolia wetland, and abandoned cultivated soil; and soil organic C, water soluble organic C, microbial biomass C, and hot-water extractable C were measured, to estimate the influence of changing land use and cultivation on organic C fractions, and the distribution of labile fraction organic C through soil profiles in the Sanjiang Plain of northeast China. Results indicated that long-term cultivation caused a significant decline in all examined parameters, while abandonment of cultivated wetlands resulted in an increase in examined parameters. The intact Deyeuxia angustifolia wetland soil had much higher labile fraction organic C concentrations in the topsoil when compared to upland forest, abandoned cultivated and cultivated soils. However, there were no significant subsoil differences at all sites, suggesting the effects of land use on labile fraction organic C occurred mainly in the topsoil (0–20 cm).
Empirical Evidence on the Existence of Calendar Anomalies in the Market for Gold and Crude Oil

This study is done with a purpose to explore and provide evidence about the existence of calendar anomalies in the market for gold and crude oil in India. Ordinary least square regression analysis is used to examine the presence of day of the week, turn of the year and turn of the month effects and to test the efficiency of the gold and crude oil market. The characteristics of returns are compared over different periods to draw inferences. The study has implications for both traders and investors who try to earn excess profits by timing their positions in certain assets based on the calendar anomalies. Potential investors and hedgers can take their positions and design their portfolio in the two assets using the insights provided by this piece of work.
Características estruturais e produção de forragem em pastos de capim-mombaça submetidos a períodos de descanso

Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar as caracteristicas estruturais, morfologicas e produtivas em pastos de capim-mombaca sob lotacao rotacionada com tres periodos de descanso, definidos conforme o numero de novas folhas expandidas por perfilho: 2,5, 3,5 e 4,5 folhas. O delineamento experimental foi inteiramente casualizado com seis repeticoes, num total de 18 piquetes. Foram avaliadas as caracteristicas: biomassa total, taxa de crescimento cultural, altura do dossel, relacao folha/colmo, indice de area foliar, interceptacao da radiacao, taxa de aparecimento e alongamento foliares, taxa de alongamento do colmo, densidade de perfilhos e coeficiente de extincao. As maiores taxas de acumulo de forragem foram observadas em piquetes submetidos a periodo de descanso correspondente ao aparecimento de 2,5 folhas por perfilho. A menor biomassa de forragem por ciclo de pastejo deste tratamento foi compensada pelo maior numero de ciclos observados. O indice de area foliar foi proporcional ao periodo de descanso, mas a interceptacao da radiacao ultrapassou o valor de 95% ao final do periodo de descanso em todos os tratamentos. O prolongamento do periodo de descanso resultou em comprometimento da estrutura do pasto, sinalizado por baixos valores da relacao folha/colmo. O periodo de descanso em capim-mombaca nao deve ultrapassar o tempo necessario para o aparecimento de tres folhas por perfilho.
First Description in Tunisia of a Point Mutation at Codon 119 (CCT→TCT) in the α1-Globin Gene: Hb Groene Hart in Association with the − α3.7 Deletion

Herein we describe the case of a Tunisian girl who presented with 3% Hb Bart's (γ4) at birth. At the age of 3 years, she showed microcytosis and hypochromia in the absence of iron deficiency. The first step of molecular analysis was to test for the common Mediterranean mutations and the classical − α3. 7 deletion was found in the heterozygous state. Since this finding could not explain the level of Hb Bart's at birth, or the hypochromia and microcytosis, all the α-globin genes were sequenced. This revealed a rare point mutation at codon 119 (CCT→TCT) in the α1-globin gene, identified for the first time in Tunisia, and which has previously been described as an unstable hemoglobin (Hb) variant named Hb Groene Hart [α119(H2)Pro→Ser (α1)]. Here the − α3. 7/αα119(CCT→TCT) genotype is responsible for the α-thalassemia (thal) trait phenotype.