Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Empirical Test of the Efficiency of UK Covered Warrants Market: Stochastic Dominance and Likelihood Ratio Test Approach

This paper first examines the efficiency of the UK covered warrants market by adopting a stochastic dominance (SD) approach to examine market efficiency. Our empirical analyses reveal that neither covered warrants nor the underlying shares stochastically dominate each other, which implies that the UK covered warrants market is efficient. To complement the SD results, the likelihood ratio (LR) test statistic is also employed to evaluate market efficiency, which also offers consistent results. The empirical evidence serves as a reference for market participants who are interested in covered warrants and also contributes to the growing body of academic knowledge on this new financial instrument.
Potato latent virus: a proposed new species in the genus Carlavirus

A previously undescribed carlavirus, potato latent virus (PotLV), was found infecting the potato cultivar Red La Soda imported from the USA. The particles were filamentous and slightly curved, with modal lengths of 530 and 670 nm. The 11 kDa protein encoded downstream from the coat protein contained a ‘zinc-finger’ motif characteristic of carlaviruses, and RT–PCR using a carlavirus-specific primer gave a PCR product of 857 bp. Antibodies produced to PotLV did not detect other carlaviruses when used in ELISA and the coat-protein nucleic acid sequence of PotLV showed < 67% similarity with the other carlaviruses tested. The closest similarity was with the Andean strain of potato virus S. Unusually for a carlavirus, PotLV systemically infected Nicotiana bigelovii, N. glutinosa, N. rustica, N. tabacum and Physalis floridana.
The Impact of Credit on Income Poverty in Urban Mexico. An Endogeneity-Corrected Estimation

In recent years, an important number of impact studies have attempted to examine the effect of credit on income poverty; however, many of these studies have not paid sufficient attention to the problems of endogeneity and selection bias. The few exceptional cases have employed econometric techniques that work at the village level. The problem is that the concept of village is inappropriate in the urban context where a large percentage of microfinance organisations in the developing world actually operate. This paper presents an econometric approach which controls for endogeneity and self-selection using data from a quasi-experiment designed at the household level, and conducted in three urban settlements in the surroundings of the Metropolitan area of Mexico City. The paper provides an estimation of the impact of credit, employing different equivalence scales in order to measure the sensitivity of the poverty impact to the intra-household distribution of welfare. We find a link between poverty impacts and lending technology. Group-based lending programmes are more effective in reducing the poverty gap but in doing so, they achieve insignificant impacts on the poverty incidence. By contrast, individual lending programmes reported significant and small impacts at the upper limits of deprivation but insignificant impacts on the poverty gap.
Expression of DMY and DMTR1 in Various Tissues of the Medaka (Oryzias latipes)

Abstract Two DM-domain genes, DMY (sex-determining gene) and DMRT1, have been reported to be expressed in the testis of medaka. In this study, a specific RT-PCR assay was used to determine the expression patterns of DMY and DMRT1 in various tissues of medaka during different stages of development. The results show that the transcripts of both DMY and DMRT1 are present not only in testes but also in several other tissues from fry and adults of medaka.
Sumoylation is involved in β‐catenin‐dependent activation of Tcf‐4

Sumoylation is involved in mediating protein–protein interactions, subcellular compartmentalization and protein stability. Our analysis of various Wnt signaling molecules revealed that one of them, Tcf‐4, is sumoylated at the endogenous level. At least one sumoylation site, Lys297, of Tcf‐4 was identified. The sumoylation of Tcf‐4 was enhanced by PIASy, a SUMO E3 enzyme, and inhibited by Axam, a desumoylation enzyme. Although PIASy did not affect the interaction of Tcf‐4 with β‐catenin or DNA, Tcf‐4, SUMO‐1 and PIASy were co‐localized in the nucleus and present in a complex in the PML body. PIASy enhanced β‐catenin‐dependent transcriptional activity of Tcf‐4, whereas Axam inhibited it. Reduction of the protein level of Axam by RNA interference led to an increase in sumoylation of Tcf‐4 and activation of Tcf‐4. Furthermore, β‐catenin and PIASy activated Tcf‐4K297R, in which Lys297 was changed to arginine, less than wild‐type Tcf‐4. These results suggest that sumoylation of Tcf‐4 is involved in β‐catenin‐dependent and Tcf‐4‐mediated gene expression in the Wnt signaling pathway.
Profitability and Investment-Based Factor Pricing Models

The level of firm investment, along with firm profitability, has been shown to be empirically powerful asset pricing factors in the US and other markets. The q-factor model of Hou, Xue, and Zhang (2014), and the 5-factor model of Fama and French (2014a), both rely on factors capturing the interrelationship of firm investment and profitability. The models struggle in relation to small, high-investing and low-profitability stocks, a characteristic that is common to Australian firms. Using a sample of Australian stocks over the sample period of 1975-2013, we show that the profitability factor is virtually non-existent, despite numerous tests and iterations of the factor. The addition of a profitability factor provides trivial explanatory power when compared to firm size and investment. We interpret these results as evidence that the investment-profitability rationale that underpins both models is incomplete. Further, we confirm the results of Fama and French (2014a), who report that the explanatory power of the HML factor is subsumed when combined with investment and profitability. Finally, we provide the setting for a comparison of the q-factor and 5-factor models. Given our findings regarding the profitability and HML factors, we report no dominant model across a range of testing assets.
On the Nineteenth-Century Origins of Significance Testing and P-Hacking

This paper examines the development of Laplacean practical certainty from 1810, when Laplace proved his central limit theorem, to 1925, when Ronald A. Fisher published his Statistical Methods for Research Workers. <br><br>Although Laplace's explanations of the applications of his theorem were accessible to only a few mathematicians, expositions published by Joseph Fourier in 1826 and 1829 made the simplest applications accessible to many statisticians. Fourier suggested an error probability of 1 in 20,000, but statisticians soon used less exigent standards. Abuses, including p-hacking, helped discredit Laplace's theory in France to the extent that it was practically forgotten there by the end of the 19th century, yet it survived elsewhere and served as the starting point for Karl Pearson's biometry. <br><br>The probability that a normally distributed random variable is more than three probable errors from its mean is approximately 5%. When Fisher published his <i>Statistical Methods</i>, three probable errors was a common standard for likely significance. Because he wanted to enable research workers to use distributions other than the normal – the t distributions, for example – Fisher replaced three probable errors with 5%. <br><br>The use of "significant" after Fisher differs from its use by Pearson before 1920. In Pearson's Biometrik}, a significant difference was an observed difference that signified a real difference. Biometrika's authors sometimes said that an observed difference is likely or very likely to be significant, but they never said that it is very significant, and they did not have levels of significance. Significance itself was not a matter of degree. <br><br>What might this history teach us about proposals to curtail abuses of statistical testing by changing its current vocabulary (p-value, significance, etc.)? The fact that similar abuses arose before this vocabulary was introduced suggests that more substantive changes are needed.
Analysis of upstream promoter region and corresponding 5’ UTR of glucokinase (GCK) gene in horse breeds

Abstract A region of glucokinase (GCK) gene was sequenced in 14 horses of 14 different breeds. The resulting GCK nucleotide sequence (GenBank number EF136885) showed 77% homology with human GCK gene portion containing the upstream promoter region and the corresponding 5’ UTR of the exon 1. Conserved regulatory sequences near the putative transcriptional start site were identified. The obtained sequences were aligned to detect polymorphism. A new C>T transition within the 5’ UTR of exon 1 was found. Allele frequencies of this polymorphism were studied by PCR-RFLP in 193 horses of 14 breeds (Bardigiano, 21; Esperia Pony, 5; Haflinger, 10; Italian Heavy Draught Horse, 28; Italian Saddle, 25; Italian Trotter, 16; Lipizzan, 12; Maremmano, 15; Murgese, 14; Norico, 10; Salernitano, 12; Thoroughbred, 10; Tolfetano, 7 and Ventasso Horse, 8). The polymorphism was found in all breeds and differences in allelic frequencies among the breeds were observed. The new SNP identified within a regulative region of GCK gene, which plays an important role in insulin secretion and feeding behaviour, could be used for association studies with performance traits of the horses.
Expectation Error

I backcast expectation errors of credit spreads via machine learning. I use newspapers over the past century to construct text-based expectations of credit spreads and study the relationship between expectation errors and business cycles. The main result is that overoptimism about future credit spreads predicts lower GDP growth and higher unemployment over the medium run, even after controlling for past and prevailing credit spreads. This finding suggests credit-market sentiment is an important driver of economic fluctuations. Consistent with this story, I also find both the amount of net debt issuance and the ratio of debt to equity issuance increase following periods of overoptimism.
Chemical Sympathectomy Increases Hepatic Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase Activity in Rats Fed a Safflower Oil Diet

We previously reported that the feeding of the safflower oil diet results in lower acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity in the liver compared with the feeding of a beef tallow diet. We also suggested that sympathetic activity (norepinephrine turnover rate and α1-adrenergic receptor binding) in the liver was higher in the safflower oil diet group. In order to confirm the effect of dietary fats consisting of different fatty acids on the hepatic acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity related to sympathetic activity, we chemically sympathectomized rats by treating them with 6-hydroxydopamine. The sympathectomized rats and control rats were then meal-fed a safflower oil diet or a beef tallow diet for 8 weeks. Sympathectomy abolished the difference in acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity in the liver between the two dietary groups. The percentage of body fat was increased by sympathectomy, resulting in no difference between the safflower oil diet group and the beef tallow diet group. These results support the hypothesis that, the intake of a safflower oil diet decreases hepatic acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity by increasing the sympathetic activity.
CSR Halo: The Gift that Keeps on Giving?

Little is known about how consumers form CSR perceptions of the organizations they buy from. We propose that one way is through a CSR halo effect, whereby consumer awareness of some of a firm’s CSR initiatives influences their judgments and preferences with regard to CSR in other areas about which they have little or no information. This gives rise to some provocative research questions. We present two studies that support the existence of a robust halo effect within-domain (e.g., environment) and across-domains (e.g., environmental action influences perceptions of employee-related CSR), wherein companies known to engage in specific CSR practices get credited with doing other CSR practices and doing a better job of them. Beyond conceptualizing and testing for the existence of the CSR halo, we explore how it can originate, its nature and scope. We conclude with implications for CSR communications strategy such as what CSR initiatives to communicate and when, as well as implications for public policy and future research, including how to prevent a possible “dark side” to company reputation management.
IDENTIFICATION OF THE TOXIC DINOFLAGELLATES ALEXANDRIUM CATENELLA AND A. TAMARENSE (DINOPHYCEAE) USING DNA PROBES AND WHOLE‐CELL HYBRIDIZATION 1

Fluorescent DNA probes (cCAT‐F1 and cTAM‐Fl) complementary to the 3′ end of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) internal transcribed spacer 1 sequences (ITS 1: positions 154–176) of toxic species of Alexandrium catenella (Whedon and Kofoid) Taylor and A. tamarense (Lebour) Taylor were applied to various cultures of the genus Alexandrium and several other phytoplankters using whole‐cell fluorescent in situ hybridization. cCAT‐F1 and cTAM‐F1 reacted with targeted strains of A. catenella (catenella type) and A. tamarense (tamarense type), respectively, and did not react with isolates of A. affine (Inoue et Fukuyo) Balech, A. fraterculus (Balech) Balech, A. insuetum Balech, A. lusitanicum Balech, A. pseudogonyaulux (Biecheler)Horiguchi ex Yuki et Fukuyo comb. nov., nor isolates of Prorocentrum micans Ehrenberg, Amphidinium carterae Hulburt, Heterocapsa triquetra (Ehrenberg) Stein, Gymnodinium mikimotoi Miyake et Kominami ex Oda, Skeletonema costatum (Greville) Cleve, Heterosigma akashiwo (Hada) Hada, and Chattonella antiqua (Hada) Ono. DNase I and RNase A treatment showed that probes hybridized to ribosomal DNA, not rRNA. Probes were localized at the bottom of the U‐shaped nucleus, a region that corresponds to the nucleolus. The probes are highly specific for particular strains of A. catenella and A. tamarense and are applicable for identifying these species collected from cultured and possibly natural populations.
The Nature of Financial and Real Business Cycles: The Great Moderation and Banking Sector Pro-Cyclicality

This paper takes a fresh look at the nature of financial and real business cycles in OECD countries using annual data series and shorter quarterly and monthly economic indicators. It first analyses the main characteristics of the cycle, including the length, amplitude, asymmetry and changes of these parameters during expansions and contractions. It then studies the degree of economic and financial cycle synchronization between OECD countries but also of economic and financial variables within a given country, and gauges the extent to which cycle synchronization changed over time. Finally, the paper provides some new evidence on the drivers of the great moderation and analyses the banking sector’s pro-cyclicality by using aggregate and bank-level data. The main findings show that the amplitude of the real business cycle was becoming smaller during the great moderation, but asset price cycles were becoming more volatile. In part this was linked to developments in the banking sector which tended to accentuate pro-cyclical behavior.
Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and Knowledge Creation (KC)

There is wide acceptance of the precept that entrepreneurial orientation is associated with superior firm performance, and knowledge has been recognized as a key resource for preserving the competitive advantage. Enterprises must know what to do, how to do it, as well as when and where to do it. They must be able to identify and exploit opportunities. This study explains the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and knowledge creation (KC). It uses a sample of 195 items from SMEs to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial and knowledge creation orientation. Entreprenurship orientation includes five dimensions: innovativeness, risk – taking, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness and autonomy process, while the knowledge creation includes the following four processes: socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. The findings show the existence of a close relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge creation.
Revised classification design of the Anatolian species of Nannospalax (Rodentia: Spalacidae) using RFLP analysis

Genetic differences in 2 regions (D-loop and cytochrome b) of mitochondrial DNA in Nannospalax xanthodon and Nannospalax ehrenbergi were determined using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. For 2 species distributed in Anatolia, 94 specimens from 62 populations of Nannospalax xanthodon and 2 populations of Nannospalax ehrenbergi were studied. To reveal genetic differences, the D-loop (626 bp) and cytochrome b (500 bp) regions of mitochondrial DNA were amplified and then cut by 4 different restriction endonuclease enzymes (BamH-I, Taq-I, Alu-I, and Msp-I). RFLP analysis revealed 4 haplotypes for the D-loop region and 8 haplotypes for the cytochrome b region in 94 specimens. According to the results of this study, N. nehringi, which is distributed in eastern Anatolia, is a valid species and not a synonym of N. xanthodon. A total of 2 additional species (N. nehringi and N. labaumei) occur with N. xanthodon and N. ehrenbergi; thus, Anatolian blind mole rats cannot be represented by only 2 species.
Latitudinal cline of requirement for far-red light for the photoperiodic control of budset and extension growth in Picea abies (Norway spruce).

To test for the effects of far-red light on preventing budset in Picea abies, seedlings of six populations originating from latitudes between 67°N and 47°N were grown for 4-8 weeks in continuous incandescent (metal halogen) light at 300 µmol m-2 s-1 and 20°C and then transferred, at the same temperature, to a daily regime of 8 h incandescent light (300 µmol m-2 s-1 ) followed by 16 h cool white fluorescent light (40 µmol m-2 s-1 ). (Cool white lamps are deficient in far-red light, with a R/FR ratio of 7.5 compared with 2.0 for the incandescent lamps.) All the seedlings from 67° and 80% of those from 64° stopped extension growth and set terminal buds within 28 days of the change of regime. The seedlings from 61° and further south continued growing, as did control seedlings from 67° grown as above but with incandescent light at 20 µmol m-2 s-1 replacing cool white illumination. To distinguish between a clinal and ecotypic pattern of variation, the interval between 64° and 59° was investigated by growing populations originating from that area in the same regimes as before. After 28 days in the cool white day-extension regime, the percentage budset was 86 for the population from 64°, 0 for the population from 59° and 25-50 for the intermediate populations; i.e. the populations showed a clinal variation in requirement for far-red light according to latitude. Thus northern populations of Picea abies appear to behave as 'light-dominant' plants for the photoperiodic control of extension growth and budset, whereas the more southern populations behave as 'dark-dominant' plants.
Transmission of Monetary Policy and Bank Heterogeneity in Colombia

This study provides evidence of bank heterogeneity in Colombiafor the period 2002-2014 and analyzes how bank-specific characteristics determine the bank-lending channel for monetary policy. Toanalyze bank heterogeneity, this study estimates technical (cost) efficiency using Stochastic Frontier Analysis, which also allows for themeasurement of Returns to Scale and a Lerner Index to proxy market power in the loans market. This study also provides measuresof capitalization, liquidity, and the commonly used ratios of financialand operational efficiency with bank’s balance-sheet data. Further-more, using a long and unbalanced panel, this study finds evidence ofthe existence of a bank-lending channel and finds that this transmission mechanism is determined by bank-specific characteristics. Theresults suggest higher technical and operational efficiency, capitalization, liquidity and market power, increase the sensitivity of loans disbursements to monetary policy shocks, while higher returns to scalelowers this sensitivity.
New Evidence on the Institutional Causes of Economic Growth: Using Peer Pressure to Unbundle Institutions across Countries

This study presents a new framework of assessing the causal effect of institutions on economic growth via exploiting the exogenous variation in institutions triggered by “peer pressure” exerted on governments by other states, affecting policy decisions and the environment national and international businesses operate in. The applied method reinforces the importance of institutional factors for economic outcomes and allows to effectively address the data quality and instrument validity concerns surrounding earlier studies. Most importantly, the “peer pressure” method allows to distinguish between influences of various institutions, answering not only the question whether, but also which institutions do matter for growth. The study shows that the proposed method has significant power to “unbundle institutions” and finds that property rights protection and financial freedom are more important for growth than democracy, constraint on the executive, legal origins, or business freedom, even when controlled for human capital. The developed method has significant applicability in future research of institutional and cultural impact on international business and economic outcomes.
Application of Projectile Physics and Variable Drag Implications in Determining Market Prices for Futures Derivatives

This particular study took an econo-physics route to explain the market behaviour for futures contracts in terms of prices and its market life span. We used projectile motion models defined under two distinct conditions (perfect/horizontal and imperfect/ drag implication) based on Newton’s and Galileo’s laws of motion. Despite that it was more theoretical we managed to derive the futures price functions and the results showed that futures prices depends largely on market forces of demand and supply and underlying assets price behaviour. Also, we managed to find the terminal prices for the securities given the initial prices, which is a worrying matter to the trading parties. From the performance comparison of the two models used, results suggested that futures price function from a drag variable is more powerful in modelling the price behaviour for options than the one sorely controlled by market demand and supply forces. Also, we used the mean absolute deviation (MAD) to validate our Futures derivative pricing model. Fortunately, the obtained MAD results supported the efficiency of our model. However, it should not be carelessly taken that the projectile models used are much good at price motions/movements within the market from time to time with a stunted ability to capture in other facts of interest such as volatility coefficients which paves a research way for other scholars.
Central Clearing and Systemic Risk

The G20's push towards central clearing changed the shape of the world's financial system: all standardized derivative contracts must now be cleared through central counterparties (CCPs). Despite considerable debate, the impact of central clearing nonetheless remains ambiguous and hard to measure as clearing regulations have been implemented alongside many other changes. In the present paper, we isolate the impact of CCPs by first representing all trade and risk relations of a financial system in a graph model. We then formalize clearing as an operator on those graphs and obtain sharp a priori bounds of its effect on total risk levels. Using numerical simulation, we then show how clearing alters the credit risk exposures of each bank depending on the netting structure of its trades. Further, we demonstrate how CCPs only reduce the total levels of risk in the system if their credit quality is substantially higher than that of the banks. We show, paradoxically, how the CCPs expose the system to substantial concentration risk and thereby undermine their initial purpose.