Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Piling on? An Empirical Study of Parallel Derivative Suits

Using a sample of all companies named as defendants in securities class actions between July 1, 2005 and December 31, 2008, we study parallel suits relying on state corporate law arising out of the same allegations as the securities class actions. Critics have suggested that parallel suits are duplicative and do not add value for shareholders but instead serve only to enrich plaintiffs’ attorneys. We test several ways that parallel suits may add value to a securities class action. Most parallel suits target cases involving obvious indicia of wrongdoing, indicating that parallel suits do not add value by devoting resources to cases for which a securities class action may not already provide sufficient deterrent value. We find that although some parallel suits are filed first, potentially providing value in identifying wrongdoing, most are filed after a securities class action (termed “piggyback” parallel suits). Although we do find that parallel suits, and in particular piggyback parallel suits, sometimes target individual officers not already named as defendants in the securities class action, this expansion of defendants is not positively correlated with an increase in settlement incidence, monetary recovery amounts, or attorney fees. Parallel suits sometimes result in settlements when the corresponding class action is dismissed; however, in almost all these instances the parallel suit settlements provides no monetary recovery for the investors. One possible way a parallel suit may add value is by imposing different forms of sanctions for wrongdoing. We find that piggyback parallel suits often result in non-monetary, corporate governance settlements, particularly for frequent filing plaintiffs’ attorneys. Corporate governance settlements correlate with significantly lower attorney hours and attorney fees for the plaintiffs’ attorneys. We conclude that such settlements do not represent the product of extensive work by attorneys but are instead used to justify fees in cases where there is no monetary recovery.
THOUGHTS ON THE BIRTH, EVOLUTION, AND CURRENT STATE OF PETROLEUM GEOCHEMISTRY

IN THE LAST 20 to 30 years, petroleum geochemistry has evolved from a fledgling science into a fully-accepted member of the multi-disciplinary team involved with hydrocarbon exploration. The birth of present-day petroleum geochemistry perhaps occurred with the early classic studies of Phillipi (1965) andTissotetal. (1971). However, the twin papers of Dow (1 974) and Williams (1974), which cannot be considered separately, are possibly the two most significant papers ever published in this field, when normalized to time of publication. This early Amoco study, far ahead of its time, gave us petroleum systems and other concepts with powerful oil-exploration applications. However, at inception, and for some time thereafter, these concepts were scornfully derided by many explorationists (Wally Dow, pers. cornmun., June, 1996). Now, with AAPG Memoir 60 (Magoon and Dow, 1994), the concept of petroleum systems is finally universally recognized as the powerful exploration tool it is. In the last 20 years, petroleum geochemistry has evolved into what many view as a mature science. This evolution culminated in the use of powerful computer models wherein basin evolution, including HC generation, expulsion, and fluid migration are modelled, yielding specific predictions accepted as reasonable portrayals of Nature by many explorationists and researchers. Because of these achievements, it appeared that there was less need for basic “new-topic’’ petroleum-geochemical laboratory and fieldbased research. This apparent decrease in a need for basic petroleum-geochemical research coincided with a general “downsizing” within the oil industry, as oil prices dropped from historic highs. Geochemistry was particularly affected by this downsizing for two reasons. First, as stated, this discipline is largely viewed as a mature science where accurate computer models yield realistic portrayals of Nature. Second, analytical and experimental petroleum geochemistry are expensive. Geochemical research was thus a prime candidate for overhead reduction by decreasing laboratory studies. Thus, much of the petroleumgeochemical HC exploration effort is now carried out by computer modelling. In fact,
A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION ON INFLATION AND DETERMINANTS IN NIGERIA: A CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP APPROACH

In recent time, despite the stressed commitment of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to achieve low and stable price level to enhance sustainable economic growth, the Nigerian economy has continued to witness a persistent upward trend and volatility in her domestic price level while her performance in terms of economic growth has remained sluggish and unimpressive. This paper therefore examines the direction of causal relationships that exist between inflation and its possible determinants in Nigeria, for a period which spans through 1980 to 2012, applying Nigerian time series and econometric analysis based on Granger causality test. The analysis of the findings established that unidirectional relationship runs from inflation to interest rate and from government fiscal deficit (GFDS) to inflation, implying that in Nigeria, inflation predominantly determines interest rates without a feedback, while GFDS determines inflation without a feedback. The result also shows that bilateral causality runs significantly from inflation to output income (GDP), money supply and exchange rate, implying that they determine inflation with feedback. Based on these findings, the study recommends the sustenance of increase in production capacity through economic efficiency which will dampen the inflationary pressures. The optimal interest (lending) rate should reflect the overall internal rate of return in the productive sector with due attention to market fundamentals. There is need for fiscal policy initiatives that will channel funds to the productive sector and thus, excess liquidity could be minimized in the system. Monetary authority should ensure effective coordination of monetary and fiscal policies to avoid counter-cyclical effect. Overall, since bilateral causality runs from inflation to GDP, the monetary authority should not lay much emphasis on price stability at the negligence of economic growth as it does not maximize social welfare.
Imaging global body wave phases by stacking long‐period seismograms

Stacked record sections combining over 5 years of long-period Global Digital Seismograph Network (GDSN) seismograms from shallow events show dozens of seismic body wave phases. Separate images are obtained for the vertical, radial, and transverse components using an automatic gain control algorithm which normalizes the amplitude of each trace prior to stacking. These images provide an indication of the relative signal-to-noise characteristics of different parts of the GDSN data set. Core-mantle boundary diffracted phases are particularly prominent in these stacks, which show Pdiff to 150°, PKPdiff to 200°, PPdiff to 230°, Sdiff to 160°, and SSdiff to 220°. High-order S surface multiples can be seen extending through the surface wave train up to ranges of 540°. Two examples of possible upper mantle discontinuity reflected phases are visible, one following PPP between about 95° and 125°, the other following ScS3 between about 210° and 240°. An apparent offset between SH and SV arrivals is seen which becomes larger for the higher-order S multiples (SSS, SSSS, etc.), and appears consistent with models containing transverse isotropy in the upper mantle.
Abundant Brachiopods on a Tropical, Upwelling-Influenced Shelf (Southeast Brazilian Bight, South Atlantic)

Abstract Rhynchonelliform brachiopods were diverse and often dominant benthos of tropical seas in the Paleozoic. In contrast, they are believed to be rare in open habitats of modern oceans, especially at low latitudes. This study documents numerous occurrences of rhynchonelliform brachiopods on a modern tropical shelf, particularly in areas influenced by upwelling. Extensive sampling of the outer shelf and coastal bays of the Southeast Brazilian Bight revealed dense populations of terebratulid brachiopods (>103 individuals / m2 of seafloor) between 24° and 26°S. On the outer shelf, brachiopods are more abundant than bivalves and gastropods combined. However, brachiopod diversity is low: only four species belonging to the genera Bouchardia, Terebratulina, Argyrotheca, and Platidia were identified among over 16000 examined specimens. Brachiopods occur preferentially on carbonate bottoms and include two substrate-related associations: Bouchardia (40–70% CaCO3 weight content) and Terebratulina-Argyrotheca (70–95% CaCO3). All four species display a broad bathymetric range that contrasts with a narrow depth tolerance postulated for many Paleozoic rhynchonelliforms. The most abundant populations occur in the depth range between 100 and 200 m, and coincide with zones of shelf-break upwelling, where relatively colder and nutrient-rich water masses of the South Atlantic Central Water are brought upward by cyclonic meanders of the South Brazil Current (a western boundary current that flows poleward along the coast of Brazil). This is consistent with previous biological and paleontological studies that suggest upwelling may play a role in sustaining brachiopod-dominated benthic associations. The presence of abundant brachiopods in the open habitats of the tropical shelf of the western South Atlantic contrasts with current understanding of their latitudinal distribution and points to major gaps in our knowledge of their present-day biogeography. The ecological importance of rhynchonelliform brachiopods in modern oceans and their role as producers of biogenic sedimentary particles may be underestimated.
On the mechanics of earthquake afterslip

We propose a model for earthquake afterslip based on rate and state variable friction laws. In the model, afterslip is attributed to the interaction of a velocity-weakening region at depth (within which earthquakes nucleate) with an upper region of velocity-strengthening frictional behavior. The existence of this upper region is supported by independent seismologic observations and the results of laboratory friction experiments. In our model, afterslip is the result of relaxation of a stress perturbation within the velocity-strengthening region, which arises when an earthquake propagates into that region from below. We derive the stress perturbation and its decay from the friction constitutive law using a simple, 1 degree-of-freedom approximation for the elastic interaction between the fault and its surroundings. This approximation is based on thickness-averaged displacements and slip velocities within the velocity-strengthening region, which is assumed to slip as a rigid block. Coseismic and postseismic slip are coupled through the thickness-averaged stiffness k of the velocity-strengthening region. We assume k to be inversely proportional to the thickness of this region, which means that thicker velocity strengthening regions have a greater tendency to arrest coseismic slip. We model the afterslip-time histories of the 1966 Parkfield and 1987 Superstition Hills earthquakes and relate the model parameters to physical parameters which may govern the rheologic behavior of the faults. In accord with field observations, our model predicts (1) that afterslip on some faults scales with the thickness of the (unconsolidated) sedimentary cover and (2) that proportionally more afterslip occurs for earthquakes in which coseismic surface slip is small compared with coseismic slip at depth. Velocity-strengthening frictional behavior is to be expected for faults within poorly consolidated sediments and for those that contain significant gouge zones (about >500 m) within their shallow regions (<3–5 km). Combining our results with those of recent laboratory friction studies indicates that relatively young faults with little accumulated fault gouge should exhibit little afterslip.
Time, space and intensity relationships of the Precambrian and lower Palaeozoic metamorphisms of the Scottish Highlands

Summary Isotopic evidence suggests that a complex sequence of events, collectively known to us as the Morarian event, affected the Morar and Glenfinnan divisions of the Moine from 1000 to 750 Ma. A regional thermal anticline, with a minimum age of 750 Ma, extends north from Ardgour to northern Ross-shire: it probably extends southwards under the eastern Dalradian. This thermal anticline is cut across and shifted westwards south of Monar by the Sgurr Beag slide, on which up to 25 km thrust movement is estimated. The Loch Eil Division lacks old isotopic ages; it appears to be structurally and metamorphically simpler than the Morar and Glenfinnan divisions and it also differs from them geochemically. The simplest explanation of these facts is that Loch Eil Division rests unconformably on the metamorphosed Glenfinnan Division. The Central Highland Group (including the Monadhliath Schists) is presumed to occupy the same tectono-stratigraphical niche as the Loch Eil Division. Grampian events (510-480 Ma) produced three thermal highs of sillimanite grade: one in the Monadhliaths, the second in the NE Grampians, and the third affecting E Sutherland. Throughout most of the area under consideration, Grampian age isograd surfaces appear to dip at low angles.
Response to the Reviewers

It is well known that the representation of certain atmospheric conditions in climate and weather models can still suffer from the limited grid resolution that is facilitated by modern-day computer systems. Herein we study a simple onedimensional analogy to those models by using a Single-Column Model (SCM) description of the atmosphere. The model employs an adaptive Cartesian mesh that applies a high-resolution mesh only when and where it is required. The so-called adaptive-grid model is described and we report on our findings obtained for tests to evaluate the representation of the at5 mospheric boundary layer, based on the first two GABLS intercomparison cases. The analysis shows that the adaptive-grid algorithm is indeed able to dynamically coarsen and refine the numerical grid whilst maintaining an accurate solution. This is an interesting result as in reality, transitional dynamics (e.g. due to the diurnal cycle or due to changing synoptic conditions) are rule rather than exception. Copyright statement. All relevant rights reserved 10
Nonlinear revision control for images

Revision control is a vital component of digital project management and has been widely deployed for text files. Binary files, on the other hand, have received relatively less attention. This can be inconvenient for graphics applications that use a significant amount of binary data, such as images, videos, meshes, and animations. Existing strategies such as storing whole files for individual revisions or simple binary deltas could consume significant storage and obscure vital semantic information. We present a nonlinear revision control system for images, designed with the common digital editing and sketching workflows in mind. We use DAG (directed acyclic graph) as the core structure, with DAG nodes representing editing operations and DAG edges the corresponding spatial, temporal and semantic relationships. We visualize our DAG in RevG (revision graph), which provides not only as a meaningful display of the revision history but also an intuitive interface for common revision control operations such as review, replay, diff, addition, branching, merging, and conflict resolving. Beyond revision control, our system also facilitates artistic creation processes in common image editing and digital painting workflows. We have built a prototype system upon GIMP, an open source image editor, and demonstrate its effectiveness through formative user study and comparisons with alternative revision control systems.
Precipitation-aerosol relationship over the Indian region during drought and excess summer monsoon years

This study investigates the aerosols-rainfall interaction during Indian summer monsoon and characterizes their difference in drought and excess summer monsoon years, based on MODIS (MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer) derived Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) at 550 nm. AOD has been estimated using Level-2 MODIS Terra Data Version 6. AOD in drought years is found to be higher over India compared to excess monsoon years. The total effect of aerosols causes reduction of summer rainfall but with distinct differences in their impact during strong and weak summer monsoon years, due to the changes in clouds, radiation, large-scale circulation, and convection. Aerosol and cloud characteristics exhibit strong association to rainfall variability in interannual time scales. Variability in cloud effective radius and cloud optical thickness is found to be consistent with aerosol effect.
Climate Change Effects on Agricultural Insect Pests in Europe

12 13 In this chapter we will discuss observations of climate change effects on agricultural pests in 14 Europe, the possible mechanisms behind these observed effects and finally delve into more 15 detail through some, relatively well studied model species (the Colorado potato beetle and the 16 rape beetle). Direct effects of climate change on agricultural pests in Europe are difficult to 17 dissect from all the human induced changes that have taken place in parallel with an 18 increased mean annual temperature. During the last decade agriculture has become more 19 professionalized in terms of land use, crop cultivation techniques and pest management 20 strategies. We review the effect of climate change on agricultural pest by comparing the 21 speed of range expansion of pest species to non-pest species. It seems that the poleward range 22 shift has been faster for pest than non-pest species. We partly attribute this to the 23 globalization of agriculture as human assisted movement has broken many natural dispersal 24 barriers. Since the biology of many pest species is relatively poorly studied, direct 25 conclusions on how climate change has affected biological processes of pests are challenging 26 to make.
Comparative Performances of Holstein-Friesian Cows under Smallholder and Large Scale Farmers' Management in Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia

A study was conducted in Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia to assess comparative productive and reproductive performances of graded Holstein Friesian cows under small and large scale farmers’ management. A total of 28 animals from both small (14) and large scales farms (14) in different parity classes were used for data collection for a period of 28 weeks. Significant differences were observed in daily intakes of dry matter, crude protein and P (p 0.05) between the farm scales. However, the longer days open (171) was observed for small scale farms than the large scale farms (148). Days from calving to the first sign of estrus (115d) and numbers of services per conception (2.1) were higher on large scale farms than on the small scale farms (96 and 1.6 respectively). Milk yield, milk composition and reproductive efficiencies did not significantly (p>0.05) differ between parity classes. Generally, the productive and reproductive performances of graded Holstein Friesian cows in this study were under their expected genetic potential, as compared to other parts of the tropics. This might be attributed mainly to poor nutritional qualities of the available feed resources, in terms of protein, energy and mineral balance which needed further investigation.
The Qualitative Report The

Abstract Despite considerable literature on the Bush administration’s war on terrorism rhetoric, little attention has been paid to its discourse of moral disengagement, leaving an important and still relevant gap that this paper aims to address. Rather than approaching this gap in terms of an archival historical analysis that is disconnected from the present, it proposes an exploratory revisit of the rhetoric that the benefits of hindsight might enrich and, we argue, aid in understanding connections to the current post-invasion turmoil and the gradual ISIS takeover. Having subjected nineteen presidential speeches to qualitative content analysis, we identified a number of moral disengagement mechanisms: moral justification, advantageous comparisons, and attribution of blame, dehumanisation of the enemy, the use of sanitizing language, diffusion of responsibility and minimization of harm. We also identified novel themes relating to American excellence/patriotism, religious ideals and fear-arousing appeals, offering original contributions to the existing literature and advancing our understanding of dynamic, real-world, and highest stakes moral disengagement whose parallels can be identified in today’s political discourses. The detailed analysis unveils the apparent paradox of propagating moral disengagement through a thread of arguments that interweave diversity with uniformity, complexity with simplicity, in effect alerting the reader to the processes of moral desensitisation that the past, current and future “warmongering” political discourses may often rely upon.
Hybrid Testbed for Security Research in Software-Defined Networks

Tele-operations require secure end-to-end Network Slicing leveraging Software-Defined Networking to meet the diverse requirements of multi-modal data streams. Research on network slicing needs tools to develop prototypes quickly that work on emulation and practical deployment. However, state-of-the-art tools focus only on emulation, needing more support for a mixed testbed, including hardware devices. We decouple the topology generating from the actual deployment on destination domains and apply a divide-and-conquer approach. The master coordinator generates an Intermediate Representation (IR) layer, a serialization of the topology. Via a toolchain, the worker coordinators at autonomous systems convert the IR into full or partial deployment scripts. The testbed introduces a marginal overhead by design, allowing for flexible deployment of complex topologies to study secure end-to-end Network Slicing.
Fast Single-Class Classiﬁcation and the Principle of Logit Separation

—We consider neural network training, in applications in which there are many possible classes, but at test-time, the task is a binary classiﬁcation task of determining whether the given example belongs to a speciﬁc class, where the class of interest can be different each time the classiﬁer is applied. For instance, this is the case for real-time image search. We deﬁne the Single Logit Classiﬁcation (SLC) task: training the network so that at test-time, it would be possible to accurately identify whether the example belongs to a given class in a computationally efﬁcient manner, based only on the output logit for this class. We propose a natural principle, the Principle of Logit Separation , as a guideline for choosing and designing losses suitable for the SLC. We show that the cross-entropy loss function is not aligned with the Principle of Logit Separation. In contrast, there are known loss functions, as well as novel batch loss functions that we propose, which are aligned with this principle. In total, we study seven loss functions. Our experiments show that indeed in almost all cases, losses that are aligned with the Principle of Logit Separation obtain at least 20% relative accuracy improvement in the SLC task compared to losses that are not aligned with it, and sometimes considerably more. Furthermore, we show that fast SLC does not cause any drop in binary classiﬁcation accuracy, compared to standard classiﬁcation in which all logits are computed, and yields a speedup which grows with the number of classes. For instance, we demonstrate a 10x speedup when the number of classes is 400,000. Tensorflow code for optimizing the new batch losses