Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Why Do Firms Announce Open-Market Repurchase Programs ? 1

Empirically, a price increase accompanies the announcement of an open-market stock repurchase program, even though the announcement is not a commitment. In fact, for many announced programs, no shares are ever actually repurchased. This paper explores this puzzle. In the single-firm-type version of the model, the option a firm grants itself by announcing a program does not generate announcement returns. In equilibrium, long-run gains from the informed trading that the option creates are offset by short-run costs from the market’s accounting for this adverse selection. Based on this trade-off, I construct a signaling (two-type) model that can deliver announcement returns. In the separating equilibrium, good firms do not incur any cost when they announce programs. Their gains from informed trading in the long run offset the cost of announcement incurred in the short run. Mimicry is costly, because a bad firm’s long-run gains from informed trading cannot compensate for the short-run cost of announcing. The open-market stock repurchase program (henceforth “repurchase program” or “program”) is a commonly used method for distributing corporate cash to shareholders. In a repurchase program, a firm buys back its shares in the market over a period lasting from months to years. In recent years, repurchase programs have become increasingly popular relative to other common forms of payout, and now represent approximately 90% of the dollar value of all announced repurchases, or about the same value (compared to only 10%—15% in the early 1980s) of all dividend payments. Although they are not required to, most firms announce their repurchase programs in advance. Unlike other common forms of share repurchase, such as Dutch auctions or fixed-price tender offers, repurchase programs do not precommit firms to acquire shares. In fact, frequently only a small fraction of the dollar value announced is actually repurchased, and many firms do not repurchase at all. In spite of this, the empirical evidence is that the abnormal announcement return is positive 3% on average, which means that the market regards a program announcement as good news. Why is the announcement of a repurchase program accompanied by a price increase, even though the announcement commits the firm to nothing? Furthermore, why does this increase happen, given the evidence that a significant percentage of the quantity/dollar value announced is not eventually repurchased, and that a significant number of announcing firms do not repurchase at all? This paper aims to answer these questions. Ever since Miller and Modigliani (1961) (henceforth “MM”) demonstrated that in perfect markets a firm’s payout policy is irrelevant, various theories have tried to explain why
An Investigation on Changing Behaviours of University Students Switching from Using Classical Cell Phones to Smartphones

In this study, it was tried to comprehend whether there occur any changes in behaviours of university students switching from classical cell phones to smartphones. The investigation was carried out according to quantitative research method. Questionnaire was employed as data collection tool. The datum of the study was limited with the information gathered from 450 students attending Batman University. According to the results of the study, the following changes in the behaviours of students switching from classical cell phones to smartphones were noted and presented below: a) Changes in total time spent in social network, b) Changes in academic activities, c) Changes in family communication, d) Changes in social environment needs, e) Changes in perceptions of developments around, f) Changes in cell phone carrying susceptibility (cell phone addiction).
Towards the Live City – Paving the Way to Real-time Urbanism

—In contrast to projections, which stated that the wide-spread distribution of high-speed Internet connections would render geographical distance irrelevant, cities have recently gained importance in academic research. Yet, real-time monitoring of urban processes is widely unexplored. We present the concept of a Live City , in which the city is regarded as an actuated near real-time control system creating a feedback loop between the citizens, environmental monitoring systems, the city management and ubiquitous information services. After clarifying the term ‘live’ – as opposed to common understanding of ‘real-time’ – we identify four main barriers towards the implementation of the Live City : methodological issues, technical/technological problems, lacking quantification of economic revenues, and finally privacy and legislative questions. In this paper, we discuss those challenges and point out potential future research pathways towards the realisation of a Live City – ranging from sensor network developments, real-time quality assurance and new user interface paradigms to world-wide legislation measures, a standardised urban operating system and the idea of a ‘tuned’ city.
Strategic Versus Collaborative Power Control in Relay Fading Channels

Relaying is often advocated for improving system performance by enhancing spatial diversity in wireless networks. Relay nodes make contributions to improving the source-destination link quality by sacrificing their own energy. In this paper, we address the issue of energy tradeoff made by relay nodes between transmitting their own data and forwarding other nodes' information in fading channels. Assuming channel state information (CSI) on fading amplitudes is perfectly known to both transmitters and receivers, we propose two power control and relaying policies. One is based on a strategic motivation, where each node functions as a relay and minimizes its own energy expenditure while meeting the outage probability requirement of all nodes. The second approach is based on complete collaboration, where the total energy consumption across all nodes is minimized. Numerical results demonstrate a significant impact of CSI on energy saving in relaying as compared with the relaying scheme without power control. In most cases, collaborative relaying dominates over the non-cooperative strategic one in the sense that the former not only minimizes total energy but also reduces individual energy expenditure of all nodes. This implies once forwarding and relaying is adopted across various nodes, exchanging of CSI becomes crucial, and collaborative energy minimization rather than the non-cooperative strategic approach should be pursued
The TUM LapChole dataset for the M2CAI 2016 workflow challenge

In this technical report we present our collected dataset of laparoscopic cholecystectomies (LapChole). Laparoscopic videos of a total of 20 surgeries were recorded and annotated with surgical phase labels, of which 15 were randomly pre-determined as training data, while the remaining 5 videos are selected as test data. This dataset was later included as part of the M2CAI 2016 workflow detection challenge during MICCAI 2016 in Athens.
Variance Components and Generalized Sobol' Indices

This paper introduces generalized Sobol' indices, compares strategies for their estimation, and makes a systematic search for efficient estimators. Of particular interest are contrasts, sums of squares and indices of bilinear form which allow a reduced number of function evaluations compared to alternatives. The bilinear framework includes some efficient estimators from Saltelli (2002) and Mauntz (2002) as well as some new estimators for specific variance components and mean dimensions. This paper also provides a bias corrected version of the estimator of Janon et al.\,(2012) and extends the bias correction to generalized Sobol' indices. Some numerical comparisons are given.
Encouraging Scholarly Teaching and Learning.

From its inaugural issue in 1993, The College Quarterly (CQ) has been “devoted to the examination of college and further education issues, and the professional development of college educators. ” Its focus has always been on the enhancement of the efficacy and effectiveness of teaching and learning at the college level. The CQ was born out of a recognized need for college educators to discuss the pedagogical processes of teaching (i.e., practice) in the college context, and the thoughtful application of scholarly thought, critical analysis and theory (i.e., praxis).
Gaseous Particulate Interaction in a 3-Phase Granular Simulation

Gaseous Particulate Interaction in a 3-Phase Granular Simulation Kevin W. Munns Department of Computer Science, BYU Master of Science As computer generated special effects play an increasingly integral role in the development of films and other media, simulating granular material continues to be a challenging and resource intensive process. Solutions tend to be pieced together in order to address the complex and different behaviors of granular flow. As such, these solutions tend to be brittle, overly specific, and unnatural. With the introduction of a holistic 3-phase granular simulation, we can now create a reliable and adaptable granular simulation. Our solution improves upon this hybrid solution by addressing the issue of particle flow and correcting interpenetration amongst particles while maintaining the efficiency of the overall simulation. We achieve this by projecting particles onto a 2D manifold and implementing density correction using a quadratic solver. Particle updates are projected back into 3D to spread the particles apart on each frame.
A Physical Statistical Approach to Erosion a Physical Statistical Approach to Erosion

Rundschau 85(1): 65{70. Abstract Erosion is a complex process consisting of many components, like surface runoo, impact of raindrops, wind forces, soil, and rock mechanics, etc. Trying to integrate all these processes into a physical model seems to be hopeless. In order to understand the variety of natural shapes and patterns produced by erosion we present an integrated statistical approach. Our model is based on simple physical constraints for the separation of amalgamated particles (abrasion) and for the movement of loose particles (denudation) and on the laws of statistics. After some simpliications we obtain a nonlinear system of partial diierential equations that is solved using nite volume techniques. The model is suitable for the formation of diierent types of rill systems and the episodic behaviour of erosion processes, a kind of self{ organized criticality. Besides eeects of inhomogenities, e. g. , the formation of terraces can be investigated.
Representations of Fine Digit Movements in Posterior and Anterior Parietal Cortex Revealed Using Long-Train Intracortical Microstimulation in Macaque Monkeys

The current investigation in macaque monkeys utilized long-train intracortical microstimulation to determine the extent of cortex from which movements could be evoked. Not only were movements evoked from motor areas (PMC and M1), but they were also evoked from posterior parietal (5, 7a, 7b) and anterior parietal areas (3b, 1, 2). Large representations of digit movements involving only the index finger (D2) and thumb (D1), were elicited from areas 1, 2, 7b, and M1. Other movements evoked from these regions were similar to ethologically relevant movements that have been described in other primates. These include combined forelimb and mouth movements and full hand grasps. However, many other movements were much more complex and could not be categorized into any of the previously described ethological categories. Movements involving specific digits, which mimic precision grips, are unique to macaques and have not been described in New World or prosimian primates. We propose that these multiple and expanded motor representations of the digits co-evolved with the emergence of the opposable thumb and alterations in grip type in some anthropoid lineages.
What Works in Fighting Diarrheal Diseases in Developing Countries? A Critical Review

The Millennium Development Goals call for reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water. This goal was adopted in large part because clean water was seen as critical to fighting diarrheal disease, which kills 2 million children annually. There is compelling evidence that provision of piped water and sanitation can substantially reduce child mortality. However, in dispersed rural settlements, providing complete piped water and sanitation infrastructure to households is expensive. Many poor countries have therefore focused instead on providing community-level water infrastructure, such as wells. Various traditional child health interventions have been shown to be effective in fighting diarrhea. Among environmental interventions, handwashing and point-of-use water treatment both reduce diarrhea, although more needs to be learned about ways to encourage households to take up these behavior changes. In contrast, there is little evidence that providing community-level rural water infrastructure substantially reduces diarrheal disease or that this infrastructure can be effectively maintained. Investments in communal water infrastructure short of piped water may serve other needs and may reduce diarrhea in particular circumstances, but the case for prioritizing communal infrastructure provision needs to be made rather than assumed.
Brave New Task: User Account Matching

Today, the usage of online social networks and their many manifestations is widespread. Users tend not to be just active on a single platform, they take advantage of a range of platforms for different purposes: Twitter for microblogging, Flickr for sharing pictures, YouTube for sharing videos, etc. The question we consider in this task is to what extent users (unintentionally) leak information in their social Web streams, either through their direct contributions or the meta-data of their contributions, that allows us to automatically identify and match their corresponding accounts across streams. In this paper, we present the data set we developed for the user account matching task and the baseline results.
Disentangling the Relative Importance of Changes in Climate and Land-Use Intensity in Driving Recent Bird Population Trends

Threats to biodiversity resulting from habitat destruction and deterioration have been documented for many species, whilst climate change is regarded as increasingly impacting upon species' distribution and abundance. However, few studies have disentangled the relative importance of these two drivers in causing recent population declines. We quantify the relative importance of both processes by modelling annual variation in population growth of 18 farmland bird species in the UK as a function of measures of land-use intensity and weather. Modelled together, both had similar explanatory power in accounting for annual fluctuations in population growth. When these models were used to retrodict population trends for each species as a function of annual variation in land-use intensity and weather combined, and separately, retrodictions incorporating land-use intensity were more closely linked to observed population trends than retrodictions based only on weather, and closely matched the UK farmland bird index from 1970 onwards. Despite more stable land-use intensity in recent years, climate change (inferred from weather trends) has not overtaken land-use intensity as the dominant driver of bird populations.
An Intertidal Sea Star Adjusts Thermal Inertia to Avoid Extreme Body Temperatures

The body temperature of ectotherms is influenced by the interaction of abiotic conditions, morphology, and behavior. Although organisms living in different thermal habitats may exhibit morphological plasticity or move from unfavorable locations, there are few examples of animals adjusting their thermal properties in response to short‐term changes in local conditions. Here, we show that the intertidal sea star Pisaster ochraceus modulates its thermal inertia in response to prior thermal exposure. After exposure to high body temperature at low tide, sea stars increase the amount of colder‐than‐air fluid in their coelomic cavity when submerged during high tide, resulting in a lower body temperature during the subsequent low tide. Moreover, this buffering capacity is more effective when seawater is cold during the previous high tide. This ability to modify the volume of coelomic fluid provides sea stars with a novel thermoregulatory “backup” when faced with prolonged exposure to elevated aerial temperatures.
Intestinal epithelial cell secretion of RELM-β protects against gastrointestinal worm infection

Th2 cells drive protective immunity against most parasitic helminths, but few mechanisms have been demonstrated that facilitate pathogen clearance. We show that IL-4 and IL-13 protect against intestinal lumen-dwelling worms primarily by inducing intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) to differentiate into goblet cells that secrete resistin-like molecule (RELM) β. RELM-β is essential for normal spontaneous expulsion and IL-4–induced expulsion of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis and Heligmosomoides polygyrus, which both live in the intestinal lumen, but it does not contribute to immunity against Trichinella spiralis, which lives within IEC. RELM-β is nontoxic for H. polygyrus in vitro but directly inhibits the ability of worms to feed on host tissues during infection. This decreases H. polygyrus adenosine triphosphate content and fecundity. Importantly, RELM-β–driven immunity does not require T or B cells, alternative macrophage activation, or increased gut permeability. Thus, we demonstrate a novel mechanism for host protection at the mucosal interface that explains how stimulation of epithelial cells by IL-4 and IL-13 contributes to protection against parasitic helminthes that dwell in the intestinal lumen.
Bias of Damage Awards and Free Options in Securities Litigation

Damage measures in securities fraud cases are very imprecise because they are based on security price changes that reflect both the correction of previous misrepresentation and other independent information. Consequently, potential plaintiffs have a valuable "free option" to decide whether or not to file suit, and average damage awards are greater than actual damages, much greater when markets are volatile. The "Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995" was intended to curb abusive litigation and to address the problem of excessive damage awards. Motivated by a misdiagnosis that excess awards are due to temporary price drops, the Act limits damages to the difference between the purchase price and the time-average trading price from the release of the corrective information until 90 days later or until the sale of the security, whichever is first. Unfortunately, the Act's modified measure of damages suffers from a more severe free-option problem than did the traditional measure. Also, the Act introduced an additional new option to time the sale of the security; the effects of these options may be mitigated by the impact of the positive drift in stock prices over time, if the time-average price is not adjusted for market movements. As a result, the bias can be larger or smaller under the new Act, depending on how severe the free-option problem is. We propose an alternative approach to addressing the issue of excessive damages: courts should adopt a threshold of measured damages below which no damage would be awarded. The threshold would depend on several factors, most notably the volatility of the stock in the period under question. That is, damages will be awarded only if measured damages exceed the threshold, and awards would be capped by the formula presented in the Reform Act.
Environmental Change, Phenotypic Plasticity, and Genetic Compensation

When a species encounters novel environmental conditions, some phenotypic characters may develop differently than in the ancestral environment. Most environmental perturbations of development are likely to reduce fitness, and thus selection would usually be expected to favor genetic changes that restore the ancestral phenotype. I propose the term “genetic compensation” to refer to this form of adaptive evolution. Genetic compensation is a subset of genetic accommodation and the reverse of genetic assimilation. When genetic compensation has occurred along a spatial environmental gradient, the mean trait values of populations in different environments may be more similar in the field than when representatives of the same populations are raised in a common environment (i.e., countergradient variation). If compensation is complete, genetic divergence between populations may be cryptic, that is, not detectable in the field. Here I apply the concept of genetic compensation to three examples involving carotenoid‐based sexual coloration and then use these and other examples to discuss the concept in a broader context. I show that genetic compensation may lead to a cryptic form of reproductive isolation between populations evolving in different environments, may explain some puzzling cases in which heritable traits exposed to strong directional selection fail to show the expected evolutionary response, and may complicate efforts to monitor populations for signs of environmental deterioration.
Guilt and shame as an enigma in mothers who suffer from eating difficulties : A hermeneutical study

Background: Some mental health problems can have a strong influence on the sense of guilt and shame. Eating difficulties (ED) such as anorexic, bulimic or binge behaviours are likely to be related to a guilty conscience and being ashamed oneself. About 90% of those who suffer from ED are females of childbearing age, and many are mothers. Only a small percentage of women who suffer from ED actually receive treatment, and guilt and shame can be one of the reasons for not seeking help. The direct or indirect impact on the mother childrelationship increases the need to focus on motherhood and individual daily life experiences of ED. Aims and research questions: The overall aim of this thesis was to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of guilt and shame by exploring mothers’ experiences of suffering from ED (Paper I), women’s experiences of ED in daily life (Papers II-III) and investigating mothers` experiences of guilt and shame related to motherhood (Paper IV). The specific aims were: to explore motherhood in the context of ED (Paper I); to explore women’s bodily experiences of suffering from ED (Paper II); to explore the daily life experiences of women who suffer from ED (Paper III); and to illuminate and interpret guilt and shame as expressed by mothers with ED (Paper IV). The research questions were: What are mothers’ daily life experiences when suffering from ED? (Paper I). How do women who suffer from ED experience the bodily aspects related of their condition? (Paper II).
Polarimetric signatures from a crop covered land surface measured by an L-band polarimetric radiometer

This paper describes preliminary results from field measurements of polarimetric azimuth signatures with the EMIRAD L-band polarimetric radiometer, performed over a land test site at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique in Avignon, France. Scans of 180 degrees in azimuth were carried out in order to identify an eventual dependence of the Stokes vector on the look-direction. Results indicate a clear signature, for bare soil as well as for the crop-covered surface, and variations of more than 10 K are observed.
Optimal Volume for Concert Halls Based on Ando’s Subjective Preference and Barron Revised Theories

The Ando-Beranek’s model, a linear version of Ando’s subjective preference theory, obtained by the authors in a recent work, was combined with Barron revised theory. An optimal volume region for each reverberation time was obtained for classical music in symphony orchestra concert halls. The obtained relation was tested with good agreement with the top rated halls reported by Beranek and other halls with reported anomalies.