Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Project proposal Evaluating performance and strategy of mutual funds

Mutual funds have become one of the largest financial intermediaries in the leading world economies, currently controlling about 7 trillion dollars in assets in the US and over 3 trillion Euros in assets in Europe. In Russia, the mutual fund industry is relatively underdeveloped but has a huge potential for growth. One of the crucial factors ensuring efficient functioning of mutual funds is proper evaluation of their performance. This is important for investors who would like to make sure that their funds follow desirable strategies and earn positive risk-adjusted returns. In general, there are two types of performance measures: absolute (based only on the performance record of a given fund) and relative (constructed with respect to some endogenous or exogenous benchmark). Absolute performance measures may be raw, such as fund total return, or risk-adjusted, such as the Sharpe ratio or Jensen’s alpha. Relative performance measures can be cardinal (e.g., fund return adjusted by the category benchmark) or ordinal (e.g., fund performance rank within a given category). Obviously, the use of a raw performance measure such as fund total return may be inappropriate, since it neglects the riskiness of fund investments. The most popular risk-adjusted measure in the literature is Jensen’s alpha based on a factor model, e.g., a four-factor model of Carhart (1997):
A new technique for rare-event simulation based on partition of the region

Rare events are an important limitation of discrete-event simulation in some areas of applications. The existing rare-event simulation (RES) techniques, such as importance sampling (IS), splitting, and RESTART, have been used for RES so far. However, these techniques not only have some limitations, but also are not general or easy to use. In this paper, the partition of the region (PoR) method is used as a variance reduction technique in a new RES technique for usage with a wide range of modeling and simulation languages. Three variants of the proposed technique will be introduced: simple PoR, recursive PoR, and advanced PoR. Simple and recursive PoR methods are powerful techniques that have some important features such as bounded relative error; however, they are restricted to some specific models. Advanced PoR is a more general technique that integrates the PoR method and the IS technique. To evaluate the efficiency of the proposed technique and its variants, the comparative simulation results of some illustrative examples using stochastic activity networks will be presented.
The importance of tick-borne diseases in public health

Ticks are common vectors of pathogenic microorganisms causing contagious diseases. The aim of this paper is to draw attention of family physicians to the necessity to take into account various infections and contagions related to ticks in diagnostic considerations. Tick bite can lead to a simultaneous infection by multiple pathogens. These arachnids are vectors among Lyme disease, tick-borne encephalitis and meningitis, Q fever, tularemia, rickettsiosis, anaplasmosis (ehrlichiosis) and babesiosis. Monitoring of tick vectors and the pathogens they transmit, within the scope of epidemiological surveillance, is an important tool for better prevention and control of tick-borne diseases. Despite available options concerning the appropriate technique of tick removal and disagreement as to the most effective of these recommendations, there is consensus on the importance of their removal as soon as possible.
Consumer obfuscation by a multiproduct firm

This article shows that a multiproduct firm has incentives to obfuscate its products by using search costs to induce consumers to search through its products in a particular order. The consumers who draw high valuations of the first product terminate their search earlier than the consumers who draw low valuations. Thus, the firm has incentives to raise the price of the earlier searched product. The optimal search cost for an obfuscated product is such that consumers inspect the product only if the match values of the previously searched goods have been very poor.
Do Independent Expert Directors Matter

The generally weak correlation between board independence and firm performance is a major empirical puzzle. One possible explanation is that director independence alone is not enough. To explore this possibility, we examine the full employment histories of independent directors at S&P 1500 companies. We define an independent expert director (IED) as an independent director who has worked in the same 2-digit SIC industry as the company where he/she serves as an independent director. We show that the proportion of IEDs on a board is positively and significantly correlated with firm performance. We find that when the proportion of IEDs is higher, there are fewer earnings restatements and larger cash holdings. Firms with IEDs have higher CEO pay-performance sensitivity, higher CEO turnover-performance sensitivity, and more patents with more citations. Stock market investors react positively to IED appointments. We also find the higher the CEO power, the less likely IEDs will be on board.
Aromatic polyesters with photosensitive side chains: Synthesis, characterization and properties

New aromatic polyesters with photosensitive groups in their pendant chains were prepared from a diphenol carrying as substituent a cinnamoyl group extended with a flexible oxyethyleneoxy spacer and different aromatic dicarboxylic acids via direct polyesterification reaction in the presence of the tosyl chloride/pyridine/dimethylformamide system as condensing agent. The resulting polyesters were characterized using Fourier-transform IR, proton and carbon nuclear magnetic resonance and ultraviolet spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, wide-angle X-ray diffracto­metry, gel permeation chromatography, viscosity measurement and solubility tests. These polyarylates had moderate inherent viscosities ranging from 0.37 to 0.54 dL g-1, good solubility in polar aprotic solvents, and afforded trans­parent, colorless and apparently tough films on casting from their solutions. Their glass-transition temperatures ranged from 136 to 154 °C. None of them showed significant decomposition below 320 °C and all retained 38–47 % of their weight at 700 °C in a nitrogen atmosphere. The presence of cinnamoyl chromophore endowed these polymers with the ability to interact with ultra­violet light, which resulted in photodimerization between the cinnamoyl side groups upon irradiation at l = 365 nm and cross-linking of the polymers chains without the necessity of photo-initiators or photosensitizers. Consequently, the polymer films became insoluble in organic solvents.
The effects of apical meristem damage on growth and defences of two Acacia species in the Negev Desert

Question: Does removal of the apical meristem result in compensatory responses or overcompensation? Hypotheses: There will be increased investment in axillary meristems and lateral branches and reduced investment in defences. There will be trade-offs between investment in different types of defence and trade-offs between defence and growth. Organisms: Young Acacia gerrardii and A. raddiana trees. Field site: Greenhouse, Blaustein Desert Research Institutes, Negev Desert, Israel. Methods: The treatments were: (1) a control (no removal of either the apical meristem or biomass); (2) removal of the apical meristem only; (3) removal of 75% of the biomass of the plant including removal of the apical meristem; and (4) removal of 75% of the biomass of the plant excluding removal of the apical meristem. Conclusions: There was no sign of overcompensation or compensatory responses in the experimentally manipulated plants. Plants with the apical meristem removed did not produce more lateral branches. Protecting the apical meristem appeared to be important, although this was only apparent when 75% of the biomass was also removed. There were trade-offs between chemical defences (condensed tannins) and mechanical defences (mean number of thorns) in A. gerrardii but not in A. raddiana. There were also trade-offs between defence and growth in A. gerrardii. I detected several positive correlations between mechanical defences and growth parameters in both species, indicating that mechanical defences may be part of a suite of growth-related traits.
Effect of sediment pulse grain size on sediment transport rates and bed mobility in gravel bed rivers

[1] Sediment supply to gravel bed river channels often takes the form of episodic sediment pulses, and there is considerable interest in introducing sediment pulses in stream restorations to alter bed surface grain size distributions and bed mobility. A series of laboratory experiments was conducted in order to examine how sediment pulse grain size and volume affects the mobility of bed material in gravel bed channels. Pulses used in the experiments were composed of either the fine tail or the median of the subsurface bed material grain size distribution. Bed material refers to sediment in the channel prior to the pulse introduction exclusively. Both types of pulse were finer than the bed material surface median. Two pulse sizes were used, which were either equivalent to the volume of sediment required to cover the entire bed one median subsurface bed material grain diameter deep (full unit) or 1/4 of this volume (1/4 unit). The latter was designed to produce a transitory pulse. With the exception of the 1/4 unit coarse pulse, introduction of the sediment pulses to the channel caused dramatic increases in the bed load flux. The coarse sediment pulses fine the bed surface and coarsen the bed load. Finer pulses also fine the surface, but the bed load fines while the bed material load (that excludes pulse material) coarsens. The greatest effects on the fractional transport occurred during the full unit fine pulse where the pulse covered the greatest bed surface and effectively smoothed the bed, increasing near bed velocity and mobilizing the coarse particles. Overall, the coarse pulses were not very effective at mobilizing bed material. The large fine pulse mobilized ∼35% of the bed material surface (∼35% of its input weight) and was most effective at mobilizing the surface. However, the small fine pulse mobilized 50% of its input weight as it passed through the channel, making it the most efficient at mobilizing the bed material.
Isolating and Characterising Chitinolytic Thermophilic Bacteria from Cangar Hot Spring, East Java

In the present study, chitinolytic thermophilic bacteria were collected from Cangar hot spring, East Java, Indonesia and screened. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to identify the isolated bacterium which showed highest chitinolytic activity. The identified isolate was then characterised based on morphological and physiological analyses. The results showed the isolated bacterium belonged to Bacillus licheniformis. This isolate produced large amounts of chitinase on 0.9% (w/v) colloidal chitin (pH 7.0) at 52°C in a very short time (24 hours). Two pairs of primer were designed to detect the presence of glycosyl hydrolase (GH) 18 chitin domain sequences in the isolated bacterium. Two amplicons sized ~250 bp and ~1000 bp were obtained from PCR process. Then the amplicons were sequenced and analysed. The sequencing results showed the isolated Bacillus licheniformis was proven to have genes encoding ChiA and ChiC domain.
An introduction to data management and analysis for participatory varietalselection trials

Data from on-farm varietal trials are usually not considered as amenable to statistical analysis as treatment of the data from research station experiments. This is because variability is believed to be higher in farmers’ fields; and the data from simple experiments are considered to be inappropriate for statistical analyses. However, in this paper, we show, with examples, how data from simple participatory varietal selection (PVS) experiments using Mother-Baby designs can be usefully analysed using existing statistical methods. The data collected on quantitative traits and farmers’ perceptions demand the application of parametric and non-parametric methods. Farmer Village Cluster Var. Area (m) Plant ht (cm) Grain yd (kg/plot) Straw yd (kg/plot) Grain yd (kg/ha) Straw yd (kg/ha) 1 1 1 1 50 95 8.7 8 174
MTG: A High-Speed Malicious Traffic Generating Method and Implementation for Future Networks

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has been one of the most promising candidates for future Internet architectures, and it may be one of the best candidates for the future communication system of Smart Grid. Moreover, SDN facilitates a variety of technology innovations in network security area. In this paper, a high-speed malicious traffic generating method called as MTG is proposed, to test the security of future network architectures. MTG can assemble packets and send them at a very high speed up to 10Gbps using hardware-based methods, and shape the sent traffic to follow different patterns with the help of a dynamically interval-between-packets adjusting mechanism. Moreover, the performance of MTG is evaluated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to design a hardware-based high-speed malicious traffic generating method for SDN. Keywords-traffic generating method; high-speed hardware design; DDoS;SDN;smart grid
Vegetation Patterns on a Southern Appalachian Watershed

The vegetation on a relatively undisturbed hardwood forest watershed at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, Franklin, North Carolina was sampled, and estimates of density, basal area, and above-ground biomass were computed. These vegetational parameters and five topographic variables (elevation, aspect, slope angle, distance from stream channel, and distance from water divide) were used to analyze site-species relationships on the water- shed. The primary analytical techniques used were correlation analysis and principal com- ponents ordination. Major changes in the vegetation since the introduction of chestnut blight were also examined. The vegetation on the watershed was found to be dominated by oaks, though considerable change had occurred in the vegetation composition since the appearance of chestnut blight. Total basal area on the watershed was 25.6 mVha and the total above-ground biomass was 139, 900 kg/ha. Significant correlations were found between 13 major species and one or more of the topographic variables. The ordination results revealed species groupings related to the correlation results. Distance from the stream, distance from the water divide and elevation, which produce a soil moisture gradient, were the important topographic factors determining species distribution at Coweeta.
Water Structure at Superhydrophobic Quartz/Water Interfaces: A Vibrational Sum Frequency Generation Spectroscopy Study

The water structure at superhydrophobic solid/bulk water interfaces has been investigated by vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy. We have adapted a simple and facile chemical modification procedure (methyltrichlorosilane/toluene treatment followed by extraction with ethanol) to prepare transparent quartz crystal surfaces with varied wetting properties, from hydrophilic to hydrophobic and superhydrophobic. In comparison with those obtained on bare quartz, the SFG spectra on polymethylsiloxane-modified surfaces showed significant changes of the relative intensities of the two broad OH stretching modes of hydrogen-bonded water at ∼3200 and ∼3450 cm−1, which can be correlated with surface morphology and molecular variations. Intriguingly, on superhydrophobic quartz these bands are very weak and replaced by a characteristic “free OH” (not hydrogen-bonded) stretching (>3600 cm−1) band that is typically observed at water/air interfaces. These results suggest that hydrogen bonding between wate.
Ny Løn mellem individualisering og kollektiv aftaleret

Det nye lønsystem, der blev gennemført i den offentlige sektor med overenskomtsforhandlingerne i 1997, har baggrund i den generelle decentralisering af opgavevaretagelsen, som specielt blev mærkbar i løbet af 1980’erne, og som har ført til nye styringsprincipper og ledelsesformer, der i overskriftsform kan karakteriseres som en udvikling fra detailleret regelstyring til værdibaseret målog rammestyring. Ikke alene er opgaver lagt ud fra stat til amter og kommuner, men opgaverne er yderligere i høj grad decentraliseret, så det er de enkelte afdelinger og institutioner såvel i amter og kommuner som i staten, der selv træffer afgørende beslutninger inden for de overordnede rammer. Og i denne sammenhæng har også anvendelse af nye, mere medarbejderinddragende ledelsesformer vundet en vis udbredelse. Men trods denne stærke decentraliseringstendens var det offentlige aftalesystem – herunder det (amts)kommunale system, som denne artikel afgrænser sig til – fortsat stærkt centraliseret med alle væsentlige beslutninger om lønog arbejdsvilkår fastsat mellem de centrale aktører på nationalt niveau. Det førte fra midten af 1980’erne til et stigende pres fra arbejdsgiverside for at sikre en modsvarende decentralisering af forhandlingssystemet. Som et resultat fulgte aftalen om Ny Løndannelse og andre rammeaftaler, herunder en ny aftale om “Medindflydelse og Medbestemmelse” (MED-aftalen), som udvidede samarbejdssystemets muligheder. Dermed blev startet en decentraliseringsproces, idet det var op til parterne i de enkelte kommuner og amter at udfylde de centralt forhandlede rammeaftaler ved indgåelsen af lokale aftaler. Denne arbejdsgiverbestemte dagsorden blev modtaget med tøven af de faglige organisationer. De ville på den ene side gerne bruge de muligheder for øget indflydelse til medlemmerne, som fulgte med decentraliseringen, men på den anden side var de
Tilburg University Cross-level effects of high performance work practices

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of management practices – specifically, high-performance work practices (HPWPs) – on employee burnout. Two potential mediating mechanisms that counterbalance each other in the development of burnout are compared: a critical mechanism that states that HPWPs intensify job demands (which increases burnout) and a positive mechanism that states that HPWPs increase fairness among employees (which reduces burnout). Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaire data are gathered among 393 employees working in 86 Dutch organizations. Human resource managers provide information about HPWPs while employees were inquired about their perceptions of job demands, fairness, and burnout. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted to test the assumptions. Findings – The analyses reveal a slightly positive relationship between HPWPs and burnout, which is completely mediated by job demands. Fairness was associated with the experience of less burnout, but the results do not sustain the idea that HPWPs contributed to procedural justice. Although the data do not support the idea that justice and intensified job demands counteract each other in the development of burnout under systems of HPWPs, the results do support a critical “employee exploitation” oriented perspective on HPWPs. Originality/value – Most studies on HPWPs focus on mechanisms that explain positive employee well-being outcomes. A more critical perspective, which predicts increased employee strain as a result of demanding work practices, is also valid. The results of this paper indicate that the critical perspective on HPWPs receives empirical justification and requires further elaboration in future research.
Generalized Contractive Set-Valued Maps on Complete Preordered Quasi-Metric Spaces

By using a suitable modification of the notion of a -distance we obtain some fixed point results for generalized contractive set-valued maps on complete preordered quasi-metric spaces. We also show that several distinguished examples of non-metrizable quasi-metric spaces and of cones of asymmetric normed spaces admit -distances of this type. Our results extend and generalize some well-known fixed point theorems.
Divergence or convergence? From ever‐growing to ever‐slowing European legislative decision making

This article examines different views of the European Union (EU) legislative decision-making process through a quantitative analysis of all Commission proposals initi- ated between 1984 and 1999. Using the positions of Member States, the analysis is innovative in two respects: the identification of the relative importance of institutions and preferences for the process of EU legislative decision making, and the empirical evaluation of the ongoing theoretical controversy between constructivists and spatial analysts about the con- verging or diverging effect of Member State positions. The findings reveal that the process of EU legislative integration is significantly slowing down, even though Council qualified majority voting facilitates decision making while parliamentary participation modestly increases the duration. Against the constructivist claims of convergence, the results show that the divergence of Member State positions significantly determines the duration of the legislative process, in particular in the key domains of EU integration: the larger the distance between the Member States' positions, the longer the EU decision-making process takes. This suggests that the accession of countries with diverging positions will slow down the EU's legislative process, but institutional reform of the Council's decision-making threshold is a promising solution for coping with this effect.
Differences in the amino acid content of four green algae and their impact on the reproductive mode of Daphnia pulex

The enormous success of the genus Daphnia in freshwater ecosystems is at least partially due to their cyclical parthenogenetic life cycle and their ability to produce resting eggs. Recently it has been shown that resting egg production in Daphnia can be influenced by specific dietary amino acids: at high population densities (crowding), Daphnia produce resting eggs when feeding on the green alga Scenedesmus obliquus, but produce subitaneous eggs when feeding on S. obliquus supplemented with specific amino acids, or with the amino acid rich phytoflagellate Cryptomonas sp. The present study was conducted to evaluate how differences in the availability of amino acids in edible green algae affect life history and resting egg production of Daphnia pulex. In standardized growth experiments, we raised D. pulex under crowding conditions either on Ankistrodesmus falcatus, Chlamydomonas klinobasis, Chlorella vulgaris or Scenedesmus obliquus and determined juvenile somatic growth rates, production of subitaneous and resting eggs and population growth rates in order to relate them to the amount of essential amino acids in the diet. Our results show that D. pulex produces ephippia under crowding conditions with all four green algal species offered as food. However, the specific amino acid content of the green algae seems to influence the number of ephippia, respectively the number of neonates, produced. Hence, our study suggests that the availability of algae species, even though belonging to the same taxonomic group, in Daphnia’s food can change the amino acid supply and thus potentially the reproductive mode of Daphnia in experimental and natural environments.
Aggregate Demand, Aggregate Supply and Economic Growth

Abstract While mainstream growth theory in its neoclassical and new growth theory incarnations has no place for aggregate demand, Keynesian growth models in which aggregate demand determines growth neglect the role of aggregate supply. By assuming that the rate of technological change responds to labour market conditions, this paper develops a simple and conventional growth model that integrates the roles of aggregate demand and aggregate supply. The model shows how the long‐run equilibrium growth rate of the economy, at which the unemployment rate is constant, can be affected by aggregate demand.