Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of earnings management on market liquidity

This article investigates the impact of earnings management on market liquidity measured by the depth of the market. Managers have desired to provide amazing performance of companies, manage their earnings through non-discretionary accruals. Consequently, investors have trouble evaluating the stock value and misunderstanding of the market liquidity because of manipulated information.To this aim, the fixed-effect model (FEM) is implemented to analyze the financial information of 170 listed firms on the Vietnam Stock Exchange over the period 2013–2016. The empirical results emphasized that market liquidity is influenced by earnings management that means the higher level of earnings management, the better equity liquidity. The findings provide additional insight into the determinants of stock liquidity such as earnings management, firm size, daily trading dollar volume of stock, average daily trading dollar volume of the firm, daily returns of stock, daily stock returns, average closing stock price of the firm.
Polyphyletic Alyssum cuneifolium (Brassicaceae) revisited: Morphological and genome size differentiation of recently recognized allopatric taxa

Alyssum cuneifolium has been recognized as a perennial alpine species growing in five isolated European mountain ranges: the Pyrenees, Western Alps, Apennines, Pirin Mts and Mt Smolikas. Recent molecular systematic studies revealed that the disjunct populations from distant mountains are not closely related and belong to five independent species: A. cacuminum (Spain, Pyrenees), A. cuneifolium (Italy, Apennines), A. flexicaule (France, Western Alps), A. pirinicum (Bulgaria, Pirin Mts), and A. spruneri (Greece, Mt Smolikas). The present study brings the thorough morphometric analysis of the segregated taxa. We found minor morphological differences between them. Whereas A. pirinicum can be clearly distinguished, the other taxa are recognizable only at the level of population means of investigated characters. The morphological similarity of these distantly related species is obviously the result of adaptation to similar high‐alpine scree habitats. It is not clear, however, whether this adaptation is environmentally controlled or whether it is also genetically fixed and whether it reflects parallel evolution towards similar morphotypes. The observed morphological patterns and their assumed correlation with environmental factors are discussed using examples from other Alyssum taxa. Three different ploidy levels have been reported for the species under study. In the present article, we examine variation in relative nuclear genome size. The Alpine and Pyrenean species have larger relative monoploid genome sizes than the Apennine and Balkan ones, probably reflecting the evolutionary history of the group. A nomenclatural account of the study species is presented, and lectotypes of A. cuneifolium and of two other names are selected.
Effet antiinflammatoire et anti obésité des extraits polyphénoliques des feuilles de caroube

Dans la presente etude, nous avons etudie les effets des infusions de feuilles de caroube et de cladodes OFI riches en polyphenols sur l'inflammation associee a l'obesite et la colite ulcereuse induite par le dextran de sulfate de sodium (DSS) chez les souris suisse. Des etudes in vitro ont revele que les extraits aqueux de feuilles de caroube et de cladodes OFI presentaient des proprietes anti-inflammatoires marquees par l'inhibition de la production d'IL-6, de TNF-α et d'oxyde nitrique (NO) dans les cellules RAW 264.7 stimulees par des lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Inhibition de la translocation du noyau NF-κβ. Pour des investigations in vivo, des souris mâles suisses ont ete soumises a un regime controle (ND) ou a un regime riche en graisses (HFD). A la 4eme semaine apres le debut de l'etude, les animaux ont recu ou non 1% d'infusion de feuilles de caroube ou d'OFI-cladode pendant 6 semaines et ont ete soumis a une administration de DSS a 2% dans l'eau potable au cours des 7 derniers jours. Apres sacrifice, les niveaux de cytokines pro-inflammatoires dans le plasma et l'expression de leur ARNm dans differents organes ont ete determines. Les resultats ont montre que les infusions de feuille de caroube et de OFI-cladode reduisaient la severite de l'inflammation associee a l'obesite induite par HFD et la colite aigue induite par le DSS indiquee par une diminution de l'expression des cytokines pro-inflammatoires (comme TNF-α, IL1b et IL-6) tissu adipeux et rate. En outre, les taux plasmatiques d'IL-6 et de TNF-α ont egalement ete reduits en reponse au traitement par les infusions. Ainsi, les infusions de feuilles de caroube et d'OFI-cladode ont empeche la permeabilite intestinale grâce a la restauration des proteines de jonctions serrees (Zo1, occludines) et a l'homeostasie immunitaire. Ainsi, l'effet anti-inflammatoire des feuilles de caroube et des cladodes OFI pourrait etre attribue a leurs polyphenols qui pourraient attenuer la gravite de l'inflammation associee a l'obesite et a la colite.
Survival and Growth in Innovative Technology Entrepreneurship: A Mixed-Methods Investigation

Innovative technology enterprises are recognized internationally as an important pillar in modern economic activity. This paper presents the findings from a research combining qualitative and quantitative methods, with the specific goal of identifying and verifying the characteristics that affect their survival and growth. Results from an in-depth longitudinal qualitative case study, that examines a mature and constantly growing (in its 10-year operation) technologically innovative enterprise, reveal that a number of characteristics pertaining to both the profile of the entrepreneurial team, as well as of the employees, significantly affect company survival and growth in this context. Moreover, we recognize and analyze three stages in its evolution: an initial “evolutionary” growth (infancy and youth), followed by a “revolutionary” (crisis), and a second “evolutionary” (maturity) stage. Our findings are further corroborated and enriched through a survey with N = 27 entrepreneurs in innovative technology startups. We contribute to existing literature on innovative technology entrepreneurship, by identifying characteristics that entrepreneurs and employees should bear, towards its survival and growth. Moreover, a practical application of the life cycle approach is described for technologically innovative companies. Finally, a specific prescription that can help guide future theoretical and practical endeavors in innovative technology entrepreneurship is also provided accordingly.
Digital Transformation in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Morocco

The COVID-19 pandemic has created serious disruptions to both public and private sectors throughout the world. Governments had to act fast and take preventive measures, while several businesses had to slowdown, or worse, shutdown their activities to avoid further spreading the virus. However, the COVID-19 crisis cannot be perceived only as a period of instability, but also as a period of high rates of digital technologies adoption. Digital transformation has gone from being an option to becoming an urgent priority for several businesses and public service-providers, which sheds light on the digital readiness of governments, companies, and most importantly, customers. In this context, the present paper aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on digital transformation implementing process and the extent to which Moroccan economic actors are ready to embrace digital transformation based on three main factors: (1) Global digital infrastructure, (2) Companies digital readiness, and (3) Customers digital readiness.
Ontogeny of feeding by Astyanax paris in streams of the Uruguay River Basin, Brazil

espanolEstudiamos la ontogenia de la alimentacion de Astyanax paris, un pez caracido insectivoro de los arroyos de la cuenca del rio Uruguay, en el sureste de Brasil. Las diferencias de la composicion de la dieta en funcion del tamano se analizaron mediante el analisis de varianza multivariante con permutaciones (PERMANOVA). Se muestrearon seis arroyos durante 12 meses y se obtuvieron 20 especimenes para analizar el contenido del estomago. Los individuos mas pequenos (longitud estandar ≤ 25 mm) consumieron principalmente insectos acuaticos. A medida que aumentaba el tamano corporal, se pasaba gradualmente a una dieta compuesta principalmente por insectos terrestres. En consecuencia, la ontogenia de los habitats de alimentacion cambia la posicion de las especies en las redes troficas de los arroyos. EnglishWe studied the ontogeny of feeding by Astyanax paris, an insectivorous characid fish from streams of the Uruguay River Basin in southern Brazil. Size–based differences in diet composition were evaluated using permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA). Six streams surveyed over twelve months yielded twenty specimens for analysis of stomach contents. Smaller individuals (SL ≤ 25 mm) consumed mainly aquatic insects. As body size increased, there was a gradual shift to a diet dominated by terrestrial insects. Ontogeny of feeding habitats thus changes the species’ position in stream food webs.
Leave the Attacking to Others: Assessing the Effectiveness of Candidate Endorsed and Independently Sourced Televised Attack Ads in the 2016 Presidential Election

ABSTRACT Modern campaigns in the Citizens United era are awash with negativity, much of which originates from independent political groups (e.g., Super PACs, 501c organizations, etc.). In contrast to the plethora of work showing candidate endorsed attacks to be ineffective, more recent experimental evidence suggests that candidates may benefit from these independently sourced attack ads. However, the findings derived from this experimental research on independent attacks suffer from three critical shortcomings. The present paper identifies and addresses these shortcomings by assessing the net result of candidate endorsed and independently sponsored negativity using real presidential campaign data. The following develops a theory on the effects of source in negative campaigning for the highest office of the land, and tests whether it conforms to political behavior exhibited during the 2016 presidential campaign at both the state and county level. Results show the source of an attack matters, even in presidential contests, a finding particularly relevant given the hundreds of millions of dollars of attack ads from outside sources which saturate the televised airwaves of presidential campaigns today and well into the foreseeable future.
Stereotyped large amplitude cortical LFP events can be clustered and reveal precisely ordered phase-locking in neuronal populations

During quiet wakefulness, slow-wave sleep and anesthesia, mammalian cortex exhibits a synchronised state during which transient changes in the local field potential (LFP) accompany periods of increased single neuron firing, known as UP-states. While UP-state genesis is still debated (Crunelli and Hughes, 2010) such transitions may constitute the default activity pattern of the entire cortex (Neske, 2016). Recent findings of preserved firing order between UP-state transitions and stimulus processing in high-firing rate (>2Hz) rat auditory and barrel cortex neurons (Luczak et al., 2015) support this hypothesis. Yet it is unknown whether UP-states are homogeneous and whether neurons with firing rates <2Hz in visual cortex or other species exhibit spiking order. Using extracellular recordings during anesthetized states in cat visual cortex and mouse visual, auditory and barrel cortex, we show that UP-states can be tracked and clustered based on the shape of the LFP waveform. We show that LFP event clusters (LECs) have current-source-density profiles that are common across different recordings or animals and using simultaneous electrophysiology and widefield voltage and calcium imaging in mouse we confirm that LEC transitions are cortex-wide phenomena. Individual LEC events can be resolved in time to within 1 – 4 ms and they elicit synchronous firing of over 75% of recorded neurons with most neurons synchronizing their firing to within ±5 – 15 ms relative LECs. Firing order of different neurons during LEC events was preserved over periods of ~30 minutes enabling future studies of UP-state transitions and firing order with near millisecond precision. Significant Statement During sleep and anesthetic states mammalian cortex undergoes substantial changes from awake active states. Recent studies show that single neurons in some cortical areas in rats undergo increased spiking during sleep and anesthetic states (called UP-state transitions) with some neurons firing in an order similar to awake states. This suggests that sensory processing may be similar across all states and that firing order is important for stimulus processing. Yet UP-state transitions remain poorly understood and it is unclear whether firing order is present in other cortical areas or species. Here we describe multiple classes of UP-state transitions and show most neurons in visual cortex in cats and visual, barrel and auditory cortex in mice exhibit firing order during such transitions.
Modeling of the variation of the electrical conductivity of the leachate of cocoa with different fermentation index

This study linked the fermentation index of two varieties of cocoa beans: CCN 51 and ICS 6 with electrical conductivity (EC) of the water where they were immersed using a laboratory conductimeter. Mixtures of 11 fermented cocoa beans and unfermented were performed in order to obtain fermentation index from 0% (unfermented beans) to that reached by the fermented cocoa beans. Immersion times tested for determination of the electrical conductivity were 90 and 180 minutes. The results of electrical conductivity for CCN 51 and ICS 6 were 56.1 ± 12.0 to 1375.0 ± 28.0 mS/cm and 150.0 ± 19.9 to 1199.3 ± 44.5 mS/cm, respectively. Subsequent conductivity values did not represent significant increases over time. The relationship between the fermentation index and electrical conductivity for CCN 51 showed positive trend, achieving a R = 63.1%. The following function by regression: EC ( CCN-51 ) = 1196 + 10.83 * (FI) – 0.06 *(FI) got a model with significant adjustment to be used to determine its fermentation index.
A symbiotic organisms search algorithm-based design optimization of constrained multi-objective engineering design problems

Purpose In line with computational technological advances, obtaining optimal solutions for engineering problems has become attractive research topics in various disciplines and real engineering systems having multiple objectives. Therefore, it is aimed to ensure that the multiple objectives are simultaneously optimized by considering them among the trade-offs. Furthermore, the practical means of solving those problems are principally concentrated on handling various complicated constraints. The purpose of this paper is to suggest an algorithm based on symbiotic organisms search (SOS), which mimics the symbiotic reciprocal influence scheme adopted by organisms to live on and breed within the ecosystem, for constrained multi-objective engineering design problems. Design/methodology/approach Though the general performance of SOS algorithm was previously well demonstrated for ordinary single objective optimization problems, its efficacy on multi-objective real engineering problems will be decisive about the performance. The SOS algorithm is, hence, implemented to obtain the optimal solutions of challengingly constrained multi-objective engineering design problems using the Pareto optimality concept. Findings Four well-known mixed constrained multi-objective engineering design problems and a real-world complex constrained multilayer dielectric filter design problem are tackled to demonstrate the precision and stability of the multi-objective SOS (MOSOS) algorithm. Also, the comparison of the obtained results with some other well-known metaheuristics illustrates the validity and robustness of the proposed algorithm. Originality/value The algorithmic performance of the MOSOS on the challengingly constrained multi-objective multidisciplinary engineering design problems with constraint-handling approach is successfully demonstrated with respect to the obtained outperforming final optimal designs.
Additive Effects of Physical Exercise and Environmental Enrichment in Attenuating Alterations in the Hippocampal Neuronal Morphology of Adult Wistar Rats Induced by Prenatal Inflammations

The present study is aimed at elucidating the additive effects of treadmill running exercises and environmental enrichment (E.E) during adolescence in ameliorating the alterations in the dendritic morphology of hippocampal CA3 neurons induced by prenatal inflammations. Pregnant Wistar dams were injected intraperitoneally with either 0.5ml of saline (control group) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS group) (0.5mg/kg), from the embryonic day fourteen till delivery, on alternate days. Following parturition, pups were allocated into following groups [n=6/group]: (1) Control, (2) LPS, (3) LPS-exercise, (4) LPSenvironmental enrichment and (5) LPS-exercise-environmental enrichment. On postnatal days fifteen to sixty, rats of the groups three, four and five were subjected either to treadmill running exercises or environmental enrichment or the combination of the two, respectively. On PND (postnatal day) sixty-seven, animals were euthanized, brains were carefully dissected out, and impregnated with modified Golgi-cox stain. Dendritic arborization of CA3 neurons in hippocampus was traced by camera lucida and analysed by Sholl’s method. The young adult rats of LPS- environmental enrichment - xercise group showed a significant enhancement in dendritic arborization of CA3 hippocampal neurons, compared with other groups. Being reared in an intricate and enriched environment supported by treadmill exercises during adolescence enhances the dendritic arborization of hippocampal CA3 neurons that were exposed to LPS-induced prenatal inflammations. This study investigates the effects of using these methods in combination rather than administering either treadmill exercise, or environmental enrichment each on its own
The Influence of Corporate Social Responsiblity on Actual Buying Behaviour: A Study of Indian Consumers

The purpose of this study is to empirically test the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the actual buying behaviour of Indian consumers. For this purpose, responses were collected from 378 Indian consumers. To examine the possible relationship, descriptive statistics and regression are used. The result shows that purchase intention, intended loyalty, and consumers’ trust of socially responsible firms have a positive impact on consumers’ actual buying behaviour. Furthermore, this study highlights that intended loyalty towards a socially responsible firm has a profound influence on the actual buying behaviour of Indian consumers. An immediate managerial implication of the findings suggests that to attract potential consumers, CSR should be integrated with consumers’ marketing mix, given that CSR pays off in the form of better consumer response.
Tornado Risk Climatology in Europe

Violent tornadoes are rare in Europe but they can have devastating effects. Damage associated with individual tornadoes can reach several billion euros and they have caused hundreds of fatalities. The tornado risk varies considerably over Europe, but so far only a few national maps of tornado risk and one Europe-wide map exist. We show several different ways to create quantitative maps of tornado occurrence rates as follows: Kernel smoothing of observations, climatologies of convective parameters from reanalysis, output of a logistic regression model to link convective parameters with observed tornadoes, orography-dependent climatologies and finally the population-bias corrected tornado occurrence rates from the Risk Management Solutions (RMS) Europe Severe Convective Storm Model. We discuss advantages and disadvantages of each approach and compare the results. While the climatologies created from the individual methods show a lot of qualitative similarities, we advocate to combine the methods to achieve the most reliable quantitative climatology.
My favourite nematode – Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita

The terrestrial gastropod parasitic nematode Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita is the only nematode that evolved to infect and kill slugs and snails. Because of this ability it has been formulated into a biological control agent for gardeners. In this Forum article, the author outlines several reasons why P. hemaphrodita is a nematode that is worth studying, including its ability to control the behaviour and kill slug hosts. The author discusses how P. hemaphrodita is being developed as a model nematode to be used to study the genetic evolution of parasitism, as well as potential research ideas for the future.
Surprising Threats Accelerate Evidence Accumulation for Conscious Perception

Our survival depends on how well we can rapidly detect threats in our environment. To facilitate this, the brain is faster to bring threatening or rewarding visual stimuli into conscious awareness than neutral stimuli. Unexpected events may indicate a potential threat, and yet we tend to respond slower to unexpected than expected stimuli. It is unclear if or how these effects of emotion and expectation interact with one’s conscious experience. To investigate this, we presented neutral and fearful faces with different probabilities of occurance in a breaking continuous flash suppression (bCFS) paradigm. Across two experiments, we discovered that fulfilled prior expectations hastened responses to neutral faces but had either no significant effect (Experiment 1) or the opposite effect (Experiment 2) on fearful faces. Drift diffusion modelling revealed that, while prior expectations accelerated stimulus encoding time (associated with the visual cortex), evidence was accumulated at an especially rapid rate for unexpected fearful faces (associated with activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus). Hence, these findings demonstrate a novel interaction between emotion and expectation during bCFS, driven by a unique influence of surprising fearful stimuli that expedites evidence accumulation in a fronto-occipital network.
Rumor detection based on topic classification and multi-scale feature fusion

In recent years, with the rapid development of Internet technology, the spread of network rumors has become one of the important obstacles to maintain the stable development of social networks and ensure the public security. Most of the existing researches focus on the detection of rumors in general fields, ignoring the differences among different fields. According to the characteristics of rumor in the health field, this paper proposes a rumor detection method based on topic classification and multi-scale fusion. Different methods are used to extract features from different sub datasets of different scales, taking into account the overall, inter topic, and intra subject correlation and differences, and then judge after feature fusion. The experimental results show that this method is better than the general detection method in the data set of health field, and has some improvement compared with the algorithm in the same field.