Small Bills Research Articles

Xxx2050

Purpose: It was decided to determine the influence of credit card contracts on the right to information of customers of financial institutions, Peru. Theoretical framework: The violation of the right to information has become a habit on the part of financial entities, since the regulatory and supervisory entities do not comply with overseeing and sanctioning this type of companies, therefore, the theoretical background found allowed to go deeper into the subject. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative methodology was considered, under a non-experimental descriptive correlational design, surveying 60 people, made up of 30 lawyers and 30 clients of financial entities, Peru. Findings: The findings showed that when credit card contracts are prepared in an inadequate manner, which only benefits the financial institutions, clients' information rights will be inadequate. Likewise, a significance of less than 0.05 was reached. Research, Practical & Social implications: Clauses that exclude legal rights have a direct and significant influence on the right to information of customers of financial institutions. Considering the Spanish legislation in article 32.3 of the new Credit Card Payment Services Law and in Colombian legislation in Article 333 of the Political Constitution of Colombia, by allowing private initiative to carry out economic activities and warning that it does not allow companies to abuse their position of dominance, Paradoxically, it grants the financial sector all the faculties and tools to define its excessive and exaggerated charges that harm a population that loses purchasing power every day. It is recommended that the legislative and executive powers reform the 1993 Political Constitution of Peru, where it should establish that small bills that cause economic damage to consumers of financial entities are prohibited. Originality/value: It is essential that the state supervisory entities verify compliance with the clauses of the contracts, since this ensures that the right to information of each client in the financial sector is not violated.

Credit Card Contracts and the Right to Information: Case of Financial Institutions in Peru

Purpose: It was decided to determine the influence of credit card contracts on the right to information of customers of financial institutions, Peru.
 
 Theoretical framework: The violation of the right to information has become a habit on the part of financial entities, since the regulatory and supervisory entities do not comply with overseeing and sanctioning this type of companies, therefore, the theoretical background found allowed to go deeper into the subject.
 
 Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative methodology was considered, under a non-experimental descriptive correlational design, surveying 60 people, made up of 30 lawyers and 30 clients of financial entities, Peru.
 
 Findings: The findings showed that when credit card contracts are prepared in an inadequate manner, which only benefits the financial institutions, clients' information rights will be inadequate. Likewise, a significance of less than 0.05 was reached.
 
 Research, Practical & Social implications: Clauses that exclude legal rights have a direct and significant influence on the right to information of customers of financial institutions. Considering the Spanish legislation in article 32.3 of the new Credit Card Payment Services Law and in Colombian legislation in Article 333 of the Political Constitution of Colombia, by allowing private initiative to carry out economic activities and warning that it does not allow companies to abuse their position of dominance, Paradoxically, it grants the financial sector all the faculties and tools to define its excessive and exaggerated charges that harm a population that loses purchasing power every day. It is recommended that the legislative and executive powers reform the 1993 Political Constitution of Peru, where it should establish that small bills that cause economic damage to consumers of financial entities are prohibited.
 
 Originality/value: It is essential that the state supervisory entities verify compliance with the clauses of the contracts, since this ensures that the right to information of each client in the financial sector is not violated.

Test of Ecogeographical Rules on Sparrows (Passer spp.) along the Elevation Gradient of the Himalaya in Central Nepal

Animals inhabiting colder climates have a larger body size (Bergmann’s rule) and smaller body extremities (Allen’s rule), which help homeothermic animals to retain heat. Such ecogeographical phenomena have frequently been observed in animals along the latitudinal gradient and have occasionally been tested along the elevational gradient. This study tested whether these ecogeographic rules hold true for the morphology of sparrows (Passer spp.) along the elevational gradient offered by the Himalaya in central Nepal. Seventy house sparrows and twenty-eight tree sparrows were captured from 22 different localities of central Nepal between 100 and 3400 m asl, and morphological traits such as body size (body mass, tarsus length, wing length and tail length) and body extremities (bill length and bill width) were measured. Linear regression analysis was used to test the association of morphological measurements with elevation and climatic variables. House sparrows (Passer domesticus) had a wider elevational distribution range and exhibited significantly larger body sizes than the Eurasian tree sparrows (P. montanus). House sparrows had larger body sizes and smaller bills at higher elevations in adherence to Bergmann’s rule and Allen’s rule. Bill length in house sparrows showed a positive association with the temperature following the proposition of Allen’s rule. However, the morphological measurements in Eurasian tree sparrows did not show a distinct pattern with elevation and climatic variables. Therefore, this study concludes that ecogeographical phenomena such as Bergmann’s rule and Allen’s rule could be species-specific based on their biological and ecological characteristics.

Should more effortful utterances map to more elaborate signals?

Many songbirds tune the frequency of their whistled vocalizations by varying the length of their vocal tract. To do this, they must open their bills wider to produce higher tones and then close them again for lower pitches. The time course of frequency variation in such a bird's song, thus, maps directly to the time course of motor effort by its bill. In 2016, Podos et al. described frequency excursion as “for any given song or song segment, the sum of frequency modulations both within and between notes on a per-time basis.” As predicted from the previous work, birds with larger bills are constrained to produce less frequency excursion than birds with smaller bills. After reviewing this result, I will elaborate on ways to extend the idea of a map between motor effort and signal characteristic from one-to-one to many-to-many.

Economic effect to poor accounting practice and affect the growth and solvency of the business in pandemic era

This paper aims to know about a great number of firms in Indonesia that help the advancement and development of a country's economy. In 2017, there were 33,577 companies in medium large industries, not considering micro, small, and medium enterprises, which also exist to support Indonesia's development. Large and registered firms normally have a recording system that demonstrates the company's income or growth, but difficulties with the recording process are common, especially in organizations that do not become public or can be referred to as family businesses, indicating the presence of poor accounting. The methods of this research are qualitative methods. The result of this research is the practices such as equating cashflow to profits, ignoring small bills and payments, combining personal and business finances, delaying tax payment, failing to track labor, not keeping financial documents, not hiring professionals, and not using appropriate accounting software are all examples of poor accounting practices. Accounting is a tool that used to deliver information to parties in need, such as regulators and the government in taxing, creditors in deciding whether or not to provide loans, and investors in providing money to help a company grow.

Consequences of phenological shifts and a compressed breeding period in Magellanic penguins.

Phenological shifts may ameliorate negative effects of climate change or create carryover effects and mismatches that decrease fitness. Identifying how phenological shifts affect performance is critical for understanding how individuals and populations will respond to climate change, but requires long-term, longitudinal data. Using 34yr of data from the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) colony at Punta Tombo, Argentina, we examined the consequences of the delayed onset of breeding (i.e., arrival and egg-laying dates) that has occurred at the colony since 1983. To understand how the delay propagates through the rest of the reproductive cycle, we identified phenological trends in hatch and fledge dates. Median hatch dates were 0.29d later each year, amounting to a 10-d shift over the course of the study. Median fledge dates did not shift over the 34-yr period, however, thus shortening the median nestling period duration by 14%. We tested several predictions regarding performance outcomes of the compressed nestling period, finding that later-hatched chicks fledged significantly younger than earlier-hatched chicks, and that younger fledglings left the colony with smaller bills and with more chick down. Interestingly, although younger chicks fledged significantly lighter and in worse body condition than older fledglings early in the study, this trend reversed over time, with younger chicks actually fledging heavier and in better body condition in more recent years. Smaller and lighter fledglings were less likely to recruit to the colony as adults. We find that delayed breeding has significantly compressed nestling periods at Punta Tombo, influencing chick growth and fledgling condition. These findings highlight the importance of studying phenology across multiple life events to understand the consequences of phenological shifts for organismal fitness.

The case against eliminating large denomination bills

When large denomination bills are preferred in illegal activities, what is the optimal policy response? We construct a dual currency model where illegal activity can be reduced by modifying the payment environment. In our model, legal (goods) traders are indifferent between small and large bills, but illegal (goods) traders face a lower transaction cost of using large bills in comparison to small bills because it is easier to conceal. We show that eliminating large bills can reduce illegal trade and its associated social cost. However, this pooling equilibrium is sub-optimal because the government can collect more seigniorage by allowing illegal traders to use large bills with a lower rate of return. When the transaction cost of using small bills for illegal traders is sufficiently large, a separating equilibrium, where legal traders use small bills and illegal traders use large bills, can maximize welfare by making an implicit transfer from the illegal traders to the legal traders.

Integrative analysis of the quaternary avian remains from Última Esperanza, Chile

We examine three avian remains from the Última Esperanza cave complex. This site is a Natural Monument situated along the flanks of Cerro Benítez, Magallanes Region of Chile. A tarsometatarsus (MLP 94-VIII-10-12) is assigned to Rhea pennata, and a humerus (MLP 94-VIII-10-111) to Phalacrocorax brasilianus. Both, R. pennata and P. brasilianus, are currently distributed in the Magallanes Region, and their presence within the cave can be easily explained by the cut marks found on the tarsometatarsus, that evidence human consumption. The absence of traces on the humerus is not decisive in this regard, because the wings are not the most fleshy parts of the body and therefore, not the preferred piece by predators. It can represent the waste. A small bill (MLP 94-VIII-10-140) of a passerine bird belongs to a fresh bone and should be treated as contamination.

Morphological divergence among Spanish Common Crossbill populations and adaptations to different pine species

Crossbills (Loxia spp.) provide a classical avian model of ecological specialization on food resources. Previous studies have suggested that morphometric, genetic and vocal diversification among Common Crossbill Loxia curvirostra populations is better explained by ecological distance (use of different conifers) than by geographical distance, indicating that populations have diverged adaptatively. We tested for adaptive divergence in Iberian crossbills using bill and body size measurements of 6082 crossbills from 27 sites, each consisting of a dominant or single pine (Pinus) of four possible species. Crossbills using different pines differed significantly in body size and bill size and shape. There was no correlation between geographical and morphological distance among sampling sites, consistent with the hypothesis that the morphological divergence of Iberian crossbills is shaped by their ecological differences (foraging on alternative conifers) rather than geographical distance. However, for unknown reasons, Common Crossbills foraging on Pinus sylvestris in Iberia have on average much smaller bills than Parrot Crossbills Loxia pytyopsittacus feeding on the same pine species in northern Europe. The extent to which crossbills specialize on Iberian P. sylvestris remains to be established. Specialization on conifers with overlapping geographical distributions may be facilitated by matching habitat choice of crossbills as a function of their local intake rates.

Phenotypic trait matching predicts the topology of an insular plant-bird pollination network.

Conceptualizing species interactions as networks has broadened our understanding of ecological communities. However, the factors shaping interaction patterns among species and, therefore, network structure remain unclear. One potentially important factor is the matching of phenotypic traits. Here, we tested for trait matching in a bird-flower visitation network from New Zealand. We first quantified the overall network structure and tested whether flower size could account for differences in the visitation rates of flowering plants. We then explored the relationship between the flower size and bill size. The results showed that the interaction network is nested. Plant species with large flowers received more visits from birds than plant species with small flowers. Moreover, plant species with large flowers were visited more frequently by birds with large bills, while species with smaller flowers were visited more frequently by birds with small bills. Overall, the interaction patterns between birds and flowering plants could be predicted by their morphology, suggesting that phenotypic trait matching is an important predictor of network structure.

Breaking the Curse of Cash

Can eliminating large denomination bills improve social welfare? We construct a dual currency model to study whether illegal activity can be reduced or eliminated by modifying the payment environment. In our model, there are two types of money, (small bills) and (large bills) and two types of goods, legal and illegal. Legal (goods) traders are ex ante indifferent between coins and paper money, but illegal (goods) traders face a lower transaction cost of using paper money in comparison to coins because illegal trade is easier to conceal. Eliminating paper money can reduce illegal trade and the social cost associated with illegal activity. However, this pooling equilibrium is suboptimal because the government can collect more seigniorage by allowing illegal traders to use paper money with a lower rate of return. When the transaction cost of using coins for illegal traders is sufficiently large, a separating equilibrium, where legal traders use coins and illegal traders use paper money, can maximize welfare by making an implicit transfer from the illegal traders to the legal traders. In short, an optimal monetary policy is a sort of Pigouvian policy in which the monetary authority engineers a transfer from illegal traders to legal traders.

Thermoregulatory windows in Darwin's finches

Abstract Darwin's finches have been the focus of intense study demonstrating how climatic fluctuations coupled with resource competition drive the evolution of a variety of bill sizes and shapes. The bill, as other peripheral surfaces, also plays an important role in thermoregulation in numerous bird species. The avian bill is vascularized, while limbs have specialized vasculature that facilitate heat loss or heat conservation (i.e. they are thermoregulatory windows). The Galápagos Islands, home to Darwin's finches, have a hot and relatively dry climate for approximately half of the year, during which thermoregulatory windows (i.e. surfaces) could be important for thermoregulation and the linked challenge of water balance. We hypothesized that Darwin's finch bills have evolved in part for their role in thermoregulation, possibly co‐opted, following adaptation for other functions, such as foraging. We predicted that bills of Darwin's finches are effective thermoregulatory windows, and that species differences in bill morphology, along with physiology and behaviour, lead to differences in thermoregulatory function. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a field study to assess heat exchange and microclimate use in three ground finch species and sympatric cactus finch (Geospiza spp.). We collected thermal images of free‐living birds during a hot and dry season and recorded microclimate data for each observation. We used individual thermographic data to model the contribution of bills, legs and bodies to overall heat balance and compared surface temperatures to those from dead birds to test physiological control of heat loss from these surfaces. We derived and compared species‐specific threshold environmental temperatures, which are indicative of a species’ thermally neutral temperature. In all species, the bill surface was an effective heat dissipater during naturally occurring warm temperatures. As expected, we found that finches controlled surface temperatures through physiology and that young birds had higher surface temperatures than adults. Larger bills contributed proportionally more to overall heat loss than smaller bills. We demonstrate here that related, sympatric species with different bill sizes exhibit different patterns in the use of these thermoregulatory structures, supporting a role for thermoregulation in the evolution and ecology of Darwin's finch morphology. A plain language summary is available for this article.

Bayesian estimation of competitiveness in male house finches: small-billed males are more competitive

A common method for assessing the competitiveness of animals, especially in birds, is to pit pairs of unfamiliar individuals against each other in contests for limited resources under controlled conditions. Although this approach can clarify dominant–subordinate relationships within dyads, it is often difficult to determine competitiveness for a large group of individuals. Here, by using Bayesian statistical inference and ‘hypothetical competition groups’, which are formed when individuals experience a series of paired contests, we estimated social competitiveness of male house finches, Haemorhous mexicanus. First, Bayesian competitiveness estimates from paired contests successfully predicted future contest outcomes among four unfamiliar individuals (i.e. social dominance). When data of all rank combinations were pooled, future dominant males had, on average, higher competitiveness estimates than future subordinate males. Similarly, Bayesian statistical inference and hypothetical competition groups identified accurately the relative competitiveness of four subgroups of males (i.e. colourful and drab males from urban and rural sites), which matched the result of direct contests when they were all put into the same cage. This consistency reinforces the validity of Bayesian competitiveness estimation based on hypothetical competition groups. Moreover, we found that the competitiveness estimate was negatively linked to male beak size in the Bayesian framework. Males with smaller bills were more competitive than those with larger bills, perhaps due to their elevated foraging motivation (i.e. limited ability to consume or husk large, valuable seeds). We argue that Bayesian competitiveness estimations, together with a series of paired contests, is a sophisticated approach for acquiring a broad understanding of social and individual competitiveness.

The effect of health insurance on workers’ compensation filing: Evidence from the affordable care act's age-based threshold for dependent coverage

This paper identifies the effect of health insurance on workers’ compensation (WC) filing for young adults by implementing a regression discontinuity design using WC medical claims data from Texas. The results suggest health insurance factors into the decision to have WC pay for discretionary care. The implied instrumental variables estimates suggest a ten-percentage-point decrease in health insurance coverage increases WC bills by 15.3 percent. Despite the large impact of health insurance on the number of WC bills, the additional cost to WC at age 26 appears to be small as most of the increase comes from small bills.

A Wideband Balun for HF, VHF, and UHF Applications

There is an industry need for wideband baluns to operate across several decades of bandwidth covering the HF, VHF, and UHF spectrum. For readers unfamiliar with the term "balun," it is a compound word that combines the terms balanced and unbalanced. This is in reference to the conversion between a balanced source and an unbalanced load, often requiring an impedance transformation of some type. It's common in literature to see the terms "balanced" and "unbalanced" used interchangeably with the terms "differential" and "single-ended," and this article will also share this naming convention. These devices are particularly useful in network matching applications and can be constructed at low cost and a relatively small bill of materials. Wideband baluns first found widespread use converting the balanced load of a dipole antenna to the unbalanced output of a single-ended amplifier. These devices can also be found in solid-state differential circuits such as amplifiers and mixers where network matching is required to achieve the maximum power transfer to the load. In the design of RF power amplifiers, wideband baluns play a critical role in an amplifier's performance, including its input and output impedances, gain flatness, linearity, power efficiency, and many other performance characteristics.This article describes the theory of operation, design procedure, and measured results of the winning wideband balun presented at the 2013 IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) International Microwave Symposium (IMS2013), sponsored by the MTT-17 Technical Coordinating Committee on HF-VHF-UHF technology. The wideband balun was designed to deliver a 4:1 impedance transformation, converting a balanced 100 Ω source to an unbalanced 25 Ω load. It was constructed using a multiaperture ferrite core and a pair of bifilar wires with four parallel turns.

Intensified agricultural use of grasslands reduces growth and survival of precocial shorebird chicks

Summary Intensification of agricultural use of grassland habitats has been linked to the declines of many farmland bird species, several of whom have been in decline for multiple decades despite agri‐environmental schemes. In the Netherlands, where most grasslands have been transformed into well‐drained monocultures managed for maximal dairy production, schemes that aim to protect nests from agricultural activities are the most popular. The cause of the failure of these schemes, however, seems poor recruitment of farmland birds. Using the black‐tailed godwit Limosa limosa limosa as our model species, we tested the hypothesis underlying the most popular agri‐environmental schemes that there are no differences in condition at hatch, growth, and apparent survival rates between chicks raised on monocultures compared with chicks from herb‐rich meadows with high water tables, often managed, for the sake of grassland birds, in traditional ways. We also compare the growth rates from both habitat types with those of chicks from dairy farmland from 1976 to 1985, a time when population declines of godwits first became visible. Hatchling mass did not differ between chicks from herb‐rich meadows and grassland monocultures, but chicks hatched on monocultures were on average 14–16% lighter at fledging, and had 4% smaller bills than chicks hatched on herb‐rich meadows. The growth rates of female chicks hatched on herb‐rich meadows were similar to those of chicks measured from 1976 to 1985. Males fledged lighter and smaller than females. Apparent survival during the first year of life for chicks hatched on herb‐rich meadows was 2·5 times higher than that of chicks hatched on grassland monocultures. The apparent survival on herb‐rich meadows seems sufficient for a stable population. Synthesis and applications: We found striking differences between chicks hatched on modern grassland monocultures and herb‐rich meadows. That chicks hatched on monocultures had lower growth and survival rates than chicks on meadows indicates that these chicks suffer a higher risk of starvation and/or predation. These findings imply that the most often applied agri‐environmental schemes (i.e. payments per clutch found and postponed mowing), are not effective. Instead, these schemes could even encourage maladaptive habitat choice. Conservation efforts should thus focus on the provision of herb‐rich meadows with high groundwater tables.

Associations between crossbills and North American conifers in Scotland

Understanding the habitat requirements of the Scottish crossbill Loxia scotica is fundamental to the conservation of this endemic bird which, like other crossbills, specialises in feeding on conifer seeds extracted from cones. Habitat associations of Scottish crossbills and common crossbills Loxia curvirostra were determined from a systematic survey of conifer woodland within the range of the Scottish crossbill during January to April 2008. All the commonly planted conifers were producing cones. Scottish crossbills were associated with the amount of coning lodgepole pine Pinus contorta, whilst common crossbills were associated with coning Sitka spruce Picea sitchensis, lodgepole pine and to a small extent with larches Larix spp. The Scottish crossbill’s association with lodgepole pine is interesting in view of the notion that Scottish crossbills are adapted to Scots pine Pinus sylvestris. Likewise, there was no evidence that common crossbills in the study area during January to April 2008 had an association with Norway spruce Picea abies, the tree with which they are normally associated in continental Europe. Lodgepole pine and Sitka spruce cones have thinner scales than those of Scots pine and Norway spruce, respectively, so are probably easier to exploit for seeds than the conifers to which they are assumed to be adapted. This may explain the associations we found.North American crossbills that specialise on lodgepole pine and Sitka spruce have smaller bills than even common crossbills (the smallest of the western Palearctic crossbills, apart from the two-barred crossbill Loxia leucoptera bifasciata). Adaptation to Sitka spruce by common crossbills is unlikely because common crossbills in Scotland largely arrive during irruptions from continental Europe, after which they return in a subsequent season. Therefore, their association with North American conifers in Scotland is temporary. For the resident Scottish crossbills, there is a greater possibility of adaptation to lodgepole pine. However, given the difficulties in identification of old specimens in museums, it was not possible to examine trends in bill size; the prediction is that bill size should decline. Future research needs to distinguish which conifer Scottish crossbills are adapted to as opposed to those which may be temporarily preferred when most profitable.

High summer temperature explains bill size variation in salt marsh sparrows

Physiological factors are rarely proposed to account for variation in the morphology of feeding structures. Recently, bird bills have been demonstrated to be important convective and radiant heat sinks. Larger bills have greater surface area than smaller bills and could serve as more effective thermoregulatory organs under hot conditions. The heat radiating function of bills should be more important in open habitats with little shade and stronger convective winds. Furthermore, as a means of dumping heat without increasing water loss through evaporation, bills might play a particularly important thermoregulatory role in heat loss in windy habitat where fresh water is limited. North American salt marshes provide a latitudinal gradient of relatively homogeneous habitat that is windy, open, and fresh‐water limited. To examine the potential role of thermoregulation in determining bill size variation among ten species or subspecies of tidal marsh sparrows, we plotted bill size against maximum summer and minimum winter temperatures. Bill surface areas increases with summer temperature, which explained 82–89% of the variance (depending upon sex) when we controlled for genus membership. Latitude alone predicted bill surface area much more poorly than summer temperature, and winter temperatures explained < 10% of the variance in winter bill size. Tidal marsh sparrow bill morphology may, to a large degree, reflect the role of the bill in expelling excess body heat in these unbuffered, fresh‐water‐limited environments. This new example of Allen's rule reaffirms the importance of physiological constraints on the evolution of vertebrate morphologies, even in bird bills, which have conventionally been considered as products of adaptation to foraging niche.

Who uses tips as a reward for service and when? An examination of potential moderators of the service–tipping relationship

Consumers in many countries often give voluntary payments of money (tips) to the workers who have served them. These tips are supposed to be a reward for service and research indicates that they do increase with customers’ perceptions of service quality. This paper contributes to the service–tipping literature by examining numerous potential moderators of this relationship in two studies. Results indicate that the service–tipping relationship is robust across meal type, day of week, sex and race of server as well as customers’ alcohol consumption, education, income, race, worship frequency, and hospitality work experience, but that it is stronger for older consumers than for younger ones and for parties with large bills than for parties with smaller bills. The practical and theoretical implications of these and other findings are discussed.

CAN SELECTION BY AN ECTOPARASITE DRIVE A POPULATION OF RED CROSSBILLS FROM ITS ADAPTIVE PEAK?

The bill structures of different call types of red crossbills (Loxia curvirostra complex) in western North America usually approximate the predicted optima for foraging on single species of conifers. One clear exception is the call type in the South Hills, Idaho, that is coevolving in an evolutionary arms race with Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta ssp. latifolia). Although South Hills crossbills forage only on the cones of these lodgepole pines, their average bill depth is smaller than that predicted to be optimal. Because preliminary data showed that large-billed males were more likely to exhibit symptoms of ectoparasitic mite (Knemidokoptes jamaicensis) infestation, the goal of our study was to further quantify the incidence of mite infestation and determine whether selection by mites may have favored smaller-billed crossbills and thus driven crossbills away from the foraging optimum. We estimated annual survival of both infected and uninfected South Hills crossbills using program MARK, which allows for auxiliary variables such as bill size and sex to be included in survival analyses. Mite infestation depressed crossbill survival and, especially for males, caused directional selection against larger-billed individuals. Such selection may explain why South Hills crossbills have smaller bills than the optimum and why average bill size for males has decreased from 1998 to 2003. This selection may also explain why the degree of sexual size dimorphism has decreased by nearly 50% since 1998.