Who discovered the binary system and arithmetic? Did Leibniz plagiarize Caramuel?

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) is the self-proclaimed inventor of the binary system and is considered as such by most historians of mathematics and/or mathematicians. Really though, we owe the groundwork of today’s computing not to Leibniz but to the Englishman Thomas Harriot and the Spaniard Juan Caramuel de Lobkowitz (1606–1682), whom Leibniz plagiarized. This plagiarism has been identified on the basis of several facts: Caramuel’s work on the binary system is earlier than Leibniz’s, Leibniz was acquainted—both directly and indirectly—with Caramuel’s work and Leibniz had a natural tendency to plagiarize scientific works.2017-1

Unpacking the black box of trade credit to socially responsible customers

We investigate whether suppliers value customer firms’ socially responsible activities by examining the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firms’ access to trade credit. We posit that firms with better social performance are more likely to receive trade credit because suppliers view customers’ CSR activities as a signal of trustworthiness and of the capacity to meet financial obligations. In addition to this direct channel, we describe other channels: a) trade credit opens the possibility for suppliers to secure a share of their customers’ future business opportunities, which are expected to be higher for socially responsible firms, and b) the risk associated with the diffusion of negative shocks through the supply chain due to trade credit is lower for socially responsible firms, making them more attractive partners for suppliers. Consistent with our predictions, we find that socially responsible customers receive more trade credit from suppliers. This relation is more pronounced in situations where the aforementioned channels are more relevant: namely, when the financial health of a customer is of greater importance to its suppliers; when there are greater information asymmetries between suppliers and customers due to a lack of close transactional relationships; when socially responsible activities are more likely to generate growth; and when suppliers are exposed to higher risk in the customer-supplier relationship. We also document that during the global financial crisis, socially responsible customers offered backward liquidity provision to suppliers by reducing their use of trade credit, which represents an extra benefit of having socially responsible customers in production networks.We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (ECO2012-36559, ECO2015-68715-R-MINECO/FEDER, PGC2018-097187-B-I00, ECO2013-48328, ECO2016-77579 and WRDS-UC3M: Infrastructure for large scale data processing, FEDER UNC315-EE-3636), from a Comunidad de Madrid grant (EARLYFIN-CM, #S2015/HUM-3353), from Copenhagen Business School and from the EU's European Social Fund

The relation between segment disclosure and earnings quality

We investigate the relation between segment disclosure and earnings quality. Using a US sample for the period 2001-2006, we find a positive relation between earnings quality and the quantity of segment disclosures. We use lead-lag tests to examine the flow of causality, and our results show that current segment disclosure is positively related to prior levels of earnings quality, while current earnings quality scores are not related to prior levels of segment disclosure. Thus, the causality flows from earnings quality to segment disclosure. Our results hold for both business and geographic segment disclosure.We acknowledge financial assistance from the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science (ECO2010-19314, ECO2008-06238-C02-01/ECON, SEJ2007-67582-C02-02/ECON, ECO2009-10796 and Consolider Grant #2006/04046/002), the European Commission INTACCT Research Training Network (MRTN-CT-2006-035850), and the government of the autonomous Community of Madrid (Grant # 2008/00037/001)

Towards Portability of Models for Predicting Students’ Final Performance in University Courses Starting from Moodle Logs

Predicting students’ academic performance is one of the older challenges faced by the educational scientific community. However, most of the research carried out in this area has focused on obtaining the best accuracy models for their specific single courses and only a few works have tried to discover under which circumstances a prediction model built on a source course can be used in other different but similar courses. Our motivation in this work is to study the portability of models obtained directly from Moodle logs of 24 university courses. The proposed method intends to check if grouping similar courses by the degree or the similar level of usage of activities provided by the Moodle logs, and if the use of numerical or categorical attributes affect in the portability of the prediction models. We have carried out two experiments by executing the well-known classification algorithm over all the datasets of the courses in order to obtain decision tree models and to test their portability to the other courses by comparing the obtained accuracy and loss of accuracy evaluation measures. The results obtained show that it is only feasible to directly transfer predictive models or apply them to different courses with an acceptable accuracy and without losing portability under some circumstances

Segment disclosure and cost of capital

We investigate whether segment disclosure influences cost of capital. Improved segment reporting is expected to decrease cost of capital by reducing estimation risk. However, in a competitive environment segment disclosure may also generate uncertainties about future prospects and lead to a larger cost of capital. Asset-pricing tests confirm that segment disclosure is a priced risk factor. Also, segment disclosure reduces ex-ante estimates of cost of equity capital and other measures connected to risk. These results suggest a negative relation between segment disclosure and cost of capital. Our results also show that competition reduces, but does not eliminate, the previous relationship.We acknowledge financial assistance from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (ECO2013-48328-C3-3-P, ECO2010-19314, ECO2009-10796 and, ECO2012-36559), the European Commission INTACCT Research Training Network (MRTN-CT-2006-035850), the Fundación Ramón Areces, and the government of the Autonomous Community of Madrid (Grant # 2008/00037/001)

A review on data fusion in multimodal learning analytics and educational data mining

The new educational models such as smart learning environments use of digital and context-aware devices to facilitate the learning process. In this new educational scenario, a huge quantity of multimodal students' data from a variety of different sources can be captured, fused, and analyze. It offers to researchers and educators a unique opportunity of being able to discover new knowledge to better understand the learning process and to intervene if necessary. However, it is necessary to apply correctly data fusion approaches and techniques in order to combine various sources of multimodal learning analytics (MLA). These sources or modalities in MLA include audio, video, electrodermal activity data, eye-tracking, user logs, and click-stream data, but also learning artifacts and more natural human signals such as gestures, gaze, speech, or writing. This survey introduces data fusion in learning analytics (LA) and educational data mining (EDM) and how these data fusion techniques have been applied in smart learning. It shows the current state of the art by reviewing the main publications, the main type of fused educational data, and the data fusion approaches and techniques used in EDM/LA, as well as the main open problems, trends, and challenges in this specific research area

The Complementarity between segment disclosure and earnings quality, and its effect on cost of capital

We investigate the role of earnings quality in determining the levels of segment disclosure, and whether and how better quality earnings and segment disclosure influences cost of capital. Using a large US sample for the period 2001-2006, we find a positive relation between earnings quality and levels of segment disclosures. We also find that firms providing better quality segment information, contingent upon good earnings quality, enjoy lower cost of capital. We base our empirical tests on a self created index of segment disclosure. Our results contribute to a better understanding of (1) the incentives for providing segment disclosures, and (2) how accounting quality (quality of segment information and earnings quality) is related to the cost of capital

La formacion del arquitecto ante la conservacion del patrimonio

El trabajo del futuro arquitecto, ocasionalmente involucra edificaciones históricas reconocidas como bienes patrimoniales, elementos de identidad de grupos sociales, cuyos valores se deben preservar, los criterios para intervenirlas pueden estar bien cimentados desde su formación como arquitecto; así, aunque no cuente con especialización en conservación o restauración, tendrá bases teóricas y conocimientos técnicos que le permitían valorarla e intervenirla responsablemente. Algunas intervenciones en el patrimonio, sí bien denotan el trabajo de un arquitecto, evidencia poco conocimiento de la historia de la ciudad, de la arquitectura como un hecho social y expresión cultural, de aspectos legales que procuran su defensa y ante la poca experiencia constructiva que le permitiera seleccionar las técnicas adecuadas para intervenir, el patrimonio se vuelve vulnerable. Es importante entonces que se fomente en el futuro arquitecto, interés por la historia, la cultura, las expresiones artísticas, los materiales y sistemas constructivos tradicionales y modernos, que le permitan apreciar y reconocer la importancia de las obras materiales pretéritas y como conservarlas. Presentamos en el siguiente trabajo una serie de reflexiones sobre la formación inicial en el campo de la conservación del patrimonio edificado en la Facultad de Arquitectura de la Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, México