Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Users' Acceptance of Cloud Computing in Saudi Arabia: An Extension of Technology Acceptance Model

Cloud computing has become a popular topic in the research community because of its ability to transform computer software, platforms, and infrastructure as a service. However, cloud computing literature currently lacks user studies despite the fact that users play a crucial role in the success and failure of emerging technologies. This paper presents a study aimed at investigating users' acceptance of cloud computing in Saudi Arabia. As a baseline, it utilizes the Technology Acceptance Model TAM along with five additional factors believed to affect users' acceptance of new technology in the region in order to achieve the study goals. These factors are gender, age, education level, job domain, and nationality. The results demonstrated a high level of acceptance of cloud computing and a valid TAM in its standard form. The results also indicated that age, education, job domain, and nationality have a significant effect on users' attitudes toward the adoption of cloud computing. However, no difference was found in the attitude toward the adoption of cloud computing between male and female employees.
Contagion as a Wealth Effect of Financial Intermediaries

This paper models financial contagion as a wealth effect of financial intermediaries in a market with two risky assets and three types of traders: noise traders who trade in one market, financial intermediaries who partially arbitrage away noise trading, and long-term investors who provide liquidity. Contagion is characterized as decreased liquidity, increased volatility in both markets, and increased correlation between returns on the two assets occurring simultaneously with financial intermediaries suffering losses on positions. When financial intermediaries have reduced capital as a result of trading losses, they have a reduced capacity for bearing risks. This motivates them to liquidate positions in both markets, resulting in reduced market liquidity, increased price volatility in both markets, and increased correlation. Through this mechanism, the wealth effect leads to contagion. Financial intermediaries are assumed to follow consumption and portfolio rules which make them look like a log-utility investor: the volatility of their portfolio equals the Sharpe ratio available in the market and the dividend rate (i.e., consumption rate) equals the rate of time preference. They trade in two markets with independent fundamentals and constant dollar total risk. As the financial intermediaries partially arbitrage away the effects of noise trading in one market, they take large risky arbitrage positions. Long-term investors provide some liquidity, which makes it possible for financial intermediaries to liquidate positions when they suffer losses. The equilibrium has two state variables, the wealth of financial intermediaries and noise trading. A system of two simultaneous partial differential equations is solved numerically using a projection method. This model cautions risk managers to evaluate risks using information about the capitalization and positions of other market participants.
Morphological Variations in Lumbricals of Hand - A Cadaveric Study

The hand is a prehensile organ, it is endowed with grasping and precision movements for skilled work and it acts as a chief tactile apparatus. Thus human hand is a revolution in evolution. Indeed the lumbricals of the hand by producing flexion at the metacarpophalangeal joints and extension at the interphalangeal joints helps in writing, stitching and any other forms of precision work. A study was conducted in the department of Anatomy, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal with 30 cadavers of both sexes. The study was carried out to check for the variations in the origin, insertion, innervations and the extension of lumbrical muscle.93. 3% of case showed the normal morphology of lumbricals and remaining showed the variations like bifid first lumbrical, bipennate 2nd lumbrical, absence of 3rd lumbrical, hypertrophied 1 st lumbrical. Anomalous and additional lumbrical muscle can cause carpal tunnel syndrome by compressing the median nerve. Hypertrophy of the lumbricals could compress the radial and ulnar arteries of the fingers, causing chronic sub ischemia. Hence present work is under taken to know the variations in the lumbricals.
The boundaries of competitive price theory: convergence, expectations, and transaction costs

“Boundary experiments are explicitly associated with some set of laws and consist of fact-finding inquiries designed to fix the range and application of the laws, particularly with regard to extreme conditions” (Kaplan, 1964, p. 150). In the laboratory experiments reported here, we probed three distinct boundaries of the application of the law of supply and demand in markets organized as double auctions.This “law” of competitive market behavior predicts that prices will occur at a level where the quantity supplied by sellers (positively related to price) is equal to the quantity demanded by buyers (negatively related to price). Any price where quantity demanded equals quantity supplied is referred to as a competitive equilibrium (CE) price; the corresponding exchange volume is referred to as the CE quantity.The specific design parameters utilized in our experimental markets were chosen to address the following research questions. 1. In trading between b buyers and s sellers, how small must s be to invalidate the application of the law of supply and demand as a predictor of market outcomes? 2. In a market where the law of supply and demand predicts that all gains from exchange will be earned by only one side of the market (either buyers or sellers), will actual contract prices converge to the price predicted by the law of supply and demand? What minimal compensation will subjects on the other (zero profit) side of the market need to induce them to participate in trade? 3. In a market where any feasible price is also a CE price (generated by an unorthodox box-shaped supply and demand configuration where the quantity demanded equals the quantity supplied at all prices between the upper and lower bounds of…
Functional associations between the metabolome and manganese tolerance in Vigna unguiculata

Genotypic- and silicon (Si)-mediated differences in manganese (Mn) tolerance of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) arise from a combination of symplastic and apoplastic traits. A detailed metabolomic inspection could help to identify functional associations between genotype- and Si-mediated Mn tolerance and metabolism. Two cowpea genotypes differing in Mn tolerance (TVu 91, Mn sensitive; TVu 1987, Mn tolerant) were subjected to differential Mn and Si treatments. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolite profiling of leaf material was performed. Detailed evaluation of the response of metabolites was combined with gene expression and physiological analyses. After 2 d of 50 μM Mn supply TVu 91 expressed toxicity symptoms first in the form of brown spots on the second oldest trifoliate leaves. Silicon treatment suppressed symptom development in TVu 91. Despite higher concentrations of Mn in leaves of TVu 1987 compared with TVu 91, the tolerant genotype did not show symptoms. From sample cluster formation as identified by independent component analysis (ICA) of metabolite profiles it is concluded that genotypic differences accounted for the highest impact on variation in metabolite pools, followed by Mn and Si treatments in one of two experiments. Analysis of individual metabolites corroborated a comparable minor role for Mn and Si treatments in the modulation of individual metabolites. Mapping individual metabolites differing significantly between genotypes onto biosynthetic pathways and gene expression studies on the corresponding pathways suggest that genotypic Mn tolerance is a consequence of differences (i) in the apoplastic binding capacity; (ii) in the capability to maintain a high antioxidative state; and (iii) in the activity of shikimate and phenylpropanoid metabolism.
Freeway traffic stream modeling based on principal curves and its analysis

We have proposed to use the method of principal curves to describe and analyze the interaction among freeway traffic-stream variables and their joint behaviors without utilizing conventional assumptions made on the functional forms of interactions, as in previous studies. As a nonparameter modeling approach, the performance of the proposed method depends only on the data used and involves no assumed knowledge regarding the relationship among the traffic-stream variables. First, we discuss the basic algorithm for data analysis using principal curves and the corresponding data filter algorithm for determining principal curves for application in traffic-steam analysis. Second, a case study is used to compare the performance of the proposed method to that of the classical model proposed by Greenshields; results indicate that the proposed model is better than the classical one in both data accuracy and curve shape. Finally, the traffic-stream models generated with principal curves at different locations and lanes are compared with each others and the three-dimensional traffic-stream models developed from principal curves are discussed. Clearly, our results have demonstrated the feasibility and advantages of applying principal curves in freeway traffic-stream modeling and analysis.
Male-Female Wage and Productivity Differentials: A Structural Approach Using Japanese Firm-Level Panel Data

In an attempt to explain the male-female wage differential, we estimated the relative marginal productivity and relative wage of female workers compared to those of male workers, using panel data from Japanese firms. The estimation results indicate that firms hiring 10 percentage points more women produce 0.8 percent more given the total wage bill and other inputs. Crosssectional estimates that neglect firm fixed effects indicate that female workers' marginal productivity is 45 percent of male workers', while female wage is 30 percent of male wage. These estimates indicate that part of the wage differential cannot be explained by the productivity differential. The estimation that allows for the correlated productivity/demand shocks suggests the robustness of the results. The IV estimator that allows for firm-level fixed effects seems to suffer from the bias due to the positive correlation between productivity/demand shocks and female employee proportion. Evidence found in this study rejects the null hypothesis that the male-female wage differential reflects the male-female productivity differentials.
Smoothing under Diffeomorphic Constraints with Homeomorphic Splines

In this paper we introduce a new class of diffeomorphic smoothers based on general spline smoothing techniques and on the use of some tools that have been recently developed in the context of image warping to compute smooth diffeomorphisms. This diffeomorphic spline is defined as the solution of an ordinary differential equation governed by an appropriate time-dependent vector field. This solution has a closed form expression which can be computed using classical unconstrained spline smoothing techniques. This method does not require the use of quadratic or linear programming under inequality constraints and has therefore a low computational cost. In a one-dimensional setting, incorporating diffeomorphic constraints is equivalent to imposing monotonicity. Thus, as an illustration, it is shown that such a monotone spline can be used to make monotone any unconstrained estimator of a regression function and that this monotone smoother inherits the convergence properties of the unconstrained estimator. Some numerical experiments are proposed to illustrate its finite sample performances and to compare them with another monotone estimator. We also provide a two-dimensional application on the computation of diffeomorphisms for landmark and image matching.
In Search of the Entremanager

Believing that there may be a misperception as to the true nature of the managerial entrepreneur (the ‘entremanager’) and that, as a result, entrepreneurs may be supported in inappropriate ways by enterprise support agencies, financial and academic institutions, policy-makers and business advisers, the current research was conducted to test whether the founders of businesses change from being entrepreneurs into managers as their businesses grow. Successful entrepreneurs require significant management skills to enable them to grow their businesses, which represents a change from the entrepreneurial attributes required to start the business initially. A survey questionnaire, based on key growth development models, was administered in February 2007 to 500-plus entrepreneurs who had completed specific start-up courses in the period 2004 to 2006, with a response rate of just over 20% (105 responses). A second virtually identical questionnaire was administered two years later, to respondents to the first survey, thus providing opportunity for a longitudinal study. There were 31 respondents (56%) to this second survey. When the results of the two surveys were compared, growth clearly had taken place, although whether this resulted in a transition from entrepreneur to manager is less clear-cut. One possible reason is that the extent of growth recorded may not have been sufficient to display the effects posited by the models underlying the survey questionnaire. Although five areas of potential further research were identified as part of this research study, it is believed that the most useful direction for further research is a larger, and longer-term, longitudinal study, replicating and extending the current study.
Modeling Dynamic Term Structure of Equity Premia with Regime Switching Economy

This paper proposes a consumption based asset pricing model in which the dynamic term structure of equity premia captures the stylized behavior of empirical counterpart. In the fi nancial crisis in late 2000s, the level of equity premium went up and especially the equity premium for a short horizon surged with a spike. To model these phenomena, I estimate two state regime switching model for the bivariate process of consumption and dividend over the period 1930-2011, and fi nd that the risk of regime switching can explain the level and slope of term structure of equity premia and the high volatility of short duration equity premium. In the economic downturn, accompanied with low growth and high volatility, the representative agent requires higher premium on equity, and since short duration assets are more exposed to the recession, those assets are heavily discounted. Consequently, the dynamics of term structure of equity premia show the following features: countercyclical level, procyclical slope, and high volatility of short term equity premium.
One-time counselling decreases the use of benzodiazepines and related drugs among community-dwelling older persons.

BACKGROUND evidence about possibilities to help older persons to withdraw the long-term use of benzodiazepines (BZD) is scarce. Effective and practicable methods are needed. OBJECTIVE the study aimed to assess the persistence of one-time counselling by a geriatrician to reduce psychotropic drugs, especially BZD and related drugs (RD). DESIGN a prospective randomised controlled trial with a 12-month follow-up was conducted. SUBJECTS five hundred ninety-one community-dwelling people aged 65 or older participated in the study. METHODS instructions to withdraw, reduce or change psychotropic drugs were given to the intervention group. A 1-h lecture about these drugs and their adverse effects was given later on. No changes in the drug therapy were suggested for the controls. RESULTS the number of regular users of BZD and RD decreased by 35% (12/34) (odds ratios (OR) = 0.61, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.44-0.86) in the intervention group while it increased by 4% (2/46) (OR = 1.05, 95% CI 0.81-1.36) in the controls (P = 0.012). No significant changes in the users of other types of psychotropics were found. CONCLUSION one-time counselling of psychotropics and other fall-risk-increasing drugs by a geriatrician followed with a 1-h lecture about adverse effects of these drugs had positive effects in decreasing the number of regular users of BZD and RD, and these effects persisted for the total 12-month intervention period.
Examining e-Learning Effectiveness, Outcomes and Learning Style: A Longitudinal Study

The use of information technology (IT) in education has accelerated rapidly. From the learner’s perspective, e-learning is self-service and allows an individual great flexibility and control as well as access to hyperlinked interactive multimedia contents while learning at preferred paces and times. Prior information systems (IS) research has investigated different aspects of elearning; however, the cumulating evidences of its relative effectiveness and outcomes have been largely equivocal. In this study, we conducted a longitudinal quasi field experiment to comparatively examine e-learning and conventional face-to-face learning in the context of English learning. Our evaluative study used relatively comprehensive effectiveness and outcome measurements and involved 507 undergraduate university students. In addition to assessing the effectiveness and outcomes associated with e-learning, we examined the effect of learning style on the effectiveness and outcome improvements resulting from the use of e-learning as opposed to conventional face-to-face learning. Overall, our analysis shows that learning effectiveness (measured objectively and subjectively) associated with e-learning is significantly higher than that observed in the conventional classroom. Subjects supported by e-learning are also more satisfied with the course contents than their conventional classroom counterparts. Personalized learning support appears to be stronger in e-learning than in the conventional classroom setting but the difference is not significant statistically. Anchored using the Learning Style Model by Kolb (1976), our analysis results suggest that the exact magnitude and significance of the differential learning effectiveness and outcomes resulting from e-learning appear to be contingent upon the individual’s learning style. In particular, assimilators may benefit more from e-learning than accommodators, whereas e-learning effectiveness and outcomes seem comparable between convergers and divergers.
Political Connections and the Cost of Equity Capital

Motivated by recent research on the costs and benefits of political connection, we examine the cost of equity capital of politically connected firms. Using propensity score matching models, we find that politically connected firms enjoy a lower cost of equity capital than their non-connected peers. We find further that political connections are more valuable for firms with stronger ties to political power. In additional analyses, we find that the effect of political connection on firms’ equity financing costs is influenced by the prevailing country-level institutional and political environment, and by firm characteristics. Taken together, our findings provide strong evidence that investors require a lower cost of capital for politically connected firms, which suggests that politically connected firms are generally considered less risky than non-connected firms.
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Tetraploid Wheats (Triticum turgidum L.) Estimated by SSR, DArT and Pedigree Data

Levels of genetic diversity and population genetic structure of a collection of 230 accessions of seven tetraploid Triticum turgidum L. subspecies were investigated using six morphological, nine seed storage protein loci, 26 SSRs and 970 DArT markers. The genetic diversity of the morphological traits and seed storage proteins was always lower in the durum wheat compared to the wild and domesticated emmer. Using Bayesian clustering (K = 2), both of the sets of molecular markers distinguished the durum wheat cultivars from the other tetraploid subspecies, and two distinct subgroups were detected within the durum wheat subspecies, which is in agreement with their origin and year of release. The genetic diversity of morphological traits and seed storage proteins was always lower in the improved durum cultivars registered after 1990, than in the intermediate and older ones. This marked effect on diversity was not observed for molecular markers, where there was only a weak reduction. At K >2, the SSR markers showed a greater degree of resolution than for DArT, with their identification of a greater number of groups within each subspecies. Analysis of DArT marker differentiation between the wheat subspecies indicated outlier loci that are potentially linked to genes controlling some important agronomic traits. Among the 211 loci identified under selection, 109 markers were recently mapped, and some of these markers were clustered into specific regions on chromosome arms 2BL, 3BS and 4AL, where several genes/quantitative trait loci (QTLs) are involved in the domestication of tetraploid wheats, such as the tenacious glumes (Tg) and brittle rachis (Br) characteristics. On the basis of these results, it can be assumed that the population structure of the tetraploid wheat collection partially reflects the evolutionary history of Triticum turgidum L. subspecies and the genetic potential of landraces and wild accessions for the detection of unexplored alleles.
Acting with Technology: Rehearsing for Mixed-Media Live Performances

Digital technologies provide theater with new possibilities for combining traditional stage-based performances with interactive artifacts, for streaming remote parallel performances and for other device facilitated audience interaction. Compared to traditional theater, mixed-media performances require a different type of engagement from the actors and rehearsing is challenging, as it can be impossible to rehearse with all the functional technology and interaction. Here, we report experiences from a case study of two mixed-media performances; we studied the rehearsal practices of two actors who were performing in two different plays. We describe how the actors practiced presence during rehearsal in a play where they would be geographically remote, and we describe the challenges of rehearsing with several remote and interactive elements. Our study informs the broader aims of interactive and mixed media performances through addressing critical factors of implementing technology into rehearsal practices.
Solving satisfiability problems by fluctuations: The dynamics of stochastic local search algorithms

Stochastic local search algorithms are frequently used to numerically solve hard combinatorial optimization or decision problems. We give numerical and approximate analytical descriptions of the dynamics of such algorithms applied to random satisfiability problems. We find two different dynamical regimes, depending on the number of constraints per variable: For low constraintness, the problems are solved efficiently, i.e., in linear time. For higher constraintness, the solution times become exponential. We observe that the dynamical behavior is characterized by a fast equilibration and fluctuations around this equilibrium. If the algorithm runs long enough, an exponentially rare fluctuation towards a solution appears.
Buffer Allocation Management for Improving TCP Fairness in IEEE 802.11 WLANs

TCP fairness is an important issue in WLAN because the wireless channel is shared by all wireless nodes. Due to TCP-unfriendly nature of ACK packet, the network service is biased toward the uplink TCP flow and the downlink TCP flow tends to starve. In this paper, a buffer allocation algorithm on the downlink buffer of the Access Point (AP) is proposed to improve the fairness among uplink and downlink TCP flows. The proposed algorithm limits the TCP-unfriendly behavior of ACK packets by adjusting the maximum size of buffer allocated for ACK packets. Analysis and simulation results show that the proposed solution not only improves the fairness greatly, but also achieves higher total network goodput.