Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knowledge management and innovation in Peninsular Malaysia

Knowledge Management is frequently cited as one enabler of firm innovation especially among Western corporations. There is scant reported research that supports for such empirical links especially in the Malaysian context. There is a need for local research to address the KM practices, concepts, instruments, and effects. Using data from 149 Malaysian large manufacturing firms, a KM practices survey which comprises of five key domains are investigated. Measurement model analysis is engaged to confirm significant relationships between variables and their respective KM factors. Subsequently, structural model analysis is applied to test theory of structural relation between KM and innovation.
Placebo Devices as Effective Control Methods in Acupuncture Clinical Trials: A Systematic Review

While the use of acupuncture has been recognised by the World Health Organisation, its efficacy for many of the common clinical conditions is still undergoing validation through randomised controlled trials (RCTs). A credible placebo control for such RCTs to enable meaningful evaluation of its efficacy is to be established. While several non-penetrating acupuncture placebo devices, namely the Streitberger, the Park and the Takakura Devices, have been developed and used in RCTs, their suitability as inert placebo controls needs to be rigorously determined. This article systematically reviews these devices as placebo interventions. Electronic searches were conducted on four English and two Chinese databases from their inceptions to July 2014; hand searches of relevant references were also conducted. RCTs, in English or Chinese language, comparing acupuncture with one of the aforementioned devices as the control intervention on human participants with any clinical condition and evaluating clinically related outcomes were included. Thirty-six studies were included for qualitative analysis while 14 were in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis does not support the notion of either the Streitberger or the Park Device being inert control interventions while none of the studies involving the Takakura Device was included in the meta-analysis. Sixteen studies reported the occurrence of adverse events, with no significant difference between verum and placebo acupuncture. Author-reported blinding credibility showed that participant blinding was successful in most cases; however, when blinding index was calculated, only one study, which utilised the Park Device, seemed to have an ideal blinding scenario. Although the blinding index could not be calculated for the Takakura Device, it was the only device reported to enable practitioner blinding. There are limitations with each of the placebo devices and more rigorous studies are needed to further evaluate their effects and blinding credibility.
Healthcare Providers' Knowledge and Current Practice of Pain Assessment and Management: How Much Progress Have We Made?

Context. Despite improvement in pain management and availability of clinical treatment guidelines, patients in Jordan are still suffering from pain. Negative consequences of undertreated pain are being recognized as a reason for further illnesses and poor quality of life. Healthcare providers (HCPs) are responsible for relieving pain of their patients. Objective. To evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of HCPs toward pain management in Jordan. Methods. A 16-item questionnaire with agree or disagree options was given to 662 HCPs in seven hospitals in Jordan who volunteered to participate in the study. Following data collection, the responses were coded and entered into SPSS. Results. There was a statistically significant difference (p < 0.004) in percentage scores between physicians (36%) and pharmacists (36%) versus nurses (24%). The level of knowledge was the best among physicians, followed by pharmacists specifically in the area of cancer pain management. Nurses scored the lowest for knowledge of pain assessment and management among HCPs. However, HCPs overall scores indicated insufficient knowledge specifically in relation to pain assessment and management among children.
Human Body Orientation Estimation using Convolutional Neural Network

Personal robots are expected to interact with the user by recognizing the user's face. However, in most of the service robot applications, the user needs to move himself/herself to allow the robot to see him/her face to face. To overcome such limitations, a method for estimating human body orientation is required. Previous studies used various components such as feature extractors and classification models to classify the orientation which resulted in low performance. For a more robust and accurate approach, we propose the light weight convolutional neural networks, an end to end system, for estimating human body orientation. Our body orientation estimation model achieved 81.58% and 94% accuracy with the benchmark dataset and our own dataset respectively. The proposed method can be used in a wide range of service robot applications which depend on the ability to estimate human body orientation. To show its usefulness in service robot applications, we designed a simple robot application which allows the robot to move towards the user's frontal plane. With this, we demonstrated an improved face detection rate.
The tolerable windows approach to integrated assessments

The project on Integrated Assessment of Climate Protection Strategies (ICLIPS) is an international and interdisciplinary research activity seeking to provide new insights in the problem of global climate change by pursuing a new concept, the tolerable windows approach (TWA). The project brings together experts from leading research institutions in the field of global climate change under the leadership of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). PIK initiated this project and will integrate the various model components within the framework of TWA. The main objective of the ICLIPS project is to develop methods, collect data, and elaborate models needed to support the international decision-making community in implementing the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) and the Berlin Mandate.
Combined Prospective Rigid-Body Motion Correction with Retrospective Non-Rigid Distortion Correction for EPI

Introduction: Prospective real-time motion correction, where the scan-plane orientation is dynamically updated to track with the subject's head during an MRI scan, is becoming increasingly popular (1-7). While these methods focus on compensating for bulk rigid-body motion, a secondary effect of head motion is non-rigid-body image distortion caused by changes in the effective shim within the brain. These changes occur as the brain’s orientation changes relative to the B0 field (8), and cannot be compensated for with a rigid-body model. Echo-planar imaging (EPI) is particularly sensitive to field inhomogeneities due to its low phase-encode bandwidth. If the head moves during an EPI time-series scan (e.g. fMRI, DTI, PWI), even after adaptive rigid-body realignment, a residual non-rigid warping of the brain will remain in the phase-encode direction (9), which can increase signal fluctuation and impair the veracity of data. We propose an approach that uses prospective motion correction in combination with retrospective distortion correction to obtain images that are compensated for both rigid motions and susceptibility-induced non-rigid deformations.
Predicting User Satisfaction with Intelligent Assistants

There is a rapid growth in the use of voice-controlled intelligent personal assistants on mobile devices, such as Microsoft's Cortana, Google Now, and Apple's Siri. They significantly change the way users interact with search systems, not only because of the voice control use and touch gestures, but also due to the dialogue-style nature of the interactions and their ability to preserve context across different queries. Predicting success and failure of such search dialogues is a new problem, and an important one for evaluating and further improving intelligent assistants. While clicks in web search have been extensively used to infer user satisfaction, their significance in search dialogues is lower due to the partial replacement of clicks with voice control, direct and voice answers, and touch gestures. In this paper, we propose an automatic method to predict user satisfaction with intelligent assistants that exploits all the interaction signals, including voice commands and physical touch gestures on the device. First, we conduct an extensive user study to measure user satisfaction with intelligent assistants, and simultaneously record all user interactions. Second, we show that the dialogue style of interaction makes it necessary to evaluate the user experience at the overall task level as opposed to the query level. Third, we train a model to predict user satisfaction, and find that interaction signals that capture the user reading patterns have a high impact: when including all available interaction signals, we are able to improve the prediction accuracy of user satisfaction from 71% to 81% over a baseline that utilizes only click and query features.
Foreign Direct Investment, Trade Openness and Economic Growth in Ghana: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract This paper investigates the long-run impact of foreign direct investment and trade openness on economic growth in Ghana (1970–2011) within the framework of the endogenous growth literature. Adopting the autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing approach to cointegration the results suggest that the interaction of foreign direct investment and exports has been crucial in fostering growth, thus validating the famous Bhagwati hypothesis. From a policy oriented point of view, the study recommends the channeling of foreign direct investment to export-oriented sectors and the promotion of export-led growth strategies in long-term development plans.
Audit Opinion and Disclosure of Audit Fees

Dye (1991) suggests that when audit fees are disclosed, auditor independence will he improved because there are no quasi-rents to influence audit opinion and the public could assess the independence of the auditors. According to DeAngelo (1981a), however, disclosure of audit fees is irrelevant to the issuance of audit opinion because transaction costs, which give rise to quasi-rents, could not be affected by disclosure of audit fees. This paper examines this controversy by investigating the issuance of a going concern modified audit opinion before and after the disclosure requirement of the Securities and Exchange Commission (2000). The results show that financial statements issued after the disclosure requirement are more likely to be associated with a going concern opinion than those issued before the disclosure requirement. These results are robust to various sensitivity tests, including the control for the effect of economic factors, auditor reporting conservatism, and auditor reporting accuracy. In addition, it is found that firms before (after) the disclosure requirement are more (less) likely to receive a going concern opinion if audit fees were (were not) disclosed. Hence, this paper provides evidence to suggest that disclosure of audit fees is associated with enhanced auditor independence, and thus supports Dye's (1991) theory.
Estimation of a Function with Discontinuities via Local Polynomial Fit with an Adaptative Window Choice Estimation of a Function with Discontinuities 1

New method of adaptive estimation of a regression function is proposed. The resulting estimator achieves near optimal rate of estimation in the classical sense of mean integrated squared error. At the same time, the estimator is shown to be very sensitive to discontinuities or change-points of the underlying function f or its derivatives. For instance, in the case of a jump of a regression function, beyond the interval of length (in order) n ? 1 log n around change-points the quality of estimation is essentially the same as if the location of this jump were known. The method is fully adaptive and no assumptions are imposed on the design , number and size of jumps. The results are formulated in a non-asymptotic way and can be therefore applied for an arbitrary sample size.
Agricultural and trade policy reform in Mexico: PROCAMPO, NAFTA, and pre-GATT

Changes in Mexico's domestic agricultural policy (PROCAMPO) and continued liberalization of trade through GATT and NAFTA have had strong effects on Mexico's agricultural production, consumption, and trade with the United States. The main objective of this study is to analyze these effects in Mexico's grain and livestock sectors. Policies within the NAFTA and GATT international trade agreements may overlap to some degree, and Mexico's domestic agricultural liberalization program (PROCAMPO) may include policies that overlap those in one or both of the international trade agreements. This study analyzes the effects of PROCAMPO, NAFTA, and pre-GATT policies compared to a baseline of current policy for 1994 through 2000 and forecast to 2005;To achieve this objective, the study analyzes the crop and livestock sectors within Mexico's economy and develops a domestic econometric supply and demand system based on economic theory. International agricultural trade is analyzed by deriving import demand and export supply relationships from the agricultural supply and demand model. Policy instruments for agricultural and trade liberalization are incorporated into the economic sectors developed in the model. Finally, changes in Mexico's production, consumption, and net trade patterns with the United States for grain crops and livestock are analyzed;The following procedures are employed in this research. An econometric model is developed for Mexico's livestock and crop sectors that includes supply and demand systems. An argument for determining the appropriate type of model is presented. The model represents economic behavior and policies as closely as possible, given such constraints as data availability and reliability. Mexico's import demand and export supply are derived from the supply and demand system. Policy instruments are incorporated into the model for PROCAMPO, GATT, pre-GATT, and NAFTA economic policies. Current trade and domestic policy as implemented by the government of Mexico are incorporated into the model's baseline scenario. The impacts of PROCAMPO, pre-GATT, and NAFTA policies on changes in production, consumption, and trade in Mexico's grain and livestock sectors are analyzed. An alternative scenario that depicts changes in Mexico's exchange rate is analyzed.
Spectroscopy of MACHO 97-SMC-1: Self-Lensing within the Small Magellanic Cloud

More than a dozen microlensing events have been detected so far toward the LMC, and two have been detected toward the SMC. If all of the lenses are in the Galactic halo, both the LMC and the SMC events are expected to have similar timescales. However, the first event toward the SMC, MACHO 97-SMC-1, had a timescale of 123 days, which is much larger than the typical timescale for the LMC events. Since the observed timescale of the SMC event would need the mass of the halo lens to be ~3 M☉, it has been argued earlier that the lens must be within the SMC, which we spectroscopically confirm in this Letter. From optical depth estimates, we first show that the stars within the SMC play a dominant role as gravitational lenses and can fully account for the observed microlensing events, mainly due to its large physical depth. We also show that if the lenses are within the Magellanic Clouds, then the SMC events should be longer in duration than the LMC events, a fact that is consistent with the observations. The timescale of the event implies that the mass of the lens is ≳2 M☉ if it is in the Milky Way disk or halo, in which case the lens, if it is a normal star, is expected to be bright and should reveal itself in the spectrum. Here, we present an optical spectrum of MACHO 97-SMC-1 obtained in 1997 May that shows that the source is a main-sequence B star. There is no trace of any contribution from the lens, which suggests that the lens is not in the Milky Way disk or halo but is a low-mass star within the SMC. The other alternative, that the lens could be a black hole in the Galactic halo, cannot be ruled out from the spectrum alone, but this is disfavored by the timescales of the LMC events. It is worth noting here that MACHO SMC-98-1 is the only other observed event toward the SMC. This was a binary lens event for which the caustic crossing timescale as observed by the PLANET, MACHO, EROS, and OGLE collaborations suggests that the lens is within the SMC. Furthermore, the only LMC event for which we have independent information on the location of the lens is the binary lens event MACHO LMC-9, where the caustic crossing timescale suggests the lens to be within the LMC. Thus, our current knowledge of the events indicates that all three microlensing events toward the Magellanic Clouds for which we have independent knowledge of the location of the lenses are due to self-lensing within the Magellanic Clouds.
Does the Impact of Oportunidades Program Increases in Highly Competitive Regions?

Evidence on Oportunidades, a successful anti-poverty program in Mexico, has suggested that changes to the current grant structure may induce considerable improvements to its effectiveness. Moreover, there are proposals addressing the importance of regional, observable and unobservable characteristics, regarding its implementation. It is employed competitiveness level outcomes to investigate if this social policy has heterogeneous performance in different regions of intervention. For this purpose, a Difference-in-Difference model is applied to estimate short and mid-term impacts on enrolment rates. Results indicate that the general competitiveness effect is positive but not robust, given the considerable level of aggregation of the data used, whereas if it is distinguised Oportunidades treatment by selected competitiveness outcomes, states with highly efficient government institutions, middle competitive economic sectors and middle inclusive, educated and healthy individuals, present a larger program impact on enrolment rates. It is confirmed the significant improvements to program effectiveness and the impact of the competitiveness JEL Classification: C33, D61, I38, R59.
Periodicity classification of HTTP traffic to detect HTTP Botnets

Recently, the HTTP based Botnet threat has become a serious challenge for security experts as Bots can be distributed quickly and stealthily. With the HTTP protocol, Bots hide their communication flows within the normal HTTP flows making them more stealthy and difficult to detect. Furthermore, since the HTTP service is being widely used by the Internet applications, it is not easy to block this service as a precautionary measure and other techniques are required to detect and deter the Bot menace. The HTTP Bots periodically connect to particular web pages or URLs to get commands and updates from the Botmaster. In fact, this identifiable periodic connection pattern has been used in several studies as a feature to detect HTTP Botnets. In this paper, we review the current studies on detection of periodic communications in HTTP Botnets as well as the shortcomings of these methods. Consequently, we propose three metrics to be used in identifying the types of communication patterns according to their periodicity. Test results show that in addition to detecting HTTP Botnet communication patterns with 80% accuracy, the proposed method is able to efficiently classify communication patterns into several periodicity categories.
Accounting Narratives: The Reporting Practices of British Charities

This research examines the disclosure patterns of narrative information in the annual reports of the top 100 fundraising charities in the United Kingdom. While the role and disclosure patterns of accounting narratives have been examined in the corporate and public sectors, there is little research in the context of charities despite the annual report being one of the most important documents made available to charity contributors. Using prior research and recommendations of the Charity Commission, a checklist was developed to collect data through content analysis. The results of the research indicate that charities more readily provide information that can be collectively described as discharging fiduciary accountability than information that discharges managerial accountability, with disclosure practices being influenced by charity size, type and performance. Overall, while charities do provide some relevant information to discharge accountability to stakeholders, there is considerable scope to improve narrative reporting practices.
Fair intelligent admission control over DiffServ network

The basic DiEfServ model lacks mechanisms to prevent itself fmm being overload and to inform its internal capacily to the outside world. This paper addresses the pmblem by presenting a Fair Intelligent Admission Contml WAC) over an enhanced-DiffServ architecture. The central idea is to make admission decision based on both informed network-statns and traffic QoS rrquirements at the edge node. This model has several advantages : (1) it is backward compatible with DiffSeN, (2) it adapts to traffic load and network state changes, and (3) it pmvides interactive communication between QoS requirements and DiffServ network capability. In this paper, we use simulation to evaluate the performance of DiffSeN with or without FIAC. The performance demonstrates that the new scheme is able to admit traffic fairly and acbieve edge-to-edge QoS under heavy traffic conditions and network state changes. Index T e m s Q o S , DiffServ, Admission Contml.
Enabling Ciphertext Deduplication for Secure Cloud Storage and Access Control

To secure cloud storage and enforce access control, data encryption has become essential, given the ever increasing cyber threat everywhere. Attribute-based Encryption (ABE) crypto systems are widely considered as a promising solution under such a context for its security strength, scalability and control flexibility. One major challenge, however, for applying ABE-based techniques in real world applications is its high overhead in various aspects. In this research, we are particularly concerned with the storage size expansion in existing ABE schemes. This combined with the vast-size nature of the cloud data poses an enormous challenge to the effective usage of the cloud data storage space and affects the utility of data deduplication. Normally, data deduplication is carried out based on identifying similar and even identical contents both within and between data files, however, these patterns will be destroyed after performing data encryption using any semantically secure encryption scheme including ABE. In this research, we focus on ciphertexts deduplication under ABE, which to our best knowledge is the first of such an effort. Our fundamental observation stems from the structure of ABE ciphertexts and the possible similarities among different access structures. We show how to design a secure ciphertext deduplication scheme based on a classical CP-ABE scheme by innovatively modifying the construction with a recursive algorithm, eliminating the duplicated secrets and adding additional randomness to some certain ciphertext. We then give a detailed analysis on the proposed scheme with respect to both efficiency and security. To thoroughly assess the performance of the proposed scheme, we also implement a prototype system and conduct comprehensive experiments, which shows that our ciphertext reduplication scheme could reduce up to 80% computation and storage cost in the best case.