Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
01 - X. FREIXAS (doc.).qxd

During the last decade the concept of relationship banking has been forged in the theory of banking to reflect the sharing of private information between a bank and its clients and the benefits of a continuing relationship. A number of theoretical contributions have examined the implications of relationship banking on the banking industry market structure, but their results are sometimes contradictory. This paper constitutes an analytical survey that examines relationship banking by means of a simple basic model and studies the implications of relationship banking on the pricing of loans, as well as its e ect on the degree of competition in the banking industry.
Age of segregation of Brazilian sycamore wood from two different physiographic regions

Received: 01 jun. 2016 Accepted: 23 aug. 2017 1 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS, Programa de Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Minas, Metalúrgica e de Materiais, Caixa Postal 15010, 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil 2 Universidade Federal de Pelotas – UFPEL, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência e Engenharia de Materiais, 96010-290, Pelotas, RS, Brasil 3 Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Florestal, 97105-900, Santa Maria, RS, Brasil *Corresponding Author: E-mail: darcigatto@yahoo.com
Radiative damping in waveguide-based ferromagnetic resonance measured via analysis of perpendicular standing spin waves in sputtered permalloy films

The damping $\alpha$ of the spinwave resonances in 75 nm, 120 nm, and 200nm -thick Permalloy films is measured via vector-network-analyzer ferromagnetic-resonance (VNA-FMR) in the out-of-plane geometry. Inductive coupling between the sample and the waveguide leads to an additional radiative damping term. The radiative contribution to the over-all damping is determined by measuring perpendicular standing spin waves (PSSWs) in the Permalloy fi? lms, and the results are compared to a simple analytical model. The damping of the PSSWs can be fully explained by three contributions to the damping: The intrinsic damping, the eddy-current damping, and the radiative damping. No other contributions were observed. Furthermore, a method to determine the radiative damping in FMR measurements with a single resonance is suggested.
Experimental Determination of the Effect of Number of Impeller Blades on the Air Flow Rate and Power Consumption of Centrifugal Blowers

Design parameters for a centrifugal blower includes, power of a motor, impeller diameter, impeller width, impeller rotational speed, volume flow rate and number of blades in an impeller, while relationship among several of this parameters are well defined in literature, it is unclear as to how the number of impellers blades affect the performance of a blower. In this work, an experimental method to determine the effect of number of blades in an impeller is described. The blower has been tested at three different speeds using five fabricated impellers with 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 blades respectively. It is found that, for all 3 selected blower speeds, air flow rate increase by about 19% by increasing the number of impeller blades from 4 to 8. It is also found that increasing blower speed has a significant increase in flow rate; that is, more that 80% increase upon doubling the number of impeller blades. It is also found that there is slight variation in power consumption due to change in number of blades. It is therefore proposed that changing the number of impeller blades can only be applied to fine tune the blower design within 15-20% flow rate variation. However nominal flow rate has to be established using blower speed and dimensions. Power consumption if found to increase slightly with maximum variation of 3% on increasing blade number from 4 to 8. The results are useful in the design or re-design of fabricated blowers and selection of suitable speed. When space is a constraint, increase in the number of blades or blower speed can respectively be applied to increase air flow rate depending on the magnitude of the increase required.
Are the Effects of rTMS in Parkinson's Disease Clinically Relevant?

ABSTRACT Introduction. Earlier studies have shown that brain stimulation by means of repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) over the primary motor cortex can decrease the motor impairments in Parkinson's disease (PD). The present study focused on the clinical relevance of rTMS in the treatment of PD. Method. Thirteen PD patients received a minimum of 10 sessions of 2,000 pulses 5 Hz rTMS over the hand and leg area over the primary motor cortex, with a stimulation intensity of 120% of the motor threshold. In our analysis an effect could be considered as clinically relevant if the quality of life (QoL) improved with 30% or more. Results. Paired-sample t-tests revealed a significant improvement of Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale score, walking speed, and mood. A minority of the patients (38%) who underwent rTMS showed an improvement in QoL of greater than 30%. The improvements on QoL correlated significantly to scores of motor improvements on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale.
Ecological indices as a tool for assessing pollution in El-Dekhaila Harbour (Alexandria, Egypt)

Statistical analyses of data concerning the phytoplankton standing crop and biomass were applied as a tool for assessing pollution in El-Dekhaila Harbour. Univariate and multivariate analysis showed a succession of three clusters associated with salinity and temperature variations. The first and third clusters comprised mainly diatoms and dinoflagellates. The second cluster, richer in species, was dominated by brackish water cyanophytes, chlorophytes and euglenophytes. The diversity index ranged from 0.08 to 2.41. A high diversity was associated with high evenness, reflecting the multidominance pattern of cluster (2). On the other hand, multiple correlations between salinity and standing crop, richness and evenness, were negative and significant, but positive with the diversity index. The ABC curve showed that the k-dominance curve for numerical abundance extends above that for the biomass when clusters 1 and 3 are dominant. Both curves coincide more or less for another segment of the curve but when cluster 2 becomes dominant the numerical abundance curve runs below that of the biomass. Such a pattern may indicate unpolluted or moderate to heavily polluted conditions in El-Dekhaila Harbour. The present study reveals that the combination of univariate and multivariate analysis with the ABC curve provides a promising tool for the characterization of phytoplankton dynamics under stress conditions. On the other hand, the phytoplankton community in El-Dekhaila Harbour is stressed not by the inflow of brackish water but rather by the inflow of sea water. This is indicated by the higher diversity and evenness, and by the ABC curve during the dominance of cluster (2). The complete text of the paper is available in PDF format at http://www.iopan. gda.pl/ oceanologia/index.html 122 A.A. Ismael, M.M. Dorgham
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN MALAYSIA

The paper provides a descriptive analysis on the corporate governance mechanisms in Malaysia. The discussion relates the economic crisis in 1997 that necessitate for the corporate governance efforts on the private sector in the country. It is explained based on the reforms agenda contained in the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance, Capital Market Master Plan and Financial Sector Master Plan. By highlighting the mechanisms that normally used in the academic research, the paper identifies some of the important mechanisms applied in the reforms of the Malaysian corporate governance. It is found that the mechanisms that have been put in place are comprehensive and covers a wide spectrum of corporate governance internally and externally.
Engineering Bureaucracy: The Genesis of Formal Policies, Positions, and Structures in High-Technology Firms

This article examines the impact of organizational founding conditions on several facets of bureaucratization - managerial intensity, the proliferation of specialized managerial and administrative roles, and formalization of employment relations. Analyzing information on a sample of technology start-ups in California`s Silicon Valley, we characterize the organizational models or blueprints espoused by founders in creating new enterprises. We find that those models and the social composition of the labor force at the time of founding had enduring effects on growth in managerial intensity (i.e., reliance on managerial and administrative specialists) over time. Our analysis thus provide compelling evidence of path dependence in the evolution of bureaucracy - even in a context in which firms face intense selection pressures - and underscore the importance of the `logics of organizing` that founders bring to new enterprises. We find less evidence that founding models exert persistent effects on the formalization of employment relations or on the proliferation of specialized senior management titles. Rather, consistent with neo-institutional perspectives on organizations, those superficial facets of bureaucracy appear to be shaped by the need to satisfy external gatekeepers (venture capitalists and the constituents of public corporations), as well as by exigencies of organizational scale, growth, and aging. We discuss some implications of these results for efforts to understand the varieties, determinants, and consequences of bureaucracy.
CONSUMERS' POST-ADOPTION OF M-SERVICES: INTEREST IN FUTURE M- SERVICES BASED ON CONSUMER EVALUATIONS OF CURRENT M-SERVICES

While consumers’ adoption of new technology has received substantial interest from researchers, the mechanism of consumers’ post-adoption evaluation derived from continued use of m-services and its impact on their interest in upcoming m-services are yet to be explored. Drawing on the appraisal → emotional response → coping framework, this study investigates 1) how utilitarian and hedonic values derived from consumers’ basic and innovative benefits of m-services influence their post-adoption satisfaction with current m-services and 2) the impact of post-adoption satisfaction on interest in future m-services in the context of young consumers’ mobile phone use. The results support all the hypothesized relationships except for the relationship between innovative benefit and utilitarian value. Theoretical and marketing implications are provided.
Measurement Error in Retrospective Work Histories

Measurement error in retrospective reports of work status has been difficult to quantify in the past. Issues of confidentiality have made access to datasets linking survey responses to a valid administrative source very problematic. This study uses a Swedish register of unemployment as a benchmark against which responses from two survey questions are compared and hence the presence of measurement error elucidated. We carry out separate analyses for the different forms that measurement error in retrospective reports of unemployment can take: miscounting of the number of spells of unemployment, mismeasuring duration in unemployment, and misdating starts of spells and misclassification of status. The prevalence of measurement error for different social categories and interview formats is also examined, leading to a better understanding of the error-generating mechanisms that interact when interviewees are asked to produce retrospective reports of past work status.
Impact of anthropogenically created canopy gaps on wave attenuation in a Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadow

Fixed weights moorings, once removed, can create longitudinal gaps in seagrass meadows of different sizes, running perpendicular to the coast. We quantified the interactions between these longitudinal gaps and the hydrodynamic environment of the nearshore environment to determine their potential impact on seagrass meadow ecology. Within the meadow at leaf length distances from the edge, wave attenuation by the lateral vegetation next to the gap was approximately the same as attenuation by fully vegetated areas, and the wave attenuating capacity of the lateral, near-gap vegetation was independent of gap width. Gaps with widths less than twice the leaf length exhibited 8% wave attenuation and 11% turbulent kinetic energy attenuation, confirming that vegetation shelters at least small gaps. Despite similar capacity for wave attenuation, the longitudinal gaps influenced the architectural characteristics of the adjacent (lateral) meadow; lateral shoot density, percent cover and leaf length adjacent to the largest gap were 12, 16, and 20% lower than the fully vegetated site, respectively. Significant differences in the temporal variation of the mean lateral, near-gap seagrass percent cover and the leaf length indicated a strong dependence of the state of the canopy on temporal hydrodynamic conditions, which in turn were impacted by the presence of the gap. Our results quantify the interactions between gaps and lateral meadow vegetation, highlight the structural impact of traditional moorings and support improved management and conservation of seagrass meadows.
Cultural production in peripheral urban spaces: lessons from Barriera, Turin (Italy)

ABSTRACT Practices of cultural production within a peripheral urban neighbourhood can contribute to foster the sense of place, community belonging and local collective action. Starting from a critical perspective on the interconnections between cultural practices and urban regeneration, and developing on the concept of place-making, the paper has two main purposes: to investigate the nature of embeddedness of these practices and explore the ways of self-organization of cultural actors and their relationships with public policies. The case study concerns ‘Barriera di Milano’, a large peripheral area in Turin (Italy), formerly one of the most industrialized zones of the city. Over the past few years, and particularly after the real-estate bubble burst of 2007–2008, in Barriera a lively concentration of initiatives of culture has been taking place, redefining the urban and social space. These initiatives seem to be innovative for many reasons: firstly, while demonstrating a peculiar but significant embeddedness in the neighbourhood, they are mostly self-generated; secondly, the institutional assets, the economic self-sufficiency and the low degree of connection among initiatives support new forms of citizenship and place-making based on a ‘not-for-profit entrepreneurship’.
Improvement of heart attack prediction by the feature selection methods

Prediction of a heart attack is very important since it is one of the leading causes of sudden death, especially in low-income countries. Although cardiologists use traditional clinical methods such as electrocardiography and blood tests for heart attack prediction, computer aided diagnosis systems that use machine learning methods are also in use for this task. In this study, we used machine learning and feature selection algorithms together. Our aim is to determine the best machine learning method and the best feature selection algorithm to predict heart attacks. For this purpose, many machine learning methods with optimum parameters and several feature selection methods were used and evaluated on the Statlog (Heart) dataset. According to the experimental results, the best machine learning algorithm is the support vector machine algorithm with the linear kernel, while the best feature selection algorithm is the reliefF method. This pair gave the highest accuracy value of 84.81%.
Foreign Direct Investment and the Business Cycle: New Insights after the Great Recession

In this paper we examine how business cycles in the home country affect outward flows of FDI (OFDI). We employ a panel data set of OFDI flows for a representative sample of countries from 1970 to 2011. The findings of the regression models that we have used are consistent with the hypothesis that OFDI flows behave pro-cyclically. This is the case for different country subsamples, for different business cycle specifications and for the inclusion of other control variables as well. Beyond this main conclusion, home country interest rate and exchange rates reveal a negative effect upon OFDI flows.
Modelling vegetable marketing systems in South East Asia: phenomenological insights from Vietnam

This article presents a conceptual framework for the analysis of vegetable supply chains in a South East Asian context and the role wholesale markets play in these chains. Following a review of the literature on food marketing systems in developing countries and preliminary fieldwork in South East Asia, a holistic framework is proposed, including what are perceived to be the critical factors in the development of improved fresh food marketing systems: domestic legal and policy factors, international trade policies and food markets, history, geography, and cultural and social norms. The particular role of trust and collaboration among stakeholders in the Ho Chi Minh City vegetable marketing system is highlighted.
Behavioral aspects of policy formulation: experiments, behavioral insights, nudges

Policy formulation relies upon the interplay of knowledge-based analysis of issues with power-based considerations, such as the political assessment of the costs and benefits of proposed actions, and its effects on the partisan and electoral concerns of governments. Policy scholars have long been interested in how governments successfully create, deploy and utilise policy instruments, but the literature on policy formulation has, until now, remained fragmented. This comprehensive Handbook unites original scholarship on policy tools and design, with contributions examining policy actors and the roles they play in the formulation process.
Location prediction on trajectory data: A review

Location prediction is the key technique in many location based services including route navigation, dining location recommendations, and traffic planning and control, to mention a few. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of location prediction, including basic definitions and concepts, algorithms, and applications. First, we introduce the types of trajectory data and related basic concepts. Then, we review existing location-prediction methods, ranging from temporal-pattern-based prediction to spatiotemporal-pattern-based prediction. We also discuss and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of these algorithms and briefly summarize current applications of location prediction in diverse fields. Finally, we identify the potential challenges and future research directions in location prediction.
On a Theorem by Mas-Colell

We consider anonymous games with a Lebesgue space of players in which either the action space or players' characteristics are denumer- able. Our main result shows that the set of equilibrium distributions over actions coincides with the set of distributions induced by equilib- rium strategies. This result, together with Mas-Colell (1984)'s theorem, implies that any continuous, denumerable game has an equilibrium strategy. In particular, the theorems of Khan and Sun (1995) and Khan, Rath, and Sun (1997) can be obtained as corollaries of Mas-Colell's.
The ecological meaning of embodiment

Today embodiment is a critical theme in several branches of the contemporary philosophical debate. The term embodiment refers to the role of an agent’s own body in his situated life, suggesting the existence of a bodily root for several experiential and cognitive abilities. A metaphor, that of the root, which aims at establishing a constitutive participation of the body in what we usually consider the domain of the mind. As other philosophical concepts, the notion of embodiment, as well as the idea of embodied mind, lacks of an explicit and shared definition, therefore, is possible to find many different uses of it. Works concerning “embodiment” cover many fields of research such as those concerning the nature of abstract thought (Lakoff & Nunez 2000), artificial intelligence (Clark 1998) and social cognition (Sinigaglia 2009). The aim of this paper is to define a path linking considerations from the phenomenological tradition with recent theoretical developments and experimental evidence. This will make it possible to show that the identification of the bodily roots of experience has the consequence to involve a series of theoretical and experimental consequences leading towards an enactive and ecological approach to perception.
Forecasting Bond Risk Premia with Forecast Co binations using Many Predictors

In this report the application of forecast combinations is examined for construction of excess bond return forecasts using a large set of predictor variables. The analysis is done by applying a large number of forecast combination methods to forecast one-year U.S. government excess bond returns for maturities ranging from two to five years. For every maturity 753 forecast sets are constructed using different forecast combinations methods, predictor variables and cluster methods. These are then compared using the model confidence set procedure. The forecast combination methods are subsequently subjected to a significance test and to a test over different time periods. The conclusion that this report draws is that two sets of forecast sets outperform the other forecast sets as well as the historical average benchmark and achieve a higher out-of-sample R2 then was previously found in the literature. These are the forecast sets that are constructed when either the recursive OLS weighting scheme or the complete subset regression method is applied to the set of forecast sets which are constructed with the macroeconomic predictors and which are first clustered according to their economic background. These two forecast combination methods continue to outperform the others for every maturity and also if the time period is changed.
From no pay to low pay and back again? Low pay dynamics in West-Germany

This study analyzes the mobility of men in West Germany between three labor market states: Working in low paid jobs, working in high paid jobs and not working. Using the German Socio Economic Panel, I estimate a dynamic multinomial logit panel data model with random efiects and take the initial conditions problem as well as potential endogeneity of panel attrition into account. According to studies on other countries, this flrst study on Germany flnds genuine state dependence in low pay and conflrms previous results of state dependence in non-employment. Moreover I flnd evidence for a "low pay no pay cycle", i.e. being low paid or not working itself increases the probability of being in one of these states in the next year. However, compared to not working, being low paid does not have adverse efiects on future employment prospects: The employment probability signiflcantly increases with low pay employment and the probability of being low paid does not signiflcantly difier from each other.