Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Foreign institutional investors and China’s financial service industry: the intra-industry effects of the foreign acquisition of Shenzhen Development Bank

This paper analyzes the effects of the foreign acquisition of Shenzhen Development Bank (SDB) on both the bank’s performance and the performance of its rival banks. The authors define two types of effects on rival banks around the acquisition event: a “competitive effect”, whereby a more competitive SDB threatens its rivals, and an “entrance effect”, whereby SDB’s acquisition signals that more foreign banks will be able to enter the banking industry in China. The empirical results indicate that the competitive effect is significant for SDB’s domestic rivals in mainland China and the small banks in Hong Kong, as these banks react negatively (positively) to positive (negative) news related to the foreign acquisition of SDB, whereas the large banks in Hong Kong are more sensitive to the entrance effect, as they react positively to positive news related to the foreign acquisition of SDB. In addition, it is found that SDB outperform its rival financial institutions in China 19 months after the acquisition.
Ionospheric variations over Indian low latitudes close to the equator and comparison with IRI-2012

Abstract. In this paper, we analyze daytime observations of the critical frequencies of the F2 (foF2) and F3 (foF3) layers based on ionosonde observations made from Indian low latitudes close to the magnetic equator and study their local time, seasonal, planetary-scale variations (including the solar rotation effect), and solar activity dependence. Given the occurrence of the F3 layer, which has remarkable local time, seasonal and solar activity dependences, variations in foF2 have been evaluated. Local time variations in foF2 and foF3 show noon "bite-out" in all seasons and in all solar activity conditions, which are attributed to vertically upward plasma transport by the zonal electric field and meridional neutral wind. Comparison of observed foF2 with those of the IRI-2012 model clearly shows that the model values are always higher than observed values and the largest difference is observed during noontime owing to the noon bite-out phenomenon. Peak frequency of the F layer (foF2 / foF3), however, is found to have better agreement with IRI-2012 model. Seasonal variations of foF2 and foF3 show stronger asymmetry at the solstices than at the equinoxes. The strong asymmetry at the solstice is attributed to the asymmetry in the meridional neutral wind with a secondary contribution from E × B drifts, and the relatively weak asymmetry observed at the equinox is attributed to the asymmetry in E × B drifts. Variations in foF2 and foF3 with solar flux clearly show the saturation effect when F10.7 exceeds ~ 120 sfu, which is different from that of the mid-latitudes. Irrespective of solar flux, both foF2 and foF3 in summer, however, are found to be remarkably lower than those observed in other seasons. Variations in foF2 show dominant periods of ~ 27, ~ 16 and ~ 6 days. Intriguingly, amplitudes of ~ 27-day variations in foF2 are found to be maximum in low solar activity (LSA), moderate in medium solar activity (MSA) and minimum in high solar activity (HSA), while the amplitudes of ~ 27-day variations in F10.7 are minimum in LSA, moderate in MSA and maximum in HSA. These results are presented and discussed in light of current observational and model-based knowledge on the variations of low-latitude foF2 and foF3.
NIES/FRCGC Global Atmospheric Tracer Transport Model: Description, Validation, and Surface Sources and Sinks Inversion

We present description, validation, utilization, and update of the NIES/FRCGC (National Institute for Environmental Studies/Frontier Research Center for Global Change) off-line global atmospheric tracer transport model. The model transport is driven by analyzed meteorological fields and designed to simulate seasonal and diurnal cycles, synoptic variations, and spatial distributions of atmospheric chemical constituents in the tropo- sphere. Tracer transport is simulated with semi-Lagrangian transport algorithm. The vertical mixing by the boundary layer turbulence and penetrative convection are parameterized. We have tested the model performance against observations of radon-222 and SF 6. The long-lived tracer transport properties are also compared to the other models and observations using the simulation of atmospheric-CO2. Our results suggest that the model can produce realistic interhemispheric exchange rate and vertical tracer distributions in lower and mid troposphere. A new version (NIES05) of the transport model has been developed for simulating diurnally varying CO2 con- centrations at much finer horizontal resolution (0.25˚· 0.25˚· 47 level). The high resolution model results show large improvements in match with the observations at a continental site Tsukuba (~50km north-west of Tokyo). The NIES/FRCGC model is adopted to run on Earth Simulator for the purpose of source/sinks inversion of atmospheric-CO 2. We used interannually varying meteorology for the forward simulations of known CO2 fluxes and normalized emissions from 64 divisions of the globe for which CO2 fluxes are determined by inverse mod- eling of atmospheric-CO2. We have discussed the long-term trends and interannual variability in global and regional CO2 fluxes. The results suggest weak increases and reduction in total land/ocean and southern ocean sinks, respectively, for the period of 1982-2004. The estimated land flux variabilities have been explained by accounting for ecosystem response to inter-annual climate variability and forest fires.
Adaptability Performances of Cowpea [Vigna Unguiculata (L.) Walp] Genotypes in Ethiopia

Sixteen cowpea genotypes were tested at seven environments in experiment laid out in 4 x 4 triple lattice designs during 2016/17 cropping season. The combined analysis of variance over environments showed significant differences among genotypes, environments, and significant effect of GEI on grain yield, days to flowering, days to maturity, plant height and pods per plants. Analysis of varaiance for grain yield from AMMI model, indicated the contribution of genotype, environment and GEI accounted for about 63.3%, 5.3%, and 29.7% of the total sum of squares, respectively. The result indicated environment was contributed much to the observed variations suggested the need to test cowpea genotypes at diverse environments. Two genotypes, IT-99K-1060a (1398.8 kg/ha) and 86D-378 (1377.1 kg/ha) had first and second highest yield, identified as responsive to both environments but more to favorable environments suggested the need to further test to develop as varieties. Other two genotypes, 95K-1095-4A and 93K-619-1, identified as highly responsive to environments suggested to consider the genotypes as candidate varieties where they performed best. Keywords : Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interaction, Triple lattice and GIE.
Brazilian Multinationals' Ownership Mode: The Influence of Institutional Factors and Firm Characteristics

This work investigates whether host countries institutional factors and firm characteristics can help the understanding of Brazilian multinationals' choices of ownership mode for their foreign direct investments (FDI). Brazil is a privileged locus for research on emerging market multinationals (EMNEs), given its growing stock of outward FDI. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the international strategic choices of EMNEs. First, the phenomenon under study is examined using the theoretical lenses of institutionalism. Second, the study looks at the relationship between state support and choice of ownership mode, a new issue in the area of international business. Third, differences between the decisions taken by manufacturing and service EMNEs are also examined. Fourth, the study focuses on an emerging country, Brazil. The quality of the regulatory environment of the host country, and differences in beliefs, cultural identity and management practices between the host country and the country of origin are factors of the institutional environment significantly related to the choice of ownership mode by Brazilian EMNEs. As to firm characteristics, our results show that state support favors the choice of joint ventures, and that service EMNEs also significantly prefer joint ventures, when compared to manufacturing firms. The findings also support the view that EMNEs are less sensitive to institutional weaknesses in host countries.
Cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of Centella asiatica extract in the cultured human peripheral blood lymphocytes

Centella asiatica (CA) is a medicinal herb which has been valued in ayurvedic medicine for its different activities. In the present studies, CA methanolic extract was prepared by Soxhlet extraction and then evaluated for the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity in cultured human peripheral blood lymphocytes. Mitotic Index (MI) Cell Proliferation Kinetics (CPK) and Sister-chromatid exchanges (SCE) were scored to measure the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of the CA extract in cultures set up from the three different healthy donors. The treatment of the cell culture was done employing two different CA methanolic extract concentrations (500 & 1000 µg/ml) and the control (did not receive any additive). Our present studies revealed that the MI, CPK and SCES for control are 4.28, 0.49 and 6.08 respectively where as the CA extracts has the MI, CPK and SCES for 500µg/ml are 4.07, 0.47 and 5.84 respectively and for 1000 µg/ml are 3.96, 0.46 and 5.52 respectively. From the results, we can conclude that the MI and frequency of SCES of CA methanolic extracts are almost similar to that of control which indicates that the CA plant extracts has no significant cytotoxicity and genotoxicity effects in cultured human peripheral blood lymphocytes.
On the Relationship between Corporate Reputation and Brand Trust – an Investigation of three Corporate Brands’

In today’s corporate world, where the market place demands the highest of standards on companies and their products, it is of detrimental nature that consumers possess trust for the brands that define their lives. While research has previously been able to demonstrate the relationship between negative corporate reputation and brand trust, this paper aims to further investigate reasons for why and how this is. In order to investigate this imperative question a multiple case study approach, where in-depth interviews was the primary research method, has been employed. The Swedish companies IKEA, SAAB Automotive and SJ are not only well known in Sweden, but they are also continuously under intense media pressure and were therefore chosen to be the focal cases for the study. The comparative analysis of these cases proved the central importance of the product, the importance of the consumers’ relationship to the brand and the importance of sound corporate governance and management in the creation of brand trust among consumers today. The main effect that negative corporate reputation has on brand trust is derived from these three themes according to the conclusions presented in this study. The study also furthered the understanding of the interrelationship between functional aspects and social aspects of corporate reputation in the creation of brand trust through our interviews. Regarding which functional aspects where found to be of prime importance in the creation of trust.
Numerical Studies to Predict the Impact of Air Nozzle Position and Inclination on the Performance of Downdraft Gratifier

Biomass gasification is one of the promising technologies to produce energy from the renewable energy sources, and the downdraft biomass gasifier is a widely used biomass energy conversion device. Among the various components of a gasifier, the position and the inclination of air nozzle have a vital role in the generation of producer gas. Therefore, a proper design is needed to fix the position and angle of the air nozzle. Keeping the above aspects, the present work focuses on the numerical simulation to predict the appropriate position and inclination of the air nozzle in a 50kWth imbert type downdraft gasifier by the species transport approach. The nozzle inclination varies from 0°, 20°, 30°, 45° and 60°, and the nozzle position is considered from 50mm, 100mm, 150mm and 200mm respectively. Experiments were also conducted to validate the numerical study. Both the studies show that the nozzle inclination at 45° and its position at 100mm above the reduction zone gives a reasonable composition of producer gas.
An analysis of fish‐habitat associations on disturbed coral reefs: chaetodontid fishes in New Caledonia

A concordance analysis was used to study the simultaneous influence of several environmental data sets on chaetodontid (butterflyfish) distributions. This multivariate and multitable method enabled the correlation of three types of benthic characteristics (mineral substratum, coverage of structural species and large echinoderms) with butterflyfish abundances in two bays of the urban centre of Noumea (New Caledonia). The first concordance axis was related to a gradient in the coverage of branching corals. This disturbance gradient compared damaged reef areas dominated by long-spined sea urchins to areas with an extensive coverage of branching corals. The abundance of corallivorous chaetodontids was related to this gradient, supporting the view of corals as a food and shelter source for these fishes. The second concordance axis was interpreted as a gradient of heterogeneity in the coverage of benthic life-forms. The abundance of omnivorous chaetodontids was related to this gradient. Thus, the concordance axes defined two key components of habitat structure that were related to the entire fish community structure.
Oxidation behavior of titanium nitride films

The oxidation behavior of titanium nitride (TiN) films has been investigated by using x-ray diffraction, Raman scattering spectroscopy, and field emission scanning electron microscopy. TiN films were deposited onto Si substrates by using cathodic arc plasma deposition technique. After that, the films were annealed in the air at 500–800 °C for 2 h. The x-ray diffraction spectra showed that rutile–TiO2 appeared above 600 °C. The relative intensity of TiO2 rapidly increased with temperatures. Only rutile–TiO2 was detected above 700 °C. Raman scattering spectra indicated the presence of rutile–TiO2 signals above 500 °C. Meanwhile an additional Si peak appeared at 700 °C in Raman spectra, above which only Si peak appeared. Many nano pores were found on the surface of films annealed at temperatures between 600 and 700 °C in field emission scanning electron microscopy, while the granular structure existed at 800 °C. The as-deposited TiN films had an apparent columnar structure. The thin and dense oxide overlayer.
Prospects for the Biological Control of Invasive Pinus Species (Pinaceae) in South Africa

Nine Pinus species (Pinaceae) have become invasive plants in South Africa after being deliberately introduced and cultivated in commercial forests, for timber. A proposal to use biological control to contain the problem raised concerns among foresters who immediately identified a number of difficulties that could arise for the forestry industry if biological control agents were to be introduced. As a compromise, plans were made to target, initially at least, two pine species, Pinus pinaster Alton and Pinus halepensis Mill, that currently have no commercial value. A cone-feeding weevil from Portugal, Pissodes validirostris Gyllenhal (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), was identified as the most promising agent. Formerly regarded as a single species, extensive preparatory studies revealed that there are several different forms (perhaps a complex of sibling species) of P. validirostris each associated with different pine species in different regions of Europe. Screening tests in arboreta in France showed that the prospective agent was host-specific enough to be used with safety in South Africa. Despite this positive finding, the programme did not proceed much further because subsequent trials in quarantine in South Africa showed that damage caused by the adult weevils feeding on leader shoots of pines allowed ingress of pitch canker, Fusarium circinatum Nirenberg and O'Donnell (Hypocreales: Nectriaceae), an increasingly problematic pathogen in pine forests in South Africa. However, given the escalating negative consequences of pine tree invasions, especially in the Cape Floral Region, the question of whether or not this biological control programme should have been discontinued in 2009 remains open for debate and the opposing views on the subject are presented.
Is high-resolution inverse characterization of heterogeneous river bed hydraulic conductivities needed and possible?

River-aquifer exchange fluxes influence local and regional water balances and affect groundwater and river water quality and quantity. Unfortunately, river-aquifer ex- change fluxes tend to be strongly spatially variable, and it is an open research question to which degree river bed het- erogeneity has to be represented in a model in order to achieve reliable estimates of river-aquifer exchange fluxes. This research question is addressed in this paper with the help of synthetic simulation experiments, which mimic the Limmat aquifer in Zurich (Switzerland), where river-aquifer exchange fluxes and groundwater management activities play an important role. The solution of the unsaturated- saturated subsurface hydrological flow problem including river-aquifer interaction is calculated for ten different syn- thetic realities where the strongly heterogeneous river bed hydraulic conductivities (L) are perfectly known. Hydraulic head data (100 in the default scenario) are sampled from the synthetic realities. In subsequent data assimilation experi- ments, whereL is unknown now, the hydraulic head data are used as conditioning information, with the help of the en- semble Kalman filter (EnKF). For each of the ten synthetic realities, four different ensembles of L are tested in the exper- iments with EnKF; one ensemble estimates high-resolution L fields with different L values for each element, and the other three ensembles estimate effectiveL values for 5, 3 or 2 zones. The calibration of higher-resolution L fields (i.e. fully heterogeneous or 5 zones) gives better results than the cali- bration ofL for only 3 or 2 zones in terms of reproduction of states, stream-aquifer exchange fluxes and parameters. Ef- fectiveL for a limited number of zones cannot always repro- duce the true states and fluxes well and results in biased es- timates of net exchange fluxes between aquifer and stream. Also in case only 10 head data are used for conditioning, the high-resolution characterization of L fields with EnKF is still feasible. For less heterogeneous river bed hydraulic conductivities, a high-resolution characterization of L is less important. When uncertainties in the hydraulic parameters of the aquifer are also regarded in the assimilation, the errors in state and flux predictions increase, but the ensemble with a high spatial resolution for L still outperforms the ensembles with effective L values. We conclude that for strongly het- erogeneous river beds the commonly applied simplified rep- resentation of the streambed, with spatially homogeneous pa- rameters or constant parameters for a few zones, might yield significant biases in the characterization of the water balance. For strongly heterogeneous river beds, we suggest adopting a stochastic field approach to model the spatially heteroge- neous river beds geostatistically. The paper illustrates that EnKF is able to calibrate such heterogeneous streambeds on the basis of hydraulic head measurements, outperforming zonation approaches.
An Empirical Study of Emotional Intelligence and Stress in College Students

A growing body of research indicates that emotional intelligence is an important factor for student success. In this paper, we examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and stress. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found a significant relationship between one dimension of emotional intelligence (use of emotions) and stress. We also found that age and gender impacted emotional intelligence and stress. Findings from this study have implications for students and universities.
The Use of Pre-Reading Activities in Reading Skills Achievement in Preschool Education.

Although wealth of empirical researches have covered the impact of crucial, indispensable role reading skills play in the development of individuals’ mental faculties through the acquisition of knowledge in a particular language, scientific works on the assessment of the relationship(s) between pre-reading activities (consisting of games, puzzle solving, match making) and reading skills achievement remain depressingly scanty in Ghana. This study in the light of foregoing atmosphere explored how pre-reading activities facilitate pre-reading and reading skills among preschoolers with the use of randomized experimental control groups design which adopted pre and post-test of two classes, as well as observation guides to diagnose the problem of reading among the KG children in the two groups (control and treatment groups). The findings from these experimentations clearly portrayed the significant influence that pre-reading activities exert on the level of preschoolers reading skills achievements. Upon thorough analysis, and discussions predicated on the research outcome, it has been recommended that preschool educators incorporate levelappropriate pre-reading activities to enrich Preschool Education in Ghana.
Comparative Development and Parasitization of Trichogramma chilonis Ishii and Trichogrammatoidea bactrae Nagaraja Under Different Temperature Conditions

Development and parasitization of two egg parasitoids Trichogramma chilonis (TC) and Trichogrammatoidea bactrae (TrB) were compared after their exposure to different temperature regimes under laboratory conditions. There was no significant difference between species at different temperatures. However, biological response of both species varied significantly temperature wise. Their development from egg to adult emergence prolonged (26.3 and 25.6 days) at 15°C followed by 20°C (16.6 and17.0 days) and 25°C (13.0 and 12.6 days) for TC and TrB, respectively. Whereas, it was reduced to 7 days both at 30 and 35°C. No development was recorded at 10°C. Host parasitization was 90.6 and 90.4% at 25°C followed by 88.4 and 87.5% at 20°C and 83.5 and 81.4% at 15 o C for TC and TrB respectively. Whereas, it decreased to 56.7 for TC and 54.4 for TrB at 35°C. The maximum adult emergence (94.4 vs. 93.8 %) was recorded at 25 o C and the minimum (40.6 vs. 36.1%) at 35 o C for TC and TrB, respectively. Adult males survived for a shorter period than adult females at all temperature regimes. However, survival was the maximum at low than at high temperatures. There was no significant difference in sex ratio against all temperatures. However, more females were recorded than males at 20 and 25 o C. Significantly high change in ratio of males to female was 1: 1.9 and 1:1.7 in TC and TrB at 25 o C than 1:1.6 and 1:1.7 at 20 o C, respectively. All life parameters of both egg parasitoids were very favorable at 25 o C for getting maximum adult recovery while high temperatures (30 and 35 o C) and low temperatures (15 and 20 o C) affected adversely the fitness of the parasitoids.