Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trade models in the European Union

By studying the factors underlying differences in trade performance across European economies, this paper derives six different ? trade models? for 22 EU countries and explores their developmental and distributional dynamics. We first introduce a typology of trade models by clustering countries on the basis of four key dimensions of trade performance: endowments, technological specialisation, labour market characteristics and regulatory requirements. The resulting clusters comprise countries that base their export success on similar trade models. Our results indicate the existence of six different trade models: the ? primary goods model? (Latvia, Estonia), the ? finance model? (Luxembourg), the ? flexible labour market model? (UK), the ? periphery model? (Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France), the ? industrial workbench model? (Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic), and the ? hightech model? (Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Germany and Austria). Subsequently, we provide a comparative analysis of the economic development and trends in inequality across these trade models. Inter alia, we observe a shrinking wage share and increasing personal income inequality in most of them, yet find that the ? high-tech model? is an exceptional case, being characterised by relatively stable economic development and an institutional setting that managed to counteract rising inequality.
Image Annotation by Object Hypotheses-oriented Deep Neural Networks

Image annotation generates a set of semantic labels that describe the contents of an input image. Recently deep learning techniques have achieved significant success in many areas of image processing. In this paper, we present a multi-label image annotation method that combines unsupervised object hypotheses generation and deep neural network. Given an image, object hypotheses are generated in an unsupervised manner. Then we extract the image features for each hypothesis with a deep neural network model. By combining the features of all hypotheses, we get the features of the entire image. Finally, we calculate for each label the probability of that the label is correlated with the given image. It can be trained in an end-to-end way using the standard backward propagation algorithm. Experimental results on multiple benchmark datasets show that our method is better than the state-of-the-art ones.
Profitability effects of financial globalization in an emerging market banking industry: insights into Turkey

The massive financial liberalization followed by accelerating financial globalization leaded to significant structural changes in the financial sector. Since financial institutions play a dominant role in functioning of financial sector, especially in emerging markets where banking industries are generally among the most sensitive sectors to increased interconnectedness of financial markets, how financial globalization actually affects the efficiency of financial intermediation is a vital question. However, although there exists plenty of research focusing on financial integration, impacts of financial globalization is untouched. Hence, this study investigates the bank profitability effects of financial globalization through focusing on an emerging market, Turkey and searches for any potential differences that may prevail among banks with different ownership structures. The findings indicate that while the market based profitability measures improve with financial globalization, the accounting based measures deteriorate pinpointing to an over optimism in the market which in turn brings in mispricing problems. Besides, ownership structure is found to affect the market based measures where banks with domestic and private ownerships are found to benefit more. However, since no significant distinction could be detected among any of the ownership compositions for accounting based profitability measures, such misappraisals seem to foster the optimism in the market.
The Impact of Low-Cost Carriers on inbound Tourism of Thailand

Outbound tourism primarily concerns air travel due to the limited options for transportation. Many studies related to aviation and tourism have been conducted. However, most studies are in the US and European context, with only a few cases having been studied in Asia. The purpose of this research is to focus on the development of Low-Cost carriers (LCCs) in major Asian nations. Particularly, it aims to study the influence of LCCs on Thailand’s tourism. To investigate if LCCs contribute to an increase in Thailand’s tourism demand, multiple regression analysis with key indicators is employed using monthly data from January 2013 to December 2017. The findings reveal that LCCs have a positive impact on Thailand’s tourism. Furthermore, LCCs are the main factor in Thailand’s tourism demand. It is necessary to consider the future development of LCCs and whether LCCs can play an important role in the tourism supply chain in the future.
The “Commitment Projection” Effect: When Multiple Payments for a Product Affect Defection from a Service

Many service providers offer supplementary products related to their ongoing services (e.g., fitness centers offer fitness smartwatches). In seven studies, the authors show that the payment method for such supplementary products (multiple payments vs. a single lump sum) affects customers’ tendency to defect from the provider’s core service over time. Specifically, when customers pay for add-ons in multiple payments—provided that (1) they perceive the add-on as being bundled with the core service and (2) the payment period has an end point—they are initially less likely to defect from the service provider than when they pay in a single payment. Over time, however, as payments are made, this gap closes, such that defection intentions under the two payment methods eventually become similar. The authors propose that this phenomenon reflects “commitment projection,” wherein a decrease in customers’ commitment to the add-on product over time is projected onto their commitment to the service provider. These findings carry important managerial implications, given that many service providers offer add-on products in multiple-payment plans and that customers’ defection decisions substantially affect firms’ profitability.
Educational Health Program for Mothers toward Their Preschool Children’s Oral Health

Background: Mothers play a basic role in the oral health of children. Aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of educational health program on mothers' knowledge and practices toward their preschool children’s oral health. Subjects and methods: Research design: A quasi-experimental design was used in this study. Setting: The study was conducted at dental outpatient clinic of Benha University Hospital. Subjects: A convenient sample was used in this study, the total number of mothers of preschool children in the above mentioned setting were 60.Tools of data collection: A structured interviewing questionnaire sheet: it consisted of 4 parts used to assess: 1) the socio-demographic characteristics of mothers, 2) the dental history of the children, 3) knowledge of mothers regarding child's oral health, 4) practices of mothers regarding their children oral health. Results: of this study showed; 43.3% of the mothers aged from 20 to less than 30 years old. 55 % of them were living in rural area, and 28.3% had secondary education. As regard total knowledge of mothers regarding their preschool children oral health; before the program implementation; 47 % of them had good total knowledge scores, while after the program implementation increased to 77 % of them. Concerning to total practices of mothers regarding their preschool children oral health; 43.3 % of them were satisfactory before the program implementation and increased to 80 % after the program implementation. Conclusion: This study concluded that: Educational health program has showed a highly statistically significant effect on knowledge and practices of the mothers post program and improving their knowledge and practices regarding their preschool children oral health. Recommendations: The study recommended that: Well-designed educational health program are needed in dental outpatient clinics at large sample and further research is needed for the maintaining children oral health
Coordination, cooperation and collaboration in logistics and supply chains: a bibliometric analysis

Wiesbaden, Hessen, Germany *kotzab@uni-bremen.de Abstract Paper aims: This paper identifies, evaluates and structures the research that focuses on supply chain coordination, cooperation and collaboration (CCC) within the domain of production economics and reveals its intellectual foundation. Originality: The paper develops a distinct CCC-model, which enables a clear distinction between the elements of CCC based on five criteria. Afterwards, it presents the most influential papers and authors when it comes to CCC in supply chain production economics research. It also provides a visualised intellectual structure of five citation subfields and their interrelations. Research method: Based on the reference list of more than 270 CCC-related papers, the authors perform a citation and co-citation analysis of the 47 most frequently cited papers in one selected academic journal. This analysis included multidimensional scaling, factor analysis as well as cluster analysis. Main findings: The study reveals the intellectual base of CCC in a production economic-specific research domain, which reflects coordination only. The citation clusters represent different aspects of supply chain coordination mechanisms such as contractual agreements, information sharing and buyer-vendor integration. One subfield represents methodological aspects. Implications for theory and practice: Neither cooperation nor collaboration related sources were identified in the most frequently used papers which certainly offers a research gap that needs to be
The Economics of the Egyptian Stock Market and the Financing of Tourism and Hospitality Projects: A Comparative Study of some Arab Stock Markets

Stock Markets are an important part of the economics of the Arabian countries. Securities tradedon a stock exchange include stock issued by listed firms and bonds. The current study aims toinvestigate the effect of Stock Split on Market Capitalization and Market Value in Hospitalityand Tourism in three Bourses. For the purpose of the study, determinations of whether StockSplit made by Hospitality and Tourism Sector Index’s firms on the Egyptian Exchange, SaudiArabian Stock Exchange and Bahrain Bourse have an effect on the splitting firms. The study useshistorical quantitative data during the period (2010:2018) collected from (ASMs). Based onlinear regression analysis, the findings in Travel and Leisure Index in The Egyptian Exchangeindicated that there is a significant positive relationship effect of Stock Split on MarketCapitalization, Market Value, and Market Value on Market Capitalization. Furthermore, theresults showed that in Tourism and Hotels index in Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange there is asignificant positive relationship effect of Stock Split on Market Capitalization, Market Value,and Market Value on Market Capitalization. In addition, the results showed that in Hotels andTourism in Bahrain Bourse there is a significant positive relationship between of Stock Split onMarket Capitalization, Market Value, and Market Value on Market Capitalization. The resultsalso revealed that Stock Split on Market Capitalization, Market Value, and Market Value onMarket Capitalization was considered the most criterion validity in the three Bourses.
Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage

Understanding sources of sustained competitive advantage has become a major area of research in strategic management. Building on the assumptions that strategic resources are heterogeneously distributed acrossfirms and that these differences are stable over time, this article examines the link betweenfirm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Four empirical indicators of the potential of firm resources to generate sustained competitive advantage-value, rareness, imitability, and substitutability-are discussed. The model is applied by analyzing the potential of severalfirm resourcesfor generating sustained competitive advantages. The article concludes by examining implications of this firm resource model of sustained competitive advantage for other business disciplines.
Credit Information and Asset Quality of Commercial Banks in Nakuru Town, Kenya

The study sought to establish the effect of credit information on the asset quality of commercial banks in Nakuru Town, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study are to determine the effect of collateral information on asset quality of commercial banks in Nakuru Town, Kenya, to determine the effect of business ratings information on the asset quality of commercial banks in Nakuru Town, Kenya, to determine the effect of consumer identity verification information on the asset quality of commercial banks in Nakuru Town, Kenya, to determine the effect of customers credit status information on asset quality of commercial banks in Nakuru Town, Kenya and to establish the effect of consumer default information details on asset quality of commercial banks. The literature review focused on bank risk management theory, loanable funds theory, Merton’s default risk model and asymmetric information theory. Primary data was collected using questionnaires in order to get accurate results. The study used regression analysis and the findings revealed that Business Ratings and Collateral Information significantly influences up to 59.4% and 17.6% positive variation on Asset quality respectively. This implies that for every one unit increase in business ratings information asset quality increases by 59.4 % while collateral information increases asset quality increase by 17.6 %. It was also observed that consumer default information significantly influences 36.3% positive variation on asset quality. However, it was noted that Customer’s Credit Status Information significantly influences 32.5% negative variation on Asset quality. This implies that for every one unit increase in Customer’s Credit Status Information, Asset quality decreases by 32.5%. Similarly, Consumer Identity Verification Information influences negatively Asset quality by 9.3%. In this study, Business ratings information is the best predictor of asset quality. It was concluded that Collateral information, business ratings information and consumer default information influences positively asset quality. However, consumer identity verification information and customer’s credit status information influences negatively on asset quality. The study recommends that Collateral information should be controlled in order to promote positive loan performance by commercial banks as well as that business ratings information should be adequately provided in order to enhance quality assets of commercial banks. This is an open-access article published and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License of United States unless otherwise stated. Access, citation and distribution of this article is allowed with full recognition of the authors and the source.
A Flexible Lane Detection Algorithm for Dynamic Lighting Environments

On average four people get killed and 90 people get seriously injured on Australian roads every day, according to research conducted by the Australian government. Intelligent systems can help to reduce the number of accidents on the roads by creating tools to monitor the driver’s behaviour according to the lane path. Lane detectors are important tools and many approaches have been applied to solve the lane detection problem, but most of them are not capable of dealing with dynamic lighting efficiently. The current approaches still rely in expensive computational effort and long training phases. The reliability of the lane detection is a key component for safe navigation on the roads and an automatic solution becomes an interesting topic to explore. This research proposes a vision-based software architecture which combines an appearance-based analysis with salient point tracking, automatically adapting to different lighting situations. It aims to increase the efficiency and accuracy for the detection of the leftor rightmost lane boundary (ego-lane) providing a flexible software architecture to support drivers and to be extended to driverless vehicle control. The experiments exposed a series of important facts to address. First, the adaptive appearance-based analysis is capable of segmenting multiple lane painting marks. Second, the system can reduce the false positive detection by using an efficient road model. The proposed model guides the image processing cues to focus on relevant Regions-Of-Interest (ROIs) for lane marking detection instead of the analysing the whole image. The salient point tracker is based on an abstract mathematical representation of the drivable corridor. It can effectively guide dynamic ROIs improving accuracy and performance. Finally but nonetheless, independent dynamic ROIs can keep track of the painted markings based on the references detected in previous frames while automatically adapting to diverse lighting situations, to accurately estimate the position of the lane markings on the road surface in respect to the vehicle. This method aims to reduce the complexity of lane marking detection while increasing its efficiency and accuracy by proposing an architecture that combines multiple image-processing cues with an optimised lane detection model. The following chapters illustrate how substantial this contribution becomes to reduce the number of accidents on the roads. Statement of Originality This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
What makes HFTs tick? Tick size changes and information advantage in a market with fast and slow traders

We study the impact that two trading rule changes in the interdealer spot foreign exchange market, a reduction in the "tick size'' and a subsequent increase, had on the trading behavior of various types of market participants. We find that the most notable impact of the tick size reduction was a substantial increase in the liquidity demand of high-frequency traders (HFTs), not the decrease in their liquidity provision predicted by recent literature. We show that this change in behavior was linked to the richer information environment that arose after the tick size reduction and to the ability of faster traders to exploit it. Following the tick size decrease, and owing importantly to the increase in liquidity consumption by HFTs, the role of the spot market in price discovery dropped relative to that of the futures market. This points to the need for a balanced market ecology in financial markets where fast and slow traders coexist.
The Role of Technological Acceptance and E-Service Quality in Predicting Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

This study investigated the influence of technology acceptance factors and e-service quality towards customer satisfaction and loyalty in online shopping context. An on-line causal survey was conducted in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Sample was selected by purposive sampling criteria involving 150 users of a certain marketplace. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results showed that (1) technology acceptance significantly affects customer loyalty, (2) technology acceptance also significantly affects customer satisfaction, (3) eservice quality has a significant impact on consumer satisfaction, while (4) e-service quality does not have a significant impact on customer loyalty, and (5) customer satisfaction has a significant impact on consumer loyalty. Keywords—technology acceptance factors; e-service quality; customer satisfaction customer loyalty; online shopping
The Effect of Peer Influence on Sales Tax Compliance Among Jordanian SMEs

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of peer influence on sales tax compliance of Jordanian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). While the impact of peer influence on income tax compliance has been examined by prior research, the effect of peer influence on sales tax compliance of SMEs has been neglected. Therefore, this study is the first to examine this relationship among Jordanian SMEs. A questionnaire has been used to collect data from the study sample, which consisted of 212 owner-managers of SMEs. The research hypothesis was then tested using PLS-SEM software. This study provides the first evidence that peer influence has an insignificant impact on sales tax compliance among Jordanian SMEs. According to the finding, the implications of the study as well as suggestions for future studies are also discussed.
Pedestrian multi-class speed-density relationship: evaluation of integrated and sequential approach

The focus of this paper is the modeling of speed-density relationship for pedestrian movements using the potential of detailed tracking observations (Alahi et al., 2014). This relationship is in the literature usually specified under the assumption that the traffic system is at equilibrium, that is stationary and homogenous (Jabari et al., 2014). The empirical analysis we have performed rules out the use of a unique equilibrium relationship, due to a high scatter in the data. We attribute the observed scatter to the violation of the homogeneity assumption, and specify a multi-class model of the speed-density relationship. We propose the integrated approach and more data-driven sequential approach to the specification of the model, and evaluate their performance using real data.
Oral Health Knowledge and Behavior of Clinical Medical, Dental And Paramedical Students In Mangalore

Medical, Dental and Paramedical students play an important role in oral health care and promotion. Learning in these professional institutions becomes ineffective unless it leads to a profound change in student’s behavior and attitude towards improvement of their own personal health. This study aims to find out the difference in oral health knowledge and behavior of clinical medical, dental and paramedical students in the Yenepoya Educational Institutions, Mangalore.
Intrafirm knowledge transfer of agile software practices: barriers and their relations

ABSTRACT Agile software practices are widely used in a great variety of organizations, and the shift from traditional plan-driven approaches entails a redefinition of processes in these organizations. Intrafirm knowledge transfer of agile software practices between projects is a key concern in this redefinition. While knowledge transfer is essential for an organization to develop or keep its competitive advantage, it is also both difficult and time consuming, due to a wide range of barriers. Transferring knowledge on agile practices is even more complex due to there being a high degree of tacit knowledge. Research on knowledge of agile practices focuses on adoption of agile practices within a single team, thus extant research lacks focus on intrafirm transfer. Through a case study, this article investigates the intrafirm knowledge transfer of agile practices. With a starting point as the theory of barriers to knowledge transfer, we modify and extend the framework to transferring knowledge of agile practices. This framework is subsequently applied for interpreting and analyzing the case study data. The analysis shows how these barriers (e.g., the organizational culture, time and resources, knowledge strategy, and motivation and willingness) are related and that they cannot be understood in isolation. The barriers and their relations are brought together in a conceptual model and its relevance is discussed.