Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can oil and precious metal price forecast exchange and interest rate movement in Bangladesh?

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the predictive power of world oil and precious metal price for exchange rate (BDT/US dollar) and interest rate movements using monthly data spanning from January 1990 to April 2016. Using a structural VAR with identification restriction, our impulse response and variance decomposition analysis suggest that oil price has a significant influence in forecasting both exchange and interest rate in short-run. Whereas, precious metal (i.e. gold and silver) price tends to display overshooting behavior on interest rate in both short and long horizons. This evidence also suggests that shocks to exchange rate account for a substantial share of fluctuations in interest rate. The findings offer major quantitative evidence for central bank policy makers, investors, hedge and portfolio managers.
Role of age and gender in the adoption of m-commerce in Australia

Article history: Received 9 April 2019 Received in revised form 28 July 2019 Accepted 29 July 2019 Sale and purchase of goods and services through m-commerce (or mobilecommerce) are ever increasing. Australia’s m-commerce users are increased from 0.62 million in December 2010 to 3.4 million in December 2013, an increase of 448 percent. This is why the businesses world over is adopting this medium very fast to reach out to their target customers. Age and gender have always been important factors in devising business strategy for any product or service. This paper evaluates the motivation of Australians towards choosing m-commerce over the traditional in-store purchase or the e-commerce with reference to age and gender. Primary data was collected based on a set questionnaire of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The participants of this study were Australian residents above 18 years of age. A total of 61 positive responses were received from respondents. The results show that perceived usefulness has an impact on the use of mcommerce by men whereas women are more influenced by perceived ease of use. To sum up, companies need to spend more resources and efforts to build the trust of customers in m-commerce, communicate their usefulness and enhance its ease of use by making their websites user friendly.
TURKISH BANKING SECTOR PERFORMANCE ANALYSES

Bu calisma, DuPont analizi ve CAMELS derecelendirme tekniklerinden yararlanarak 2001 - 2017 yillari arasinda Turk bankacilik sektorunun zayifliklarini ve guclu yonlerini degerlendirmektedir. Turkiye’nin Avrupa Birligi uyeligi hedefleri kapsaminda 2001 finansal krizi sonrasinda uygulanan guclu ekonomiye gecis programinin etkileri ve sonuclari incelenerek degerlendirlmistir. Genel olarak, 2001 ekonomik krizinden sonra uygulanan finansal iyilesme politikalari sayesinde, bankacilik sektoru guclenerek gelismis ve analiz edilen birimler arasindaki performans boslugu daralmistir. Geleneksel oran analizlerinin ileri modellerle tutarli oldugu bulunmustur. Beseri sermaye, yonetsel beceriler ve organizasyonel yapi, yuksek kalitede cikti saglamaktadir; ancak Donuk Alacaklarin(NPL) eksik saglama(skimping) hipotezinin gosterdigi gibi, yeterli bir risk yonetim departmanina duyulan ihtiyacin devam ettigi gorulmektedir. Mevduat bankalari devlet, ozel ve yabanci bankalar olarak siniflandirlmistir. Yabanci bankalarin performansi en kotudur. Turk bankacilik sektorundeki devlete ait mevduat bankalari rakiplerinden daha iyi performans gostermektedir, ancak bu durum yabanci bankalarin sistem disina cikmasinin genel performansi artiracagi anlamina gelmemelidir. Turk bankalarinin varlik kalitesi riskini ve piyasa riskini yonetmede yabanci bankalara gore daha dusuk bir performans gosterdigi gorulmektedir. Saglam ve surdurulebilir bir sistemi korumak icin, ozellikle aktif kalitesi ve likidite yonetimi alanlarinda basarili politikalar devam etmelidir. Ayrica, finansal aktorler uzerinde olumsuz etkilere sahip olsa bile, denetleyici otorite seffafligi artirilmalidir.
Identifying Spatial Patterns of Retail Stores in Road Network Structure

Understanding the spatial patterns of retail stores in urban areas contributes to effective urban planning and business administration. A variety of methods have been proposed in the scientific literature to identify the spatial patterns of retail stores. These methods invariably employ arbitrary grid cells or administrative units (e.g., census tracts) as the fundamental analysis units. As most urban retail stores are distributed along street networks, using area-based analysis units is subject to statistical biases and may obfuscate the spatial pattern to some extent. Using the street segment as the analysis unit, this paper derives the spatial patterns of retail stores by crawling points of interest (POI) data in Zhengzhou, a city in central China. Then, the paper performs the network-based kernel density estimation (NKDE) and employs several network metrics, including the global, local, and weighted closeness centrality. Additionally, the paper discusses the correlation between the NKDE value and the closeness centrality across different store types. Further analysis indicates that stores with a high correlation tend to be distributed in city centers and subnetwork centers. The comparison between NKDE and cell-based KDE shows that our proposed method can address potential statistical issues induced by the area-based unit analysis. Our finding can help stakeholders better understand the spatial patterns and trends of small business expansion in urban areas and provide strategies for sustainable planning and development.
Artificial intelligence for the real-time classification of intrapapillary capillary loop patterns in the endoscopic diagnosis of early oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma: A proof-of-concept study

Background Intrapapillary capillary loops (IPCLs) represent an endoscopically visible feature of early squamous cell neoplasia (ESCN) which correlate with invasion depth – an important factor in the success of curative endoscopic therapy. IPCLs visualised on magnification endoscopy with Narrow Band Imaging (ME-NBI) can be used to train convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to detect the presence and classify staging of ESCN lesions. Methods A total of 7046 sequential high-definition ME-NBI images from 17 patients (10 ESCN, 7 normal) were used to train a CNN. IPCL patterns were classified by three expert endoscopists according to the Japanese Endoscopic Society classification. Normal IPCLs were defined as type A, abnormal as B1–3. Matched histology was obtained for all imaged areas. Results This CNN differentiates abnormal from normal IPCL patterns with 93.7% accuracy (86.2% to 98.3%) and sensitivity and specificity for classifying abnormal IPCL patterns of 89.3% (78.1% to 100%) and 98% (92% to 99.7%), respectively. Our CNN operates in real time with diagnostic prediction times between 26.17 ms and 37.48 ms. Conclusion Our novel and proof-of-concept application of computer-aided endoscopic diagnosis shows that a CNN can accurately classify IPCL patterns as normal or abnormal. This system could be used as an in vivo, real-time clinical decision support tool for endoscopists assessing and directing local therapy of ESCN.
Revisiting the South African Marketing Index

The high level of human involvement in marketing ensures that it is, and always will be, a dynamic business function. When the impact of accelerating technological developments is added, the dynamism often turns to volatility. The rapidly changing business environment necessitates regular consideration of the role of marketing in the business environment, both from an internal and external point of view. This study analyses marketing and marketing activities from a consumer perspective. It measures consumer attitudes towards the four P's and converts these scores to an overall 'attitude towards marketing' index. It also compares the results with a similar study conducted in 1990 (the 1990 study). The 1990 study reported a negative marketing index of -16.262. Older consumers in particular voiced their disapproval of marketing practices. Pricing was singled out as the most important bone of contention. The pricing and the pricing practices used by marketers were seen as often unfair and unreasonable. Advertising was also viewed rather sceptically. Retailing was the only marketing mix element to return a positive index. The results of this study show that the SA Marketing Index has declined from -16.262 in 1990 to -34.125 in 1993. The decline in the marketing index is primarily due to the considerable decline in the price index from -8.470 to -24.368, a slight decrease in the product index (from -2.719 to -9.939) and a marginal deterioration in the retailing index. The decline in the price index in particular was so severe that the improvement in the advertising index (from -6.434 to +0.606) had almost no influence on the marketing index. When the impact of demographic variables on attitudes were considered, Afrikaans-speaking consumers and those who are relatively well qualified academically, turned out to be particularly dissatisfied with marketing.
The impact of economic and political crises on the survival of tourism-related firms: Evidence from Antalya

This article examines the effects of economic and political crises on the survival of 7115 tourism-related firms (hotels, restaurants, travel agencies and spas) in the Antalya region between 2000 and 2016. Using a discrete-time hazards model, we show that tourism-related firms exhibit lower survival rates during times of crisis. We have also found that age, size and legal form increase survival rates. In addition, firms in tourism locations specialized subregions and subregions with higher entry rates have lower chances of survival, whereas firms in tourism destinations with large markets have higher chances to survive. Our empirical analysis suggests that hotels and travel agencies are more sensitive to macroeconomic and political shocks than other tourism-related businesses like restaurants and spas.
Moderating Effects of the Timing of Reward Determination and Performance Standards between Rewards and Self-Efficacy for Sustainable Intrinsic Motivation

The purpose of this study is to determine the moderating effects of the timing of reward determination and performance standards on the relationship between pay-for-performance and self-efficacy. It is an experimental study; the sample included 352 participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk, and an online experiment was conducted on an external website. The model was tested for mediation and moderation processes using regression analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed a mediating effect of self-efficacy between pay-for-performance and intrinsic motivation. A moderating effect of performance standards (absolute, relative, ambiguous) on the relationship between pay-for-performance and self-efficacy was also found. Moreover, performance standards were found to be more important moderators than the timing of reward determination. The theoretical contribution of this paper was to observe the concept of timing of reward determination and empirically validate self-determination theory. The results also infer that people measure their own efficacy or competence by comparing themselves with others more than with other performance standards. The use of absolute performance standards is recommended for sustainable self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation of employees. This study introduced the concept of the timing of reward determination (i.e., before or after completion of a performance-related task) and verified the moderating effect of performance standards.
Structural Results for Average‐Cost Inventory Models with Markov‐Modulated Demand and Partial Information

W e consider a discrete-time inﬁnite-horizon inventory system with non-stationary demand, full backlogging, and deterministic replenishment lead time. Demand arrives according to a probability distribution conditional on the state of the world that undergoes Markovian transitions over time. But the actual state of the world can only be imper-fectly estimated based on past demand data. We model the inventory replenishment problem for this system as a Markov decision process (MDP) with an uncountable state space consisting of both the inventory position and the most recent belief , a conditional probability mass function, about the actual state of the world. Assuming that the state of the world evolves as an ergodic Markov chain, using the vanishing discount method along with a coupling argument, we prove the existence of an optimal average cost that is independent of the initial system state. For our linear cost structure, we also establish the average-cost optimality of a belief-dependent base-stock policy. We then discretize the uncountable belief space into a regular grid and observe that the average cost under our discretization converges to the optimal average cost as the number of grid points grows large. Finally, we conduct numerical experiments to evaluate the use of a myopic belief-dependent base-stock policy as a heuristic for our MDP with the uncountable state space. On a test bed of 108 instances, the average cost obtained from the myopic policy deviates by no more than a few percent from the best lower bound on the optimal average cost obtained from our discretization.
Energy poverty and health: the Turkish case

ABSTRACT Energy poverty is significantly correlated with various health measures. This study investigates the links between energy poverty and health outcomes in Turkey. A nationally representative household survey is employed to provide empirical evidence for the relationship between a health status index and a self-reported energy poverty indicator. Multi-level model estimation results imply that energy poverty is negatively associated with health level of individuals. House conditions such as physical deficiencies and insulation problems display negative correlations with health status. Moreover, empirical findings reveal that the health statuses of individuals are essentially related to demographics and household-level factors rather than regional-level variables.
Advanced magnetic resonance imaging and metabolic studies of low grade gliomas in childhood

Introduction: Paediatric low grade brain tumours present diagnostic and prognostic challenges, providing a need for better non-invasive imaging characterization. The value of \(^1\)H Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) performed on 5 scanners in the diagnosis and prognostication of an extensive bi-centre cohort of low-grade gliomas is investigated. Methods: Single voxel MRS was performed routinely in children with brain tumours at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Queen’s Medical Centre. Histopathological features were semi-quantified and in vitro \(^1\)H NMR used to study pilocytic astrocytoma cell lines. Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging (MRSI) and texture analysis of MR images were performed. Results: MRS detects differences between subgroups of low grade brain tumours in children and between tumours of the same histology. High myo-inositol and glycerophosphocholine and low phosphocholine are markers of good prognosis. Histological correlates for MRS metabolites have been identified and paediatric pilocytic astrocytoma cell lines (‘typical’, metastatic and recurrence) have been discriminated. The value of MRSI in answering clinical questions has been demonstrated. Texture analysis achieved high accuracy in the diagnosis of paediatric posterior fossa tumours. Conclusion: Advanced MR techniques have a significant role in the study of paediatric brain tumours, and promising results from MRS, MRSI and texture analysis are reported here.
A Literature Review for Indigenous Men’s Groups

The vision of Indigenous men has been to take greater responsibility themselves to improve the status of men’s health and play their rightful role as leaders, fathers, uncles, husbands and grandfathers. They have adopted a diverse range of strategies, including the development of community-based men’s groups. Although there is considerable diversity in the composition and priorities of Indigenous Men’s Groups, they have a common aim of empowering men, supporting and being a role model for younger Indigenous men, and addressing the factors identified as contributing to social dissatisfaction and poor health and wellbeing in Indigenous communities. The scope of men’s groups is often very broad and holistic and they face a huge range of expectations, issues and challenges. Their resource base is generally very limited. It can be extremely challenging for men’s groups to know where to start, or how to direct their energies for maximum impact. This literature review is intended to provide a guide for men’s group leaders (and those who support them). It provides a brief overview of the available best practice evidence for a range of strategic initiatives which Indigenous men may consider to be important. It indicates possible directions and related issues which may help men’s groups clarify or prioritise their vision, assist with planning and implementing strategies, or provide evidence as a basis for advocacy to other organisations. How reliable are the sources of information used: The review is based on relevant Australian and international literature. It was conducted by searching multiple databases of the Austhealth library for relevant publications listed between 2001-2005. The breadth of this literature review has meant that both the theoretical frameworks and specific program or issue areas have been canvassed only to the extent of extracting key learnings. Hence, it is recommended that men’s groups that wish to focus on any specific area should conduct their own targeted literature search.
Modelling Interregional Cooperation in the Real Sector of the Russian Economy

The article substantiates the relevance of spatial development for Russian regions. The authors emphasize the importance of industrial cooperation for socio-economic and industrial development. The paper describes an empirical study of interregional relations of 10 subjects of Russia within the Ural and Volga Federal Districts, previously called the “Big Ural”. The article reveals the potential for interregional interaction using the spatial econometrics method. The results obtained lead to the conclusion that the most durable and effective interregional industrial cooperation is achieved with a cluster system of cooperation. The study shows that the development of interregional cooperation in a real economy requires the development of a unified economic policy based on the regions' competitive advantages.
The use of radial basis function and non-linear autoregressive exogenous neural networks to forecast multi-step ahead of time flood water level

Many different Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) models of flood have been developed for forecast updating. However, the model performance, and error prediction in which forecast outputs are adjusted directly based on models calibrated to the time series of differences between observed and forecast values, are very interesting and challenging task. This paper presents an improved lead time flood forecasting using Non-linear Auto Regressive Exogenous Neural Network (NARXNN), which shows better performance in term of forecast precision and produces minimum error compared to neural network method using Radial Basis Function (RBF) in examined 12-hour ahead of time. First, RBF forecasting model was employed to predict the flood water level of Kelantan River at Kuala Krai, Kelantan, Malaysia. The model is tested for 1-hour and 7-hour ahead of time water level at flood location. The same analysis has also been taken by NARXNN method. Then, a non-linear neural network model with exogenous input promoted with enhancing a forecast lead time to 12-hour. Both about the performance comparison has briefly been analyzed. The result verified the precision of error prediction of the presented flood forecasting model.
The impact of public debt service on economic growth: empirical evidence from Zambia

This study contributes to existing public debt service-economic growth literature by rendering empirical evidence from Zambia using time-series method covering the period from 1970 to 2017. The study applied the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds analysis technique which permits the simultaneous estimation of the long- and short-run model parameters. In overall terms, the empirical results reveal that the impact of government debt service on economic growth in Zambia is time-variant. Whereas the neutrality of public debt service on economic growth is confirmed in the long run, in the short run the relationship is negative. To achieve macroeconomic stability and realise sustainable economic growth rates, the paper recommends the Zambian government to, among other things, undertake active fiscal consolidation to ensure that debt repayments do not cause excessive budget overruns and are not financed from new debt; and continuously improve public debt management strategies and policies to smoothen government debt redemption profile.
Development of procedure to control flow distribution in water supply networks in real time

It is required to substantiate the method for determining the number of control nodes both during designing networks taking into consideration its supply, and in the process of its operation when hydraulic characteristics of the sections change. It is necessary in order to substantially reduce energy consumption of pumping equipment and to prevent significant leakage. The processes of formation of zones of insufficient head in water supply systems were explored. The method of flow distribution control in water supply network, which makes it possible to substantiate the necessary and sufficient number of control nodes and the place of their location, was proposed. It was shown that the resulting decisions are coordinated with the existing methods for ensuring the necessary head in a network. This opens additional opportunities in flow distribution control, namely, specification of control nodes location in the water supply system during its operation. As a result of the studies, the principle of determining the number of control nodes was proposed, which makes it possible, depending on the area of zones with insufficient head, to determine their necessary number when designing a water supply network and specify the location during operation. According to the presented procedure of flow distribution control in water supply systems, hydraulic calculations for various modes of water pumping are performed, water consumption in the sections that are in operation at the time of measurement of piezometer in control nodes is determined. The actual node heads are determined, the nodes on the border of the zones with insufficient head, from which, if necessary, additional head control nodes are assigned, are established. At the stage of networks designing, a change in operation parameters of the network is modeled. Piezometric marks in the nodes are determined relative to supply nodes, where the head value is specified. The criterion for selection of the number of control nodes and their location places is the magnitude of minimum head in them and the dimensions of the zones with insufficient head. There were developed the recommendations and supplements to existing practices of flow distribution control, which determine the number and location of control nodes at the stage of design and in the process of the operation of water supply networks. This makes it possible to maintain the necessary head in network nodes, prevent its exceeding, which helps to reduce leakage and power consumption costs at pumping stations