Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Active allocation among a large set of stocks : How effective is the parametric rule ?

In this study we measure the value of active money management. We explore this issue by comprehensively examining the parametric rule proposed by Brandt, Santa-Clara and Valkanov (2009) (the BSV rule) out-of-sample for portfolio choice among a large number of assets and comparing this rule to the mean-variance (MV) rule and the naïve 1/N rule recently advocated by DeMiguel, Garlappi and Uppal (2009). We find that the BSV rule outperforms both the MV and 1/N rules and the outperformance is robust to investment horizons and stock market states. The BSV rule is effective for investors with different preferences or investment opportunities. The effectiveness of the BSV rule is robust to data screening criteria, estimation periods, portfolio performance evaluation models, the business cycle, and stock market states. Our results suggest that the BSV rule is useful.
TRAIT AND SELF-PRESENTATION DIMENSIONS OF PERFECTIONISM AMONG WOMEN WITH ANOREXIA NERVOSA by SARAH

The purpose of this study was twofold: first to examine trait and self-presentation dimensions of perfectionism among women with anorexia nervosa compared to psychiatric and normal control women; and second, to explore the relationship between perfectionism dimensions and anorexic symptomatology. Twenty-one women meeting operationalized DSM-IV criteria for anorexia nervosa were recruited for the study. They were compared with 21 psychiatric and normal control women who were matched as closely as possible to the anorexic group on age and education. Self-report and interview measures of trait and self-presentation dimensions of perfectionism were administered along with measures of anorexic symptomatology, depression, self-esteem, and psychiatric disturbance. It was found that women with anorexia nervosa endorsed significantly higher levels of trait and self-presentation dimensions of perfectionism, compared to both control groups. Self-Oriented and Socially-Prescribed Perfectionism, as well as the Nondisclosure of Imperfection, were significantly higher in women with anorexia nervosa than women in the psychiatric and normal control groups, even after controlling for depression, self-esteem, and severity of psychiatric disturbance. In addition, different dimensions of perfectionism were associated with anorexic symptom severity. The results suggest that various dimensions of trait and self-presentation perfectionism may play an important role in anorexia nervosa. Theoretical and clinical implications with regard to the role of these dimensions of perfectionism in the etiology and treatment of anorexia nervosa are discussed. Perfectionism and Anorexia Nervosa iii
Program File Placement Problem for Machine-to-Machine Service Network Platform

The Machine-to-Machine (M2M) service network platform accommodates M2M communications traffic efficiently by using treestructured networks and the computation resources deployed on network nodes. In the M2M service network platform, program files required for controlling devices are placed on network nodes, which have different amounts of computation resources according to their position in the hierarchy. The program files must be dynamically repositioned in response to service quality requests from each device, such as computation power, link bandwidth, and latency. This paper proposes a Program File Placement (PFP) method for the M2M service network platform. First, the PFP problem is formulated in the Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) approach. We prove that the decision version of the PFP problem is NPcomplete. Next, we present heuristic algorithms that attain sub-optimal but attractive solutions. Evaluations show that the heuristic algorithm based on the number of devices that share a program file reduces the total number of placed program files compared to the algorithm that moves program files based on their position. key words: IoT, M2M, placement problem, optimization, NP-completeness, heuristic algorithm
Effectiveness of an Educational Software System (Desire2Learn) in Teaching English Grammar

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has brought enormous developments in teaching and learning process recently. Teaching with computer technology using different methodologies is one of the widely investigated areas in education sector nowadays. This research aims at exploring the efficacy of Computer Assisted Language Teaching (CALT) using Desire2Learn (D2L) Educational software, for teaching subject-verb agreement deductively at Al-Majma’ah University in Saudi Arabia. This study also investigates the attitude of Saudi EFL learners towards CALT-D2L’s effect on their learning achievement. Sixty nine undergraduate students of level three from Department of English, College of Education, Al-Majmaah University, were involved in this study. The sample was divided into two groups: (CALT-D2L “Experimental Group” while the other traditional chalk and talk method based as “Control Group”. Analysis of the data of both groups indicates that experimental group outperformed control group in term of the percentage of result compared. Moreover students exhibit positive attitude towards using D2L software in grammar learning.
TANGAEON: Tangible Interaction to Support People in a Mindfulness Practice

ABSTRACT Recently, Tangible and Embodied Interaction (TEI) approaches to support people in mindfulness practices have been proposed in the literature, but they have scarcely explored the use of real natural elements in the interaction. In this article, we first present TANGAEON, a TEI system that augments the AEON mindfulness mobile app with an interactive, water-filled glass container. Second, we evaluate TANGAEON by contrasting it with two traditional mindfulness techniques and with AEON. TANGAEON obtained better results in terms of achieved mindfulness, perceived level of difficulty, and degree of pleasantness than the two traditional techniques. Moreover, considering all techniques, participants achieved the highest level of mindfulness with TANGAEON, and rated it as the most pleasant and preferred approach to practice. These results suggest that the use of TEI based on a natural element can offer a novel and effective way to help people approach and practice mindfulness, and to augment existing mindfulness apps.
A DIFFERENCE IN POVERTY OUTREACH BY TYPE OF MICROFINANCE INSTITUTION ? COUNTRY STUDIES FROM ASIA AND LATIN AMERICA 1

Microfinance is often seen as an effective tool to reach the poor, yet there is a paucity of studies on the poverty level of microfinance clients, differentiated by type of microfinance institution. This paper seeks to make a contribution in closing that knowledge gap, and focuses on Bangladesh and Peru, two of the pioneering countries in microfinance. We examine the poverty status of savers and borrowers with micro-banks, savings and credit cooperatives, and NGObased microfinance institutions. In order to determine the poverty status of clients, the analysis is carried out for national as well as international poverty lines. Memberor NGO-based microfinance institutions are found to have a higher poverty outreach
Using the Web of Science for the study of minorities disciplines in humanities : the case of folklore

The aim of this paper is to show the usefulness of the Web of Science in order to obtain information about production and impact of Folklore, a minority academic area within the humanities. Up to now, there is no general bibliometric analysis of the discipline. This paper also describes the main characteristics of the area which emanate from the study itself. Data were retrieved from the Web of Science using the category “Folklore” through the Advanced search tool. The distribution of citations of each paper was obtained using the Citation Report. The results show the great importance of book reviews. Collaborative authorship is still unusual. Authors frequently publish in languages other than English. The use of WoS data allows the identification of other relevant information on the field of Folklore, despite its limitations in building to a global bibliometric study of the behaviour of the discipline.
1 Intelligent M-Government : Application of Personalisation and Location Awareness Techniques

This paper proposes the use of personalisation and location awareness techniques to efficiently select then deliver the appropriate M-Government services to the desired users who most benefit from the services according to their geographical location. A logical architecture for provisioning governmental location-based services to citizens is suggested which will ease the creation of Intelligent M-Government Services that can match the best options to the targeted user in order to better serve the government’s constituents.
Recover Quickly from Retrenchment ?

The incomes of continuing participants in a workfare program in Argentina are compared to those of a matched comparison group of non-participants and with a matched group of past participants who leave the program. We find partial income replacement, amounting to one-quarter of the gross workfare wage within six months of leaving the program, rising to one half in 12 months. The estimates are unbiased in the presence of a timeinvariant errors due to miss-matching. Fully removing selection bias would probably yield lower income replacement. Test results based on a second follow-up survey suggest that valid inferences can be drawn about program impacts from our measures of income replacement.
112 : Subsurface

MARKUS WEILER1, JEFFREY J MCDONNELL2, ILJA TROMP-VAN MEERVELD3 AND TARO UCHIDA4 1Departments of Forest Resources Management and Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada 2Department of Forest Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, US 3Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, School of Architecture, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Lausanne, Switzerland 4Research Center for Disaster Risk Management, National Institute for Land & Infrastructure Management, Asahi, Tsukuba, Japan
Fertilizer use and cocoa production in Cross River State, Nigeria.

Fertilizer usage is a desirable step towards boosting cocoa production. This is because the nutrients that are being lost from the soil due to continuous usage of the soil are being replenished by fertilizer application. However, out of ignorance or otherwise, some farmers are not using this important farm input and this has resulted to the declining crop yield. This study therefore investigated the usage of fertilizer for cocoa production in the study area. Purposive random sampling technique was used to select three cocoa producing Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Cross River State. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 107 respondents from the three LGAs in the state. Information was collected from the respondents with the aid of structured questionnaire and the data generated from the information collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and multivariate logit model. Results showed that 98.13% of the respondents were not using fertilizer for cocoa production. Also farmer’s level of education (p<0.01), cocoa farm size (p<0.01), association membership of farmers (p<0.1) and cocoa output (p<0.01) are significant factors determining the probability of a farmer to use fertilizer for cocoa production. The study concluded that majority of cocoa farmers in the study area do not use fertilizer for cocoa production and it is therefore recommended that farmers should be enlightened on the need to use fertilizer (when required) to enhance their production.
Standard electrocardiographic values in Holstein calves

This paper presents electrocardiographic values in 25 Holstein calves using the standard bipolar limbs leads (I, II and III), augmented unipolar limb leads (avL, avR and avF) and a bipolar chest lead (V10). Two groups with different ages were compared (newborn 18 to 72 hours and calves 27 to 33 days old). It was concluded that no differences between age groups in P, Q, R, S and T waves, in the PR, QRS, QT and ST intervals and in axis orientation were observed.
Measuring Supplier Service Quality in Indian SMEs using Factor Analysis and Graph-Theoretic Approach

This study uses a hybrid scale to identify the factors contributing to the service quality delivered by the suppliers working with small-medium manufacturing units in emerging economies like India. 120 executives working at top/middle management level in different SMEs situated in northern India responded to a questionnaire survey related to the assessment of services being performed by their suppliers on the 1-5 Likert scale. Application of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed an interpretable latent structure comprising of five factors viz., Credibility, Relationship, Understanding, Alignment, and dependability with 17 indicator items. The graph-theoretic approach (GTA) developed a numerical measure of supplier service quality (SSQ) index. This paper thus provides a framework for the measurement of SSQ in a relatively less explored sector. The proposed scale can be used as a benchmark by SME practitioners for evaluation of their suppliers‟ service. The methodology used may be applied in more such situations so that generalizations can be contemplated.
Are U.S. Exports Different from China's Exports? Evidence from Japan's Imports

Are U.S. exports different from China's exports? If so, how? This paper attempts to answer this question, focusing on the quality, variety, and overlap of their products. Using product-level manufacturing import data from Japan, I find that the exports of China and the United States are similar in terms of variety. More than 85 percent of U.S. export products to Japan are commonly exported from China. However, U.S. exports are different from China's exports in terms of quality. A comparison with the European Union (EU) shows that U.S. exports are similar to EU exports in terms of both quality and variety when compared to China's exports. These results suggest that quality matters. Both the EU and the United States are better endowed with the factors needed to produce quality or are relatively more productive in producing quality products than China.
Explorando la asociación entre la pertenencia a la escuela y la salud emocional entre los adolescentes

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the association between school belonging and wellbeing, distress, and emotional health status yielded from a bidimensional model among adolescents. Participants comprised of 413– 49.7% female and 50.3% male– adolescents, ranging in age between 11 and 18 years (M = 13.96, SD = 1.64). Findings from the preliminary analyses showed a large positive association between school belonging and emotional wellbeing variables, whereas a moderate negative association between school belonging and emotional distress variables. Additionally, primary analyses demonstrated that adolescents with high levels of the school belonging have low levels of the emotional distress, yet high levels of the emotional wellbeing. Significant main effects for emotional wellbeing, emotional distress, and bidimensional emotional health were observed across all school belonging scales. A larger effect size for the bidimensional emotional health main effect was found for school belonging, comparing with unidimensional emotional wellbeing and distress. Results of the study provide important implications for research and practice in term of mental health services.
1 Fundamental properties of Ca 2 + signals

a Max Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine, Robert-Rössle-Str. 10, 13125 Berlin, Germany, kevin.thurley@mdc-berlin.de, martin.falcke@mdc-berlin.de b Luxembourg Centre of Systems Biomedicine, 162a, avenue de la Faiencerie, L-1511 Luxembourg, and Institute for Systems Biology, 401 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98103-8904, USA, alexander.skupin@uni.lu c School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK,
DIME Second Research Activity Line (RAL2) The Creation, Accumulation and Exchange of Knowledge in Networks, Sectors and Regions

This paper studies the effect of inter-firm R&D network ties on the technological performance of companies in high-tech industries. Tie strength is analysed through a multidimensional perspective. We find that strong ties in terms of the dimensions time and depth, measured by length and multitude of partnerships, degree of cooperation and similarity of ties, do indeed improve technological performance. However, our findings on cultural closeness support a weak ties perspective. Our research suggests that a combination of stronger and weaker R&D ties, with elements of both social embeddedness and international diversity, is most beneficial for the technological performance of companies.
Assisted Orthopedic Surgery in TKA

Since Campbell and Boyd first developed a mold hemiarthroplasty in 1940, the procedure for a total knee arthroplasty has advanced greatly with the development of new materials and the increasing understanding of the knee joint biomechanics. And accurate alignment of the component and soft tissue balancing has been cited as the essential for the success of total knee arthroplasty. Although mechanical alignment guides have been designed to improve alignment accuracy, there are several fundamental limitations of this technology that will inhibit additional improvements. The long-term survival rate of a total knee arthroplasty after a 10-year follow up was reported to be 80% to 95% (Knutson et al., 1986; Ranawat et al., 1993; Scuderi et al., 1989). Various factors affect this long-term survival, the most closely related factor being the physiologic recovery of the leg alignment (Laskin, 1984; Ritter et al., 1994). Upon a follow-up study of more than 8 years, the loosening rate was only 3% in those patients with a correctly recovered leg alignment, but was 24% in those with an incomplete recovery of the leg alignment(Stulberg et al., 2002). There are limits on improving the alignment accuracy using a conventional total knee arthroplasty. Teter et al. (Teter et al., 1995) found that when a tibial extramedullary alignment guide was used, approximately 8% of the cuts were deviated 4 degrees of the ideal 90 degrees cut (perpendicular to the mechanical axis). However, this finding was based on coronal imaging, and the rate of malalignment may be considerably greater when the sagittal imaging is considered. Computer-assisted surgery(CAS) was introduced to overcome these difficulties and errors. Computer-assisted total knee arthroplasty has gained increasing acceptance among orthopedic surgeons as a technique to improve surgical precision and patient outcomes.
MISSION AND VISION, ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING AND FORMALITY OF STRATEGIC PLANNING AS PREDICTORS OF THE PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SMES) IN THE GAUTENG PROVINCE OF SOUTH AFRICA

Faced with volatile business conditions and the hyper competitive market environment, SMEs are continuously focusing on finding ways to improve their performance. This paper attempts to establish the effect of mission and vision, environmental scanning and the formality of the strategic planning process on the performance of SMEs. A quantitative research approach was pursued through a self-administered survey questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The main findings of the study suggest that, the mission and vision statements, environmental scanning and the formality of strategic planning have a positive effect on the performance of SMEs. The formality of strategic planning emerged as the factor with a stronger impact on SME performance than environmental scanning and mission and vision. The study provides some practical insights for SMEs for improving their performance in line with the identified effect of these three factors. Ultimately, improving their performance along these factors is set to reinforce SME sustainability and which will further stimulate their profitability.
Evaluation of efficacy and biocompatibility of indirect

Intraocular pressure (IOP) monitoring traditionally requires direct contact with the cornea and special instrumentation which limits the ability of a patient to monitor IOPs outside of the clinical setting. The purpose of this study was to obtain an IOP measurement without the need for topical anesthesia, patient compliance or corneal contact as is necessary with conventional tonometry. This report assesses the efficacy, biocompatibility and stability of a surgically implanted telemetric scleral sensor (TSS) implanted subconjunctivally and sutured to the sclera of rabbits. IOP was monitored using the TSS and a Tono-Vet® over a period of 16 weeks. Manometric IOP values were also recorded in 5mmHg intervals up to 70mmHg and compared to TSS. Eyes were submitted for histopathology for assessment. Although initial readings showed good correlation between the TSS and Tono-Vet®, the overall size and design of the TSS contributed to fibrosis and premature dislocation of the sensor.
3 0 O ct 2 01 7 Gradient flow for the Boltzmann entropy and Cheeger ’ s energy on time-dependent metric measure spaces

We introduce notions of dynamic gradient flows on time-dependent metric spaces as well as on time-dependent Hilbert spaces. We prove existence of solutions for a class of time-dependent energy functionals in both settings. In particular in the case when each underlying space satisfies a lower Ricci curvature bound in the sense of Lott, Sturm and Villani, we provide time-discrete approximations of the time-dependent heat flows introduced in [15].
PSYCHOSOCIAL PREDICTORS OF DEPRESSION IN ELDERLY PATIENTS OF A BRAZILIAN HEALTH UNIT

In a community, depression can affect 30% to 45% of the elderly people. The consequences of this disease in the third age are numerous and adverse. Many researches have reported that depression is associated with a set of psychosocial factors. In this context, the perceived social support and general selfefficacy occupy an important position. Hence, the aim of this study is to confirm if the perceived social support and the general self-efficacy are predictors of depression in Brazilian senior citizen patients of a Health Basic Unit. The sample comprised 144 elderly people (M age=69.3; SD=6.61) of both genders. The data were collected through a questionnaire which included socio-demographic questions and scales for the studied psychosocial dimensions. The results showed that perceived social support and selfefficacy are predictors of depression in the studied Brazilian elderly. Future interventions under the scope of mental health promotion and depression prevention in elderly people must consider these determinants as a way to increase their efficacy. © 2017 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy. org.UK
Augmenting Natural Language Generation with external memory modules in Spoken Dialogue Systems

Semantically Conditioned LSTM (SC-LSTM) is one of the state-of-the-art models in the Natural Language Generation of the Spoken Dialogue Systems. Though it has a Dialogue Act (DA) cell which enables the generations to condition on DA information efficiently, its generations are still imperfect when the input DA has multiple dialogue act types and semantic slots. Additionally, SC-LSTM lacks the ability to exploit the cross-sentence information which is shared between dialogue turns of a dialogue. Therefore, we study and compare the use of three different types of memory modules on this SC-LSTM system with the aim to generate more accurate and natural sentences. We find the memory module which exploits the context information from recent dialogue turns can achieve the best performances in terms of slot error rate and BLEU score. This indicates that an external memory module with better model designs can further improve generations’ quality for a multi-turn dialogue generation task.