Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An assessment of just in time system on the financial performance of manufacturing firms in Nigeria

The study examines the effect of Just-in-time on the financial performance of manufacturing organizations in Nigeria. The purpose of the research work is to determine the effect of application of just in time on cost reduction and return on investment of manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Primary data were collected through a self administered questionnaire on knowledgeable sample of employees selected to test the strength of model specified and hypotheses formulated on JIT and financial performance of manufacturing firms. Analysis was carried out using Multiple Regression model and findings revealed that 39.4 and 16.3% variations in cost reduction and returns on investment are due to the impact of JIT as explained by the predictor variables combined. This implies that JIT has contributed positively to the financial performance of manufacturing firms in Nigeria and manufacturers will benefit immensely from its adaptation. The study concludes that each of the cost components employed to measure the effect of JIT on cost reduction and returns on company’s investment shows appreciable level of significance. The study therefore recommends the manufacturing firms should adopt JIT in cutting their production costs in order to achieve enhanced efficiency and eliminate waste to the barest minimum from the entire supply chain. Key words: Just-in-time, financial performance, manufacturing, cost reduction.
DETERMINATION OF SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS FACTORS OF ISLAMIC BANKS IN INDONESIA

The objective of the study is to test and analyze the influence of corporate intellectual capital and company size on sustainable business through financial performance as a mediating variable. The data used was secondary data of financial and annual reports for 2010-2018 period. The population of this study was 9 (nine) Islamic Banks, and the samples used were saturated sampling, thus the sample used was all the 9 (nine) Islamic Banks. The data processing method used is Partial Least Square (PLS). The results of the study found that intellectual capital has a significant effect on financial performance, company size has a significant effect on financial performance, where as intellectual capital has no effect on sustainable business. The study found that financial performance has a significant effect on sustainable business. Financial performance has a full mediating influence of intellectual capital on sustainable business, and financial performance has a partial mediating influence of company size on sustainable business. Keywords: Intellectual Capital, Company size, Financial Performance, and Sustainable Business
Human Factors Support for the Development of an Advanced Digital Moving Map System

The U.S. Naval Aviation Systems Command (NAVAIR) is currently sponsoring a Tactical Aircraft Moving Map Capability (TAMMAC) program that will provide the standard cockpit digital moving map system for Naval aviation. TAMMAC will provide a plan view map display with overlays to cnhance mission effectiveness and situational awareness. The TAMMAC system will be used by a variety of Navy fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft with differing operational needs and resources and can be tailorcd to meet each aircraft’s operational requirements. Human factors engineering (HFE) spccialists from the government and industry have played an integral role in the specification of the TAMMAC system through all the current phases of systems development. This support has included assistance in creating the system design, defining system and aircraft-specific requirements, defining user interface characteristics, providing HFE input for engineering design trade studies, and designing for maintainability. This paper describes the background and rationale for the TAMMAC system, illustrates the major TAMMAC system components and interrelationships, and summarizes HFE contributions and lessons learned. HFE contributions are discussed in the areas of (1) system requirements definition, (2) operator/maintainer interface, (3) maintainability design, and (4) directions for future research. The TAMMAC program has provided an opportunity for HFE specialists to combine their skills with those of systems, avionics, and mechanical engineers, as well as pilots and maintainers, toward the integrated development of a modcrn avionics system and to be active and effective participants in the systems engineering proccss.
An Empirical Analysis of Key Audit Matters in the Financial Industry

One outcome of the financial crises with regard to financial statements and their audits has been that both, the European Union and the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board came out with amendments to their legislations. Hence, the regulators focused on the information gap between the auditor and the stakeholders of financial reports. To close that gap, the implementation of Key Audit Matters (KAM) within the section of the independent auditor´s report became mandatory. 2017 marks the first year in which KAM for all European public interest entities (PIE) can be observed. Based on previous literature and few academic studies the following working paper focuses on KAM within European Banks. Basis of the sample are those significant supervised European Banks that are governed by the European Central Bank (ECB), disclosed by the list of supervised entities published by the ECB as of 1st of January 2018. Reported KAM topics are tested on influential factors for KAM such as bank size and complexity, success, earnings management, region or audit company. Furthermore, text similarities are checked, as one of the goals of the new auditor reports was to individualise the reports. This study therefore, provides a deep insight into both, the most relevant topics auditors are dealing with in European Banks and bank specific dependencies and their influence on KAM.
Supply chain transparency and willingness-to-pay for refurbished products

Purpose Researchers in supply chain transparency have called to expand the boundaries by disclosing various types of information to multiple stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of transparency about supply chain sustainability on consumers as critical stakeholders and investigate the effectiveness of message characteristics. Design/methodology/approach This study utilizes two scenario-based experiments grounded in a refurbished goods context: Study 1, which employs a 2×2 between-subject experiment investigates the effects of product type and sustainable information provision on consumers evaluations, and Study 2, which employs a 2×1 between-subject experiment examines the effects of sustainable information direction on consumer evaluations. A total of 348 participants were recruited from the Amazon M-Turk platform across the two experiments. Data are analyzed with regression analysis using the PROCESS macro in SPSS and the Johnson–Neyman technique. Findings Contrary to prior research that assumes that refurbished products are associated with lower quality, quality perceptions are moderated by individuals’ environmental involvement (EI) and the information presented by the firm. More importantly, consumer evaluations are influenced by specific characteristics of sustainable supply chain messages: high EI individuals have higher willingness-to-pay a premium (WTPP) when the message is consistent with original beliefs (pro-attitudinal). In contrast to prior theory, there was no difference in the WTPP of consumers with high EI and low EI for counter-attitudinal messages. Practical implications The study shows that what to say, how to say it and to whom, are critical for firms who seek to nudge consumers to support their sustainable practices. Originality/value The value of communicating information on sustainability has been well established. However, little is known about such association when the information provided trades off environmental benefits and product quality. This research addresses the gap in a refurbished product context. The research studies the effect of sustainable supply chain transparency and message characteristics on stakeholders’ evaluations.
In search of more stable hierarchical trees: devising new algorithms to improve upon the stability of neighbor joining

IN SEARCH OF MORE STABLE HIERARCHICAL TREES: DEVISING NEW ALGORITHMS TO IMPROVE UPON THE STABILITY OF NEIGHBOR JOINING Amanda Saunders Adviser: University of Guelph, 2017 Daniel Ashlock The standard method of constructing hierarchical trees – neighbour joining – while commonly used, has some major flaws. For most data sets not derived from a common descent process, it produces trees that are highly unstable. Adding or deleting a point can cause dramatic shifts in the tree topology. The degree of this shift can be measured by calculating the distance between trees. To provide an alternative to neighbour joining, bubble clustering was devised. Instead of using the simple Euclidean distance between points, the connections between points are established by repeated sampling. A multi-dimensional sphere is placed into the data space and the association between all points within the sphere is increased. Once this is complete the resultant matrix is converted into a tree by sequentially joining the most associated points. The new algorithm proved to generate more stable trees compared to neighbour joining when applied to random or real data.
STUDI E SAGGI L I N G U I S T I C I

This paper reports on work, carried out in the framework of the CombiNet project, focusing on the automatic extraction of word combinations from large corpora, with a view to represent the full distributional profile of selected lemmas. We describe two extraction methods, based on part-of-speech sequences (P-method) and syntactic patterns (S-method), respectively, evaluating their performance – contrastively, and with reference to external benchmarks – and discussing the relevance of automatic knowledge acquisition for lexicographic purposes. Our results indicate that both approaches provide valuable data and confirm previous claims that P-methods and S-methods are largely complementary, as they tend to retrieve different types of word combinations. In the second part of the paper, we present SYMPAThy, a data representation format devised to fruitfully merge the two methods by leveraging their respective points of strength. In order to explore SYMPAThy’s potentialities, a preliminary investigation on a small set of Italian idioms, and specifically their degree of fixedness/productivity, is also described.
REFINEMENT AND APPLICATION OF UNOBTRUSIVE METHODS FOR ASSESSING BEHAVIORAL BLOCKING OF FILTER VENTS ON LOW TAR CIGARETTES

Filter ventilation is an important design feature on cigarettes, diluting mainstream smoke with air and reducing tar and nicotine yields in the standard assay. Smokers are generally unaware of vent holes, and often cover them with fingers or lips while smoking, increasing smokers’ intake of tar and nicotine from nominally ‘low-yield’ cigarettes. Vent blocking is most common and has its largest effects in Ultra-Light cigarettes, with increases in exposure to carbon monoxide of 50% to 200%. Three systems for detecting the presence of vent blocking were compared: human raters viewing digital images, computer ratings of binary images, and computer ratings of color images. Three studies were designed to compare and contrast the effectiveness of these systems. In Study 1, 52 Carlton cigarette butts generated using syringes were evaluated, while in two others human smokers produced butts under specific lip blocking conditions. All three systems were able to distinguish butts blocked at least 50% from those not blocked at all. However, the human and binary systems were better than the color system in dividing butts into three categories (0%, 50%, or 100% blocking). In Study 2, 96 Marlboro Ultra Light butts degenerated by 12 human smokers were evaluated. Here, HSV saturation color scores were superior to human raters or binary computer ratings at detecting at least 50% blocking and at discriminating among 0%, 50%, and 100% blocking. Saturation scores could also identify whether a butt had been blocked on only two puffs. In Study 3, 48 Marlboro Ultra Light butts were evaluated. Here, only HSV saturation scores were able to reliably detect butts that had been blocked on a single puff. Results from logistic regression models suggested that combining scores into a statistical prediction model has modest benefit if the outcome of interest is detecting any blocking at all, even a single puff. Overall, it appears that HSV saturation scores, but not human raters or computer binary scores, can be used to classify cigarette butts has blocked at least 50% or unblocked with accuracy greater than 90%, and that these scores may be directly related to smoke flow through the filter.
CSR marketing outcomes and branch managers’ perceptions of CSR

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of bank branch managers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in CSR marketing outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The paper proposes a causal model establishing that managers’ perceptions of CSR influence the perception of CSR held by the branch’s customers, which in turn directly affects customer satisfaction, customer trust, customer engagement and customer loyalty. The unit of analysis in this quantitative study is the bank branch. Two questionnaires were administered: one to branch managers and another to five customers in each branch. Findings Branch managers’ perceptions of CSR have a marked influence on customers’ perceptions of CSR, which again have a notable impact on the relationship variables studied: customer satisfaction, customer trust, customer engagement and customer loyalty. Research limitations/implications The sample was taken from two banks in the same country (Spain) and only five customers were interviewed in each branch. The type of customers analyzed should be taken into account since a growing number of customers now carry out all of their banking online and are less likely to visit their branch. Practical implications The results highlight the importance of adopting socially responsible actions not only in the bank as a whole, but also in individual branches. It would, therefore, seem crucial for high level bank executives not only to involve branch managers in the bank’s CSR strategy, but also to empower them to undertake CSR actions that involve the customers and local community with which they interact. Originality/value First, the paper reveals the differences within the same organization in the way its CSR strategy is implemented. Second, intermediary figures or supervisors are shown to have a key role in ensuring the organization’s CSR strategy is effective. Third, the study emphasizes the importance of customers’ perception of CSR in achieving the main outcomes of relationship marketing (satisfaction, trust, engagement and loyalty). Fourth, the methodology applied in the study is innovative in its construction of dyads in which the branch is the unit of analysis, enabling a comparison between the manager’s perceptions of CSR with that of five customers from the same branch. Fifth, the findings add to the knowledge of a particularly relevant sector in the recent economic crisis, namely, the retail banking industry.
A Comparison of Alternatives for Automated Decision Support in a Multi-Task Environment

Complex, multi-task work environments that require humans to “juggle” many simultaneous tasks are becoming more widespread. How can automated capabilities best support the operator in these environments? We grouped the cognitive workload associated with multi-task management into two broad areas: 1) creating, maintaining, and updating an awareness of the status of all of the active tasks, and 2) choosing actions from among these active tasks based on overall goals. We then developed automated decision support for each of these aspects of workload and assessed which type of support was more effective in improving performance. Our findings indicate that, in a simulated air traffic control environment, the effort associated with creating and maintaining situation awareness was overwhelmingly responsible for the operator's workload. The results suggest that effective decision support in this environment should focus on helping the operator maintain awareness of the changing status of the active tasks, not on setting priorities or choosing among alternative tasks.
The Impact of Regional Integration on Africa’s Manufacturing Exports

Do African Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) increase intraregional manufacturing trade? The 1994 Abuja Treaty led to the creation of several African RTAs that include the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), East African Community (EAC), Southern African Development Community (SADC), Central African Economic and Monetary Community, the Southern African Customs Union, and the Tripartite Free Trade Area. A primary objective of all the African RTAs has been to boost manufacturing exports. This is because manufacturing is essential for diversified production and increased productivity in Africa. These RTAs encouraged African countries to promote markets for manufactured goods within the African continent. Likewise, one of the primary objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (that was launched in March 2018 in Kigali) is to increase manufacturing exports. The African Continental Free trade area is expected to boost intra-African industrial exports by 53% [1]. The Tripartite Free Trade Area is expected to boost intraregional trade in heavy manufacturing, light manufacturing, processed foods, and textiles, by 25%, 49%, 55%, and 78%, respectively [2].
SHARIAH GOVERNANCE DALAM PENGUNGKAPAN ISLAMIC SOCIAL REPORTING INDEX DAN GLOBAL REPORTING INDEX PADA PERBANKAN SYARIAH PERIODE 2010-2013

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji pengaruh shariah governance yang diukur dengan direksi bank syariah, dewan pengawas syariah dan komite audit terhadap pengungkapan Islamic Social Reporting Index (ISRI) dan Global Reporting Index (GRI). Perbankan syariah saat ini masih menggunakan indeks Social Reporting Index (SRI) dan juga Global Reporting Index (GRI). Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kuantitatif dengan menggunakan teknik purposive sampling . Teknik analisa yang digunakan adalah teknik regresi berganda ( multiple regression ) dan Independent Samples T-test . Hasil penelitian ini menemukan bahwa peran direksi bank syariah berpengaruh terhadap pengungkapan dengan indeks ISR, sedangkan dewan pengawas syariah berpengaruh dalam pengungkapan dengan menggunakan indeks GRI. Dari hasil independent samples T-test ditemukan bahwa pengungkapan dengan indeks ISR lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan indeks GRI.
Comparison of Reponses of the Flex-PLI and TRL Legform Impactors in Pedestrian Tests

Injuries to the lower extremities are one of the major issues in vehicle-to-pedestrian collisions. To evaluate pedestrian lower extremity protection, the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) legform impact tests have been conducted according to the specifications in the EU directive. The TRL legform impactor consists of a tibia and a femur steel shaft connected by deformable knee bars. A Flexible Pedestrian Leg-form Impactor (Flex-PLI), which has flexible femur and tibia, is examined in the Global Technical Regulation (GTR). Previous studies compared the responses of both impactors; however, the relation between the tibia acceleration in the TRL legform impactor and the maximum bending moment in the Flex-PLI (both injury measures are for the tibia fracture) is not understood sufficiently. In this study, using finite element (FE) analyses, the injury measures of the TRL legform and the Flex-PLI were compared with those of the human FE model in impact with a simple large car model to identify which injury measures of the two impactors are reasonable to predict injury risk to pedestrian lower extremity. The rigid body model was used to gain a theoretical understanding of the injury measures of the impactors. Based on the equations of motion of the rigid body model, physical parameters were identified that relate with the injury measures. The tibia acceleration relates with the bumper force and the spoiler force. The bending moment depends on the equation that is expressed by the force and distance of the bumper and the spoiler energy absorber. Therefore, the tibia acceleration and the bending moment are different design parameters. The knee bending angle depends on the moment around the tibia center of gravity. Analyses of the TRL legform, Flex-PLI and human FE models were conducted; and it was shown that the injury measures in the FE models were affected significantly by the physical parameters determined in the rigid body model. The responses of the TRL legform, the Flex-PLI, and human FE models were compared with changing vehicle parameters. The trend was comparable for the three models. However, when the bumper energy absorber was soft and its bottoming-out occurred, the tibia acceleration in the TRL legform increased sharply, whereas the bending moment in the Flex-PLI did not increase. In the human FE model, when the bumper energy absorber bottomed out, the stress of the tibia that made contact with the bumper energy absorber was still small. As far as changing parameters of the large car in the present study, the responses of the Flex-PLI are more comparable with the human FE model than those of the TRL legform impactor; and it is likely that the Flex-PLI can predict injury risk more reasonably than the TRL legform impactor. Language: en
Is there a bottleneck for mobile money adoption in WAEMU?

Abstract The main vision of governments in the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) is to include financially the unbanked adult populations by developing digital financial services. This paper aims then at investigating the driving factors of mobile money adoption and the policies package that may alleviate the bottlenecks of the low digital financial inclusion in that area. Using both country and individual-level data from the World Bank database, we made first, a cluster analysis and thereafter a logistic regression to investigate both the macroeconomic and microeconomic driven factors of mobile money adoption. We found that country characteristic including literacy rate, labour force, mobile infrastructure and banking infrastructure in terms of numbers of ATM per 1,00,000 people are the main macroeconomic determinants of mobile money adoption. In addition, being young, man, educated, relatively richer and even banked increases the likelihood of adopting mobile money in WAEMU.