Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-Synchronous Trading and Testing for Market Integration in Central European Emerging Markets

The paper contributes to the literature on integration of stock markets by addressing the issue of non-synchronous trading. We argue that controlling for time differences in trading hours of stock markets is important and show that time-adjustment improves estimates of market integration. We also show that using weekly frequency does not sidestep the consequences of the time-match problem but leads to significant loss of information. We show that the nature of integration of stock exchanges operating in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland with the stock markets of Germany, UK and US in the period 1994-2004 is very dynamic. Finally, the study shows that the autocorrelation of returns on the main market indexes of the emerging markets have declined over time.
Short-Term Electricity Price Forecasting Using Optimal TSK Fuzzy Systems

Since all financial transactions in restructured power markets are based on electricity prices, it is necessary that the price of electric power be predicted precisely. Some particular features such as: nonlinearity, non-stationary behaviors, as well as volatility of electricity prices make such a prediction a very challenging task. In this paper, a new structure of TSK fuzzy systems is presented that provides high order TSK fuzzy systems from lower orders which have capability of modeling and forecasting chaotic time series. The method used for optimization of fuzzy systems is the Interior point method. Using this method for forecasting electricity price is useful because of its chaotic behavior. The results are compared with RBF neural network and TSK fuzzy system presents better results.
POLITICAL CAPABILITIES, POLICY RISK, AND INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT STRATEGY: EVIDENCE FROM THE GLOBAL ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION INDUSTRY †

Whereas conventional wisdom holds that multinational enterprises (MNEs) invest less in host countries that pose greater policy risk—the risk that a government will opportunistically alter policies to expropriate an investing firm’s profits or assets—we argue that MNEs vary in their response to host-country policy risk as a result of differences in organizational capabilities for assessing such risk and managing the policy-making process. We hypothesize that firms from home countries characterized by weaker institutional constraints on policy makers or greater redistributive pressures associated with political rent seeking will be less sensitive to host-country policy risk in their international expansion strategies. Moreover, firms from home countries characterized by sufficiently weak institutional constraints or sufficiently strong redistributive pressures will seek out riskier host countries for their international investments to leverage their political capabilities, which permit them to attain and defend attractive positions or industry structures. We find support for our hypotheses in a statistical analysis of the foreign direct investment location choices of MNEs in the electric power generation industry during the period 1990–1999, the industry’s first decade of internationalization. Copyright  2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The contribution of product analysis to fixation in students’ design and technology work

Design and technology (D&T) educators have pointed to a 'crisis' in creativity within the subject. Creative cognition literature suggests lack of creativity in design work is at least partly the result of 'fixation' (difficulty in generating novel ideas due to imagination being 'structured' by pre-existing knowledge). This paper applies these ideas in the context of current practice in D&T to shed light on how students generate design ideas and how a particular teaching approach, product analysis, influences these processes. Data are reported from the six schools involved in the preliminary phase of a Gatsby-funded ongoing research and intervention project 1 . A number of methods including interviews with D&T teachers (N=14) and focus groups of students (N=126), lesson observations (N=10) and an analysis of documents and student work were utilised to address the question: 'How does the use of product analysis contribute to fixation in secondary school students' design work? ' Product analysis was found to be frequently used by teachers at different points in design and make projects, particularly during initial research work prior to the generation of design ideas and as a starting point for the generation of ideas during an idea generation lesson. Example of these different uses of product analysis are outlined, however the impact each has on students' generation of design ideas was similar: current practice leads to fixation as thinking is constrained down a particular path. Implications for practice are noted.
Ownership or Taking Action: Which Is More Important for Happiness?

In two studies (2010 and 2011), more than 2000 respondents living in Japan were asked whether they gained more happiness from ownership or from taking action. In the 2010 study, many more individuals preferred taking action to ownership; this preference was greater in women than in men and in older people than in younger people. Reasons for this preference were plainly ex-pressed in respondents’ free writing, and a categorical distinction between ownership and taking action was readily recognized and widely shared. Social desirability concerns probably did not play a role in responses. In the 2011 study, many individuals valued action more than ownership as like as the 2010 study. The preference for taking action over ownership was greater in women than in men, in older people than in younger people, and in people with higher levels of education than in people with lower levels of education. There was no relationship with annual income. The correlations with gender and level of education were similar to results of comparable studies conducted in the USA, although in the US studies, experiential purchases were evaluated, rather than taking action; however, the correlation with age was uncertain in the US studies. Further studies with US respondents will be necessary to examine this correlation. Possible reasons why many more people preferred happiness gained from taking action to happiness experienced from ownership were discussed.
An Empirical Study of Gender Effect on L2 Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies

This research examines the gender effect upon L2 vocabulary acquisition strategies used by Chinese EFL university students in terms of total amount and breadth. Catalan’s research method was employed. 630 Chinese students from three universities of science participated in an investigation which consisted of questionnaire, EFL proficiency test and EFL vocabulary test. Results indicated that there were no significant gender differences between males and females with respect to the total amount of EFL vocabulary acquisition strategies they used. As for the breadth, there were significant differences between them for the twelve of the discovery and consolidating strategies. The results were explained within the framework of socio-cognitive theory which combined physiological factors with social ones, suggesting that the mastery and use of languages were closely associated with both of them. Contrastive analysis also revealed that participants in this research and those from other countries had much in common in their ESL/EFL vocabulary acquisition strategies, which might provide further evidences for both universalism and cultural relativism. Implications of the results were also discussed.
Single-step genomic evaluation for linear type traits of Holstein cows in Czech Republic

The single-step method of genomic evaluation using both a uni-trait and a multi-trait animal model was applied for 20 linear type traits of Holstein cows in the Czech Republic. Phenotypic data on linear scoring were available for 143,208 Holstein cows first calved between years 2005 to 2010. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers from the Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChipV2 (Illumina Inc., San Diego, USA) were available for 631 sires. Breeding values (traditional breeding value, EBV) were estimated by uni-trait and multi-trait BLUP animal models using the pedigreebased relationship matrix. Genomic breeding value (GEBV) was estimated by single step genomic BLUP (ssGBLUP) using the pedigree-based relationship matrix augmented by the genomic relationship matrix. The model included fixed effects of herd-date of classification, classifier and season of calving, linear and quadratic regressions on age at calving and on days in milk and the random additive genetic effect of animal. Correlations between parent average, predicted GEBV and post-progeny test EBV were slightly higher for uni-trait analyses than for multi-trait analyses. Excluding udder traits, the average uni-trait correlations with the post-progeny test EBV were 0.44 for parent average and 0.46 for predicted GEBV, whereas multi-trait correlations were 0.42 and 0.44, respectively. When udder traits were included, average uni-trait correlations with the postprogeny test EBV were 0.09 for parent average and 0.14 for predicted GEBV, while multi-trait correlations were 0.29 and 0.33, respectively.
A flexible memory shuffling unit for image processing accelerators

Nowadays devices with embedded cameras are found everywhere. These devices are able to perform complex tasks, such as image processing, object recognition and more. Such tasks easily require 200 operations per pixel and in addition each pixel is read and transferred many times, which consume a substantial amount of energy and execution time. However the number of transfers can substantially be reduced by exploiting data reuse by optimizing for locality. Often these optimizations result in more complex memory access patterns. In practice data transfers are performed by a DMA (Direct Memory Access) controller, which is able to transfer large consecutive block efficiently. However, large consecutive blocks do not match with the complex access patterns that are required for good locality. As a result, the attained bandwidth is only a portion of the maximum bandwidth. To improve bandwidth for locality optimized access patterns, this work proposes a memory shuffling unit that provides an interface between DMA and the accelerator IP (Intellectual Property). To provide enough flexibility in the access patterns, the DMA controller and the shuffling unit are programmable. Programming these units requires many parameters, which makes it manually complex and error prone. To abstract away from the complexity, a tool flow is developed that analyzes the schedule, claims memory, and generates the DMA transfers and shuffle instructions. Our shuffling unit increases memory bandwidth by 300x and decreasing the energy consumption by 300x compared to supplying the data in patterns directly from the off-chip memory.
Modulation of Emotional Faces Processing and Its Implication for Depression and Anxiety

The recognition of environmental information with emotional valence is crucial for the adjustment and social functioning. Since Darwin (1872), facial expressions of basic emotions have been considered as a fundamental component of the processing of emotions and various studies have provided evidence of a dissociable although interconnected involvement of different neural substrates in the emotional processing. Happiness, sadness, anger, fear and disgust are considered as basic emotions. Although with some controversies, surprise is also considered as a basic emotion. In spite of some contrary positions (e.g. Russell, 1994) facial expressions of basic emotions have been considered as universal, i.e., identified in a similar way in different cultures, whether they are literate or preliterate (Andrew, 1963; Ekman et al., 1969), as originally proposed by Charles Darwin. The studies carried out by Paul Ekman and his colleagues led to the development of a database of photographs of actors and actresses expressing basic emotions, called Pictures of Facial Affect (Ekman & Friesen, 1976), which has been widely used in different paradigms, such as emotional processing and aversive conditioning and, more recently, psychological paradigms of activation associated with functional neuroimaging. Other sets of images with facial expressions (Gur et al., 2002) have also been used. The facial musculature is complex, diverse and highly specialized. From an evolutionary perspective, the proliferation and diversification of the facial muscles coincide with the development of language and the period of rapid increase in hominid brain size, when they left the rain forest to live on the savannah. Life in groups led gains to secure food through hunting, and safety from predators. On the other hand, guarantee the survival and breeding in large groups required capacity to recognize emotions of other members of the social organization and, therefore, predict their behavior. If the social cues are important components in this new social organization, the ability to identify and translate these signals must have evolved in parallel with the development of the ability to express and manage, at least partially, the facial expressions. Therefore, humans would not be able to communicate emotional signs, but also to decode them quickly and efficiently (Ohman, 2002). 3
Study of extremely reddened AGB stars in the Galactic bulge

Context. Extremely reddened AGB stars lose mass at high rates of >10^-5 Msun/yr. This is the very last stage of AGB evolution, in which stars in the mass range 2.0--4.0 Msun (for solar metallicity) should have been converted to C stars already. The extremely reddened AGB stars in the Galactic bulge are however predominantly O-rich, implying that they might be either low-mass stars or stars at the upper end of the AGB mass range. Aims. To determine the mass range of the most reddened AGB stars in the Galactic bulge. Methods. Using Virtual Observatory tools, we constructed spectral energy distributions of a sample of 37 evolved stars in the Galactic bulge with extremely red IRAS colours. We fitted DUSTY models to the observational data to infer the bolometric fluxes. Applying individual corrections for interstellar extinction and adopting a common distance, we determined luminosities and mass-loss rates, and inferred the progenitor mass range from comparisons with AGB evolutionary models. Results. The observed spectral energy distributions are consistent with a classification as reddened AGB stars, except for two stars, which are proto-planetary nebula candidates. For the AGB stars, we found luminosities in the range 3000--30,000 Lsun and mass-loss rates 10^-5--3x10^-4 Msun/yr. The corresponding mass range is 1.1--6.0 Msun assuming solar metallicity. Conclusions. Contrary to the predictions of the evolutionary models, the luminosity distribution is continuous, with many O-rich AGB stars in the mass range in which they should have been converted into C stars already. We suspect that bulge AGB stars have higher than solar metallicity and therefore may avoid the conversion to C-rich. The presence of low-mass stars in the sample shows that their termination of the AGB evolution also occurs during a final phase of very high mass-loss rate, leading to optically thick circumstellar shells.
Assessing the Heavy Metals Contamination of Surface Dust from Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (E-waste) Recycling Site in Accra, Ghana

The objective of this was to assess the levels of heavy metals contamination within the vicinity of the Agbogbloshie scrap market. Surface dust samples were collected from various points at the scrap market and its environs. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry preceded by acid digestion was used to evaluate the concentration of the heavy metals in the samples. Heavy metals such as Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd gave concentrations in the range of (10, 575-30, 384 mg/kg), (34-16, 952 mg/kg), (351-5, 105 mg/kg) and (2-72 mg/kg), respectively which were over thousand times more than the levels for which intervention is required. The scrap weighing site, the electronic waste dismantling site and the burning site (where electrical cables are burnt to retrieve metals) recorded the highest levels of heavy metals. Index of geoaccumulation which was employed to determine the level of pollution of the various elements gave the values in the range of 6.7-8.2 for Zinc (Zn), 4.2-8.1 for lead (Pb) and 3.0-7.8 for Cadmium (Cd) indicating extreme pollution from all the sites. This was also confirmed by contamination factor calculations. To assess the extent of pollution of each of the site, degree of contamination was calculated which revealed that the most contaminated site is the Weighing Site (WS) which recorded Cdeg value of 1482.93, followed by Dismantling Site (DS) 1221.6, Burning Site (BS) 1196.9, Road Dust (RD) 1061.9, School Compound (SC) 651.44, Commercial Area (CA) 618.6 and Church Premises (CP) 187.6, respectively. The results also indicate that children living around the scrap market face a very high risk from the ingestion of toxic metals such as Pb and Cd. The weighing site (HI = 205) at the scrap market by far pose the greatest cumulative risk followed by the dismantling site (HI = 130), road dust (HI = 88), burning site (HI = 60), school compound (HI = 52), commercial area (HI = 50) and church premises (HI = 15).
NON-DESTRUCTIVE MONITORING OF RICE BY HYPERSPECTRAL IN-FIELD SPECTROMETRY AND UAV-BASED REMOTE SENSING: CASE STUDY OF FIELD-GROWN RICE IN NORTH RHINE-WESTPHALIA, GERMANY

Abstract. In the context of an increasing world population, the demand for agricultural crops is continuously rising. Especially rice plays a key role in food security, not only in Asia. To increase crop production of rice, either productivity of plants has to be improved or new cultivation areas have to be found. In this context, our study investigated crop growth of paddy rice (Oryza Sativa J.) in Germany. An experimental field in the vegetation period of 2014 with two nitrogen treatments was conducted using remote sensing methods. The research project focussed on two main aspects: (1) the potential of UAV-based and hyperspectral remote sensing methods to monitor selected growth parameters at different phenological stages; (2) the potential of paddy rice cultivation under the present climate condition in western Germany. We applied a low-cost UAV-system (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) to generate high resolution Crop Surface Models (CSM). These were compared with hyperspectral in-field measurements and directly measured agronomic parameters (fresh and dry aboveground biomass (AGB), leaf-area-index (LAI) and plant nitrogen concentration (PNC)). For all acquisition dates we could determine single in-field structures in the CSM (e.g. distribution of hills) and different growth characteristics between the nitrogen treatments. Especially in the second half of the growing season, the plants with higher nitrogen availability were about 25 – 30 % larger. The plant height in the CSM correlates particularly with fresh AGB and the LAI (R2 > 0.8). Thus, the conducted methods for plant growth monitoring can be a contribution for precision agriculture approaches.
Upgrading the medicinal value chain of neglected and underutilized Eremomastax (Lindau.) species through antioxidant health benefits.

A critical step towards improvement of global healt h care delivery system lies in the discovery and optimal utilization of the wide range of medicinal plant resources available in nature. Against this backdrop, the antioxidant p o- tential of two underutilized crops - Eremomastax speciosa (Hochst.) Cufod. and Eremomastax polysperma (Benth.) Dandy, growing under lowland humid tropical conditions of southern Nigeria were investigated using selected compl e- mentary in vitro assay systems. Ascorbic acid, Gallic acid and Na 2EDTA were used as standard reference compounds and the plants' leaves were extracted using 80% ethanol. Extracts of the two species contained good levels of antioxidant metabolites (36.44 - 57.56 µg Gallic Acid Equivalents/mg, and 67.83 - 141.58 µg Rutin Equivalents/mg for total phenol and flavonoid contents respectively). The extracts scavenged 50% (IC 50) of stable DPPH and hydroxyl radicals at 89. 14µg/ml and 40. 76µg/ml; 30.23 mg/ml and 23.18mg/ml respectively. The extracts further chelated 50% of iron II ions (Fe 2+ ) at 1.14mg/ml and 1.21mg/ml respectively. Results of the reducing power assay and total antioxidant capacity ind i- cated that the extracts were potent in electron donation, thus were capable of reducing Fe 3+ and Mo (VI) ions to their lower oxidation states. E. polysperma generally showed superiority (p<0.05) to E. speciosa in the entire test assays. The results obtained is a significant pointer to the potential health benefits of these underutilized plants to humans and an i- mals as antioxidants that could provide natural mitigation to the ha zardous effect of free radicals, hence the need to u p- grade their medicinal value chain.
Performance of EPMp broiler ducks feed with various levels of dietary lysine up to 10 weeks of age

Determining the optimum level of lysine in the ration will be a significant effort to avoid poor growth in duck husbandry. The purpose of this study was to determine the optimum dietary lysine requirement for EPMp broiler ducks, raised up to 10 weeks of age. The study was designed in a completely randomized design (CRD) with 4 dietary treatments, and 4 replicates. Each replicate consisted of 10 ducks. The 4 treatments were diets, containing lysine: 0.60% (T1); 0.70% (T2); 0.80% (T3) and 0.90% (T4). Variables measured included: feed consumption, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), carcass and carcass cuts percentages. The results showed that the performance of 10 weeks of age EPMp broiler duck was significantly affected by the level of dietary lysine (P 0.05). The average body weight gain of EPMp duck with T4 treatment (0.90% lysine) was significantly higher than that T1 (0.60% lysine) but did not significantly difference (P>0.05) with T2 and T3. The average FCR of EPMp duck under T3 and T4 were significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of EPMp duck under T1. It was concluded that the optimum dietary lysine to produce maximum body weight gain of EPMp duck raised up to 10 weeks of age was 0.70%, while for minimum FCR were at the level of 0.80% and 0.90%.
Poverty and Eye Health

Poverty and eye health, including vision disability from vision impairment and blindness, are believed to be interrelated. The relationship between poverty and eye health can be interpreted as being two-fold, in the sense that poverty may be a cause of poor eye health and poor eye health may lead to or deepen poverty. Evidence shows that the burden of vision impairment is high in poor people and vision impairment and poverty are linked to each other. However the empirical evidence to answer the questions—Does poverty perpetuate poor eye health? How and why? Does poor eye health deepen poverty? —is sparse globally; especially from low and middle income countries (LMICs). This article therefore aims to examine published information and other secondary data sources that provide insight on the relationship between poverty and eye health, including eye disability caused from vision impairment and blindness. The article provides a conceptual understanding of poverty related attributes that contribute to eye disability from vision impairment and blindness, using evidence sourced from poverty and eye health research studies. The article interrogates general theories and beliefs that have been conceptualised in relation to the impact that the vicious cycle of poverty has on eye health and the contribution of poor eye health on an individual’s poverty status. The major outcomes of this article include: 1) identifying gaps in linking poverty and eye health, 2) establishing key issues that will assist in the development of a theoretical framework, and 3) preparing more appropriately for further investigation on the association between poverty and eye health.