Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Personal Financial Knowledge and Attitude towards Credit Card Practices among Working Adults in Malaysia

The objective of this study aims to identify the personal financial knowledge and attitude towards credit card practices among working adults in Ipoh, Perak. This study also identifies respondents' gender, education level and monthly income towards credit card practices. There were 100 people being chosen to be the respondent of this study by the simple random sampling method. The results which were being tested by using t-test showed that there were no significant differences in credit card practices between male and female working adults (t = 1.034, p ≤ 0.304). In addition, the analysis which were being tested by using one-way ANOVA showed that there were significant differences in credit card practices between education levels (F = 2.415, p ≤ 0.042), while there were no significant differences in credit card practices between monthly income (F = 1.303, p ≤ 0.275). In addition, the findings which were being tested using Pearson correlation showed that there was no significant relationship between personal financial knowledge and credit card practices (r = 0.143 p ≤ 0.156) and also there was no significant relationship between attitude and credit card practices (r = -0.139, p ≤ 0.168). Therefore, this study concludes that gender, monthly income, personal financial knowledge and attitude influencing the credit card practices among working adults in Ipoh. Meanwhile, only education level influencing the credit card practices among working adults in Ipoh. To get better and accurate results, future research should increase sample size to a bigger geographic areas and larger sample and it is recommended to determine other factors which might affect credit card practices among working adults. Future research should focus on developing a consistent measure of financial knowledge and attitude and also examine the relationship between personal financial knowledge and a variety of personal attitudes other than credit card usage.
LEARNING IMAGE DESCRIPTORS FOR MATCHING BASED ON HAAR FEATURES

This paper presents a new and fast binary descriptor for image matching learned from Haar features. The training uses AdaBoost; the weak learner is built on response function for Haar features, instead of histogram-type features. The weak classifier is selected from a large weak feature pool. The selected features have different feature type, scale and position within the patch, having correspond threshold value for weak classifiers. Besides, to cope with the fact in real matching that dissimilar matches are encountered much more often than similar matches, cascaded classifiers are trained to motivate training algorithms see a large number of dissimilar patch pairs. The final trained output are binary value vectors, namely descriptors, with corresponding weight and perceptron threshold for a strong classifier in every stage. We present preliminary results which serve as a proof-of-concept of the work.
A Space-Time based Approach to Solving the Gain Asymmetry in MIMO ad hoc Networks

The problem of gain asymmetry in MIMO ad-hoc networks is outlined and the solutions proposed in literature are surveyed. The approach in R. Korakis et al. (2003) is analyzed and its delay quantified. A new solution, based on the ideas in F. Rossetto and M. Zorzi (2006), is studied. Its performance advantages over . Korakis et al. (2003) are quantified by physical layer and network level simulations
Disentangling the Roles of Equity Market and Strategic Alliances in M&As: Valuation and Search Problems

Information economics offers a complementary framework relative to transaction cost economics to study corporate strategy. Nevertheless, the existing theory suffers from the lack of an argument to differentiate various remedies for contractual hazards when multiple remedies are available. We develop the argument that although both publicity via equity market and strategic alliances can serve as remedies for the asymmetric information problem in M&As, the different mechanisms underlying the two remedies suggest that only equity market is capable of overcoming the search problem in M&As. Consistent with the argument, the empirical evidence shows that firms rely on equity market and strategic alliances to mitigate the valuation problem associated with acquisitions of highly intangible targets. However, firms tend to use the equity market rather than strategic alliances to address the search problem associated with high spatial dispersion of exchange partners.
Selective Distal Enhancer Control of the Mmp13 Gene Identified through Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR) Genomic Deletions*

Background: Mmp13 is vital to bone homeostasis and controlled by a plethora of stimuli. Results: Mmp13 is modulated by distinct distal enhancers for basal (−30 kb) and vitamin D regulation (−10 kb). Conclusion: Enhancer deletions lead to altered transcription factor occupancy and expression for Mmp13. Significance: Specific CRISPR deletions reveal the repressive secondary effect of VDR, coordinated multi-enhancer gene control, and distal basal regulation of Mmp13. Matrix metalloproteinase 13 (Mmp13, collagenase-3) plays an essential role in bone metabolism and mineral homeostasis. It is regulated by numerous factors, including BMP-2, parathyroid hormone, and 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3), through transcription factors such as Runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2), CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein β (C/EBPβ), OSX, and vitamin D receptor (VDR). During osteoblast maturation, the basal expression of Mmp13 and its sensitivity to 1,25(OH)2D3 are strikingly increased. In this report, ChIP-sequencing analysis in mouse preosteoblasts revealed that the Mmp13 gene was probably regulated by three major enhancers located −10, −20, and −30 kb upstream of the gene promoter, occupied by activated VDR and prebound C/EBPβ and RUNX2, respectively. Initially, bacterial artificial chromosome clone recombineering and traditional mutagenesis defined binding sites for VDR and RUNX2. We then employed a CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing approach to delete the −10 and −30 kb Mmp13 enhancers, a region proximal to the promoter, and VDR or RUNX2. VDR-mediated up-regulation of Mmp13 transcription was completely abrogated upon removal of the −10 kb enhancer, resulting in a 1,25(OH)2D3-directed repression of Mmp13. Deletion of either the −30 kb enhancer or RUNX2 resulted in a complete loss of basal transcript activity and a ChIP-identified destabilization of the chromatin enhancer environment and factor binding. Whereas enhancer deletions only affected Mmp13 expression, the RUNX2 deletion led to changes in gene expression, a reduction in cellular proliferation, and an inability to differentiate. We conclude that the Mmp13 gene is regulated via at least three specific distal enhancers that display independent activities yet are able to integrate response from multiple signaling pathways in a model of activation and suppression.
Managing the Online Crowd: Motivations for Engagement in User-Generated Content

Abstract This article addresses the question of why Internet users participate in and actively generate content for online communities. We asked users who actively produce online content and those who are passive recipients of mainstream community Web sites that feature user-generated content about their behavior and motivations. We aimed to identify the differences between active and passive users and the motivations behind content production. Using a structural equation modeling approach, our results indicate that social status is the main motivational driver of time exposure, while involvement in the community is driven by stimulus avoidance, social relations, and social identity.
The Use of Social Media for Artist Marketing: Music Industry Perspectives and Consumer Motivations

This research addresses the question of why consumers use social media especially in relation to music consumption and how music industry companies could improve their social media efforts by matching company strategies with consumer motives. Four case studies and four focus groups with 28 participants were conducted. As a result, this study found five motives for social media participation: (1) access to content, (2) sense of affinity, (3) participation, (4) interaction, and (5) social identity, in decreasing order of effect. For managers this study set out a detailed social media strategy that corresponds with components of consumer motives for participation at decreasing levels of effect.
Calibration of thromboplastins

Anticoagulant therapy with coumarin drugs requires tests on the patient’s blood to determine the dose rate for the drug. The tests involve measuring the effect of a preparation of a certain reagent, thromboplastin, in accelerating the clotting of the patient’s blood. Features of the World Health Organization’s recommendation on the appropriate laboratory procedure for a calibration assay and evaluation of results call for comment. The standard method involves estimation of a linear structural relation, a statistical technique long known but seldom finding practical application. This paper reviews its history, as a prelude to discussing strange mistakes in earlier publications; it also examines assessment of the precision of estimation and other aspects of the statistical method.
Lipoprotein Heterogeneity Early in Pregnancy and Preterm Birth

Abstract Background The concentration and size of lipoprotein particles are associated with race, inflammation, and disease. When triglycerides are high, as in pregnancy, lipoprotein particle size may have physiologic importance beyond conventional lipid measurements. We considered that lipoprotein particles may be related to preterm birth (PTB) and explored race differences. Materials and Methods Samples were collected at 9 weeks' gestation (22 PTB [< 37 weeks]; 42 term births [≥ 37 weeks]). Lipids were assayed using standard techniques. Concentrations of high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, and very low-density lipoprotein particles (HDL-P, LDL-P, and VLDL-P, respectively) and markers of systemic inflammation were quantified using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and related to PTB. Results Women with PTB had lower VLDL-P (− 10.66 nmol/L, p = 0.03) and higher systemic inflammation (+ 19.2 µmol/L, p = 0.02) compared with women with term births, independent of race, pre-pregnancy body mass index, and smoking. Black versus white women had lower VLDL-P and higher HDL cholesterol (both p < 0.05). Race-specific results indicated that large HDL-P and inflammation (glycoprotein B) were higher with PTB versus term birth among black women only. Conclusion Women with PTB had lower VLDL-P early in pregnancy, which may represent impaired lipid response. Black–white differences in the lipoprotein profile are similar to nonpregnant adults, but race-specific lipoprotein and inflammation associations with PTB warrant further study.
THE INFLUENCE OF CORPORATE DISCLOSURE LEVEL ON COST OF EQUITY CAPITAL: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA

This research investigates the level of corporate disclosure in Indonesia and how corporate disclosure may influence company’s cost of equity capital. Moreover, this research is also wanted to investigate the profile of corporate disclosure in Indonesia.The samples used in this research are companies that are listed in LQ-45 from 2006 to 2010. The corporate disclosure information is derived from the annual report. Moreover, related information required are also extracted from annual report, such as leverage, total asset and auditor quality. For data analysis, this research will employ a multiple regression to determine the association among variables. The result shows the disclosure level in Indonesia is actually affected cost of equity capital even though the level of significant is considered as low. As the conclusion, although most of companies does not disclosed information as the expected number of regulation, Indonesia capital market still can be considered as semi strong since the information that are available for public are actually affecting investors decision on investment.
Impact of Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) on Rural Women Contact Farmers' Poverty Levels in Aguata Agricultural Zone of Anambra State, Nigeria

This study determined the impact of agricultural development programmes (ADP) on rural women contact farmers” poverty levels in Aguata, agricultural zone of Abia State, Nigeria. A-multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 180 rural women farmers (90 a piece for rural women contact and non contact farmers). Instrument for data collection was two sets of pre-tested and structured questionnaires. The poverty line was N5037.79 and N5027.91 per month for rural women contact and non contact farmers respectively. Poverty incidence was 0.444 and 0.5222 for rural women contact and non contact farmers respectively. The result of the paired t-test showed that the ADP impacted positively and significantly on rural women contact farmers” farm income, farm size and fertilizer use levels at 5.0% risk level. The multiple regression analysis with double log as the lead equation showed that the critical determinants of gross expenditure of the rural women contact farmers include household size, farm size, labour use levels and farm incomes at given levels of significance. It was recommended the women farmers should be given increased access to agricultural lands to help boost agricultural output and reduce endemic poverty.
Assessing Brand Origin Recognition Accuracy and its Antecedents in a Developing Country

The aim of the present study was to examine two main questions regarding Indonesian consumers. First, what are the brand origin recognition accuracy (BORA) scores for both foreign brands and local brands among Indonesian consumers? Second, are socio-economic characteristics (education and income/spending), international experience (international travel and foreign language expertise), and demographic factors (age and gender) related to consumers’ brand origin recognition accuracy? The present research follows BORA procedures in the selection of 88 brands (44 foreign and 44 local brands). Questionnaires were distributed both offline and online, with 138 respondents participating offline and 163 people responding online. The BORA scores for both foreign and local brands among Indonesian consumers were relatively low (28.79% and 53.85%, respectively). BORA was also related to socio-economic characteristics, international experience, and age. In addition, men demonstrated higher BORA levels for foreign brands than women did. Most consumers were unable to differentiate brand origins because of the use of foreign languages for the brand names. Therefore, the foreign branding strategy of using languages of other countries (e.g., English, Chinese, Japanese, and so forth) that have positive images for particular product categories could be effectively employed in Indonesia.
A comparison of observational studies and randomized, controlled trials

BACKGROUND: For many years it has been claimed that observational studies find stronger treatment effects than randomized, controlled trials. We compared the results of observational studies with those of randomized, controlled trials. METHODS: We searched the Abridged Index Medicus and Cochrane data bases to identify observational studies reported between 1985 and 1998 that compared two or more treatments or interventions for the same condition. We then searched the Medline and Cochrane data bases to identify all the randomized, controlled trials and observational studies comparing the same treatments for these conditions. For each treatment, the magnitudes of the effects in the various observational studies were combined by the Mantel-Haenszel or weighted analysis-of-variance procedure and then compared with the combined magnitude of the effects in the randomized, controlled trials that evaluated the same treatment. RESULTS: There were 136 reports about 19 diverse treatments, such as calcium-channel-blocker therapy for coronary artery disease, appendectomy, and interventions for subfertility. In most cases, the estimates of the treatment effects from observational studies and randomized, controlled trials were similar. In only 2 of the 19 analyses of treatment effects did the combined magnitude of the effect in observational studies lie outside the 95 percent confidence interval for the combined magnitude in the randomized, controlled trials. CONCLUSIONS: We found little evidence that estimates of treatment effects in observational studies reported after 1984 are either consistently larger than or qualitatively different from those obtained in randomized, controlled trials.
Engaging Students in an MIS Course through the Creation of E-Business: A Self-Determination Theory Analysis

We describe an entrepreneurial approach for teaching a Management Information Systems (MIS) course. The course builds on the psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness to encourage student motivation and engagement. Students are required to create new electronic businesses and to build prototypes of their electronic web fronts. Students are also required to use the concepts taught in the course and to analyze the ventures’ strategies, related network externalities, as well as business processes and data analytics. The course was taught since 2009 to five classes with more than two hundred students. Using student evaluation questionnaires and four detailed interviews, we find that more than half of the students are enthusiastic about the new approach, feeling satisfied and even proud of their projects. However, a minority of students found the course over-complicated and even boring. We found also that students who expressed autonomy orientation engaged with the course, while students who expressed impersonal or controlled orientation did not. We believe that this analysis should help instructors in aligning new teaching opportunities created by IT to fit students’ orientations and needs.
Cheap Talk and the Efficacy of the ECB's Securities Market Programme: Did Bond Purchases Matter?

In 2010, in response to an ever-worsening fiscal crisis, the ECB began purchasing sovereign debt from troubled euro-area countries through its Securities Market Programme (SMP). This program was designed to improve market functioning and restore the monetary transmission mechanism within the euro area. This paper does not test those ideals. Rather, we test whether SMP purchases systematically lowered peripheral yields and spreads. We find limited evidence of purchase effects but large announcement effects. In addition, on days in which the ECB was believed to have made large purchases, yields moved down, independent of the size of the ECB's purchases or even if the ECB conducted any purchase at all that week. In all, we conclude that the ECB's SMP influenced yields through a confidence channel rather than through any direct purchase effect. In the appendix to this paper we provide a detailed timeline of SMP purchases and market beliefs about purchase timing.
Studying Rural Innovation Management: A Framework and Early Findings from RIU in South Asia

This paper aims to map the experience of the RIU Asia projects and draw out the main innovation management tactics being observed while laying the groundwork for further research on this topic. It provides a framework to help analyse the sorts of innovation management tasks that are becoming important. This framework distinguishes four elements of innovation management: (i) Functions (ii) Actions (iii) Tools and (iv) Organisational Format. The paper’s review of the distribution of innovation management in the Asia projects suggests that it is not technology access-related tasks alone that are important, but the bundling of these with other activities, which include the development of networks, advocacy for policy change, training and other negotiated changes in practice and action. The implication for policy is that ways of supporting this wider suite of innovation management tasks would go a long way in helping make better use of agricultural research in rural development.
Association between Erythropoietin in Cord Blood of Twins and Size at Birth: Does It Relate to Gestational Factors or to Factors during Labor or Delivery?

We hypothesized that cord blood erythropoietin (EPO), a marker of fetal hypoxia, relates to gestational factors and not solely those associated with delivery. We investigated the association between birth weight SD score (SDS) and cord blood EPO in 290 twins (145 pairs), assessing the influence of gestational versus perinatal factors by comparing the association in those who were delivered by elective cesarean (CS) with that in other delivery modes. Blood EPO values were skewed, so geometric means are presented and log EPO values were used in statistical models. The birth size–EPO association was estimated in mixed-effects models that included terms that represented difference in log EPO and mean log EPO for each twin pair. Within-pair estimates of the association were unconfounded by maternal factors (because these were perfectly controlled). Geometric mean EPO was higher in boys versus girls (24.4 versus 17.0 IU/L; p = 0.0001) and increased with gestational age (p = 0.0003) but was similar after elective CS versus other delivery modes. The negative birth size–EPO association was stronger in infants who were delivered by elective CS than by other delivery modes [β for log2 EPO: −0.56 (95% CI, −0.77 to −0.36) versus −0.27 (−0.42 to −0.12), respectively; p = 0.02 for interaction). Because the association was seen after elective CS delivery, cord blood EPO must relate to factors during gestation, not just perinatal factors. There was no evidence of an association between birth weight SDS and pair mean log EPO, indicating that the association is entirely due to fetus-specific rather than pair-specific factors.
The Asymmetric Effect of Reporting Flexibility on Priced Risk

I examine the link between the costs of obfuscation (“reporting flexibility”) and systematic risk exposure. Using SOX compliance and internal control status as proxies for reporting flexibility, I find that firms with greater degrees of reporting flexibility comove more strongly with downmarkets than with upmarkets, a phenomenon I refer to as “risk asymmetry. ” Using an event study/regression discontinuity design, similar to that of Iliev (2010), I provide empirical evidence demonstrating that reporting flexibility causes risk asymmetry. Taken together with prior literature (noteably Ang, Chen and Xing (2006), who document that risk asymmetry is priced even after controlling for standard determinants of a firm’s cost of equity capital), my results suggest that firms can lower their costs of equity capital by credibly reducing their reporting flexibility. Furthermore, commonly used multifactor models are insufficient to fully capture the pricing-relevance of risk asymmetry, thereby warranting the inclusion of an additional factor-mimicking portfolio designed to capture the effects of reporting flexibility.
The Complementarity Between Segment Disclosure and Earnings Quality, and its Effect on Cost Capital

We investigate the role of earnings quality in determining the levels of segment disclosure, and hether and how better quality earnings and segment disclosure influences cost of capital. Using a large US sample for the period 2001-2006, we find a positive relation between earnings quality and levels of segment disclosures. We also find that firms providing better quality segment information, contingent upon good earnings quality, enjoy lower cost of capital. We base our empirical tests on a self created index of segment disclosure. Our results contribute to a better understanding of (1) the incentives for providing segment disclosures, and (2) how account ing quality (quality of segment information and earnings quality) is related to the cost of capital.