Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Crystallization and surface texturing of amorphous-Si induced by UV laser for photovoltaic application

The DPSS Nd:YVO4 UV laser is used to anneal amorphous silicon (a-Si) film to achieve crystallization and nano-dome surface texturing simultaneously in a one-step annealing process. With pulse energy of 380 mJ/cm2 and repetition rate of 20 kHz, the a-Si can be crystallized by the sequential lateral solidification process, which is evidenced by both SEM characterization and Raman spectra. In addition, the nano-dome like structure is confirmed by AFM characterization, which can lead to ∼200% boost in terms of light absorption as measured by UV-Visible - Near-infrared scanning spectrophotometer. This study highlights the great potential of Nd:YVO4 UV laser for its application in thin film Si solar cell industry to improve the film quality and light trapping capability.
The Impact of Digitalization on the Speed of Internationalization of Lean Global Startups

Lean global startups need to internationalize early and fast. The digitalization of new foreign market development helps them to more efficiently identify new market opportunities in global markets. With this approach, they are saving resources while developing the most attractive markets. This article examines how lean global startups develop new foreign markets more rapidly due to digitalization. Thus, the aim is to understand the impact of digitalization on speed of internationalization of lean global startups. The study addresses a gap in the scholarly literature and a practical need to evaluate new foreign markets and business opportunities more quickly and more regularly and to understand what helps lean global startups react more quickly to opportunities and threats with respect to changing market attractiveness. Furthermore, it outlines why and how digitalization is important throughout the internationalization process. The re- search followed a multiple case-study design using different sources of evidence, including 73 interviews with senior managers of lean global startups. The findings reveal that digitalization allows lean global startups to increase decision-making efficiency and to optimize strategies and processes for evaluating international markets. The findings suggest that lean global startups can benefit from the use of digital technologies by applying a more efficient foreign market development process with regular reviews and a reduced workflow, by faster mediation between local market realities and strategic goals, by analyzing all foreign markets instead of just a sample of them, and by optimizing decision-making processes including the ability to make long-term, strategic decisions due to better market information.
Modeling the Risk of Hip Fracture among Residents in the Long Term Care Facilities in British Columbia, Canada: Impact of Misspecication of the Correlation Structure on the Parameter Estimates

In practice, survival data are often grouped into clusters, such as clinical sites, geographical regions and so on. This clustering imposes correlation among individuals within each cluster, which is known as within cluster correlation. For instance, in our motivating example, within each long term care facility (LTCF), the elderly are likely from nearby areas with similar quality of life and having access to similar health care. As such, individual sharing the same hidden features may correlate with each other. The shared frailty model is therefore often used to take into account the correlation among individuals from the same cluster. In some applications, when the survival data are collected over geographical regions, random effects corresponding to geographical regions in closer proximately to each other might also be similar in magnitude, due to underlying environmental characteristics. Therefore, shared spatial frailty model can be adopted to model the spatial correlation among the clusters, which are often implemented using Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. This method comes at the price of slow mixing rates and heavy computational cost, which may reader it impractical for data intensive application. In this thesis, motivated by the computational challenges encountered in modelling spatial correlation in a real application involving large scale survival data, we used simulations to assess the efficiency loss in parameter estimates if residual spatial correlation is present but using a spatially uncorrelated random effect term in the model. Our simulation study indicates that the share frailty model with only the spatially correlated random effect term may not be sufficient to govern the total residual variation, whereas the simpler model with only the spatially uncorrelated random effect term performs surprisingly well in estimating
Estimating the Value of Employee Stock Option Portfolios and Their Sensitivities to Price and Volatility

The costs associated with compiling data on employee stock option portfolios is a substantial obstacle in investigating the impact of stock options on managerial incentives, accounting choice, financing decisions, and the valuation of equity. We present an accurate method of estimating option portfolio value and the sensitivities of option portfolio value to stock price and stock-return volatility that is easily implemented using data from only the current year? s proxy statement or annual report. This method can be applied to either executive stock option portfolios or to firm-wide option plans. In broad samples of actual and simulated CEO option portfolios, we show that these proxies capture more than 99% of the variation in option portfolio value and sensitivities. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the degree of bias in these proxies varies with option portfolio characteristics, and is most severe in samples of CEOs with a large proportion of out-of-the-money options. However, the proxies' explanatory power remains above 95% in all subsamples.
Mutual Fund Families and Performance Evaluation

We develop a continuous-time Bayesian learning model to evaluate the composite skill of a mutual fund manager and a fund family. Our model estimates the composite skill of each fund as a function of its own performance and family performance. We show two competing effects of the family performance on the evaluation of a member fund: a positive common-skill effect and a negative common-noise effect. The overall effect increases with the correlation of unobservable skills, and decreases with the correlation of unobservable noise. This pattern is stronger in larger families. Consistent with our assumptions, we find empirically that funds within the same family show higher correlations of estimated alphas and of residual returns. We also find that the effect of family performance on flows to a member fund exhibits strong cross-sectional patterns that are consistent with our model predictions.
A survey of the factors affecting the productivity of construction projects in Iran

Abstract The intense competition between the Iranian construction companies has led them to take all appropriate measures to decrease the costs as much as possible. Hence, due to the pivotal role of human resources in construction projects cost, a major part of Iranian construction companies seek their profitability and survival in maximizing the productivity of their operatives. Because of the widespread belief among contractors about the low productivity of daily workers and operatives with basic salary, they commit a major part of their projects activities to sub-contractors. Deployment of sub-contractors by construction firms has become largely conventional in country's construction projects. The aims of this paper is defined as determining the factors and grounds affecting sub-contractors productivity and evaluate their overall negative side effects on project productivity via a structured questionnaire. A total of 31 factors selected and were divided into 7 broad categories. The perceptions of compa.
Modulation instability of lower hybrid waves leading to cusp solitons in electron–positron(hole)–ion Thomas Fermi plasma

Following the idea of three‐wave resonant interactions of lower hybrid waves, it is shown that quantum‐modified lower hybrid (QLH) wave in electron–positron–ion plasma with spatial dispersion can decay into another QLH wave (where electron and positrons are activated, whereas ions remain in the background) and another ultra‐low frequency quantum‐modified ultra‐low frequency Lower Hybrid (QULH) (where ions are mobile). Quantum effects like Bohm potential and Fermi pressure on the lower hybrid wave significantly reshaped the dispersion properties of these waves. Later, a set of non‐linear Zakharov equations were derived to consider the formation of QLH wave solitons, with the non‐linear contribution from the QLH waves. Furthermore, modulational instability of the lower hybrid wave solitons is investigated, and consequently, its growth rates are examined for different limiting cases. As the growth rate associated with the three‐wave resonant interaction is generally smaller than the growth associated with the modulational instability, only the latter have been investigated. Soliton solutions from the set of coupled Zakharov and NLS equations in the quasi‐stationary regime have been studied. Ordinary solitons are an attribute of non‐linearity, whereas a cusp soliton solution featured by nonlocal nonlinearity has also been studied. Such an approach to lower hybrid waves and cusp solitons study in Fermi gas comprising electron positron and ions is new and important. The general results obtained in this quantum plasma theory will have widespread applicability, particularly for processes in high‐energy plasma–laser interactions set for laboratory astrophysics and solid‐state plasmas.
Stressful life events and coping strategies among patients with generalized anxiety disorders

Introduction: Anxiety disorders are the most frequently occurring mental disorders resulting in psychological and physical problems. Coping is a healthy response to stress that helps in restoration to homeostasis. The aim was to identify gender and age difference on stressful life events and coping strategies among patients with generalized anxiety disorder. Methods: In the study, 60 subjects above 15 years of age were recruited from Psychiatric OPD of Tribhuvan University, Teaching Hospital. Subjects were assessed with Presumptive Stressful Life Events Scale and standard Coping Check List was used. Mean difference in stressful life events and coping strategy was compared by age and gender by using paired t-test. Pearson correlation coef- ficient was calculated for association between stressful life events and coping strategy . Results: Female experienced significantly more stressful life events (SLE) than males (2.2±2.0). No age different in SLE was observed. Passive acceptance coping strategy was significantly higher among females than males (p=0.01). Passive coping strategy and problem focused coping strategy were most frequently adopted coping strategies. Conclusion: Females with generalized anxiety disorder experienced more SLE than males. Coping strategies were most commonly associated with SLE among middle adults than young adults. Prob- lem focused coping and passive acceptance coping were the mostly adopted coping strategy among patients with generalized anxiety disorder and were significantly correlated with males.
Niños mexicanos y dibujos animados norteamericanos: referencias extranjeras en series animadas

Este estudio sobre audiencias explora como un grupo de ninos del sureste de Mexico perciben los dibujos animados de «El laboratorio de Dexter». El objetivo primordial es conocer la manera en que un programa norteamericano distribuido internacionalmente es entendido por una audiencia local, especialmente por una conformada por individuos que aun estan construyendo su identidad cultural. Se utilizo un enfoque cualitativo: un total de 44 ninos en edades entre los 8 y 11 anos participaron en una serie de entrevistas semi-estructuradas y grupos de discusion, que se llevaron a cabo en una ciudad de la provincia mexicana (Villahermosa, Tabasco). En cada sesion se observo un episodio de la serie animada doblada al espanol latino. Posteriormente, se evaluo si los participantes sabian que los dibujos animados eran norteamericanos y si notaban la presencia de elementos culturales diferentes respecto a su propia cultura (textos escritos en ingles, referencias a tradiciones, estilo de vida, simbolos, etc.). Asimismo, se indago si la edad, el genero y estrato social de proveniencia influian en esta percepcion. Los resultados muestran que la mayoria de los participantes eran conscientes de estar viendo un programa extranjero, reconocian elementos de la cultura norteamericana y aplicaban diversas estrategias para crear sentido a estas narrativas. Ninos mayores, y aquellos que estudian el idioma ingles, fueron capaces de realizar comparaciones mas sofisticadas entre las culturas de Mexico y Estados Unidos.
Defining the Concept of Cave Wilderness and Its Designation Values

For some, caves are one of the last remaining frontiers for ad-venture, wilderness, and exploration in America. Inacknowledgment of these qualities, a few have sought nationalrecognition for caves in the form of a wilderness designation.However, their efforts have not resulted in any cave or portionthereof receiving congressional recognition as wilderness.During the years that the Wilderness Act was under con-gressional consideration, numerous hearings were conducted.A report, submitted by de Saussure (1962), entitled “CaveResources,” as well as testimony by representatives of the Na-tional Speleological Society, was taken under review duringpreparation of the final draft of the Wilderness Act (Stitt 1982). The Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission(ORRRC), in its 1962 Study Report No. 3 noted the poten-tial wilderness value of caves:Rivers and caves are considered in the report asimportant potential wilderness resources, and we haveattempted a limited inventory of wilderness rivers anddiscussion of cave preservation in appendixes to the fullreport. It is apparent that special study is needed todevelop suitable definitions for these recreationresources, which can be applied in survey and manage-ment efforts. (ORRRC, 1962, p. 4)In the end, the Wilderness Act of 1964 made no referenceto caves. However, cave conservationists felt that Congresswas aware of caves’ potential as wilderness and had intendedto include them, just as other natural features were includedwithout specific reference (Stitt 1982). Attempts were made to designate caves or portions of cavesas wilderness (Stitt 1991). Yet no federally designated wil-derness has been established based on the wilderness qualitiesinherent to the caves found there. Nor has the presence ofcaves been an important criterion in the determination ofany wilderness designation (Seiser 2003). This lack of desig-nation suggests that cave wilderness is not an intuitiveconcept, at least not in the context of the Wilderness Act.The lack of understanding, by the general public andpolicy makers, of caves’ ecological importance and associ-ated wilderness values may play a role in the lack of adesignation. Congressional testimony and other recordsindicate that values were a critical focal point in the pas-sage of the Wilderness Act of 1964 (Cordell et al. 2003). Developing an understanding of values associated with cavesmay lead to better understanding of cave wilderness andthe need for a congressionally legislated designation.Justifications for wilderness preservation arise from val-ues ascribed to wilderness. McCloskey (1990) defines thesevalues as reasons, based in philosophy and culture, for want-ing wilderness. These tangible and intangible values areattributed to the benefits experienced by individuals, soci-ety, or nature. Various wilderness- and protected areas–relatedvalue typologies have been developed. Two specific typologies
Asymptotic Deficiency of the Estimator of a Parameter of an Autoregressive Process with the Missing Observation

Let { X t } be defined by X t = 8Xt-1 + Ut (t = 1, 2, . ), where { Ut } is a sequence of independently, identically and normally distributed random variables with mean 0 and variance 1 and Xo is a normal random variable with mean 0 and variance 1/0-( 2 ) and for each t Xo is independent of Ut . We assume that 18 1< 1 and consider the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) 'of 8 based on the sample (X 0, X I, . ,X T-l ,X T+ 1) in which X T is missing. It is shown that the bias-adjusted MLE is second order asymptotically efficient. When in the above autoregressive process we assume that Xo = 0, the asymptotic deficiency of the MLE is given.
Between Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm, and the Museum

This article uses the recent controversy regarding the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas as a paradigm to challenge essentializing notions of an “Islamic” response to the image. Beginning with a history of premodern iconoclastic practice in the Islamic world, it explores the reception of the Bamiyan Buddhas in light of evidence for a complex range of responses to Buddhist and Hindu images in Afghanistan. Finally, it relates the destruction of Buddhist antiquities in 2001 not to a timeless theology of images but to the role of the museum as the locus of a secular iconolatry characteristic of the modern nation-state.
Conductivity test in seeds of different passion flower species

The objective of this work was to evaluate the use of the conductivity test as a means of predicting seed viability in seven Passiflora species: P. alata, P. cincinnata, P. edulis f. edulis, P. edulis f. flavicarpa, P. morifolia, P. mucronata, and P. nitida. Conductivity of non? desiccated (control), desiccated, and non? desiccated cryopreserved seeds was determined and related to their germination percentage. The obtained results suggest that the electrical conductivity test has potential as a germination predictor for P. edulis f. flavicarpa seed lots, but not for the other tested species. Index terms: Passiflora, seed cryopreservation, seed desiccation, seed viability.
Intrinsic Josephson Junctions in BiSrCaCuO-2212: Recent Progress

SUMMARY In this paper, we review the progress in BiSrCaCuO-2212 Intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJs) bysummarizing our recent results in fabrication and high frequencyexperiments. Using a double-side fabrication process, a well defined number of intrinsic Josephson junctions in a well defined geometrycan be fabricated. The junctions in the stack are quite homogeneous, and the power distribution of external irradiation among the junctions is even. Shapiro steps are clearlyobserved up to 2.5 THz, and the general condition for the occurrence of Shapiro steps at frequency f is that it should be much greater than the plasma frequency fpl. Under certain conditions the Shapiro steps are zero-crossing, making some applications possible, such as quantum voltage standard etc.
Three-dimensional h-adaptive XFEM for two-phase incompressible flow

This study develops the h-version of the Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) applied to the simulation of two-fluid incompressible flow in both two and three dimensions. The h-XFEM employs a multilevel adaptive mesh refinement realized via hanging nodes on 1-irregular meshes. The mesh is refined in the vicinity of the interface to ensure a high resolution of the interface position and also the ability to capture steep gradients. The sign-enrichment is employed for the XFEM approximation which accurately accounts for the jump in the pressure field within the elements without mesh manipulation. The level-set method is used for the implicit representation of the interface which can readily handle topological changes. The reinitialization of the levelset is realized by solving a differential equation to steady state in order to recover the signeddistance property. For the modelling of the surface tension, the Laplace-Beltrami technique is employed which avoids the explicit computation of the curvature. The accuracy of the flow solver is demonstrated by computing the error norms in both pressure and velocity for several two- and three-dimensional test cases.
Varenicline, an α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist, selectively decreases ethanol consumption and seeking

Alcohol dependence is a disease that impacts millions of individuals worldwide. There has been some progress with pharmacotherapy for alcohol-dependent individuals; however, there remains a critical need for the development of novel and additional therapeutic approaches. Alcohol and nicotine are commonly abused together, and there is evidence that neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) play a role in both alcohol and nicotine dependence. Varenicline, a partial agonist at the α4β2 nAChRs, reduces nicotine intake and was recently approved as a smoking cessation aid. We have investigated the role of varenicline in the modulation of ethanol consumption and seeking using three different animal models of drinking. We show that acute administration of varenicline, in doses reported to reduce nicotine reward, selectively reduced ethanol but not sucrose seeking using an operant self-administration drinking paradigm and also decreased voluntary ethanol but not water consumption in animals chronically exposed to ethanol for 2 months before varenicline treatment. Furthermore, chronic varenicline administration decreased ethanol consumption, which did not result in a rebound increase in ethanol intake when the varenicline was no longer administered. The data suggest that the α4β2 nAChRs may play a role in ethanol-seeking behaviors in animals chronically exposed to ethanol. The selectivity of varenicline in decreasing ethanol consumption combined with its reported safety profile and mild side effects in humans suggest that varenicline may prove to be a treatment for alcohol dependence.
Impact of Commercial Banksâ Credit on Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria (Time Series Analysis 1980 - 2013)

This study was carried out to examine the impact of commercial banks’ credits on agricultural productivity in Nigeria. The aim is to determine the relationship between commercial banks credit and agricultural productivity in the Nigeria economy. The statistical tool of analysis is the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) techniques. However the variables were subjected to the Unit Root Test to ensure stationarity before the application of the OLS. On the whole, three hypotheses were tested; all the alternative hypotheses were validated by the OLS result. The t-calculated of commercial banks credit has a value of 6.28 which is greater than the t-critical of 1.96. This is an indication of positive relationship between commercial banks’ credit and agricultural productivity. The t-calculated of interest rate on commercial banks credit has a value of -9.38 as against 1.96 t-critical. This is an indication of a negative relationship between interest rate and agricultural productivity. While the t-calculated of government spending, as a complimentary variable, has a value of 3.42 as against the 1.96 of t-critical. This, as the case of hypothesis one, is also indication of significant positive relationship between government spending and agricultural productivity in Nigeria. Based on the findings, we recommended that the Agricultural Credit, Guarantee Scheme should improve on their conditions for credit guarantee in order to make agricultural financing attractive to commercial banks. Furthermore, the paper advocates amongst others, that the government should subsidized interest rate to the International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Nov 2015, Vol. 5, No. 11 ISSN: 2222-6990 338 www.hrmars. com agricultural sector and stop fuel subsidy as this will provide more benefit to the society than the fuel subsidy.