Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How Real Oil Prices and Domestic Financial Instabilities are Good for GCC Countries Tourism Demand in Malaysia?

Malaysia, located in the heart of Southeast Asia, is a multicultural country whose ‘green’ and ‘blue’ tourism attractions have become the main tourism spot for the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) tourists. We employed the Threshold Error Correction (TECM) cointegration and the nonlinear causality estimates to capture the nexus between real energy prices and financial stability for the GCC countries’ tourism demand in Malaysia using the monthly-based dataset covering the period since 1995 till 2017. The main TECM estimate shows that real energy price fluctuations and financial instability condition in Malaysia positively boost tourists’ arrivals from the GCC countries to Malaysia. Indeed, there is evidence of an asymmetric speed of adjustment of the GCC countries’ tourism demand with 25.9% and 36.7% of positive and negative deviations, respectively. In addition, this study found a strong evidence of unidirectional nonlinear causal relations running from real energy prices to tourism demands; and also bidirectional causalities running from tourism demand to financial stability. These findings will be helpful for tourism policy makers in Malaysia while drawing a future roadmap to increase the numbers of the GCC tourists’ arrivals in future years.
The impact of efficient inventory management on profitability: evidence from selected manufacturing firms in Ghana.

Given the important contributions of the manufacturing sector to the Ghanaian economy, this research deems it necessary to evaluate the impact of efficient inventory management on the profitability of manufacturing firms in Ghana. A cross sectional data from 2004 to 2014 was gathered for the analysis from the annual reports of four manufacturing firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. Measures of profitability were examined and related to proxies for efficient inventory management by manufacturers. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) stated in the form of a multiple regression model was applied in the analysis. The study revealed that the main variable raw materials inventory management designed to capture the effect of efficient management of raw material inventory by a company on it’s profitability is significantly strong and positive and impacts on the profitability of the manufacturing firms in Ghana. Therefore, efficient management of raw material inventory is a major factor to be considered by Ghanaian manufacturers in enhancing or boosting their profitability.
Psychiatric symptoms in idiopathic rapid-eye-movement sleep behaviour disorder

Objectives: To assess the frequency and severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms in idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder (iRBD), a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease (PD) or dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Design: Cross sectional case-control study. Setting: University hospital-based sleep research clinic. Participants: Fifty-five iRBD patients and 63 age and sex-matched healthy subjects. Measurements: Participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory – Second Edition (BDI-II) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). We assessed the depressive and anxiety symptoms and compared the proportion of participants with clinically significant depressive or anxiety symptoms. We also used the BDI for Primary Care (BDI-PC) to minimize confounding factors that could overestimate depressive symptoms. Results: iRBD patients scored higher than controls on the BDI-II (9.63 ± 6.61 vs. 4.32 ± 4.58; P < 0.001), BDI-PC (2.20 ± 2.29 vs. 0.98 ± 1.53; P = 0.001) and BAI (8.37 ± 7.30 vs. 3.92 ± 5.26; P < 0.001). Compared to controls, we found a higher proportion of iRBD patients with past psychiatric diagnoses (6/63 or 9.5% vs. 17/55 or 31%; P = 0.007), clinically significant depressive (4/63 or 6% vs. 12/55 or 22% P = 0.03) or anxiety symptoms (9/50 or 18% vs. 21/43 or 49%; P = 0.003). Proportion of iRBD patients with clinically significant depressive symptoms remains unchanged using the BDI-PC (11/55 or 20%). Conclusions: Depressive and anxiety symptoms are frequent features in iRBD. Routine examination of patients with iRBD should include an assessment of depressive and anxiety symptoms in order to prevent or treat them.
FISCAL DEFICITS AND MACROECONOMIC AGGREGATES IN NIGERIA

The study was carried out to determine the relationship between fiscal deficit and macroeconomic performance in Nigeria over the period 1980 to 2010. The specific objectives include: to determine the impact of fiscal deficit on macroeconomic aggregate in Nigeria, to examine whether fiscal deficit had led to economic growth in Nigeria, and to find out the nature of relationship between fiscal deficits and macroeconomic aggregates in Nigeria using data from secondary sources. The study employed the Ordinary Least Square in estimating the equation. Preliminary test of stationarity and co integration of variables using the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test and the co integration test using the Engle Granger procedure were conducted respectively. However, the empirical findings showed that fiscal deficits even though that it met the economic a prior in terms of its negative coefficients yet, did not significantly affect macroeconomic output. The result also show a bilateral causality relationship between government deficit and gross domestic product, government tax, and unemployment, while there is an independent relationship between government deficit and government expenditure and inflation. Based on these findings, appropriate recommendations were made.
The Effects of Edible Coating Ingredient as a Barrier to Moisture and Fat of Fried Breaded Potato

The effects of edible coating material and their concentrations on viscosity of coating solutions, moisture and fat contents of fried breaded potato were investigated. Viscosity of chitosan (CH), hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and wheat gluten (WG) were measured using Brookfield viscometer with small sample adapter. The results showed a good correlation between the log viscosity values and edible coating concentrations for all treatment combinations (R2>0.94). The viscosity of CH, HPMC and WG coating solutions varied from 66.3-918.0 cp, 43.7-932.3 cp and 134.0-773.3 cp, respectively. Viscosity value in the middle range was selected for coating blanched potatoes. Samples were first coated with the edible solutions and followed by sequentially predusted, battered, breaded and fried at 170∞C for 3 min. Moisture and fat content in the core, crust and intact of samples were determined. Moisture content in the crust portion of samples coated with HPMC (18.9%) was significantly higher than the uncoated (14.8%) while the fat content of all samples was not significantly different. Increasing the viscosity of HPMC reduced the moisture loss and fat absorption more effectively than CH and WG. Adding 9% of HPMC edible ingredient into predusting mix produced a breaded potato with higher moisture and lower in fat.
Evaluation of post-operative analgesic efficacy of transversus abdominis plane block in patients who underwent caesarian section under spinal anesthesia

Objective: In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of ultrasound guided Transversus Abdominis Plane Block (TAPB) procedure that was performed for the purpose of postoperative analgesia in patients who underwent caesarian section operation under spinal anesthesia. Patients and Methods: This study included a total of 50 patients who underwent elective Caesarian section under spinal anesthesia. Patients were divided into two groups: those who postoperatively underwent guided ultrasound TAPB (Group TAPB, 20 ml. of 0.25% bupivacaine injected bilaterally); and those who did not undergo TAPB (Group C). Post-operatively, all patients received patientcontrolled analgesia using tramadol. Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores were recorded at the time of patient’s transport to and from the recovery room, and at the post-operative 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 12th and 24th h. Tramadol consumption was recorded at the recovery phase and at 24 h. Results: Demographical data of the patients did not show any statistically significant difference. The amount of tramadol administered during recovery and at the end of postoperative 24 h were significantly lower in group TAPB (32.50 ± 15.51 and 226.00 ± 66.44 mg, respectively) in comparison to group C (47.52 ± 19.15 mg and 280.80 ± 35.34 mg, respectively) (p<0.01). VAS scores at time of transport to the recovery room, at the time of exit from the recovery room, and at the post-operative 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th and 12th h were significantly lower in group TAPB when compared to group C (p<0.05). Conclusions: It has been determined that ultrasound-guided TAPB performed after spinal anesthesia results in lower VAS scores, reduced analgesic consumption.
Modal Modeling of Nonlinear Fluid Sloshing in Tanks with Non-Vertical Walls. Non-Conformal Mapping Technique

Nonlinear sloshing of an incompressible fluid with irrotational flow is analyzed. The fluid partly occupies a smooth tank with walls having non-cylindrical shape. No overturning, breaking and shallow water waves are assumed. Nonconformal mapping technique by Lukovsky (1975) is developed further. It assumes that tank’s cavity can be transformed into an artificial cylindrical domain, where equation of free surface allows both normal form and modal representation of instantaneous surface shape. Admissible tensor transformations have due singularities in mapping the lower (upper) corners of the tank into artificial bottom (roof). It leads to degenerating spectral boundary problems on natural modes. The paper delivers the mathematical background for these spectral problems and establishes the spectral and variational theorems. Natural modes in circular conical cavity are calculated by variational algorithm based on these theorems. It is shown that the algorithm is robust and numerically efficient for calculating both lower and higher natural modes. Finally, the paper shows that the well-known infinite-dimensional modal systems by Lukovsky (derived for sloshing in cylindrical tank) keep invariant structure with respect to admissible tensor transformations (for translatory motions of the vehicle). This makes it possible to offer the simple derivation algorithm of nonlinear modal systems for the studied case. When using anzatz by Lukovsky we derive the five-dimensional modal system for nonlinear sloshing in circular conic tanks.
NUMERICAL TAXONOMY OF THE GENUS SENNA MILL. FROM BANGLADESH

This study examines the patterns of morphological variation and phenetic relationships among 11 species of Senna Mill. from Bangladesh using 32 vegetative and floral characters. The highest similarity is found between S. obtusifolia and S. tora, while the highest variation is observed between S. alata and S. hirsuta. UPGMA tree derived from cluster analysis reveals three major clusters, the first of which consists of two species (S. alata and S. auriculata), the second cluster comprises four species (S. hirsuta, S. obtusifolia, S. tora and S. occidentalis) and the third one is composed of five species (S. multiglandulosa, S. sophera, S. siamea, S. timoriensis and S. surattensis). A close relationship is also found between S. multiglandulosa and S. sophera, and between S. siamea and S. timoriensis. Results obtained from the present study are found congruent with cytological and anatomical studies showing the significance of numerical analysis for taxonomic relationship in the genus Senna.
Earning Quality in Public Listed Companies: A Study on Malaysia Exchange for Securities Dealing and Automated Quotation

This study attempted to find out whether the size of audit firm, internal audit establishment and former senior auditor as company director have any significant effect on earning management. All data were extracted from the annual reports. The sample firms used in this study were all the companies listed on Bursa Malaysia under Malaysia Exchange for Securities Dealing and Automated Quotation (MESDAQ) technological sector in 2006. There were 128 MESDAQ Companies listed in 2006. However due to unavailability of reports, 113 were used for analysis. Earning Management can be viewed from financial reporting perspective. From a financial reporting perspective, managers may use earning management to meet analysts’ earning forecast, thereby avoiding the strong negative share price reaction that quickly follow a failure to meet investor expectations. Too much earning management, however, reduces the earning quality and the ability investor to interpret current net income as well, particularly if the earning management is buried in core earning or otherwise not fully disclosed. The reported net income is useful to investor in evaluating future firm performance but excessive earning management may reduce this usefulness. Thus this study is very important because from the research findings shows that the size of audit firm, internal audit establishment and former senior auditor as company director have no significant effect on earning management. An understanding of the earning management is also important to accountants because it enables an improved understanding of the usefulness of the net income, especially for reporting to investor. It also may assist them to avoid some of the serious legal and reputation consequences that arise when firms become financially distress where such distress is often preceded by serious abuse of earnings management.
The Role of Regulatory Focus in How Much We Care About Enemies

Past cross-cultural research studies in regulatory focus have showed that East Asians in general tend to be prevention-focused, whereas Westerners tend to be promotion-focused. Three studies extend these findings by investigating the role of regulatory focus on people’s experiences in enemyship—how people deal with their personal enemies. Study 1 demonstrated that Hong Kong Chinese, as one of representative prevention-focused East Asian groups, showed greater concern about their enemies in terms of perceived threats from their enemies, subjective awareness of enemies, and negative emotional experiences in enemyship, compared with European Canadians as one of representative promotion-focused Western groups. In addition, Study 2 demonstrated that Hong Kong Chinese memorized more pieces of information about a hypothetical enemy than did their Canadian counterparts, which demonstrated a greater concern about enemies among Hong Kong Chinese. Finally, while replicating Study 1, Study 3 demonstrated that participants’ regulatory focus explained the cultural differences in enemyship experiences. Implications for regulatory focus, cross-cultural research, and interpersonal relationship research are discussed.
Efficiency and Risk in Sustaining China’s Food Production and Security: Evidence from Micro-Level Panel Data Analysis of Japonica Rice Production

Sustainable food production and food security are always challenging issues in China. This paper constructs a multi-element two-level constant-elasticity-of-substitution (CES) model to assess technological progress in, and its contribution to, japonica rice production in China. The results show that the speed of technological progress in the production of japonica rice on average was 0.44% per annum in 1985–2013, and technological progress has contributed significantly to the growth of japonica rice production in China. Robustness checks show that the results appear to be sensitive to which sub-sample is used. Labour and some other inputs are found to be significant but negative, especially during the middle sampling period of 1994–2006 and in eastern and western regions. This has important policy implications on the impact of rural-to-urban migration and farmers’ human development.
Sources of shared variability among body shape characters at marketing age in New Zealand White and Egyptian rabbit breeds

Body measurements (body length, thigh circumference, shank length and chest width) of 311 rabbits representing three breeds, New Zealand White (NZW), Red Baladi (RB) and Black Baladi (BB) purebreds were subject to factor analysis. The objectives of this study were (a) to disclose the main sources of shared variability among body shape characters, (b) deduce the factors that describe these traits, (c) quantify the breed differences in size and shape and (d) predict live weight at marketing age from orthogonal body shape characters. Body conformation 'shape' appeared to be controlled by common and unique factors. The communalities ranged from 0.80 for chest width to 0.99 for thigh circumference and uniqueness (special factors) made the balance. Compared with local breeds (RB and BB), NZW had higher communality (proportion of variance for a variable that is shared in common by other variables) for chest width and lower communality for thigh circumference and body length. Our findings indicated that most of the common variability in NZW body dimensions could be accounted for by factors representing general size and chest width. Corresponding factors in RB were general size and shank length and those in BB were general size and thigh circumference. Independent body shape characters derived from factor analysis accounted for 83.4%, 87.9% and 90.8% of the variation in live body weight in New Zealand White, Red Baladi and Black Baladi, respec- tively. New Zealand White rabbits / Egyptian rabbits / body dimensions / multicollinearity / factor analysis / shared variability
Market Power in the Russian Banking Industry

The aim of this paper is to analyze bank competition in Russia by measuring the market power of Russian banks and its determinants over the period 2001-2006 with the Lerner index. We find that bank competition has only slightly improved during the period studied. The mean Lerner index for Russian banks is of the same magnitude as those observed in developed countries, which suggests that the Russian banking industry is not plagued by weak competition. Furthermore, we find no greater market power for state-controlled banks nor less market power for foreign-owned banks. Finally, our analysis of the determinants of market power enables the identification of several factors that influence competition, including market concentration and risk as well as the nonlinear influence of size.
A Divide and Conquer Algorithm for Exploiting Policy Function Monotonicity

A divide and conquer algorithm for exploiting policy function monotonicity is proposed and analyzed. To solve a discrete problem with n states and n choices, the algorithm requires at most n log2(n) + 5n objective function evaluations. In contrast, existing methods for non-concave problems require n^2 evaluations in the worst case. For concave problems, the solution technique can be combined with a method exploiting concavity to reduce evaluations to 14n + 2 log2(n). A version of the algorithm exploiting monotonicity in two state variables allows for even more efficient solutions. The algorithm can also be efficiently employed in a common class of problems that do not have monotone policies, including problems with many state and choice variables. In the sovereign default model of Arellano (2008) and the real business cycle model, the algorithm reduces run times by an order of magnitude for moderate grid sizes and orders of magnitude for larger ones. Sufficient conditions for monotonicity are provided.
Law on the Market? Evaluating the Securities Market Impact of Supreme Court Decisions∗

Do judicial decisions affect the securities markets in discernible and perhaps predictable ways? In other words, is there “law on the market” (LOTM)? This is a question that has been raised by commentators, but answered by very few in a systematic and financially rigorous manner. Using intraday data and a multiday event window, this large scale event study seeks to determine the existence, frequency and magnitude of equity market impacts flowing from Supreme Court decisions. We demonstrate that, while certainly not present in every case, ”law on the market” events are fairly common. Across all cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States between the 1999-2013 terms, we identify 79 cases where the share price of one or more publicly traded company moved in direct response to a Supreme Court decision. In the aggregate, over fifteen years, Supreme Court decisions were responsible for more than 140 billion dollars in absolute changes in wealth. Our analysis not only contributes to our understanding of the political economy of judicial decision making, but also links to the broader set of research exploring the performance in financial markets using event study methods. We conclude by exploring the informational efficiency of law as a market by highlighting the speed at which information from Supreme Court decisions is assimilated by the market. Relatively speaking, LOTM events have historically exhibited slow rates of information incorporation for affected securities. This implies a market ripe for arbitrage where an event-based trading strategy could be successful.
Investigating the Effect of Using Multiple Sensory Modes of Glossing Vocabulary Items in a Reading Text with Multimedia Annotations

In recent years, improvements in technology have enhanced the possibilities of teaching and learning various subjects. This is specially the case in foreign language instruction. The use of technology and multimedia brings new opportunities for learning different areas of language. In this regard, the present study attempts to find out if the use of multimedia, images and movies, helps learners in learning vocabulary items included in a reading comprehension text. For this purpose, 70 students studying English at pre-intermediate level have been selected. These participants are then divided into three groups, each of which receives a different kind of instruction. The members of the first group were required to read some texts in which certain vocabulary items were included as the target of teaching. Those in the second group received the same texts with some pictures added so that the grasp of the unknown words would become facilitated. The students in the third group were exposed to the same material along with some movie strips. The strips were selected in a way to include the specific vocabulary items. The course duration was about 45 days. At the end of the course, all the students in the three aforementioned groups were sat for taking a vocabulary test. The test format was multiple-choice. The results of the ANOVA indicated that annotating reading comprehension passages with movie clips contributes to better learning and recall of vocabulary through reading texts.
Singularities of Tangent Varieties to Curves and Surfaces

It is given the diffeomorphism classification on generic singularities of tangent varieties to curves with arbitrary codimension in a projective space. The generic classifications are performed in terms of certain geometric structures and differential systems on flag manifolds, via several techniques in differentiable algebra. It is provided also the generic diffeomorphism classification of singularities on tangent varieties to contact-integral curves in the standard contact projective space. Moreover we give basic results on the classification of singularities of tangent varieties to generic surfaces and Legendre surfaces.