Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Corruption Matter for Nigeria Long Run Growth: Evidence from Cointegration Analyses and Causality Tests?

The study examines the relationship between corruption and economic growth in the Nigeria economy for sample periods ranging from 1970 to 2004. Johansenâ€™s maximum likelihood cointegration techniques and Granger causality tests were applied to annual, national-level data. The results of this study indicate that corruption is cointegrated with Economic growth in Nigeria. In addition, for Nigeria, the study found a one-way causality from corruption to economic growth. These findings provide a statistical confirmation of unfavorable effects of corruption on economic performance as widely hypothesized in economic literature. For policy, the results of this study suggest that the current anti corruption drive in the country should be more vigorously pursued as this result indicated that it has important consequence on economic growth aspirations of the country.
Do ownership Concentration and Leverage Influence Firms’ Value? Evidence from Panel Data in Jordan

Elevating firm performance to optimal levels in order to maximize the firm value has been one of the concerns in corporate finance, due to the challenges accompanied with the failure in corporate control that led to successive financial scandals in the last decade worldwide. Hence, this study extends previous researches that were interested in the investigations of the effect of the key ownership structures in the emerging markets, by depending mainly on panel data analysis applied on a sample that consists of 83 non-financial firms listed at Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during the period 2005-2013; to form two firm’s value equations by relying on two dependent variables which are; Return on Assets (ROA), and Market to Book value (M/B). Regarding the explanatory variables there are four indicators representing various measures of ownership concentration depending mainly on the percentages of shares held by block holders in firms. In addition, the control variables in the two models consists of indicators for leverage; size, tangibility, business risk, and liquidity. The empirical findings are consistent with many prior studies that were applied on both Jordan and many emerging markets; in that, the concluding remarks support the existence of relationship between corporate concentration, leverage and firm’s value.
Trypanocidal efficacy of diminazene in diabetic rats

The experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of hyperglycaemia on the trypanocidal efficacy of diminazene aceturate. Groups of alloxan-induced diabetic rats infected with T. brucei and T. congolense were treated with diminazene aceturate, and trypanocidal effects compared with normal non-diabetic controls. Results showed that the prepatent period was shorter in the diabetic (11.25±1.65 days) than non-diabetic-T. congolense (15.0±1.73 days), and also variations in responses to the trypanocidal therapy between the diabetic and non-diabetic groups were detected. Parasite clearance time did not differ significantly between the diabetic and non-diabetic (43.2±8.89 versus 52.8±8.89 hours in T. brucei and 33.6±5.9 versus 36.0±6.93 hours in T. congolense, respectively). The relapse intervals were shorter in the diabetic than non-diabetic (16 days versus 23 days in T. brucei , and 7 days versus 14 days in T. congolense , respectively). Proportion of relapses was greater in the diabetic- (100%) than non-diabetic-T. congolense (66.7%). We also find parasite species-related differences in susceptibility to the trypanocide, with a higher apparent cure rate in the T. brucei than T. congolense group. We conclude from the results of this study that the chemotherapeutic effectiveness of diminazene aceturate may be diminished in patients with diabetes mellitus. Further study is needed to validate this hypothesis.
Does Indian Stock Market Provide Diversification Benefits Against Oil Price Shocks? A Sectoral Analysis

This paper investigates the time-varying relationship between the oil price and disaggregated stock market of India using DCC-MGARCH and Continuous Wavelet Transformation methodologies. Our findings reveal the evolving relationship between the oil price and disaggregated stock market. The correlations are generally volatile before the 2007-08 crisis but since then the correlations are positive implying no diversification benefits for the investors during rising oil prices. Since, emerging markets in general, and India in particular, is expected to increase its share of oil consumption in the world’s energy market (due to rapid expansion), therefore for the stock market to grow, especially the oil-intensive industries, we recommend the government should increase its reliance on alternative energy resources such as coal and renewables. Furthermore, as rising oil prices can also have its adverse effect through exchange rate channel, we suggest the monetary policies should be time varying to manage the oil inflationary pressures arising out of extreme volatility in the oil prices.
Positioning Pre-service Teacher Beliefs along the Traditional-Reform Continuum: An Examination of Normative Beliefs and Discursive Claims

This study examined a typical sample of K-8 pre-service teachers (PTs) enrolled in typical teacher-preparation programs (TPPs) to provide insight about where on the traditionalreform continuum PTs’ beliefs are positioned. To ensure accuracy in results, a sequential explanatory design was utilized in the examination of the PTs’ normative beliefs assessed three times throughout their TPPs (using Likert items and open-ended questions), relationships between other PTs’ and in-service teachers’ (ITs’) beliefs, and alignment between normative beliefs (what PTs believed they should do) and discursive claims about their teaching (what PTs claimed to do). Results of this study – particularly related to beliefs that are not positioned as far along the trajectory toward reform – are intended to assist mathematics educators and PD developers in targeting future instruction to meet PTs and ITs where they are. Beliefs related to “The power of students’ ideas”; “Critical thinking, problem solving, and understanding, justifying, and communicating processes and their connections to resulting answers”;
Bioenergy Decision Support Systems: Worth the Effort?

The purpose of this research is to explore the disparity between the existing model-orientated bioenergy decision support system (DSS) functions and what is desired by practitioners, in particular bioenergy project developers. This research has compiled the published bioenergy project development models, to highlight the characteristics emphasised by academics. When contrasted against a UK practitioner’s perspective through the administration of a Likert style questionnaire, it is clear that the general DSS issues still persist. Finally, the research suggests how this ’theory-practice’ divide could be addressed. The research contribute
Can talamus diffusions on magnetic resonance imaging predict the differential diagnosis of multiple sclerosis from ischemic cerebral small vessel disease when the white matter is involved

Poster: "ECR 2014 / C-1781 / Can talamus diffusions on magnetic resonance imaging predict the differential diagnosis of multiple sclerosis from ischemic cerebral small vessel disease when the white matter is involved? " by: "B. Oztoprak1, I. Oztoprak1, K. Topalkara2, M. F. Erkoc1, I. salk1; 1Sivas/TR, 2Ankara/TR"
Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary ( KPB ) Fish

Laboratory for Geochemistry, Cosmochemistry and Astrochemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Niš P.O. Box 224, 18000 Niš, Serbia. Promović E-mail: pavle-premovic@yahoo.com Laboratory for General Chemistry, Faculty of Technology, University of Niš P.O. Box 79,16000 Leskovac, Serbia. E-mail:vinarce2001@yahoo.com Geochemistry. Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. Fish Clay. Nickel. Cobalt. Zinc. Smectite. KEYWORDS
Citation for published version: Opmeer, MR & Staffans, OJ 2012, 'Coprime factorization and optimal control on the doubly infinite discrete time

We study the problem of strongly coprime factorization over H-infinity of the unit disc. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of such a coprime factorization in terms of an optimal control problem over the doubly infinite discrete-time axis. In particular, we show that an equivalent condition for the existence of such a coprime factorization is that both the control and filter algebraic Riccati equation (of an arbitrary realization) have a solution (in general unbounded and even non densely defined) and that a coupling condition involving these solutions is satisfied.
The Three Sides of CrowdTruth

Crowdsourcing is often used to gather annotated data for training and evaluating computational systems that attempt to solve cognitive problems, such as understanding Natural Language sentences. Crowd workers are asked to perform semantic interpretation of sentences to establish a ground truth. This has always been done under the assumption that each task unit, e.g. each sentence, has a single correct interpretation that is contained in the ground truth. We have countered this assumption with CrowdTruth, and have shown that it can be better suited to tasks for which semantic interpretation is subjective. In this paper we investigate the dependence of worker metrics for detecting spam on the quality of sentences in the dataset, and the quality of the target semantics. We show that worker quality metrics can improve significantly when the quality of these other aspects of semantic interpretation are considered.
A comparison of the impact of largest family shareholders and institutional blockholders on informed trading: evidence from Hong Kong

The difference between the influence of largest family shareholders and institutional block-holders in the price discovery process is investigated, using a sample of firms listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Largest family shareholders are positively related to the overall informed trading level, but not to the structure change of informed trading. In contrast, institutional block-holders are not related to the overall level of informed trading but to the change in its structure. More informed trading tends to have a worse structure since it includes negative aspects of information. Largest family shareholders promote price discovery in positive strategic private information but their dominating effects hamper the process due to negative opportunistic effects, which leads to a loss of firm valuation. In contrast, institutional block-holders do not change the overall transparency of the information environment but do effect the structure of informed trading, increasing economic efficiency. There is more equality in the availability of opportunistic negative private information for the overall market, but only more availability of strategic positive private information to informed traders, which leads to a positive impact on firm valuation. Finally, investors put a bigger discount on the firm-level component of private information risk than overall private information risk, which contains market wide private information. They also put a bigger premium on the expected signal that indicates a good structure of informed trading.
An Investment and Consumption Problem with CIR Interest Rate and Stochastic Volatility

We are concerned with an investment and consumption problem with stochastic interest rate and stochastic volatility, in which interest rate dynamic is described by the Cox-Ingersoll-Ross (CIR) model and the volatility of the stock is driven by Heston’s stochastic volatility model. We apply stochastic optimal control theory to obtain the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation for the value function and choose power utility and logarithm utility for our analysis. By using separate variable approach and variable change technique, we obtain the closed-form expressions of the optimal investment and consumption strategy. A numerical example is given to illustrate our results and to analyze the effect of market parameters on the optimal investment and consumption strategies.
It's all about the transient: Intra-saccadic onset stimuli do not capture attention

An abrupt onset stimulus was presented while the participants' eyes were in motion. Because of saccadic suppression, participants did not perceive the visual transient that normally accompanies the sudden appearance of a stimulus. In contrast to the typical finding that the presentation of an abrupt onset captures attention and interferes with the participants' responses, we found that an intra-saccadic abrupt onset does not capture attention: It has no effect beyond that of increasing the set-size of the search array by one item. This finding favours the local transient account of attentional capture over the novel object hypothesis.
Optimization of Spot-Welded Joints Combined Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm with Sequential Kriging Optimization

Generally, spot-welded joints are the weakest parts of structures leading to fatigue failure under fluctuating loads. Therefore, it is important to optimize the spot weld to improve the fatigue life. However, a classical optimization of the spot weld often directly couples finite element analysis (FEA) with optimization algorithm, which may fall into a local optimum or be expensive computationally. In this study, a metamodel-based optimization procedure is proposed to find the optimum locations of spotwelded joints for maximum fatigue life. Based on the initial training points, Kriging model is implemented to approximate the objective function regarding the design variables (i.e., locations of spot welds). To further overcome the defect of traditional Kriging model and improve the accuracy of optimumresults, the sequential Kriging optimization (SKO) is utilized, where theKrigingmodel is updated iteratively by adding new training points to the training dataset till the global optimum is obtained. The optimization is run using artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm and the results show that our proposed method is able to improve the performance of the spot-welded joint. More importantly, more competent optimum can be found and the optimization can be executed more efficiently, compared to the conventional methods.
Dark Pools, Internalization, and Equity Market Quality

Off-exchange trading in equity markets, including broker/dealer internalization and dark pools in which prices are not displayed prior to execution, has grown significantly in recent years. An examination of the relationship between such “dark” trading and market quality shows that increases in dark pool activity and internalization are initially associated with declining bid–offer spreads and increasing depth. But when a majority of trading occurs in undisplayed venues, the benefits of competition are eroded and market quality deteriorates. Public policy considerations for market integrity are addressed on the basis of these findings.
Testing black hole neutrino-dominated accretion discs for long-duration gamma-ray bursts

Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) are generally considered to originate from the massive collapsars. It is believed that the central engine of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is a neutrino-dominated accretion flow (NDAF) around a rotating stellar-mass black hole (BH). The neutrino annihilation above the NDAF is a feasible mechanism to power GRB. In this work, we analyse the distributions of the isotropic gamma-ray radiated energy and jet kinetic energy of 48 LGRBs. According to the NDAF and fireball models, we estimate the mean accreted masses of LGRBs in our sample to investigate whether the NDAFs can power LGRBs with the reasonable BH parameters and conversion efficiency of neutrino annihilation. The results indicate that most of the values of the accreted masses are less than $5~M_\odot$ for the extreme Kerr BHs and high conversion efficiency. It suggests that the NDAFs may be suitable for most of LGRBs except for some extremely high energy sources.
CMU DeepLens: deep learning for automatic image-based galaxy–galaxy strong lens finding

Galaxy-scale strong gravitational lensing is not only a valuable probe of the dark matter distribution of massive galaxies, but can also provide valuable cosmological constraints, either by studying the population of strong lenses or by measuring time delays in lensed quasars. Due to the rarity of galaxy-scale strongly lensed systems, fast and reliable automated lens finding methods will be essential in the era of large surveys such as LSST, Euclid, and WFIRST. To tackle this challenge, we introduce CMU DeepLens, a new fully automated galaxy-galaxy lens finding method based on Deep Learning. This supervised machine learning approach does not require any tuning after the training step which only requires realistic image simulations of strongly lensed systems. We train and validate our model on a set of 20,000 LSST-like mock observations including a range of lensed systems of various sizes and signal-to-noise ratios (S/N). We find on our simulated data set that for a rejection rate of non-lenses of 99%, a completeness of 90% can be achieved for lenses with Einstein radii larger than 1.4" and S/N larger than 20 on individual $g$-band LSST exposures. Finally, we emphasize the importance of realistically complex simulations for training such machine learning methods by demonstrating that the performance of models of significantly different complexities cannot be distinguished on simpler simulations. We make our code publicly available at this https URL .
Epidemiological study of canine mammary tumors: age, breed, size and malignancy

A retrospective study was carried out on 858 female canine patients who were attended at the Surgery Service of the Clinical Veterinary Hospital of the University of Extremadura (Spain), during a period of 5 years (2008-2012). This study aims to determine the incidence of mammary tumors in the canine species of this region together with the analysis of several epidemiological variables (breed, age, and size) and the histopathological variable tumor malignancy. Three groups of patients were considered: (I) general group including all patients (n=858), (II) oncological patients (n=376), and (III) patients with mammary tumors (n=227). Oncology represented the most common pathology for female dogs (n=376, 43.82%), with mammary tumors being the most frequent neoplasms (n=227, 60.37%). Mixed breed dogs were more likely than purebred dogs to suffer from mammary tumors, with these tumors being more frequently malignant. It was also found that large-sized patients show a greater predisposition to malignant mammary tumors. In patients with tumors, age at diagnosis was significantly associated with a higher malignancy rate. The results of the study confirm the importance of oncology in the veterinary clinic in the region. Mammary tumors represent the most frequently diagnosed neoplasia in female dogs. Old age, mixed breed and large size predispose to its development and represent risk factors for malignancy. Key words : epidemiology, malignancy, dog, mammary tumor.
Evaluating the Solar Slowly Varying Component at C-Band Using Dual- and Single-Polarization Weather Radars in Europe

Six C-band weather radars located in Europe (Finland, Netherlands, and Switzerland) have been used to monitor the slowly varying solar emission, which is an oscillation with an amplitude of several decibels and a period of approximately 27 days. It is caused by the fact that the number of active regions that enhance the solar radio emission with respect to the quiet component, as seen from Earth, varies because of the Sun’s rotation about its axis. The analysis is based on solar signals contained in the polar volume data produced during the operational weather scan strategy. This paper presents hundreds of daily comparisons between radar estimates and the Sun’s reference signal, during the current active Sun period (year 2014). The Sun’s reference values are accurately measured by the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) at S-band and converted to C-band using a standard DRAO formula. Vertical and horizontal polarization receivers are able to capture the monthly oscillation of the solar microwave signal: the standard deviation of the log-transformed ratio between radars and the DRAO reference ranges from 0.26 to 0.4 dB. A larger coefficient (and a different value for the quiet Sun component) in the standard formula improves the agreement.
The role of service value and switching barriers in an integrated model of behavioural intentions

There are many ways to increase consumers' purchase intentions, and most studies explore this issue by adopting the ‘quality–satisfaction–behavioural intentions’ paradigm. However, this approach may overlook a few important factors including customer sacrifice, perceived value, and switching barriers. This study proposes an integrated model that incorporates the service value and switching barriers perspectives to further examine the formation of behavioural intentions. Specifically, our research model synthesises two key determinants of service values (service sacrifice and service quality) and the two main switching barriers (switching cost and alternative attractiveness). Furthermore, because previous studies on the links among these constructs are rather divergent and fragmented, we build structural causal relationships among these factors to explain consumers' decision processes. Several competing theories are also presented and compared to this new research model. The results, as hypothesised, suggest that service value is the most effective predictor of satisfaction and customers' behavioural intentions; the findings also support previous research indicating that cognitive evaluations precede emotional responses. We highlight the delivery of service value as a strategic imperative and stress the research stream of service value measurement.
Evidence for Lunar-Sidereal Rhythms in Crop Yield: A Review

ABSTRACT In 1956, Thun developed a procedure of sowing according to the position of the Moon in front of the twelve zodiacal constellations. These constellations were classified into four groups according to the element (Earth, Water, Air and Fire) astrologically associated with them. Root, leaf, flower and fruit crops were found to show increased yields if sown when the Moon stood before Earth, Water, Air and Fire constellations, respectively. Thun's philosophy of sowing by this sidereal rhythm has become a major component of biodynamic planting calendars, even though the founder of biodynamic agriculture, Rudolf Steiner, had only mentioned positive effects of the Full Moon in an agricultural context. In 1990, Spiess published a three-year study claiming to find effects of other lunar rhythms but not those of the 27-day sidereal month. This paper reviews published confirmations of the ‘Thun effect’ and reanalyses data concerning planting times and crop yields from Spiess's study with radish and carrots, by computing yield values as deviations from a moving average rather than as deviations from seasonal trends estimated by quadratic functions. The re-analysis showed an increase (ca +7%) in the yield of radishes which were sown in Earth constellations for his 1982 trial, with a comparable result demonstrated on re-analysing data from three years of carrot trials.