Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SEASONALITIES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN STOCK MARKETS

The purpose of this study is to examine the presence of various seasonalities – the Weekend effect, the January effect, as well as, the Halloween effect – in Central and Eastern Europe and to construct trading strategies in order to benefit from the Halloween effect. The authors employed two models: a simple dummy regression and the EGARCH model. The results illustrated that there is a strong Friday effect in Slovenia, and Monday effect in Latvia. In addition, the returns in January are significantly higher than in any other month of the year in Estonia. Next, the Halloween effect is found to be present in Ukraine, Estonia, and Serbia, and it proves to be beneficial to hold the market portfolio in the period from November to April and then switch to either gold or some risk free assets in Estonia and Ukraine. The additional return plausibly outweighs any reasonable transaction costs of up to 1% of the deal. The results comparing to previous research done on CEE were mixed and no uniformity on the topic is present.
IRAP and REMAP-Based Genetic Diversity among Iranian, Turkish, and International Durum Wheat (Triticum turgidum L.) Cultivars

Retrotransposons (RTNs) are a major source of genomic changes in plant genomes and, therefore, are extensively used as ideal molecular markers for genetic variability, DNA fingerprinting, and genetic mapping studies in plant species. In the present study, two RTNbased marker systems, inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphisms (IRAPs), and the retrotransposon-microsatellite amplified polymorphisms (REMAPs) were used to assess genetic variability and structure in a collection of 94 durum wheat genotypes. In general, 63 and 141 loci were amplified using 6 IRAP and 15 REMAP primers, respectively. Percentage of polymorphic loci (PPL) in the studied collection for IRAP and REMAP markers were 47.15% and 47.81%, respectively. The average of expected heterozygosity (He), number of effective alleles (Ne), and Shannon's information index (I), separately estimated based on IRAP and REMAP data, were not considerably different. A model-based Bayesian method and cluster analysis using Neighbor joining (NJ) algorithm depicted five clusters. A moderate level of inter-group genetic variability was detected among the clusters (11%) obtained from STRUCTUR software (PhiPT =0.111; P=0.001) with the vast majority of variation (89%) still uncaptured within groups. Most of the accessions and landraces from Iran aggregated together in clusters I and III with the cultivars from Turkey. Also, Iranian and foreign durum wheat landraces were assigned to different clusters or subpopulations in both clustering methods. In conclusion, the results showed that the genetic diversity of Iranian durum wheat is low and it is necessary to extend the genetic base of durum wheat germplasm in Iran.
Digital Self-Tracking Among Russian Students: Practices and Discourses

The article analyzes how Russian students interpret and practice digital technologies of self-tracking (fitness trackers, apps and wearables), that allow to collect biometric and activity data. It is based on the results of reflective thematic analysis of students’ essays on this topic. How do students describe their experience in using self-tracking technologies? What discourses of self-tracking are represented in their essays? How do they imagine the digital future and further development of the systems of self-surveillance? The research demonstrated that many students have certain experience with quantified self-tracking, whereas some tend to limit it or refused from it for some reasons. Based on the students’ stories (former and active users), the author offers to distinguish three styles of self-tracking: ‘gamer’, ‘manager’ and ‘transformer’. A ‘gamer’ is looking for the feelings of thrill, pleasure and novelty; a ‘manager’ aims at putting one’s head and life in order; a ‘transformer’ wants to change one’s life and mind radically. In reality any self-tracker combines all three roles, though one of them might dominate. According to the students, the existing technologies of self-measuring cannot give strong enough motivation for self-optimization, but in the future their effectiveness may increase. This study also resulted in defining four types of discourse on self-tracking: ‘progressivist’, ‘pragmatic’, ‘critical’ and ‘anti-utopian’. They represent the differences in conceptualization of self-tracking as a cultural phenomenon. Some students are prone to optimistic or balanced evaluation of the potential of self-tracking technologies; others focus on risks and hazards of ‘datafication’ of people and social life. The outcomes of the study develop the previous research on styles of quantified self-tracking, providing additional analysis of the reflections of (non-)users, concerning self-tracking as a cultural phenomenon.
Three Essays on Persuasion and Collective Decision Making

The aim of this thesis is to discuss the role of endogenous information in collective decision making. In particular, we study the outcome of collective decisions in which, prior to casting a vote, individuals observe the realization of a signal whose information content is designed by a player, the Persuader, who tries to persuade the collective that the current state of the world is the one in which his favorite alternative is the best choice. In the first chapter we introduce a simple collective decision problem that we exploit to discuss the role of information and voting behavior on the light of the Bayesian Persuasion Model (Kamenica and Gentzkow, 2011). This introductory chapter attempts to survey the recent contribution regarding information manipulation in the context of collective decisions in order to frame the remaining chapters in this broad literature. In the second chapter we start the analysis considering a collective decision characterized by a fixed number of privately informed individuals. We demonstrate that Persuader’s optimal behavior follows the logic of Kamenica and Gentzkow (2011) and, in equilibrium, the Persuader makes individuals indifferent with respect to their private information. We relate our results to the delicate issue arose in the Jury decision making literature that studies the efficiency of unanimous verdicts and we show that, in equilibrium, unanimous verdicts and majority verdicts correspond. In the third chapter we shift our attention on large collective decisions. Individuals are recruited by Nature in a large Poisson game (Myerson, 1998a) and we characterize the outcome of the majority decision in the spirit of the Condorcet Jury Theorem. We consider three different environments, that we call societies, characterized by the following primitives, i) the way in which the signal is conveyed, i.e., private vs public signals, ii) voters’ type. We show that regardless from Persuader’s attempt to manipulate the outcome of the collective decision, the equilibrium voting behavior of privately informed voters satisfies the Condorcet Jury Theorem. On the contrary, whenever information is publicly supplied, the majority completely obeys the suggestion embedded by the public signal. Finally, we consider how rational voters respond to the presence of a small fraction of independent voters whose behavior is predetermined regardless from the design of information. We demonstrate that, in large elections, as the fraction of not controllable voters goes to zero, the outcome of the game converges towards an efficient majority decision characterized by a public signal that tends to be perfectly informative. In the fourth chapter we consider a large election in a Poisson framework and we study the manipulability of voluntary voting behavior. We show that, in equilibrium, swing’s voters are strategically induced to abstain whenever the fraction of partisan supporting Persuader’s favorite alternative is sufficiently large. Nevertheless, Persuader never benefits from marginally increasing the share of his supporters.
Tangible Resources are the First Step in the Value Creation Process of Sources of Sustainable Competitive Advantage in a Services Firm: An Activity-Resource-Based View (ARBV) Theory?

This paper postulates that tangible resources that are rare, valuable, inimitable and in substitutable, owned and controlled by a firm, are at the core of the value creation process that leads to the creation of sustainable competitive advantage for a consistently high performing firm in the motor service industry. The paper asserts that by integrating activity-based and resourcebased views of the firm, through activity drivers of scale, location and capacity utilization, the value creation process by tangible resources is explained. A new framework, the activityresource-based view (ARBV) is also generated.
An Efficient Simulated Annealing based Constrained Optimization Approach for Outlier Detection Mechanism in RFID-Sensor Integrated MANET

Designing an outlier detection process for unknown resources is a challenging task. It may contain resourceful or resource-constrained devices. In this work, a multi-regional and multi-layered outlier detection process is proposed. Proposed approach implements MAC, routing and application layer outlier detection processes in three different regions. These regions are designed with priority of resources and importance of stakeholder taken into considerations. Similar outlier processed with different datasets is used for outlier detection in this multi-region invigilator architecture. Proposed architecture is verified through internal, external and performance based indices. Simulation results shows the cluster stability in process of data formalization and outlier detection. Internal and external indices shows that the maximum stability is possible with 5 to 500 nodes and 26 clusters for small scale network, 500 to 3000 nodes with 41 clusters for medium scale network and 3000 to 6000 nodes network with 54 clusters for large scale network.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FREIGHT RATES AND DEMOLITION PRICES

Maritime market has a derived demand structure, so a pickup in the world's economy will bring vitality to the market. Demolition prices in buoyant market are mainly affected by two factors: first, the demand for steel increases; second, the number of ships sent for demolition decreases because even old and obsolete ships can be profitably operated in good market conditions. So these two factors causes demolition prices to increase in parallel with freight rates. In this context aim of this study is to contribute existing limited literature by examining the relationship between shipping earnings and demolition prices at the macro level. Shipping earnings are represented by the Baltic Dry Index (BDI), and scrap prices are represented by India Demolition Prices. Correlation and regression analyzes are used as methods to determine the statistical relationships between the variables in the study. The result of both analyzes confirms the positive significant relationship between the variables.
PHENOTYPIC AND GENOTYPIC DETECTION OF CARBAPENEM RESISTANT ACINETOBACTER BAUMANNII IN SURGICAL AND INTENSIVE CARE UNITS IN AL AZHAR UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL – NEW DAMIETTA

Background: Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) has emerged as a healthcare-associated pathogen worldwide. Several epidemiological studies have reported the occurrence of multi-drug resistant A. baumannii infections in different regions of the world. The spread of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii is of a global concern. Objectives: This work was carried out to detect carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii in Surgical Departments and intensive care units (ICUs), Al-Azhar University hospital, New Damietta. It was also aimed to determine the occurrence of bla OXA -51-like and bla OXA-23 like genes among the isolated strains. Patients and methods: The current study was conducted on 500 patients attending the Surgical Departments and ICUs during the period between May 2016 and September 2018. The choice of samples differs according to the clinical manifestations. The isolates were obtained from various clinical specimens, i.e. sputum, endotracheal aspirate (ETA), pus, urine and blood samples. All clinical specimens were collected under complete aseptic conditions. The clinical specimens were traced to the species level using API 20NE system followed by an assesment of the different phenotypic assays for detection of carbapenemase production using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: Post-operative infections were detected in 217 (43.4%) out of 500 of patients. A. baumannii was considered the third common isolated Gram-negative organisms (27, 12.3 %). A. baumannii isolates were predominant in ICUs (14, 51.9%). Carbapenemase production was detected in A. baumannii isolates using the modified Carbapenem Inactivation Method (mCIM), the modiﬁed Hodge test (MHT) and the Carba NP test. Using multiplex PCR analysis, most isolates (12; 44.4%) carried bla OXA-51-like gene, followed by ten (37%) isolates that carried both bla OXA-51-like and bla OXA-23-like genes. Only one (3.7%) isolate carried bla OXA-23-like gene. Conclusion: The current study suggested that A. baumannii is one of the most commonly detected isolates in our hospital. The mCIM is the most useful phenotypic method for detection of carbapenemase production. Detection of carbapenem resistance genes is alarming a serious healthcare problem in our hospital.
Prevalence and Factors Associated with Chronic Absenteeism among Secondary School Teachers in the Hulu Langat District Selangor

The study objective was focusing on to determine the prevalence and factors associated with chronic absenteeism among secondary school teachers in the Hulu Langat district Selangor. A cross-sectional study among 16 secondary school teachers that undergoing routine in the school that participate to answer the self-administered questionnaire in the study. School selected were based on sample randomly method which is lottery method selection. Seventy-six (76.0%) were aware of the term chronic absenteeism. 10.4% were categorized as having chronic absenteeism with age (p = 0.015) and ethnicity (p = 0.007) being the factors associated with chronic absenteeism.
Abstract Relation of Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction: A Study of Secondary School Heads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Relation of Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction: A Study of Secondary School Heads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan Qaiser Suleman Ishtiaq Hussain Saqib Shehzad This paper examines the relationship between occupational stress and job satisfaction among secondary-school-heads in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A sample of only 402 secondary-school-heads (Male n = 260, Female n = 142) was selected with the help of multistage sampling technique. A descriptive and correlative design was employed. Two standardized tools were employed i.e., “Occupational Stress Index (OSI) and “Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) for seeking the responses. Pearson’s correlation and linear regression were employed to analyze data statistically. The findings exposed a strong inverse relation between occupational stress and job satisfaction. Furthermore, a substantial negative correlation between all the subscales of occupational stress and overall job satisfaction is also present. Eight subscales of occupational stress, i.e., role ambiguity, responsibility for persons, under participation, unreasonable group & political pressure, low status, strenuous working conditions, peer group relations, and unprofitability were found significant predictors and have negative effect on job satisfaction. So, the researchers recommend focusing reduction in the level of occupational stress among secondary-schoolheads. Elementary and Secondary Education Department should have collaboration with policy makers to formulate rewarding and effective strategies for stress reduction for secondary school heads to have high spirit for yielding good outcomes.
Ambiguity-aware AI Assistants for Medical Data Analysis

Artificial intelligence (AI) assistants for clinical decision making show increasing promise in medicine. However, medical assessments can be contentious, leading to expert disagreement. This raises the question of how AI assistants should be designed to handle the classification of ambiguous cases. Our study compared two AI assistants that provide classification labels for medical time series data along with quantitative uncertainty estimates: conventional vs. ambiguity-aware. We simulated our ambiguity-aware AI based on real-world expert discussions to highlight cases likely to lead to expert disagreement, and to present arguments for conflicting classification choices. Our results demonstrate that ambiguity-aware AI can alter expert workflows by significantly increasing the proportion of contentious cases reviewed. We also found that the relevance of AI-provided arguments (selected from guidelines either randomly or by experts) affected experts' accuracy at revising AI-suggested labels. Our work contributes a novel perspective on the design of AI for contentious clinical assessments.
Study of Bone Health using the Biochemical Markers in Type II Diabetes Mellitus

Objective: To study bone health in a diabetic individual using the biochemical markers. Research Design and Methods: 125 subjects were included in the study. Dividing into two group i.e. group I included type II DM (n=75), group II was age matched control (n=50). The study was conducted at Dhiraj Hospital, Piparia, Vadodara, Gujarat, India. The protocol of the study was approved by ethical committee of SumandeepVidyapeeth.HbA1C, Serum Calcium, Serum Phosphorous, Serummagnesium, Serum TRAP, Serum Osteocalcin levels were estimated. Results: There is a highly significant (p<0.0001) increase in the levels of HbA1C in type II DM when compared with the normoglycemic subjects. The levels of the TRAP is significantly increased (p<0.0001) in typeII DM than its respective controls while Osteocalcin has been significantly low (p<0.0001) in type II DM when compared to controls. The minerals Calcium and magnesium was also significantly low in DM (p<0.0001) while no significant difference was observed in the case of phosphorus levels between both the groups. Conclusion: Diabetes mellitus is definitely affecting the bone health of an individual and that bone markers could a very promising tool to asses bone health.
Higher Haemoglobin Level Variation under Treatment with Erythropoitin is Associated with Mortality in Haemodialysis

Background: During recent years therapy with erythropoesis stimulating agents (ESA) in chronic kidney disease necessitating dialysis (CKD5D) has been challenged following worse study outcome in patients exceeding upper haemoglobin (Hb) target levels. Considering such difficulties to establish a certain and safe Hb target, a focus more on trends of Hb change and fluctuation might be beneficial to encase alternative parameters and hypotheses into anemia management. We conducted an analysis investigating the association of hemoglobin variation, and achievement of Hb targets with mortality in 245 hemodialysis patients from an outpatient center within 15 years followup. Methods: Variation coefficients of Hb course, Hb levels, proportion of Hb within guideline targets, means of ESA dose and dose response were considered as independent variables. Further variables for population characterization and multivariate survival analysis were age, gender and laboratory surrogates. Original Research Article Beige et al.; BJPR, 11(1): 1-8, 2016; Article no.BJPR. 25146 2 Outcome was computed as (i) Overall mortality by computing OR for death and (ii) Mortality difference between two Hb variation groups compared by Kaplan-Meier and multivariate survival analysis. Results: The OR of death in the higher of two Hb variation groups was 5.01 (95% CI 2.85 to 9.11). Hb variation coefficient above 4% had a strong association with all-cause mortality (LogRank=54.1, p<0.001). Hb variation, Hb levels, Hb within targets and ESA dose response, entered overall and conditional multivariate models for survival (x=131.3; p<0.001) with Hb variation holding the strongest place in every model. Conclusion: This unselected population exhibited a strong, significant association of Hb variation and a weaker association of reaching Hb targets with crude mortality. Clinical pathways as well as future controlled trials should encounter these findings in algorithms for ESA therapy.
An lonised-impurity Scattering Model for 3 D Monte Carlo Device Simulation with Discrete Impurity Distribution

An improved 3-D Monte Carlo simulation model is developed to treat the discrete random dopant distribution in sub-0.1 gm MOSFET. The new atomistic model is based on a scattering rate calculation and an algorithm that take into account many-body effects and the local variations of screening length according to impurity distribution and bias conditions. To validate this new approach low field electron drift mobility and diffusion coefficient have been computed using simulation of 3D bars for 1015-1018 cm-3 range of average doping concentration. A good agreement is found between calculation and experimental mobility data at 300 K.
Modeling Iloilo River Water Quality

The analysis of covariance model (ANCOVA) with heterogeneous variance first-order autoregressive error covariance structure (ARH1) was used to model the differences in fecal streptococci concentration in Iloilo River over time with fixed site and seasonal effects as primary factors of interest, and water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and salinity as covariates. The restricted maximum likelihood estimation (REML) procedure was used to derive the parameter estimates and the Kenward-Roger adjustment in the degrees of freedom was used to better approximate the distributions of the test statistics. The effect of season was highly significant (p = 0.0019). The site effect was significant at the 0.0539 level. The effects of water surface temperature and pH were significant at the 0.0655 and 0.0828 level, respectively. The effects of dissolved oxygen and salinity were not significant. Although the coefficient of determination was modest, the result of the study is useful in characterizing the dynamics of Iloilo River bacteriological system which contributes to an improved understanding of the Iloilo River water quality.