Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MEASURING THE ASYMMETRIC PASS-THROUGH OF MONETARY POLICY RATE TO UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA: Evidence from Nonlinear ARDL

Given the persistent rise in the rate of unemployment in Nigeria over time despite the frequent changes in the monetary policy rate (MPR) and the fact that most studies in the literature simply assume a linear relationship in considering the pass-through of monetary policy instruments to unemployment, the current study investigated the asymmetric pass-through of monetary policy rate to unemployment in Nigeria using the asymmetric ARDL model over the period 2000Q1–2018Q4. The study found dissimilar long-run effects of tightening and easing the MPR on unemployment. While tightening the MPR had positive, elastic and statistically significant effect on unemployment, implying complete pass-through, easing the MPR had negative, inelastic and statistically insignificant effect on unemployment, suggesting incomplete pass-through. Similarly, the short-run effects of tightening or easing the MPR were dissimilar. Furthermore, the result of the cumulative multiplier indicated that the cumulative effects of tightening the MPR on unemployment dominated the cumulative effects of easing the MPR on unemployment in Nigeria. It is therefore recommended that to curb unemployment using the interest rate channel, the monetary authority (Monetary Policy Committee) should ease the MPR by a higher magnitude compared to the magnitude that is required to tighten it for the purpose of price stability.
The Effect of Digitalization on Business Performance in the MSME Industry Context

The current digital era is increasingly developing in the use of new technology that creates value for companies and offers benefits. Digitalization is useful for increasing competitive advantage to improve business performance. The purpose of this study is to find out whether digitalization affects business performance and to find out whether competitive advantage can mediate digitalization on business performance. The sample of this research is 115 SMEs in Semarang. data were analyzed using the SEM approach with the smartPLS tool. The results of the study show that the digitalization variable has an influence on business performance, furthermore, competitive advantage also has a positive and significant effect on business performance. The results of the indirect effect test also show that competitive advantage can mediate the relationship between digitalization and business performance. The better the implementation of digitalization, the higher the competitive advantage MSMEs, consequently leading to an increase the business performance.
Long-term Performance of the Issuance of Employee Stock Options for Firms in Taiwan: Evidence from the Free Cash Flow Theory

______________ Abstract: This study focuses on the long-term investment performance of employee stock options (ESOs) issued by listed companies in Taiwan for their respective employee compensation packages. The results indicate that the detrimental effect on investment performance of the companies manifest three months after the issuance of the ESOs. In addition, companies that own low free cash flow (FCF) have better long-term performance after issuing ESOs. This result supports the FCF theory of Jensen (1986).
Subarcsecond SMA

We present 1.3-mm subarcsecond SMA observations of the prototypical Class 0 protostar VLA1623. We report the detection of 1.3-mm continuum emission both from the central protostellar component VLA1623 and two additional sources, Knot-A and Knot-B, which have been already detected at longer wavelengths. Knot-A and Knot-B are both located along the western cavity wall opened by the protostellar outﬂow from VLA1623. Our SMA observations moreover show that these two continuum sources are associated with bright, high-velocity 12 CO(2–1) emission, slightly shifted downstream of the outﬂow propagation direction with respect to the 1.3-mm continuum emission peaks. The alignment of Knot-A and Knot-B along the protostellar outﬂow cavity, the compactness of their 1.3-mm continuum emission, and the properties of the associated CO emission suggest that these two sources trace outﬂow features due to shocks along the cavity wall, rather than protostellar objects. While it was considered as one of the best examples of a close protobinary system so far, the present analysis suggests that the prototypical Class 0, VLA1623, is single on the scales a > 100 AU probed by our SMA observations. Moreover, we present here the second robust case of compact millimeter continuum emission produced by interactions between the protostellar jet and the envelope of a Class 0 protostar, which suggests a high occurrence of these outﬂow features during the embedded phase.
Sino-Belgian Cooperation Program Cretaceous dinosaurs and mammals from inner Mongolia. 1. New Bactrosaurus (Dinosauria: Hadrosauroidea) material from Iren Dabasu (inner Mongolia, P. R. China)

In 1995, the Sino-Belgian dinosaur expedition discovered a rich bonebed in the Iren Dabasu Formation (Late Cretaceous) of Erenhot (Inner Mongolia, P.R. China). This bonebed comprised the scattered skeletons of at least 4 specimens belonging to the primitive hadrosaur Bactrosaurus johnsoni GILMORE, 1933. The study of the new material allows an accurate osteological reconstruction of this species, e.g. definitely showing that it was a flat-headed hadrosaur. The superfamily Hadrosauridea, as it lacks numerous apomorphies observed in the other well known taxa within this superfamily. The basal position of Bactrosaurus johnsoni in hadrosaur phylogeny speaks for an early Late Cretaceous age for the Iren Dabasu Formation.
H-Consistency Bounds: Characterization and Extensions

A series of recent publications by Awasthi, Mao, Mohri, and Zhong [2022b] have introduced the key notion of H -consistency bounds for surrogate loss functions. These are upper bounds on the zero-one estimation error of any predictor in a hypothesis set, expressed in terms of its surrogate loss estimation error. They are both non-asymptotic and hypothesis set-speciﬁc and thus stronger and more informative than Bayes-consistency. However, determining if they hold and deriving these bounds have required a speciﬁc proof and analysis for each surrogate loss. Can we derive more general tools and characterizations? This paper provides both a general characterization and an extension of H -consistency bounds for multi-class classiﬁcation. We present new and tight H -consistency bounds for both the family of constrained losses and that of comp-sum losses, which covers the familiar cross-entropy, or logistic loss applied to the outputs of a neural network. We further extend our analysis beyond the completeness assumptions adopted in previous studies and cover more realistic bounded hypothesis sets. Our characterizations are based on error transformations, which are explicitly deﬁned for each formulation. We illustrate the application of our general results through several special examples. A by-product of our analysis is the observation that a recently derived multi-class H -consistency bound for cross-entropy reduces to an excess bound and is not signiﬁcant. Instead, we prove a much stronger and more signiﬁcant guarantee.
Achilles Steel? Investigating Corrosive Capital in the Smederevo Železara Privatization

: The term “corrosive capital” has become a popular phrase in Serbia and across the Western Balkans used to describe opaque and scandalous foreign investments that are believed to enable state capture. Particularly in Serbia, existing approaches to corrosive capital have certainly identified which investments are problematic. However, there is still a lack of understanding about which key actors are culpable for corrosive investments and the practices that enable them. Responsibility is often binarily assigned, either to the Vučić regime or non-Western actors. This paper, however, more rigidly explores the networked structures and practices that bring about corrosive capital. Through the development of an analytical framework and an investigation of the Smederevo Železara privatization, this paper argues that corrosive capital is a multi-level phenomenon enabled by interactions between various domestic and foreign actors that leads to state capture. This paper particularly notes how the combined effect of actions taken by Serbia, the EU, and the Chinese firm HBIS has facilitated corrosiveness with respect to the Železara privatization.
EFFECT OF FOREIGN PRIVATE CAPITAL ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA (1986-2017)

Foreign capital has been acknowledged as one of the driving forces of economic growth. The study examined the effects of foreign private capital on economic growth in Nigeria, using time series data for the period 1986-2017. To achieve the objective, the study employed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) for the analysis. The study used real gross domestic product as proxy for economic growth, being the dependent variable, while the independent variables in the model included foreign direct investment, portfolio investment, international remittance, gross fixed capital formation, labour force, government expenditure, and trade openness. Stationarity test was carried out using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test. The result of the stationarity test indicate that the variables have mixed order of integration. The ARDL bound test indicated the existence of a long-run relationship or cointegration among the variables. Furthermore, the result of the AR root graph indicates that the variables are stable. The empirical study indicated that foreign direct investment, remittances, portfolio investment, and trade openness exert positive significant effect on economic growth in Nigeria. However, government expenditure was negative but statistically insignificant. Based on this finding, the study recommended that government should create an enabling environment that will spur the inflow of foreign private capital.
Regional distribution of solute carrier (SLC) mRNA expression along the human intestinal tract

Intestinal absorption of drugs, nutrients, and other compounds is mediated by uptake transporters expressed at the apical enterocyte membrane. These compounds are returned to the intestinal lumen or released into portal circulation by intestinal efflux transporters expressed at apical or basolateral membranes, respectively. One important transporter superfamily, multiple members of which are intestinally expressed, are the solute carriers (SLCs). SLC expression levels may determine the pharmacokinetics of drugs that are substrates of these transporters. In this study we characterize the distribution of fifteen human SLC transporter mRNAs in histologically normal biopsies from five regions of the intestine of ten patients. The mRNA expression levels of CNT1, CNT2, ASBT, SERT, PEPT1 and OCTN2 exhibit marked differences between different regions of the intestine: the first five are predominantly expressed in the small intestine, while OCTN2 exhibits strongest expression in the colon. Two transporter mRNAs studied (OCTN1, OATP2B1) are expressed at similar levels in all gut sections. Additionally, ENT2 mRNA is present at low levels across the colon, but not in the small intestine. The other six SLC mRNAs studied are not expressed in the intestine. Quantitative knowledge of transporter expression levels in different regions of the human gastrointestinal tract could be useful for designing intestinal delivery strategies for orally administered drugs. Furthermore, changes in transporter expression that occur in pathological states, such as inflammatory bowel disease, can now be defined more precisely by comparison with the expression levels measured in healthy individuals.
The Relationship between Athletic Identity and Stress in Division II College Softball Players

: Athletic identity (AI) is commonly defined as how an individual perceives themselves as an athlete. While there are numerous resources available for athletes to take care of their physical health, there is a significant shortage of resources addressing mental health and how to balance their athletic career with everyday life. As a result, an athlete’s level of stress both in and out of their athletic career may increase. Stress that is related to high levels of AI can bring forth negative consequences, such as decreased concentration, diminished focus, and poor academic performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate stress in relation to AI in a Division II female softball team setting. Softball players ( N = 27) completed the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). The mean PSS score was 32.39 out of a 40-point scale. The AIMS mean showed a moderate level of AI (45.61 of a 70-point scale). Pearson correlational analysis demonstrated a minor association existed between AI and perceived stress, but this correlation was not statistically significant ( r = .3 6 , p = .093). The findings of this study are important for the coach to understand the influence that AI has on the psychological well-being of student-athletes.
Comprehensive in-vivo secondary structure of the SARS-CoV-2 genome reveals 1 novel regulatory motifs and mechanisms 2

Complete in-vivo SHAPE-MaP of the SARS-CoV-2 genome of across beta coronaviruses individual of well-folded functional complete of on mechanisms of and and identification of new that emerge in the future. in-vivo roadmap insights into mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 Evolutionary support consensus model β hints at conserved evasion. identification β within sarbecovirus subgenus, study search small
Anomaly Detection on the Edge Using Smart Cameras under Low-Light Conditions

The number of cameras utilised in smart city domains is increasingly prominent and notable for monitoring outdoor urban and rural areas such as farms and forests to deter thefts of farming machinery and livestock, as well as monitoring workers to guarantee their safety. However, anomaly detection tasks become much more challenging in environments with low-light conditions. Consequently, achieving efficient outcomes in recognising surrounding behaviours and events becomes difficult. Therefore, this research has developed a technique to enhance images captured in poor visibility. This enhancement aims to boost object detection accuracy and mitigate false positive detections. The proposed technique consists of several stages. In the first stage, features are extracted from input images. Subsequently, a classifier assigns a unique label to indicate the optimum model among multi-enhancement networks. In addition, it can distinguish scenes captured with sufficient light from low-light ones. Finally, a detection algorithm is applied to identify objects. Each task was implemented on a separate IoT-edge device, improving detection performance on the ExDark database with a nearly one-second response time across all stages.
ASYMMETRIC EFFECTS OF OIL PRICE AND EXCHANGE RATE ON TRADE BALANCE IN NIGERIA: A NONLINEAR ARDL APPROACH

Little is known on the asymmetric effects of oil prices and exchange rate on the trade balance in Nigeria. This paper therefore, examined whether Nigeria’s trade balance is responding asymmetrically to changes in oil price and exchange rate using the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model with monthly time series data for the period 1999M1 to 2019M12. The study found that Nigeria’s trade balance significantly responded asymmetrically to changes in oil price, such that the effect of rising oil price is more pronounced. In addition, the study found that Nigeria’s trade balance significantly responded asymmetrically to changes in exchange rate, such that the significant negative effect of depreciation was more prominent. Moreover, the study found no evidence of the J-curve effect in Nigeria. This research has significant policy implications for policymakers in Nigeria.
A SYK-dependent activation of STAT1-IRF1 amplifies the IFN signaling in HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis

: Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1) associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) is a progressive inflammatory disease of the spinal cord that causes weakness or paralysis of the legs and urinary symptoms. HTLV-1 infection is required to develop the disease and make the diagnosis. However, the differences in the lifetime incidence between asymptomatic carrier populations and the presence of lymphocytic infiltrates in the CNS lesions suggest that additional host immunological factors determine the risk. A signature of interferon-stimulated genes was found to be an important pathway for the disease. However, the pathogenesis still remains enigmatic and there is not an effective disease modifying treatment. This study applied systems approaches to comprehensively integrated data from three GEO series that measured the gene expression level in 39 asymptomatic HTLV-1 carriers and 19 patients with HAM/TSP. This study suggested that IFN signaling is enhanced by a SYK-dependent activation of STAT1 and IRF1, this amplification can be an important mechanism of spinal cord injury in HAM/TSP. The consistently up-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and the consistently co-expressed module M15 were significantly enriched for the Interferon pathway. STAT1 was found to be a top ranked hub protein and one of the three genes that were DEGs in all of the GEO studies.
Diagnosis by Radiologists Image-Reading Environment: Effects on Aneurysms in MR Angiography in a Routine Computer-Assisted Detection of Cerebral

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Experiences with computer-assisted detection of cerebral aneurysms in diagnosis by radiologists in real-life clinical environments have not been reported. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of computer-assisted detection in a routine reading environment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: During 39 months in a routine clinical practice environment, 2701 MR angiograms were each read by 2 radiologists by using a computer-assisted detection system. Initial interpretation was independently made without using the detection system, followed by a possible alteration of diagnosis after referring to the lesion candidate output from the system. We used the ﬁnal consensus of the 2 radiologists as the reference standard. The sensitivity and speciﬁcity of radiologists before and after seeing the lesion candidates were evaluated by aneurysm-and patient-based analyses. RESULTS: The use of the computer-assisted detection system increased the number of detected aneurysms by 9.3% (from 258 to 282). Aneurysm-basedanalysisrevealedthattheapparentsensitivityoftheradiologists’diagnosesmadewithoutandwiththedetectionsystem was 64% and 69%, respectively. The detection system presented 82% of the aneurysms. The detection system more frequently beneﬁted radiologists than being detrimental. CONCLUSIONS: Routine integration of computer-assisted detection with MR angiography for cerebral aneurysms is feasible, and radiologists can detect a number of additional cerebral aneurysms by using the detection system without a substantial decrease in their speciﬁcity. The low conﬁdence of radiologists in the system may limit its usefulness. ABBREVIATIONS
EHES Working Paper

We consider the impact of non-violent religious conflict on firm-level productivity. We zoom in on a Protestant and otherwise very homogeneous country: early twentieth century Denmark. We exploit variation due to the emergence of pietist movements who fought for the hearts and minds of Danes. In the countryside, much of the religious debate concerned whether or not creameries - the main catalyst of the industrial revolution in Denmark - should be closed on Sundays in accordance with the Third Commandment. We construct a rich microlevel dataset for 964 creameries and combine this with various measures of the intensity of the religious conflict. Exploiting variation in preaching by a prominent religious figure, we provide plausibly causal evidence that religious conflict hampered firm-level productivity. Examining the mechanism, we proceed to demonstrate that the reduction in productivity is due to the religious conflict rather than whether or not the factory produced on Sundays.
Robust Functional Interval Observer for Multivariable Linear Systems

The study of a continuous-time multivariable linear system may not need the knowledge of the entire internal state vector, but only of a linear function of it. In this case, instead of designing a complete observer, only a functional (also called reduced order) observer is used. In this field of research, this paper focuses on robust functional cooperative interval observers. Such an observer is proposed and its properties (in particular, its convergence) are established. Then, a design procedure is given for practical use. Finally, the theoretical contributions are illustrated in examples.
Effects of diabetes-induced hyperglycemia on epigenetic modifications and DNA packaging and methylation during spermatogenesis; A narrative review

The impact of diabetes on various organs failure including testis has been highlighted during the last decades. If on one hand diabetes-induced hyperglycemia has a key role in induced damages; on the other hand, glucose deprivation plays a key role in inducing male infertility. Indeed, glucose metabolism during spermatogenesis has been highlighted due to post-meiotic germ cells drastic dependence on glucose-derived metabolites, especially lactate. In fact, hyperglycemia-induced spermatogenesis arrest has been demonstrated in various studies. Moreover, various sperm maturation processes related to sperm function such as motility are directly depending on glucose metabolism in Sertoli cells. It has been demonstrated that diabetes-induced hyperglycemia adversely impacts sperm morphology, motility and DNA integrity, leading to infertility. However, fertility quality is another important factor to be considered. Diabetes-induced hyperglycemia is not only impacting sperm functions, but also affecting sperm epigenome. DNA packing process and epigenetics modifications occur during spermatogenesis process, determining next generation genetic quality transmitted through sperm. Critical damages may occur due to under- or downregulation of key proteins during spermatogenesis. Consequently, unpacked DNA is more exposed to oxidative stress, leading to intensive DNA damages. Moreover, epigenetic dysregulation occurred during spermatogenesis may impact embryo quality and be transmitted to next generations, increasing offspring genetic issues. Herein we discuss the mechanisms by which diabetes-induced hyperglycemia can affect epigenetic modifications and DNA packaging and methylation during spermatogenesis thus promoting long-lasting effects to the next generation.