Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are Investors’ Attention and Uncertainty Aversion the Risk Factors for Stock Markets? International Evidence from the COVID-19 Crisis

In this paper, we examine the impact of investors’ attention to COVID-19 on stock market returns and the moderating effect of national culture on this relationship. Using daily data from 34 countries over the period 23 January to 12 June 2020, and measuring investors’ attention with the Google search volume (GSV) of the word “coronavirus” for each country, we find that investors’ enhanced attention to the COVID-19 pandemic results in negative stock market returns. Further, measuring the national culture with the uncertainty avoidance index (the aspect of national culture which measures the cross-country differences in decision-making under stress and ambiguity), we find that the negative impact of investors’ attention on stock market returns is stronger in countries where investors possess higher uncertainty avoidance cultural values. Our findings imply that uncertainty avoidance cultural values of investors promote financial market instability amid the crisis.
Understanding How Gastronomy Behaviours Influence the Repatronage Intention of Malaysian Muslim Tourists’ toward Japanese Street Food Vendors

The paper investigates the influences of gastronomy behaviours on the repatronage intention (RI) of Malaysian Muslim tourists toward Japanese street food vendors. The present literature review showcased multiple studies on street food vendors at various destinations. Despite this fact, there is a lack of information concerning Malaysian Muslim travellers and Japanese street food vendors. Notably, Malaysian Muslims love to travel to Japan due to its visa-free travel, the availability of various Muslim-friendly facilities, and its delicious street food. Street food is described as ready-to-eat food or drinks sold by hawkers or vendors in streets or any other public spaces (such as markets, fairs, or carnivals) for immediate consumption, including finger food and fast food. In general, people buy street foods because of factors such as convenience, reasonably-priced flavourful food, samples of ethnic cuisines, and nostalgia. Most importantly, street food reflects the local culture and appeals to many palates. Nowadays, savouring authentic local dishes of certain places has become a tourism trend. Moreover, statistics showed that millions of tourists have decided to revisit familiar locations to enjoy their local gastronomic culture. In fact, gastronomy is among the main factors that affect tourists’ destination choices. Based on current literature, this study theorised that gastronomy attractiveness (GA) and past gastronomy experience (GE) indirectly affects the repatronage intention (RI) through gastronomy satisfaction (GS). Furthermore, gastronomy knowledge (GK) and gastronomy motivation (GM) are direct predictors of RI. In this study, the analysed data showed significant relationships between GA, GE, and RI through GS and between GM and RI. However, GK and RI had an insignificant relationship.
A Review on Consequential Life Cycle Assessment in the Power Sector

The existing policy for greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement aims at decarbonisation of the power sector. The interrelations between the power sector and other economic sectors raise a question of whether the GHG emission reduction policy in the power sector is as effective as it is claimed. Consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA) has been developed to assess the environmental impacts of any industrial/productive sector in relation with changes in the policy and its indirect impacts on other economic sectors. This review is conducted on CLCA studies in the power sector in terms of system boundaries expansion and socio-economic interactions and the ability to quantify indirect environmental impacts. It is indicated that CLCA expanded the system boundaries by applying mutatis mutandis assumption to include several affected products with various scales of change. Economic modelling tools are frequently applied to make assumptions on the extent of change. The applications of these tools also help to identify the environmental profile of product systems and the socio-economic changes such as economic growth and consumer behaviours. Thanks for the expansion of system boundaries and inclusion of socio-economic interactions, the total environmental impacts of power sector are comprehensively quantified. The variations of the total environmental impacts, with different magnitude of change, were observed in several reviewed case studies. In term of GHG emissions, some products become cleaner, for example battery; however, in most of the cases, the power system in general becomes more polluted when indirect impacts on other economic sectors are included.
Islamic Financing Portfolio and its Comparative Growth Potential

Background – Growth has a strong association with financial sector development. As both micro and macro projects significantly count institutionalized financing contented to the access of finance and help to reduce the cost. Islamic finance development incorporates several benefits such as the transformation of the economy towards the Shari’ah compliancy, higher degree of risk-sharing, and integration of returns with the risk/performance associated with the investment venture thus ultimately leading to social prosperity. Objectives - This study envisages the exploration of the contribution of different type of Islamic banking financing which Islamic Banks are utilizing in their capital structure, on the economic growth. This assessment may help in empirically identifying the financing which has been fruitful to promote growth. This is because each of these Islamic financing products has their essence in the path of growth. Design/methodology/approach - Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is taken as the dependent variable. And the Solow model based controlling variables includes Labor Resource (L), and Physical Capital (K) while the base variable are the financing modes. The quarterly data is collected for 9 countries which are available between 2014Q1 and 2017Q4. Findings – The results indicate that other than Istisna financing, all other financings have a positive effect on economic growth, whereas Salam financing has highest growth potency. Originality/value – Previous studies lack in providing a country-level comparison of growth effect of country-level Islamic capital structure. While, considering financing as an input of economic growth within a panel data setup. This study is finding growth based weights on the popular Islamic financing options, which policymakers can use to find a particular financing which needs promoting in order to boost economic growth.
Inclusive education for students with severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties: Identification of influencing factors and challenges

In the study reported on here we examined the extent of pre-service teachers’ supportiveness for educational inclusion (EI) of students with severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties (SPMLD) in order to identify their attitudinal predictors, as well as the challenges faced in such a process. An attitudinal survey with 33 items was developed to collect data from 542 participants. The results show that the attitudes/beliefs of pre-service teachers (ABpST) regarding inclusion were moderate to positive and strengthened across the teachers’ knowledge and experiences. However, some variations, based on their characteristics and study constructs were revealed. The findings also illustrate the combined effects of practical knowledge and courses, besides teaching and working experiences in shaping ABpST attitudes towards inclusion of SPMLD students. The implications of these results for educators and national education institutions and other international universities are discussed.
Age related hearing loss and cognitive impairment - a current perspective

Age related hearing loss (ARHL) is one of the commonest health conditions of the elderly people which have an important relation with the cognition. Long standing hearing deprivation leads to decline of the cognitive performance. This has impact on quality of communication and result in social isolation, depression and enhances the dementia. Cognitive decline may be misdiagnosed or over-diagnosed when the sensory abilities of the patients are not properly evaluated. Adequate intervention by use of hearing aid or cochlear implant improves the communication, cognitive function, social, emotion function and positively impact on the quality of life. With rise of the elderly population and concomitant increase of ARHL with associated cognitive impairment, it is imperative to discuss this morbid clinical entity in present scenario. Cognitive decline in elderly age have a profound impact on the affected person, on caregivers and society. The financial costs for cognitive impairment in ARHL are also major source of concern for the society. In this review article, we focus on the epidemiology, pathophysiology, hypotheses of etiological mechanisms between the ARHL and cognitive decline or impairment, impact of cognitive impairment on quality of life and prevention.
Profit Estimation Error in the Newsvendor Model Under a Parametric Demand Distribution

We consider the newsvendor model in which uncertain demand is assumed to follow a probabilistic distribution with known functional form but unknown parameters. These parameters are estimated, unbiasedly and consistently, from data. We show that the classic maximized expected profit expression exhibits a systematic expected estimation error. We provide an asymptotic adjustment so that the estimate of maximized expected profit is unbiased. We also study expected estimation error in the optimal order quantity, which depends on the distribution: (1) if demand is exponentially or normally distributed, the order quantity has zero expected estimation error; (2) if demand is log-normally distributed, there is a nonzero expected estimation error in the order quantity that can be corrected. Numerical experiments, for light- and heavy-tailed distributions, confirm our theoretical results. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.
Glycaemic and weight-loss outcomes of graded doses of canagliflozin in type 2 diabetes — a real-world study

Background. Costs are the most important cause of therapeutic non-compliance. half canagliflozin (CANA)–300 tablet has lowest cost/mg among all CANA preparations; data are unavailable on efficacy of half CANA-300. This study evaluated weight loss and glycaemic outcomes of 100 mg versus 150 mg versus 300 mg of canagliflozin as part of standard therapy. Methods. Data, retrospectively captured from medical records of two centres in Delhi for patients > 35 years with type-2 diabetes (T2DM), and on canagliflozin, having > 6 months follow-up, were analysed. Patients were in 3-groups depending on canagliflozin dosage: Group 1 on canagliflozin 100 mg/day (1 tablet CANA-100), Group-2 on canagliflozin 150 mg/day (half tablet CANA-300), and Group 3 on canagliflozin 300 mg/day (1 tablet CANA-300). Primary endpoints were glycaemic efficacy and weight-loss. results. From 3,569 records evaluated, 1,232 people with T2DM on canagliflozin were screened; data from 528 individuals analysed (257, 138 and 133 in groups: 1, 2 and 3 respectively). People in all three groups were comparable with regards to sex, T2DM duration, glycated haemoglobin (hbA1c), haemoglobin, creatinine, lipids, albuminuria and medications. group-2 patients were youngest and had highest BMI. Following 6-months, both absolute and percent weight-loss was significantly higher in Group-2 (–3.5 kg [–6.60–0.00]; –3.62%), followed by group-3 (–3.0 kg [–5.3 to –0.8]; –3.33%), and lowest in group-1 (–1.05 kg [–2.85 to –0.17]; –1.31%) (P = 0.002 and 0.014, respectively). Glycaemic efficacy was comparable among groups. Conclusion. half CANA-300 tablet has comparable glycaemic efficacy and weight-loss compared to single CANA-300 tablet, but superior weight-loss compared to CANA-100. (Clin Diabetol 2020; 9; 6: 442–453)
A Novel Fusion between CDC42BPB and ALK Exon 20 in a Patient with Wild Type Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor: a case report

Background Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common type of mesenchymal tumor in gastrointestinal tract (GI), with striking features of morphology and immunohistochemistry. Pathogenic activating mutations of the proto-Oncogene Kit are detected in 80–85% GISTs, while 5–7% of cases harbor activating mutations of platelet derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRA). There are still some rare mutation types, including succinate dehydrogenase (SDH)-x, BRAF, RAS and NF1 mutations, or ETV6-NTRK3 fusion. Herein, we reported the first case of GIST with ALK gene rearrangement and ALK (D5F3) overexpression. Case presentation In this study, we described a 33-year-old female patient who appeared a massive space occupying lesion (with the maximum diameter of 22 cm) in the stomach and was eventually diagnosed as Kit and PDGFRA wide type GIST. We unexpectedly found that GIST of this patient showed ALK (D5F3) overexpression and harbored a novel fusion CDC42BPB exon 24-ALK in exon 20. Conclusion This is the first case of GIST with both ALK rearrangement (CDC42BPB exon 24-ALK in exon 20) and ALK (D5F3) overexpression. This rare phenomenon might suggest that ALK (D5F3) immunohistochemistry could be a screening tool for ALK-rearranged GIST. In addition, ALK inhibitors could be a potential therapeutic target for patients (with ALK rearrangement), which should be confirmed further.
Controlled Synthesis of Lead-Free and Stable Perovskite Derivative Cs2SnI6 Nanocrystals via a Facile Hot-Injection Process

Colloidal nanocrystals of lead halide perovskites have recently received great attention due to their remarkable performance in optoelectronic applications (e.g., light-emitting devices, flexible electronics, and photodetectors). However, the use of lead remains of great concern due to its toxicity and bioaccumulation in the ecosystem; herein we report a strategy to address this issue by using tetravalent tin (Sn4+) instead of divalent lead (Pb2+) to synthesize stable Cs2SnI6 perovskite nanocrystals. The shapes of as-synthesized Cs2SnI6 nanocrystals are tuned from spherical quantum dots, nanorods, nanowires, and nanobelts to nanoplatelets via a facile hot-injection process using inexpensive and nontoxic commercial precursors. Spherical aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (Cs-corrected STEM) and simulation studies revealed a well-defined face-centered-cubic (fcc) perovskite derivative structure of Cs2SnI6 nanocrystals. The solution-processed Cs2SnI6 nanocrystal-based field effect.
Co-Composting of Khat-Derived Biochar with Municipal Solid Waste: A Sustainable Practice of Waste Management

Biochar is a way to improve the performance of the composting process and the quality of compost. This study was aimed to investigate the optimum ratio of khat straw (Catha edulis) biochar and organic municipal solid waste mixtures to improve the quality of the resulting co-composts. Khat-derived biochar during pyrolysis at 350 °C was added to organic municipal solid waste mix and four co-composting treatments were prepared with the compositions (% w/w): control compost (no biochar) and 5%, 15%, and 25% co-composted biochar in three replicates. The total organic carbon, organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, and potassium values ranged as 16.76–21.45%, 30.77–40.26%, 0.97–1.68%, 0.58–0.76%, and 12.72–15.29%, respectively. The results confirmed that 5% and 15% co-composted khat biochars had significantly reduced (p < 0.05) organic matter loss and increased the contents of cation exchange capacity, pH, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and zinc compared to the control compost, while some heavy metals (Fe, Cu, and Mn) and EC values in co-composted biochars are lower than the control compost. Khat-derived biochar could be added to municipal organic waste mix at 5–15% (w/w) in order to get better quality of compost, which can be used as biofertilizer.
Drivers and Barriers for the Valorization of the Apricot Pit

ABSTRACT By mobilizing the socio-technical approach to innovation and semi-directive survey of 31 stakeholders, this paper analyzes the value chains that ensure the valorization of apricot pit by-products and the dynamics of their actors. Beyond the technical knowledge on the recovery of apricot by-products and their potential uses, this paper shows a multitude of strategies but also challenges that are barriers to this innovative sector development. It also highlights some of the drivers that these value chains can rely on for their further development. The results of this work show real economic opportunities that are available to operators in these sectors depending on the nature of the by-product but also the market targeted by them. It also shows that the diffusion of these innovations must be better coordinated on the market. To do so, the socio-economic and environmental interests related to the valorization of apricot pit by-products must be highlighted.
Analysis of the relationship between attitudinal factors and the intention to purchase remanufactured products

Purpose – Remanufacturing is an essential strategy for implementing the concepts of the circular economy, but consumers must be willing to consume remanufactured products for this strategy to be successful. This study analyzes how the attitudinal factors environmental knowledge, environmental awareness, attitude towards sustainable products and perceived effectiveness by consumers influence the intention to purchase remanufactured products in the Brazilian market.Design/methodology/approach – A descriptive research with quantitative methodology was developed with a sample of 289 participants, the analysis of the results was made using the statistical method of multiple linear regression. As limitations of the study, we can mention the sampling for convenience that restricts the generalization of the results.Findings – The results indicate that the four attitudinal factors analyzed influence the intention to purchase remanufactured products. This article presents theoretical and practical contributions.Research limitations/implications – From a theoretical point of view, this study allows a better understanding of the factors related to the intention to purchase remanufactured products by Brazilian consumers; from a practical point of view, this study provides a better understanding of the characteristics of the consumer market for remanufactured products, and can assist in the development of sustainable actions by companies.Originality/value – This article is the first study that seeks to identify and analyze factors that influence the intention to purchase remanufactured products in Brazil and can assist organizations in implementing the circular economy more effectively.
When home is not a safe haven

Quarantine situations have deleterious effects on the mental health of the general population, but it is expected that LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) individuals are even more affected. We aimed to investigate the extent to which the psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with changes in the mental health of LGBTQ adolescents and young adults (N = 403). The findings indicated that (i) not having or entered into a university degree, (ii) the daily negative impact of the pandemic, and (iii) a negative family climate were associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety. Furthermore, family climate partially mediated the association between the pandemic's individual impact and both depression and anxiety. Organizations promoting the rights of LGBTQ individuals, health and educational services, and other support networks, should remain available to meet the needs of this population.
A Method for Selecting the Typical Days with Full Urban Heat Island Development in Hot and Humid Area, Case Study in Guangzhou, China

The urban heat island (UHI) poses a significant threat to urban ecosystems, human health, and urban energy systems. Hence, days with a relatively higher UHI intensity should be selected for UHI observation and analysis. However, there is still a lack in the method and criteria for selecting the typical meteorological days for UHI survey and simulation. In this study, field measurements were conducted based on Local Climate Zone (LCZ) schemes over a one-year period to assess the UHI behavior in Guangzhou, China. The relationship between the diurnal temperature range (DTR) and UHI intensity was evaluated and analyzed quantitatively under different meteorological conditions classified by precipitation. The average daily maximum UHI intensity (UHIImax) during precipitation days was approximately 1.8 °C lower than that during non-precipitation days, confirming that precipitation has a negative effect on UHI development. The monthly DTR distribution was similar to the daily UHIImax distribution, which was higher in autumn and winter, but lower in spring and summer. DTR has a significant linear correlation with the daily UHIImax, with a Pearson’s correlation coefficient of >0.7 and statistical significance of <0.001. Based on a quantitative evaluation of our results, we determined that 10 °C could be regarded as the appropriate DTR threshold to identify the meteorological conditions conducive to UHI development; the meteorological conditions exhibited a high daily UHIImax in Guangzhou. This study provides a simple method to select typical meteorological days for UHI measurement and simulation, and a method to early-warning of intense UHI events based on weather forecasts.
Behavior of Sand Compaction Columns Installed in Cohesionless Deposits

A critical appraisal of the reviewed literature revealed that there are very limited studies available on the strength characteristics focusing on the load-settlement behavior of sand compaction columns (SCCs) when installed in cohesionless deposits. The method, though contemporary to the reputed stone column technique, is not yet studied rigorously in the available past studies, more precisely on the load-bearing characteristics when compared to the latter. Therefore the present study focuses on studying the behavior of multiple column composite foundation supported by sand compaction columns installed in loose to medium dense sands on a lab-scale numerical model. The study is carried out using commercially available finite element (FE) code 3D PLAXIS. Spacing to diameter ratio (S/D) ranging from 1.5 to 3.5 and initial relative density (RD) from 30 to 60% was adopted to study the changes in the load-settlement behavior of the improved deposit. Extending the FE model to further parametric study, the effect of angle of internal friction of the column sand and diameter of the column on the bearing capacity and settlement characteristics were analysed with and without normalization. From the results obtained, it is found that, for the considered FE model, the improved deposit with 3D spacing between the SCCs behaves distinctly different from all other cases analyzed.