Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Banking Institutional Services on the Sustainable growth of SMEs in Cameroon

Banking institutions have been very instrumental to the growth of Small and Medium Sized enterprises in many developed economies, and they have been considered as one of the principal driving forces for economic development. The case has not been the same for Cameroon as owner managers of these SMEs have been complaining of the limited presence of banking institutions in solving their problems. Mindful of the fact that Cameroon has a growth vision to become an emerging economy by 2035, the country had to take giant steps to boast the growth of SME in the country. Some of these steps were the introduction of the small business law in 2010. This was all in a drive to ensure that SME play a vital role to the GDP growth, reduce unemployment, alleviate poverty and act as an engine for the country’s emergence growth drive. It is therefore in this light that a study was carried out on the role of banking institutional services on the sustainable growth of SME in Cameroon. A logistic regression model was adopted to examine the impact of banking institutions on the growth of SMEs in Cameroon. The data used in the study was extracted from the 2016 Cameroon Enterprise Survey which was collected from 361 enterprises by the National Institute of Statistics in the country. From the empirical results, it was discovered that 68.4% of the enterprises were growing as opposed to the 31.6%. Despite the high growth rate of these SME bank loans were affecting the growth of SME negatively while MFI loans, electronic banking services, internal funds and research and development were positively contributing to the growth of SME in the country. Thus, we concluded the study by emphasisng the implementation of relationship lending which will contribute positively to the growth of SMEs and more so fiscal policies should be ameliorated to boast the growth of startups businesses.
Size Effects on Properties of NiO Nanoparticles Grown in Alkalisalts

NiO nanoparticles with sizes of 3.5–12.4 nm were grown by thermal decomposing of nickel acetate at different temperatures in NaCl and Li2CO3 alkalisalts. The properties of the nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction spectrometer, transmission electron microscope, absorption spectrometer, micro-Raman microscope, and superconducting quantum interference device. The effects of the nanoparticle sizes on the crystal structure, exciton ground state energy, vibration modes, and magnetic properties were studied. Lattice parameter of NiO increases with a decrease in nanoparticle sizes. The band gap of NiO nanoparticles increases with a decrease in the nanoparticle size. LO modes of NiO nanoparticles shift red, and the intensity increases with a decrease in the nanoparticle sizes. Surface phonon modes are observed. Bifurcation temperature and blocking temperature of NiO nanoparticles shift to lower temperature with a decrease in nanoparticle sizes. Two peaks are present in all nanoparticles’ zero-fiel.
Corporate governance and voluntary disclosure: evidence from India

Purpose This study aims to examine the influence of some prominent corporate governance (CG) mechanisms such as board size (BS), board independence (BI), role duality (RD), board’s gender diversity (GD), ownership concentration (OC), audit committee independence (ACI), nomination and remuneration committee (NRC) and risk management committee (RMC) on voluntary disclosure (VD), as well as different types of VD after controlling the effect of some firm-specific factors for Indian firms. Design/methodology/approach The study selects market capitalization-based top 100 non-financial and non-utility firms listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange as on 31st March 2014. Data are drawn from the Capitaline Plus database over the period of 2014–2018. Appropriate panel data regression model is applied to examine the influence of CG on VD. Findings The study reveals a significant negative influence of BI on VD while GD and RMC exhibit a significant positive influence on the same. The remaining CG mechanisms such as BS, RD, OC, ACI and NRC appear to have no significant influence on VD. Analysis into the relationship between CG mechanisms and different types of VD reveals that BI, in particular, has a strong negative influence on corporate strategic disclosure (CSD) and forward looking disclosure (FWLD) while GD and RMC both exhibit a significant positive influence on CSD, FWLD, CG disclosure and financial and capital market disclosure. Notably, none of the CG mechanisms under consideration influence human and intellectual capital disclosure. Research limitations/implications The study considers annual reports as the only medium of making VD and ignores all other sources such as websites and press releases. Besides, it mainly emphasizes on corporate board structure, board committees and OC while other ownership structure-related variables family ownership, managerial ownership are not covered, which can be analysed in future studies. Practical implications The study offers some important theoretical, as well as practical connotations for regulators and practitioners operating in India, as well as other emerging economies having similar institutional settings. Originality/value The study is the first of its kind in India that examines the influence of various CG mechanisms on different types of VD and thereby contributes novel findings in the context of an emerging economy.
Are predictions and perceptions of post-traumatic growth a form of ultimate justice reasoning?

Researchers have questioned whether self-report questionnaires adequately assess post-traumatic growth as it was theorized (positive personality change after trauma), versus assessing a broader coping mechanism. Across four studies, we examine whether individuals report post-traumatic growth as a coping mechanism to restore a sense of justice. In Studies 1 and 2, participants predicted greater post-traumatic growth for a hypothetical victim after a severe accident that caused grave suffering (and disrupted one’s belief in a just world), compared to an accident that caused minimal suffering (and did not disrupt one’s belief in a just world). Both perceptions of deservingness of post-traumatic growth for the victim (a belief in a just world mechanism) and engagement in deliberative rumination (a post-traumatic growth mechanism) mediated the effect of suffering on the prediction of post-traumatic growth in Study 2. The same pattern of results held when participants considered their own imagined suffering (Study 3), and when participants reported post-traumatic growth from distressing events in their own lives (Study 4). As such, we conclude that following an episode of suffering, either occurring to another or to oneself, self-reports of post-traumatic growth on questionnaires can reflect two distinct motivations: (1) an attempt to cope with perceived injustices and (2) the will to search for meaning in one’s suffering.
Difficulty Index and Cognitive Skills of English Textbook for Senior High School

This study explored the difficulty index, the terms for the category for reading text level, and cognitive levels of reading texts in the English textbook, Interlanguage, for Senior High School grade 12. The primary aim was to determine the extent to which the degree of the available different categories of reading text levels included the cognitive level of questions. Through the readability test formulas for difficulty index and a checklist based on revised Bloom Taxonomy for cognitive skills, 11 reading texts completed with 56 reading comprehension questions were analyzed. The result revealed that the Interlanguage textbook contained four different categories of reading level such as difficult, fairly difficult, plain, and fairly easy to read. The textbook had in the average category of fairly difficult to read for difficulty index and contained fewer HOT S–based questions than LOTS ones (34% < 66%). Besides, higher reading text level s included fewer HOTS-based questions than those of lower ones. This means a higher level of cognitive skill of questions may appear in any text with a different level of difficulty index. This suggests that the English textbook should be revised to have more HOTS-based question items for developing the students’ high cognitive levels.
Geosynchronous Magnetopause Crossings and Their Relationships With Magnetic Storms and Substorms

The paper investigates the strengthening of magnetospheric activity related to geosynchronous magnetopause crossings (GMCs). We make a list of GMC events using the empirical magnetopause model (Lin et al., 2010, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009ja014235) and hourly averaged OMNI data and find which solar wind and magnetospheric conditions accompany and follow the GMCs. The GMCs are mostly caused by the impact of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) and/or interplanetary shocks often with a strong increase in the density and a moderate increase in velocity. The average solar wind density during the first GMC hour is higher than 20 cm−3 in 70% cases, while the velocity is higher than 500 km/s in 56% cases. The hourly interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) BZ is negative in 87% cases. The average over all events SMU (SML), Kp, and PC indices reach maxima (minima) in 1 h after the GMC beginning, while the delay of the minimum of the Dst index is usually 3–8 h. These average time delays do not depend on the strength of the storms and substorms. The SML (Dst) minimum is less than −500 nT (−30 nT) in the next 24 h in 95% (99%) cases, that is, the GMC events are mostly followed by magnetic storms and substorms. We compare solar wind and magnetospheric conditions for GMCs connected with ICMEs and stream interaction regions (SIRs). Our study confirms that the ICME‐related events are characterized by stronger ring current and auroral activity than the SIR‐related events. The difference might be explained by the different behavior of the solar wind velocity.
Prescribed‐time control with explicit reference governor for a class of constrained cascaded systems

Different from both finite‐time control (where the settling time depends on the initial condition) and fixed‐time control (whose settling time is subject to an upper bound but varies due to uncertainties and nonlinearities), the prescribed‐time control achieves regulation in prescribed finite time, even under uncertain nonlinearities. This article investigates the prescribed‐time regulation problem for a class of cascaded systems with integral form and control input constraints. The establishment of prescribed‐time property consists of the prescribed‐time regulation controller and prescribed‐time explicit reference governor (PT‐ERG), both of which satisfy the prespecified time requirement. For an elegant implementation, the feasibility for the separate design of controller and governor is guaranteed through a developed prescribed‐time cascaded stable theory. For the prescribed‐time controller, the proposed smooth time‐varying controller provides the prescribed‐time convergence based on a residual‐time‐dependent scaling transformation. For the PT‐ERG dealing with the control input constraints, a reference trajectory with a fixed minimum convergence rate provides an elegant compromise between performance and constraints which keeps the constraint satisfied and tracking errors in an invariant set. Both theoretical analysis and numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.
The Impact of Students’ Perception on their Academic Background on Their Learning Motivation

Students’ academic performance is influenced by many factors such as previous academic background and level of motivation. There have been several studies trying to find out the correlation between students’ previous academic background and their learning achievement. However the results are not convincing. Though it is found out that there is correlation between students’ academic background and their learning achievement, the value of correlation is small. There have been also many researches investigating the impact of students’ motivation and their academic gain. However, the correlational study on students’ perception on academic background and their learning motivation is rare undertaking.
Potential of Impedance Spectroscopy Towards Quantified Analysis of Gas Sensors: A Tutorial

Transduction of the gas sensor devices through Impedance Spectroscopy (IS) provides non-conventional route to derive quantified model of equivalent circuit and to address resonant frequency tuned selectivity aspect. The quantification of the equivalent circuit elements possibly enhances the scientific understandings of sensing performance in computational scheme. Simultaneously, resonant frequency tuned selectivity approach is another possible outcome of the IS, applied to the gas sensors. These methodologies, prove the potentiality of the IS highlighting the theoretical as well as practical aspects of gas sensor devices. The present scope focuses on the step-by-step approach of flexible adoption in measuring techniques of the IS from its liquid phase measurement to gas phase one. The comparative analysis of quantitative equivalent circuit in different gas ambient is fruitful to presume the experimental details as well as the underlying physical phenomena. The input signal frequency also paved the path for the resonant frequency tuned selectivity improvement for the gas sensor devices. Importance of the IS, as transduction technique, is also discussed with physical, theoretical and computational insights. This review also dealt with corresponding constraints of IS in gas sensors by thorough inspection of different bottlenecks reported in literatures. The present review also has a focus to instigate further research to mitigate such constraints and to further improve the potentiality of the IS in gas sensor field.
Corporate disclosures on curbing bribery and the UK Bribery Act 2010: evidence from UK companies

Purpose –This study aims to investigate whether United Kingdom (UK)-based companies have changed their voluntary disclosures on curbing the bribery of foreign officials in response to the UK Bribery Act 2010, if so whether and how such disclosure changes substantively reflected allegations of bribery of foreign officials by news media. Design/methodology/approach: By using the notions of institutional pressure and decoupling and applying content and thematic analysis we examined, in particular, disclosures on curbing bribery by the largest 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange in periods before and after the Bribery Act (2007–2012). News media reports covering incidents of bribery of foreign officials and related corporate disclosures before and after the Act were thoroughly examined to problematise corporate anti-bribery disclosure practices. Findings: Our study finds a significant change in disclosure on curbing bribery before and after the enactment of the UK Bribery Act, consistent with the notion of institutional coercive pressure. However, decoupling is also found: organisations’ disclosures did not substantively reflect incidents of bribing foreign public officials, mostly from underprivileged developing nations. Research limitations/implications: This study acknowledges a limitation stemming from using media reports that focus on bribery incidents in identifying actual cases or incidents of bribery. As some of the incidents identified from news media reports appeared to be allegations, not convictions for bribery, companies could have defensible reasons for not disclosing some aspects of them. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the accounting literature by problematising MNCs’ operations in underprivileged countries. Our findings suggest that not only public officials in developing countries as creators of bribery but also western-based MNCs as the suppliers of bribery, contribute to perpetuating unethical practices and injustices to the under-privileged communities in developing countries. Our research is imperative as this is one of the first known studies that provide evidence of the actions including disclosure related actions companies have taken in response to the UK Bribery Act.
Variation of protein backbone amide resonance by electrostatic field

Amide resonance is found to be sensitive to electrostatic field with component parallel or antiparallel to the amide C-N bond, an effect we refer to here as EVPR-CN. EVPR-CN is linear and without threshold in the biologically plausible electrostatic field range -0.005 to 0.005 au. Variation of amide resonance varies Resonance-Assisted Hydrogen Bonding such as occurs in the hydrogen bonded chains of backbone amides of protein secondary structures such as beta sheets and alpha helices, varying the stability of these structures. The electrostatic properties including permittivity of amino acid residue sidegroups influence the electrostatic field component parallel or antiparallel to the C-N bond of each amide, giving a novel relationship between residue sequence and protein structure. Additionally, a backbone-based theory of protein folding which includes this effect is presented in Section 8.4. The significance of EVPR-CN relative to other factors in protein folding depends on field C-N component at each backbone amide at a given time. Calculation indicates that backbone amides do not occupy an intrinsically electrostatically-protected niche. We propose that EVPR-CN warrants investigation in any study of stable protein structure or protein folding pathway. EVPR-CN is somewhat associated with hydrophobia, since hydrophobia creates low permittivity environments. EVPR-CN is more directionally and hence structurally specific than hydrophobia. Hypotheses concerning the stability of beta sheets and amyloid fibrils and of protein complexation and molecular chaperone function are offered. An analogous effect in nitrogenous base pairing is proposed. EVPR-CN is energetically significant in biologically plausible electrostatic fields even without considering a hydrogen bonding context, and a hypothesis concerning the stability of polyproline helices types I and II is offered.
Recent developments in the catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 to formic acid/formate using heterogeneous catalysts

The conversion of CO2 into value added chemicals is one of the fascinating strategies to mitigate the level of CO2 in the atmosphere. Specifically, the hydrogenation of CO2 into formic acid/formate has received a great deal of attention since the product is a valuable basic chemical as well as a promising energy storage material. However due to the kinetic and thermodynamic limitations of this conversion, developing an efficient catalytic system has become desirable. Therefore various approaches have been implemented for the development of both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. In this context, recent advances in the hydrogenation of CO2 to formic acid/formate using heterogeneous catalysts as well as theoretical investigations are presented.
Where stress presides: predictors and correlates of stress among Australian judges and magistrates

Recent research on the nature, prevalence and severity of judicial stress in Australia has revealed a considerable burden of stress placed upon the judicial system. This article builds upon this research by exploring the demographic and workplace factors associated with elevated stress among Australian judicial officers. A survey of 152 judicial officers from 5 Australian courts found that judicial stress – operationalised as non-specific psychological distress, depressive and anxious symptoms, burnout and secondary traumatic stress – was predicted by satisfaction of the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. The only demographic variable found to be reliably associated with judicial stress was jurisdiction: compared with judicial officers in the higher jurisdictions (i.e. judges), those in the summary jurisdictions (i.e. magistrates) reported significantly higher levels of stress and significantly lower levels of basic psychological needs satisfaction. Implications and areas for future research are discussed. Alcohol use and dependence was not associated with levels of stress or needs satisfaction.
Leisure travel intention following a period of COVID-19 crisis: a case study of the Dutch market

Purpose This study aims to analyse what drives and limits the Dutch population during COVID-19 in their intention to travel for leisure once travel restrictions have been lifted, to gain an insight in the psychological travel barriers following a period of crisis. Design/methodology/approach The research process involved an online self-administrated method created with one of the leading research and web-based survey tools called Qualtrics. The questionnaire was filled by 402 respondents. Findings The findings indicate that the impact of COVID-19 on cutting down travel plans, certain personal values and structural constraints have a positive relationship with the leisure travel intention to various destinations. Moreover, risk perceptions and intrapersonal constraints have a positive relationship with domestic leisure travel intentions. However, these factors have a negative connection with the leisure travel intention to some international destinations. Further, decreased perceptions of risks have a negative relationship with the domestic leisure travel intentions. Research limitations/implications Using questionnaires in the form of online, self-administrated surveys made it impossible to get an insight in and have control over who responded to the questionnaire. Gaining an insight into the factors impacting the leisure travel intentions following a period of crisis will make it possible for the tourism industry to respond adequately to future crises and will make it easier for destination marketers and managers to attract new tourists during the recovery process. Originality/value To the best of the author's knowledge, no analysis has been so far published with a focus on the impact of COVID-19 on the Dutch population and their intention to travel. It is crucial for gaining an insight into leisure travel intention and the factors impacting this intention following a period of crisis since travel intention is an under-researched topic of academic tourism literature. This study closes the existing gap in literature.
Prediction Method of Underwater Acoustic Transmission Loss Based on Deep Belief Net Neural Network

The prediction of underwater acoustic transmission loss in the sea plays a key role in generating situational awareness in complex naval battles and assisting underwater operations. However, the traditional classical underwater acoustic transmission loss models do not consider the regional hydrological elements, and the performance of underwater acoustic transmission loss prediction under complex environmental conditions in a wide range of sea areas is limited. In order to solve this problem, we propose a deep learning-based underwater acoustic transmission loss prediction method. First, we studied the application domains of typical underwater acoustic transmission loss models (ray model, normal model, fast field program model, parabolic equation model), analyzed the constraint rules of its characteristic parameters, and constructed a dataset according to the rules. Then, according to the characteristics of the dataset, we built a DBN (deep belief net) neural network model and used DBN to train and learn the dataset. Through the DBN method, the adaptation and calculation of the underwater acoustic transmission loss model under different regional hydrological elements were carried out in a simulation environment. Finally, the new method was verified with the measured transmission loss data of acoustic sea trials in a certain sea area. The results show that the RMSE error between the underwater acoustic transmission loss calculated by the new method and the measured data was less than 6.5 dB, the accuracy was higher than that of the traditional method, and the prediction speed was faster, the result was more accurate, and had a wide range of adaptability in complex seas.