Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Bank Capital Adequacy on Bank Profitability under Basel II Accord: Evidence from Vietnam

This paper explores the impact of capital adequacy on bank profitability in the context of Basel II Accord implementation in Vietnam. In this study, bank profitability is measured by return on assets and return on equity. Apart from capital adequacy ratio, we also control various potential determinants of profitability including bank-specified variables (capital adequacy ratio, net interest margin, non-performing loans, non-interest income, ownership and regulatory variable proxied by the bank’s application of Basel standards), and macroeconomic indicators (growth rate of gross domestic product, inflation rate). Using panel data regression analysis with a sample of 22 Vietnamese commercial banks for the period 2010-2018, this paper shows that bank capital adequacy, net interest margin, and non-interest income measures are positively correlated with profitability indicators while non-performing loan indicator and state ownership measure negatively effect on bank profitability. This paper also provides a more in-depth analysis of the impact that bank capital adequacy imposes on profitability by dividing the sample into two subsamples of large-sized banks and small-sized banks. We find that bank capital adequacy has a positive impact on return on assets for small-sized banks meanwhile it has no significant impact on profitability for large-sized banks in Vietnam. In another aspect, the paper also finds that the large-sized banks’ return on assets, as well as return on equity, are not significantly correlated with the Basel II implementation meanwhile it is statistically meaningful to the small-sized banks’ situation. Based on the outcomes found, this study provides several policy implications. Particularly, the regulatory authority should encourage bank capital reinforcement and continuous bank ownership restructuring.
Conservative management of oral pyogenic granuloma with diode laser: A case report

The oral pyogenic granuloma is a commonly occurring tumor like reactive lesion that occurs as a response to different stimuli such as hormonal imbalances, low grade chronic irritation, trauma or certain type of drugs and oral contraceptives. It is frequently seen in the gingiva, and also lips, tongue and buccal mucosa are the other commonest sites. The present case reports a localized inflammatory hyperplasia of the maxillary gingiva of a 20-year-old male patient which was interfering with normal eating and brushing.
Determinantes da qualidade do pré-natal na Atenção Básica: o papel do Apoio Matricial em Saúde da Mulher

Resumo Introdução O Apoio Matricial (AM) em Saúde da Mulher é uma das iniciativas de gestão de processos formativos que visam à melhoria da qualidade da Estratégia Saúde da Família. Objetivo Avaliar o cuidado pré-natal na Atenção Básica do município de Vitória, Espírito Santo, e a influência do AM, enquanto metodologia de gestão do trabalho, na determinação da qualidade da assistência. Método Estudo analítico transversal que utilizou quatro níveis de qualidade: nível 1 (índice de Kotelchuck adaptado por Traldi); nível 2, que adiciona ao nível 1 procedimentos clínico-obstétricos; nível 3, que soma ao nível 1 os exames laboratoriais; e nível 4, que analisa conjuntamente todos os parâmetros anteriores. Resultados Houve uma queda na adequação da assistência prestada à medida que o nível de análise se tornava mais complexo. As variáveis que mostraram associação com a não adequação da qualidade de assistência foram: risco gestacional alto (OR 1,86; 1,02-3,38) e ausência do Apoio Matricial (OR 1,66; 1,17-2,35). Conclusão A implantação e a valorização de estratégias de reorganização dos serviços e das práticas, como o AM, são determinantes da melhoria da qualidade na assistência pré-natal, sendo necessária a ampliação do seu grau de apoio.
Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa recovered from environmental and clinical sources in Benin City, Nigeria

The increasing rate of resistance to antimicrobial agents is a public health challenge and Pseudomonas aeruginosa is known to have recalcitrant resistance to several antibiotics. In this study, we characterized antimicrobial resistance and multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index of P. aeruginosa of environmental and clinical origin. A total of 240 samples were examined, of which 120 each were of environmental and clinical settings. Bacteriological analysis, antimicrobial sensitivity and MAR were performed on the isolates. The results revealed that of the 120 clinical matrixes evaluated for the presence of P. aeruginosa , 54.16% (65/120) were positive for P. aeruginosa . There were significant differences among the clinical samples ( p < 0.05) in prevalence. The highest isolation rate 27.7% was observed in wound samples and the least 10.8% in urine. For environmental samples, 45.83% (55/120) were positive for P. aeruginosa . There was a highly significant difference among the environmental samples ( p < 0.01) in prevalence. All positive isolates were resistant to cefuroxime (100%) and amoxicillin (100%). Most were also resistant to nalidixic acid (88%), cotrimoxazole (86%) and ciprofloxacin (85%). There was high significant difference in the resistance patterns of the isolates at p <0.001. All the isolates were multi-resistant revealed by the high MAR index profile. The multi-resistance exhibited by P. aeruginosa further confirms the call for integrated approaches to combat bacterial antibiotic resistance. Keywords: Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Antibiotics resistance, Multidrug resistance
Genetic Variability in Fenugreek Genotypes

A set of 24 genotypes were evaluated for 14 qualitative characters, to study the variability in fenugreek genotypes. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with two replications. A wide range of variability was observed for quantitative characters. The estimates of genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) were lower than that of phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV). The highest genotypic coefficient of variation as well as phenotypic variation was observed for the copper content in fenugreek followed by zinc content, iron content and total chlorophyll content in leaves. Both the components were lowest for days to harvesting. High estimates of heritability in broad sense were recorded for the characters like total chlorophyll content, copper content, iron content, number of leaves, number of secondary roots, biological yield, leaf area. Moderate heritability percentage was observed for manganese content, number of root nodules and zinc content. However low heritability was observed for days to harvesting. Hence, these characters might be improved by simple selection. High estimates of genetic advance were recorded for total chlorophyll content followed by biological yield, copper content , number of leaves, iron content, number of secondary roots, plant height , number of root nodules , plant height along with root , leaf area , average weight of plant , zinc content, days to harvesting and manganese content.
Chemical Denitrification with Mg0 Particles in Column Systems

The removal of nitrate from aqueous environments through zero-valent metallic elements is an attractive technique that has gained increasing interest in recent years. In comparison to other metallic elements, zero-valent magnesium (ZVM) has numerous beneficial aspects. Nevertheless, the use of Mg0 particles for nitrate reduction in column systems has not been investigated yet. To overcome the lack of research, in the present study, a wide experimental activity was carried out to develop a chemical denitrification process through ZVM in batch column equipment. Several tests were executed to evaluate the effects of recirculation hydraulic velocity, pH, Mg0 amount, N-NO3− initial concentration and temperature on the process performance. The results show that the process efficiency is positively influenced by the recirculation velocity increase. In particular, the optimal condition was detected with a value of 1 m/min. The process pH was identified as the main operating parameter. At pH 3, abatements higher than 86.6% were reached for every initial nitrate concentration tested. In these conditions, nitrogen gas was detected as the main reaction product. The pH increase up to values of 5 and 7 caused a drastic denitrification decline with observed efficiencies below 26%. At pH 3, the ratio (RMN) between Mg0 and initial nitrate amount also plays a key role in the treatment performance. A characteristic value of about RMN = 0.333 gMg0/mgN-NO3− was found with which it is possible to reach the maximum reaction rate. Unexpectedly, the process was negatively affected by the increase in temperature from 20 to 40 °C. At 20 °C, the material showed satisfactory denitrification efficiencies in subsequent reuse cycles. With the optimal RMN ratio, removals up to 90% were detected by reusing the reactive material three times. By means of a kinetic analysis, a mathematical law able to describe the nitrate abatement curves was defined. Moreover, the relation between the observed kinetic constant and the operating parameters was recognized. Finally, the reaction pathways were proposed and the corrosion reaction products formed during the treatment were identified.
Sleep problems in adolescents with CFS: A case-control study nested within a prospective clinical cohort

Sleep problems have a negative impact on a range of outcomes and are very common in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). We aimed to (a) establish whether adolescents with CFS have more self-reported sleep problems than illness controls as well as healthy controls, (b) investigate changes in sleep problems and (c) explore the extent to which sleep problems at baseline predict fatigue and functioning at follow-up in adolescents with CFS. The Insomnia Scale was completed by 121 adolescents with CFS, 78 healthy adolescents and 27 adolescents with asthma. Eighty (66%) treatment-naïve adolescents with CFS completed questionnaires approximately 3 months later. Adolescents with CFS reported increased sleep problems compared to healthy controls and adolescents with asthma. In CFS, there was no significant change in sleep problems without treatment over a 3-month follow-up. Sleep problems at baseline predicted a significant proportion of the variance in sleep problems at follow-up. Sleep problems should be targeted in treatment. Regulating the ‘body clock’ via the regulation of sleep could influence outcomes not assessed in this study such as school attainment.
Distinctive Effects of Within-Item Emotion Versus Contextual Emotion on Memory Integration

This study investigates the links between memory and emotion and, more specifically, how emotions can impact the integration mechanism. The authors' hypotheses were based on a dynamic conception of memory (Versace et al., 2014; Macri et al., 2018), and stated that an emotion coming from the stimulus (within-item emotion) should enhance the integration of the stimulus features, and that an emotion coming from the context (contextual emotion) should improve integration of the item and its context. In two experiments, the participants performed an associative memory task in which they undertook three kinds of recall: item (memory for a target item), location (spatial position of a target item), and association recall (association of a target item and its location). In the first experiment, the emotion was introduced by the target stimuli (neutral or negative words), while in the second experiment, contextual emotion was introduced by means of an odorant dispenser (negative or neutral odorant) placed under the participant’s chin and only neutral words were used. In both experiments, target items were words objects or animals that were either typically associated to a sound or not typically associated to a sound). The results confirm that emotions act in different ways on the integration mechanism depending on how they are introduced to the participant: within-item emotion enhances item recall itself by strengthening the link between its components, while contextual emotion favors the integration of the item with its location.
Livelihood information and knowledge needs, access, and exchange in rural communities in the Bunda District, Tanzania

ABSTRACT Regardless of deliberate efforts by the government of Tanzania to enhance accessibility and usability of information and knowledge, a divide persists regarding resources between rural and urban areas as evidenced by poverty in rural areas. This article investigates livelihood information and knowledge needs, access, and exchange among rural communities in the Bunda District of Tanzania. A mixed research approach was used to collect, analyse, and present field data. Findings illustrate livelihood information and knowledge needs among rural dwellers, and the sources and mechanisms used to access, exchange, and use it, are diverse. Further, factors impeding effective exchange of information and knowledge include provision of irrelevant and untimely information and knowledge presented in user-unfriendly packages that hamper decision-making on livelihood matters.
Development and Validation of the Ethical Climate Questionnaire in a Saudi Educational Context

The present study focuses on studying the psychometric properties of Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ) in Saudi educational milieu. It is a cross-sectional study and the data was collected from 309 educational supervisors from six educational offices of General Department of Education in Jeddah. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was carried out to study the psychometric properties of the EC scale. Kuder Richardson's Cronbach's coefficient 'α’ was used to assess the reliability of the nine dimensions of the EC scale. Findings of the study revealed that nine dimensions of the EC scale had a good model fit. Hence, it is suggested that EC scale is valid and reliable for use within the educational context in Saudi Arabia. This study also compares the findings of the current study with previous findings. Results of the present study will provide much-needed impetus for future research in EC particularly, within the educational organizations throughout Saudi Arabia and generally in other Arab countries of the region.
Measuring Attitudes Towards Motorcycle Helmet Use in Laos

This paper examines attitude towards use of motorcycle helmet in Laos. A quantitative approach using the survey questionnaire method was adopted to assess this attitude. A total of 257 university students in Vientiane, Laos was interviewed. Forward translation, backward translation, and cognitive debriefing were carried out. Factor analysis of the principal components was also performed. The four-factor solution was used to explain the 58.867% of total variance. The correlation between items showed values between . 01 and . 566. The total item correlation values were between . 129 and . 566. Cronbach alpha coefficient was . 764 for overall scale and between . 801 and . 601 on the four factors. Spearman Brown prediction formula was used to test psychometric properties and reliability of the items. A total of 17 items were considered reliable, such as such as susceptibility, trafficability, safety and usability, in determining overall attitudes of Laotians in using motorcycle helmet. These can be used in future research.
Parental Depression and Emerging Adult Psychological Problems: Indirect Effects by Parents’ Social Support and Emerging Adult Engagement Coping

Abstract The role of parents’ social support in relation to the socialization of coping strategies in emerging adults rarely has been studied. Parental depression has been related to both internalizing and externalizing problems in children. We examined the relationships of maternal and paternal depression on emerging adult internalizing and externalizing problems through perceived parents’ social support and emerging adult engagement coping. Gender also was examined. Emerging adults (ages 18–25; N = 430) were from a large university completed survey measures on parental (i.e. maternal and paternal) and emerging adult psychopathology and coping behaviors. Parents’ social support was indirectly related to internalizing problems for both genders, whereas the indirect relationship of parents’ social support on externalizing problems was significant only in women.
Integrating Theories on Informal Economies: An Examination of Causes of Urban Informal Economies in China

Rapid urbanization has seen a concurrent growth of informal economies, which play an important role in alleviating urban unemployment and poverty. Following international efforts to integrate divergent theories on informality, this paper examines the causes of urban informal economies in China by deploying a panel data regression model that considers multiple explanatory factors informed by these theories. Our estimation based on the latest China Population Census shows that the size of urban informal employment in China reached 215 million and 22% of gross domestic product (GDP) output share was from urban informal economies. Our model reveals that the causes of urban informal economies in China are mainly associated with the stages of economic development, tertiarization of industries, unemployment, rural-to-urban migration, and globalization of urban economies. This paper adds evidence from the Chinese context to the emerging argument that informal economies cannot be fully explained by each mainstream informality theory, suggesting that these theories should be seen as complementary rather than opposing alternatives. The paper concludes with policy implications for urbanization in China.
Video SAR Moving Target Indication Using Deep Neural Network

Video synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has been found to be very valuable for detection and tracking of slow moving targets and for observing changes over short time periods. Shadows produced by target motion in sequential radar images can be used to detect targets themselves. This article presents a framework for shadow-aided moving target detection using deep neural networks (DNNs) in video SAR. The faster region-based convolutional neural network (Faster-RCNN) is first used to detect shadows in a single frame, and then all the detections in each frame are filtered by the improved density-based clustering algorithm to mitigate false alarms. The missing alarm in detection can be suppressed by using the designed bi-directional long-short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) network. The proposed approaches have been tested by both the simulated and the real data, and a comparison to classical processing is given. This article reveals that the DNN techniques are very suitable for video SAR moving target detection.
Effective Audio Signal Arrival Time Detection Algorithm for Realization of Robust Acoustic Indoor Positioning

To achieve high precision and robust positioning on mobile devices, we propose a novel audio signal arrival time detection algorithm consisting of both coarse and fine searches. A coarse search uses the cosine theorem to extract the audio data segment (ADS) from the received signal of a mobile device, and a fine search then uses the waveform characteristics of the autocorrelation function of the source signal to estimate the audio arrival time (AAT) from the ADS. An indoor threshold determination experiment, a static positioning experiment, and a moving target positioning experiment were carried out on the developed acoustic indoor positioning system (AIPS) in a hall. The performance of the proposed audio detection algorithm was compared to two other typical detection algorithms. The results of the static positioning experiment show that, in a nonline of sight (NLOS) environment, 90% of the positioning results estimated by the proposed algorithm have an error of less than 0.50 m, whereas only 56% and 6% of the positioning results estimated by the other two classical algorithms have errors of less than 0.50 m. In the target-moving positioning experiment, the positions estimated by the proposed algorithm are closer to the true trajectories and have fewer (less than 0.5%) abnormal positioning errors than the other two classical algorithms. The experimental results also show that the reliability judgment of the positioning results can further improve the robustness of the system. The proposed method has an important application value for the implementation of a highly precise and reliable AIPS.
A New Topology of Switched-Capacitor Multilevel Inverter With Eliminating Leakage Current

This paper proposes a new topology of the switched-capacitor multilevel inverter (SCMLI) for photovoltaics system, which can eliminate the leakage current. In the proposed topology, the capacitors are employed as a virtual DC power supply to boost the input voltage. Here, all capacitors are charging equal to DC source, thus, just one DC source is needed to achieve the staircase waveform. In this structure in order to make the negative levels, the capacitors are connected to the output in reverse polarity. Thus, the H-bridge circuit which is used in traditional SCMLI to build zero and negative voltage levels and leads a variable common mode voltage is removed. Due to the direct connection of the neutral terminal of the grid to the negative polarity of the PV; then this topology can eliminate the leakage current. In addition, the topology has an excellent ability to path the reverse current as well as an acceptable output waveform spectrum. The operating states of all components and loss calculations are analyzed and formulated accurately as well as simulated by using MATLAB-SIMULINK software. To confirm the performance of the proposed topology; a 500 W prototype is built and experimental results are presented.
Dynamic Causal Modeling of the Relationship between Cognition and Theta–alpha Oscillations in Adults with Down Syndrome

Abstract Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) show high inter-subject variability in cognitive ability and have an ultra-high risk of developing dementia (90% lifetime prevalence). Elucidating factors underlying variability in cognitive function can inform us about intellectual disability (ID) and may improve our understanding of factors associated with later cognitive decline. Increased neuronal inhibition has been posited to contribute to ID in DS. Combining electroencephalography (EEG) with dynamic causal modeling (DCM) provides a non-invasive method for investigating excitatory/inhibitory mechanisms. Resting-state EEG recordings were obtained from 36 adults with DS with no evidence of cognitive decline. Theta–alpha activity (4–13 Hz) was characterized in relation to general cognitive ability (raw Kaufmann’s Brief Intelligence Test second Edition (KBIT-2) score). Higher KBIT-2 was associated with higher frontal alpha peak amplitude and higher theta–alpha band power across distributed regions. Modeling this association with DCM revealed intrinsic self-inhibition was the key network parameter underlying observed differences in 4–13 Hz power in relation to KBIT-2 and age. In particular, intrinsic self-inhibition in right V1 was negatively correlated with KBIT-2. Results suggest intrinsic self-inhibition within the alpha network is associated with individual differences in cognitive ability in adults with DS, and may provide a potential therapeutic target for cognitive enhancement.