Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cashless Policy and Performance of Banks in Nigeria

This study looks into the connection between Nigerian banks' performance and their cashless policy. Checks, credit/debit cards, and NEFT were used as stand-ins, and profitability was used as a performance indicator, in order to analyse the synergy between Nigerian banks' performance and their cashless strategy. The study adopted quasi-experimental research design using cross-sectional research design. The population of this study comprised of 10 selected banks in South-South State, Nigeria. 100 copies of questionnaire distributed to top managers of these selected banks. The Multiple Regression Analysis Statistical tool was used with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 23.0), discriminant validity (AVE) and Cronbach Alpha verified the internal consistency and validity status and the results were positive. The findings of the study showed that cashless policy substantially related with performance of banks in Nigeria, thus enhancing profitability. Based on the findings, the study, recommends that, Making use of cheques, funds transfers, E –payments and owning/ operating of bank accounts should be encouraged. This will give a further
Localized pattern formation in continuum models of urban crime

In this thesis, the phenomenon of localized crime hotspots in models capturing the features of repeat and near-repeat victimization of urban crime was studied. Stability, insertion, slow movement of crime hotspots and the effect of police patrol modelled by an extra equation derived from biased random walk were studied by means of matched asymptotic expansions, nonlocal eigenvalue problem (NLEP) stability analysis, and numerical computations. In the absence of police, we confirmed the linear stability of the far-from equilibrium steady-states with crime hotspots in the original parameters regimes as observed in [47]. The results hold for both the supercritical and subcritical regimes distinguished by a Turing bifurcation (cf. [48, 49]). Moreover, the phenomenon of peak insertion was characterized by a simple nonlinear equation computable by quadratures and a normal form equation identical to that of the self-replication of Mesa patterns [28] was derived. Slow dynamics of unevenly-spaced configurations of hotspots were described by a system of differential-algebraic systems (DAEs), which was derived from resolving an intricate triple-deck structure of boundary layers formed between the hotspots and their neighbouring regions. In the presence of police, which was modelled by a simple interaction with criminals, single and multiple hotspots patterns were constructed in a near-shadow limit of criminal diffusivity. While a single hotspot was found to be unconditionally stable, the linear stability behaviour of multiple-hotspot patterns was found to depend on two thresholds, between which we also observe a novel Hopf bifurcation phenomenon leading to asynchronous oscillations. For one particular, but representative, parameter value in the model, the determination of the spectrum of the NLEP was found to reduce to the study of a quadratic equation for the eigenvalue. For more general parameter values, where this reduction does not apply, a winding number analysis on the NLEP was used to determine detailed stability properties associated with multiple hotspot steady-state solutions.
Self-similarity of a Rayleigh–Taylor mixing layer at low Atwood number with a multimode initial perturbation

ABSTRACT High-fidelity large eddy simulation (LES) of a low-Atwood number (A = 0.05) Rayleigh–Taylor mixing layer is performed using the 10th-order compact difference code Miranda. An initial multimode perturbation spectrum is specified in Fourier space as a function of mesh resolution such that a database of results is obtained in which each successive level of increased grid resolution corresponds approximately to one additional doubling of the mixing layer width, or generation. The database is then analysed to determine approximate requirements for self-similarity, and a new metric is proposed to quantify how far a given simulation is from the limit of self-similarity. It is determined that mixing layer growth reaches a high degree of self-similarity after approximately 4.5 generations. Statistical convergence errors and boundary effects at late time, however, make it impossible to draw similar conclusions regarding the self-similar growth of more sensitive turbulence parameters. Finally, self-similar turbulence profiles from the LES database are compared with one-dimensional simulations using the k-L-a and BHR-2 Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes models. The k-L-a model, which is calibrated to reproduce a quadratic turbulence kinetic energy profile for a self-similar mixing layer, is found to be in better agreement with the LES than BHR-2 results.
Physicochemical characterization of free troposphere and marine boundary layer ice-nucleating particles collected by aircraft in the eastern North Atlantic

Abstract. Atmospheric ice nucleation impacts the hydrological cycle and climate by modifying the radiative properties of clouds. To improve our predictive understanding of ice formation, ambient ice-nucleating particles (INPs) need to be collected and characterized. Measurements of INPs at lower latitudes in a remote marine region are scarce. The Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) campaign, in the region of the Azores islands, provided the opportunity to collect particles in the marine boundary layer (MBL) and free troposphere (FT) by aircraft during the campaign's summer and winter intensive operation period. The particle population in samples collected was examined by scanning transmission X-ray microscopy with near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. The identified INPs were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. We observed differences in the particle population characteristics in terms of particle diversity, mixing state, and organic volume fraction between seasons, mostly due to dry intrusion events during winter, as well as between the sampling locations of the MBL and FT. These differences are also reflected in the temperature and humidity conditions under which water uptake, immersion freezing (IMF), and deposition ice nucleation (DIN) proceed. Identified INPs reflect typical particle types within the particle population on the samples and include sea salt, sea salt with sulfates, and mineral dust, all associated with organic matter, as well as carbonaceous particles. IMF and DIN kinetics are analyzed with respect to heterogeneous ice nucleation rate coefficients, Jhet, and ice nucleation active site density, ns, as a function of the water criterion Δaw. DIN is also analyzed in terms of contact angles following classical nucleation theory. Derived MBL IMF kinetics agree with previous ACE-ENA ground-site INP measurements. FT particle samples show greater ice nucleation propensity compared to MBL particle samples. This study emphasizes that the types of INPs can vary seasonally and with altitude depending on sampling location, thereby showing different ice nucleation propensities, which is crucial information when representing mixed-phase cloud and cirrus cloud microphysics in models.
Fluctuations in Inner-Core Structure during the Rapid Intensiﬁcation of Super Typhoon

: The key physical processes responsible for inner-core structural changes and associated ﬂuctuations in the intensiﬁcation rate for a recent, high-impact western North Paciﬁc tropical cyclone that underwent rapid intensiﬁcation [Nepartak(2016)]areinvestigatedusingaset ofconvection-permittingensemblesimulations.Fluctuationsintheinner-core structurebetweenringlikeandmonopolestatesdevelopin60%ofsimulations.Atangentialmomentumbudgetanalysisofa single ﬂuctuation reveals that during the ringlike phase, the tangential wind generally intensiﬁes, whereas during the monopole phase, the tangential wind remains mostly constant. In both phases, the mean advection terms spin up the tangentialwindintheboundarylayer,whereastheeddyadvectiontermsdeepenthestorm’scyclonic circulationbyspinning up the tangentialwindbetween1.5 and 4 km.Calculationsof the azimuthally averaged,radiallyintegratedverticalmassﬂux suggest that periods of near-constant tangential wind tendency are accompanied by a weaker eyewall updraft, which is unable to evacuate all the mass converging in the boundary layer. Composite analyses calculated from 18 simulations produce qualitatively similar results to those from the single case, a ﬁnding that is also in agreement with some previous observational and modeling studies. Above the boundary layer, the integrated contribution of the eddy term to the tangential wind tendency is over 80% of the contribution from the mean term, irrespective of inner-core structure. Our results strongly indicate that to fully understand the storm’s three-dimensional evolution, the contribution of the eddies must be quantiﬁed.
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS WORKING PAPER SERIES Specification Tests for Time-Varying Coefficient Panel Models

This paper provides a nonparametric test for the commonly-used structure, the homogeneity and stability, on the parameters in panels. We first get the augmented residuals by estimating the model under the null hypothesis of homogeneity and stability, then run auxiliary time series regressions of residuals on the regressors with time-varying coefficients via sieve methods. The test statistic is constructed by averaging the squared fitted values, which is close to zero under the null and deviates from zero under the alternative. We show that the test statistic, after being appropriately standardized, is asymptotically normally distributed under the null and a sequence of Pitman local alternatives as both cross-sectional and time dimensions tend to infinity. A bootstrap procedure is proposed to improve the finite sample performance of our test. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that our test performs reasonably well in finite samples. We apply the test to study the Environmental Kuznets Curve in U.S. and reject the homogeneity and stablility of the coefficients for all states. In addition, we extend the procedure to test other structures such as the homogeneity of time-varying coefficients or the stability of heterogeneous coefficients.
Place Your Locks Well: Understanding and Detecting Lock Misuse Bugs

Modern multi-threaded software systems commonly leverage locks to prevent concurrency bugs. Neverthe-less, due to the complexity of writing the correct concurrent code, using locks itself is often error-prone. In this work, we investigate a general variety of lock mis-uses. Our characteristic study of existing CVE IDs reveals that lock misuses can inﬂict concurrency errors and even severe security issues, such as denial-of-service and memory corruption. To alleviate the threats, we present a practical static analysis framework, namely L OCK - PICK , which consists of two core stages to effectively detect misused locks. More speciﬁcally, L OCKPICK ﬁrst conducts path-sensitive typestate analysis, tracking lock-state transitions and interactions to identify sequential typestate violations. Guided by the preceding results, L OCKPICK then performs concurrency-aware detection to pinpoint various lock misuse errors, effectively reasoning about the thread interleavings of interest. The results are encouraging — we have used L OCKPICK to uncover 203 unique and conﬁrmed lock misuses across a broad spectrum of impactful open-source systems, such as OpenSSL, the Linux kernel, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, FFmpeg, Apache HTTPd, and FreeBSD. Three exciting results are that those conﬁrmed lock misuses are long-latent, hiding for 7.4 years on average; in total, 16 CVE IDs have been assigned for the severe errors uncovered; and L OCKPICK can ﬂag many real bugs missed by the previous tools with signiﬁcantly fewer false positives.
Global strong solution for viscous incompressible heat conducting Navier–Stokes flows with density-dependent viscosity

We study an initial boundary value problem for the nonhomogeneous heat conducting fluids with non-negative density. First of all, we show that for the initial density allowing vacuum, the strong solution exists globally if the gradient of viscosity satisfies [Formula: see text]. Then, under certain smallness condition, we prove that there exists a unique global strong solution to the 2D viscous nonhomogeneous heat conducting Navier–Stokes flows with variable viscosity. Our method relies upon the delicate energy estimates and regularity properties of Stokes system and elliptic equation.
A UAV-based sampling systems to analyse greenhouse gases and volatile organic carbons compounds encompassing compound specific stable isotope analysis

The study herein reports on the development and testing of sampling systems (and subsequent analytical setups) 10 that were deployed on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the purpose of analysing greenhouse gases (GHGs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the lower atmospheric boundary layer. Two sampling devices, both of which can be mounted to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a payload capability greater than one kg, were tested for respective sampling and analysis of GHGs (carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 )) and VOCs (chlorinated ethenes (CE)). The gas analyses included measurements of the molar amounts and the respective stable carbon isotope ratios.The study herein reports on the 15 development of two sampling devices and the subsequent analytical setup for the sampling and analysis of atmospheric trace gases. Both samplers can be mounted to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the targeted compounds were greenhouse gases (e.g. CO 2 , CH 4 ) and volatile organic compounds (VOC, i.e. chlorinated ethenes), for all compounds mole fraction and the stable carbon isotope ratio were measured.
Mechanisms in Open Innovation

A large body of literature explores the role of context, structure, actors, and outcomes of open innovation (OI), yet pays little attention to the mechanisms underlying these relationships. In this review paper, we synthesize the OI literature using a context-mechanism-outcome approach to identify and classify the various mechanisms observed in empirical OI studies. Our findings demonstrate that the OI literature draws on a wide variety of mechanisms originating from the fields of management, sociology, economics, and psychology. The fifteen mechanisms most frequently observed in the literature fall into four categories: governance and policies; environmental dynamics and interactions; knowledge, skills, and capabilities; and learning by doing. Moreover, by examining the levels of analysis of these mechanisms, we observe substantial differences in how these mechanisms operate at the individual, project, firm, network, and society level. Finally, we identify various avenues for future research arising from our synthesis of the literature.
Exploring Personality and Stress during Communication Delays in Simulated Spaceflight Missions

To date, there are no studies exploring how an individual’s unique personality profile predicts their response to the stresses and challenges of communication delays on Long Duration Exploration Missions (LDEMs). When exploring astronaut selection for future LDEMs, the Big Five personalities have been identified as a relevant model of personality and one of the preferred models among NASA scientists. This study examined whether personality predicts stress levels when experiencing communication delays during simulated spaceflight missions. A predictive correlational design explored the relationship between personality and stress levels while experiencing a 2-minute one-way communication delay during a simulated Mars mission. Personality included the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) and locus of control (LOC). Stress levels were reflected by the difference in stress (DS) scores measured using a stress Visual Analog Scale (VAS). There were significant relationships between conscientiousness and extraversion, both of which were significant predictors of DS scores. LOC was also significantly associated with DS scores. Conscientiousness and extraversion predicted stress when experiencing communication delays. LOC was also identified as a predictor of stress levels. These findings benefit the characterization of crew selection and composition of future spaceflight teams. They also promote a multi-trait, multi-method approach to astronaut selection.
The Role of Organizational Commitment, Organizational Culture and Compensation for Performance in Mediating of Organizational Citizenship Behavior Family Planning Educators in Lumajang Regency

-Employees are an important pillar in achieving the company's goals fully. Benchmark of organizational success can be seen from the performance of employees. Employee performance means employee productivity and output as a result of employee optimization, and will ultimately affect the growth and development of the organization. Good performance can be achieved through high organizational commitment, good organizational culture, and appropriate compensation through organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of employees. Many studies have been conducted examining the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and performance. However, some things have not shown success and there are research gaps. The research results have a big influence on employee performance appraisal. Lumajang Regency Government tries to measure employee performance from organizational commitment, organizational culture, and compensation of each employee through organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as an intervention. This decision making is based on existing theory. Even the role of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) which is expected to be able to make family planning extension workers in Lumajang Regency better than other regions that have achieved their goals.
Near-Field Radar Microwave Imaging as an Add-on Modality to Mammography

Additional information available chapter Abstract According to global statistics, there is a high incidence of cancer in western countries; and, due to the limited resources available in most health care systems, it seems like one of the most feasible options to fight against cancer might be strict prevention policies — such as eliminating carcinogens in people ’ s daily lives. Nevertheless, early cancer detection and effective treatment are still necessary, and understanding their efficacy and limitations are important issues that need to be addressed in order to ultimately enhance patients ’ survival rate. In the case of breast cancer, some of the problems faced by conventional mammography have been addressed in the literature; they include high rate of false-positive and false-negative results, as well as the possibility of overdiagno- sis. New technologies, such as digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), have been able to improve the sensitivity and specificity by using 3D imaging. However, the low contrast (1%) existing between tumors and healthy fibroglandular tissue at X-ray frequencies has been identified as one of the main causes of misdiagnosis in both conventional 2D mammography and DBT. Near-field radar imaging (NRI) provides a unique opportu-nity to overcome this problem, since the contrast existing between the aforementioned tissues is intrinsically higher (10%) at microwave frequencies. Moreover, the low resolution and highly complex scattering patterns of microwave systems can be enhanced by using prior information from other modalities, such as the DBT. Therefore, a multimodal DBT/NRI imaging system is proposed to exploit their individual strengths while mini- mizing their weaknesses. In this work, the foundation of this idea is reviewed, and a preliminary design and experimental validation of the NRI system, used as a DBT complement, is introduced. breast screening. Near-field radar imaging (NRI), as a cheap and safe modality, has the potential to alleviate the problem of low contrast inasmuch as the aforementioned tissues show more contrast at microwave frequencies. Founded on this observation, an NRI mechatronic system, compatible with the DBT, was developed to be used as an auxiliary diagnosis tool, in a co-registered manner. The performance of the NRI component of this system was experimentally evaluated in a near-ideal case, and the achieved results showed its capability in imaging a strong scatterer in a homogenous medium. Computational results were also carried out, showing the efficacy of the bimodal system to detect tumors surrounded by fibroglandular tissue. It was also shown, through specific absorption rate analysis, that the radiation of the implemented antennas is safe for humans, according to the standards. Our next step in this exciting work is to pilot the hybrid DBT/NRI system using more realistic phantoms, as well as human patients.
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ROLE OF PACKAGING DESIGN ELEMENTS ON PERCEIVED VALUE AND PRICE FAIRNESS: A MODERATING EFFECT OF AGE

Packaging design is a crucial tool for strengthening product competitiveness among both in-store and online marketing. Companies are paying attention to improving competitiveness by taking advantage of logos, colors, graphics, and appropriate textual messages on packaging, with an aim to raise their market share relative to other competitors. For tourism entrepreneurs, a well-designed package is a crucial part of the marketing strategy. This can help them to stand out in a crowded market, communicate their local product message, and increase the likelihood of tourists’ decisions to buy. The key purpose of this paper is to bridge a research gap in souvenir packaging design literature by investigating the causal relationships between the souvenir package design elements and perceived value, concerning price fairness and willingness to purchase food-related souvenirs. Data were gathered from a total of 402 respondents to investigate the causal relationships through Structural Equation Modeling analysis (SEM). The findings and implications may make valuable contributions for tourism entrepreneurs and souvenir packaging designers, in establishing the purchasing intentions of new and existing customers, and expanding the knowledge of visual package design theory in the souvenir industry.
Teaching laser-induced fluorescence of plant leaves

Plants convert carbon dioxide into sugars using the energy of sunlight. Absorbed light unused for conversion is dissipated primarily as heat with a small fraction re-emitted as fluorescence at longer wavelengths. One can use the latter to estimate photosynthetic activity. The illumination of intact leaves with strong light after keeping them in dark for tens of minutes results in a rapid increase followed by a slow decay of fluorescence emission from the fluorophore chlorophyll-a, called the Kautsky effect. This paper describes a laboratory practice that introduces students of physics or engineering into this research field. It begins with the spectral measurement of the fluorescence emitted by a plant leaf upon UV excitation. Then it focuses on the red and far-red components of the fluorescence emission spectrum characteristic to the chlorophyll-a molecule and presents an inexpensive demonstration of the Kautsky effect. As researchers use more complex measurement techniques and tools, the practice ends up with the demonstration of an intelligent fluorosensor, a compact tool developed for plant physiological research and horticulture applications together with a brief interpretation of some important fluorescence parameters.