Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of corporate financial performance relating to board characteristics of corporate governance in Indian manufacturing industry: An empirical study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine if certain board characteristics have an impact on the financial performance of manufacturing firms in India. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on data from 275 firms listed in NSE during from 2011 to 2015, using a multiple regression model. The present study examines the effect of board characteristics such as board size, CEO duality, independence and board activity devoted to the effectiveness of firms performance regarding market and accounting based financial performance measures. Findings The finding supports an inverse association between the extent of board characteristics and the firms’ performance indicators. The study also finds a statistically significant negative relationship between board size and Tobins Q, ROA and ROE. The evidence also shows that the board independence and meeting frequency moderate the relationship between return on equity and return on assets by enhancing these measures among corporate governance mechanisms. Research limitations/implications The present study does not include all possible board characteristics, i.e., large shareholders dominance on the board and promoter’s and institutional shareholding, to support firm’s performance. Further research might include the ownership structure of the board to improve firm’s performance. Originality/value The study focuses on the corporate governance issues such as size, duality, independence and activity of the boards and their influence on firm performance. The subject analyzes the possible impact of board characteristics and firm-related features that have received much attention from academic research, which has largely focused on studying the publications of corporate governance in India and Asian context.
Impact of gender on mall shopping in India

This study explores mall-shopping habits in India and attempts to identify and contrast possible differences between genders using a sample of 770 mall consumers across Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. The primary purpose of the study was to explore the possibility that there are gender differences in mall shopping attitude and behavior. The study indicates that, overall, women have a more positive attitude towards mall shopping. Though female respondents spend more time at the mall than the male respondents, there is no significant difference between male and female shoppers regarding frequency of visiting a mall and spending money at the mall. Malls seem to be popular destinations to purchase clothes, footwear and accessories for both men and women. Footwear and accessories also seem to be popular purchases. But there is no significant difference between male and female shoppers regarding spending more frequently on clothes and fashion. But the identification of both in terms of their attitude and shopping orientation dimensions can assist malls in designing promotional themes and the demographic characteristics can facilitate the selection of media vehicles.
Cross border banking: Pull-push effects of parent banks on subsidiaries' credit extensions

This study contributes to the analysis of cross border banking behavior in CESEE (Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe). It detects potential transmission channels from parent to subsidiary banks based on a newly constructed database (323 banks operating in the region and 84 parent banks over the period 2000-2014), which allows for the identification of ultimate ownership over time. On the whole, we find that subsidiary banks provide an extra boost to credit growth at the domestic level. However we detect that domestic and subsidiary banks contracted credit similarly after the financial crisis. Moreover, subsidiaries' ability to extend credit is dependent on home country macroeconomic and financial conditions as well as parent banks' characteristics such as asset quality. Finally, an excessive credit expansions coupled with reductions of capital ratios at the parent bank level jeopardizes subsidiaries' lending capacity. Our findings call for home and host actors to continue to foster cross-border coordination and dialogue.
Spreading fuzzy random forests with MapReduce

Random forests are currently considered among the most accurate and efficient classifiers. Moreover, recently fuzzy implementations of random forests have been proposed to exploit the ability of fuzzy decision trees to cope with uncertain data. Whenever the size of training sets grows substantially, as it happens in the case of Big Data, ordinary implementations of classifiers become inadequate, and fuzzy random forests make no exception. In this paper, we consider a method, which generates fuzzy partitions of the continuous attributes along the decision tree learning, and we propose a distributed implementation of fuzzy random forests based on this method. The implementation relies on the MapReduce programming model and the Apache Hadoop framework. It is shown that such a model can easily accommodate an effective distribution strategy for the computation, yielding good scalability figures. The novel distributed algorithm makes fuzzy random forests able to deal with extremely large data sets, both in the learning and in the classification phases, thus fostering its applicability in the modern scenario of increasingly frequent data deluges.
Identification of Alkaloids from Hippeastrum aulicum (Ker Gawl.) Herb. (Amaryllidaceae) Using CGC-MS and Ambient Ionization Mass Spectrometry (PS-MS and LS-MS)

Amaryllidaceae alkaloids are well-known isoquinolines which have demonstrated a wide range of biological activities such as antiviral, anticancer, acetylcholinesterase inhibition, antimalarial, among others. Mass spectrometry (MS) studies based on capillary gas chromatography (CGC), paper spray (PS), and leaf spray (LS) ionization were carried out for alkaloid investigation of the native Brazilian species Hippeastrum aulicum, along with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. Thirty-one alkaloids were identified including the new compound haemanthamine N-oxide. The results from PS- and LS-MS techniques were consistent with those observed in CGC-MS analysis. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first study combining NMR, CGC-MS and the ambient ionization-mass spectrometry (PS- and LS-MS) on Amaryllidaceae plants.
Xenopus Vasa Homolog XVLG1 is Essential for Migration and Survival of Primordial Germ Cells

Xenopus vasa-like gene 1 (XVLG1), a DEAD-Box Helicase 4 (DDX4) gene identified as a vertebrate vasa homologue, is required for the formation of primordial germ cells (PGCs). However, it remains to be clarified when and how XVLG1 functions in the formation of the germ cells. To gain a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying XVLG1 during PGC development, we injected XVLG1 morpholino oligos into germ-plasm containing blastomeres of 32-cell stage of Xenopus embryos, and traced cell fates of the injected blastomere-derived PGCs. As a result of this procedure, migration of the PGCs was impaired and the number of PGCs derived from the blastomeres was significantly decreased. In addition, TUNEL staining in combination with in situ hybridization revealed that the loss of PGCs peaked at stage 27 was caused by apoptosis. This data strongly suggests an essential role for XVLG1 in migration and survival of the germ cells.
Pesticides, Sexual Development, Reproduction, and Fertility: Current Perspective and Future Direction

ABSTRACT Improvements in chemical analytical technology and non-invasive sampling protocols have made it easier to detect pesticides and their metabolites at very low concentrations in human tissues. Monitoring has revealed that pesticides penetrate both maternal and paternal reproductive tissues and organs, thus providing a pathway for initiating harm to their offspring starting before fertilization throughout gestation and lactation. This article explores the literature that addresses the parental pathway of exposure to pesticides. We use DDT/DDE as a model for chemicals that oftentimes upon exposure have no apparent, immediate health impacts, or cause no obvious birth defects, and are seldom linked with cancer. Their health effects are overlooked because they are invisible and not life threatening—but might have significant health, social, and economic impacts at the individual and population levels. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the necessity to develop new approaches for determining the safety of pesticides and the need for innovative regulatory policy to protect human and environmental health.
The 7 th International Conference on Ambient Systems , Networks and Technologies ( ANT 2016 ) Link Prediction Based on Common-Neighbors for Dynamic Social Network

Link prediction is an important issue in social networks. Most of the existing methods aim to predict interactions between individuals for static networks, ignoring the dynamic feature of social networks. This paper proposes a link prediction method which considers the dynamic topology of social networks. Given a snapshot of a social network at time t (or network evolution between t1 and t2 ), we seek to accurately predict the edges that will be added during the interval from time t (or t2) to a given future time t′. Our approach utilizes three metrics, the time-varied weight, the change degree of common neighbor and the intimacy between common neighbors. Moreover, we redefine the common neighbors by finding them within two hops. Experiments on DBLP show that our method can reach better results. c © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of the Conference Program Chairs.
Association of RNA with the uracil‐DNA‐degrading factor has major conformational effects and is potentially involved in protein folding

Recently, a novel uracil‐DNA‐degrading factor protein (UDE) was identified in Drosophila melanogaster, with homologues only in pupating insects. Its unique uracil‐DNA‐degrading activity and a potential domain organization pattern have been described. UDE seems to be the first representative of a new protein family with unique enzyme activity that has a putative role in insect development. In addition, UDE may also serve as potential tool in molecular biological applications. Owing to lack of homology with other proteins with known structure and/or function, de novo data are required for a detailed characterization of UDE structure and function. Here, experimental evidence is provided that recombinant protein is present in two distinct conformers. One of these contains a significant amount of RNA strongly bound to the protein, influencing its conformation. Detailed biophysical characterization of the two distinct conformational states (termed UDE and RNA–UDE) revealed essential differences. UDE cannot be converted into RNA–UDE by addition of the same RNA, implying putatively joint processes of RNA binding and protein folding in this conformational species. By real‐time PCR and sequencing after random cloning, the bound RNA pool was shown to consist of UDE mRNA and the two ribosomal RNAs, also suggesting cotranslational RNA‐assisted folding. This finding, on the one hand, might open a way to obtain a conformationally homogeneous UDE preparation, promoting successful crystallization; on the other hand, it might imply a further molecular function of the protein. In fact, RNA‐dependent complexation of UDE was also demonstrated in a fruit fly pupal extract, suggesting physiological relevance of RNA binding of this DNA‐processing enzyme.
Implementation of Lean Manufacturing in Small and Medium Enterprises

The purpose of this keynote is to explore the difficulties experienced when implementing Lean Manufacturing in small and medium sized enterprises (SME). In this work, we design a dual evaluation focusing first on the key characteristics of SMEs then on the management principles of Lean Manufacturing. Based on an analysis of the scientific literature, we observe a number of conflicts between the characteristics point out for SMEs and Lean Manufacturing. The absence of functional organization, lack of methodology and deficiency of formal procedures are often the cause of difficulties experienced by SMEs during the implementation of Lean manufacturing. The examination of the literature show that the notions of leadership, expertise and decision-making are crucial when implementing Lean Manufacturing. However, in the framework of SMEs, these elements tends to be concentrated under the responsibility of the head of the enterprise, leading to several strengths and weaknesses for such implementation.
Microsatellite markers for the New Zealand endemic tree Fuchsia excorticata (Onagraceae)1

Premise of the study: Microsatellite markers were developed from a New Zealand endemic understory tree, Fuchsia excorticata, to investigate factors affecting the mating system. Methods and Results: Using 454 pyrosequencing, 48 microsatellite markers were developed and tested for polymorphism within populations. Twelve of these microsatellite loci were identified as being polymorphic within at least three populations and consistently amplified in the four populations tested. These primers amplified di-, tri-, and tetranucleotide repeats with 1–10 alleles per population. Conclusions: These results indicate the utility of microsatellite loci for future mating system and population genetic studies in F. excorticata.
Nonlinear Double-Integral Observer and Application to Quadrotor Aircraft

This paper presents a nonlinear double-integral observer based on finite-time stability. The proposed double-integral observer can estimate the onefold and double integrals of a signal synchronously, and the stability in time domain is analyzed. The merits of the presented double-integral observer include its finite-time stability, ease of parameter selection, sufficient stochastic noise rejection, and almost no drift phenomenon. The theoretical results are confirmed by the simulations and an experiment on a quadrotor aircraft: (1) the estimation of position and velocity from the acceleration measurement and (2) a control law is designed based on the double-integral observer to track a reference trajectory.
Unpacking Business Intelligence Systems Adoption Determinants: An Exploratory Study of Small and Medium Enterprises

While extant business intelligence systems (BIS) adoption research focused mainly on adoption of BIS in large-sized organizations, our understanding about the adoption determinants and the process within small and medium enterprises (SME) is still limited. The aim of our research is to identify SME-specific determinants of BIS adoption at firm level that will guide the development and testing of a BIS adoption framework in the milieu of SMEs. By leveraging semi-structured interviews involving BIS experts and adopters, and blending them with comprehensive IT/IS adoption literature we identified instrumental determinant candidates for delving deeper into BIS adoption in SMEs.
Probabilistic Multi-Agent Plan Recognition as Planning (P-Maprap): Recognizing Teams, Goals, and Plans from Action Sequences

We extend Multi-agent Plan Recognition as Planning (MAPRAP) to Probabilistic MAPRAP (P-MAPRAP), which probabilistically identifies teams and their goals from limited observations of on-going individual agent actions and a description of actions and their effects. These methods do not rely on plan libraries, as such are infeasibly large and complex in multi-agent domains. Both MAPRAP and P-MAPRAP synthesize plans tailored to hypothesized team compositions and previous observations. Where MAPRAP prunes teamgoal interpretations on optimality grounds, P-MAPRAP directs its search base on a likelihood ranking of interpretations, thus effectively reducing the synthesis effort needed without compromising recognition. We evaluate performance in scenarios that vary the number of teams, agent counts, initial states, goals, and observation errors, assuming equal base-rates. We measure accuracy, precision, and recall online to evaluate early stage recognition. Our results suggest that compared to MAPRAP, P-MAPRAP exhibits improved speed and recognition accuracy.
Back from oblivion? The rise and fall of the early initiatives against corporate tax avoidance from the 1960s to the 1980s

Tax havens and tax avoidance have gathered much interest, e.g., in the United Nations (UN) negotiations on the post-2015 development goals. The analyses of initiatives against corporate tax avoidance typically focus on developments from the mid-1990s onward. This article shows that contrary to the common perception, the country-by-country reporting initiative and many of the other contemporary policy responses had already been developed and discussed in the 1970s by the United Nations Commission and Centre for Transnational Corporations. I demonstrate how the weakening of the policy community of the UN and the failure of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to refer to the earlier discussions, not only in the UN but also in the OECD, contributed to the passing into oblivion of these ideas. Other factors were the reframing of the UN work on multinational enterprises to human rights issues and the transformation of academic theories of the firm. The examples demonstrate how ideas shape world politics and how the oblivion of certain ideas can have concrete impacts on the power relations between its actors. The oblivion of the earlier debates paved the way for the triumph of more business-friendly discourses centred on the anti-corruption and corporate social responsibility arguments.
Multicast Cooperative Routing For Opportunistic Data Transfer in Mobile Ad Hoc Network

In wireless networks, especially in mobile ad hoc networks nodes are typically battery powered, and also networks are noisy and interference rich environment, so it is often slow downed by weak communication link. Hence in this research paper consider both physical layer cooperative communications in order to design network layer routing algorithms that are energy efficient. Let us consider cooperative diversity from the physical layer to improve the results from reliability, Routing at community layer, and formulate minimal power routing as a joint optimization of the transmission power at the bodily layer and the link selection at the network layer. The Efficiency of the Wi-Fi hyperlink may be growth by means of Multicasting through sending single reproduction of messages to all group members. Multicast transmission is a more effective mechanism when compared to unicasting,in terms of increased bandwidth, balanced traffic load, balanced power consumption, reduced delay between the days and robustness of data delivery.Here Nodes inside the network use a lightweight proactive source routing protocol to determine a listing of intermediate nodes that the information packets ought to follow en route to the vacation spot.In traditional unicast transmission can be picked by multiple nodes, but only one of them is the intended receiver (destination node or relay). If this node has did not acquire the transmission, the packet needs to be resent again. In effect, all nodes which have acquired the transmission that are toward the vacation spot than the transmitter may be relays, so it isn't always necessary to rely upon a particular node to forward the data in principle. This method can save a great deal of resources which are compared to old methods and considered in network protocol design, known as multipath cooperative routing techniques for Opportunistic data transfer between source and destination nodes. This is extension of unicast Opportunistic Cooperative Routing in Mobile Ad hoc Network (O-CORMAN) scheme. The proposed work display that a higher performance in phrases of throughput, energy, controls overhead when compared with unicast o-corman and also than existing non cooperative scheme.
Topical dose delivery in the reptilian egg treatment model

Developing assays to detect endocrine‐mediated toxicity from in ovo or in utero exposure is a current challenge in regulatory toxicology. Some species of reptiles exhibiting a unique mode of sex determination, in which the incubation temperature during a critical period determines gonadal sex, have been explored as an in ovo model to screen environmental contaminants for endocrine effects. We critically review published egg‐exposure studies and conclude that data regarding the pharmacokinetics of topically applied substances are insufficient to validate dose—response relationships for the effects of chemicals on in ovo endocrine function or gender determination in reptiles. The insufficiencies in these data largely result from methodological failures, including lack of measurement verification, failure to investigate and control extraneous factors affecting the measurements, and lack of independent replication of results. Considerable additional research will be necessary to alleviate these methodological inadequacies. Given the current status of the data, topical treatment of reptilian eggs cannot be considered to be a valid means of establishing causal relationships between chemical treatment and biological outcome.
Financial market imbalance: reasons and peculiarities of occurrence in Ukraine

Financial imbalance is the reason of a macroeconomic instability. This study aims at identifying the institutional causes of financial markets imbalance. The authors consider that financial intermediaries in Ukraine work in a speculative market segment carrying out high-risk transactions with the purpose of earning a huge profit. In fact, in Ukraine the role of these institutions in the investment process financing is insignificant. The authors show that soundness of banks along with the ease of access to loans and a low level of confidence in national banking system are the main reasons of instability in financial market in Ukraine. Due to scarcity of financial capacity and refusal to carry out transactions in a high-risk market segments, insurance companies are unable to entirely perform functions of risk redistribution. Competitiveness of Ukrainian financial market remains low with a limited financial services nomenclature and it may be considered to be attractive for potential foreign investors.
The Efficiency Comparative Evaluation of Logistics-IT Companies Using the Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

Development in the logistics industry has led Logistics-IT’s advancement. However, due to stagnating global economy, logistics industry and Logistics-IT have experienced difficulties. As a result, Logistics-IT companies seek ways to strengthen competitive advantage in order to respond to external environment. The resolution is to increase efficiency. However, increased efficiency of management involves measurement of the efficiency of input factor and output factor and through this measurement, inefficiency would be handled with. This study selects multi-input factor and multi-output factor and evaluates the technical efficiency (TE) and pure technical efficiency (PTE) to analyze the cause of inefficiency. In addition, it shows that inefficient companies benchmark efficient ones to set target value and conducts analysis of Scale Efficiency (SE) and Return to Scale (RTS). We have also conducted analysis of super efficiency to classify the ranking between the efficient companies. Through our study, we anticipate companies to improve and become efficient through comparative evaluation and benchmarking by setting target value.