Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Credit Invisibles and the Unscored

Having a credit record and a credit score can be an important determinant of credit access. Yet, surprisingly little is known about people who lack credit records or scores. This paper provides the first documented analysis of the characteristics of consumers without credit records, called "credit invisibles," and of consumers whose records are treated as "unscorable" by a widely used credit-scoring model. Our estimates suggest that 26 million adults, representing about 11 percent of the adult population, lack credit records. An additional 8.3 percent, or 19.6 million adults have credit records that are unscored. The incidence of having a credit record is not evenly distributed. Young, elderly, minority, and lower-income consumers are more likely to be credit invisible or have an unscored record. Additionally, our analysis finds that observable credit performance is not widely available for such consumers, which may hinder the ability of alternative data to expand credit access for these consumers.
Determinants of prices in an online marketplace

Purpose – Despite the availability of side‐by‐side price comparisons, online retailers often charge very different prices for the same product. The purpose of this paper is to identify the drivers of price differences in an online retail marketplace by examining pricing information from a sample of sellers in the market.Design/methodology/approach – An empirical, quantitative research study of Amazon Marketplace, using 498 observations of online sellers of a variety of electronics products was conducted. A regression analysis is employed to determine the drivers of these sellers' prices.Findings – The results provide a set of factors associated with deviation from the mean price Amazon Marketplace retailers charge for a given product. The authors find that online retailers that charge higher prices post additional channels of customer service, post their return policy, have lower reputation scores, display a retail brand logo, offer more products, and are not electronic specialists.Originality/value – The.
Identification of Candidate Odorant-Binding Protein and Chemosensory Protein Genes in Cyrtorhinus lividipennis (Hemiptera: Miridae), a Key Predator of the Rice Planthoppers in Asia

Abstract Cyrtorhinus lividipennis Reuter (Hemiptera: Miridae) is an important predatory natural enemy of planthopper and leafhopper eggs in Asian rice paddy fields. Cyrtorhinus lividipennis is known to rely largely on herbivore-induced plant volatiles to identify eggs embedded in rice stem tissues for feeding and on pheromones for mating. However, exactly how C. lividipennis decode these chemical information is unclear. In most insects, the odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) and the chemosensory proteins (CSPs) are essential for seeking out food resources and mates. In this study, we identified 10 OBP and 5 CSP genes in C. lividipennis and investigated their expression patterns in various tissues of adult males and females by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Six OBP genes (ClivOBP1, 2, 4, 6, 9, and 10) were mainly expressed in the male antennae, whereas three genes (ClivOBP3, ClivOBP7, and ClivOBP8) had high expression in the female antennae. ClivCSP1 was predominantly expressed in the male antennae. These findings suggest that most ClivOBPs and ClivCSPs are likely involved in food-searching behavior. The recognition of the pheromone molecules provides the basis for further functional studies on the chemoreception system of C. lividipennis.
Employing information communication technologies to enhance qualitative international marketing enquiry

Purpose – Extant international marketing enquiry has been widely criticised for lacking scope and ambition. Typically, empirical investigations have involved single market studies employing quantitative methods and survey techniques. Consequently, researchers have been challenged to embrace greater methodological pluralism and broaden their geographical perspectives. This contribution posits that new information communication technologies (ICT), particularly the internet, can significantly improve the robustness of qualitative and mixed-method international marketing research. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes and evaluates the application of ICT in a recent cross-national enquiry into rapidly internationalising small firms. Online sources were used to gather information on 218 internationalising small firms, in Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. An e-mail instrument was then administered to verify this data and address information gaps, resulting in 143 usable responses, evenly distributed across locations. Key emerging themes were identified and a representative sub-sample of 53 firms was selected for further in-depth investigation via face-to-face interviews with CEOs. Findings – The authors contend that such technologies can help to refine sample identification and selection procedures, improve response rates and encourage greater respondent “buy-in” to depth interviews. They also lead to much more targeted lines of enquiry during depth interviews by identifying key research themes and issues, thus enhancing the depth and richness of the insights obtained. Originality/value – The paper concludes that novel ICT-enabled research approaches as described herein are particularly effective because, compared to conventional survey methods, they are more user friendly and better received by subjects.
A Unified Treatment of Horizontal Direct Investment, Vertical Direct Investment, and the Pattern of Trade in Goods and Services

This paper contributes to research endogenizing multinational firms in general-equilibrium trade models. We attempt to integrate separate contributions on horizontal multinationals which produce the same final product in multiple locations, with work on vertical multinationals, which geographically fragment production by stages. Previously derived results now emerge as special cases of a more general model. Vertical multinationals dominate when countries are very different in relative factor endowments. Horizontal multinationals dominate when the countries are similar in size and in relative endowments, and trade costs are moderate to high. In some cases, foreign investment or trade liberalization leads to a reversal in the direction of trade. Investment liberalization can also lead to an increase in the volume of trade and produces a strong tendency toward factor-price equalization. Thus direct investment can be a complement to trade in both a volume-of-trade sense and in a welfare sense.
Genotoxicity testing: Moving beyond qualitative “screen and bin” approach towards characterization of dose‐response and thresholds

For more than 40+ years, genotoxicity data have been interpreted in a qualitative, binary mode; a chemical is considered either positive or negative for a response in the test system. Although dose–response information is sometimes used in this decision, it is not routine to obtain the amount of information needed to inform risk assessment, for example to determine no‐observed‐genotoxic‐effect‐levels, primarily due to the historical view of genotoxic responses as “linear, no‐threshold. ” Only recently have researchers begun to address this issue through robust experimental designs and application of statistical models. A growing body‐of‐evidence supports the existence of response thresholds for a number of mutagenic agents, in vitro and in vivo. Clearly, simple observation of a “hockey‐stick” dose–response curve is not sufficient to establish a threshold. Collection of robust empirical data must be supported with an analysis of biological plausibility for the observed threshold. In this context, a chemical‐specific mode‐of‐action (MOA) approach, which identifies key events responsible for the observed mutagenic effect, is extremely valuable. Biomarkers of key events, providing qualitative and quantitative information, can be integrated in a weight‐of‐evidence‐based assessment of genotoxicity data from multiple test systems and used to identify data gaps to resolve/reduce uncertainties during the risk assessment process. To this end, specific recommendations on study design and data analysis are proposed. As the Environmental Mutagen Society celebrates its 40th anniversary, the field of genetic toxicology is marking a milestone on the path to a new paradigm, using a MOA, data‐driven approach to answer questions about thresholds for genotoxic agents. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. , 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Economic complexity and location of foreign firms in China

This paper uses a unique dataset covering 1998 to 2007 to evaluate the impact of economic complexity on the location of foreign direct investment in China. Results show that the amount of knowledge embedded in an industry is a key determinant to attract FDI. The findings also confirm the presence of agglomeration economies and this effect is more likely for non chinese foreign firms. The results are robust to different alternatives in the location decision, different sub-sample, to the inclu-sion of control variables such as those for industry linkages and others traditional determinants of FDI attraction.
Autoregressive Features for a Thought-to-Speech Converter

This paper presents our investigations towards a non-invasive custom-built thought-to-speech converter that decodes mental tasks into morse code, text and then speech. The proposed system is aimed primarily at people who have lost their ability to communicate via conventional means. The investigations presented here are part of our greater search for an appropriate set of features, classifiers and mental tasks that would maximise classification accuracy in such a system. Here Autoregressive (AR) coefficients and Power Spectral Density (PSD) features have been classified using a Support Vector Machine (SVM). The classification accuracy was higher with AR features compared to PSD. In addition, the use of an SVM to classify the AR coefficients increased the classification rate by up to 16.3% compared to that reported in different work, where other classifiers were used. It was also observed that the combination of mental tasks for which highest classification was obtained varied from subject to subject; hence the mental tasks to be used should be carefully chosen to match each subject.
M‐loyalty: winning strategies for mobile carriers

Purpose – This study aims to investigate determinants of satisfaction and loyalty decisions in the use of mobile services.Design/methodology/approach – A research model was designed to identify multi‐dimensions of mobile service quality and perceived value, and investigate their influences on satisfaction and loyalty. Structural equation modeling was employed to test hypotheses.Findings – Statistical analysis identified five distinct dimensions of mobile service quality, and their direct and indirect effects on economic value, emotional value on loyalty intention through satisfaction. Two dimensions of perceived value (i.e. economic value, emotional value) had significant influences on customer satisfaction, and then, on loyalty intention. Also, the results show interrelationship between economic and emotional value.Originality/value – In particular, each dimension of mobile service quality appeared to have different effects on perceived economic value, emotional value, and the level of satisfaction. Acco.
Photonic microwave filter with negative coefficients based on WDM techniques

A novel photonic microwave filter based on multiple optical carriers and a dispersive medium which allows the implementation of filters with negative coefficients is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Negative coefficients are obtained using a differential detection scheme. The architecture allows the synthesis of photonic microwave filters using conventional digital filter design procedures and using mass-market optical devices.
Constraint BasedWorld Modeling

Common approaches for robot navigation use Bayesian filters like particle filters, Kalman filters and their extended forms. We present an alternative and supplementing approach using constraint techniques based on spatial constraints between object positions. This yields several advantages. The robot can choose from a variety of belief functions, and the computational complexity is decreased by efficient algorithms. The paper investigates constraint propagation techniques under the special requirements of navigation tasks. Sensor data are noisy, but a lot of redundancies can be exploited to improve the quality of the result. We introduce two quality measures: The ambiguity measure for constraint sets defines the precision, while inconsistencies are measured by the inconsistency measure. The measures can be used for evaluating the available data and for computing best fitting hypothesis. A constraint propagation algorithm is presented.
Aggregated condition scores bridging the gap between property management and asset management

Asset management and property management should be based on objective, reliable information about the performance of buildings and building components. Technical data collected during a condition survey on-site is needed for strategy formulation and for maintenance planning of each estate. Supplementary technical information is needed for the detailed planning and executing of maintenance work. In 2006 a Dutch Standard for Condition Assessment will be introduced. Well-trained building inspectors should be able to provide property managers with objective, reliable information about performance loss and defects of building components. Maintenance managers can exercise control over the maintenance performance levels and maintenance costs. Several housing associations want to use the condition data for their asset management too. Aggregated condition data will be used for setting condition targets for assets and for benchmarking. For benchmarking purposes the condition data could be linked to the figures of the Aedex/IPD Social Housing Property Index. A first analysis of aggregated condition data and maintenance costs of housing estates indicates that the relationship of these facts is not univocal. Aggregated condition marks as well as maintenance costs should be seen as independent indicators for the technical state of housing estates. In this way the data should be used in asset management. Introduction Gruis and Nieboer (2004) describe the main characteristics of strategic housing management and, making a comparison with commercial real estate management, discriminate between strategic portfolio management, asset management and operational property management. Asset management for the residential portfolio is concerned with
A Duality Approach for Solving Control-Constrained Linear-Quadratic Optimal Control Problems

We use a Fenchel duality scheme for solving control-constrained linear-quadratic optimal control problems. We derive the dual of the optimal control problem explicitly, where the control constraints are embedded in the dual objective functional, which turns out to be continuously differentiable. We specifically prove that strong duality and saddle point properties hold. We carry out numerical experiments with the discretized primal and dual formulations of the problem, for which we implement powerful existing finite-dimensional optimization techniques and associated software. We illustrate that by solving the dual of the optimal control problem, instead of the primal one, significant computational savings can be achieved. Other numerical advantages are also discussed.
The Emergence of Simple Business Models on the World Wide Web

This research project began with the objective of obtaining a deeper understanding of the conduct of business on the Internet. Research regarding the overall performance of business on the Web has been limited due to several constraining factors. Firstly, the shear size, volume, and perceived complexity of business on the Web made it an imposing target for research. Secondly, the interdisciplinary nature of the field had an initial dampening effect on research activity. Kuhn (1962) describes this phenomenon as the insufficiency of methodological directives. He writes (p. 3) ‘Instructed to examine electrical or chemical phenomena, the man who is ignorant of these fields but who knows what it is to be scientific may legitimately reach any one of a number of incompatible conclusions. Among those legitimate possibilities, the particular conclusions he does arrive at are probably determined by his prior experience in the other fields’. Thirdly, academic interest in Web businesses was somewhat diminished by the bursting of the dot com bubble during 2000-2001 as evidenced by the fact that many academic programs in electronic commerce have been discontinued or significantly reduced (Featherstone, Ellis & Borstorff 2004). Lastly, methodological issues arose which limited the application of previously available sampling methods. The impact of this meant that drawing representative samples of websites in order to examine business behaviour became a more complex endeavour. As a result, many fundamental questions regarding business on the Web have remained unanswered. For example, there has been no clear answer to the question of what new business models, if any, are evolving within the Web environment. What is the role of entrepreneurship employing the Web? What are the key elements or mechanisms driving business expansion in the Web? Some have suggested that Web use necessitates greater business cooperation than may be necessary in the non-virtual world. Is there evidence that this is so? This thesis addresses these questions. It accomplishes this by reducing the function of business on the Internet to its simplest element, the domain name, and by employing innovative methodologies to explore the business environment of the Web. Using Complexity and Network Theories as a contextual framework , and based upon a review of existing literature, this thesis develops a series of propositions regarding both the conduct and attributes of Web business, and proceeds to present evidence of confirmation or refutation of these propositions.
Malware detection by applying knowledge discovery processes to application metadata on the Android Market (Google Play)

Recent smartphone platforms based on new operating systems, such as iOS, Android, or Windows Phone, have been a huge success in recent years and open up many new opportunities. Unfortunately, 2011 also showed us that the new technologies and the privacy-related data on smartphones are also increasingly interesting for attackers. Especially, the Android platform has been the favorite target for malware, mainly because of the openness of the platform, the ability to install applications from other sources than the Android Market, and the significant gains in market share. Although the processes of detecting and analyzing malware are well known from the PC world, where the arms race between attackers and defenders has continued for the past 15years, they cannot be directly applied to smartphone platforms because of differences in the hardware and software architectures. In this paper, we first give an overview of the current malware situation on smartphone platforms with a special focus on Android and explain relevant malware detection and analysis methods. It turns out that most of the current malware relies on the installation by the user, who represents the last line of defense in malware detection. With these conclusions, we then present a new malware detection method that focuses on the information that the user is able to see prior to the installation of an application-the metadata within the platform's software market. Depending on the platform, this includes the application's description, its permissions, the ratings, or information about the developer. To analyze these data, we use sophisticated knowledge discovery processes and lean statistical methods. By presenting a wide range of examples based on real application metadata extracted from the Android Market, we show the possibilities of the new method. With the possibilities, we argue that it should be an essential part of a complete malware analysis/detection chain that includes other well-known methods such as network traffic analysis, or static, or dynamic code inspection. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Adaptive control of a time-varying rotary servo system using a fuzzy model reference learning controller with variable adaptation gain

The constant parameters in a conventional fuzzy controller lead to a poor performance for time-varying systems. In this study, a fuzzy model reference learning controller (FMRLC) with a newly defined variable adaptation gain is designed and implemented in the adaptive fuzzy control of a time-varying rotary servo (TVRS) system. In the design of the FMRLC, a knowledge-base modification algorithm with variable adaptation gain is used instead of a fuzzy relation table. Hence, it is provided that the learning and adaptation mechanism continuously updates the knowledge base of the adaptive fuzzy controller against any parameter variations, such as changing loads. By means of the learning and adaptation mechanism, the TVRS system behaves as a defined reference model in the desired performance in time. The initial parameters of the FMRLC are easily determined by trial and error because of the variable adaptation gain. Using the designed controller, the adaptive fuzzy control of the TVRS system performs successfully in the simulation and practical implementation. The simulation of the system is executed in a MATLAB-Simulink environment and the practical application is implemented in a Quanser Q3 experimental servo module based on MATLAB-Simulink. The simulation and experimental results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control structure.
Determinant Attributes in Retail Patronage: Seasonal, Temporal, Regional, and International Comparisons

Determinants of retail patronage were identified and compared in a series of analyses of covariance of multinomial logit parameters. These parameters, estimated from random samples drawn from six North American and European markets over a seven-year period, revealed insignificant seasonal changes in a single market, significant changes in a single market over the seven years, and significant differences between markets and across cultures.
Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Asiatic Acid Derivatives as Inhibitors of Glycogen Phosphorylases

Twenty-four asiatic acid derivatives have been synthesized and biologically evaluated as inhibitors of glycogen phosphorylase (GP). Within this series of compounds, asiatic acid benzyl ester (23; IC(50)=3.8 microM) exhibited more potent activity than its parent compound 1 (IC(50)=17 microM). SAR Analysis showed that asiatic acid (1) possessing a 2alpha-OH function exhibited more potent GP inhibitory activity than eriantic acid B (27) which possesses a 2beta-OH function. Further lead optimization based on 1 is needed to find more effective asiatic acid derivatives as antidiabetic agents with protective effects against ischemic diabetic complications.