Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of Mortgage Protection Insurance Take-up

The aim of this paper is to identify the factors which affect the take-up of Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance (MPPI), to estimate the sensitivity of take-up to changes in determinants. The paper finds that: (1) MPPI premiums have a negative but marginal effect on take-up; (2) the probability of being unemployed has a positive effect: a 10 per cent rise in the probability resulting in a 3 per cent increase in take-up; (3) the local male unemployment rate has a positive effect on take-up (around 1 per cent increase in take-up for every 10 per cent rise in the male unemployment rate); (4) there is likely to be a pro-cyclical element in the take-up rate, but the variation is substantially damped compared with the volatility of the unemployment cycle; and (5) ISMI cover was found to have a negligible negative effect on take-up (a 10 per cent fall in ISMI would cause a 0.3 per cent rise in take-up), an effect that could not be statistically distinguished from zero.
Protecting the unprotected: mixed-method research on drug use, sex work and rights in Pakistan’s fight against HIV/AIDS

Objectives: To investigate the nature and extent of human rights abuses against three vulnerable groups (injecting drug users (IDUs) and male and female sex workers), to understand the social and sexual linkages between them and to examine how protecting their rights could enhance the impact of HIV prevention policies. Methods: In-depth interviews were carried out with 38 high-risk respondents (IDUs and female, male and transgender sex workers) and a bio-behavioural survey was performed of 813 IDU/sex worker respondents in Rawalpindi. Results: People in all vulnerable groups interacted both sexually and socially. All groups experienced human rights abuses by state and non-state actors which increased their HIV risk. Non-state actors, including relations and sex worker clients, are responsible for verbal, physical and sexual violence. State actors (particularly police) perpetrate harassment, exploitation and abuse of all vulnerable groups with impunity. Health service providers fail to provide adequate services for vulnerable groups. Conclusions: High levels of discrimination and abuse of human dignity of all groups studied were revealed. This violates their physical and mental integrity and also leads to an increased risk of HIV. The sexual and social interactions between groups mean that human rights abuses experienced by one high-risk group can increase the risk of HIV both for them and other groups. The protection of human rights needs to become an integral part of a multisector response to the risk of HIV/AIDS by state and non-state agencies. The Government of Pakistan should work at both legal and programme levels to protect the rights of, and minimise discrimination against, groups vulnerable to HIV in order to reduce the potential for the spread of HIV before the epidemic takes hold.
Elongation factor 4 remodels the A-site tRNA on the ribosome

Significance Many protein factors interact with the ribosome during protein synthesis. Elongation factor 4 (EF-4/LepA) is a widely distributed and highly conserved translational GTPase for which several physiological roles have been proposed. Despite this, the function of EF-4 remains unknown. We have determined a high-resolution crystal structure of the ribosome bound to EF-4 in its GTP-bound state and A-, P-, and E-site tRNAs. Notably, EF-4 induces a distinct conformation of the tRNA bound in the A site, which deviates substantially from that of a canonical A-tRNA. EF-4 interacts with both helical domains of the A-site tRNA, indicating that EF-4 recognizes the L-shaped conformation of tRNA. Our results provide insights into the tRNA remodeling capacity of EF-4 on the ribosome. During translation, a plethora of protein factors bind to the ribosome and regulate protein synthesis. Many of those factors are guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases), proteins that catalyze the hydrolysis of guanosine 5′-triphosphate (GTP) to promote conformational changes. Despite numerous studies, the function of elongation factor 4 (EF-4/LepA), a highly conserved translational GTPase, has remained elusive. Here, we present the crystal structure at 2.6-Å resolution of the Thermus thermophilus 70S ribosome bound to EF-4 with a nonhydrolyzable GTP analog and A-, P-, and E-site tRNAs. The structure reveals the interactions of EF-4 with the A-site tRNA, including contacts between the C-terminal domain (CTD) of EF-4 and the acceptor helical stem of the tRNA. Remarkably, EF-4 induces a distortion of the A-site tRNA, allowing it to interact simultaneously with EF-4 and the decoding center of the ribosome. The structure provides insights into the tRNA-remodeling function of EF-4 on the ribosome and suggests that the displacement of the CCA-end of the A-site tRNA away from the peptidyl transferase center (PTC) is functionally significant.
Performance of Government-Linked Firms Listed on Two Stock Exchanges of the United Arab Emirates: An Empirical Study

In the United Arab Emirates, the government holds ownership in 48 percent of all stock exchange-listed firms. However, prior evidence does not make clear whether the government linkage of a company via ownership holding is good or bad for the firm's performance. We propose two hypotheses. The agency hypothesis holds that government ownership negatively affects firm performance. The support hypothesis postulates that government ownership helps a firm to improve performance. Using a sample of 114 companies, we find that the government-linked companies (GLCs) have better accounting results than do the companies that are not linked to the government (non-GLCs), yet the GLCs are undervalued in the financial market. Subsample analyses reveal that the best accounting results are those of the GLCs in which the government holds 20 to 50 percent of the ownership. If the government takes control of a company by holding more than 50 percent ownership, the accounting results are not improved, yet, unlike other GLCs, these GLCs are overvalued.
Agroenvironmental management system - a technique for increasing the natural value of agroecosystems

Agriculture in the Czech Republic plays an important role in the degradation of individual components of the environment. Reduction of soil fertility, contamination of surface- and groundwater, reduction of biodiversity and damage caused by it are proven. Th e agrarian landscape does not provide the appropriate ecosystem functions. It is not attractive for life of the inhabitants of rural areas, and the permeable landscape attractive for investors. It is also not permeable and attractive for investors. Th e farmers are off ered applicable and functional techniques, technologies and procedures. Th ese are not used and exploited in an appropriate rate. Based on the analysis of business environment, there was found that the reason is the absence of the agroenvironmental management system in operative management of agricultural subjects. For the need of the possible implementation of the appropriate system into practice, there was developed a branch standard and subsequently a methodology for the application of agro-environmental management system on the basis of a general tool for environmental management. Th e methodology was developed, then implemented and tested under the conditions of a concrete farm. Before the implementation of requirements, there were established environmental indicators which were evaluated before and after the introduction of the proposed system. Th e results of the subsequent monitoring of the chosen environmental indicators of environmental status confi rmed the functionality and accuracy of the developed man- agement tool that can also be seen as the best available technique for the implementation of the current and prepared agri- cultural policy.
The evolutionary process of IT concept words: A case study on bigdata

In information technology (IT), new concept words appear every few years and affect the business environment. In several cases, the core technologies and architectures have remained the same despite minor changes in concepts. For example, grid computing is the forerunner of cloud computing and bigdata is now regarded as a part of the Internet of Things (IoT). The trend in concept words reveals an evolutionary pattern. In this study, we applied a text mining approach to analyze all the articles published in several popular IT magazines in the period of 2002-2015. This analysis revealed a gap between cloud computing and bigdata in the evolutionary process of IT concept words. An evolutionary model was identified that reached cloud computing, indicating that another episode of evolution might start from bigdata. We focused our analysis on the evolution of previous major concept words and examined emerging concepts, which reveal a trend from a human-oriented to a machine-oriented world; the former world is characterized by advancements in social networking and the latter is based on advancements in artificial intelligence. As a result of this analysis, we can determine a turning point in concept evolution, i.e., the change from computing series to data centric. Understanding this phenomenon facilitates detailed interpretation of concept evolution.
Price manipulation in a market impact model with dark pool

ABSTRACT For a market impact model, price manipulation and related notions play a role that is similar to the role of arbitrage in a derivatives pricing model. Here, we give a systematic investigation into such regularity issues when orders can be executed both at a traditional exchange and in a dark pool. To this end, we focus on a class of dark-pool models whose market impact at the exchange is described by an Almgren–Chriss model. Conditions for the absence of price manipulation for all Almgren–Chriss models include the absence of temporary cross-venue impact, the presence of full permanent cross-venue impact and the additional penalization of orders executed in the dark pool. When a particular Almgren–Chriss model has been fixed, we show by a number of examples that the regularity of the dark-pool model hinges in a subtle way on the interplay of all model parameters and on the liquidation time constraint. The paper can also be seen as a case study for the regularity of market impact models in general.
The use of conjunctival ultraviolet autofluorescence (CUVAF) as a biomarker of time spent outdoors

Conjunctival ultraviolet autofluorescence (CUVAF) has been used in previous Southern Hemisphere myopia research as a marker for time spent outdoors. The validity of CUVAF as an indicator of time spent outdoors is yet to be explored in the Northern Hemisphere. It is unclear if CUVAF represents damage attributed to UV exposure or dry eye. This cross‐sectional study investigated the association between CUVAF measures, self‐reported time spent outdoors and measures of dry eye.
Multidimensional filtering for movement analysis in image sequences

Movement analysis of visual scenes can be performed by means of linear multidimensional filters, that have already been analyzed in the past. While soundness of results was convincing, interest in those systems declined due to the reduced computational abilities of contemporary computers. Modern hardware allows realization of velocity filters, if the n-D system is carefully adapted to the analysis problem. Fundamental principles of visual scene analysis by linear multidimensional filters are examined with respect to possible sources of degradation. Extraction of movement information and its practical use is demonstrated for application in a blind spot warning system for an automotive driver assistance system. It should be emphasized that in this paper all filtering operations are done in the frequency domain, i.e. realization of transfer functions is not in the scope of this work.
Cross Cultural Service Gap Analysis: Comparing SERVQUAL Customers and IPA Mystery Shoppers

This study employs SERVQUAL and mystery shopping using importance performance analysis side-by-side in restaurants in two different countries. Pre- and post-dining surveys were completed with eight data sets analyzed. By incorporating mystery shopping, the importance performance analysis (IPA) results demonstrated that the objective quality of services provided is very similar in both countries and the perceived quality is higher with the IPA method. SERVQUAL negative gaps were observed indicating quality deficiencies more often in Poland, perhaps indicating a lower quality of services there. The SERVQUAL method compliments the IPA method showing important service quality gaps. Using both methods reduces weaknesses.
Exploring the relationship between investor sentiment and price volatility

By performing Grey relation analysis, this study elucidates the relationship between investor sentiment and price volatility in the Taiwanese stock market. A sequential relationship is identified between investor sentiment and price volatility, and ranked according to order of importance. Analytical results show that short sales volumes may be an individual leading indicator useful in observing the effects of sentiment on price volatility, followed by open interest put/call ratios and trading volumes, and buy/sell orders. Institutional investors are related, to a lesser extent, to price volatility and sentiment. Qualified foreign institutional investors, or more rational investors, are the least influenced by price volatility, followed by securities investment trust companies and dealers. TAIEX options exert the strongest influence on sentiment during the study period, making them a valuable reference for gauging price volatility.
Economic reforms, business groups and changing pattern of distribution of profitability across corporate firms in India: a semi-parametric analysis

This article applies the semi-parametric method to analyse the effects of economic reforms and some other factors on changes in the distribution of profitability of corporate firms in India. Comparing the two post-reform years (1994 and 2010) with the pre-reform year (1990), we observe a rightward shift in the distribution of profitability implying an across-the board increases in profitability of all firms after reforms. Two factors that explain the change are changes in interaction between capital structure and business group-affiliation, and changes in other firm characteristics such as size, age, growth opportunities and market share, which played the major role in explaining the changes in distribution of profitability of firms measured in terms of Tobin's q as well as Return On Assets (ROA). Two firm characteristics, namely size and market share, played a major role in explaining the changes in distribution of profitability of firms measured in terms of ROA but not in terms of Tobin's q. Our most important finding is that, profitability has increased both in the business group-affiliated firms and the stand-alone firms. Thus, our findings infer that, encouraging business group-affiliation is not necessarily a remedy to improve firm performance in an emerging market like India.
PFO “angioplasty”: The preparation of a very stiff and long tunnel for device closure

Patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure is a widely performed procedure. Understanding the anatomy is mandatory in order to perform the procedure successfully. The degree of overlap between the septum primum and secundum is called the tunnel. In particular, long and stiff tunnels may prevent the correct positioning of devices that have a fixed distance between the right and left atrial discs.
New track correlation algorithms in a multisensor data fusion system

In order to resolve the problem of track-to-track association in a distributed multisensor situation, this paper presents independent and dependent sequential track correlation algorithms based on Singer's and Bar-Shalom's algorithms. Based on sequential track correlation algorithm, the restricted and attenuation memory track correlation algorithms and sequential classic assignment rules are proposed. In this paper, these algorithms are described in detail. Then, the track correlation mass and multivalency processing methods are discussed as well. Finally, simulations are designed to compare the correlation performance of these algorithms with that of Singer's and Bar-Shalom's algorithms. The simulation results show that the performance of these algorithms proposed here is much better than that of the classical methods under the environments of dense targets, interfering, noise, track cross, and so on. Under the above situations, their correct correlation ratio is improved about 69 percent over the classical methods
Computerized data‐driven interpretation of the intrapartum cardiotocogram: a cohort study

Continuous intrapartum fetal monitoring remains a significant clinical challenge. We propose using cohorts of routinely collected data. We aim to combine non‐classical (data‐driven) and classical cardiotocography features with clinical features into a system (OxSys), which generates automated alarms for the fetus at risk of intrapartum hypoxia. We hypothesize that OxSys can outperform clinical diagnosis of “fetal distress”, when optimized and tested over large retrospective data sets.
Elaboration of novel image processing algorithm for arcing discharges recognition on HV polluted insulator model

Insulator flashover under pollution is one of the most important problems for power transmission. Occurrence of flashover is preceded by discharges propagation. This paper is dedicated to monitor discharges activity through arcing discharges pattern recognition using a combination of efficient image processing and classification algorithms. Images are extracted from recorded videos of flashover process over a plane model insulator under various contamination levels. Then, an algorithm is proposed and tested over a large image database. This algorithm processes in four stages. First, Otsu image segmentation algorithm is initially applied on images. Next, morphological filtering by combining erosion and dilation operations is computed to eliminate unwanted noises such as light reflections on the insulator model. Afterwards, connected components on filtered image are labelled enabling the calculations of four important morphological indicators consisting in the number of the connected labeled components (Nl) and the number of pixels, the length and the width of the largest connected component region (Np, L and W respectively). These indicators characterize different properties of discharges activity and are used as an input of three well know classification algorithms (Knn, Naïve Bayes, Support Vector Machines) to distinguish between the presence or not of arcing discharges on the insulator surface. This paper introduces image processing as an efficient and fast tool for discharges activity analysis and insulator flashover monitoring. The proposed methodology dispenses the heavy instrumentations and tedious processing of conventional laboratory tests.
Configuring the neighbourhood effect in irregular cellular automata based models

ABSTRACT Cellular automata (CA) models have been widely employed to simulate urban growth and land use change. In order to represent urban space more realistically, new approaches to CA models have explored the use of vector data instead of traditional regular grids. However, the use of irregular CA-based models brings new challenges as well as opportunities. The most strongly affected factor when using an irregular space is neighbourhood. Although neighbourhood definition in an irregular environment has been reported in the literature, the question of how to model the neighbourhood effect remains largely unexplored. In order to shed light on this question, this paper proposed the use of spatial metrics to characterise and measure the neighbourhood effect in irregular CA-based models. These metrics, originally developed for raster environments, namely the enrichment factor and the neighbourhood index, were adapted and applied in the irregular space employed by the model. Using the results of these metrics, distance-decay functions were calculated to reproduce the push-and-pull effect between the simulated land uses. The outcomes of a total of 55 simulations (5 sets of different distance functions and 11 different neighbourhood definition distances) were compared with observed changes in the study area during the calibration period. Our results demonstrate that the proposed methodology improves the outcomes of the urban growth simulation model tested and could be applied to other irregular CA-based models.
Insider Trading, Earnings Quality, and Accrual Mispricing

This paper investigates whether insider trading is informative about earnings quality and the valuation implications of accruals. We show that (1) the one‐year‐ahead persistence of income‐increasing accruals is significantly lower when accompanied by abnormal insider selling and greater when accompanied by abnormal insider buying; (2) the accrual mispricing phenomenon observed in previous work (e.g., Sloan 1996) is due to the mispricing of income‐increasing accruals; (3) one‐year‐ahead hedge returns to trading strategies based on the direction of accruals and insider trading significantly exceed those based on accruals alone; and (4) the lower persistence of income‐increasing accruals accompanied by abnormal insider selling appears to be at least partly attributable to opportunistic earnings management. Our evidence suggests that market participants and researchers can use managers' contemporaneous trading in ex ante assessing the likelihood that the firms' accruals are of high or low quality, and in asse.
Knowledge and Attitude, the Two Major Barriers to ICT Adoption in LDC are the Opposite Side of a Coin; An Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh

Information Communication Technology (ICT) adoption in the least developed countries (LDC) suffers from complex socio- cultural problems, where lack of knowledge and attitude towards ICT are the major stumbling blocks for ICT adoption in the public sector of Bangladesh. This empirical study was carried out through a quantitative survey across 352 government and non-government participants to investigate inter-relationship between these two factors. The result shows strong correlation amongst them, which further suggests that ICT skill, one of the components of ICT knowledge is potentially a strong driver to change the typical attitude and mindset towards ICT in the context of LDC. The findings have important implications in practice as well as research, which are expected to contribute in future direction of research and also in the effort to solve the complex puzzle of ICT adoption in developing country context.
Effect of minimizing input capacitance in VSI-based renewable energy source converters

Most of single or three-phase converters used in interfacing renewable energy sources (RES) to the power grid originate from VSI-based topologies. A common practice is to connect a capacitor between the RES and the VSI switch matrix to filter the pulsating current drawn by the converter. When a converter is supplied by a RES, one is usually interested in controlling the converter input voltage for maximal power transfer. The VSI incorporates a RHP-zero in its control-to-output transfer function when the operating point is moved from the constant voltage to constant current region of the source. The frequency of the zero can be given based on the input capacitance, voltage and current. The RHP-zero will turn into a RHP-pole in the input voltage control loop, which leads to constraints between the capacitor sizing and control system design. This paper gives scientific insight into the capacitor sizing and control design, of which the latter is often ignored in the analyses but is an essential part of interfacing RES into the grid.