Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stock Return, Volatility And The Global Financial Crisis In An Emerging Market: The Nigerian Case

This paper investigated the relation between stock returns and volatility in Nigeria using E-GARCH-in-mean model in the light of banking reforms, insurance reform, stock market crash and the global financial crisis. Using daily returns over the period 4 January 2004 to January 9, 2009, Volatility persistence, asymmetric properties and riskreturn relationship are investigated for the Nigerian stock market. The result also shows that volatility is persistent and there is leverage effect supporting the work of Nelson (1991) . The study found little evidence on the relationship between stock returns and risk as measured by its own volatility. The study found positive but insignificant relationship between stock return and risk. The result shows the banking reform in July 2004 and stock market crash since April 2008 negatively impacts on stock return while insurance reform and the global financial crisis have no impact on stock return. The stock market crash of 2008 is found to have contributed to the high volatility persistence in the Nigerian stock market especially during the global financial crisis period. The stock market crash is also found to have accounted for the sudden change in variance.
Novel maximum-power-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion system

A novel maximum-power-point-tracking (MPPT) controller for a photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion system is presented. Using the slope of power versus voltage of a PV array, the proposed MPPT controller allows the conversion system to track the maximum power point very rapidly. As opposed to conventional two-stage designs, a single-stage configuration is implemented, resulting in size and weight reduction and increased efficiency. The proposed system acts as a solar generator on sunny days, in addition to working as an active power line conditioner on rainy days. Finally, computer simulations and experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed technique.
Job Creation in America: How Our Smallest Companies Put the Most People to Work

Explores how jobs are created and destroyed in the United States. Data is derived from 12 million business establishments studied since 1969. Results show that the business population as a whole is extremely turbulent, meaning millions of companies form every year, and a significant portion experience growth -- especially small firms. An era of innovation is on the rise, stemming from a small number of high tech and high-innovation firms that are leading the service industries of the United States. The economies of Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom are studied as well, and are found to exhibit strikingly different characteristics from the US, based on differing cultural values; consequently, change will evolve slowly. The spatial implications of the innovation revolution are discussed, and predictions are made for future areas of economic growth. Conclusions show that the US worker must be willing to seek opportunities, acquire knowledge that is valuable across industries, and adapt to multiple jobs and the career shifts that necessarily accompany turbulent, innovation-based markets. (CJC)
Acceleration of starvation- and glycerol-induced myxospore formation by prior heat shock in Myxococcus xanthus

The effect of heat shock on Myxococcus xanthus was investigated during both glycerol- and starvation-induced development. Cells heat shocked at 40 degrees C for 1 h prior to a development-inducing signal displayed an accelerated rate of myxospore formation at 30 degrees C. Additionally, M. xanthus cells heat shocked prior to glycerol induction formed a greater total number of myxospores when sporulation was complete than did control cells maintained at 30 degrees C. However, in starvation-induced fruiting cells the total number of myxospores in control and heat-shocked populations was about equal when fruiting body and myxospore formation was complete. When extended heat shock (3 h) was applied to cells prior to development, no acceleration of myxospore formation was observed. Heat shock elicited the premature expression of many developmentally regulated proteins. Cell fractionation and analysis by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and fluorography revealed the subcellular location and molecular weights of the 18 glycerol-induced and 9 starvation-induced developmental proteins. Comparison with previously identified M. xanthus heat shock proteins showed that nine of the developmental proteins found in glycerol-induced cells and three of the developmental proteins found in starvation-induced cells were heat shock proteins. Furthermore, heat shock increased the activity of alkaline phosphatase, a developmentally regulated enzyme, in vegetative cells, glycerol-induced cells, and starvation-induced cells.
New Results on Robust Model Predictive Control for Time-Delay Systems with Input Constraints

This paper investigates the problem of model predictive control for a class of nonlinear systems subject to state delays and input constraints. The time-varying delay is considered with both upper and lower bounds. A new model is proposed to approximate the delay. And the uncertainty is polytopic type. For the state-feedback MPC design objective, we formulate an optimization problem. Under model transformation, a new model predictive controller is designed such that the robust asymptotical stability of the closed-loop system can be guaranteed. Finally, the applicability of the presented results are demonstrated by a practical example.
DNA damage foci: Meaning and significance

The discovery of DNA damage response proteins such as γH2AX, ATM, 53BP1, RAD51, and the MRE11/RAD50/NBS1 complex, that accumulate and/or are modified in the vicinity of a chromosomal DNA double‐strand break to form microscopically visible, subnuclear foci, has revolutionized the detection of these lesions and has enabled studies of the cellular machinery that contributes to their repair. Double‐strand breaks are induced directly by a number of physical and chemical agents, including ionizing radiation and radiomimetic drugs, but can also arise as secondary lesions during replication and DNA repair following exposure to a wide range of genotoxins. Here we aim to review the biological meaning and significance of DNA damage foci, looking specifically at a range of different settings in which such markers of DNA damage and repair are being studied and interpreted. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 56:491–504, 2015. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Membrane Currents Influencing Action Potential Latency in Granule Neurons of the Rat Cochlear Nucleus

Granule cells are the most numerous neurons in the cochlear nucleus, but, because of their small size, little information on their membrane properties and ionic currents is available. We used an in vitro slice preparation of the rat ventral cochlear nucleus to make whole‐cell recordings from these cells. Under current clamp, some granule neurons fired spontaneous action potentials and all generated a train of action potentials on depolarization (threshold current, 10–35 pA). Hyperpolarization increased the latency to the first action potential evoked during a subsequent depolarization. We examined which voltage‐gated currents might underlie this latency shift. In addition to a fast inward Na+ current, depolarization activated two outward potassium currents. A transient current was rapidly inactivated by membrane potentials positive to ‐60 mV, while a second, more slowly inactivating current was observed following the decay of the transient current. No hyperpolarization‐activated conductances were observed in these cells. Modelling of the currents suggests that removal of inactivation on hyperpolarization accounts for the increased action potential latency in granule cells. Such a mechanism could account for the ‘pauser’‐type firing patterns of the fusiform cells which receive a prominent projection from the granule cells in the dorsal cochlear nucleus.
Responding to Student Writing

This paper examines written teacher feedback on selected student papers in an attempt to analyze underlying attitudes embedded in the response episodes. In the past, writing theories have emphasized writing as a fixed and linear process of transferring thoughts on paper. As a consequence, teacher feedback reflected these pedagogical principles by treating texts as fixed and finished products. Today, despite the dawn of more process-oriented theories, teacher feedback remains largely product- and form-oriented. While there is a genuine attempt to communicate effectively with the students, such communication is usually hindered by vague, opinionated and negative comments that obstruct student-teacher relationships. In the end, this paper underscores the need for greater self-reflection in order to address the question, “Why do we give the kind of responses that we give, for whose purpose and for what intention? ”
Age Management – a Coping Strategy for Employers. The Case of the Automotive Industry

Globalisation and the ageing of the work force represent a dual challenge for enterprises. The first exerts pressure on production costs in order to stay competitive, the second raises production costs as the productivity of workers tends to decline after a certain age, particularly for unskilles and semiskilled workers involved in heavy physical work and where seniority-pay regimes apply. This paper looks at coping strategies of an enterprise in the automotive industry in Austria. It shows to what extent innovative and flexible organisation of work may ensure the survival of the production site in a highly developed economy, and what role public institutions play, in particular wage policy, retirement regulations and labour market policies, to keep older workers in employment. Austrian car manufacturing is a particularly interesting case as the option of outsourcing challenges the viability of Austrian production sites.
A User Centred Approach for Bringing BCI Controlled Applications to End-Users

In the past 20 years research on BCI has been increasing almost exponentially. While a great deal of experimentation was dedicated to offline analysis for improving signal detection and translation, online studies with the target population are less common. Although BCIs are also developed for entertainment and thus potentially for healthy users, the main focus for BCI applications that are aiming at communication and control are people with severe motor impairment. There is a great need for translational studies that test BCI at home with the target population. Further, long-term studies with users in the field are required to improve reliability of BCI control. The user centred approach appears suitable to foster such studies.
Cardiovascular effects of human insular cortex stimulation

Recent investigations indicate a site of cardiac representation within the left insular cortex of the rat. Moreover, the results of lesion studies suggest left-sided insular dominance for sympathetic cardiovascular effects. It is unclear whether similar representation exists within the human insular cortex. Five epileptic patients underwent intraoperative insular stimulation prior to temporal lobectomy for seizure control. On stimulation of the left insular cortex, bradycardia and depressor responses were more frequently produced than tachycardia and pressor effects (p < 0.005). The converse applied for the right insular cortex. We believe this to be the first demonstration of cardiovascular changes elicitable during insular stimulation in humans, and of lateralization of such responses for a cortical site. In humans, unlike the rat, there appears to be right-sided dominance for sympathetic effects. These findings may be of relevance in predicting the autonomie effects of stroke in humans and in the explanation of sudden unexpected epileptic death.
Training bookcowgrass flower ? ? water sky doggrass water boat water chair road ? cow grass chair grass dog building ?

In the last few years, image classification has become an incredibly active research topic, with widespread applications. Most methods for visual recognition are fully supervised in nature, as they make use of bounding boxes or pixelwise segmentations to locate objects of interest. However, this type of manual labeling is typically time consuming and error prone. This paper proposes a weakly-supervised system for multi-label image classification. In this setting, training images are annotated with a set of keywords describing their contents, but the visual concepts are not explicitly segmented in the images. We formulate the weakly-supervised image classification as a matrix completion problem. Compared to previous work, our proposed framework has three advantages: (1) Unlike existing solutions based on multiple-instance learning methods, our model is convex. We propose two alternative algorithms for matrix completion based on a rank minimization criterion specifically tailored to visual data, and prove their convergence. (2) Unlike existing discriminative methods, our algorithm is robust to labeling errors, background noise and partial occlusions. (3) Our method can potentially be used for semantic segmentation. Experimental validation on several datasets shows that our method outperforms state-of-the-art classification algorithms, while effectively capturing each class appearance.
Behavioral compensatory adjustments to exercise training in overweight women.

Manthou, e. , J. M. R. Gill, a. Wright, and d. Malkova. Behavioral compensatory adjustments to exercise training in overweight women. Med. Sci. Sports exerc. , Vol. 42, No. 6, Pp. 1221-1228, 2010. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which changes in nonexercise physical activity contribute to individual differences in body fat loss induced by exercise programs. Methods: Thirty-four overweight or obese sedentary women (Age (Mean +/- sd) = 31.7 +/- 8.1 Yr, bmi = 29.3 +/- 4.3 Kg.M(-2)) Exercised for 8 wk. Body composition, total energy expenditure, exercise energy expenditure (Exee), Activity energy expenditure calculated as energy expenditure of all active activities minus exee, sedentary energy expenditure, sleeping energy expenditure, and energy intake were determined before and during the last week of the exercise intervention. Results: Over the 8-wk exercise program, net exee was 30.2 +/- 12.6 Mj, and on the basis of this, body fat loss was predicted to be 0.8 +/- 0.2 Kg. For the group as a whole, change in body fat (-0.0 +/- 0.2 Kg) Was not significant, but individual body fat changes ranged from -3.2 To +2.6 Kg. Eleven participants achieved equal or more than the predicted body fat loss and were classified as "Responders," And 23 subjects achieved less than the predicted fat loss and were classified as "Nonresponders. " In the group as a whole, daily total energy expenditure was increased by 0.62 +/- 0.30 Mj (P < 0.05), And the change tended to be different between groups (Responders = +1.44 +/- 0.49 Mj, nonresponders = +0.29 Perpendicular to 0.36 Mj, p = 0.08). Changes in daily activity energy expenditure of responders and nonresponders differed significantly between groups (Responders = +0.79 +/- 0.50 Mj, nonresponders = -0.62 +/- 0.39 Mj, p < 0.05). There were no differences between responders and nonresponders for changes in sedentary energy expenditure and sleeping energy expenditure or energy intake. Conclusion: Overweight and obese women who achieved lower than predicted fat loss during an exercise intervention were compensating by being less active outside exercise sessions
THE UNIVERSITY AND THE ANALYSIS OF THE INTERNET TOPICS

In the relationship between technology and education, and its application in the enterprise, the Internet topics and the brands is an object of innovative study, which is developing positioning tools thanks to the Social Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Marketing (SMM). In this sense, the Universitat Abat Oliba CEU (UAO) in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) leads a research and a think tank about topics in the Internet, an innovative project and experience with the collaboration of the students. Internet and his micro spaces more inclined to the interactivity (social networks, forum, chat.) are establishing new formulae of relation and communication between the University, the enterprise and the user. The advent of an enormous quantity of social networks and digital mass media promotes the appearance of professional decisive figures in the context of the Broadband Society. The community manager or the community recorder, whose aim consists of tracing the Internet comments or conversations that appear about the enterprise, try to improve the brand image and to reinforce the topics and the key words (tags) that they define to the University or the enterprise. It infers better and major presence in the seekers, more commercial possibilities and more generation of comments (positive or negative ones) in the virtual environment. In fact, the task to develop is established in two levels: to determine clearly the key words of the enterprise or the University (or the products or services which are throwing to the market) and, later, to monitor and to follow the comments that the users could realize in the diverse virtual platforms. In a new dynamics of business, the managerial investment in marketing in the social media justifies itself from diverse points of view. This way, the digital consumer already is active, involved and producer of contents (prosumer); the emotional links enterprise-consumer are major, by means of conversations and interactions with the brands; the social media are progressive and exponential and possess an unpublished viral effect (the key indicators grow of exponential form); and the corporate website yields protagonist to the social media, since the content must move to the user, and not upside-down as traditional age.
Corporate governance in Vietnam : a system in transition

This paper looks at the development of company law and corporate governance in Vietnam – a transitional economy in South East Asia. It argues that corporate governance is a newly introduced concept but has become increasingly important in Vietnam, especially by the introduction of the new company legislation in 2005. 1. The Historical Background of Vietnamese Company Law and Corporate Governance Historical influences have the potential to leave their mark on corporate governance practices and the development of a corporate governance system. 2 Before considering the existing Vietnamese corporate governance system, it is necessary to understand the history of Vietnamese company law and its corporate governance law regimes. The historical development of company law and corporate governance law regimes in Vietnam can be divided into three stages: the period of French colonization, the period 1945-1990, and, since 1990 up to the present. By a brief examination of the historical development of company law and corporate governance regimes in Vietnam, this section of the paper comes to three fundamental conclusions. First, the history of Vietnamese company law is dominated by legal borrowings. Second, the contemporary corporate governance law regime is partly shaped by the past. Last, politics were 1 As to the development of company law in Vietnam, see Bui Xuan Hai, Vietnamese Company Law: The Development and Corporate Governance Issues, Bond Law Review, Australia, (2006) Vol. 18(1); 2 Sir Adrian Cadbury, 'Foreword' in Thomas Clarke (ed), Theories of Corporate Governance: the Philosophical Foundations of Corporate Governance (2004) ix; Lucian Arye Bebchuk and Mark J. Roe, ‘A Theory of Path Dependence in Corporate Ownership and Governance’ in Jeffrey N. Gordon and Mark J. Roe, Convergence and Persistence in Corporate Governance (2004) 69, 69.
Hedonistic pricing models and the valuation of intangible assets

This thesis investigates the use of hedonic pricing models to value intangible assets that are owned by firms. This novel approach falls within the neoclassical methodology for the valuation of financial assets, and extends the framework by ordering an alternative methods by which assets may be compared. The firms performance, as measured by reported financial data and embodied in the DuPont ratios of the firm, is used to derive the characteristics of intangible assets. The shadow prices of these characteristics are estimated and used to derive a market-related value for the intangible assets. The empirical results support using this approach to value intangible assets.
Leveraging Social Networks to Develop Radically New Products

In this article, the authors consider the nexus of social networks and radically new products. These new products are so innovative that they forge new product categories, and social networks might be particularly fruitful in their development, dissemination, and help to foster growth and acceptance. Several social networks concepts are brought to bear on these issues, from the class diffusion model, to current considerations of lead users and emerging ideas about crowdsourcing. In particular, the classic diffusion model provides parameters to reflect innovative consumer behavior, and it is suggested that, in complement to studies that seek customer traits to identify innovators, social network concepts and indices of degree, betweenness, and closeness centrality are very well suited in identifying customers embedded in social networks whose relational ties are indicative of their likely influence and stature. Next, lead users are considered in the specific context of health care, and it is suggested that online forums provide numerous benefits to customer patients as well as opportunities to health-care providers. Next, the dynamics of social networks are considered as they apply to cutting-edge ideas about crowdsourcing, movements that companies are exploring to be radically open to customer feedback and suggestions. This article closes with an example of a novel appeal that bridges social networks and radically new products—the challenge of solving societal difficulties, from food scarcity, to environmental pollutants, to weather patterns, to discovering treatments for cancer or other medical conditions.