Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CEO characteristics and frequency of share repurchases

This study investigates whether companies repurchase shares to improve EPS and whether the characteristics of chief executive officer (CEO) play a significant role in the share repurchase frequency in Malaysian non financial companies. Based on robust profit regression using 274 observations of Malaysian actual share repurchase events between 2006 to 2010, we find significant evidence that companies frequently repurchase shares in an attempt to smooth reporting earnings.We also find that CEO duality, CEO expertise and CEO tenure can greatly influence the frequency of share repurchase events.The idea that managers utilize share repurchases to smooth earnings is quite worrying as it could potentially result in unfavorable implications for the company's long-run performance.
How Bad is a Bad Loan? Distinguishing Inherent Credit Risk from Inefficient Lending (Does the Capital Market Price this Difference?)

We develop a novel technique to decompose banks’ ratio of nonperforming loans to total loans into three components: first, a minimum ratio that represents best-practice lending given the volume and composition of a bank’s loans, the average contractual interest rate charged on these loans, and market conditions such as the average GDP growth rate and market concentration; second, a ratio, the difference between the bank’s observed ratio of nonperforming loans, adjusted for statistical noise, and the best-practice minimum ratio, that represents the bank’s proficiency at loan making; third, a statistical noise. The best-practice ratio of nonperforming loans, the ratio a bank would experience if it were fully efficient at credit-risk evaluation and loan monitoring, represents the inherent credit risk of the loan portfolio and is estimated by a stochastic frontier technique. We apply the technique to 2013 data on top-tier U.S. bank holding companies which we divide into five size groups. The largest banks with consolidated assets exceeding $250 billion experience the highest ratio of nonperformance among the five groups. Moreover, the inherent credit risk of their lending is the highest among the five groups. On the other hand, their inefficiency at lending is one of the lowest among the five. Thus, the high ratio of nonperformance of the largest financial institutions appears to result from lending to riskier borrowers, not inefficiency at lending. Small community banks under $1 billion also exhibit higher inherent credit risk than all other size groups except the largest banks. In contrast, their loan-making inefficiency is highest among the five size groups. Restricting the sample to publicly traded bank holding companies and gauging financial performance by market value, we find the ratio of nonperforming loans to total loans is on average negatively related to financial performance except at the largest banks. When nonperformance, adjusted for statistical noise, is decomposed into inherent credit risk and lending inefficiency, taking more inherent credit risk enhances market value at many more large banks while lending inefficiency is negatively related to market value at all banks. Market discipline appears to reward riskier lending at large banks and discourage lending inefficiency at all banks.
Customer Satisfaction Towards Islamic Banking in Saudi Arabia: An Application of CARTER Model

The purpose of this paper is to view the satisfaction level of customers of Islamic banks in Saudi Arabia through solicitation of the CARTER model. This study is expected to help practitioners predict the future of Islamic finance in Saudi Arabia while taking the overall response of customers into consideration. The paper presents primary data collected through a self-designed questionnaire on a five-point Likert scale from four regions of Saudi Arabia. ANOVA test was used to interpret the data collected on the basis of six dimensions of CARTER model. The results reveal that customers are satisfied with the working of Islamic finance as far as various dimensions of CARTER model are concerned. Of the six dimensions, a relatively lower rating was found with respect to compliance (the only dimension that makes Islamic banks different from conventional banks), indicating that Islamic banking institutions should pay due attention towards compliance dimension.
Reliability of Multicast Under Random Linear Network Coding

We consider a lossy multicast network in which the reliability is provided by means of random linear network coding. Our goal is to characterize the performance of such network in terms of the probability that a source message is delivered to all destination nodes. Previous studies considered coding over large finite fields, small numbers of destination nodes or specific, often impractical, channel conditions. In contrast, we focus on a general problem, considering arbitrary field size and number of destination nodes, and a realistic channel. We propose a lower bound on the probability of successful delivery, which is more accurate than the approximation commonly used in the literature. In addition, we present a novel performance analysis of the systematic version of RLNC. The accuracy of the proposed performance framework is verified via extensive Monte Carlo simulations, where the impact of the network and code parameters are investigated. Specifically, we show that the mean square error of the bound for a ten-user network can be as low as $9 \cdot 10^{-5}$ for non-systematic RLNC.
Neural respiratory drive measured during inspiratory threshold loading and acute hypercapnia in healthy individuals

• What is the central question of this study? The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between neural respiratory drive (NRD) measured as the electromyogram of the diaphragm (EMGdi%max) and parasternal intercostal muscles (sEMGpara%max) during two different ventilatory loading strategies, namely acute hypercapnia and inspiratory threshold loading. We hypothesized that, although agonist in nature, there would be a preferential increase in NRD to the diaphragm over the parasternal intercostal muscles during the two different loading conditions, given their different mechanical advantages and relative contributions to ventilation. • What is the main finding and its importance? The sEMGpara%max provides a non‐invasive alternative to EMGdi%max recorded using an invasive oesophageal electrode catheter for the quantification of NRD. The EMGdi%max was, however, consistently greater than sEMGpara%max during both loading protocols, demonstrating that these two measures of NRD are not interchangeable.
The Influence of Opinion Leaders towards Consumer Information Adoption in the Virtual Communities of Consumption

With the appearance and popularity of virtual communities of consumption, potential consumers begin to search for and share information with others in such kind of platforms and to be affected by the electronic word of mouth of certain products or services. Meanwhile, opinion leaders begin to exert influence on these individuals by helping them to filter, categorize and figure out the most valuable pieces of information. Consequently, how to utilize opinion leaders to affect consumer behavior by term of electronic word of mouth becomes one of the hottest topics in the relevant fields. This article utilizes the Information Adoption Model to study how opinion leaders exert influence on consumer information adoption process so as to provide implications about how to utilize opinion leaders in the virtual communities of consumption.
Intellectual Property Boxes and the Paradox of Price Discrimination

This paper considers the methods by which some existing laws and proposals offer different tax rates to different types of capital, a scheme variously known as a patent box, innovation box, or intellectual property box (IP box). It presents a model of international tax competition—what tax experts call a race to the bottom and competition experts call Bertrand competition—with some capital fixed and some easily moved across borders. The model finds that the highest expected tax revenue from mobile IP for a country hosting a large amount of fixed, non-IP capital comes from assigning a single tax rate to all types of capital—that is, from not implementing an IP box. In the context of Bertrand competition, firms optimize revenue when not engaging in price discrimination across types of customers. As a research and development (R&D) credit, several examples show that the IP box is more easily manipulated than a traditional credit on R&D expenses.
Task assignment to distributed teams based on a qualitative multi-criteria approach

The high growth of companies in recent years has caused the transformation of local markets into global ones. The software industry is not stranger to this transformation and has been looking for effective ways to work in a distributed scenario. A critical activity in distributed projects concerns the assignment of tasks to remote teams. This is a multicriteria decision-making problem and can be supported by Verbal Decision Analysis approaches. This paper describes an approach based on Verbal Decision Analysis methods to aid decision on factors that influence the assignment of tasks to distrubuted teams. The approach is based on the ORCLASS and ZAPROS III-i methods. The first results showed that factors such as "low turnover rate" and "team maturity" are among those considered more important, and the factors "personal trust", "low labor cost", "cultural similarities" and "time zone" were considered less relevant in DSD context.
Indirect State-of-Health Estimation for Lithium-Ion Batteries under Randomized Use

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in many systems. Because they provide a power source to the whole system, their state-of-health (SOH) is very important for a system’s proper operation. A direct way to estimate the SOH is through the measurement of the battery’s capacity; however, this measurement during the battery’s operation is not that easy in practice. Moreover, the battery is always running under randomized loading conditions, which makes the SOH estimation even more difficult. Therefore, this paper proposes an indirect SOH estimation method that relies on indirect health indicators (HIs) that can be measured easily during the battery’s operation. These indicators are extracted from the battery’s voltage and current and the number of cycles the battery has been through, which are far easier to measure than the battery’s capacity. An empirical model based on an elastic net is developed to build the quantitative relationship between the SOH and these indirect HIs, considering the possible multi-collinearity between these HIs. To further improve the accuracy of SOH estimation, we introduce a particle filter to automatically update the model when capacity data are obtained occasionally. We use a real dataset to demonstrate our proposed method, showing quite a good performance of the SOH estimation. The results of the SOH estimation in the experiment are quite satisfactory, which indicates that the method is effective and accurate enough to be used in real practice.
Multi-interfaced mobile router scheme and enhanced path selection algorithm

Network mobility (NEMO) aims providing seamless Internet connectivity for the network which is moving around with vehicles. Multiple care of addresses (MCoA) registration was also proposed as an extension. This paper studies the seamless Internet connectivity of mobile router (MR) which is equipped with WLAN, CDMA and GPRS interfaces simultaneously. Concretely, a smooth inter-interfaces hand-off algorithm is proposed and experimented on our platform successfully, traffics are transferred smoothly between different interfaces without packet loss. We also propose a path selection algorithm based on the measured parameters for better performance. Numerical analysis is also proposed and paths are compared in term of packet delivery delay.
The receptive field of the primate P retinal ganglion cell, II: Nonlinear dynamics

Abstract The receptive-field properties of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) provide information about early visual processing. In the primate retina, P cells form the largest class of RGCs (Rodieck, 1988). A detailed exploration of the dynamics of the two subdivisions of the P-cell receptive field—the center and the surround—was undertaken. In the preceding paper (Benardete & Kaplan, 1996), the first-order responses of the center and the surround of P cells were described, which were obtained with a new technique, the multiple m-sequence stimulus (Benardete & Victor, 1994). In this paper, the investigation of P-cell responses measured as S-potentials in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) is continued, and significant nonlinear, second-order responses from the center and the surround are described. These responses are quantified by fitting a mathematical model, the linear-nonlinear-linear (LNL) model (Korenberg, 1973; Korenberg & Hunter, 1986; Victor, 1988) to the data. In a second series of experiments, demonstration that steady illumination of the surround modifies the gain of the center to contrast signals (see also Kaplan & Shapley, 1989) is made. In P ON cells, increasing the steady illumination of the surround decreases the gain and speeds up the center's first-order response. In P OFF cells, increasing the steady illumination of the surround increases the gain of the center while speeding up the response. The results of both sets of experiments are related to the known anatomy and physiology of the P cell.
Double threshold feature detector for cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks

From the last decade much more emphasis were drawn to develop robust Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs). For robust CRNs, Spectrum Sensing is one of the most important issue for its better existence in licensed spectrum. Spectrum sensing is used for finding unoccupied frequency bands, called white space or spectrum holes. However, spectrum sensing performance in practice is often compromised with multipath fading, shadowing and receiver uncertainty issues due to low signal to noise ratio (SNR). In this paper, we propose a robust double threshold feature detector (DTFD) that detect even very low SNR primary user. Here we have used DTFD in cooperative spectrum sensing scenario in cognitive radio networks (CRNs) on a additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. Here individual detectors employ double threshold method in feature based detection of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signal, and sends their results to fusion center (FC) where final decision takes place. Detection is done by using popular autocorrelation property of cyclic prefix (CP) in OFDM signal. From proposed technique, our objective is to achieve a better sensing performance under very low SNR, such that the primary networks and the CRNs can coexist in better way. Simulation results are done under theoretical perspective which illustrate that the proposed sensing technique can reliably detect OFDM signals at SNR as low as -20 dB.
Effect of Maternal Nutrient Restriction in Early Gestation on Responses of the Hypothalamic‐Pituitary‐Adrenal Axis to Acute Isocapnic Hypoxaemia in Late Gestation Fetal Sheep

Epidemiological and experimental evidence suggests that maternal undernutrition during pregnancy may alter development of fetal organ systems. We have demonstrated previously that fetal hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis responses to exogenous corticotropin‐releasing hormone (CRH) + arginine vasopressin (AVP), or adrenocorticotrophin hormone (ACTH), are reduced in fetuses of mildly undernourished ewes. To examine these effects further we tested HPA axis responses to acute isocapnic hypoxaemia in fetal sheep at 114‐129 days gestation (dGA), following 15% reduction in maternal nutritional intake between 0 and 70 dGA. Fetuses from control (C) and nutrient‐restricted (R) ewes were chronically catheterised and plasma ACTH and cortisol responses were determined at 114‐115, 120‐123 and 126‐129 dGA during hypoxaemia (1 h) induced by lowering the maternal inspired O2 fraction (FI,O2). Basal plasma cortisol concentrations and HPA axis responses at 114‐115 and 120‐123 dGA did not differ between C and R fetuses. At 126‐129 dGA, both plasma ACTH (P < 0.01) and cortisol (P < 0.05) responses were smaller in R fetuses compared to C fetuses. Fetal blood gas status, fetal body weight, body proportions and organ weights did not differ between the groups. We conclude that mild maternal undernutrition alters development of the fetal HPA axis producing a reduction in pituitary and adrenal responsiveness to endogenous stimuli.
Social capital and post-disaster mental health

Background : Despite national and international policies to develop social capital in disaster-affected communities, empiric evidence on the association between social capital and disaster mental health is limited and ambiguous. Objective : The study explores the relationship between social capital and disaster mental health outcomes (PTSD, anxiety, and depression) in combination with individual factors (appraisal, coping behavior, and social support). Design : This is a community-based cross-sectional study in a flood-affected town in northern England. The study is part of the MICRODIS multi-country research project that examines the impact of natural disasters. It included 232 flood-affected respondents. Results : The findings showed that a considerable part of the association between cognitive and structural social capital and mental health is exerted through individual appraisal processes (i.e. property loss, primary and secondary appraisal), social support, and coping behavior. These individual factors were contingent on social capital. After the inclusion of individual characteristics, cognitive social capital was negatively related to lower mental health problems and structural social capital was positively associated to experiencing anxiety but not to PTSD or depression. Depression and anxiety showed a different pattern of association with both components of social capital. Conclusions : Individual oriented stress reducing interventions that use appraisal processes, social support, and coping as starting points could be more effective by taking into account the subjective experience of the social context in terms of trust and feelings of mutual support and reciprocity in a community. Findings indicate that affected people may especially benefit from a combination of individual stress reducing interventions and psychosocial interventions that foster cognitive social capital.
Pigmented lesions in newborn infants

1058 newborn infants were examined. Forty‐one (39%) had clinically discernible pigmented lesions compatible with melanocy tic naevi. Biopsy was performed on thirty‐four of the forty‐one and of these; eleven, representing 1.01% of the infants, proved to be melanocytic naevi. No giant (garment) naevi were seen in this series. Two of the eleven naevi pathologically examined showed histological changes similar to those that have been reported in some giant naevi, but the remaining nine were not only different from criteria usually assigned to giant naevi, but they also differed from the usual adult naevi, in that most were predominantly junctional. None of the melanocytic naevi in this series showed any suggestion of malignant change. In newborn infants it is often impossible clinically to distinguish naevi from other types of pigmented lesions, as only eleven out of the thirty‐four pigmen‐ted lesions were melanocytic naevi. Seven of the eleven melanocytic naevi were under 1.5 cm in diameter. No pigmented lesions were found on the palms, soles or genitalia.
Dipeptidyl peptidase (DP) 6 and DP10: novel brain proteins implicated in human health and disease

Abstract Dipeptidyl peptidase (DP) 6 and DP10 are non-enzyme members of the dipeptidyl peptidase IV family, which includes fibroblast activation protein, DP8, and DP9. DP6 and DP10 proteins have been shown to be critical components of voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels important in determining cellular excitability. The aim of this paper was to review the research to date on DP6 and DP10 structure, expression, and functions. To date, the protein region responsible for modulating Kv4 channels has not been conclusively identified and the significance of the splice variants has not been resolved. Resolution of these issues will improve our overall knowledge of DP6 and DP10 and lead to a better understanding of their role in diseases, such as asthma and Alzheimer's disease. Clin Chem Lab Med 2009;47:262–7.
Channels with Side Information at the Transmitter

In certain communication systems where information is to be transmitted from one point to another, additional side information is available at the transmitting point. This side information relates to the state of the transmission channel and can be used to aid in the coding and transmission of information. In this paper a type of channel with side information is studied and its capacity determined.
Closed-Loop Identification and Robust Control Design of Vehicle Via Modeling

Abstract This paper presents a modeling approach to control a vehicle by visual feedback and H ∞ control; this approach is based on two models designed using a closed-loop identification. The models are constructed from data for a curved path and straight path. Closed-loop identifications such as Closed-loop subspace model identification method (CL-MOESP) have been proposed recently and validated through simulations. However, consideration based experimental data have rarely been studied. We investigate the most effective identification approach of a vehicle model by experimental data. The most useful vehicle identification using visual feedback control is CL-MOESP. To evaluate its effectiveness, we use the fitting rate (FIT). Next, we design a robust controller based on the constructed models. Specifically, we formulate a model error for each models based on the curved and straight paths and use an H ∞ control algorithm for the vehicle controller within a given error. A nominal plant is regarded as the model given by the curve data. The model error is estimated as the difference between the models given by the straight and curved paths.
ONLINE DROPSHIP FOR BUSINESS TRANSACTION IN MALAYSIA: VIEWS FROM MUSLIM SCHOLARS

Nowadays, people are not only buying things in a traditional way but the advancement of technology has evolved and people buy products through online transaction. In Malaysia, the phenomenon of buying through online dropship agent becomes one of the popular ways of buying products. However, questions arise whether the transaction is in accordance to Shariah (Islamic Law) or the other way around. In practice, the dropship transaction uses agent as the seller of the product; where in fact the agent does not hold the product. The two important issues raised are the transaction itself whether it is considered as lawful or not; and the issue of uncertainty (Gharar). This study aims to explain the online dropship transaction from an Islamic perspective. Among the topics addressed in this paper are Gharar issues, transaction between the dropship agent, customer, and postage issues. Open ended questions were given to Muslim scholars in Malaysia and one interview with the dropship agent was conducted to support the findings. The results of this study show that the dropship transaction is considered valid from Islamic perspective as long as it is based on Bai as-salam concept. As the Shariah is being followed by both parties (dropship agent and buyer), than they will get the potential benefits from the business transaction because it makes them feel ease and satisfaction in conducting online business.