Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Information quality, online community and trust: a study of antecedents to shoppers' website loyalty

The internet is changing the way consumers shop for and purchase goods and services, and it has been rapidly adopted globally. Since online shopping is a new phenomenon that has recently experienced rapid growth, research on the formation of consumer loyalty online remains scarce. This investigation of the characteristics of online shopping interactions (for example, online ordering of goods) discusses the effects of information quality, online communities and online consumer trust as factors of online consumer loyalty. An online survey conducted in Taiwan obtained 250 valid responses (online shoppers). Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis indicated an acceptable goodness-of-fit for the proposed model. This study confirmed two antecedents – information quality and online communities via online consumer trust – to increased online loyalty in online shopping websites.
The utility of the co-occurrence matrix to extract slum areas from VHR imagery

Many cities in developing countries lack detailed information on the emergence and growth of highly dynamic slum developments. Available statistical data are often aggregated to large administrative units that are heterogeneous and geographically rather meaningless in terms of pro-poor policy development. Such general base information neither allows a spatially disaggregated analysis of deprivations nor are settlement dynamics easily monitored, while slums are rapidly developing in particular in megacities. This paper explores the utility of the co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) and NDVI to distinguish between slums and formal built-up areas in very high spatial and spectral resolution satellite imagery (i.e., 8-Band images of WorldView-2). For this study, an East-West cross-section of Mumbai in India was used. We employed image segmentation to extract homogenous urban patches (HUPs) for which the information extracted from the GLCM was aggregated. The result was evaluated using collected ground-truth information and visual image interpretation. The results showed that the variance of the GLCM combined with the NDVI separate formal built-up and slum areas very well (overall accuracy of 86.7%).
“Paolo Baffi” Centre on Central Banking and Financial Regulation

Using a unique data set on bank distress, this paper provides novel empirical evidence on the determinants of bank soundness in the European Union (EU) as a whole. Estimation results support the hypothesis that bank risks have converged across EU members, providing empirical justification for introduction of the pan-European system of financial regulation. We show that asset quality and earning profile of banks are important determinants of bank distress next to leverage, and should be taken into account when designing new financial regulation in the EU. Market discipline both on the side of depositors and stock market participants plays role in the EU, supporting the notion that transparency and dissemination of financial information would contribute to the financial soundness of banks. We also provide evidence in favor of contagion effects, relatively higher fragility of concentrated banking sectors, and hazards associated with high share of wholesale funding.
Real Earnings Management (REM) and Accrual Earnings Management (AEM) Around Seasoned Equity Offerings (SEOs) in Australia and Subsequent Operating Earnings Performance

The paper examines the existence of real earnings management (REM) and accrual earnings management (AEM) around seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) undertaken by Australian firms. We also investigate the subsequent operating earnings performance of the SEO firms that engaged in earnings manipulation and undertake SEOs. Prior studies document the presence of earnings management using univariate tests; however, we provide the first evidence employing both univariate and multivariate tests of the existence and consequences of REM and AEM around the SEOs. We find that managers of Australian SEO firms tend to engage in REM and AEM in the SEO-years, and earnings management activity is greater in these years relative to non-SEO firms and in comparison to the non-issuing years of SEO firms. In addition, consistent with prior evidence, we find that SEO firms performs substantially negatively in the post-SEO period, and SEO firms that engaged in REM and/or AEM underperform significantly those that don’t in the post-offering period. However, we document a non-linear earnings management effect, with SEO firms that engaged in greater levels of REM and undertake SEOs having significantly higher subsequent operating performance.
Sequence requirements for DNA rearrangements induced by the terminal repeat of herpes simplex virus type 1 KOS DNA

We investigated the sequence requirements for the site-specific DNA cleavages and recombinational genome isomerization events driven by the terminal repeat or a sequence of herpes simplex virus type 1 KOS DNA by inserting a series of mutated a sequences into the thymidine kinase locus in the intact viral genome. Our results indicate that sequences located at both extremities of the a sequence contribute to these events. Deletions entering from the Ub side of the a sequence progressively reduced the frequency of DNA rearrangements, and further deletion of the internal DR2 repeat array had an additional inhibitory effect. This deletion series allowed us to map the pac1 site-specific DNA cleavage signal specifying the S-terminal cleavage to a sequence that is conserved among herpesvirus genomes. Constructs lacking this signal were unable to directly specify the S-terminal cleavage event but retained a reduced ability to give rise to S termini following recombination with intact a sequences. Deletions entering from the Uc side demonstrated that the copy of direct repeat 1 located adjacent to the Uc region plays an important role in the DNA rearrangements induced by the a sequence: mutants lacking this sequence displayed a reduced frequency of novel terminal and recombinational inversion fragments, and further deletions of the Uc region had a relatively minor additional effect. By using a construct in which site-specific cleavage was directed to heterologous DNA sequences, we found that the recombination events leading to genome segment inversion did not occur at the sites of DNA cleavage used by the cleavage-packaging machinery. This observation, coupled with the finding that completely nonoverlapping portions of the a sequence retained detectable recombinational activity, suggests that inter-a recombination does not occur by cleavage-ligation at a single specific site in herpes simplex virus type 1 strain KOS. The mutational sensitivity of the extremities of the a sequence leads us to hypothesize that the site-specific DNA breaks induced by the cleavage-packaging system stimulate the initiation of recombination.
Hierarchical Chain Of Consumer-Based Brand Equity: Review From The Fast Food Industry

The aim of the study was to fill in the gaps in the discussion of the way in which fast food brand equity is developed. A proposed conceptual framework - Hierarchical chain of consumer-based brand equity - was postulated based on the casual relationships among dimensions of brand equity. A comprehensive and extensive literature review helped to develop a brand equity framework. In the fast food industry, the dimensions of consumer-based brand equity are decomposed into brand awareness, brand familiarity, perceived quality, brand image, brand trust and attitudinal brand loyalty, demonstrated three-level hierarchical chain. Brand familiarity, perceived quality, brand image, and brand trust were proposed to serve as mediating variables of other constructs, indicating direct and indirect relationships among brand equity dimensions.
Can earnings' management be a tool to affect the accuracy of earnings' forecasts? Evidence from Taiwan

This study sets out to investigate the determinants of the accuracy of focusing primarily on earnings management whilst also effectively controlling the two major bias problems – sample-selection bias and self-selection bias – through the econometric model developed specifically for this study. Our results indicate that managers tend to engage in earnings management as a means of improving the apparent accuracy of their forecasting, especially for optimistic forecasters. Furthermore, our analysis, which uses listed firms in Taiwan as the study sample, provides us with a valuable opportunity to observe management disclosure quality from a perspective which differs significantly from that of the prior studies, within which the focus is invariably placed on the more developed markets.
Adaptive human-computer interfaces: a literature survey and perspective

The authors present a survey of recent research in adaptive interface computer software as well as a discussion of factors that require consideration in designing this software. An adaptive interface needs to include a knowledge base that encompasses four domains. These four domains are knowledge of the current user, knowledge of the interaction scheme, knowledge of the problem task, and knowledge of the underlying system. The authors review and discuss these knowledge bases along with the positive and negative aspects of adaptive interfaces. >
Efficiency and benchmarking in the presence of undesirable (bad) outputs: A DEA approach

Environmental assessment recently becomes a major policy issue in the world. This study introduces a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to explore a new use of DEA for the environmental assessment in which outputs are classified into desirable (good) and undesirable (bad). Such an output separation is important in the DEA-based environmental assessment. We used a Range-Adjusted Measure (RAM) DEA model for combining the two performance measures operational and environmental performance as a unified measure. Reducing the amount of undesirable outputs is the main purpose of environmental assessment. Therefor, we try to project the inefficient organization on the efficient frontier such that the obtained projection produces fewer undesirable outputs than the evaluated organization. To reach this goal, it is not important to increase or decrease the amount of inputs.
A discussion of alternatives for establishing empirical benchmarks for interpreting single-case effect sizes

espanolEl presente trabajo responde a la necesidad expresada de desarrollar criterios interpretativos para los indices de tamano del efecto, repasando diferentes maneras para conseguirlo. El objetivo de los criterios es proporcionar herramientas a los analistas para que estos puedan valorar si el efecto observado en su estudio es mas bien “pequeno”, “mediano” o “grande”. El contexto en el cual tiene lugar la discusion son los disenos de caso unico, para los cuales se ha propuesto una gran variedad de tecnicas analiticas cuya base diferente (e.g., grado de solapamiento versus diferencia de medias estandarizada) supone un reto para la interpretacion. Para cada una de las alternativas que se comentan, se destacan las ventajas e inconvenientes. Adicionalmente, se comenta como estos criterios pueden ser obtenidos, una tarea propia de los metodologos, y como pueden ser utilizados por investigadores aplicados que desean disponer de mas evidencias sobre la magnitud del efecto observado, mas alla de decidir si el efecto existe o no. Una de las alternativas es una propuesta que se realiza en el marco del presente articulo. A pesar de que tambien presenta desventajas, como todas las alternativas, consideramos que es necesario discutir esta alternativa y todas las demas con la finalidad de avanzar en la interpretacion de tamanos del efecto, en un momento en el cual el hecho de calcular y reportar sus valores numericos es (o se supone) habitual. EnglishIn this paper we reflect on the numerous calls for the development of benchmarks for interpreting effect size indices, reviewing several possibilities. Such benchmarks are aimed to provide criteria so that analysts can judge whether the size of the effect o bserved is rather “small”, “medium” or “large”. The context of this discussion is single-case experimental designs, for which a great variety of procedures have been proposed, with their different nature (e.g., being based on amount of overlap vs. a standardized mean difference) posing challenges to interpretation. For each of the alternatives discussed we point at their strengths and limitations. We also comment how such empirical benchmarks can be obtained, usually by methodologists, and illustrate how these benchmarks can be used by applied researchers willing to have more evidence on the magnitude of effect observed and not only whether an effect is present or not. One of the alternatives discussed is a proposal we make in the current paper. Although it has certain limitations, as all alternatives do, we consider that it is worth discussing it and the whole set of alternatives in order to advance in interpreting effect sizes, now that computing and reporting their numerical values is (or is expected to be) common practice.
Experimental Study on Self-organized and Error Resistant Control of Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems

The assignment of distributed mobile autonomous robots to targets, which occurs for instance as an important task in flexible manufacturing environments, is solved by using a self-organization approach motivated by pattern formation principles in biological, chemical, and physical systems. Similar to observations in many natural systems, such as ant tribes, the pattern formation of colored shells or convection patterns in the Rayleigh-Bénard problem of fluid dynamics, the self-organization principles lead to a robust and fault tolerant behavior where the patterns or structures recover from disturbances. The considered problem is the dynamic assignment of a number of robots to given targets where the mobile robots have to move to the targets in order to perform some tasks there. Hereby, each robot uses only local information (i.e., no world coordinate system is necessary). The underlying mathematical problem of the robot-target assignment is the so-called two-index assignment problem from combinatorial optimization. The approach used guarantees always feasible solutions in the assignment of robotic units to targets. As a consequence, for scenarios with only convex obstacles with large enough distances to each other, no spurious states cause the assignment process to fail. The error resistant control method for distributed autonomous robotic systems is demonstrated by several experiments with mobile robots. These results are compared and supplemented with computer simulations.
A 4-mm-square 1.9 GHz Doherty power amplifier module for mobile terminals

A miniaturized Doherty power amplifier (PA) module for mobile terminals has been developed. Two GaAs HBTs and base bias circuits for a carrier amplifier and a peak amplifier are integrated onto a single chip GaAs MMIC (1.0 mm /spl times/ 1.0 mm /spl times/ 0.1 mm), which is mounted on a ceramic substrate (4.0 mm /spl times/ 4.0 mm /spl times/ 1.5 mm, alumina, dielectric constant = 8.8). In order to miniaturize the module size, a 25-Ohm environment is introduced in the module design, and two quarter-wave-length transmission lines are embedded inside the ceramic substrate. Measurement results indicate that a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 42% at 6 dB back-off, i.e. 22 dBm output power is obtained with the newly-developed Doherty PA. In other words, an improvement of 10% in PAE is achieved compared with the theoretical PAE of a conventional class B amplifier.
Radiosensitivity of continuous cultures. II. Continuous gamma-ray exposure.

Continuous cultures of diploid yeast were continuously exposed to60 Co γ-rays. It was found that even under continuous irradiation steady state could be maintained if the dose rate was sufficiently low. Critical dose rate levels depend on the chemostat turnover, i.e., the dilution rate. With higher dilution rates only lower dose rates can be tolerated. In any case, the tolerable dose rates were less than anticipated on the basis of assuming complete recovery from sublethal damage. It is suggested that under conditions of substrate limitation recovery may be reduced due to the shortage of essential nutrients.
The Cyclin-dependent Kinases cdk2 and cdk5 Act by a Random, Anticooperative Kinetic Mechanism*

cdk2·cyclin E and cdk5·p25 are two members of the cyclin-dependent kinase family that are potential therapeutic targets for oncology and Alzheimer's disease, respectively. In this study we have investigated the mechanism for these enzymes. Kinases catalyze the transfer of phosphate from ATP to a protein acceptor, thus utilizing two substrates, ATP and the target protein. For a two-substrate reaction, possible kinetic mechanisms include: ping-pong, sequential random, or sequential ordered. To determine the kinetic mechanism of cdk2·GST-cyclin E and cdk5·GST-p25, kinase activity was measured in experiments in which concentrations of peptide and ATP substrates were varied in the presence of dead-end inhibitors. A peptide identical to the peptide substrate, but with a substitution of valine for the phosphoacceptor threonine, competed with substrate with a K i value of 0.6 mm. An aminopyrimidine, PNU 112455A, was identified in a screen for inhibitors of cdk2. Nonlinear least squares and Lineweaver-Burk analyses demonstrated that the inhibitor PNU 112455A was competitive with ATP with a K i value of 2 μm. In addition, a co-crystal of PNU 112455A with cdk2 showed that the inhibitor binds in the ATP binding pocket of the enzyme. Analysis of the inhibitor data demonstrated that both kinases use a sequential random mechanism, in which either ATP or peptide may bind first to the enzyme active site. For both kinases, the binding of the second substrate was shown to be anticooperative, in that the binding of the first substrate decreases the affinity of the second substrate. For cdk2·GST-cyclin E the kinetic parameters were determined to be K m , ATP = 3.6 ± 1.0 μm, K m , peptide = 4.6 ± 1.4 μm, and the anticooperativity factor, α = 130 ± 44. For cdk5·GST-p25, theK m , ATP = 3.2 ± 0.7 μm, K m , peptide = 1.6 ± 0.3 μm, and α = 7.2 ± 1.8.
Staff Recruitment and Selection Process in the Nigerian Public Service: What is to be done?

The recruitment and selection of staff in any organization be it public or private sector is of paramount importance to the organization. This is so because it is the staff that turns the vision and mission of the organization into reality. Thus, the objectives of any organization can only be realized through the effective co-ordination of the human resource (staff) of the organization. This paper attempts an examination of the process of staff recruitment and selection in the public service of Nigeria. Five relevant research questions were raised and addressed. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data collected from respondents to the questionnaire designed for this purpose. The results obtained showed that merit is often jettisoned on the altar of ethnicity and religion in recruitment into the public service in Nigeria. Since the public service is directly controlled and regulated by the government, the Nigerian Federal Character Principle was largely complied with. The study also reveals that though there are stipulated periods for recruitment and selection into the public service, these are often sidelined. This paper concludes by recommending that for government to operate the most efficient administrative service that would be beneficial to all, her recruitment and selection policies into the Nigerian public services should be unfettered. It should be able to absorb the most qualified, technically sound, disciplined and committed human resource that would in turn help government achieve the objectives of governance.
Differential Activation of NAD Kinase by Plant Calmodulin Isoforms THE CRITICAL ROLE OF DOMAIN I*

NAD kinase is a Ca2+/calmodulin (CaM)-dependent enzyme capable of converting cellular NAD to NADP. The enzyme purified from pea seedlings can be activated by highly conserved soybean CaM, SCaM-1, but not by the divergent soybean CaM isoform, SCaM-4 (Lee, S. H., Kim, J. C., Lee, M. S., Heo, W. D., Seo, H. Y., Yoon, H. W., Hong, J. C., Lee, S. Y., Bahk, J. D., Hwang, I., and Cho, M. J. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 21806-21812). To determine which domains were responsible for this differential activation of NAD kinase, a series of chimeric SCaMs were generated by exchanging functional domains between SCaM-4 and SCaM-1. SCaM-4111, a chimeric SCaM-1 that contains the first domain of SCaM-4, was severely impaired (only 40% of maximal) in its ability to activate NAD kinase. SCaM-1444, a chimeric SCaM-4 that contains the first domain of SCaM-1 exhibited nearly full (∼70%) activation of NAD kinase. Only chimeras containing domain I of SCaM-1 produced greater than half-maximal activation of NAD kinase. To define the amino acid residue(s) in domain I that were responsible for this differential activation, seven single residue substitution mutants of SCaM-1 were generated and tested for NAD kinase activation. Among these mutants, only K30E and G40D showed greatly reduced NAD kinase activation. Also a double residue substitution mutant, K30E/G40D, containing these two mutations in combination was severely impaired in its NAD kinase-activating potential, reaching only 20% of maximal activation. Furthermore, a triple mutation, K30E/M36I/G40D, completely abolished NAD kinase activation. Thus, our data suggest that domain I of CaM plays a key role in the differential activation of NAD kinase exhibited by SCaM-1 and SCaM-4. Further, the residues Lys30 and Glu40 of SCaM-1 are critical for this function.
DIAPASON: A Formal Approach for Supporting Agile and Evolvable Information System Service-Based Architectures

A filter adapted for use in a fluid passage and having a novel structure for coupling to the fluid passage. The filter has a general configuration of a bottom-ended cylinder, with the bottom portion formed with a plurality of bores constituting a filtrating screen. The cylinder has an annular joining projection at an end remote from the filtrating screeen, the projection being securely elastically fitted on the outer circumferential surface of a restriction fixed to the fluid passage or on the inner surface of the fluid passage, securely and airtightly coupled to each other. The filter is positioned close to the constriction of the fluid passage, the risk of accumulation of alien matter therebetween being eliminated. Also, the entire cylindrical filter is made from an integral molding of elastic material, there being no likelihood of adverse effect by the fibers that constitute the filter.
Finding Tiny Faces Supplementary Materials

Multi-scale features Inspired by the way [3] trains “FCN-8s at-once”, we scale the learning rate of predictor built on top of each layer by a fixed constant. Specifically, we use a scaling factor of 1 for res4, 0.1 for res3, and 0.01 for res2. One more difference between our model and [3] is that: instead of predicting at original resolution, our model predicts at the resolution of res3 feature (downsampled by 8X comparing to input resolution).