Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bank Behaviour and Risks in Chaps Following the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

We use payments data for the period 2006-09 to study the impact of the global financial crisis on payment patterns in CHAPS, the United Kingdom’s large-value wholesale payments system. CHAPS functioned smoothly throughout the crisis and all CHAPS settlement banks continued to meet their payment obligations. However, the data show that in the two months following the Lehman Brothers failure, banks did, on average, make payments at a slower pace than before the failure. Our analysis suggests this was partly explained by concerns about counterparty default risk as well as system-wide risk. The ratio of payments made to liquidity used was 30% lower in the period from 15 September 2008 to 30 September 2009 than in the period preceding the default of Lehman Brothers. This was due initially to payment delay, but later was due to banks making more payments with their own liquidity, probably because quantitative easing increased the amount of reserves in the system. To assess the economic significance of the observed delays in the value of payments settled, we develop risk indicators, based on Markov models, to quantify the theoretical liquidity impact of delays during an operational outage. We find that payment delays in the months following the failure of Lehman Brothers led to a statistically significant but economically modest increase in these risk measures.
Volunteer involvement in the support of self-managed computerised aphasia treatment: The volunteer perspective

Abstract Purpose: The speech-language pathology profession has explored a number of approaches to support efficient delivery of interventions for people with stroke-induced aphasia. This study aimed to explore the role of volunteers in supporting self-managed practice of computerised language exercises. Method: A qualitative interview study of the volunteer support role was carried out alongside a pilot randomised controlled trial of computer aphasia therapy. Patients with aphasia practised computer exercises tailored for them by a speech-language pathologist at home regularly for 5 months. Eight of the volunteers who supported the intervention took part in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. Result: Emergent themes included: training and support requirements; perception of the volunteer role; challenges facing the volunteer, in general and specifically related to supporting computer therapy exercises. Conclusion: The authors concluded that volunteers helped to motivate patients to practise their computer therapy exercises and also provided support to the carers. Training and ongoing structured support of therapy activity and conduct is required from a trained speech-language pathologist to ensure the successful involvement of volunteers supporting impairment-based computer exercises in patients’ own homes.
Organizational Flexibility for Hypercompetitive Markets

This research project, which builds on the conceptual work of Henk Volberda on the flexible firm, empirically investigates four aspects of organizational flexibility. Our analysis of data of over 1900 firms and over 3000 respondents shows (1) that several increasing levels of organizational flexibility can be distinguished, from operational to strategic flexibility, and these are formed by increasingly complex components of organizations. (2) Flexibility pays off particularly in unpredictable and dynamic markets. In less turbulent markets it pays not to invest in the highest order type of flexibility; operational flexibility will be more efficient, compared to strategic flexibility, in predictable markets. (3) The assumption that smaller firms by definition are better able to develop strategic flexibility than larger firms are, appears not to hold completely. Large firms are able to develop strategic flexibility as well, be it through different means. Once sufficiently flexible, large firms are better positioned to reap the benefits. The study further, and finally, shows (4) that firms can apply two different criteria to adjust the organization to the environment and create strategic fit: by adjusting to the requirements of their unique task environment or by adjusting to more generic institutional norms and best practices in the market. Both ‘ways of learning by organisations’ affect each other and will in business reality exist next to each other.
The Diffusion of Mobile Social Network Service in China: The Role of Habit and Social Influence

The present paper aims to investigate Chinese users' behavior toward adoption of mobile social network services. Based on a sample of 336 respondents who use the most popular mobile social network services (Tencent QQ) in China, structural equation modeling analysis suggests that, use context, habit, social influence, critical mass and ubiquitous ness of social network service make unique contributions to our understanding of mobile social network service acceptance behavior.
The contribution of bacterial genome engineering to sustainable development

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals define important challenges for the prosperous development of mankind. To reach several of these goals, among them the production of value‐added compounds, improved economic and ecologic balance of production processes, prevention of climate change and protection of ecosystems, the use of engineered bacteria can make valuable contributions. We discuss the strategies for genome engineering and how they can be applied to meet the United Nations’ goals for sustainable development.
Stock Market's Assessment of Bank Diversification: Evidence from Listed Public Banks in South Asian Countries

Using data for four South Asian countries over a twelve-year period, we examine how the stock markets in these recently liberalised economies assess diversification attempts of listed public banks. We find that the income diversification has a significant positive association with market to book value and a significant negative association with return volatility. However, the relationship observed between diversification and markets’ assessment of value and risk is non-linear. Relative to listed banks operating in India, the relationship observed remains less pronounced for the banks operating in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Credit risk model for the Estonian banking sector

This paper gives an overview of the credit risk model that has been developed for the Estonian banking system. The non-performing loans and loan loss provisions of the four largest banks and the rest of the banking sector have been modelled conditional on the underlying economic conditions: economic growth, unemployment, interest rates, in- flation, indebtedness and credit growth. The model highlights the importance of economic growth as the most influential factor behind the soundness of the banking sector in the latest downturn. The expected fall in output volatility will probably decrease the relative importance of output growth and increase the role of interest rates in the future.
Genetic Diversity of Rhizobium leguminosarum as Revealed by 16S rRNA Gene Sequence

The genetic diversity of ten rhizobial isolates (Rhizobium leguminosarum) isolated from root nodules of broad beans (Vicia faba L.) growing in ten locations in Egypt were investigated using 16S rRNA gene partial sequence. The average genetic distance among the studied isolates was low (0.193) with the lowest genetic distance between isolates collected from South Sinai and Zefta and the highest genetic distance between North Sinai and Quesna isolates. The studied isolates formed two main groups based on cluster analyses and principal coordinate analysis. The grouping pattern of the isolates in both analyses was independent of their geographic location. Further, the isolation-by-distance analysis showed no correlation between genetic and geographic distance of the studied isolates (r = 0.118, p = 0.71). The present results suggested that the genetic diversity of Egyptian rhizobia across the studied locations is very low, probably due to the narrow genetic background of Egyptian rhizobia.
Detect Similar Mobile Applications with Transfer Learning

Recent years have witnessed the fast growth of the use of the mobile applications (a.k.a. "apps"). Detecting similar apps is a basic problem in the app ecosystem. It is not only beneficial to app search and recommender systems, but also helpful for people to discover new apps. State-of-the-art studies defined several app similarity functions by the metainformation of apps, such as descriptions and reviews, and succeeded to apply it to apps from Google Play. There do exist some app stores that provide similar app lists when people search. Obviously such similarity relation information will help improve similar app recommendation in app stores where app recommendation is of poor quality or even does not exist. However few methods take the existing similarity relations between apps from different app stores into consideration. Our approach attempts to use such relation information to learn a new app similarity function from these stores, and combine this new function with existing functions defined from meta-information of apps. With transfer learning, our proposed similarity function can be used in app stores where no similar apps are presented. Empirical results on Chinese app data sets show that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art method significantly.
Fractional Slot Concentrated Winding Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine With Consequent Pole Rotor for Low Speed Direct Drive

Fractional slot concentrated winding permanent magnet synchronous machines (FSCW PMSMs) are suited for low speed direct drive since they offer comparatively large number of poles, high torque density, and low torque ripple. This paper introduces feasibility study on FSCW PMSMs with consequent pole (CP) rotor for low speed direct drive. A 40 pole-48 slot FSCW PMSM with CP rotor is analyzed and characterized by extensive 2-D finite-element analysis. The analysis reveals the proposed topology can achieve good performance.
Exploring the usability, security and privacy taxonomy for mobile health applications

The increase use of smartphones in healthcare industry leads to situations of users sharing their personal healthcare information in several types of applications. The massive number of mobile health (mHealth) applications becomes a serious problem for users, as they are unaware of how to manage and use their data. In this study, usability, security and privacy in mobile health applications are explored and identified by studying and evaluating mHealth applications available in the market. We design and propose a taxonomy intended to assist the developers in developing healthcare applications with usability, security and privacy dimensions in mind. This paper describes an on-going work for developing the taxonomy and describes how we plan to measure the proposed taxonomy.
The Weak Gravity Conjecture

This paper was developed in line with a seminar on QFT in curved spacetimes at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Heidelberg. We discuss the conjecture of “gravity as the weakest force” proposed by Arkani-Hamed et al. [2]. In this context we comment on charged black holes as well as global symmetries in quantum gravity.
Performance Characterization of TSV in 3D IC via Sensitivity Analysis

In this paper, we propose a method that can characterize the propagation delays across the Through Silicon Vias (TSVs) in a 3D IC. We adopt the concept of the oscillation test, in which two TSVs are connected with some peripheral circuit to form an oscillation ring. Upon this foundation, we propose a technique called sensitivity analysis to further derive the propagation delay of each individual TSV participating in the oscillation ring – a distilling process. In this process, we perturb the strength of the two TSV drivers, and then measure their effects in terms of the change of the oscillation ring’s period. By some following analysis, the propagation delay of each TSV can be revealed. Monte-Carlo analysis of a typical TSV with 30% process variation on transistors shows that the characterization error of this method is only 2.1% with the standard deviation of 8.1%.
Breaking the Cycle of Failure in Services

MOST MANAGERS recognize that good service is a direct result of having effective, productive people in customer contact positions. You need winners at the front lines, not just warm bodies. But most service companies perpetuate a cycle of failure by tolerating high turnover and expecting employee dissatisfaction. Schlesinger and Heskett explore the reasons that so many managers have trouble breaking this cycle. They spotlight a number of companies that are developing winning customer service teams, including one that pays twice the industry average to its frontline employees while its sales and profits have soared. Instead of submitting to the cycle of failure, they argue, managers should take advantage of ways to break it, and get their organizations onto the cycle of success.
Color Doppler Ultrasound Assessment of Activity in Keloids

BACKGROUND The assessment of activity in keloids may be critical for defining their management. There is a lack of clinical scorings designed for the evaluation of keloids and biopsies may be contraindicated. OBJECTIVE To assess the sonographic activity of keloids in comparison with clinical scoring. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective study of the clinical and color Doppler ultrasound (CDU) images of patients medically derived to CDU with the diagnosis of keloid was performed. Activity was evaluated clinically (modified Seattle Scar Scale) and CDU. Keloids were considered active when CDU detected vascularity within the lesion. Statistical analysis was performed (Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney, Student t-test, and interobserver agreement). RESULTS Thirty-five patients with 42 keloids were evaluated. Color Doppler ultrasound provided the diameters, including depth, and vascularity. On CDU, 76% were active and 24% inactive. Clinically, Observer 1 found 55% and Observer 2 found 88% of active keloids. Interobserver agreement between clinical observers was moderate (k = 0.42). Subclinical fistulous tracts, involvement of the hypodermis, muscle, and calcifications were also found on CDU. CONCLUSION Color Doppler ultrasound can support the assessment of activity in keloids. Clinical evaluation alone can underestimate the activity in keloids. Relevant anatomical and subclinical features can be detected by CDU.
A human gastric choriocarcinoma cell line with human chorionic gonadotropin and placental alkaline phosphatase production.

A gastric choriocarcinoma cell line synthesizing human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) was established in 1971 by Oboshi et al. and was found to possess human placental alkaline phosphatase. The present paper also deals with the relationship between the cell growth and HCG secretion and with cellular localization of HCG and human placental alkaline phosphatase by cytochemical and ultrastructural methods. This cell line was found to secrete HCG during cellular proliferation, with the maximum secretion in the stationary phase (about 1 muIU/cell/48 hr), and the hormone could be detected in a small proportion of mono- and/or multinuclear cells in both logarithmic and stationary phases. The organ-specific, heat-stable, L-phenylalanine-sensitive, immunoreactive human placental alkaline phosphatase was localized on the cell membrane of many cells. Ultrastructurally, the line consisted mainly of cytotrophoblastic and intermediate cells in the process of syncytial formation, with more or less squamous metaplasia. From these findings it was concluded that the cell line maintained the properties of trophoblastic cells from morphological and functional aspects, i.e., it was a cell line with two distinct marker substances.
Assets Sales and Earnings Management in the U.S. Hotel Industry

In this article we investigate the behavior in asset sales of publicly traded U.S. hotel firms in relation to earnings management. Asset disposition has been regarded as one of the most efficient methods for controlling accounting income. Given a heavy weight of fixed assets in the asset composition of hotel firms, it is sensible to presume that it would be easier for hotel managers to manage earnings by tuning the timing of asset sales if they decide to do so. In view of the unique characteristics of the hotel business –high vulnerability to economic circumstances and substantial fluctuations in property values, this paper will verify how hotels behave with respect to asset sales under disparate economic circumstances and if the behavior is related to an intention to manage earnings especially when the economy does not treat them favorably.
HLA-B*27/HLA-B*07 in combination with D6S273-134 allele is associated with increased susceptibility to juvenile spondyloarthropathies.

OBJECTIVE Juvenile spondylarthropathies (jSpA) are polygenic and the clustering of disease in families is caused mainly by genetic factors. Our aim was to look for possible associations of other HLA-A and B specificities, MICA and D6S273 microsatellite polymorphisms that might play a role in determining the susceptibility to jSpA. PATIENTS AND METHODS jSpA were diagnosed in 74 Croatian children, and 169 healthy unrelated individuals served as the control group. HLA class I (A, B) typing of all individuals was performed, and HLA-B7 and HLA-B27 positive subjects were subtyped by PCR-SSP method. MICA and D6S273 microsatellites alleles were analyzed by electrophoresis in an automated sequencer. RESULTS We identified 26 HLA-B*07 and 31 HLA-B*27 positive patients with jSpA. DNA subtyping of HLA-B*27 specificity demonstrated only two subtypes, B*2702 (19.35%) and B*2705 (80.65%), among jSpA patients. Subtyping analysis of HLA-B*07 gene showed presence of only one subtype, B*0702. The OR for HLA-B*07 was 2.61, while the highest OR for a single HLA specificity was found for HLA-B*27 (OR=5.60). The HLA-B*07/B*27 combination found in six children showed higher risk (OR=14.82), but the combination of specificities: HLA-B*07/HLA-B*27, and D6S273-134 allele demonstrated the highest risk (OR=26.83). The association with D6S273-134 allele was not a result of the linkage disequilibrium with HLA-B*27 specificity (LD=-0.5). CONCLUSION Our findings provide evidence that HLA-B*27/HLA-B*07 in combination with D6S273-134 allele is associated with increased susceptibility to jSpA in Croatian children.
Molecular gas properties of 12-μm Seyfert galaxies - I. The southern sample

We have used the 15-m Swedish European Southern Observatory (ESO) Submillimetre Telescope (SEST) to observe the J = 1 → 0 and J = 2 → 1 transition lines of CO in 30 Southern hemisphere Seyfert galaxies from the extended 12-μm sample of Rush, Malkan & Spinoglio. We detected CO J = 1 → 0 in 16 out of the 30 Seyfert galaxies and CO J = 2 → 1 in 17 out of the 30 Seyfert galaxies. From the observed spectra, various CO gas properties have been derived including the luminosity of the CO gas and, using a standard conversion factor, the H 2 mass. The average H 2 gas mass for Seyfert 1 galaxies was 3 x 10 9 M ○. for CO J = 1 → 0 and 1 x 10 9 M ○. for CO J = 2 → 1, while in comparison the H 2 gas mass for Seyfert 2 type galaxies was 11 x 10 9 M ○. for CO J = 1 → 0 and 3 x 10 9 M ○. CO J = 2 → 1. From this small sample of Seyfert galaxies, we tentatively support the conclusion that type 2 Seyfert galaxies contain more molecular gas than their type 1 counterparts.
Collaborative academic–industry SCM research and knowledge building

This empirical study represents the first attempt to explore how academics and practitioners engage each other in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) discipline, and provides a better understanding of collaborative SCM research between both parties. A two-pronged approach, involving a content analysis and an e-mail survey, is employed to explore the issues on collaborative SCM research. We examine 131 articles co-authored by both scholars and practitioners of 6 SCM journals from 2003 to 2013. Specifically, we analyse the motivations, expectations, and communication involved in the process of collaborative research. Our findings suggest that academics and practitioners can partner as co-investigators in research collaboration to better explore an array of SCM phenomena embedded in SCM practice. Further, building collaborative SCM knowledge relationships expedites collaboration and benefits SCM knowledge learning, transfer, and co-production. The development of practice-based scientific SCM knowledge is useful for SCM theory building and serves to bridge the gap between rigour and relevance.
A Novel Two-Axis CMOS Accelerometer Based on Thermal Convection

Accelerometers based on thermal convection use a tiny bubble of heated air and pairs of temperature sensors hermetically sealed inside the sensor package cavity. In this paper, we successfully design and fabricate a novel thermal-bubble-based micromachined accelerometer with the advantages of minimized solid thermal conductance and higher sensitivity. The proposed accelerometer consists of a microheater and two pairs of thermopiles floating over an etched cavity and is constructed by our proposed microlink structure. Two-dimensional acceleration detection is easily realized using the microlink structure, and it can be applied to the technology of inclinometers, anemometers, and flowmeters. The heater and thermopiles are connected by netlike microlink structures, which enhance the structure and greatly reduce the solid heat flow from the heater to the hot junctions of the thermopiles. The samples are fabricated by the TSMC 0.35-mum 2P4M CMOS process, which has been provided by the national chip implementation center (CIC). Our design has proved to be applicable for commercial batch production with outstanding strong structures and uniform quality. We measure the output signal by inclining the sensor to evaluate the performance of this accelerometer. The best sensitivity of 22 muV/g was obtained from acceleration versus output voltage under several experimental conditions.
Ileal inducible nitric oxide synthase mRNA expression in response to stress is modified in Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to a previous intestinal inflammation

The ability of stress to initiate or reactivate an inflammatory process seems to depend on an individual's susceptibility to stressful stimuli. The aim of this study was to establish whether previous inflammation alters the response to stress in Sprague-Dawley rats, a strain not especially susceptible to stressful stimuli. Stress exposure was performed in rats treated with indomethacin, to induce cyclic intestinal inflammation, during the inactive phase of inflammation. Both control and indomethacin-treated rats submitted to stress showed a decrease in body weight gain and blood leukocyte levels, as well as an increase in fecal pellet output. The increase in intestinal mucosal mast cell count induced by stress was similar in both groups of animals. Moreover, no differences were observed between control and indomethacin-treated rats in the degree of bacterial translocation and myeloperoxidase levels after stress exposure. Despite these similarities, differences between groups were observed in inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA expression. Although ileal iNOS mRNA expression was inhibited in healthy rats submitted to stress, stress failed to modify this parameter in indomethacin-treated rats. As iNOS is another inflammatory marker, our results may allow the possibility that a previous intestinal inflammation could change the intestinal susceptibility to stress. Whether these differences in ileal iNOS expression can be indicative of a possible change in the predisposition to develop an intestinal inflammatory reaction in response to stress in Sprague-Dawley rats remains to be elucidated.