Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EARNINGS QUALITY ATTRIBUTES AND INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR LATIN AMERICAN FIRMS

This work verifies if companies with better accounting information show better performance and investigates the impact of better accounting information on the financial constraints. This study is based on an unbalanced panel data of 596 firms from seven Latin American countries between 1989 and 2009. The return on equity (ROE) and Market to book (MB) variables are used to define the firms’ performance, which are regressed against five models that consider the quality of accounting information. We also investigate the relationship between financial constraint, measured by the KZ index, and accounting quality. The results support the view that earnings quality is an important factor to explain market and operational performance and aspects related to efficiency are important to determine the operational performance, but are not significant when market performance of Latin American firms are analyzed. When we model the firm’s investment, the quality of accounting information appears to be a useful proxy to financial constraint. Moreover, the accounting quality plays a positive effect on investment that is a much more positive for unconstraint firms.
Design Optimisation of UAVs Systems achieved on a FrameworkEnvironment via Evolution and Game Theory

Over recent years, Unmanned Air Vehicles or UAVs have become a powerful tool for reconnaissance and surveillance tasks. These vehicles are now available in a broad size and capability range and are intended to fly in regions where the presence of onboard human pilots is either too risky or unnecessary. This paper describes the formulation and application of a design framework that supports the complex task of multidisciplinary design optimisation of UAVs systems via evolutionary computation. The framework includes a Graphical User Interface (GUI), a robust Evolutionary Algorithm optimiser named HAPEA, several design modules, mesh generators and post-processing capabilities in an integrated platform. These population –based algorithms such as EAs are good for cases problems where the search space can be multi-modal, non-convex or discontinuous, with multiple local minima and with noise, and also problems where we look for multiple solutions via Game Theory, namely a Nash equilibrium point or a Pareto set of non-dominated solutions. The application of the methodology is illustrated on conceptual and detailed multi-criteria and multidisciplinary shape design problems. Results indicate the practicality and robustness of the framework to find optimal shapes and trade—offs between the disciplinary analyses and to produce a set of non dominated solutions of an optimal Pareto front to the designer.
EFFECT OF SOME GROWTH HORMONES AND FOLIAR FERTILIZER ON GROWTH AND FLOWERING OF ALEC ’ S RED & SARRA

This study was conducted at the faculty of Agriculture Omdurman Islamic University . The Rose plant rootstock Rosa canina (bankisia) cuttings were obtained on from Khartoum National Botanical Garden. These cuttings were sown in polyethylene bags on first of November 2004. On the first of February 2005, the bankesia rootstock were budded with a hybrid tea cv. Alec’s Red Rose . sixty four budded rootstocks were selected and placed in the nursery, and were given all appropriate cultural practices as required. This research indicated that application of GA at 200pm, BAat 500ppm and the foliar fertilizer Bayfolan at 0,03% was effective in increasing growth parameters in rose cultivars Alecs and sarah. That increase was significant in plant height, number of leaves, number of branches number of buds, number of petal, length of floral stalk, number of flowers and flower diameters.
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A Few Insights into Cliquet Options

This paper deals with a subset of lookback options known as cliquet options. The latter lock in the best underlying asset price over a number of prespecified dates during the option life. The specific uses of these contracts are analyzed, as well as two different hedging techniques. Closed form valuation formulae are provided under standard assumptions. They are easy to implement, very efficient and accurate compared to Monte Carlo simulation approximations.
Macroecology of a host‐parasite relationship

fish assemblages each significantly accounted for the regional variation in mussel assemblages. Furthermore, mussel assemblages showed strong spatial autocorrelation. Variation partitioning revealed that pure fish effects accounted for 15.4% of the variation in mussel assemblages; pure spatial and environmental effects accounted for 16.1% and 7.8%, respectively. Shared variation among fish, space and environmental variables totaled 40%. Of this shared variation, 36.8% was associated with the fish matrix. Thus, the variation in mussel assemblages that was associated with the distribution and abundance of fishes was substantial (> 50%), indicating that fish community structure is an important determinant of mussel community structure. Although animals commonly disperse plants and, thus, influence the structure of plant communities, our results show a strong macroecological association between two disparate animal groups with one strongly affecting the assemblage structure of
Implementation of Run Length Encoding on FPGA Spartan 3E

In computer science, compression algorithms are an important technique to reduce the original data bits into lesser number of bits. Lossless compression is a special class of data compression algorithm involves in reducing bits by identifying and eliminating statistical redundancy. A simple scheme that provides good lossless compression of data containing lots of runs of the same value is Run Length Encoding. In this paper a technique to model the run length encoding algorithm on reconfigurable platform has been described. FPGA implementation result shows that the circuit requires very small amount of digital hardware. Estimated power consumption and maximum operating frequency of the circuitry is also provided.
A new stream and nested catchment framework for Australia

Nationally framed assessment and planning assists coordination of resource management activities across jurisdictional boundaries and provides context for assessing the cumulative effects of impacts that can be underestimated by local or regional studies. However, there have been significant shortcomings in the existing spatial frameworks supporting national assessment and planning for Australia's rivers and streams. We describe the development of a new national stream and nested catchment framework for Australia that includes a fully connected and directed stream network and a nested catchment hierarchy derived using a modified Pfafstetter scheme. The directed stream network with associated catchment boundaries and Pfafstetter coding respect all distributary junctions and topographically driven surface flow pathways, including those in the areas of low relief and internal drainage that make up over half of the Australian continent. The Pfafstetter coding facilitates multi-scale analyses and easy tracing and query of upstream/downstream attributes and tributary/main stem relationships. Accompanying the spatial layers are 13 lookup tables containing nearly 400 attributes describing the natural and anthropogenic environment of each of the 1.4 M stream segments at multiple spatial scales (segment, sub-catchment and catchment). The database supplies key spatial layers to support national water information and accounting needs and assists a wide range of research, planning and assessment tasks at regional and continental scales. These include the delineation of reporting units for the Australian Water Resources Assessment, the development of an ecohydrological environment classification for Australian streams and the identification of high conservation value aquatic ecosystems for northern Australia.
Entrepreneurial Team: How Human and Social Capital Influence Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification and Mobilization of External Resources

Entrepreneurial teams play an extremely important role in the development of any country, especially in developing countries. To understand entrepreneurial teams that operate in a low-technology industry, we rely on the network and human perspective on entrepreneurship. In this paper, we investigate how the social and human capital of entrepreneurial team members influences their ability to identify entrepreneurial opportunities and mobilize external resources. We extend prior research in two ways. First, by using the ordered probit method to measure the identified entrepreneurial opportunities number at the level of entrepreneurial teams. Second, to our knowledge, there is a very small number of studies that have theoretically and empirically investigated the mobilization of external resources, especially at the level of entrepreneurial teams.
Firm renewal through corporate venturing and strategic agility: shifting from spin-out to spin-in ventures

A qualitative case study approach is applied using both in depth interviews and ethnography to understand the lived experiences of the managers and executives of the successfully closed spin out firm, parent firm and newly created spin in firm. Overall this research provides insights into the relationship between parent firms and their offspring and contends that opportunity exploitation can be maximised when a parent firm flexibly reconfigures the surplus resources remaining after the closure of a spin out and leverages them to create a new venture in the form of a spin in. The study builds on existing literature through the exploration of firm renewal and corporate venturing strategies in three specific ways. Firstly the study finds that selected remaining resources from spin out ventures can be beneficial for other businesses when appropriately reconfigured. Secondly, existing work exploring on human capital and corporate venturing are elaborated on as the research highlights the linkage between the profile of parent firm employees and the propensity to create new spinoffs. Thirdly, the impact of formal and informal institutional factors and the impact they may have on workers cooperative firms are explored. The study’s focus on the study parent firm internal factors that convert an independently created spin in firm into a part of a worker cooperative company and sheds light on the way in which the strategic factors of parent firms can influence new worker cooperative spin in ventures.
Firm Size Effects on Venture Capital Syndication: The Role of Resources and Transaction Costs

The present paper examines firm size effects on the decision of venture capital firms to participate in a venture capital investment syndication network. The authors submit that firm size effects in venture capital syndication are dependent on resource acquisition motives and transaction cost considerations. Analysis of 317 venture capital firms in 6 European countries reveals a curve linear relationship between firm size and venture capital syndication participation. We also find positive and negative moderating effects of firm size. The implication of our findings is that there are both advantages and disadvantages in syndicated investment for the smaller and larger venture capitalist.
Co-culture Microdevice with Oxygen Gradient for Tumor Microenvironment Model and Metastasis Imaging

Tu mor hypoxia is a major therapeutic problem since it decreases radiation effects and leads to metastasis. Oxygen is delivered to tumor tissue via abnormal and dysfunctional microvessels, which forms heterogeneity of tissue oxygenation in the tumo r. Mimicking the o xygen gradient fo r cellu lar experiments in vitro is important to clarify the mechanis ms involved in tumor bio logy, but the only method to produce hypoxic conditions at a constant level is using gas-controlled incubators, because there is currently no technique for creating an o xygen gradient using culture dishes. We designed a polydimethylsilo xane (PDMS) microflu idic device integrated with microchannels for cell cultures that enables visualizat ion of cellu lar distribution under a microscope and co -culture to determine interactions between cancer and other cells. Phosphorescence-based partial o xygen measurements quantified the o xygen grad ient, which can be controlled by the gas pressure between the inlet and outlet of the device. A monoculture of end othelial cells with an oxygen gradient in the device showed an increase in cell death in the hypoxic area. In addition, Lewis lung carcino ma cells co -cultured with endothelial cells showed gradient-dependent migration through a membrane pore filter, indicating that the interaction between tumor and endothelial cells under hypo xia is crucial in metastasis. The results suggest that the developed microdevice can be used to study the mechanisms of tu mor metastasis under hypoxic conditions.
Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Silvergrass Fiber Cell Walls Evaluated by Nanoindentation

Silvergrass is a natural biological material with high mechanical strength and toughness and has potential as a raw material in wood-based composites. Structure and mechanical properties of fiber cell walls of silvergrass stalk in nanoscale were measured by nanoindentation. Silvergrass fiber cells have multilayered structure and diameter between 5 and 20 μm. Nanoscale mechanical tests showed that fibers of the upper stalk of silvergrass had better mechanical properties than those of the lower stalk and silvergrass fibers had better mechanical properties than wood fibers at the cell wall level. Macrohardness of the silvergrass stalk was 0.330 GPa evaluated from nanoindentation tests. Results found by nanoindentation were also verified by longitudinal tensile strength testing and particleboard manufacture.
Validation of the Goal Content for Exercise Questionnaire (GCEQ) for a sample of elderly Portuguese people

According Sebire, Standage and Vansteenkiste (2008), goals contents (motives) are the major drivers of behavior, giving rise to the goal content theory, which is in the basis of Goal Content for Exercise Questionnaire (GCEQ: Sebire et al., 2008) development. So, the main goal of present study was to conduct the validation of GCEQ for a sample of Portuguese elderly (n = 311), with equal or higher ages than 60 years old (M = 68.53; DP = 6.69). The main results show us that CGEQ measurement model (5 factors, 20 items) only present adequate fit to data after the elimination of 3 items: S-Bχ²=219.9, df=109, p=. 001, SRMR=. 049, TLI=. 916, CFI=. 934, RMSEA=. 057, RMSEA 90% CI=. 046-. 068, PCFI=. 747). Besides that, the 5 factors show us acceptable values of composite reliability: between . 76 and . 88. Those findings allow us to conclude that GCEQ with 5 factors and 17 items can be used to measure goal content in a population of elderly Portuguese people in physical activity domain.
A Light Ion Four Rod RFQ Injector

The four-rod RFQ has been developed in Frankfurt as an alternative solution for ion iniectors. A 202 MHz resonator has been built with design parameters taken from the HERA lnlector (18keV- 750keV, 20mA H 1. Properties of this structure will described and applications as light ion accelerator for particles from an EBIS ion source will be discussed.
EFFECT OF POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL ON IN VITRO GAS PRODUCTION AND DIGESTIBILITY OF TANNIN CONTAINING FEEDSTUFFS FROM NORTH AFRICAN ARID ZONE

The influence of tannins present in arid zone forages from North Africa: Aristida plumosa , Danthonia forskahlii , Astragalus gombiformis , Genista saharae , two date palm fractions (leaves and racemes), and vetch-oat hay taken as control on in vitro gas production and in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) was evaluated. Chemical analysis revealed the low nutritional quality of these forages. They were high in NDF, ADF and lignin (679.5, 455.7 and 86 g/kg DM, respectively) and low in nitrogen ( Astragalus that had 20 g N/kg DM. Phenolic compounds (total phenols, total tannins and total condensed tannins) were 61.8, 49.1 and 36.2 g/kg DM for palm leaves followed by Astragalus , racemes, Genista , Aristida and Danthonia . Gas production ranged between 55.2 and 152.6 mL/g DM whereas IVOMD ranged between 21 and 56.5%. Addition of PEG resulted in an overall increase in both gas production (20.2%) and IVOMD (30.7%), with the exception of Danthonia and Aristida . The largest increment for gas production was recorded for Aristida (low tannins content). However, the higher increase in IVOMD was noted for racemes, Astragalus and palm leaves (high tannins content). The variable responses among forages studied suggest that factors other than phenolic compounds also affect in vitro fermentation.
Impact of Board Gender Diversity on Profitability of Agricultural Listed Companies in Kenya: 2008-2015

The paper examines the impact of board gender diversity on profitability of the agricultural listed companies in the Nairobi Securities Exchange over the period 2008 to 2015. Profitability is measured using Tobin’s Q as a market-based measure, and Return on assets (ROA) as an accounting-based measure. Panel data is analysed using Fixed Effect model and Random Effect model. The results for FEMDIR are mixed and different depending on the measure of profitability. They are negative and significant when using Tobin’s Q and positive and statistically insignificant when ROA is used as the measure of profitability. The moderating variables also give different results depending on the profitability measure. BRDSIZE is negative and statistically significant when using Tobin’s Q and is positive and insignificant when using ROA as the profitability measure. FIRMSIZE is negative and statistically significant when using Tobin’s Q and positive and insignificant when using ROA. Irrespective of the profitability measure used, PWDIR was found to be positive and statistically significant. This means that presence of women on boards of agricultural listed firms will lead to increased profitability. The study recommends that agricultural firms listed at the NSE should ensure that they include women on their boards since the presence of women on boards is found to impact profitability positively. Keywords: Gender Diversity, ROA, Tobin’s Q, Profitability, Board
An F test for linear models with functional responses

Linear models where the response is a function, but the predictors are vectors are considered. A functional F test for choosing among two nested func- tional linear models is developed. Its null distribution is derived and a convenient approximation is presented. A simple way to test individual predictors is presented. The test is applied to some data from Ergonomics and compared to some competing tests. The ability to detect certain types of differences between models is explored. A simulation study is conducted to assess the size and power of the tests. β(t )=( X T X) −1 X T Y (t), where X is the usual n × p design matrix while Y (t) is a vector of functions of length n formed from the yi(t)'s. Eachi(t) is an independent, mean zero, Gaussian stochastic process with a covariance function r(s, t )t hat can be estimated by ˆ(s, t )= 1
Multimedia and image influences in education: some epistemological aspects

Image has a tremendous influence in educational process in different stages. Multimedia, the environment permanently surrounding us nowadays, augments image perception influence on text understanding, and suggests the emotional background. Short-term and long-term memory, are differently influenced by image, its understanding being sometimes completely marked by colour, style, impressionability. Tests, done on image retaining, show the impressing capacity to observe details influencing learning capacity. This paper makes an overview on recent papers in this field, underlining epistemological aspects in direct connection with the educational process.
Propagation of nonlinear acoustic waves in a tunnel with an array of Helmholtz resonators

It is proposed that an array of Helmholtz resonators connected to a tunnel in its axial direction will suppress the propagation of sound generated by a travelling train and especially the emergence of shock waves in the far field. Under the approximation that the resonators may be regarded as continuously distributed, quasi-one-dimensional formulation is given for nonlinear acoustic waves by taking account of not only the resonators but also the wall friction due to the presence of a boundary layer and the diffusivity of sound. For a far-field propagation, the spatial evolution equation coupled with the equation for the response of the resonator is then derived. The linear dispersion relation suggests that the resonators, if appropriately designed, enhance the dissipation and give rise to the dispersion as well. By solving initial-value problems for the evolution equation, the array of resonators is proved to be very effective in suppressing shock waves in the far field. The resonators themselves fail to counteract shock waves once formed, but rather prevent their emergency by rendering acoustic waves dispersive. By this dispersion, it becomes possible, in a special case, for an acoustic soliton to be propagated in place of a shock wave.