Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE IMPACT OF EXTERNAL CORPORATE GOVERNANCE DISCLOSURE ON THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF LARGE RETAIL GROCERS IN THE UK

Due to enormous corporate scandals like Enron and WorldCom, there is an increase in calls for more attention on corporate governance. The main lesson that people learned after such scandals was that they could not trust existing laws and structures to maintain vigilance over corporate business practices, and there is an urgent need to vastly improve transparency and credibility in order to ensure that the stakeholders and the shareholders get the protection they deserve. The current research study determines the significance of corporate governance in relation to financial performance. The researcher encourages the notion that changes in the financial performance of the organisation based on profitability as well as corporate planning based on liquidity and efficiency ratios can be influenced by the level of monitoring of the board of directors. The aim is to use case analyses of some organisations to assess if there is impact of corporate governance reporting on the financial performance of large UK grocers. The study concludes that the investors’ confidence will be strong only if the capital market is strong against numerous monitoring mechanisms, such as internal corporate governance (CG). Through this research it is established that there is a link between corporate governance and the performance of the organisation. It is argued that there is a need for Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison to invest more in promoting accountability at the managerial level. Currently most measures are at the executive level and are effective. The study concludes that financial parameters like ROA (return on assets) are found to be impacted by meetings, board independence, board size and audit committee size. Corporate Governance Dissertation Sample – Newessays.co.uk
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PORT STATE CONTROL IN TAIWAN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PORT STATE CONTROL IN TAIWAN

Port state control (PSC) is the inspection of foreign flagged vessels in national ports to verify that the condition of ships and equipment comply with the requirements of international conventions and that ships are manned and operated in compliance with applicable international laws. To do its duty as an important maritime country to combat substandard shipping and protect marine environment, Taiwan began implementing its PSC system from the beginning of 2003 although it has not been accepted as a member state of the IMO or Tokyo MOU. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the newly implemented PSC system in Taiwan. It is hoped that Taiwan’s experience on launching PSC operations will be a good referral to other country’s system. The major contents include the introduction of the system and the analysis of ship’s inspection re-sults over the past four years. The paper further discusses some in-depth issues about the system including the difficulties of the implementation and the inadequacies of the system.
The effect of a tax shift on the real effective exchange rate

The literature has long recognized that the effects of a devaluation of the nominal exchange rate might be indirectly achieved through a revenue neutral tax shift, which is usually referred to as “internal” of “fiscal” devaluation. The existing literature focuses mainly on the effect of such a fiscal policy on the trade balance of a country or on growth. However, a change in the tax mix may affect trade and growth through different channels. The aim of this paper is to provide evidence on the effects of a revenue neutral tax shift, such as the fiscal devaluation, on a country’s real exchange rate.
Enhancing LINE-MOD Object Recognition with Winner Take All and Fast Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search

We explore several extension to the LINE-MOD detection and object recognition algorithm [1] to further improve upon its speed, scalability and invariance properties. More specifically, we use the Winner Take All (WTA) algorithm [2] combined with Fast Library for Approximate Nearest Neighbors (FLANN) to speed up the template matching process by transforming the template feature vectors into lower dimensional hashes and by using an approximate nearest neighbor approach to limit our template search space. In addition, we explore the use of depth image to make LINEMod detection scale invariant. We analyse the speed improvement as well as performance effects WTA has on the original LINE-Mod algorithm.
UAV Path Planning for Civil Applications

We will present a simple and efficient algorithm for solving the path planning problem for civil UAV operating in a dynamic or incomplete environment. This algorithm searches for a continuous waypoints sequence starting from the initial configuration, visiting all the desired locations and reaching the final position. We will present our proposed algorithm on two steps: The first produces a sorted location set. The second step generates an optimal path for the overall mission. The same algorithm constructs the initial path or re-plans a new one when changes occur to the configuration space. To prove the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm, we will provide computer simulations. A comparison of many results will show that this algorithm yields good experience performance over a wide variety of examples.
Chapter 1 55 Years of the Rossmann Fold

The Rossmann fold is one of the most commonly observed structural domains in proteins. The fold is composed of consecutive alternating β-strands and α-helices that form a layer of β-sheet with one (or two) layer(s) of α-helices. Here, we will discuss the Rossmann fold starting from its discovery 55 years ago, then overview entries of the fold in the major protein classification databases, SCOP and CATH, as well as the number of the occurrences of the fold in genomes. We also discuss the Rossmann fold as an interesting target of protein engineering as the site-directed mutagenesis of the fold can alter the ligand-binding specificity of the structure.
On the Detection of Malicious Behaviors against Introspection Using Hardware Architectural Events

The arms race between offense and defense in the cloud impels the innovation of techniques for monitoring attacks and unauthorized activities. The promising technique of virtual machine introspection (VMI) becomes prevalent for its tamper-resistant capability. However, some elaborate exploitations are capable of invalidating VMI-based tools by breaking the assumption of a trusted guest kernel. To achieve a more reliable and robust introspection, we introduce a practical approach to monitor and detect attacks that attempt to subvert VMI in this paper. Our approach combines supervised machine learning and hardware architectural events to identify those malicious behaviors which are targeted at VMI techniques. To demonstrate the feasibility, we implement a prototype named HyperMon on the Xen hypervisor. The results of our evaluation show the effectiveness of HyperMon in detecting malicious behaviors with an average accuracy of 90.51% (AUC). key words: virtual machine introspection, hardware architectural events, supervised machine learning
Changes in Consumers’ Meat Demand during the Dioxin Scandal in Germany: The Role of the Media and Consumer Attitudes Veränderungen der Fleischnachfrage durch den Dioxin Skandal: Die Rolle der Medien und Verbrauchereinstellungen

This study investigates household’s demand responses to the German dioxin scandal in 2011 based on GfK Consumer Scan panel data focusing on the effect of media coverage and consumption habits. In contrast to pork demand, the media had a significant negative effect on the propensity to purchase poultry as well as the quantity purchased. We found evidence that strong habit persistence compensated the negative influence of household media exposure. This indicates the importance of considering also other factors (e.g. risk perception), to explain changes in consumers’ meat demand during food scandals.
Interaction of Moral Identity Centrality and Moral Disengagement of Individuals at Workplace

The aim of this study was to examine interaction of moral identity centrality and moral disengagement of individuals at a workplace. Moral identity centrality plays an important role in decreasing the level of moral disengagement in the employees. The study also examined the mediating effect of different attitudes i.e cynicism and perception of organizational politics. This research has been carried out in two parts i.e. pilot and main study. Pilot study’s aim was to examine the instruments’ properties of fitness. Data for this research was collected through cross-sectional survey using questionnaire. Convenient sampling technique was used to collect the data from 400 employees working in the service sector of Rawalpindi and Islamabad region of Pakistan. The analysis has been done through SPSS and AMOS using CFA and SEM. The findings validate the proposed model, with significant direct correlations observed between moral identity centrality and employee behavior with the significant effect of mediators.
OP-CBIO190730 1..11

Motivation: Graph embedding learning that aims to automatically learn low-dimensional node representations, has drawn increasing attention in recent years. To date, most recent graph embedding methods are evaluated on social and information networks and are not comprehensively studied on biomedical networks under systematic experiments and analyses. On the other hand, for a variety of biomedical network analysis tasks, traditional techniques such as matrix factorization (which can be seen as a type of graph embedding methods) have shown promising results, and hence there is a need to systematically evaluate the more recent graph embedding methods (e.g. random walk-based and neural network-based) in terms of their usability and potential to further the state-of-the-art. Results: We select 11 representative graph embedding methods and conduct a systematic comparison on 3 important biomedical link prediction tasks: drug-disease association (DDA) prediction, drug–drug interaction (DDI) prediction, protein–protein interaction (PPI) prediction; and 2 node classification tasks: medical term semantic type classification, protein function prediction. Our experimental results demonstrate that the recent graph embedding methods achieve promising results and deserve more attention in the future biomedical graph analysis. Compared with three state-of-the-art methods for DDAs, DDIs and protein function predictions, the recent graph embedding methods achieve competitive performance without using any biological features and the learned embeddings can be treated as complementary representations for the biological features. By summarizing the experimental results, we provide general guidelines for properly selecting graph embedding methods and setting their hyper-parameters for different biomedical tasks. Availability and implementation: As part of our contributions in the paper, we develop an easy-to-use Python package with detailed instructions, BioNEV, available at: https://github.com/xiangyue9607/BioNEV, including all source code and datasets, to facilitate studying various graph embedding methods on biomedical tasks. Contact: yue.149@osu.edu or sun.397@osu.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Line Load Analysis of Live Load Models for Short to Medium Span Lengths Bridges in Pakistan

In bridge designing the live loads plays an important role. Most of the developed countries have their own code for highway bridges design specification while the other countries adopt certain renowned design codes but with certain additions to meet their demands. In Pakistan, two different codes are followed for designing of bridges i-e American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and West Pakistan Code of Practice for Highway Bridge. But both of these codes live load models are not representative of the present truck traffic situation in Pakistan. For this research study, the MULLA MANSOOR weighing station was selected which is located on Grand Trunk road of Pakistan. This paper aim is to study the statistical analysis of weigh in motion data and comparative analysis of short to medium span length typical I girder bridges ie 10m to 50m with 5m increment. This will help in comparing the live load effects with the actual truck traffic data for proposing a new live load model in Pakistan. The method applied for achieving the objectives is based on Line load analysis i-e Load Resistance Factor Design Equations spreadsheet for bridges design in Pakistan for developing the Live load model and modification in codes.
Power Quality Evaluation for Electrical Installation of Hospital Building

This paper presents improvements to the quality of power in hospital building installations using power capacitors. Power quality in the distribution network is an important issue that must be considered in the electric power system. One important variable that must be found in the quality of the power distribution system is the power factor. The power factor plays an essential role in determining the efficiency of a distribution network. A good power factor will make the distribution system very efficient in using electricity. Hospital building installation is one component in the distribution network that is very important to analyze. Nowadays, hospitals have a lot of computer-based medical equipment. This medical equipment contains many electronic components that significantly affect the power factor of the system. In this study, power quality analysis has been carried out on the building installation of one of the largest hospitals in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In the initial condition, the power losses at the facility were quite high. Installation of power capacitors in these installations can improve the power factor, and ultimately improve the performance of the electrical installation system in the hospital building.
AN INSIDER’S PERSPECTIVE: THE EXPERIENCE OF PARENTS AND GENDER VARIANT YOUTH WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

While a growing body of research has documented the co-occurrence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and gender variance, only a handful of published studies have investigated the perspectives and experiences of gender variant youth with ASD. Current clinical care guidelines for this population have generally been obtained through expert knowledge and fail to consider the perspectives of key stakeholders with an insider perspective such as youth and their caregivers. As such, two semi-structured focus-groups and an individual interview were conducted to explore the experiences and perspectives of four gender variant youth with ASD and three of their parents. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes. This study seeks to increase our understanding of this population, identify avenues for future research, and contribute to improving the quality of clinical services for gender variant youth with ASD.
Design and tests of a silicon detector module for ATLAS Semiconductor Tracker Endcaps

The ATLAS Semiconductor Tracker (SCT) will be a central part of the tracking system of the ATLAS experiment. The SCT consists of 4 concentric barrels of silicon detectors as well as two silicon endcap detectors formed by 9 disks each. The layout of the forward silicon detector module presented in this paper is based on the approved layout of the silicon detectors of the SCT, their geometry and arrangement in disks, but uses otherwise components identical to the barrel modules of the SCT. The module layout has been optimized for excellent thermal management and electrical performance, while keeping the assembly simple and adequate for a large scale module production. This paper summarizes the design and layout of the module and present results of a limited prototype production, which has been extensively tested in the laboratory and testbeam. keywords: silicon strip detector, LHC, ATLAS experiment, radiation hardness, thermal management
Evaluation of visual-motor integration skills in preschool and elementary school-aged Chinese children

Purpose. The Beery VMI test is a relatively culture independent method to assess visual motor integration and identify potential learning disabilities. This study provides a practical, quantitative basis for application of the VMI in China. Methods. 356 children randomly selected from six kindergarten and elementary schools located in two different cities in China. Administration and scoring instructions were adapted directly from the test manual. Results. VMI performance of Chinese children was significantly higher than that of U.S. children in the majority of age categories. Significant differences were also observed for residence, and for gender (female performance exceeded males). Conclusions. Children of different cultures and educational backgrounds may show performance differences on the Beery VMI test. Customized scoring criteria are recommended for application of the Beery VMI in China.
Civil War and Post-Conflict Physical Capital Reconstruction in Africa1

Africa’s image as a war-prone region with bleak economic prospects is changing. Most of the conflicts that raged in the 1980s and 1990s have ended. For the first time in 50 years, there are currently more cases of post-conflict than conflict countries. Thus, instead of focusing on conflict resolution, it is time that more attention is given to post-conflict reconstruction, understood in terms of physical and non-physical capital accumulation. Domestic savings, fiscal revenue, foreign aid and capital flight repatriation are important funding modalities of reconstruction. Therefore, one of the priorities of post-conflict reconstruction must be to put in place the necessary institutional and physical infrastructure to rebuild the financial systems, limit capital flight and foster capital repatriation, and adopt policies that encourage the donor community to provide and sustain large amounts of aid – the main source of funding of the reconstruction process in the short to medium term following a civil war.
A MODEL FOR INTERPRETATION OF BRINE-DEPENDENT SPONTANEOUS IMBIBITION EXPERIMENTS

Previous experimental results for spontaneous imbibition experiments in the context of chalk cores have revealed a rather puzzling behavior: The oil recovery curves, both the shape as well as the steady state level which is reached, depend strongly on the brine composition. In particular, it has been demonstrated that Mg2+, SO2− 4 , and Ca 2+ play a central role in this physico-chemical system. A good theoretical understanding of these experimental results, in terms of mathematical models that can suggest possible explanations of the lab experiments as well as predict behavior not yet tested in the lab, seems to still be lacking. The purpose of this paper is to try to shed light on some important modeling aspects. The model we propose is an extended version of the classical Buckley-Leverett (BL) equation for two-phase spontaneous imbibition where the water saturation equation has been coupled to a system of reaction-diffusion (RD) equations describing water-rock chemistry relevant for chalk core plugs. As far as water-rock chemistry is concerned we focus in this work on the combined effect of transport and dissolution/precipitation of calcite, magnesite, and anhydrite. The line we pursue is to couple changes of the wetting state, expressed in terms of the relative permeability and capillary pressure functions, to the water-rock chemistry behavior. More precisely, we build into the model the mechanism that the rock surface will become more water-wet at the places where dissolution of calcite takes place. In particular, we illustrate and analyze how different compositions of the imbibing brine then lead to different water-rock interaction scenarios which in turn gives qualitative and quantitative differences in the solution of the saturation equation describing spontaneous imbibition. Comparison with relevant experimental behavior is included as well as illustration of some possible interesting and non-trivial characteristic features of the model reflecting the nonlinear coupling mechanisms between the RD model for the water-rock chemistry and the BL equation for the water-oil transport. Subject classification. 76T10, 76N10, 65M12, 35L65
Dutch factuality classification Using machine translation to create a Dutch version of FactBank

People refer in texts to events that may or may not have happened. Information about how the writer presents an event is called event factuality. Factuality is separated in certainty and polarity. FactBank is an English corpus consisting of events and their corresponding factuality values. There is no such corpus for Dutch, even though this information could be interesting to have. In this project, TechoMT and Google Translate are used to create a Dutch version of FactBank. Sentences are represented by a word vector using frequency information combined with syntactical distance to represent scope. A stochastic gradient learning routine is trained to make a classifier for Dutch. The classifier is tested on a small Dutch corpus consisting of factuality values. The results show that the certainty classification does not perform better than majority-class baseline. Polarity classification however, does perform better. An F-measure of 0.98 is achieved.
Forced Vibration Analysis of Laminated Composite Shells Reinforced with Graphene Nanoplatelets Using Finite Element Method

This paper carries out forced vibration analysis of graphene nanoplatelet-reinforced composite laminated shells in thermal environments by employing the finite element method (FEM). Material properties including elastic modulus, specific gravity, and Poisson’s ratio are determined according to the Halpin–Tsai model. The first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT), which is based on the 8-node isoparametric element to establish the oscillation equation of shell structure, is employed in this work. We then code the computing program in the MATLAB application and examine the verification of convergence rate and reliability of the program by comparing the data of present work with those of other exact solutions. The effects of both geometric parameters and mechanical properties of materials on the forced vibration of the structure are investigated.
Optimal treatment of agricultural land – special multi-depot vehicle routing problem

This paper describes a problem of optimal agricultural land treatment using aviation. The studied problem consists of determining the optimal routes for a given set of aircraft used for chemical treatment of arable agricultural land divided into parcels. This NP (nondeterministic polynomial time) problem is represented on a graph and a mixed integer mathematical programming model of the problem is formulated. This mathematical model is a specific variant of the multi-depot vehicle routing problem where a min-cost plan for the transportation of a homogeneous product (chemicals used for land treatment) from different supply locations (airfields) to different demand locations (agricultural parcels) should be generated. Some specifics of the agricultural land chemical treatment are described in the paper and the following specific conditions are taken into consideration: each parcel is treated only by one way of treatment and one aircraft; for each aircraft its chemical and fuel reservoir capacities are sufficient to serve its route. The complexity of the problem and the impossibility to obtain exact solutions for larger dimensions of the problem led to the formulation of a special heuristics which is presented in this paper. Numerical experiments are successfully conducted for larger problem dimensions and results are presented.