Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Y 8 TZ Semi-Parametric Modelling of Correlation Dynamics

In this paper we develop a new semi-parametric model for conditional correlations, which combines parametric univariate GARCH-type specifications for the individual conditional volatilities with nonparametric kernel regression for the conditional correlations. This approach not only avoids the proliferation of parameters as the number of assets becomes large, which typically happens in conventional multivariate conditional volatility models, but also the rigid structure imposed by more parsimonious models, such as the dynamic conditional correlation model. An empirical application to the 30 Dow Jones stocks demonstrates that the model is able to capture interesting asymmetries in correlations and that it is competitive with standard parametric models in terms of constructing minimum variance portfolios and minimum tracking error portfolios.
Spousal Purchasing Behavior as an Influence on Brand Equity

A debate has been gaining notice between Wall Street (financial market) and Main Street (consumer market) as to what level the firmâ€™s brand equity actually is. Married household purchasing is a large segment of the retail sector and important to brand strategy. Furthermore, a thirty-year trend has been that more husbands are not working and more wives are. This has impacted marital shopping roles and its influence on branding efforts. This is a Main Street (consumer, retail market) study of customer-based brand equity that focuses on married males and females. Using comparative (t-test) and multivariate (regression) analysis of 263 hypermarket shoppers, particular influences are significant to brand equity. Store image, price deal, distribution intensity and purchase experience are important factors to married males and females and to build household brand equity. The results have implications for branding researchers and brand managers.
Factorial invariance of the Physical Self-Concept Scale in Mexican students

espanolEl presente estudio analiza las propiedades psicometricas propuestos por Blanco, Blanco, Viciana y Zueck (2015) para la escala de autoconcepto fisico (CAF). La muestra total fue de 1500 universitarios mexicanos, con una edad media de 20.69 anos (± DE=2.33). Los analisis factoriales confirmatorios mostraron que una estructura de dos factores es viable y adecuada para ambos grupos (hombres y mujeres). La estructura de dos factores (competencia motora y atractivo fisico), atendiendo a criterios estadisticos y sustantivos, ha mostrado adecuados indicadores de ajuste de fiabilidad y validez. Ademas, la estructura factorial, las cargas factoriales y los interceptos se consideran invariantes en las dos poblaciones estudiadas; sin embargo, existen diferencias entre las poblaciones para las medias de los factores. Futuras investigaciones deberian replicar estos hallazgos en muestras mas amplias. EnglishThe present study analyses the psychometric properties proposed by Blanco, Blanco, Viciana, and Zueck (2015) for the Physical Self-Concept Scale (CAF). The total sample consisted of 1,500 Mexican university students, with a mean age of 20.69 years (± SD = 2.33). Confirmatory factorial analyses showed that a two-factor structure is viable and adequate for both studied groups (men and women). The structure of two factors (motor competence and physical attractiveness), according to statistical and substantive criteria, has shown adequate indicators of reliability and validity adjustment. In addition, the factorial structure, factor loads and intercepts are considered invariant in the two groups studied. However, differences between the two groups for the factor means were found. Further research should replicate these findings in larger samples.
The Impact of the Family on Entrepreneurial Outcomes : The Role of Social Embeddedness

We investigate factors that influence family business owners' choice between passing ownership within the family or to new external owners. Taking an embeddedness perspective focusing on owner-family structure and involvement, we hypothesize that ownership dispersion, number of potential heirs, multigenerational involvement, and whether the chief executive officer is a family member influence the choice of an internal or external transition of ownership. We build a longitudinal data set from a sample of 3,829 family firms and their ownership transitions. Our theorizing and findings regarding ownership transitions complements the abundant research on management succession and therefore constitutes an important contribution to the literature.
Near-field emission profiling of tropical forest and Cerrado fires in Brazil during SAMBBA 2012

Abstract. We profile trace gas and particulate emissions from near-field airborne measurements of discrete smoke plumes in Brazil during the 2012 biomass burning season. The South American Biomass Burning Analysis (SAMBBA) Project conducted during September and October 2012 sampled across two distinct fire regimes prevalent in the Amazon Basin. Combined measurements from a Compact Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (C-ToF-AMS) and a Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) are reported for the first time in a tropical biomass burning environment. Emissions from a mostly smouldering tropical forest wildfire in Rondonia state and numerous smaller flaming Cerrado fires in Tocantins state are presented. While the Cerrado fires appear to be representative of typical fire conditions in the existing literature, the tropical forest wildfire likely represents a more extreme example of biomass burning with a bias towards mostly smouldering emissions. We determined fire-integrated modified combustion efficiencies, emission ratios and emission factors for trace gas and particulate components for these two fire types, alongside aerosol microphysical properties. Seven times more black carbon was emitted from the Cerrado fires per unit of fuel combustion (EF BC of 0.13 ± 0.04 g kg−1 ) compared to the tropical forest fire (EF BC of 0.019 ± 0.006 g kg−1 ), and more than 6 times the amount of organic aerosol was emitted from the tropical forest fire per unit of fuel combustion (EF OM of 8.00 ± 2.53 g kg−1 , EF OC of 5.00 ± 1.58 g kg−1 ) compared to the Cerrado fires (EF OM of 1.31 ± 0.42 g kg−1 , EF OC of 0.82 ± 0.26 g kg−1 ). Particulate-phase species emitted from the fires sampled are generally lower than those reported in previous studies and in emission inventories, which is likely a combination of differences in fire combustion efficiency and fuel mixture, along with different measurement techniques. Previous modelling studies focussed on the biomass burning season in tropical South America have required significant scaling up of emissions to reproduce in situ and satellite aerosol concentrations over the region. Our results do not indicate that emission factors used in inventories are biased low, which could be one potential cause of the reported underestimates in modelling studies. This study supplements and updates trace gas and particulate emission factors for fire-type-specific biomass burning in Brazil for use in weather and climate models. The study illustrates that initial fire conditions can result in substantial differences in terms of their emitted chemical components, which can potentially perturb the Earth system.
Convection Effects on PGSE-NMR Self-Diffusion Measurements at Low Temperature: Investigation into Sources of Induced Convective Flows

The effects of convection on the measurement of the diffusion coefficients of liquids by the pulsed gradient spin echo (PGSE) NMR method at low temperature are discussed. To examine the generation of convective flows, we used four different types of sample tubes in the diffusion measurements with temperature variation; a normal 5 mm NMR tube, a Shigemi tube, an ELISE type tube, and a capillary tube. Below room temperature, the calculated diffusion coefficients of chloroform in 5 mm o.d. type tubes increased with decreasing temperature, while those in the capillary tube decreased linearly. The convective flow was found to be significant even at low temperature and it seemed to be mainly induced by the transverse temperature gradient. It was also found that the capillary tube was most appropriate to measure the diffusion coefficients, since its small diameter is effective in suppressing the convective flows at both high and low temperatures.
On the Design of Inclusive Institutions in Mitigating Political Violence: Evidence from Basque Municipalities

This paper presents micro-level evidence indicating that the presence of relatively less inclusive political institutions increases political violence in ethnolinguistically-fractionalized jurisdictions. In the context of predominant expressive voting based on citizens’ ethnolinguistic identity, I find evidence that the lack of inclusive political institutions relative to the size of an ethnic group in a given jurisdiction generates targeted street violence. I use municipal-level data from the Basque autonomous community and employ a negative binomial panel fixed effects model. First, I show that the reciprocal of a council size in a proportional representation electoral system acts as an electoral threshold, in which small-sized councils may exceed its legislated counterpart. I find that a higher share of Basque speakers relative to the reciprocal of council size has a negative effect in the annual number of riots, an effect that is observed only in municipal pre-election years. In addition, by interacting the key regressor with the binary indicator for hung parliament, I find that the baseline effect is driven by the legislative channel but not by the executive channel of political representation.
Comparative Growth Inhibitory Assay Of The Methanol Extract Of The Leaf And Seed Of Persea americana Mill (Lauraceae)

Persea americana is one of the recipes used by traditional healers in parts of Edo State of Nigeria for the treatment of cancer. This claim was investigated using predictive bench-top assay method of germinating seeds radicle of guinea corn (Sorghum bicolor). The powdered leaves and seeds were extracted by Soxhlet using methanol. The growth inhibitory effect was examined using radicle lengths of germinating seeds of Sorghum bicolor at 1-30 mg/ml. The methanol extract of the leaf of Persea americana was subjected to solvent partitioning. Phytochemical screening showed the presence of saponins, flavonoids, tannins and cardiac glycosides with no traces of anthracene derivatives. The aqueous fraction was more active than the chloroform fraction and completely inhibited the germination of the seeds at 20mg/ml. The results suggest the probable use of the plant in preparing recipes for tumor-related ailments. However, using appropriate human cell lines will further justify this claim Keyword: Persea americana, Growth Inhibitory, Phytochemical, Sorghum bicolor
The strategic importance of identifying knowledge-based and intangible assets for generating value, competitiveness and innovation in sub-Saharan Africa

This article discusses the strategic importance of identifying intangible assets for creating value and enhancing competitiveness and innovation in science and technology in a knowledge economy with particular reference to the sub-Saharan Africa region. It has always been difficult to gather the prerequisite information to manage such assets and create value from them. The paper discusses the nature of intangible assets, the characteristics of a knowledge economy and the role of knowledge workers in a knowledge economy. The paper also discusses the importance of identifying intangible assets in relation to capturing the value of such assets, the transfer of intangible assets to other owners and the challenges of managing organizational intangible assets. Objectives of the article include: underscoring the strategic importance of identifying intangible assets in sub-Saharan Africa; examining the performance of intangible assets in a knowledge economy; how intangible assets may generate competitiveness, economic growth and innovation; and assess how knowledge workers are becoming a dominant factor in the knowledge economy. An extensive literature review was employed to collect data for this article. It is concluded in the article that organizations and governments in sub-Saharan Africa should look at knowledge-based assets as strategic resources, even though the traditional accounting systems may still be having problems in determining the exact book value of such assets. It is recommended that organizations and government departments in sub-Saharan Africa should implement a system of the reporting of the value of intangible organizational assets just like the reporting of the value of tangible assets; and that organizations in sub-Saharan Africa should use knowledge to produce "smart products and services" which command premium prices.
The Impact of Big Five Personality Traits on Salespeople's Performance : Exploring the Moderating Role of Culture

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of Big Five Factor of personality traits on salespeople’s’ performance, taking into consideration the mediating role of customer orientation, as well as exploring the moderating role of culture. Design/Methodology/Approach – The Big Five Factor (BFF) of personality traits was used in this paper base on salespeople’s performance literature. This paper proposed a framework with customer orientation as a mediating factor and culture as a moderating factor of salespeople’s performance. Findings – Research on salespeople’s performance is an ongoing process, which has attracted much attention from various stakeholders to find out befitting combination of factors for effective salespeople’s performance. This paper found out that no specific sets of factors could lead to effective salespeople’s performance in all situations because performance is a context-based outcome. The big five factor alone cannot effectively explain salespeople’s performance. Salespeople’s customer orientation can play a significant mediating role in the big five-factor framework in predicting salespeople’s performance. Additionally, the moderating effect of salespeople’s culture in the proposed model is revealed to help enormously in determining differences, if any, in the salespeople’s performance. Originality/value - The in-depth review of different factors influencing salespeople’s performance helps practitioners (such as sales managers, executives, supervisors, as well as human resource managers) by signifying which combinations of factors can best predict better salespeople’s’ performance in particular instances, hence assist proper decision as regards to potential sales team. In addition, the proposed framework in this paper helps researchers by providing a tool for systematic evaluation and testing of real empirical situation of salespeople’s’ performance.
A new method for estimating UV fluxes at ground level in cloud-free conditions

A new method has been developed to estimate the global and direct solar irradiance in the UV-A and UV-B, at ground level in cloud-free conditions. It is based on a resampling technique applied to the results of the k -distribution method and the correlated- k approximation of Kato et al. (1999) over the UV band. Its inputs are the aerosol properties, and total column ozone that are produced by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). The estimates from this new method have been compared to instantaneous measurements of global UV irradiances made in cloud-free conditions at five stations at high latitudes in various climates. For the total or UV-A global irradiance, the bias ranges between −0.8 W m −2 (−3 % of the mean of all data) and −0.2 W m −2 (−1%). The root mean square error (RMSE) ranges from 1.1 W m −2 (6 %) to 1.9 W m −2 (9 %). The coefficient of determination R 2 is greater than 0.98. The bias for UV-B is between −0.04 W m −2 (−4 %) and 0.08 W m −2 (+13 %) and the RMSE is 0.1 W m −2 (between 12 % and 18 %). R 2 ranges between 0.97 and 0.99. This work demonstrates the quality of the proposed method combined with the CAMS products. Improvements, especially in the modelling of the reflectivity of the Earth's surface in the UV region, are necessary prior its inclusion into an operational tool.
Generating Test Data for Software Structural Testing using Particle Swarm Optimization

Search-based test data generation is a very popular domain in the field of automatic test data generation. However, existing search-based test data generators suffer fromsome problems. By combining static program analysis and search-based testing, our proposed approach overcomesone of these problems. Considering the automatic ability and the path coverage as the test adequacycriterion, this paper proposes using Particle Swarm Optimization, an alternative search technique, for automating the generation of test data for evolutionary structural testing. Experimental results demonstrate that our test data generator can generate suitable test data with higher path coverage than the previous one. Received 26 Jun 2017; Revised 28 Nov 2017; Accepted 20 Dec 2017
Americas Conference on Information Systems ( AMCIS ) December 2002 THE IMPACT OF TWO ESSENTIAL WEB SITE BUILDING COMPONENTS : THE EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE HYPERLINK AND NODE

To investigate the impact of the usage of number of hyperlinks and node size in Web sites on users perceptions, laboratory experiments were conducted using four versions of Web sites developed by the authors with undergraduate students at the University of Mississippi. Data were gathered through a post experiment questionnaire and post-test, and then analyzed and investigated for the impact of hyperlink and node on the efficacy of Web site designs. Principal components analysis followed by varimax rotations was conducted to evaluate factorial validity. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients were also computed to confirm the significant internal reliabilities among the measures. Population equality was checked by Levene test using pretest scores. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with follow-up univariate tests (two-way ANOVAs) was used to verify proposed hypotheses. Results of the study indicate that the hyperlink and node of the Web sites are very important to deliver more positive users' perceptions. This study found that Web site structure designed with many hyperlinks and small node size yields the most positive users' perceptions.
Biomedical Applications of Multiferroic Nanoparticles

Magnetic nanoparticles with functionalized surfaces have recently found numerous applications in biology, medicine and biotechnology [1,2]. Some application concern in vitro applications such as magnetic tweezers and magnetic separation of proteins and DNA molecules. Therapeutic applications include hyperthermia [3], targeted delivery of drugs and radioactive isotopes for chemotherapy and radiotherapy and contrast enhancement in magnetic resonance imaging. In this chapter we describe an entirely new concept of using magnetic/piezoelectric composite nanoparticles for stimulation of vital functions of living cells.
Discrete echo signal modeling of ultrasound imaging systems

In this paper, a discrete model representing the pulse-tissue interaction in the medical ultrasound scanning and imaging process is developed. The model is based on discretizing the acoustical wave equation and is in terms of convolution between the input ultrasound pulses and the tissue mass density variation. Such a model can provide a useful means for ultrasound echo signal processing and imaging. Most existing models used for ultrasound imaging are based on frequency domain transform. A disadvantage of the frequency domain transform is that it is only applicable to shift-invariant models. Thus it has ignored the shift-variant nature of the original acoustic wave equation where the tissue compressibility and mass density distributions are spatial-variant factors. The discretized frequency domain model also obscures the compressibility and mass density representations of the tissue, which may mislead the physical understanding and interpretation of the image obtained. Moreover, only the classical frequency domain filtering methods have been applied to the frequency domain model for acquiring some tissue information from the scattered echo signals. These methods are non-parametric and require a prior knowledge of frequency spectra of the transmitted pulses. Our proposed model technique will lead to discrete, multidimensional, shift-variant and parametric difference or convolution equations with the transmitted pulse pressure as the input, the measurement data of the echo signals as the output, and functions of the tissue compressibility and mass density distributions as shift-variant parameters that can be readily identified from input-output measurements. The proposed model represents the entire multiple scattering process, and hence overcomes the key limitation in the current ultrasound imaging methods.
Development of GAL4/VP16 Facilitated-enhancer Trap System for Rice Crop Improvement

Pengembangan Sistem Perangkap Enhancer yang Difasilitasi oleh Aktivator Transkripsi GAL4/VP16 untuk Perbaikan Tanaman Padi. Sri Koerniati dan Andrzej Kilian. Peningkatan produksi padi untuk memenuhi kebutuhan nasional dilakukan melalui perbaikan tanaman, termasuk pencarian dan isolasi gen-gen baru melalui mutasi. Aplikasi berbagai sekuen mutagen, elemen loncat atau T-DNA, didukung dengan teknik PCR merupakan perdekatan yang lebih baik dibandingkan dengan metode klasik. Perangkap enhancer adalah sistem yang dikembangkan untuk mengatasi masalah rendahnya tingkat perolehan mutan, akibat banyak gen berfungsi sama atau satu gen berfungsi pada beberapa tingkat perkembangan tanaman. Sistem ini mampu menampilkan ekspresi pada jaringan tertentu (spatial) dan atau pada waktu tertentu (temporal) pada tanaman hemizigot (hemizygous plants). Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk (1) mengembangkan vector cassette perangkap enhancer dengan komponen utama aktivator transkripsi GAL4/VP16 dan dua gen reporter (gus dan gusPlus), dan (2) memperoleh informasi tentang ekspresinya pada padi. Sepuluh vector diperoleh dan ditransformasikan ke kalus padi Nipponbare dan Millin dengan Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Kajian vektor melalui ekspresi gen reporter diamati pada kalus 3 hari setelah co-cultivation dan jaringan vegetatif dari 745 lini penangkap enhancer. Sembilan puluh lima persen nomor memiliki ekspresi dan persentase lebih tinggi daripada yang telah dilaporkan sebelumnya. Lini dengan vektor GAL4/VP16 delesi tidak memiliki ekspresi pada kalus dan jaringan vegetatif, walaupun hasil Southern Blot menunjukkan tanaman ini memiliki dua T-DNA. Tiga puluh dua persen lini gusPlus memiliki ekspresi yang kuat, sedangkan 30% berekspresi lemah dibandingkan dengan masing-masing 12% dan 47% untuk lini gus. Lini gusPlus juga tersebar pada lebih banyak pola ekspresi. Jumlah insersi pada lini perangkap enhancer berkisar antara 1-7 T-DNA dan 49% di antaranya memiliki satu T-DNA. gusPlus merupakan gen reporter yang lebih sensitif daripada gus dan GAL4/VP16 terbukti berfungsi.