Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shareholder Value Index for Saudi Banks

This paper aims to examine the shareholder value efficiency and build a Shareholder Value Index for Saudi banks between 2010 and 2014. Shareholder value efficiency is measured using value based performance metrics and binary logistic regression model was adopted to develop the Shareholder Value Index for Saudi banks. The Shareholder Value Index developed provides the probability of a bank’s competence to create/erode shareholders' wealth. The study finds that Economic Value Added (EVA) is the value-based performance metric that comes closer than any other to capture the true Economic Profit and the market performance (Market Value Added) of banks. Positive EVA of most of the commercial banks denote that they are more Shareholder value efficient than Islamic banks. High Market Value Added (MVA) represents a highly positive outlook of the investors on the Saudi banks' performance. Value creation is significantly linked to high Net Operating Profit After Tax and a low cost of capital. The most significant observation is that not all banks with highest capital employed are the highest value creators. The Shareholder Value Index developed indicate that majority of Saudi banks demonstrate a higher probability of shareholder value creation. Few Islamic banks showed a less probability of wealth creation for the period of study and are predicted to improve the shareholder value creation ability through their aggressive strategy in the future.
Ab initio study of the half-metal to metal transition in strained magnetite

Using density-functional theory, we investigate the stability of the half-metallic ground state of magnetite under different strain conditions. The effects of volume relaxation and internal degrees of freedom are fully taken into account. For hydrostatic compression, planar strain in the (001) plane and uniaxial strain along the [001] direction, we derive quantitative limits beyond which magnetite becomes metallic. As a major new result, we identify the bond length between the octahedrally coordinated iron atoms and their neighbouring oxygen atoms as the main characteristic parameter, and we show that the transition occurs if external strain reduces this interatomic distance from 2.06 Å in equilibrium to below a critical value of 1.99 Å. Based on this criterion, we also argue that planar strain due to epitaxial growth does not lead to a metallic state for magnetite films grown on (111)-oriented substrates.
Researching Social Networks in Action

De nombreuses communautes a travers le Canada sont aujourd'hui mises au defi par des conditions proches de la desintegration sociale et economique. Comme les institutions reduisent fortement leur participation financiere dans les services sociaux, les citoyens doivent de plus en plus avoir recours a leur propres reseaux de soutien, tels la famille, les amis et les voisins. Cet article pose en outre la question de l'orientation de la recherche en science sociale, dont la methodologie traditionnelle est influencee par les transformations economiques et politiques de la societe. L'exemple de la communaute de Hespeler, Ontario, permet de mettre en evidence les reseaux et la maniere dont ces reseaux ont ete mis en place et maintenus par la communaute. L'article repose sur le programme action-recherche mis en place par les AA. pour repondre aux interrogations relatives au renforcement des structures de soutien local
Issues in Greening China’s Electricity Sector

China’s electric power generating industry has developed rapidly since the reform era began in 1978 (Figures 19.1 and 19.2). The average annual growth rates of installed power capacity and power generation were 7.8 per cent and 7.9 per cent respectively from 1978 to the end of the last century. This meant that from 1996 China was ranked second in the world for both installed power capacity and power generation. By 2011 China’s power generation had exceeded that of the United States, to make China the largest power generator in the world (BP 2015). Installed power generation capacity reached 1,247 GW by the end of 2013, thus also exceeding the United States, according to the Electric power construction industry annual report 2013 (China Electric Power Construction Enterprise Association 2014). By 2014, power generation had reached 5,649 terawatt-hours (TWh), accounting for 24 per cent of the global total (BP 2015), and installed capacity had reach more than 1,360 GW—22.66 per cent of the global total (China Renewable Energy Society 2015).
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES OF ACCELERATOR INSTRUMENTS FOR SACLA

The X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL), SACLA, is constantly operated for user experiments aimed at new science. However, experimental users demand further experimental abilities to XFEL facilities, such as many experiment chances by using multi-X-ray beamlines, much better repeatability of experimental conditions and further intense high-energy X-rays. To equip SACLA with these abilities in the future, we developed a 2 /3 quasi-constant gradient accelerating structure with an acceleration gradient of over 50 MV/m in order to adapt operation for generating the intense high-energy X-rays. A high-voltage power supply to charge the PFN of a klystron modulator, a klystron and an accelerating structure were also developed in order to upgrade a machine repletion cycle to 120 pps from the present 60 pps, since 120 pps is more suitable to increase the beam repetition to one of the multi-beamlines. To meet the further experimental repeatability realized by stable timing, such as a pump-probe experiment, an optical-fiber length control system in order to mitigate timing drift below 1 fs was developed. A highly precise cavity temperature control system in an injector cavity for below ± 2 mK (p-p) was also realized for the experimental repeatability. The performances of the above-mentioned instruments were experimentally tested to be sufficient for our demands of 50 MV/m, 120 pps, 1 fs and ± 2 mK (pp).
Applying a New Integration of MCDM Techniques for Supplier Selection (Case Study: Pars Tire Company)

Nowadays, the problem of supplier selection has emerged as an active research field where numerous research papers have been published around this area within last few years. Supplier selection plays a key role in supply chain management (SCM) and deals with evaluation, ranking and selection of the best option from a pool of potential suppliers especially in the presence of conflicting criteria. In this study, we present a novel conjunctive multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach that addresses dependent relationships among each measurement criteria. As such, we utilize a decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), a fuzzy analytical network process (FANP), and a technique of VIKOR to select the best supplier that considers the interdependence and the relative weights of each measurement criterion.
Visit and Buy. An Empirical Analysis on Tourism and Exports

The impact of international tourism flows has been poorly studied within the international trade literature. In this paper I use disaggregated bilateral data on both movements of people and movements of goods in order to carry out a panel data analysis on how the two flows are linked. Rajan and Zingales (1998) methodology is applied in order to identify those products (experienced goods) which are more likely to be sampled by foreign visitors. I concentrate on 11 manufacturing industries whose products are 'local' varieties and are likely to be part of the traveling experience. I compute an index of experienced good intensity and I use products which are not final consumption goods as a control group. The identifying strategy enables us to robustly assess the influence of total arrivals in a country on its exports. After considering 25 EU countries, it is found that tourism promotes exports and its effect is not negligible, particularly for the EU15 group, being of 3.5% for sectors at mean of the experienced good intensity distribution.
GFR measured by iohexol: the best choice from a laboratory perspective

To rigorously assess glomerular filtration rate (GFR), it is necessary to measure renal inulin clearance. This procedure is, however, cumbersome and difficult for routine clinical and can be replaced by determining the clearance of radiolabeled compounds or contrast media that fulfil the criteria for ideal filtration marker. The non-ionic contrast agent iohexol is the most widely used and studied alternative marker for GFR measurement. Plasma clearance is determined after intravenous administration of 5–10 mL of the pharmacological preparation and subsequent multiple sample drawings, according to different schedules or even with single specimen protocols. Iohexol in biological matrices is readily determinable, with sufficient sensitivity and specificity by means of the most commonly used analytical technologies: sample preparation is fast and the compound is quite stable in biological samples, either at room temperature or, for longer-term storage, at −20 or −80 °C. The participation of the laboratory in the international proficiency test acted by Equalis AB, Sweden, is highly recommended to ensure reliable results and enable interlaboratory comparison of the data. To improve patient comfort and reduce pre-analytical steps, simplified procedures for GFR measurement requiring only 10 µL of whole blood [dried blood spot testing (DBS)] are valid alternatives to plasma clearance and require minimal analytical method modification for analysis. Iohexol administration for GFR measurement is a safe procedure, even in repeated investigations in the same subject, with no occurrence of major or sever adverse events. Plasma clearance of iohexol for renal function determination has a number of advantages: it is a cheap, very simple approach that is not technically demanding and is easy to implement in every centre. The choice of iohexol offers both laboratorians and clinicians the opportunity to easily select and adjust to the most appropriate approach for reliable and accurate GFR measurement.
TOUCHLESS FINGERPRINT RECOGNIZATION

Touch-less fingerprint recognition system is a reliable alternative to conventional touch-based fingerprint recognition system. Touch-less system is different from conventional system in the sense that they make use of digital camera to acquire the fingerprint image where as conventional system uses live-acquisition techniques. The conventional fingerprint systems are simple but they suffer from various problems such as hygienic, maintenance and latent fingerprints. In this project we present a review of touch-less fingerprint recognition systems that use digital camera. We present some challenging problems that occur while developing the touch-less system. These problems are low contrast between the ridge and the valley pattern on fingerprint image, non-uniform lighting, motion blurriness and defocus, due to less depth of field of digital camera. The touch-less fingerprint recognition system can be divided into three main modules: preprocessing, feature extraction and matching. Preprocessing is an important step prior to fingerprint feature extraction and matching. In this paper we put our more emphasis on preprocessing so that the drawbacks stated earlier can be removed. Further preprocessing is divided into four parts: first is normalization, second is fingerprint Segmentation, third is fingerprint enhancement and last is the minutia extraction and matching.
Lifetime reproductive success in common buzzard, Buteo buteo: from individual variation to population demography

We studied annual and lifetime reproductive success (LRS) of both sexes of common buzzard Buteo buteo in eastern Westphalia, Germany. We followed a bottom-up approach starting from individual breeding attempts, over lifetime reproductive success to derive population demography. Annual breeding performance and survival followed a quadratic relationship with breeding experience; individuals starting their breeding career were less likely to survive and breed successfully than birds of intermediate breeding experience. According to an analysis of selection gradients, both the opportunity and intensity of selection peaked in the early stages of the breeding career. The distribution of both LRS and another fitness measure, λ, was highly skewed, with ca 17% of adult birds producing 50% of fledglings in both sexes. Besides breeding life span and number of breeding attempts, habitat quality and plumage morph were significant predictors of LRS. There were strong differences in LRS and λ between the plumage morphs in both sexes: intermediate pigmented buzzards were much more successful than either dark or light ones. There was no significant difference between buzzard cohorts either in LRS or λ, nor did these fitness measures differ between individuals starting their breeding career at different conditions of food availability. Based on individual life histories, we formed a transition matrix and analysed its properties to study the population as a whole. This analysis showed that the population growth rate was close to unity (0.906, bootstrapped 95% confidence limits: 0.834 and 0.962). Analysis of reproductive values and elasticities further emphasised colour morph differences: the contribution of intermediate individuals to population growth greatly exceeded that of dark or light individuals. Thus most phenomena on all levels from individual breeding attempts over lifetime reproductive success to population demography can be explained by the fitness differences between the colour morphs with the intermediate morph maintaining the current population renewal potential.
INFLUENCE OF DANCE TRAINING ON SACCULOCOLLIC PATHWAY: VESTIBULAR EVOKED MYOGENIC POTENTIALS (VEMP) AS AN OBJECTIVE TOOL

Auditory system is shaped by experience and training. Training (sensory experience) induces neurophysiologic changes & plasticity in normal hearing individuals, hearing loss patients, hearing aid users and cochlear implanted subjects. Not only speech stimulus, but music also brings about functional and structural organization of the brain in musician compared to non-musicians. The Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP) are a biphasic inhibitory response elicited by loud clicks or tone bursts recorded from the tonically contracted sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM), being the only resource available to assess the function of the saccule and the inferior vestibular nerve (sacculocollic pathway) DESIGN: prospective study. AIM: The present study was conducted with an aim of studying plasticity of the sacculocollic pathway in professional dancers who are receiving dance training. METHOD: Two groups of subjects participated for the study a) experimental group; b) control group, experimental group was further divided in to two subgroupsProfessional dancers who have received training in salsa as well as Bharath natyam. Experimental group consisted of total 40 subjects (80 ears), 20 (40 ears) in each subgroup. Control group consisted of 40 individuals who have not received any professional training in dance (80 ears). RESULT: Results showed that there was statistically increase in amplitude of P13, N23 and P13-N23 as well as early latency of P13, and N23 in professional dancers compared to the control group. The difference in amplitude and latency between the two groups was attributed to plasticity of sacculocollic pathway in dancers. CONCLUSION: during aging process there is considerable deterioration of balance capability, loss of balance is a major risk factor for falls in middle aged and elderly people, to slow this deterioration of balance one should gradually and continuously stimulate balance through motor activity, People have become more health conscious and they expect to add more socially and economically productive years to their life span and hence dance based therapy can be useful which can be postulated from the results of present study using objective method.
Transitioning from Teaching to Life-Long Learning Toward Yet Another Paradigm Shift for Family Social Work Practitioners and Educators

ABSTRACT The introduction of computer technology in the social work profession is requiring a review of what we think we know about how family social work practice is best taught, learned, or even implemented. This article compares the paradigm shifts our profession has already witnessed with those of today as we are confronted with innovations that have the potential to impact how we traditionally teach, practice, and what we value as a profession. With a review of the journey we have already traveled, unnecessary turmoil may be avoided as new technological advances reach the fringe of our professional realm.
Non-recovery of two spotted and spinner dolphin populations in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean

Populations of northeastern offshore spotted dolphins Stenella attenuata attenuata and eastern spinner dolphins S. longirostris orientalis have been reduced because the dolphins are bycatch in the purse-seine fishery for yellowfin tuna in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (the 'tuna-dolphin issue'). Abundance and trends of these dolphin stocks were assessed from 12 large-scale pelagic surveys carried out between 1979 and 2000. Estimates of abundance were based on a multivariate line-transect analysis, using covariates to model the detection process and group size. Current estimates of abundance are about 640 000 northeastern offshore spotted dolphins (CV = 0.17) and 450 000 eastern spinner dolphins (CV = 0.23). For the whole period from 1979 to 2000, annual estimates of abundance ranged from 494 000 to 954 000 for northeastern offshore spotted dolphins and from 271000 to 734 000 for eastern spinner dolphins. Management actions by USA and international fishing agencies over 3 decades have successfully reduced dolphin bycatch by 2 orders of magnitude, yet neither stock is showing clear signs of recovery. Possible reasons include underreporting of dolphin bycatch, effects of chase and encirclement on dolphin survival and reproduction, long-term changes in the ecosystem, and effects of other species on spotted and spinner dolphin population dynamics.
Gesture Analysis for Human-Computer Interface Using Profile-Matching Stereo Vision

Gesture Analysis for Human-Computer Interface Using Profile-Matching Stereo Vision Yung-Ping Chang Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, BYU Master of Science This thesis presents a novel profile shape matching stereo vision algorithm. This algorithm is able to obtain 3D information in real time from a pair of stereo images. This algorithm produces the 3D information by matching the profile intensity shapes on the same row of the two images from a stereo image pair. The advantage of this profile shape matching algorithm is that the detection of correspondences relies on intensity profile shape not on intensity values, which subject to lighting variations. The user can choose an interval of disparity, and then an object in a desired distance range can be segmented out from the background. In other words, the algorithm detects the object according to its distance to the cameras. Based on the resulting 3D information, the movement and gesture of the control agents, in our test cases the human body and fingers, in space in a desired distance range can be determined. The body movement and gestures can then be analyzed for human-computer interface purposes. In this thesis, the algorithm was applied for human pose and hand gesture estimation. To demonstrate its performance the estimation results were interpreted as inputs and sent to a smart phone to control its functions. While this algorithm does have a trade-off between accuracy and processing speed, we found a balance that can produce the result in real time, and the result has sufficient accuracy for practical use of recognizing human poses and hand gesture. The experimental result shows that the proposed algorithm has higher accuracy and is 1.14× faster than the original version on tested stereo image pairs.
Analysis of Physio-chemical Parameters and Distribution of Heavy Metals in Soil and Water of Ex-Mining Area of Bestari Jaya, Peninsular Malaysia

This paper includes preliminary soil and water analysis of former tin mining area of Bestari Jaya. The whole catchment covers an area of 2656.31 hectares. The present study area covers 92 hectares of catchment which includes two water ponds that flow downstream to Sungai Ayer Hitam that ultimately ends up into Sungai Selangor. Initially physio-chemical parameters and concentration of heavy metals Pb 2+ , Zn 2+ , Ni 2+ , Co 2+ , As 3+ , Cu 2+ , Fe 2+ , Mn 2+ , Sn 2+ in soil and ponds were evaluated. The metals are extracted by nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide in a closed vessel microwave digestion system and analyzed by using atomic absorption spectroscopy. The method is validated by using standard reference material (NIST SRM 4354, 1643e) and results were compared with interim national water quality standards for Malaysia and found that the soil and water quality of area is degraded so it is concluded that Bestri Jaya ex-mining catchment has a high pollution potential due to mining activities and Sungai Ayer Hitam, recipient of catchment water is a highly polluted river. Different environmental aspects have also discussed in this paper for the future research during this project.
Fluid Substitution In Heavy Oil Rocks

Heavy oils are defined as having high densities and extremely high viscosities. Due to their viscoelastic behavior the traditional rock physics based on Gassmann theory becomes inapplicable. In this paper, we use effective-medium approach known as coherent potential approximation or CPA as an alternative fluid substitution scheme for rocks saturated with viscoelastic fluids. Such rocks are modelled as solids with elliptical fluid inclusions when fluid concentration is small and as suspensions of solid particles in the fluid when the solid concentration is small. This approach is consistent with concepts of percolation and critical porosity, and allows one to model both sandstones and unconsolidated sands. We test the approach against known solutions. First, we apply CPA to fluid-solid mixtures and compare the obtained estimates with Gassmann results. Second, we compare CPA predictions for solid-solid mixtures with numerical simulations. Good match between the results confirms the applicability of the CPA scheme. We extend the scheme to predict the effective frequencyand temperature-dependent properties of heavy oil rocks. CPA scheme reproduces frequency-dependent attenuation and dispersion which are qualitatively consistent with laboratory measurements and numerical simulations. This confirms that the proposed scheme provides realistic estimates of the properties of rocks saturated with heavy oil.
Predicting Drusen Regression from OCT in Patients with Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness in developed countries. The presence of drusen is the hallmark of early/intermediate AMD, and their sudden regression is strongly associated with the onset of late AMD. In this work we propose a predictive model of drusen regression using optical coherence tomography (OCT) based features. First, a series of automated image analysis steps are applied to segment and characterize individual drusen and their development. Second, from a set of quantitative features, a random forest classi er is employed to predict the occurrence of individual drusen regression within the following 12 months. The predictive model is trained and evaluated on a longitudinal OCT dataset of 44 eyes from 26 patients using leave-one-patient-out cross-validation. The model achieved an area under the ROC curve of 0.81, with a sensitivity of 0.74 and a speci city of 0.73. The presence of hyperre ective foci and mean drusen signal intensity were found to be the two most important features for the prediction. This preliminary study shows that predicting drusen regression is feasible and is a promising step toward identi cation of imaging biomarkers of incoming regression.