Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Nuclear Uncertainty Threaten Financial Markets?: The Attention Paid to North Korean Nuclear Threats and its Impact on South Korea's Financial Markets

We explore how investor attention paid to dangerous nuclear tests in an adjacent country influences financial market outcomes. To measure the attention paid to North Korean nuclear threats, we introduce a weekly Google search volume index for keywords on North Korean nuclear events. Using a time-varying structural vector auto-regression model with block exogeneity restrictions, we find that investor attention paid to nuclear threats has heterogeneous effects on South Korea’s stock price across industries and over time: attention on only the first nuclear test was negatively related to stock price index, which vanished thereafter. Moreover, the investor attention paid to the nuclear risk reduced stock prices, especially in the banking industry, during the entire sample period.
THE OUTCOMES OF INDIVIDUAL ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY AMONG ACADEMICIANS IN MALAYSIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

Purpose of the Study: This paper investigates the ability of Malaysian public universities to achieve high academic standing within the top 100 world ranking universities depending on prolific and multitalented academicians who own multi-skills to support the universities’ academic excellences. Methodology: A total of 800 questionnaires were distributed to all public universities in Malaysia for the purpose of data collection and a total of 342 questionnaires were returned representing a response rate of 42.75 percent. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares (PLS) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results: This study has contributed to the nations by highlighting the current capabilities of academic workforce that will either influence or hinder the growth of their knowledge acquisition and innovative behavior that will influence the future of Malaysian academic excellences. Implications: Academicians are under pressure to be prolific and versatile to achieve their universities’ goals in addition to their multitasking jobs including teaching, publication, consultation, research, and social welfare. Owing to that matter, the study on individual absorptive capacity, which refers to the ability of Malaysian academicians to absorb knowledge that determines their level of learning capabilities and leads to fulfilling universities’ and national agenda, is worth studying.
Mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility: The India Experience

The idea that companies service a wide range of stakeholders dates back to the 19th Century but has gained increasing traction in more recent times. The question is what to do where the corporate sector fails to keep pace with societal expectations. The response of the Indian government was to make it mandatory for large corporations to spend funds on corporate social responsible (CSR) activities. In this paper, we investigate the success of this legislation both for the companies and the intended beneficiaries. We find that the impact of the legislation has fallen short of expectations both in terms of the volume of CSR expenditure generated and the activities to which it has been directed. In particular, we find that the legislation has had a negative effect on the relationship between CSR and profitability which in turn can have a perverse effect on the willingness of companies to spend in this area. We conclude that greater care has to be taken when implementing mandatory CSR if it is to be effective.
Challenges and Solution of Nigerian Non-Interest Islamic Banking

The Nigerian non-interest Islamic banking engenders varieties of debate, simply because the system is build based on Islamic principles. Islamic banking is market determinants with the moral principles and teaching of Islamic shariah, also an arrangement of saving money so as to steady by means of the standards of Islamic rule (Shari'ah) as well as practices through the improvement of Islamic economies. The paper examines idea, the challenges and prospects of non-interest banking in Nigerian dealing with some banks managers, employees, Muslims and non Muslims citizens, and library research by evaluation and examining various findings on the subject under study. Due to the high population and progressive opportunity, the study shows that nigeria has an opportunity of being a leader of African Islamic finance, but there are some various obstacles, challenges to the development of Nigerian Islamic finance which an instance Religious and cultural differences, inadequate of Financial Innovations, Lack of adequate knowledge, high Competition and Shari‟ah Related Issues and so on. The paper therefore recommends that Nigerian religious bodies and Central Bank of Nigeria ought to continuously organizing seminars, training and lectures on Islamic finance to banks staff, tertiary institution student, academicians as well as general public on adequate explanations of the aims also objectives as well as advantages of Islamic banking, also the institution should be highly be creative and innovative, attracting and maintaining well trained qualified employees.
The Use of Management Control Systems: Impact on Companies’ Performance

This paper investigates the relationship between the use of management control systems (MCS) and companies’ performance. The paper focuses on how executive managers’ use of MCS relates to developments in company performance. The MCS investigated are: strategy, evaluation of subordinates, rules and procedures, and executive managers’ focus on customer relations when guiding and directing their subordinates. A path model is developed which proposes that a larger extent of using the above MCS as well as the frequency of business and leadership evaluation are associated with development in financial performance. Using survey data on executive managers’ use of MCS in large companies, the paper shows patterns in the extent to which managers in large companies use the MCS and how this affects company performance. The results confirm that there are some positive and some negative connections between the use of the MCS and company performance.
AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

1 TABLE OF CONTENTS . 2 DEDICATION. 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 7 AUTHORS DECLARATION . 8 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 9 1.0 Introduction . 9 1.1 Rationale and Background . 11 1.2 Research Aim and Objectives . 13 1.3 Structure of Research Study . 14 1.4 Summary . 15 CHAPTER TWO: THE CONTEXT AND IMPACT OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT 16 2.0 Introduction . 16 2.1 The Impact of New Public Management . 16 2.2 Performance Management . 25 2.3 Performance Appraisal . 35 2.4 The Role of the Line Manager . 47 2.5 Performance, Surveillance, Control and Power . 51 2.6 The Nuances of Workplace Conflict . 56 CHAPTER THREE: PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION . 64 3.0 Introduction . 64 3.1 NPM in Higher Education . 64 3.2 The Academic Environment . 68 3.3 Status . 75 3.4 Structure . 77 3.5 The Challenge of Performance Measurement . 79 3.6 The Management of Performance in Higher Education. 83 3.7 Reactions to Management and Control . 87 3.8 The Potential for Conflict in Higher Education . 89 3.9 Conceptual Framework . 96 CHAPTER FOUR: METHODOLOGY . 100 4.0 Introduction . 100 4.1 The Nature of Philosophy . 101 4.2 Research Philosophy . 103 -
Boardroom Gender Diversity and Performance of Listed Companies in Italy

The proportion of women in boardroom has traditionally been low around the world. Over the last decades, several jurisdictions have adopted legislative actions in order to trigger a tangible progress in female representation, also moving from the assumption that gender balanced boards result in improved corporate governance and performance. The investigation of the relationship between female boardroom representation and firm value is therefore key on policy grounds. The empirical evidence gathered so far is however inconclusive, given that potential reverse causality may bias results. In Italy, the Law 120/2011 envisaged mandatory quotas for the three board appointments subsequent August 2012, by setting out a minimum objective of one-third of the corporate board seats for members of the under-represented gender, lowered to one-fifth for the first term. The Italian law has introduced an exogenous shock in board composition, which may enable to overcome the endogeneity problem potentially impairing the analysis of boardroom diversity. This paper contributes to the literature by analyzing both the effectiveness of the Law in terms of its impact on boardroom gender diversity and on other board attributes, and by analyzing the impact of gender quotas on the profitability of listed Italian firms over the period 2008-2016. The analysis confirms a positive impact of the reform: we estimate an instant reform effect on the percentage of female directors of 17 percentage points and a follow-up effect of 11percentage points. The entry of new women pursuant to the law has also contributed to affect other board characteristics, lowering the average age, increasing the diversity in terms of age and professional background, increasing the level of education and the percentage of female interlockers. As for the impact on firms performance, results are not significant when static models are used. Differently, when a dynamic model is considered, female representation is estimated to yield a positive effect on different measures of performance when it exceeds a certain threshold, ranging between about 17% and 20% of the board members, roughly equivalent to at least two seats held by women, given that the average board size over the sample period is around ten members. This evidence supports the idea underpinning the critical mass theory, i.e., the hypothesis that women may influence board decisions and consequently firm performance when a minimum weight is achieved.
Exploiting TIMSS & PIRLS combined data: multivariate multilevel modelling of student achievement

We exploit a multivariate multilevel model for the analysis of the Italian sample of the TIMSS\&PIRLS 2011 Combined International Database on fourth grade students. The multivariate approach jointly considers educational achievement on Reading, Mathematics and Science, thus allowing us to test for differential associations of the covariates with the three outcomes, and to estimate the residual correlations between pairs of outcomes at student and class levels. Multilevel modelling allows us to disentangle student and contextual factors affecting achievement. We also account for territorial differences in wealth by means of an index from an external source. The model residuals point out classes with high or low performance. As educational achievement is measured by plausible values, the estimates are obtained through multiple imputation formulas. The results, while confirming the role of traditional student and contextual factors, reveal interesting patterns of achievement in Italian primary schools.
The effectiveness of computer-based spaced repetition in foreign language vocabulary instruction: a double-blind study

The purpose of the present paper is twofold; first, we present an empirical study evaluating the effectiveness of a novel CALL tool for foreign language vocabulary instruction based on spaced repetition of target vocabulary items. The study demonstrates that by spending an average of three minutes each day on automatically generated vocabulary activities, EFL students increased their long-term vocabulary retention rate three fold. Second, we demonstrate that the double-blind experiment design, which has become standard research practice in such extremely high-stakes fields as pharmacology and healthcare, has the potential of being successfully implemented in CALL research.
Mobile-assisted language learning and language learner autonomy

In the modern age of exponential knowledge growth and accelerating technological development, the need to engage in lifelong learning is becoming increasingly urgent. Successful lifelong learning, in turn, requires learner autonomy, or “the capacity to take control of one’s own learning” (Benson, 2011, p. 58), including all relevant decisions about what, when, where, and how to learn. Mobile technologies, as not only potential means for learning anywhere and anytime but also conduits to rich, multimodal content, provide unprecedented opportunities for the development of learner autonomy. However, even when learners possess adequate training in mobile technology use and autonomy itself, implementation of mobile learning devices in the classroom often seems to engender little additional autonomous behavior. This paper highlights the differing constraints on learner autonomy in formal and informal learning environments. It then proposes an approach to encouraging greater demonstration of autonomy through an explicit linking of institutional requirements associated with routine lesson assignments and the achievement of personally meaningful, individually determined learning goals. Finally, it suggests the role that mobile technology can and properly ought to play in capacitating consistently high levels of demonstrated autonomy both inside and outside the classroom.
Modeling Crowd Mobility and Communication in Wireless Networks

This dissertation presents contributions to the fields of mobility modeling, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with mobile sinks, and opportunistic communication in theme parks. The two main directions of our contributions are human mobility models and strategies for the mobile sink positioning and communication in wireless networks. The first direction of the dissertation is related to human mobility modeling. Modeling the movement of human subjects is important to improve the performance of wireless networks with human participants and the validation of such networks through simulations. The movements in areas such as theme parks follow specific patterns that are not taken into consideration by the general purpose mobility models. We develop two types of mobility models of theme park visitors. The first model represents the typical movement of visitors as they are visiting various attractions and landmarks of the park. The second model represents the movement of the visitors as they aim to evacuate the park after a natural or man-made disaster. The second direction focuses on the movement patterns of mobile sinks and their communication in responding to various events and incidents within the theme park. When an event occurs, the system needs to determine which mobile sink will respond to the event and its trajectory. The overall objective is to optimize the event coverage by minimizing
An Evaluation of the Linux Virtual Memory Manager to Determine Suitability for Runtime Variation of Memory

Systems that support virtual memory virtualize the available physical memory such that the applications running on them operate under the assumption that these systems have a larger amount of memory available than is actually present. The memory managers of these systems manage the virtual and the physical address spaces and are responsible for converting the virtual addresses used by the applications to the physical addresses used by the hardware. The memory managers assume that the amount of physical memory is constant and does not change during their period of operation. Some operating scenarios however, such as the power conservation mechanisms and virtual machine monitors, require the ability to vary the physical memory available at runtime, thereby making invalid the assumptions made by these memory managers. In this work we evaluate the suitability of the Linux Memory Manager, which assumes that the available physical memory is constant, for the purposes of varying the memory at run time. We have implemented an infrastructure over the Linux 2.6. 11 kernel that enables the user to vary the physical memory available to the system. The available physical memory is logically divided into banks and each bank can be turned on or off independent of the others, using the new system calls we have added to the kernel. Apart from adding support for the new system calls, other changes had to be made to the Linux memory manager to support the runtime variation of memory. To evaluate the suitability for varying memory we have performed experiments with varying memory sizes on both the modified and the unmodified kernels. We have observed that the design of the
Algorithm for detecting community structures in complex networks

A new method is presented which can detect community structure based on the idea of local modularity measure. The algorithm firstly starts from the node which has the max multifesture of nodes, and finds the candidate node from the candidate set which can reach the maximum of the local modularity measure, Q. Secondly, the algorithm merge the node into the community and update the candidate set. At last, clustering results is received. Since this algorithm only requires local information of the complex networks, its time complexity is very low. It can find clustering centers better based on the multifesture value of nodes. Finally, this algorithm is applied to a classical social network, the Zachary network, with satisfactory result, the experiment shows the validity of this method.
A variational model for image fusion with simultaneous cartoon and texture decomposition

Image fusion is a technique that merges the information of multiple images, representing the same scene, to produce a single image that should gather the major and meaningful information contained in the different images. On the other hand, cartoon+texture image decomposition is another image processing technique, that decomposes the image into the sum of a cartoon image, containing the major geometric information, i.e., piece-wise smooth regions, and a textural image, containing the small details and oscillating patterns. We propose a model to perform the fusion of multiple images, relying on gradient information, that provides as well a cartoon and texture decomposition of the fused image. The model is formulated as a variational minimization problem and solved with the split Bregman method. The suitability of the proposed model is illustrated with some earth observation images and also medical images.
Virtual Simulations of VLCC Class FPSO-SYMS Mating Operation

This paper describes the virtual simulation for the FPSO hookup and addresses their various applications for the mating operation between the FPSO and the SYMS in shallow water. The virtual simulation provides a virtual-reality environment, thus realistically replicating the hookup operation at the STC facility and identifying any deficiencies in key installation personnel, execution plan, or operation procedures. The key issues within this simulation program including the virtual-reality simulation of the offshore field, the numerical modeling of the marine spread and the met-ocean environment, as well as the performance of the key personnel when executing the installation work have been analyzed and measured.
Effects of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and bilingualism on verbal short-term memory

The current study assessed independent and combined effects of SLI and bilingualism on tasks tapping into verbal short-term memory (vSTM) with varying linguistic load in two languages (Russian and Hebrew). The study explored the extent to which the presence of SLI is related to limited vSTM storage and bilingualism is associated with reduced vocabulary size. A total of 190 monolingual and bilingual children aged 5;5–6;8 participated in the current study: 108 sequential Russian-Hebrew bilinguals (18 with SLI), 48 Hebrew monolinguals (13 with SLI) and 34 Russian monolinguals (14 with SLI). Children performed three repetition tasks: forward-digit span (FWD), non-word repetition (NWR) and sentence repetition (SRep); bilingual children were tested in both of their languages. Results indicated a negative effect of SLI on all experimental tasks tapping into vSTM. The effect of SLI rose as a function of increased linguistic load. Regarding bilingualism, no effect was found on the measure of vSTM with the lowest linguistic load (FWD), while its effect was robust once the linguistic load was increased (SRep). The results reported in this study bring evidence that lower performance on measures of vSTM in children with SLI and bilingual children stem from different sources. Although, children with SLI have limitations of vSTM, deficient vSTM cannot fully account for the linguistic difficulties observed in children with SLI. As for bilingualism, it does not affect verbal storage when the linguistic load is minimal, while poor performance in bilingual children on tasks with greater linguistic load is attributed to smaller vocabulary sizes.
Learning Spatio-Temporal Topology of a Multiple Cameras Network by Tracking Human Movement

This paper presents a novel approach for representing the spatio-temporal topology of the camera network with overlapping and non-overlapping fields of view (FOVs) in Ubiquitous Smart Space (USS). The topology is determined by tracking moving objects and establishing object correspondence across multiple cameras. To track people successfully in multiple camera views, we used the Merge-Split (MS) approach for object occlusion in a single camera and the grid-based approach for extracting the accurate object feature. In addition, we considered the appearance of people and the transition time between entry and exit zones for tracking objects across blind regions of multiple cameras with non-overlapping FOVs. The main contribution of this paper is to estimate transition times between various entry and exit zones, and to graphically represent the camera topology as an undirected weighted graph using the transition probabilities.
The Accuracy of Senior Households' Estimates of Home Values: Application to the Reverse Mortgage Decision

Using a unique dataset of more than 14,000 senior homeowners in the U.S., this study compares self-assessed home values to arm’s length contemporaneous appraisals. In a sample of seniors who received counseling for a reverse mortgage, the absolute value of the assessment error averages 18.9 percent of appraised value and it is biased upwards by 13.4 percent. When adjusted to reflect the general population of seniors, the size and bias of the average error fall to 16.1 and 4.2 percent. Both the bias and the size of the error tend to be lower for households with higher income and credit scores but it is greater for black households. In our sample period of 2009-11, house prices were falling. The greater the rate of price reduction, the greater is the upward bias and size of the assessment error. When seniors who applied for a reverse mortgage learn that they overvalued their home, their probability of closing the loan falls.
Helping Third-Party Implementers Meet Performance Obligations: A Multi-Level Examination of the Weatherization Assistance Program

Research suggests that competitive markets and contract design and management influence contractor performance. However, there is less systematic knowledge about how a government's policy-specific capacity and programmatic support to contractors influences performance. This study asks the question of what states can do to maximize the performance of contractors in the context of fiscal federalism. This question is tested in the context of the Weatherization Assistance Program, a federal program where states are specifically instructed to use third-party implementers (i.e. contractors). Specifically, I examine (1) whether state policy-specific capacity enhances program implementation support to help contractors meet their performance goals and (2) how state-provided technical assistance to government contractors can help these contractors achieve performance goals.