Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Credit Risk Spillovers and Cash Holdings

This paper examines how credit risk spillovers affect corporate financial flexibility and bank loan contracting. We construct separate empirical proxies to disentangle the two channels of credit risk spillovers--credit risk contagion (CRC), which increases industry peers’ distress likelihood; and product market rivalry (PMR), which strengthens rivals’ competitive position. We show that firms facing greater CRC hold more cash, make lower payouts, and must contend with less favorable bank loan terms. In contrast, PMR generally has opposite, albeit weaker, effects. Our findings suggest that credit risk spillovers, especially CRC, play an important role in corporate liquidity management.
Epidural steroid block in herniated disc: A systematic review

Back pain secondary to herniated disc is very common throughout the world, leading to frequent absence from work activities, economic and financial losses, in addition to causing major affective-motivational changes. Initial treatment is based on analgesic and anti-inflammatory therapy. However, in most cases, it evolves chronically and requires surgery or minimally invasive procedures like epidural steroid injections. This paper proposes, through a systematic literature review, to establish the effectiveness of epidural steroid for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation. We selected 7 papers, of which 5 showed effectiveness of the technique above 56%. The papers showed an important reduction in pain intensity and indication of surgery, besides safety and tolerability.
Mathematical modelling reveals how MeCP2 restrains transcriptional elongation in human neurons

Gene expression patterns depend on the interaction of diverse transcription factors with their target genes. While many factors have a restricted number of targets, some appear to affect transcription globally. An example of the latter is MeCP2; an abundant chromatin-associated protein that is mutated in the neurological disorder Rett Syndrome. To understand how MeCP2 affects transcription, we integrated mathematical modelling with quantitative experimental analysis of human neurons expressing graded levels of MeCP2. We first used a model of MeCP2-DNA binding to demonstrate that changes in gene expression reflect MeCP2 density downstream of transcription initiation. We then tested five biologically plausible hypotheses for the effect of MeCP2 on transcription. The only model compatible with the data involved slowing down of RNA polymerase II by MeCP2, causing reduced transcript output due to polymerase queueing. Our general approach may prove fruitful in deciphering the mechanisms by which other global regulators choreograph gene expression.
Robocup Standard Platform League

This report describes the development and implementation of the locomotion for the Nao H25 V4 robot as used by team rUNSWift from the University of New South Wales, Australia, for the 2014 RoboCup SPL competition. We refer to the omnidirectional locomotion motion as a walk. The main purpose of the report is to document the 2014 walk for the UNSW 2014 SPL code release. School of Computer Science & Engineering University of New South Wales Sydney 2052, Australia
Dendritic flux penetration in Pb films with a periodic array of antidots

We explore the flux-jump regime in type-II Pb thin films with a periodic array of antidots by means of magneto-optical measurements. A direct visualization of the magnetic flux distribution allows us to identify a rich morphology of flux penetration patterns. We determine the phase boundary ${H}^{*}(T)$ between dendritic penetration at low temperatures and a smooth flux invasion at high temperatures and fields. For the whole range of fields and temperatures studied, guided vortex motion along the principal axes of the square pinning array is clearly observed. In particular, the branching process of the dendrite expansion is fully governed by the underlying pinning topology. A comparative study between macroscopic techniques and direct local visualization sheds light onto the puzzling $T$- and $H$-independent magnetic response observed at low temperatures and fields. Finally, we find that the distribution of avalanche sizes at low temperatures can be described by a power law with exponent $\ensuremath{\tau}\ensuremath{\sim}0.9(1)$.
rUNSWift 2011 Vision System : A Foveated Vision System for Robotic Soccer

The vision module used by the 2011 rUNSWift team acts as the primary source of input for its robots during a match of robotic soccer. Like all real time vision systems, the algorithms employed must be fast and robust, however designing such a system for use with the Aldebran Nao used by RoboCup Standard Platform League poses considerable challenges. The severe limitations of the available hardware must be overcome using innovative methods that may have otherwise remained unexplored. In particular, we achieved a major speed-up using an intelligent ball tracking “fovea”, allowing us to reduce the number of processed pixels whilst preserving detection accuracy. In this context, the concept of a “fovea” is defined as a rectangle of the image sampled at an arbitrary resolution and is an underpinning feature of our design philosophy. The performance of the foveated ball detector has been statistically analysed and compared to that of last year. Such detailed analysis is a first for rUNSWift, and has revealed an unnoticed fruit in the previous year’s system.
Testing the Quiet Life Hypothesis in the African Banking Industry

The Quiet Life Hypothesis (QLH) is the pursuit of less efficiency by firms. In this study, we assess if powerful banks in the African banking industry are increasing financial access. The QLH is therefore consistent with the pursuit of financial intermediation inefficiency by large banks. To investigate the hypothesis, we first estimate the Lerner index. Then, using Two Stage Least Squares, we assess the effect of the Lerner index on financial access proxied by loan price and loan quantity. The empirical evidence is based on a panel of 162 banks from 42 countries for the period 2001–2011. The findings support the QLH, although quiet life is driven by the below-median Lerner index sub-sample. Policy implications are discussed.
A geodesic connection in Fréchet Geometry

In this paper first we propose a formula to lift a connection on M to its higher order tangent bundles T M , r ∈ N. More precisely, for a given connection ∇ on T M , r ∈ N ∪ {0}, we construct the connection ∇ on T M . Setting ∇i = ∇ci−1, we show that ∇∞ = lim ←−∇ ci exists and it is a connection on the Fréchet manifold T∞M = lim ←− M and the geodesics with respect to ∇∞ exist. In the next step, we will consider a Riemannian manifold (M, g) with its Levi-Civita connection ∇. Under suitable conditions this procedure gives a sequence of Riemannian manifolds {(T M , gi)}i∈N equipped with a sequence of Riemannian connections {∇i}i∈N. Then we show that ∇∞ produces the curves which are the (local) length minimizer of T∞M . M.S.C. 2010: 58A05, 58B20.
Assessing teacher leadership in physical education: the Spanish version of the transformational teaching questionnaire

Drawing from the transformational leadership theory, this study aims to translate and analyse the psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the Transformational Teaching Questionnaire (TTQ). A cohort sample of 2107 adolescents (997 males and 1110 females) from 82 secondary schools voluntarily participated in the research. In Study 1 (( n = 1066), the exploratory factor analysis informed a one-factor solution. In Study 2 ( n = 1041), the confirmatory factor analysis showed the single-factor and the four-factor models showed satisfactory and adequate goodness of fit indices, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the four-factor structure of transformational teaching with a high second-order factor, previously found in Canadian adolescents, was replicated in this study. Internal consistency was high in all subscales and in the total scale. The expected pattern of significant relationships with other variables was supported, and evidence of measurement invariance across gender groups was obtained. This study provides evidence for the cross-cultural validation of the TTQ, a questionnaire designed to assess students’ perceptions of their teachers’ behaviours from the perspective of transformational leadership theory. These findings suggested that the Spanish version of TTQ would be useful for assessing transformational teaching in Spanish adolescents in physical education classes.
Verification of Very Low-Resolution Faces Using An Identity-Preserving Deep Face Super-Resolution Network

Face super-resolution methods usually aim at producing visually appealing results rather than preserving distinctive features for further face identification. In this work, we propose a deep learning method for face verification on very low-resolution face images that involves identity-preserving face super-resolution. Our framework includes a super-resolution network and a feature extraction network. We train a VGG-based deep face recognition network (Parkhi et al. 2015) to be used as feature extractor. Our super-resolution network is trained to minimize the feature distance between the high resolution ground truth image and the super-resolved image, where features are extracted using our pre-trained feature extraction network. We carry out experiments on FRGC, Multi-PIE, LFW-a, and MegaFace datasets to evaluate our method in controlled and uncontrolled settings. The results show that the presented method outperforms conventional super-resolution methods in low-resolution face verification.
Sentiment-aware Analysis of Mobile Apps User Reviews Regarding Particular Updates

—The contemporary online mobile application (app) market enables users to review the apps they use. These reviews are important assets reﬂecting the users needs and complaints regarding the particular apps, covering multiple aspects of the mobile apps quality. By investigating the content of such reviews, the app developers can acquire useful information guiding the future maintenance and evolution work. Furthermore, together with the updates of an app, the users reviews deliver particular complaints and praises regarding the particular updates. Despite that previous studies on opinion mining in mobile app reviews have provided various approaches in eliciting such critical information, limited studies focus on eliciting the user opinions regarding a particular mobile app update, or the impact the update imposes. Hence, this study proposes a systematic analysis method to elicit user opinions regarding a particular mobile app update by detecting the similar topics before and after this update, and validates this method via an experiment on an existing mobile app.
Positive visual reframing: A randomised controlled trial using drawn visual imagery to defuse the intensity of negative experiences and regulate emotions in healthy adults

This research explores the outcome of positive visual reframing (PVR) , a single session intervention where drawn images of negative experiences and open memories were redrawn and visually reframed to form new positive narratives. The study hypothesised that PVR would lead to improvements to positive and negative affect, self-efficacy and the perceived intensity and perceived resolution of a selected negative experience. Healthy adults ( N =62) were randomly assigned to the PVR or control condition. For the experimental group, statistical significance was identified for positive affect and the perceived intensity and resolution of the negative experience immediately following the PVR activity. Self-efficacy was marginally significant. The findings highlight the potential of positive visual reframing to enhance emotional regulation when negative emotions are triggered. At two weeks’ post-intervention, improvements were identified in both conditions. This suggests that over time, the visual and sensory exposure created by drawing a negative memory may also lead to positive gains. The study emphasises the potential of PVR to regulate emotions and defuse the intensity of negative or open memories by visually transforming a moment of peak perceptual intensity. Future studies exploring the effectiveness of positive visual reframing to shift negative emotions in clinical and non-clinical populations are recommended.
Pinchmove: improved accuracy of user mobility for near-field navigation in virtual environments

Navigation and mobility mechanics for virtual environments aim to be realistic or fun, but rarely prioritize the accuracy of movement. We propose PinchMove, a highly accurate navigation mechanic utilizing pinch gestures and manipulation of the viewport for confined environments that prefers accurate movement. We ran a pilot study to first determine the degree of simulator sickness caused by this mechanic, and a comprehensive user study to evaluate its accuracy in a virtual environment. We found that utilizing an 80° tunneling effect at a maximum speed of 15.18° per second was deemed suitable for PinchMove in reducing motion sickness. We also found our system to be at average, more accurate in enclosed virtual environments when compared to conventional methods. This paper makes the following three contributions: 1) We propose a navigation solution in near-field virtual environments for accurate movement, 2) we determined the appropriate tunneling effect for our method to minimize motion sickness, and 3) We validated our proposed solution by comparing it with conventional navigation solutions in terms of accuracy of movement. We also propose several use- case scenarios where accuracy in movement is desirable and further discuss the effectiveness of PinchMove.
Maximum spanning tree based redundancy elimination for feature selection of high dimensional data

Feature selection adheres to the phenomena of preprocessing step for High Dimensional data to obtain optimal results with reference of speed and time. It is a technique by which most prominent features can be selected from a set of features that are prone to contain redundant and relevant features. It also helps to lighten the burden on classification techniques, thus makes it faster and efficient.We introduce a novel two tiered architecture of feature selection that can able to filter relevant as well as redundant features. Our approach utilizes the peculiar advantage of identifying highly correlated nodes in a tree. More specifically, the reduced dataset comprises of these selected features. Finally, the reduced dataset is tested with various classification techniques to evaluate their performance. To prove its correctness we have used many basic algorithms of classification to highlight the benefits of our approach. In this journey of work we have used benchmark datasets to prove the worthiness of our approach.
Objective Arm Swing Analysis in Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease Using an RGB-D Camera (Kinect®)1

Background: Arm swing changes are common even in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD). We hypothesized that arm swing changes decrease with age and can be detected using a low-cost, RGB-D depth-sensing camera. Objective: This study aimed to assess the differences in arm swing between PD patients and healthy participants and to investigate the possible effects of aging on these differences. Methods: Twenty-five PD patients (aged 45–87 years) and 25 age-matched, healthy subjects (aged 46–88 years) were included. Clinical variables were evaluated using a descriptive analysis. No spatiotemporal variables were normally distributed; therefore, we used a Mann–Whitney U test to compare the continuous variables between groups and to perform age-stratified analysis. A receiver operating characteristic analysis was generated to evaluate the discrimination activity of arm swing asymmetry (ASA). Results: The PD group showed significant reductions in arm swing magnitude (left, p = 0.002; right, p = 0.006) and arm swing speed (left, p = 0.002; right, p = 0.004) and significantly greater ASA (p < 0.001). The age-stratified analysis showed significant differences in ASA in the 40–59-year group (p = 0.001) and bilateral arm swing magnitude in the 60–66-year group. No differences were found in those aged >67 years. Conclusions: The camera detected differences in ASA, arm swing speed, and arm swing magnitude between PD patients and healthy individuals. Analysis of arm swing variables should be stratified by age, and the validity of the analysis may be questionable in patients aged >67 years.
Reparametrizing the Sigmoid Model of Gene Regulation for Bayesian Inference

This poster describes a novel reparametrization of a fre-quently used non-linear ordinary differential equation (ODE) model of gene regulation. We show that in its commonly used form, the model cannot reliably distinguish between both quantitatively and qualitatively different parameter combinations. The proposed reparametrization makes inference over the model stable and amenable to fully Bayesian treatment with state of the art Hamiltonian Monte Carlo methods. Complete source code and a more detailed explanation of the model is available at https://github.com/cas-bioinf/genexpi-stan.
A network performance aware QoS based workflow scheduling for grid services

Grids enable sharing, selection and aggregation of geographically distributed resources among various organizations. They are now emerging as promising computing paradigms for resource and compute intensive scientific workflow applications modeled as a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) with intricate inter-task dependencies. Job scheduling is an important and challenging issue in a grid environment. There are various scheduling algorithm proposed for grid environments to distribute the load among processors and maximize resource utilization while reducing task execution time. Task execution time is not the only parameter to be improved; various Quality of Service (QoS) parameters are also to be considered in job scheduling in grid computing. In this Research we have studied the existing QoS based Task scheduling, work flow scheduling and formulated the problem. The possible solutions are developed for the problems identified in existing algorithms. The scheduling of dependent task (work flow) is more challenging than independent task scheduling. The scheduling of both dependent and independent tasks with satisfying QOS requirements of users is a very challenging issue in grid computing. This paper proposes a Novel Network aware QoS workflow scheduling method for Grid Services. The proposed scheduling algorithm considers network and QoS constraints. The goal of the proposed scheduling algorithm is to implement the workflow schedule so that it reduces execution time and resource cost and yet meets the deadline imposed by the user. The experimental result shows that the proposed algorithm improves the success ratio of tasks and throughput of resources while reducing makespan and workflow execution cost.
Breathable Dry Silver/Silver Chloride Electronic Textile Electrodes for Electrodermal Activity Monitoring

The focus of this study is to design and integrate silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) electronic textile (e-textile) electrodes into different textile substrates to evaluate their ability to monitor electrodermal activity (EDA). Ag/AgCl e-textiles were stitched into woven textiles of cotton, nylon, and polyester to function as EDA monitoring electrodes. EDA stimulus responses detected by dry e-textile electrodes at various locations on the hand were compared to the EDA signals collected by dry solid Ag/AgCl electrodes. 4-h EDA data with e-textile and clinically conventional rigid electrodes were compared in relation to skin surface temperature. The woven cotton textile substrate with e-textile electrodes (0.12 cm2 surface area, 0.40 cm distance) was the optimal material to detect the EDA stimulus responses with the highest average Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.913 ± 0.041 when placed on the distal phalanx of the middle finger. In addition, differences with EDA waveforms recorded on various fingers were observed. Trends of long-term measurements showed that skin surface temperature affected EDA signals recorded by non-breathable electrodes more than when e-textile electrodes were used. The effective design criteria outlined for e-textile electrodes can promote the development of comfortable and unobtrusive EDA monitoring systems, which can help improve our knowledge of the human neurological system.
The γ-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) Alleviates Salt Stress Damage during Seeds Germination of White Clover Associated with Na+/K+ Transportation, Dehydrins Accumulation, and Stress-Related Genes Expression in White Clover

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of soaking with γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) on white clover (Trifolium repens cv. Haifa) seed germination under salt stress induced by 100 mM NaCl. Seeds soaking with GABA (1 μM) significantly alleviated salt-induced decreases in endogenous GABA content, germination percentage, germination vigor, germination index, shoot and root length, fresh and dry weight, and root activity of seedling during seven days of germination. Exogenous application of GABA accelerated starch catabolism via the activation of amylase and also significantly reduced water-soluble carbohydrate, free amino acid, and free proline content in seedlings under salt stress. In addition, improved antioxidant enzyme activities (SOD, GPOX, CAT, APX, DHAR, GR and MDHR) and gene transcript levels (Cu/ZnSOD, FeSOD, MnSOD, CAT, GPOX, APX, MDHR, GPX and GST) was induced by seeds soaking with GABA, followed by decreases in O2∙−, H2O2, and MDA accumulation during germination under salt stress. Seeds soaking with GABA could also significantly improve Na+/K+ content and transcript levels of genes encoding Na+/K+ transportation (HKT1, HKT8, HAL2, H+-ATPase and SOS1) in seedlings of white clover. Moreover, exogenous GABA significantly induced the accumulation of dehydrins and expression of genes encoding dehydrins (SK2, Y2K, Y2SK, and dehydrin b) in seedlings under salt stress. These results indicate that GABA mitigates the salt damage during seeds germination through enhancing starch catabolism and the utilization of sugar and amino acids for the maintenance of growth, improving the antioxidant defense for the alleviation of oxidative damage, increasing Na+/K+ transportation for the osmotic adjustment, and promoting dehydrins accumulation for antioxidant and osmotic adjustment under salt stress.
Evaluating a pervasive game for urban awareness

The combination of augmented reality and pervasive games in urban environments can be exploited to enable situated and informal learning through ludic and engaging activities. In this research, we explore how to use such technologies to improve citizens' awareness about their urban environment by means of an AR pervasive game to learn about a specific urban space. Since the game is pervasively played in a physical space, many usability issues need to be assessed before evaluating whether it can engage citizens whilst promoting some sense of urban awareness. In this paper, we introduce a usability study of the application and a preliminary set of factors to be analysed to assess user engagement.
Augmented humans interacting with an augmented world

Our research explores a seamless interaction with smart devices, which we divide into three stages: (i) device recognition, (ii) user input recognition, and (iii) inferring the appropriate action to be carried out on the device (cf. Figure 1). We leverage wearable computers and combine them into one interaction system. This makes interactions ubiquitous in two ways: While smart devices are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, our wearable system will be ubiquitously available to the user, making it possible to interact everywhere, any time.