Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Asset dynamics and the long-term impact of microfinance in rural Bangladesh

Deep global poverty persists despite decades of coordinated development efforts seeking to eradicate it. Recent literature has taken a new approach to defining the underlying mechanisms of lasting poverty in terms of asset ownership and the ways in which households accumulate productive assets over time. Using a panel data set from Bangladesh, this study identifies the productive assets of rural households in three different study sites over two rounds. Using panel fixed effects methods and a non-parametric lowess estimator, the expected household asset accumulation trajectory is predicted to determine if households are stuck in a poverty trap. The results indicate that, on average, households are escaping asset poverty and increasing consumption expenditures in part due to a broader asset base over time. There is no evidence for low-level poverty traps. The observed growth may be dependent on development initiatives seeking to intervene to raise household income. This study then turns its attention to the microfinance phenomenon unfolding across rural Bangladesh. Growth in household per capita expenditures over two periods is explained as a function of the duration of access to microfinance services. In two of the three study sites, access to microfinance services appears to have no effect on growth. In the third site, there is evidence that microfinance institutions preferentially opened branches in villages susceptible to negative covariate shocks. The households in those villages likely increased their consumption over time as a result of their access to microfinance services. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A novel algorithm of spatial and temporal equalization for multiuser detection with an antenna array

This paper presents a novel algorithm of spatial and temporal equalization for multiuser detection with an antenna array based on a robust subspace method and a self-adaptive step-size training technique. Our robust approach includes two procedures. In the first procedure, a robust subspace technique is utilized to reduce the high-power of additive noise and the correlation among the channels. Moreover, a cross-validation technique is applied to estimate the number of signals. In the second procedure, a self-adaptive algorithm for updating the stepsize coefficient is presented in order to identify a dynamic channel. The computer simulation results illustrate the effectiveness and performance of the proposed method.
Internet data transport: from the perspective of discrete mass transport modeling

In recent years a new class of one-dimensional cellular automata (CA) models has attracted much attention. These so-called mass transport models can be characterized as nonequilibrium stochastic processes. In the presented thesis a new model of this class, the Asymmetric Multi Occupation Process (AMOP) is considered. This CA model was first introduced with open boundary conditions to simulate Internet data transport. It is defined on a one-dimensional lattice equipped with buffers of finite size that can be occupied by at most B particles. The local dynamics are implemented by the totally asymmetric shift of discrete mass variables respectively particles under consideration of hard-core repulsion and parallel dynamics. In the first part of this work the AMOP with periodic boundary conditions is investigated by means of numerical as well as analytical considerations. Regarding deterministic model dynamics the influence of finite buffer and system sizes onto the fundamental diagram (FD), i.e., flow-density relation is analyzed. Furthermore, for stochastic movement the FDs obtained by numerical simulations are compared with analytical results derived by Mean-Field (MF) approaches and a 2-cluster approximation. In the second part the AMOP with open boundary conditions is investigated in the context of boundary induced phase transitions. In case of deterministic bulk dynamics an analytical exact representation of the system inflow as well as the outflow is presented in dependence of the buffer size. As a result the deterministic phase diagram derived by numerical simulations could be verified by analytical considerations. Regarding stochastic particle movement the phase diagram is obtained by Monte Carlo simulations. In both cases it is shown that the jammed phase is strongly enlarged for increasing buffer sizes. Finally, in the third part of this thesis the influence of interacting boundaries on the model dynamics is analyzed. Therefore, a new fall back inflow strategy is introduced in order to stabilize high flow states and thus prevent the system from a complete jamming. Precisely, the inflow is determined by the state of the last site of the system. As a result the phase diagrams of the deterministic and the stochastic model obtained by means of numerical simulations are presented. Two new phases could be identified a free-flow as well as a jammed phase both characterized by a striped microscopic pattern. Especially in the arising striped jammed regime system flow and mean velocity are drastically enlarged compared to generic inflow strategies. Here, the fall back strategy is capable to prevent the system from a complete jamming. Thus, the introduced inflow procedure represents an effective strategy for establishing reliable connections.
Measuring Logistics Structure

ABSTRACT Companies generally monitor their logistics performance extensively. This monitoring has increased during the last 10 years, but is still carried out on largely an operative level, recording efficiency and performance within and between operational units. The purpose of such measuring is to monitor the day-to-day running of the business and the continuous fine tuning of operations. During the past decade there has been a trend towards increased internationalisation of multinational companies, where domestic set-ups both on the supply and the market side have been replaced with regional and even global systems for distribution, sales, production etc. As a consequence, the logistics has changed from a local cost–oriented approach to a global systems approach, which demands models for measuring logistics performance on a structural level. A conceptual model is presented for measuring logistics structures based on a total cost analysis in combination with a methodology similar to activity-based costi.
Dual renin–angiotensin system blockade restores blood pressure–renin dependency in individuals with low renin concentrations

Background The prevailing sodium intake and renin–angiotensin system status influence the blood pressure response to an angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor antagonist or an angiotensin I converting enzyme inhibitor, which is known to be reinforced by a low sodium intake or administration of a diuretic. Objective To investigate the possibility that combining both drugs might be more effective in conditions of high sodium intake than blocking the renin–angiotensin system in a single step. Methods In a placebo-controlled, four-period crossover study in 12 normotensive volunteers who received a high sodium chloride intake (more than 250 mmol/day for 6 days), the haemodynamic and renin effects of a single oral dose of irbesartan 150 mg combined with fosinopril 20 mg were compared with those of a usual daily dose of fosinopril (20 mg) and a high dose of irbesartan (300 mg). Results The changes in blood pressure induced by fosinopril and irbesartan alone were not different from those of placebo, whereas the combination significantly decreased blood pressure. Simultaneously, it increased plasma active renin and prorenin concentrations to a greater extent than did each single-site blocker. Conclusion In low-renin conditions, combined renin–angiotensin system blockade enables the demonstration of a persistent renin-dependency of the blood pressure. Through its more efficient blockade of the renin–angiotensin system, demonstrated by the increase in renin and prorenin, combined renin–angiotensin system blockade is more effective than doubling the usual dose of an AT1 receptor antagonist. This may offer an alternative strategy for treating patients with a range of renin concentrations, and may potentially increase the cardio- and nephrotective benefits through a more complete blockade of the renin–angiotensin system.
Human papillomavirus (hpv) DNA in penile carcinomas and in two cell lines from high‐incidence areas for genital cancers in Africa

Biopsies of 13 penile cancers (PC), from patients living in regions of Uganda with a high incidence of genital cancers, were studied for the presence, molecular characteristics and physical state of DNA related to that of human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31 and 33. HPV DNA sequences were detected in all PC specimens by dot/Southern blot analyses and by gene amplification of DNA sequences highly conserved among several HPVs. HPV 16 DNA sequences were found in one PC; DNA sequences with low homology to HPV 16 or HPV 18 were present in all other samples. Viral DNA is primarily integrated in the cellular DNA. To isolate and characterize a possible highly oncogenic HPV, a genomic library of the DNA extracted from the PC‐8 biopsy has been constructed in the EcoRI arms of the EMBL4 phage. A single phage containing 8.30‐kb HPV16‐related sequences has been identified and the 3 segments of 0.45, 0.65 and 7.2 kb, released by EcoRI digestion, have been independently subcloned in pUCI8 for further analysis.
Customer satisfaction and awareness of Islamic banking system in Pakistan

The concept of Islamic banking is not new. Islamic banking is very easily getting recognition in the financial market. The conventional banking industry is a well established rival for the Islamic banking industry (IBI). Now for this competition, IBI must consider their customer's approach, satisfaction and awareness level towards it. This study analyzes the customer's satisfaction and awareness level towards the IBI. It further investigates the relationship between different demographic variables and the satisfaction and awareness of customers. A sample of 156 respondents from different cities of Pakistan was selected. For the analysis, the Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA was adopted to check the relationship between demographic variables and satisfaction and awareness. The respondents expressed their satisfaction to some of the services and expressed dissatisfaction with few. Customers indicate that they are aware of different products but do not adopt these products. Key words: Islamic banking, customer satisfaction, awareness, dissatisfaction, Kruskal-Wallis, conventional banking.
Socially Responsible Investment in a Global Environment

Socially responsible investment (SRI) is becoming increasingly popular and can be potentially rewarding to all parties concerned. This book discusses the opportunities, challenges, and practices of SRI in a global financial environment in a consistent and integrated framework of risk management. It also covers a wide variety of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues related to various participants, such as values-based retail, institutional investors, corporations, banks, supranational agencies, and non-governmental organizations.
Current Federal Reserve Policy Under the Lens of Economic History: A Tale of Two Countries and Two Booms, Canada and the United States in the 1920s and the 2000s: The Roles of Monetary and Financial Stability Policies

The paper examines the experience of Canada and the United States in the run-up to the two biggest financial crises in global history, in the 1920s and 2000s, and the roles of their monetary and financial stability policies. Comparing the Canadian and the U.S. experiences over the two periods is instructive because Canadian monetary policy was somewhat more conservative than U.S. monetary policy and there were important institutional differences in the two periods: Canada did not have a central bank in the 1920â€™s and followed different financial stability policies in the 2000â€™s. We present evidence that suggests two conclusions. Firstly, a more moderate Canadian monetary policy in the two booms affected Canadaâ€™s relative macroeconomic performance during the booms; in particular, the extent of the economic expansion was less. Secondly, this difference, however, by itself, does not explain why Canada fared better in the recent crisis, but not in the Great Depression. Indeed, the comparative evidence suggests that it was the difference in the effectiveness of financial stability policies, primarily financial regulation supervision with respect to banks and housing finance, that explains the better Canadian performance during the recent crisis. In contrast, in the 1920s, both countries lacked the financial policies to control excess credit growth and both suffered as a consequence. In addition, both countries made policy mistakes in aftermath of the stock market crash and credit collapses; in particular, Canada pursued inflexible interest and exchange rate policies that aggravated the economic downturn.
Epidemiology of Multiple Respiratory Viruses in Childcare Attendees

Abstract Background. The identification of multiple viruses during respiratory illness is increasing with advances in rapid molecular testing; however, the epidemiology of respiratory viral coinfections is not well known. Methods. In total, 225 childcare attendees were prospectively followed for up to 2 years. Nasal swabs were collected at respiratory illness onset and every 7–10 days until illness resolution. Swabs were tested by polymerase chain reaction for 15 respiratory viruses and subtypes. Results. At least 1 virus was detected in 382 (84%) of 455 new-onset illnesses with multiple viruses identified in 212 (46%). The proportion of subject swabs with multiple viruses detected changed as respiratory illnesses progressed from week to week, as did the prevalence of individual viruses. Children with multiple viruses detected at the time of illness onset had less frequent fever (odds ratio [OR], 0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.35, 0.90), however, these children more often had illness symptoms lasting over 7 days (OR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.20, 3.14). Conclusions. A high proportion of daycare attendees had multiple viruses detected during respiratory illnesses. Delay between onset of illness and viral detection varied by virus, indicating that some viruses may be underrepresented in studies of virus epidemiology that rely on only a single test at symptom onset.
Molecular and Functional Analyses Support a Role of Ornithine-δ-Aminotransferase in the Provision of Glutamate for Glutamine Biosynthesis during Pine Germination1[W]

We report the molecular characterization and functional analysis of a gene (PsδOAT) from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) encoding Orn-δ-aminotransferase (δ-OAT; EC 2.6.1.13), an enzyme of arginine metabolism. The deduced amino acid sequence contains a putative N-terminal signal peptide for mitochondrial targeting. The polypeptide is similar to other δ-OATs from plants, yeast, and mammals and encoded by a single-copy gene in pine. PsδOAT encodes a functional δ-OAT as determined by expression of the recombinant protein in Escherichia coli and analysis of the active enzyme. The expression of PsδOAT was undetectable in the embryo, but highly induced at early stages of germination and seedling development in all different organs. Transcript levels decreased in later developmental stages, although an increase was observed in lignified stems of 90-d-old plants. An increase of δ-OAT activity was observed in germinating embryos and seedlings and appears to mirror the observed alterations in PsδOAT transcript levels. Similar expression patterns were also observed for genes encoding arginase and isocitrate dehydrogenase. Transcripts of PsδOAT and the arginase gene were found widely distributed in different cell types of pine organs. Consistent with these results a metabolic pathway is proposed for the nitrogen flow from the megagametophyte to the developing seedling, which is also supported by the relative abundance of free amino acids in embryos and seedlings. Taken together, our data support that δ-OAT plays an important role in this process providing glutamate for glutamine biosynthesis during early pine growth.
A Semi-Parametric Estimation of Time to Exit from Service of Teachers in Kenya

There has been increased enrolment in both primary and secondary schools in the country since the government implemented the free primary education in 2003 and now the subsidized secondary education. This means a higher demand for qualified teachers, hence the need to retain those already in the service. In order to achieve this, there is need to investigate the factors associated with teachers’ exit from service. This study presents the semi-parametric Cox proportional hazard model to determine a combination of potential explanatory variables that are associated with survival time in service for teachers employed by the Teachers Service Commission. The study used data from the Teachers Service Commission of 278,063 teachers working in public schools and post primary institutions in Kenya up to October 2014 and 28,403 who have left the Teachers Service Commission. Results show that male teachers have a higher hazard ratio (1.23) compared to their female counterparts hence indicating that male teachers are more likely to leave teaching, older teachers aged 35 years and above reduces the risk to termination by 96.9% relative to those aged 35 years and below. Teachers working in North Eastern parts of the country have lower survival rates hence are more likely to exit than those in other provinces. Keywords: The Survival function, Cox Proportional Hazard model, Teachers’ Survival Time in Service, Time to exit
A Study on Exploitation Mode of Real-Estate for Tourist Destination in China

Real-Estate for tourism is a mode of estate development distribution for tourism and its development item implements full or partial function of tourism. Both real-estate and tourism are the increasing point of China's economy and particularly the rapid development of tourism brings great influence upon the real-estate industry. Nowadays, there are mainly four exploitation modes in China's real-estate for tourism: first, real-estate exploitation for recreation and entertainment; second, real-estate exploitation for sight-seeing; third, real-estate for reception; fourth, real-estate exploitation for landscape and inhabitants zone. Each mode has its obvious spatial character. There are still some problems needed to be solved with the exploitation of real-estate for tourism, such as there is no layout for some projects and the environment is destroyed by the scenery urbanization. Therefore, regulating the exploitation of real-estate for tourism is an important approach to maintain a better attribution and keep sustainable development of scenic spot.
Factors Affecting Motives for Housing Demand: The Case of a Turkish Province

In the contemporary era, housing sector overwhelmingly comes into prominence more than ever along with manifold triggers such as advances in construction technology, migration density from rural to urban areas, restructuring of seismic territories, urban transformation, and substantial changes in the socio-economic structure. The creation of more efficient living areas can be enabled by paying careful attention to the underlying changes, establishing the increase on the well-being, and more specifically, interpreting the reasons for housing demand of potential consumers. In that context, this study aims to determine the factors affecting motives for the housing demand in a Turkish province, Erzurum through a questionnaire. The questionnaire addresses the potential motives for housing demand into four main categories: owner occupancy, children’s occupancy, rental income, and investment planning. The cross-sectional data of the questionnaire were analyzed using the multinomial logit model. The estimation results showed that the motives for housing demand were mostly effected by occupation and age of the respondents, however several other factors were found to have a significant effect on their motives.
Hybridization of optimal control problems

Optimization problems for hybrid systems have attracted a lot of attention in recent years. This interest stimulated numerous scientific works and the development of tools to study optimal trajectories, such as necessary conditions. The idea of the present contribution is to use such results for hybrid systems to construct a hybridization of an optimal control problem. The approximation via a hybrid system was already considered in the literature, but using different methods to obtain a reduction to minimal path problems on a graph. Our procedure gives an efficient approximation, i.e. more efficient than standard discretization.
Social Factors Influencing Export Initiation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

The authors examine the influence of antecedent social ties on export behavior in an exploratory cross-case investigation of a sample of small and medium-sized exporters drawn from different industries. Data pertaining to 31 export market entries support the view that decision makers' cosmopolitanism has a significant influence on the initiation of exports.
Poor marketing or the decline of altruism? Young people and volunteering in the United Kingdom

This paper addresses the issue of the apparent decline in youth volunteering, looking at the factors that may be turning young people off or preventing them from getting involved. It draws on a new (unpublished) survey of young people's attitudes towards volunteering commissioned by the Institute for Volunteering Research, which suggests that volunteering may have an image problem, and suggests ways by which volunteer-involving organisations can make themselves more attractive to a younger age group. Copyright © 1999 Henry Stewart Publications
Energy efficient routing for connection-oriented traffic in ad-hoc wireless networks

We address the problem of routing connection-oriented traffic in wireless ad-hoc networks under minimum energy expenditures. We outline the tradeoffs that arise by the flexibility to transmit at different power levels and propose distributed algorithms on how to select connection paths relying only on local information. We propose a set of link metrics that capture network parameters and use them for the computation of shortest paths in static topologies. The performance is measured by the call blocking probability and average consumed energy. The algorithms are evaluated by a detailed simulation model and their key characteristics are discussed.
Feasibility Study on the Logistic Competitiveness of Commercial Seaports in Southern Baltic Sea Region

This paper describes a feasibility study designed to determine the competitiveness of a seaport. The content presents a wholly unique approach to the examination and evaluation of the seaport competitiveness level based on the multi-criteria assessment model of their unique logistical characteristics. The research area is limited to the selected seaports located in the Southern BSR. This is the first stage of an international research programme using multi criteria logistics capabilities analysis combined with an adaptation of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method for seaports competition level assessment. The paper also identifies unique criteria, sub-criteria and evaluated diagnostic features (parts of the logistic capabilities chart) of selected Southern Baltic Sea ports facilities taken from an analysis of the main processes and commercial profiles in the seaports of Gdansk, Gdynia, Szczecin and Swinoujscie (Poland) and Rostock, Lubeck (Germany). A specific decisionmaking model for practical assessment of the hypothesised seaport logistics potential has been proposed as well as a group of speculative ventures designed to verify the proposed solutions in subsequent field research.