Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Small Businesses Owned By Immigrant Entrepreneurs on the Local Community of Brits

There are three main theories that explore the rate of entrepreneurialism amongst immigrants: the middleman minority, the ethnic market niche and the ethnic enclave economy. The literature reveals that immigrant entrepreneurs tend to target markets that are abandoned or neglected by local entrepreneurs and large chain stores. As a result, immigrant entrepreneurs often occupy business premises that would otherwise have been left vacant, thus providing the owners of the premises with a return on their asset. However, there are few studies that have considered the extent to which immigrants contribute to the local economy of Brits in particular and South Africa in general. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of small businesses owned by immigrant entrepreneurs on the local community of Brits. This impact was analysed using three variables namely employment creation, revenue to the municipality and investment in real estate. The study drew parallels between what is deemed as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by multinational enterprises, and the actions of immigrant entrepreneurs in establishing their businesses in a host country as micro FDI. However, there are other characteristics that are associated with immigrant entrepreneurship that are not synonymous with multinational cooperatives, such as contribution to the informal economy and unregulated business practices. A questionnaire was distributed to 70 small business owned by immigrant entrepreneurs in Brits on two separate occasions and received 37 completed questionnaires were received back from respondents. Key findings revealed that, on average, three people are employed by a SMME business owned by an immigrant entrepreneur in the Brits area. 97% of immigrant entrepreneurs rent the business premises that they occupy from private individuals. The municipality is paid rates and taxes for services rendered. 61% of immigrant entrepreneurs don’t have operating business licences. The study concludes that, at a municipal level, immigrant entrepreneurs can be classified as providing a form of ‘micro’ FDI, and contributes positively to the local economy which feeds to the South African economy.
Optimization of Energy Detection in Cognitive Radio Networks

— Cognitive radio (CR) is an emerging technology that enables the flexible development and deployment of highly adaptive radios that are built upon software defined radio technology. These types of networks have applications in dynamic spectrum access, co-existence of different wireless network, interference management, etc. They are touted to drive the next generation of devices, protocol and applications. The cognitive radio network paradigm poses many new technical challenges in protocol design, power efficiency, spectrum management, spectrum detection and distributed spectrum managements. The optimal rule for any detector applied to cooperative spectrum sensing.
Decision‐Making Behaviour of Potential Higher Education Students

This paper examines the decision-making behaviour adopted by candidates hoping to gain entry into Higher Education. Whether or not the potential students operate a systematic process, thinking logically throughout each step and choosing the alternative with the most favourable ranking, is worthy of discussion. Secondary research confirms the many variables influencing this process, particularly within the USA. However, in-depth knowledge concerning the criteria that British students employ and their thoughts regarding decision-making is limited. Hence an exploratory study incorporating Sixth Form pupils of a High School in the NW of England and students from across the UK attending an open-day at a university also in the NW was undertaken. Results indicate that applicants do follow the sequential stages from ‘problem recognition’ to ‘evaluation of alternatives’ using parents’ as well as teachers’ advice throughout, although there seems to be a gap in the information needs of potential students, which many universities are not currently satisfying.
Customer switching behaviour in the Chinese retail banking industry

Purpose – There is intense competition and increasing globalisation in financial markets. Bank management must develop customer‐oriented strategies in order to compete successfully in the competitive retail banking environment. The longer a bank can retain a customer, the greater revenue and cost savings from that customer. China's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has resulted in the liberalisation and deregulation of China's financial services market. Chinese customers now have greater choices between domestic and foreign banks. This study aims to identify and analyse the factors that influence bank customers' switching behaviour in the Chinese retail banking industry.Design/methodology/approach – The data for this analysis was obtained using a convenience sample of 421 bank customers in Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, China. The decision to switch banks is hypothesised to be a function of price, reputation, service quality, effective advertising competition, involuntary switching, distance,.
Drive for Muscularity and Beliefs about Legal Performance Enhancing Substances as Predictors of Current Use and Willingness to Use

Using a sample of college-aged male athletes (n = 56) and nonathletes (n = 43), negative and positive beliefs were tested as mediators of the relationship between Drive for Muscularity (DM) and use of performance enhancing substances (PES). Results showed that the Muscularity Behavior (MB) and Muscularity-oriented Body Image (MBI) subscales of the DM scale differentially predicted PES use. Results also showed that negative and positive beliefs are mediators MB—PES use relationship. Neither the MB nor MBI subscales predicted willingness to use a new performance enhancing drug.
Bulimia nervosa: an update and treatment recommendations

Bulimia nervosa is a common eating disorder in adolescent women. Biological, psychological, and social factors are implicated in onset and important in treatment. Diagnosis of the syndrome, but not its subtypes, can be made well using the DSM-IV system. Screening tools, laboratory findings, and physical findings can be helpful in making the diagnosis. Comorbid disorders include affective disorders, addictive disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and anorexia nervosa. The etiology of bulimia nervosa is complex, with biologic, psychological, social, and family factors, which likely differ somewhat from patient to patient. Treatment, accordingly, should be comprehensive, individualized, and multifaceted. Many patients respond well to the use of an antidepressant, and cognitive-behavioral therapy is a useful approach for many patients. Combining these two treatments seems to be a good strategy. Environmental and family issues also need to be addressed. Many patients are treated insufficiently. More research on bulimia nervosa specific to adolescence is needed.
Managing Assets in a World of Higher Volatility and Lower Returns

The return outlook (for both stocks and bonds) is not a rosy one. Thus, investors will have to adjust their way of thinking and investing. Notably, they must realize that they cannot use just one metric of risk and that they face some significant problems when setting the policy asset mix. Furthermore, equity returns will be low, which clearly affects the risk premium. The changing U.S. demographic situation also compounds the problem for investors. Despite this dire outlook, however, several ways exist for investors to improve returns.
Survival and Replication of Dengue-2 Virus in Diapausing Eggs of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract Survival and replication of dengue-2 virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, DENV-2) was determined in diapausing eggs of Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae) to evaluate the importance of this mechanism for viral maintenance during adverse climatic conditions. Infected and uninfected eggs of Ae. albopictus were induced to diapause under low temperature and short photoperiod. Virus was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and isolated in C6/36 cells from both diapausing eggs and nondiapausing eggs. Nucleic acid hybridization was used to monitor viral replication in diapausing eggs. DENV-2 might survive in infected diapausing eggs in a relatively quiescent status based on the absence of a replicative intermediate RNA. In contrast, the viral replicative intermediate RNA along with the replicative form RNA was detected in nondiapausing eggs. It seemed that the virus replicated more actively in nondiapausing eggs than in diapausing eggs. Infected diapausing eggs may play an important role in the maintenance of DENV during adverse climatic conditions in nature.
Analysing wear in carpets by detecting varying local binary patterns

Currently, carpet companies assess the quality of their products based on their appearance retention capabilities. For this, carpet samples with different degrees of wear after a traffic exposure simulation process are rated with wear labels by human experts. Experts compare changes in appearance in the worn samples to samples with original appearance. This process is subjective and humans can make mistakes up to 10% in rating. In search of an objective assessment, research using texture analysis has been conducted to automate the process. Particularly, Local Binary Pattern (LBP) technique combined with a Symmetric adaptation of the Kullback- Leibler divergence (SKL) are successful for extracting texture features related to the wear labels either from intensity and range images. We present in this paper a novel extension of the LBP techniques that improves the representation of the distinct wear labels. The technique consists in detecting those patters that monotonically change with the wear labels while grouping the others. Computing the SKL from these patters considerably increases the discrimination between the consecutive groups even for carpet types where other LBP variations fail. We present results for carpet types representing 72% of the existing references for the EN1471:1996 European standard.
IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN ACHIEVING CUSTOMER RELATIONS

This paper tries to find out the relationship between Human Resource Management and its impact on customer relations in every organization. The HRM depends on employee's morals and efficiency. If we have a good HRM system, an organization can strongly enhance its customer relations. Customer plays main role in CRM or in any enterprise. Organization should develop its HRM and Human Resource strategies. The necessity of human resources in an organization have been known and proven also that the strategies should be built and the investments plannings should emphasize on the humanistic materials such as, motivation, recruitment, payment, promotion and , etc. or the steps in CRM process that are applying for having fixed and loyal customers or having a strong relation with our customers that they trust us, the present paper is an attempt to understand the importance of various HR practices including Total Quality Management practices of human resources of organization to achieve harmonious customer relations.
Profiling male apparel consumers : lifestyle, shopping orientation, patronage behaviour and shopping mall behaviour

The highly competitive male apparel consumer market is growing rapidly and significantly contributes to the billion-rand apparel industry. However, there is a dearth of research on this important and growing market segment. This study explores the lifestyle, shopping orientation and patronage behaviour of male apparel consumers, as well as their shopping mall behaviour. A mall intercept method (n = 297) was used to collect the raw data. Cluster analysis used demographics, eight lifestyle factors, three shopping orientation factors and patronage behaviour as input variables. Four clusters were identified, namely the traditionalists (38%), the shopping enthusiasts (19%), the dynamics (30%) and the laggards (13%). Managerial implications and recommendations for future research are highlighted as part of a larger research stream on apparel shopping behaviour in South Africa.
Reliability investigations for manufacturable high density PRAM

In this paper, PRAM (phase-change memory), exploiting new memory materials called chalcogenides, is introduced. The reliability issues for high-density commercial memory products such as disturbance immunity, endurance, and data retention are addressed and evaluated by using a 64 Mb PRAM with 0.12 /spl mu/m technology. Moreover, observed degradation modes and underlying physical mechanisms are investigated.
Exercise‐induced neuronal plasticity in central autonomic networks: role in cardiovascular control

It is now well established that brain plasticity is an inherent property not only of the developing but also of the adult brain. Numerous beneficial effects of exercise, including improved memory, cognitive function and neuroprotection, have been shown to involve an important neuroplastic component. However, whether major adaptive cardiovascular adjustments during exercise, needed to ensure proper blood perfusion of peripheral tissues, also require brain neuroplasticity, is presently unknown. This review will critically evaluate current knowledge on proposed mechanisms that are likely to underlie the continuous resetting of baroreflex control of heart rate during/after exercise and following exercise training. Accumulating evidence indicates that not only somatosensory afferents (conveyed by skeletal muscle receptors, baroreceptors and/or cardiopulmonary receptors) but also projections arising from central command neurons (in particular, peptidergic hypothalamic pre‐autonomic neurons) converge into the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS) in the dorsal brainstem, to co‐ordinate complex cardiovascular adaptations during dynamic exercise. This review focuses in particular on a reciprocally interconnected network between the NTS and the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN), which is proposed to act as a pivotal anatomical and functional substrate underlying integrative feedforward and feedback cardiovascular adjustments during exercise. Recent findings supporting neuroplastic adaptive changes within the NTS–PVN reciprocal network (e.g. remodelling of afferent inputs, structural and functional neuronal plasticity and changes in neurotransmitter content) will be discussed within the context of their role as important underlying cellular mechanisms supporting the tonic activation and improved efficacy of these central pathways in response to circulatory demand at rest and during exercise, both in sedentary and in trained individuals. We hope this review will stimulate more comprehensive studies aimed at understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms within CNS neuronal networks that contribute to exercise‐induced neuroplasticity and cardiovascular adjustments.
Detecting and Interpreting Financial Stress in the Euro Area

There is a need to find better models and indicators for large disruptive events, not least in order to be more prepared and mitigate their effects. In this paper we take a step in this direction and discuss the performance of a financial stress indicator with a specific focus on the euro area. As far as we know, our indicator is the first attempt to develop an indicator of financial stress with a specific focus on the euro area. It is also the first to exploit the information contained in central bank communication to help measure stress in financial markets. For use in real time, the indicator is able to efficiently extract information from an otherwise noisy signal and provide information about the level of stress in the markets.
An Estimation Method for InSAR Interferometric Phase Based on MMSE Criterion

In this paper, we propose a method based on minimum mean squared error (mmse) criterion to estimate synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) interferometric phase. In this method, the cross-correlation coefficient vector with large coregistration error is given first, and then, the cost function under the mmse criterion is used to estimate the InSAR interferometric phase. The method can auto-coregister the SAR images and reduce the interferometric phase noise simultaneously. Theoretical analysis and computer simulation results show that the method can provide an accurate estimate of the terrain interferometric phase (interferogram) even when the coregistration error reaches 1 pixel.
Matrix ownership â€“ a model for quality reliability in procurement

Almost every company has gone global in search of economical supply of quality raw material. With new suppliers from abroad who also try their first attempt to supply out of their country, the reliability in quality is always an issue due to non-adherence to standardisation procedures like ISO. While quality of the first supply is good, the assurance of getting similar quality in the next supply is always a question. The paper describes a model followed by an Indian Abrasive company and its foreign supplier to ensure a reliable and cost effective supply of raw material. Matrix ownership to quality assurance at the supplier's premises has been followed by a five step process described in the paper. This framework can be applied by any organisation and its partnering supplier to evolve strategies for reliable supply of materials.
Policy Regime Change And Corporate Credit In Bulgaria: Asymmetric Supply And Demand Responses

The paper seeks to assess how a major policy regime change ? such as the introduction of the currency board in Bulgaria ? affects the flow of bank credit to the corporate sector. An attempt is made to identify the determinants of corporate credit separately from the viewpoint of lenders and borrowers. The estimated credit supply and credit demand equations provide empirical evidence of important changes in microeconomic behavioral patterns which can be associated with the policy regime change. The results also suggest a considerable asymmetry in the response of credit supply and credit demand to the policy shock: while the supply shifts were quite pronounced, the patterns of firms? credit demand remained fairly stable. The policy implications of the detected asymmetry in microeconomic adjustment are also discussed in the paper.
Seasonal and Spatial Characteristics of Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) in Northern West Siberian Cities

Anthropogenic heat and modified landscapes raise air and surface temperatures in urbanized areas around the globe. This phenomenon is widely known as an urban heat island (UHI). Previous UHI studies, and specifically those based on remote sensing data, have not included cities north of 60°N. A few in situ studies have indicated that even relatively small cities in high latitudes may exhibit significantly amplified UHIs. The UHI characteristics and factors controlling its intensity in high latitudes remain largely unknown. This study attempts to close this knowledge gap for 28 cities in northern West Siberia (NWS). NWS cities are convenient for urban intercomparison studies as they have relatively similar cold continental climates, and flat, rather homogeneous landscapes. We investigated the UHI in NWS cities using the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) MOD 11A2 land surface temperature (LST) product in 8-day composites. The analysis reveals that all 28 NWS cities exhibit a persistent UHI in summer and winter. The LST analysis found differences in summer and winter regarding the UHI effect, and supports the hypothesis of seasonal differences in the causes of UHI formation. Correlation analysis found the strongest relationships between the UHI and population (log P). Regression models using log P alone could explain 65–67% of the variability of UHIs in the region. Additional explanatory power—at least in summer—is provided by the surrounding background temperatures, which themselves are strongly correlated with latitude. The performed regression analysis thus confirms the important role of the surrounding temperature in explaining spatial–temporal variation of UHI intensity. These findings suggest a climatological basis for these phenomena and, given the importance of climatic warming, an aspect that deserves future study.
Exploring the IEEE Standard C37.118–2005 Synchrophasors for Power Systems

IEEE Standard 1344-1995 [1] on measurement of synchronized phasors of power system currents and voltages has been revised and published as IEEE Standard C37.118-2005 [2]. This paper has been prepared by the IEEE Working Group who developed the revised version. The purpose of the paper is to acquaint the power engineering community of the availability and content of this new standard, highlight some of the key differences between the old and new versions, and introduce several applications of this powerful technology.
Towards Temporal constraint Support for OCL ?

The Object Constraint Language (OCL) is widely used to express precise and unambiguous constraints on models and object oriented programs. However, the notion of temporal constraints, controlling the system behavior over time, has not been natively supported. Such temporal constraints are necessary to model reactive and real-time systems. Although there are works addressing temporal extensions of OCL, they only bring syntactic extensions without any concrete implementation conforming to the OCL standard. On top of that, all of them are based on temporal logics that require particular skills to be used in practice. In this paper, we propose to fill in both gaps. We first enrich OCL by a pattern-based temporal layer which is then integrated into the current Eclipse’s OCL plug-in. Moreover, the temporal constraint support for OCL presented here connects to automatic test generators, and forms the first step towards creating a bridge linking model driven engineering and usual formal methods.
What Is the Optimal Chest Compression Depth During Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation of Adult Patients?

Background— The 2010 American Heart Association guidelines suggested an increase in cardiopulmonary resuscitation compression depth with a target >50 mm and no upper limit. This target is based on limited evidence, and we sought to determine the optimal compression depth range. Methods and Results— We studied emergency medical services–treated out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients from the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium Prehospital Resuscitation Impedance Valve and Early Versus Delayed Analysis clinical trial and the Epistry-Cardiac Arrest database. We calculated adjusted odds ratios for survival to hospital discharge, 1-day survival, and any return of circulation. We included 9136 adult patients from 9 US and Canadian cities with a mean age of 67.5 years, mean compression depth of 41.9 mm, and a return of circulation of 31.3%, 1-day survival of 22.8%, and survival to hospital discharge of 7.3%. For survival to discharge, the adjusted odds ratios were 1.04 (95% CI, 1.00–1.08) for each 5-mm increment in compression depth, 1.45 (95% CI, 1.20–1.76) for cases within 2005 depth range (>38 mm), and 1.05 (95% CI, 1.03–1.08) for percentage of minutes in depth range (10% change). Covariate-adjusted spline curves revealed that the maximum survival is at a depth of 45.6 mm (15-mm interval with highest survival between 40.3 and 55.3 mm) with no differences between men and women. Conclusions— This large study of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients demonstrated that increased cardiopulmonary resuscitation compression depth is strongly associated with better survival. Our adjusted analyses, however, found that maximum survival was in the depth interval of 40.3 to 55.3 mm (peak, 45.6 mm), suggesting that the 2010 American Heart Association cardiopulmonary resuscitation guideline target may be too high. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00394706.