Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of Corporate Failure: The Case of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

The aim of this paper is to estimate the probability of default for JSE listed companies. Our distinctive contribution is to use the multi-sector approach in estimating corporate failure instead of estimating failure in one sector, as failing companies are faced with the same challenge regardless of the sectors they operate in. The study creates a platform to identify the effect of Book-value to Marketvalue ratio on the probability to default, as this variable is often used as a proxy for corporate default in asset pricing models. Moreover, the use of Classification and Regression Trees uncovers other variables as reliable predictors to estimate corporate failure as the model is designed to choose the covariates with respect to classification ability. Our study also serves to add to the literature on how Logistic model performance compares to Machine Learning methods such as Classification and Regression Trees and Support Vector Machines. The study is the first to apply Support Vector Machines to predict failure on South African listed companies.
Theoretical Process of Entrepreneurial Family: Developing the Conceptual Framework by using Strategic Entrepreneurship Approach for the Describing Business Sustainability

This conceptual paper reviews the related literature for describing an entrepreneurial family phenomenon. The study of sustainability in the family business becomes relatively attractive because it contributes to the development of the country towards GDP, innovation, and job creations. By using a strategic entrepreneurship approach, this study trying to develop the conceptual framework for describing of sustainability of family business phenomenon. The strategic entrepreneurship approach is undeveloped to explain of business sustainability phenomenon instead of other related approaches such as economics and management theories. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to critically review how the elements of strategic entrepreneurship towards business sustainability which is overlooked by the previous scholars. The entrepreneurs who are an implement of strategic entrepreneurship have a significant focus not only on sustaining the competitive advantage but also on the growth and success of the ventures. In this century, financial and global crises highlight some questions towards a sustainable business model. In response to these issues, more research is required for developing a sustainable model for business. Despite a lot of work in the family business, the strategic entrepreneurship model with the sustainability of the family business is unexplored. The strategic entrepreneurship is immature to describe business sustainability in
NONLINEAR LEAST SQUARES REGRESSION ANALYSIS AND DIAGNOSIS FOR OPTICAL AND LASER MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS

Laser Doppler and Raman spectroscopy are widely adopted for biomedical diagnosis. Both Doppler ultrasound and Raman spectra are used to display normal and abnormal signature waveforms that are unique in collected samples, in order to recognize normal and abnormal regions in the spectral display respectively. Visualization of quantitative Doppler ultrasound data and Raman spectra provides a straightforward means to distinguish between normal and abnormal samples, however, mixing artifacts due to motion, instrumentation and background are in fact inevitable. The fluorescence artifact is the dominating factor whose formation mechanism varies. In general, fluorescence waveforms could be formulated as typical Gaussian, Sigmoidal or Lorentzian distribution, while single spectrum is seldom enough to represent the fluorescence waveforms completely to further extract intrinsic spectra with unique signatures. In this case, combination of Gaussian, Sigmoidal and Lorentzian waveforms could be the solution to model the fluorescence artifact. To identify a set of modeling parameters, a simple but powerful nonlinear least squares regression technique is introduced in this article. Case studies on both normal and abnormal sample data are conducted.
Home Government Role in the Process of Outward Foreign Direct Investment: The Case of China and Russia

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of the home government in the institutional formation of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) systems in China and Russia. It focuses on the stages of OFDI institutional development since the start of market reforms in these countries, Reference is made to both processes and outcomes involved. It has been uncovered that in each country the state and its agencies have been the principal institutional entrepreneurs in developing the OFDI system. Consequently, the development of OFDI institutions depended heavily on the extent to which state policy was consistent in supporting the regulative, normative and cognitive pillars of the respective institutional systems. The paper brings theoretical propositions and an analytical framework which posits various consequences of political and economic continuity for OFDI institutional development, moderated by the level of institutional entrepreneurship coming from governmental and business sources. Finally a model presenting the role of the home government in the OFDI institutional system development is created and its application discussed.
Design for manufacturing and assembly key performance indicators to support high-speed product development

In today’s business environment, the trend towards more product variety and customization is unbroken. Due to this development, the need of agile and reconfigurable production systems emerged to cope with various products and product families. To design and optimize production systems as well as to choose the optimal product matches, product analysis methods are needed. Indeed, most of the known methods aim to analyze a product or one product family on the physical level. Different product families, however, may differ largely in terms of the number and nature of components. This fact impedes an efficient comparison and choice of appropriate product family combinations for the production system. A new methodology is proposed to analyze existing products in view of their functional and physical architecture. The aim is to cluster these products in new assembly oriented product families for the optimization of existing assembly lines and the creation of future reconfigurable assembly systems. Based on Datum Flow Chain, the physical structure of the products is analyzed. Functional subassemblies are identified, and a functional analysis is performed. Moreover, a hybrid functional and physical architecture graph (HyFPAG) is the output which depicts the similarity between product families by providing design support to both, production system planners and product designers. An illustrative example of a nail-clipper is used to explain the proposed methodology. An industrial case study on two product families of steering columns of thyssenkrupp Presta France is then carried out to give a first industrial evaluation of the proposed approach. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 28th CIRP Design Conference 2018.
USING DECOMPOSED THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR TO PREDICT CUSTOMERS INTENTION TO ADOPT

The perceptions of customers towards Islamic banking and its products is not a new area of research in Islamic finance. However, the previous studies mainly used the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and theory of planned behaviour (TPB). This study deems it necessary to decompose the factors that can influence human behaviour into the relevant variables in Islamic finance. Due to it is comprehensiveness and influence on perception, the study used the decomposed theory of planned behaviour (DTPB) to examine the factors that can influence homebuyers’ intention to adopt Islamic home financing. A survey was conducted among 518 potential homebuyers in Nigeria, and the data were subjected to structural equation modelling. The study results revealed that attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control influence the customer's intention to adopt Islamic home financing in Nigeria, while knowledge of Islamic finance and cost-benefit influence their attitude towards the intention. The DTPB can be used to understand customers’ intention to adopt Islamic financing products. This study offers bankers insight into important factors to market their products, and help lawmakers understand why they should promote Islamic finance.
Soft Power, Discourse Coalitions, and the Proposed Interbasin Water Transfer Between Lake Chad and the Congo River

Since the 1960s, Lake Chad’s declining water level has been a hot topic on the political agendas of the Sahel region. For some decades, diverting water from the Congo River to Lake Chad via an interbasin water transfer (IBWT) has been considered to be the only way that Lake Chad can be saved. Accordingly, two IBWT projects have been put on the table. The first one, the Transaqua Project, has been in development since the 1970s; it involves the construction of a 2400-kilometre-long canal between the two basins. The second proposal was drafted in 2011 and entails the construction of a shorter canal (1350 km) which aims to divert water from two reservoirs that are to be constructed on the Ubangi River, one of the main tributaries of the Congo River. In 2018, the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) chose the first proposal as their preferred option to revive Lake Chad. While the IBWT idea has been promoted as part of political agendas, French scientists and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been firmly opposed to it. This article focuses on the discourse coalitions which are competing to promote or block the IBWT project and include companies, the riparian states of both basins, non-riparian states, international organisations, NGOs, and experts. The paper applies a mixed methods approach of discourse, document, and media analysis. Diplomatic and technocratic processes related to the IBWT issue, and the motivations of multiple actors to promote or object to the IBWT projects, are revealed through an examination of soft power tactics and strategies such as agenda setting, knowledge construction, securitisation, issue linkage, and exclusion from negotiation processes. Overall, this article examines the transboundary water interactions between the two relatively underresearched basins of Lake Chad and the Congo River; it highlights how non-state actors (particularly companies) have led to a reshaping of transboundary water politics.
Biochemical and Molecular Actions of Nutrients Dietary L-Arginine Supplementation Reduces Fat Mass in Zucker Diabetic Fatty Rats 1

This study was conducted to test the hypothesis that dietary supplementation of arginine, the physiologic precursor of nitric oxide (NO), reduces fat mass in the Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rat, a genetically obese animal model of type-II diabetes mellitus. Male ZDF rats, 9 wk old, were pair-fed Purina 5008 diet and received drinking water containing arginine-HCl (1.51%) or alanine (2.55%, isonitrogenous control) for 10 wk. Serum concentrations of arginine and NOx (oxidation products of NO) were 261 and 70% higher, respectively, in arginine-supplemented rats than in control rats. The body weights of arginine-treated rats were 6, 10, and 16% lower at wk 4, 7, and 10 after the treatment initiation, respectively, compared with control rats. Arginine supplementation reduced the weight of abdominal (retroperitoneal) and epididymal adipose tissues (45 and 25%, respectively) as well as serum concentrations of glucose (25%), triglycerides (23%), FFA (27%), homocysteine (26%), dimethylarginines (18–21%), and leptin (32%). The arginine treatment enhanced NO production (71–85%), lipolysis (22–24%), and the oxidation of glucose (34–36%) and octanoate (40–43%) in abdominal and epididymal adipose tissues. Results of the microarray analysis indicated that arginine supplementation increased adipose tissue expression of key genes responsible for fatty acid and glucose oxidation: NO synthase-1 (145%), heme oxygenase-3 (789%), AMP-activated protein kinase (123%), and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor coactivator-1 (500%). The induction of these genes was verified by real-time RT-PCR analysis. In sum, arginine treatment may provide a potentially novel and useful means to enhance NO synthesis and reduce fat mass in obese subjects with type-II diabetes mellitus. J. Nutr. 135: 714–721, 2005.
Application of minimum phase wavelet for generation of synthetic seismic signals

Seismic signals are analyzed by using different wavelet transforms to evaluate the magnitude of the signal. Through experimentation, it is reported that surface wave magnitude is greater than equals to three, it would affect the environment. In this paper, an attempt is made to apply minimum phase wavelet technique to analyze the seismic signals through minimum phase wavelets using CREWES data.
Pathogenesis and new therapeutic targets Innate and adaptive immunity: role of interferon and neutrophils In the last 12 months, key findings in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) reinforced the role of interferon (IFN) and of acti-

Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology 2020 1Rheumatology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Italy; 2Department of Medical Biotechnologies, University of Siena, Italy; 3Rheumatology Unit, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara and Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria S. Anna, Ferrara, Italy. Viola Signorini, MD Elena Elefante, MD Dina Zucchi, MD Francesca Trentin, MD Alessandra Bortoluzzi, MD, PhD Chiara Tani, MD, PhD Please address correspondence to: Viola Signorini, U.O. di Reumatologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Università di Pisa, Via Roma 67, 56126 Pisa, Italy. E-mail: violasignorini@hotmail.it Received on March 18, 2020; accepted in revised form on May 27, 2020. Clin Exp Rheumatol 2020; 38: 592-601. © Copyright CliniCal and ExpErimEntal rhEumatology 2020.
Moduli spaces of abstract and embedded Kummer varieties

In this paper, we investigate the construction of two moduli stacks of Kummer varieties. The first one is the stack $\mathcal K^{\text{abs}}_g$ of abstract Kummer varieties and the second one is the stack $\mathcal K^{\text{em}}_g$ of embedded Kummer varieties. We will prove that $\mathcal K^{\text{abs}}_g$ is a Deligne-Mumford stack and its coarse moduli space is isomorphic to $\boldsymbol A_g$, the coarse moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties of dimension $g$. On the other hand we give a modular family $\mathcal W_g\to U$ of embedded Kummer varieties embedded in $\mathbb P^{2^g-1}\times\mathbb P^{2^g-1}$, meaning that every geometric fiber of this family is an embedded Kummer variety and every isomorphic class of such varieties appears at least once as the class of a fiber. As a consequence, we construct the coarse moduli space $\boldsymbol{\mathsf K}^{\text{em}}_2$ of embedded Kummer surfaces and prove that it is obtained from $\boldsymbol A_2$ by contracting a particular curve inside this space. We conjecture that this is a general fact: $\boldsymbol{\mathsf K}^{\text{em}}_g$ could be obtained from $\boldsymbol A_g$ via a contraction for all $g>1$.
Whom to dine with? Strategies of ravens (Corvus corax) in food monopolization experiments

Strukturierte Gruppen zeichnen sich durch das Bilden von sozialen Beziehungen aus, deren Qualitat verschiedenste Bereiche des taglichen Lebens beeinflusst. Agonistische Verhaltensweisen wie z.B. Konflikte konnen wichtige soziale Bindungen schadigen, weshalb es wichtig ist, Mechanismen zu entwickeln, die Konflikte verhindern bzw. mogliche Schaden reparieren. Das Ziel meiner Studie war, die sozialen Strategien von subadulten Raben (Corvus corax) wahrend kompetitivem Nahrungserwerb zu erforschen, wobei ich mich besonders auf das Konfliktverhalten wahrend dem Nahrungserwerb und dem soziopositivem Verhalten danach konzentrierte. Um eine kompetitive Situation zu schaffen, prasentierte ich den zwolf Raben verschiedene Futtersituationen, wobei ich variierte, wie leicht das Futter zu monopolisieren ist (1 Futterstuck, 2 Futterstucke oder 12 Futterstucke). Wie erwartet, nahmen Konflikte bei monopolisierbaren Futter (1 oder 2 Futterstucke), im Vergleich zu der Situation mit 12 Futterstucken zu. Wenn die Tiere die Moglichkeit hatten (2 Futterstucke), frasen sie neben Individuen, mit denen sie affiliiert waren. Zusatzlich zeigen die Resultate, dass Individuen, die „Opfer“ sehr vieler Konflikte wahrend dem Nahrungserwerb waren, haufiger in der Nachfutterphase andere kraulten (=preening). Auserdem zeigten die Vogel signifkant mehr Kraulverhalten gegenuber anderen in der Nachphase, wenn sie die Moglichkeit hatten, zu wahlen, mit wem sie an der Futterstelle fressen (=2 Futterstucke). Diese Resultate sind der erste experimentelle Nachweis dafur, dass Raben Konflikte abzupuffern versuchen und dass sie je nach Wert einer sozialen Beziehung diese im Nachhinein reparieren.
Hidden Nambu mechanics - A variant formulation of Hamiltonian systems -

We propose a variant formulation of Hamiltonian systems by the use of variables including redundant degrees of freedom. We show that Hamiltonian systems can be described by extended dynamics whose master equation is the Nambu equation or its generalization. Partition functions associated with the extended dynamics in many degrees of freedom systems are given. Our formulation can also be applied to Hamiltonian systems with first class constraints.
Temporal Ordered Clustering in Dynamic Networks: Unsupervised and Semi-Supervised Learning Algorithms

In <italic>temporal ordered clustering</italic>, given a single snapshot of a dynamic network in which nodes arrive at distinct time instants, we aim at partitioning its nodes into <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$</tex-math></inline-formula> ordered clusters <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {C}_1 \prec \cdots \prec \mathcal {C}_K$</tex-math></inline-formula> such that for <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$i< j$</tex-math></inline-formula>, nodes in cluster <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {C}_i$</tex-math></inline-formula> arrived before nodes in cluster <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {C}_j$</tex-math></inline-formula>, with <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$</tex-math></inline-formula> being a data-driven parameter and not known upfront. Such a problem is of considerable significance in many applications ranging from tracking the expansion of fake news to mapping the spread of information. We first formulate our problem for a general dynamic graph, and propose an integer programming framework that finds the optimal clustering, represented as a strict partial order set, achieving the best precision (i.e., fraction of successfully ordered node pairs) for a fixed density (i.e., fraction of comparable node pairs). We then develop a sequential importance procedure and design unsupervised and semi-supervised algorithms to find temporal ordered clusters that efficiently approximate the optimal solution. To illustrate the techniques, we apply our methods to the vertex copying (duplication-divergence) model which exhibits some edge-case challenges in inferring the clusters as compared to other network models. Finally, we validate the performance of the proposed algorithms on synthetic and real-world networks.
Degradation of Covariance Reconstruction-Based Robust Adaptive Beamformers

We show that recent robust adaptive beamformers, based on reconstructing either the noise-plus-interference or the data covariance matrices, are sensitive to the noise-plusinterference structure and degrade in the typical case when interferer steering vector mismatch exists, often performing much worse than common diagonally loaded sample covariance matrix based approaches, even when signal-of-interest steering vecto r mismatch is absent.
A Channel Model of Transceivers for Multiterminal Secret Key Agreement

Information theoretic secret key agreement is impossible without making initial assumptions. One type of initial assumption is correlated random variables that are generated by using a noisy channel that connects the terminals. Terminals use the correlated random variables and communication over a reliable public channel to arrive at a shared secret key. Previous channel models assume that each terminal either controls one input to the channel, or receives one output variable of the channel. In this paper, we propose a new channel model of transceivers where each terminal simultaneously controls an input variable and observes an output variable of the (noisy) channel. We give upper and lower bounds for the secret key capacity (i.e., highest achievable key rate) of this transceiver model, and prove the secret key capacity under the conditions that the public communication is noninteractive and input variables of the noisy channel are independent.
Adversarial Network With Multiple Classifiers for Open Set Domain Adaptation

Domain adaptation aims to transfer knowledge from a domain with adequate labeled samples to a domain with scarce labeled samples. Prior research has introduced various open set domain adaptation settings in the literature to extend the applications of domain adaptation methods in real-world scenarios. This paper focuses on the type of open set domain adaptation setting where the target domain has both private (‘unknown classes’) label space and the shared (‘known classes’) label space. However, the source domain only has the ‘known classes’ label space. Prevalent distribution-matching domain adaptation methods are inadequate in such a setting that demands adaptation from a smaller source domain to a larger and diverse target domain with more classes. For addressing this specific open set domain adaptation setting, prior research introduces a domain adversarial model that uses a fixed threshold for distinguishing known from unknown target samples and lacks at handling negative transfers. We extend their adversarial model and propose a novel adversarial domain adaptation model with multiple auxiliary classifiers. The proposed multi-classifier structure introduces a weighting module that evaluates distinctive domain characteristics for assigning the target samples with weights which are more representative to whether they are likely to belong to the known and unknown classes to encourage positive transfers during adversarial training and simultaneously reduces the domain gap between the shared classes of the source and target domains. A thorough experimental investigation shows that our proposed method outperforms existing domain adaptation methods on a number of domain adaptation datasets.
Social media and firm performance: The voice of managers in European contexts

Studying the voice of 248 managers, operating in four European countries (Italy, Germany, Spain and France), this research aimed to investigate the evaluation of managers regarding the impact of social media on their firms’ performance and to identify managerial choices that are associated with a positive impact. Findings indicate that the majority of managers in this study perceived a positive impact of social media on firm performance. Moreover, the probability of observing a positive impact turned out to be positively related to the choice to integrate the use of social media with other online and offline communication tools, and to the use of social media as a tool to reach new targets of customers. More generally, the research highlights that the use of social media appears more likely to be beneficial if they are used as complement of other communication tools.