Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Workshop on Regional and Urban Economics: Inequality and Regional Growth and Cohesion

In this paper we investigate the interactions among fiscal decentralization, income inequality and regional disparities, using a sample of 23 OECD countries over the period 1971-2000. We first explore the effects of fiscal decentralization on overall income inequality. We then test whether regional economic disparities influence the fiscal decentralization process. We use novel and robust measures of fiscal decentralization based on differences in the degree of both expenditure and tax autonomy. We also conduct several robustness checks to tackle the potential endogeneity and reverse causality issues. Our results highlight the importance both of the nature of fiscal decentralization expenditure versus taxation and of the extent to which responsibility and decision powers are really left to subcentral governments. While a higher degree of tax decentralization is associated with higher overall income inequality within a country, high regional disparities seem to be correlated with lower expenditure decentralization.
Green Consumption Behaviour in Indonesia

Green products are not widely marketed in Indonesia because manufacturers are less aware of the positive impacts of green products and lack of consumer demand for green products. Likewise, the level of consumer awareness in Indonesia does not reveal concern about the intimate aspects of nature on the product used. As an impact, many manufacturers do not release green products. Thus, the importance of this study is to analyse green consumption because the value of green consumption affects the behaviour of green consumption. This study is an explanatory research paper with quantitative analysis methods. The sampling technique used was purposive sampling. The sample of this study is a green community consumer. The result of this study shows a correlation between green consumption value and green consumption behaviour. The green consumption values have a correlation with green consumption behaviours. The value of green consumption is able to enhance and shape the behaviour of green consumption among consumers of Indonesian green communities. By creating green consumption behaviour, the community is expected to know and care about natural environment issues and healthy living behaviour.
Mapper Side Geometric Shaping for QAM Constellations in 5G MIMO Wireless Channel with Realistic LDPC Codes

In wireless communication systems, there are many stages for signal transmission. Among them, mapping and demapping convert a sequence of bits into a sequence of complex numbers and vice versa. This operation is performed by a system of constellations~ -- by a set of labeled points on the complex plane. Usually, the geometry of the constellation is fixed, and constellation points are uniformly spaced, e.g., the same quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is used in a wide range of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). By eliminating the uniformity of constellations, it is possible to achieve greater values of capacity. Due to the current standard restrictions, it is difficult to change the constellation both on the mapper or demapper side. In this case, one can optimize the constellation only on the mapper or the demapper side using original methodology. By the numerical calculating of capacity, we show that the optimal geometric constellation depends on SNR. Optimization is carried out by maximizing mutual information (MI). The MI function describes the amount of information being transmitted through the channel with the optimal encoding. To prove the effectiveness of this approach we provide numerical experiments in the modern physical level Sionna simulator using the realistic LDPC codes and the MIMO 5G OFDM channels.
Improving Service Quality in Hotels in Uganda through Total Quality Management

Original Research Article The hotel industry is a dynamic one in which the guest dictates the pace and type of service. Service quality is one of the competitive priorities which enable hotels in the hospitality industry to survive. This paper aims to establish the relationship between Total Quality Management and Service Quality in hotels in Uganda, Kampala. The hypothesis that certification helped hotels to have higher performance levels is verified. This study will help managers and researchers to take decisions based on factual data and consider the importance of total quality management in the hotel sector. The main aim of this project is to analyze the motives and impact on the decision of hotels to embark or not on the implementation of a total quality management system. In order to achieve this goal, the research assessed the enablers and results of a total quality management in hotels in Uganda. Hotels considered in this study are Serena Hotel, Metropolitan Hotel and Fairway Hotel. The Serena Hotel and Metropolitan Hotel are considered because they have been winners of several awards such as the Certificate of Excellence by Trip Advisor or the National Quality Award and enjoy a very good position in the market and Fairway Hotel has ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 22000 certification. This research work showed whether the performance of the certified Serena Hotel was higher compared to the non-certified Metropolitan Hotel and Fairway Hotel. The employee satisfaction/dissatisfaction in the certified Serena Hotel was also addressed in this research work.
Analysis for Vibrato with Arbitrary Shape and its Applications to Music

— Vibrato in singing voice and instrument performance is essential for perceived quality. It also creates individual performer styles. Over the years, vocal teachers and musicians often examine this musical characteristic by hand. This results in limited scope of music pieces being analyzed. This paper presents a vibrato analysis method, which is suitable for vibrato tones with arbitrary shape and quantitative analysis, enabling various music applications. To evaluate the performance of the proposed analysis method, we have conducted an experiment on estimation accuracy. It is shown that the error of estimating rate and extent are less than or equal to 6% and 9%, respectively. Some applications of the analysis results, namely, vibrato analysis and singing synthesis, are presented at the end.
Microstructure And Resistivity Of Cu/Ni Thin Film Prepared By Magnetized Electroplating On Various Electrolyte Temperature

Plating of Ni has been carried out on Cu assisted by a 200 gauss magnetic field at an electrolyte temperature variation of 30 C-70 C. The research aims to study the influence of the temperature of the electrolyte solution on the microstructure and resistivity. The results show that in the influence of the magnetic field, the increase in the electrolyte temperature strongly affects the microstructure of the Cu/Ni layer. Temperature of 60 C is the best temperature to produce a layer that is not dull and does not burn. On the other hand, the increase in the electrolyte temperature can increase the intensity of Ni diffraction, d-spacing and grain size. The sheet resistivity is very dependent on the three microstructure parameters in accordance with the equation of Rs = 1.2610-3 T +1.38 (/sq).
SURGICAL MANAGEMENT OF PRESBYOPIA: CURRENT AND EVOLUTION

Presbyopia is age related decrease in accommodative power of eye. As the presbyopic population is growing rapidly along with increasing demands for spectacle independence new surgical solutions may offer hope to those who are seeking independence from their spectacle or contact lens corrections. The aim of this review is to focus on the advancements in surgical management of presbyopia from corneal-based surgical options with various types of corneal intrastromal inlays and laser ablation technique to advancement in lens and scleral based surgeries.
Detection of phytosterols in Ganoderma boninense-infected oil palm seedlings through GC-MS analysis.

Ganoderma boninense is a fungus known to be pathogenic to oil palm. It causes the basal stem rot (BSR) and upper stem rot (USR) diseases. This study shows that the interaction between Ganoderma and oil palm produced many secondary metabolites including sterol compounds revealed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. The roots of progenies were artificially infected with G. boninense and subjected to metabolite extraction. A total of 13 sterol compounds and two tocopherols were identified from the root extracts of both tolerant and susceptible oil palm seedlings. The main sterol compounds identified were sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol and ergostenol. The GC-MS library, namely NIST 08, Wiley 229 and comparison of fragmentation patterns of the mass spectra reported in literature made it possible to identify the sterol components present in the root extracts. The results indicate that the number and level of sterol compounds induced in infected palms were significantly higher than in uninfected seedlings. Variations in the type and level of compounds detected were also observed between infected tolerant and susceptible progenies. This study provides information that relates sterols and tocopherol (antioxidant) compounds to the oil palm defence mechanism against G. boninense.
Entrepreneurial Attitude; A Fundamental Root for Firm Performance in Uganda a Close Look at Business Alertness, Case Study of Industrial Division Mbale

Original Research Article Today, there is an increasing demand to appreciate entrepreneurship in the entire world. The economic systems across the globe, allows anyone with a special idea and the drive to make change, to join the army of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship provides a platform for value addition to effect growth and development in today‟s economies. The purpose of the study was to incorporate the moderating role of business alertness in the relationship between entrepreneurial attitude and performance of firms. The study used a cross sectional research design; questionnaires were designed based on the sample size of 50 respondents. The findings reviled a positive contribution of business alertness as a moderating factor in the relationship between entrepreneurial attitude and performance of firms. The study recommends the governments and private entities to disseminate business information using popular and quick means like social media e.g. face book, WhatsApp and twitter to enhance entrepreneurial attitude for high firm performance.
Supplement to Identifying causal effects in maximally oriented partially directed acyclic graphs

Rules Of The Do-calculus (Pearl, 2009). Let X,Y,Z and W be pairwise disjoint (possibly empty) sets of nodes in a DAG D = (V,E) Let DX denote the graph obtained by deleting all edges into X from D. Similarly, let DX denote the graph obtained by deleting all edges out of X in D and let DXZ denote the graph obtained by deleting all edges into X and all edges out of Z inD. Let (D,F) be a causal Bayesian network, the following rules hold for densities in F. Rule 1 (Insertion/deletion of observations). If Y ⊥DX Z|X ∪W, then
Chemical Functional and Sensory Properties of Complementary Diets from Blends of Fermented Millet (Penniselum glaucum) with Groundnut (Arachis hypogeae) and Moringa oleifera Seed Flours

Malnutrition resulting mostly from poor infant feeding practices is a major public health problem in Nigeria. This study evaluated the nutritional and functional properties of flour blends prepared from fermented millet, groundnut and Moringa oleifera, as well as attributes of the gruel obtained from the composite flour. Seven blends were formulated using NutriSurvey for Linear Programming Software and compared with Ogi (traditional complementary food) and cerelac (commercial flour). Data were analyzed using statistical packages, means values separated using Ducan’s New Multiple Range (DNMR) test at P<0.05. Protein, fat, fibre and ash content of the formulated samples ranged from 18.18-20.46, 10.89-20.72, 3.44-3.89, and 1.62-3.30g/100g, respectively, and all were significantly higher (P<0.05) than in ogi (7.08, 5.61, 0.92 and 1.18), while energy values (Kcal/100g) ranged between 427.17 and 481.16. Calcium, phosphorous, zinc and iron content of the formulated samples were significantly higher P<0.05) than in ogi, but lower to cerelac. Bulk density, water absorption capacity, least gelation and swelling capacity of the blends ranged from 0.75-0.81g/ml, 2.81-4.24ml/g, 12.33-18.67% and 3.01-5.91% respectively. Sensory evaluation indicated that the samples were highly rated (P 0.05) with sensory scores of above 5.00 for all the sensory attributes investigated. The study shows that the formulated samples are of high nutrient dense products and possess good functional and sensory properties which are needed for the production of complementary foods for infants and older children.
Evaluating Economic Resilience from Economic Stability Perspective: The ASEAN – 5 Countries Cases

DOI: 10.21276/sjebm.2018. 5.5. 2 Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to measure the resiliency of the ASEAN – 5 countries from economic stability perspective. Based on engineering economic resilience and the business cycle of conventional Keynesian theory, economic resilience can be perceived into two dimensions which are shock amplification and shock persistent. Shock of amplification pertain the size of economic deviation from equilibrium due to shocks. A low resilience country tends to associate with high shock amplification. Meanwhile, shock persistent is duration of economic deviation from equilibrium. A prolonged shock persistent cause a country to be less resilient. By using seemingly unrelated regression for 1981 – 2014 period, this study found that Malaysia is the highest shock amplification among the ASEAN – 5 which is followed by Thailand and Singapore. In contrast, Indonesia and the Philippines are the lowest shock amplification. In term of size of shock persistent, the result revealed that Singapore is the highest whereas, the size of shock persistent in Malaysia and Indonesia are the lowest among the ASEAN – 5 countries.
An Early Warning Model for Currency Crises in Centr al and Eastern Europe

In this study, an early warning model for currency crises was developed for a sample of quarterly data from twelve Central and Eastern European transition countries. After reviewing the relevant literature , it was shown that a number of indicators contain us eful information for early warning purposes when evaluated according to the signal approach. In a ne xt st p, the appropriateness of the signal appoach’ s underlying functional specification was investigate d by means of bivariate regressions on one economic variable in different functional specifica t ons. On the basis of this analysis, two multivariate pro bit regressions with all statistically significant economic variables on a (0,1)-distributed crisis va riable were estimated. For in-sample forecasts, the predictions of both model specifications proved to perform significantly better than random guesses as well as some comparable early warning models. Ov erall, the model appears to track developments in individual countries rather well, although the i mportance of some variables seems to change over time. With respect to economic interpretations, the results of this study lend support to “first generation” and “generation two and a half crisis” models which place a big weight on economic fundamentals in explaining currency crises. JEL-Codes: C25, F31, F47
Attack Detection And Its Analysis In DTN Mobile Ad-Hoc Network

:The attacker in network at any cost degrades the routing performance. The routing of data in network is necessary for delivering data between the mobile nodes. In Delay Tolerant Network data is transferred in bundles. A mobile node whose participate in route will store the incoming data and forward to next connected mobile nodes when they also participate in route and available for data receiving. Delay tolerant routing should naturally support unicast and multicast routing strategy. Wireless mobile ad-hoc communication is topology less service because it performs in movable node environment. While the group communication established between nodes that new node register itself in the network and authentication provided by coordinator node after that node participate for any type of communication i.e. data sending or receiving. In this work we have actually measured the routing performance of DTN, Black hole attack, Jamming attack and Vampire attack. The performance of routing was compared with each other through performance metrics. In this network each type of attacker had different malicious activity. The malicious function of attacker was affected easily in this kind of decentralized network. Only these three attacker performance was measured in present work and the performance showed the disruption in normal routing performance. The presence of attacker also consumed the limited energy resource and this resource utilization improved network life. Thus DTN is the effective approach in routing of data in between sender and receiver. The attacker performance measurement provides the information about the attacker effect in dynamic network only.
Isolation And Antimicrobial Test Of Endophytic Bacteria From Pearl Grass (Hedyotis Corymbosa (L.) Lamk)

Endophytic bacteria are bacteria that live in healthy plants without causing disease and as alternative of antimicrobial compound producers. The endophytic bacteria improve the health and productivity of plants by suppressing pathogen and promote plant growth. Pearl grass (Hedyotis corymbosa (L.) Lamk) is a medicinal plant that has been used for years and has many benefits. The purposes of this study are to isolating and screening of endophytic bacteria from pearl grass against five pathogenic bacteria ( Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typimuriun, Shigella disentriae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). The macroscopic morphology observation was done to observed the morphology of endophyte bacteria colonies. The result obtained that total of endophyte bacteria isolate on pearl grass plant was 15 isolates, that were four isolates from leaves, five isolates from roots, five isolates from stems and 1 isolate from flower. Based on the screening results, nine isolates of endophytic bacteria have potential activity (characterized by the formation of inhibition zone) against antimicroba. The inhibition zone may indicate that those isolates produce compounds that have antibacterial effects. Those isolates are A3, A7,A12,A13,B3.2, B7,B11, D9, and BU4. Four isolates (A7,A12,A13, and B7) of endophytic bacteria have potential activity againt E.coli. Two isolates (A3 and D9) of endophytic bacteria have potential activity againt St. aureus. Five (A12, A13, B7, B11, BU4) of endophytic bacteria have potential activity againt Sa. typimurium. Three ( B3.2, B7 and B11) of endophytic bacteria have potential activity againt Sh. disentriae. Two (A3, and B7) of endophytic bacteria have potential activity againt P. aeruginosa. The most inhibition zone showed by B7, so it can be concluded that B7 is the most potential isolate as a novel source of antibacterial compound.
Understanding the fitness burden of ESBL plasmids in Avian Pathogenic Escherichia Coli (APEC).

Extended spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) are enzymes produced by bacteria that confer resistance to cephalosporins, antibiotics that are widely used to treat infections in animals and humans. The emergence of plasmid-borne ESBL resistance in humans and animals, especially poultry, is of particular concern. Avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) cause colibacillosis, an economically important disease of poultry, but have also been linked to human disease. Of growing concern is the potential transfer of ESBL-producing plasmids between E. coli isolates and their impact on the host bacterium. Thus, the aim of this study was to characterise ESBL plasmids in APEC isolated from UK poultry and examine their impact on host bacterial fitness and virulence. Plasmid profiling and genome sequencing revealed that all three APEC isolates harboured at least two plasmids, belonging to the IncF and IncI replicon types. The ESBL plasmid was identical in each isolate, being of 105,610 Kb in size, belonging to the IncI1-Iy family and carrying the blaCTX-M-1 allele. Upstream of blaCTX-M-1 gene was an ISEcp1 insertion element, which likely contributes to the transmissibility of the element. The plasmid also carried genes coding for tetracycline resistance that were co-transferred with the β-lactamase genes. The APEC isolates also harboured a large virulence plasmid of similar size, but belonging to the IncF replicon type. Competitive growth studies in rich or minimal media found no significant differences in the growth of CTX-M-1 plasmid-harbouring and plasmid-cured derivatives. However, the presence of the CTX-M-1 plasmid in APEC O78 was beneficial to their growth in iron-limited media, but caused a greater fitness burden at low pH. When present as the only plasmid in APEC, the ESBL-containing derivatives produced more biofilm at human and chicken body temperatures and were better able to invade and survive in human (THP-1) and chicken (HD11) macrophage cell lines than the cured isolates. Finally, the substrate utilisation profiles of the plasmid-containing derivatives differed to that of the parent strains, indicating that the plasmid may influence the metabolic capability of the organism. The studies presented here indicate that ESBL plasmids of the IncI1-1Y type spread readily to unrelated APEC isolates and can influence the fitness of APEC under certain conditions.
ON ASYMPTOTIC BEHAVIOR OF CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY OF CROSSING THE NONLINEAR BOUNDARY BY A PERTURBED RANDOM WALK

τa = inf {n ≥ 1 : Tn > fa (n)} , (1) where fa (t) , t > 0, a > 0, is some family of nonlinear boundaries, and we set inf { } = ∞. Many important stopping times, arising in nonlinear renewal theory and in sequential analysis are of the form (1). In this case,, Tn is the statistics of likelihood ratio test, and τa is the number of necessary observations ([7], [8], [9]). Asymptotic properties and limit theorems for τa were studied in papers [1]-[4] (see also monographs [5], [7], [8]). In the present paper for a sufficiently wide class of functions Δ (x) and boundaries fa (t) , we will study the limit behavior of the conditional probability P ( τa ≥ n|Sn = x )
Permanent Income and Consumption

A theory of consumer spending which states that people will spend money at a level consistent with their expected long term average income is briefly recapitulated. The level of expected long term income then becomes thought of as the level of “permanent” income that can be safely spent. The permanency can be seen as following an adaptive expectation process what enables to compute values of the variable which in fact is unobservable. A marginal propensity to consume is then easy to find by applying OLS to a simple model. Nevertheless, a question arises whether in reality the response of consumption to income is consistent with such a hypothesis. A validation of the permanent income hypothesis is performed using an instrumental variables approach.
Comparison of measurement-based and simulation-based indoor Wi-Fi positioning algorithms

—With the spreading of Wi-Fi networks, new services are provided. In particular, Wi-Fi networks can be used to locate mobile terminals based on measurements. In this paper, we propose a hybrid positioning model based on signal strength measurements and a probabilistic positioning system based on pre-computed signal strength map. Both models are tested in various environments and data sets and compared to well-known approaches, including ﬁngerprinting.