Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comovement and resiliency of Islamic equity market: Evidence from GCC Islamic equity index based on wavelet analysis

Co-movements in equity markets may reflect either financial contagion or stock market integration. While the former tends to demonstrate financial stability and resiliency, the latter has played an important role for stock market development. This paper attempts to investigate the co-movements, including its transmission channels, of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Islamic equity index with other Islamic equity indices (Asia Pacific, US, Eurozone, and ASEAN) as well as with Global Sukuk index (Islamic bond). As to the methodology, we employ multi-time scale wavelet analysis as one of the latest techniques in finance to unveil the time varying and multi-horizon nature of these comovements to capture both time and frequency domain simultaneously. Our finding shows that the most recent US-born subprime crisis has generated both long-term and short-term shocks to volatility of all Islamic equity indices. The GCC Islamic equity index is the most susceptible with the shocks mostly transmitted via fundamental linkages. Notably, the nature of co-movements amongst Islamic equity indices are more or less similar as those amongst conventional counterparts. We also find no evidence of flight-to-quality for Islamic investors to flee from compliant equity in GCC to compliant bond during market turbulance, given the leading role of Islamic equity index over Sukuk index in the short run and long run. Finally, we find the nature of weak stock market integration between GCC equity market and others. Some recommendations have been proposed to improve stock market integration, including its stability and resiliency.
OF DENGUE AND CHIKUNGUNYA VIRUS STRAINS CIRCULATING IN NEW DELHI , INDIA [ Running Title-Study of DENV & CHIKV strains from India ]

Dengue and chikungunya are acute viral infections with overlapping clinical symptoms. The two diseases are transmitted by common mosquito vectors resulting in their co-circulation in a region. Molecular and serological tests specific for both dengue and chikungunya infections were carried out on 87 acute phase blood samples collected from suspected dengue/chikungunya patients in Delhi from September to December, 2011. RT-PCR and IgM ELISA were done for detection of dengue virus (DENV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV). NS1 ELISA and IgG ELISA were also conducted for detection of DENV specific antigen and secondary DENV infection. DENV infection was detected in 49% and CHIKV infection in 29% samples by RTPCR. Co-infection by DENV and CHIKV were detected in 10% of the samples. DENV serotypes 1, 2 and 3 were detected in the study. Nine DENV-1 strains, 6 DENV-2 strains and 20 CHIKV strains were characterized by DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of respective envelope protein genes. DENV-1 strains grouped in American African genotype, DENV2 strains in Cosmopolitan genotype and CHIKV strains in East Central South African (ECSA) genotype by phylogenetic analysis. This is one of the few studies that describe phylogeny of two dengue virus serotypes (DENV-1 and DENV-2) and chikungunya virus. The surveillance and monitoring of DENV and CHIKV strains are important for design of strategies for control of impending epidemic.
Empirical Evaluation of a Model That Measures the Brand Loyalty for Fast Moving Consumer Goods

Abstract The objective of this paper is to evaluate the model to measure brand loyalty. This is achieved by using the model to measure three fast moving consumer goods (toothpaste, bread and coffee) and apply the model to measure the brand loyalty influences and their measuring criteria. If the model remains valid when applied to different FMCG products, and measures brand loyalty of the three products successfully, it implies that the model is a generic rather than specific managerial tool in the FMCG industry. The results obtained from the research in this article shows that the model to measure brand loyalty were successful and remained valid in the case of all three the products. The results are promising, showing that the model to measure brand loyalty strives towards a generic tool that can be applied in the FMCG industry in different products. However, the model needs to be scrutinised further by exposing it to a wide range of FMCG products to ensure that it really is applicable to all FMCG products. Managers will find the model valuable because they can apply the model to determine which specific influences are the most important for their products or services, while also identifying where their brand loyalty fails. This research paper is an exploratory study of brand loyalty in the FMCG market which sets a scientific base for academia who wants to further research the concepts of brand loyalty and brand management. In addition, the model sets a scientific base for academia who wants to further research the concepts of brand loyalty and brand management.
Macroscopic and Microscopic ( Non-) Universality of Compact Support Random Matrix Theory

A random matrix model with a σ-model like constraint, the restricted trace ensemble (RTE), is solved in the large-n limit. In the macroscopic limit the smooth connected two-point resolvent G(z,w) is found to be nonuniversal, extending previous results from monomial to arbitrary polynomial potentials. Using loop equation techniques we give a closed though nonuniversal expression for G(z,w), which extends recursively to all higher kpoint resolvents. These findings are in contrast to the usual unconstrained one-matrix model. However, in the microscopic large-n limit, which probes only correlations at distance of the mean level spacing, we are able to show that the constraint does not modify the universal sine-law. In the case of monomial potentials V (M) = M2p, we provide a relation valid for finite-n between the k-point correlation function of the RTE and the unconstrained model. In the microscopic large-n limit they coincide which proves the microscopic universality of RTEs.
Come together: longitudinal comparisons of Pettigrew's reformulated intergroup contact model and the Common Ingroup Identity Model in Anglo-French and Mexican-American contexts

Both Anglo-French and Mexican-American relations are embedded in histories of conflict. Within these intergroup contexts, two longitudinal field studies of contact tested Pettigrew’s (1998) reformulated model of the intergroup contact theory and Gaertner and Dovidio’s (2000) Common Ingroup Identity Model (CIIM). In Pettigrew’s model, intergroup friendship is accorded a special role and the contact-bias relation is mediated by changing behaviour, ingroup reappraisal, generating affective ties, and learning about the outgroup. Pettigrew’s integration of the three central models of contact generalization into a time-sequence holds that contact first elicits decategorization, then salient categorization, and finally recategorization. In the CIIM, these three levels of categorization— plus a fourth, dual identity—are conceptualized to be mediators in the contact-bias relation. Results point to the crucial importance of intergroup friendship and underline the mediating roles of learning about the outgroup, behaviour modification, and generating affective ties, but not ingroup reappraisal in Pettigrew’s model. As for the CIIM, in Study 1 interpersonal and intergroup levels were most central, while in Study 2 the dual identity and superordinate group levels were most effective. The implications of the findings are discussed with reference to the likely stability of these effects in different intergroup contexts. Copyright # 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Synthesis of state-feedback optimal controllers for continuous-time switched linear systems

The paper deals with the optimal control of switched piecewise linear autonomous systems, where the objective is to minimize a performance index over an infinite time horizon. We assume that the switching sequence has a finite length: the unknown switching times and the switching sequence are the optimization parameters. We also assume that a cost may be associated to each switch. The optimal control for this class of systems takes the form of a state feedback, i.e., it is possible to identify a set of regions of the state space such that an optimal switch should occur if and only if the present state belongs to one of them. We show how the tables containing these regions can be computed off-line through a numerical procedure.
DETERMINANTS OF PROCUREMENT EFFICIENCY IN GOVERNMENT PARASTATALS IN KENYA: A CASE OF NATIONAL WATER CONSERVATION AND PIPELINE CORPORATION

This study sought to establish the determinants of procurement efficiency in government parastatals in Kenya. The study was guided by the following specific objectives:- to establish how financial capacity influence procurement efficiency in government parastatals in Kenya and to determine how inventory management affects influence procurement efficiency in government parastatals in Kenya. Descriptive research design was used for the study. The target population for this study was 86 employees drawn from planning, construction, Human resource & Administration, Legal, Audit and procurement departments . Primary data was collected using questionnaires. The quantitative data was entered into SPSS for analysis. Factor analysis was then applied to reduce the data which was finally used for analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques were used. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data was analyzed by the use of content analysis. The data showed that the high R square was 0.799. It showed that the independent variables in the study were able to explain 63.80% variation in the procurement efficiency while the remaining 36.20% was explained by the variables or other aspects outside the model. This implied that these variables were very significant and they therefore needed to be considered in any effort to boost procurement efficiency in the government parastatals. The study was a milestone for further research in the field of procurement performance in state corporations in Africa and particularly in Kenya. The findings demonstrated the important factors to enhancement of procurement efficiency to include; financial capacity and inventory management. The current study should therefore be expanded further in future in order to determine the effect of procurement legal framework on procurement efficiency in government Parastatals . Key Terms: Financial Capacity, Inventory Control Management, Procurement Efficiency
PDFlib PLOP: PDF Linearization, Optimization, Protection Page inserted by evaluation version

Previous studies have found no female predominance in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in nonWestern countries. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence and correlates of Rome II (IBS) in both sexes in Pakistan. A Population-based survey in a lowincome inner city area using questionnaires to diagnose Rome II IBS and assess distress, disability and stressful life events. Data were collected from 880/938 (93%) randomly selected residents. 13.4% of women and 13.1% men met criteria for Rome II IBS; 34 (3.9%) had diarrhoea-predominant, 59 (6.7%) had constipation-predominant IBS and 24 (2.7%) had mixed IBS . In logistic regression analysis, IBS was associated in men with high income (OR = 1.56; 95% CI: 1.05–2.3) and few years of education (OR = 2.17; 95% CI: 1.2– 3.9) and in women with being married (OR = 3.6; 95% CI: 1.1–11.9) and stressful life events score (OR = 1.14; 95% CI: 1.01–1.3). Disability was associated with constipation-predominant IBS (OR = 1.99; 95% CI: 1.1–3.6), distress (OR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.14–1.23) and stressful life events (OR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.1–1.3). Investigations were more likely in men (54%) than in women (27%) (P = 0.003). These findings suggest that the equal sex ratio of IBS in urban Pakistan could result from a close association between marked distress and IBS in men similar to that found in women
Classification and Communication of Aviation RelatedSpace Weather Radiation Events

Space Weather impacts on the radiation field at aviation altitudes have been a matter of concern and discussion for many years. This situation has led to a growing demand for corresponding highquality information in the aviation industry. As a consequence, the Space Weather D-scale was introduced to provide aviation users and the interested public with relevant information about the development of the radiation field at flight altitudes during solar particle events (SPEs). The corresponding D-index for warnings of elevated radiation levels in the atmosphere can be assessed both by measurements and model calculations. The classification of the different grades of this space weather scale for the radiation field at aviation altitudes and operational aspects of the D-index are discussed in this paper. For example, it is demonstrated that the use of the D-index can avoid false alarms and facilitate proportionate mitigation measures. Furthermore, guidelines for action levels using the D-scale are derived from current FAA recommendations.
R&D investment responses to R&D subsidies: a theoretical analysis and a microeconometric study

Subsidies to the Norwegian high-tech industries have traditionally been given as "matching grants", i.e. the subsidies are targeted, and the firms have to contribute a 50 % own risk capital to the subsidized projects. Our results suggest that grants do not crowd out privately financed R&D, but that subsidized firms do not increase their privately financed R&D either. Hence, the own risk capital seems to be taken from ordinary R&D budgets. We also investigate possible long-run effects of R&D subsidies, and show that conventional R&D investment models predict negative dynamic effects of subsidies. Our data, however, do not support this claim. On the contrary, there are indications of a positive dynamic effects, i.e. temporary R&D subsidies seem to stimulate firms to increase their R&D investments even after the grants have expired. We propose learning-by-doing in R&D activities as a possible explanation for this, and present a theoretical analysis showing that such effects may alter the predictions of the conventional models. A structural, econometric model of R&D investments incorporating such learning effects is estimated with reasonable results.
Multi-Paragraph Reasoning with Knowledge-enhanced Graph Neural Network

Multi-paragraph reasoning is indispensable for open-domain question answering (OpenQA), which receives less attention in the current OpenQA systems. In this work, we propose a knowledge-enhanced graph neural network (KGNN), which performs reasoning over multiple paragraphs with entities. To explicitly capture the entities' relatedness, KGNN utilizes relational facts in knowledge graph to build the entity graph. The experimental results show that KGNN outperforms in both distractor and full wiki settings than baselines methods on HotpotQA dataset. And our further analysis illustrates KGNN is effective and robust with more retrieved paragraphs.
INFLUENCE OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE STUDENT TEACHER AND COOPERATING TEACHER ON STUDENT TEACHER'S DECISION TO ENTER TEACHING

The purpose of the study was to determine if student teachers’ perceptions of the student teacher/cooperating teacher relationship were predictive of their decisions to enter the teaching profession. The target population of this study consisted of preservice agricultural education students at Texas A&M University. The accessible sample consisted of student teachers in agricultural education at Texas A&M University in fall 2004, a group of 33 student teachers. Multiple regression was used to build a model that explained the greatest amount of variability in the student teachers’ decision to enter teaching, based on the student teachers’ perceptions of the cooperating teacher and other suspected predictor variables. The typical student teacher in agricultural education was a 22 year old white female completing an undergraduate degree. The majority of student teachers had no full-time agricultural employment experience. The majority of student teachers had at least four semesters (two years) of high school agricultural science courses. It was concluded that the student teaching/cooperating teacher relationship is not predictive of decision to teach. However, semesters of high school agricultural sciences courses completed was predictive of one’s decision to teach. The best model explained 18.3% of the variance.
The Proximity-Concentration Tradeoff Under Uncertainty

This paper analyzes the firm's choice between serving a foreign market through exports or foreign affiliate sales in an environment characterized by country speci c shocks to the cost of production. Our model predicts that country pairs with less correlated output fluctuations trade more, relative to affiliate sales, and countries with more volatile fluctuations are served relatively more by exporters than by foreign affiliates selling abroad. Using detailed data on trade and affiliate sales from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, we find empirical support for these predictions of the model.
FUIZ ' ¥ sets and systems A multi-stage system in compilation environments 1

In developing a fuzzy inference system to construct several configurations for mapping programs to parallel machines, we have addressed some aspects that are not usually present in fuzzy knowledge based systems. On the one hand, the system should deliver several elements of the reference set instead of a single one, and on the other, some of the rules used to express the knowledge need to know about the conclusions of other rules (requiring some chaining between rules). In this paper, we describe our system, giving special emphasis to the problems encountered and the solutions developed to overcome these problems. (~) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Kinemax Super Stabilizer 1 Kinemax Rotating Hinge 2 Porous coated anatomic 8 Attenborough 4 GUEPAR 2 Sheehan 2 Anatomic modular knee 1

We have studied a consecutive series of 72 salvage knee procedures using a Kinematic rotating hinge prosthesis performed in a single arthroplasty unit between 1983 and 1997. Clinical and radiographic assessment of the survivorship of the Kinematic rotating hinge total knee arthroplasty (Howmedica, Rutherford, NJ) were analyzed. Survival analysis revealed a best-case 10-year implant survival of 90%. Concurrently, this group of patients exhibited a significant and sustained improvement in Knee Society Score and pain relief after implantation of a rotating hinge component. There were 10 deaths due to unrelated causes during the study period. This constrained hinged prosthesis remains a viable option in the face of gross deformity, bone loss, and failed multiple previous surgical procedures.
Machine vision system for weed detection using image filtering in vegetables crops

El presente trabajo expone un sistema de vision de maquina para la deteccion de maleza en cultivos de hortalizas, usando imagenes exteriores, evadiendo problemas de iluminacion y nitidez durante la etapa de adquisicion, ya que el presente desarrollo sera un modulo para un robot movil removedor de maleza con una camara oscura para controlar las condiciones de luz. El enfoque de diseno se enmarca en el desarrollo de un algoritmo util para discriminar maleza usando filtros en la imagen extrayendo caracteristicas de color y area, luego se implementa un proceso de etiquetado para cada objeto en la escena. Finalmente, una clasificacion basada en area es propuesta incluyendo el calculo de los indices de sensibilidad, especificidad, valores predictivos positivos y negativos con el fin de evaluar el rendimiento del algoritmo.
Constructions of hepatitis C Virus prophylactic vaccine candidate using Berberis vulgaris stimulated and nonstructural protein 3 loaded dendritic cells

Introduction: Dendritic cells (DCs) have been recently employed as carriers for vaccines against several viral infections. The present study was designed to develop a prophylactic vaccine against hepatitis C virus (HCV) using DCs treated with Berberis vulgaris root extract (BRE), as a preclinical study. Methods: BRE was prepared and injected to female BALB/c mice for DCs expansion. The expanded splenocyte cells (EDC) were purified and efficiently loaded ex vivo with HCV-nonstructural protein 3, NS3, (EDC-NS3). Mice were subcutaneously inoculated with EDC-NS3 vaccine candidate thrice with 4-week-intervals and IL-12, IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-10, MHC class II, CD3, CD16, indoleamine 2, 3 dioxygenase (IDO) and total protein levels were measured, post-vaccination by PCR and flow cytometry. Moreover, cytotoxic T lymphocyte and humoral immune responses were examined. Results: Our data revealed that immunization with EDC-NS3 vaccine elevated IL-12, IFN-γ and IL-4 expressions as well as MHC II and CD16 at protein levels. It also elicited strong HCV-NS3-specific humoral and cellular immune responses. However, the expressions of CD3, IDO, and IL-10 were down-regulated, post-vaccination. Conclusion: EDC-NS3 immunization serves as an innovative modality for immunoprophylaxis against HCV infection.
Personality Configurations in Self-Managed Teams : A Natural Experiment on the Effects of Maximizing and Minimizing Variance in Traits

In this study, we examined the impact of seeding teams to create maximal and minimal levels of extroversion and conscientiousness variance. Using the theories of complementary and supplementary fit, we make predictions regarding the main and interactive effects of extroversion and conscientiousness variance on performance. Testing our hypotheses in a longitudinal study of MBA teams, our results demonstrate that the combination of minimizing conscientiousness variance (consistent with complementary fit) and maximizing extroversion variance (consistent with supplementary fit) produced the highest levels of short-term and long-term performance. jasp_778 1701.1732
Inhibitors EMT-Associated Kinase Switch That Induces Resistance to EGFR MIG 6 Pathway Orchestrates the − miR 200 − β The TGF

Although specificmutations in the tyrosine kinase domain of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) identify tumors that are responsive to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), these genetic alterations are present in only a minority of patients. Patients with tumors expressing wild-type EGFR lack reliable predictive markers of their clinical response to EGFRTKIs. Although epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been inversely correlated with the response of cancers to EGFR-targeted therapy, the precise molecular mechanisms underlying this association have not been defined and no specific EMT-associated biomarker of clinical benefit has been identified. Here, we show that during transforming growth factor b (TGFb)–mediated EMT, inhibition of the microRNAs 200 (miR200) family results in upregulated expression of the mitogen-inducible gene 6 (MIG6), a negative regulator of EGFR. The MIG6-mediated reduction of EGFR occurs concomitantly with a TGFb-induced EMT-associated kinase switch of tumor cells to anAKT-activated EGFR-independent state. In a panel of 25 cancer cell lines of different tissue origins, we find that the ratio of the expression levels of MIG6 and miR200c is highly correlatedwith EMTand resistance to erlotinib. Analyses of primary tumor xenografts of patient-derived lung and pancreatic cancers carrying wild-type EGFR showed that the tumor MIG6(mRNA)/miR200 ratio was inversely correlated with response to erlotinib in vivo. Our data demonstrate that the TGFb–miR200–MIG6 network orchestrates the EMT-associated kinase switch that induces resistance to EGFR inhibitors, and identify a low ratio ofMIG6 tomiR200 as a promising predictive biomarker of the response of tumors to EGFR TKIs. Cancer Res; 74(14); 3995–4005. 2014 AACR.