Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of revenue diversification on the firm value and stability of banks: A comparative study of Nigerian and Malaysian banks

This study contributes to the current debate on the downsides and benefits of revenue diversification. Diversification may affect banks when they invest in riskier activities with lower returns, while they benefit from diversified activities that are less risky but have higher returns. The study offers extended implications in the empirical literature using a different measure of revenue diversification from an emerging market perspective. The study uses recent financial data from 26 Malaysian and Nigerian banks for the period 2009–2017, totaling 234 observations. The GMM estimation technique is employed to test the relationship. The results show that revenue diversification – non-interest income/gross revenue ratio (NII), fee and commission income/revenue ratio (NII1), and non-interest income/total assets ratio (NIITA) – significantly affect the firm value and stability of Nigerian banks. Liquidity, administrative expenses, net interest margin (NIM), non-performing loans (NPL), size, GDP growth rate and inflation also affect the firm value and stability of a bank. For Malaysian banks, diversification variables do not significantly affect firm value of a bank, while liquidity, administrative expenses, NIM and size significantly affect firm value. Diversification (NII and NIITA), liquidity, administrative expenses, NIM, NPL, size, GDP growth and inflation rate has a significant impact on the stability of Malaysian banks. The study concludes that revenue diversification affects both the firm value and stability of banks, and to achieve sound financial stability, banks that focus on interest-generating activities may diversify into non-interest-generating activities.
Time Resolved PIV of the Flow Field Underneath an Accelerating Meniscus

We present an experimental analysis of the flow field near an accelerating contact line using time-resolved Particle Image Velocimetry (TR-PIV). Both advancing and receding contact lines are investigated. The analyzed configuration consists of a liquid column that moves along a vertical 2D channel, open to the atmosphere and driven by a controlled pressure head. Large counter-rotating vortices were observed and analyzed in terms of the maximum intensity of the Q-field. To compute smooth spatial derivatives and improve the measurement resolution in the post-processing stage, we propose a combination of Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Radial Basis Functions (RBF). The RBFs are used to regress the spatial and temporal structures of the leading POD modes, so that “high-resolution” modes are obtained. These can then be combined to reconstruct high-resolution fields that are smooth and robust against measurement noise and amenable to analytic differentiation. The results show significant differences in the flow topology between the advancing and the receding cases despite velocity and acceleration of contact lines are comparable in absolute values. This suggests that the flow dynamics are tightly linked to the shape of the interface, which significantly differs in the two cases.
Elimination of acoustic sensitivity in nonlinear optical loop mirrors

Acoustic disturbance is known to give rise to bit error rate (BER) floor when using the nonlinear optical loop mirror as a switch. Here, the acoustically induced penalty is investigated and >30 dB improvement in the acceptable acoustic sound pressure (50 Hz-5 kHz) is achieved by rewinding the loop fiber symmetrically. Only 1.5 dB sensitivity penalty was observed at a sound pressure of 110 dBA when using a nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) containing 3.9 km of dispersion shifted fiber.
US Army Engineer Enlisted Personnel : The Impact of Identity Hierarchies on Decision to Remain in the Military

The US Army seeks to develop a military identity among Soldiers as a way to promote mission success, foster professionalism, and retain personnel. To an organization undergoing change – like the military, the decision to remain in it is a key component for personnel (Meyer, Hecht, Gill & Toplonytsky, 2010). Classical sociological concepts of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (Toennies, [1887] 1963), the Institutional/ Occupational (I/O) Model (Moskos, 1977) as a modern incarnation of those dualisms, organizational commitment as a psychological state defined in industrial/ organizational psychology (Allen & Meyer, 1990), and sociological definitions of professionalism (Huntington, 1957 ; Janowitz, 1960 ; Segal & De Angelis, 2009) and identity (McCall & Simmons, 1978 ; Burke & Stets, 2009) are primary concepts for understanding the identity of Army engineers and their decision to remain in the military until retirement, usually 20 years or more. This article looks at how an identity or identities impact a Soldier’s decision to remain in the Army. The central focus is on how personnel in an Army Engineer unit view themselves in the military – as Engineers (with obvious transferable civilian skills), Leaders (with management and organizational skills for military and civilian settings), or Soldiers (with basic universal Soldier skills and the generic name given for a person who is in the Army), or some combination. At a time when proposed changes for military benefits are being discussed and force reductions are in place, understanding how Soldiers view their identities and understanding their motivations for continued service will help explain the current dynamics of serving in the military.
Leadership and organizational distress: Review of literature

The financial system in any country plays a critical role in facilitating payment and providing policy and performance anchors to the economy. Therefore, systemic financial distress manifests in industry-level financial distress by front-hitting the financial system first. Financial organizations’ failure triggers a domino effect on the whole ecosystem, and therefore financial institutions enjoy various layers of protection when their operations show signs of distress. Several financial industry players worldwide have experienced financial distress in one form or another during episodes of systemic crisis such as the 2008 international financial crisis. Although the distress might not have necessarily led to bankruptcy or liquidation in some cases, it left several questions unanswered, particularly with respect to a leadership role, ecosystem contingencies, and the recovery mechanism. This study scanned recent extant literature on organizational financial distress and identified essential gaps for future research. The study provided a holistic review of antecedents, outcomes, and intra-industry characteristics of financial distress. The study found that the leadership role as an orchestrative agent in an organizational ecosystem has not been adequately addressed in the extant literature. The study contributes to the literature by clarifying leadership aspects of systemic financial distress by placing leadership within the core of the financial ecosystem before, during, and after distress. Outcomes and recommendations for future research are proposed.
Slip resistance testing of shoes — new developments

This paper describes research being undertaken to develop a more realistic test for measuring the slip resistance of complete shoe soles and thus determine the effectiveness of sole patterns as well as sole materials and floor surfaces. The frictional forces between shoe and ground have been measured in normal walking using a force platform and photographic techniques used to record human slipping experiments. This has led to the development of an experimental test which reproduces slip conditions in walking as closely as possible. Using this test it has been found that slip severity depends on how friction changes as the shoe moves. Furthermore, it seems that a single measurement of friction may not be sufficient to completely predict the slip resistance of a shoe sole. Further work is necessary to understand the complex nature of slip resistance between shoe sole and ground.
Integrated Planning for Regional Development Planning with Low Carbon Development Constraint under Uncertainty: A Case Study of Qingpu District, Shanghai

Regional development planning systems contain multiple uncertainties which come from economic restructuring, resource management, carbon peak action, environmental protection, and other factors, it is difficulty to handle all of these uncertainties in one method. In order to solve this problem, a new model developed in this study combines an interval fuzzy program with an environmental quality model for regional development planning in order to provide optimal solutions. The interval fuzzy program is put forward based on interval parameter programming (IPP) and fuzzy programing (FP). The environmental quality model is used to calculate water environmental capacity and atmospheric capacity, which are set as constraint conditions in the model. In order to meet the requirements of carbon peak action, a low carbon development constraint is added to the model. In this model, decision makers can choose the satisfaction level of constraints based on their preferences. The results suggest that the methodology is applicable for the regional development planning system within the planning period. The developed model can be used to generate a series of optimization schema under multiple credibility levels, ensuring that the regional development planning system can meet both societal demands and environmental quality requirements, considering a proper balance between the expected system benefits and risks of violating the resource constraint and low carbon development constraint.
An Adaptive Sinusoidal Disturbance Rejection Controller for Single-Input-Single-Output Systems

Abstract The design of an adaptive sinusoidal disturbance rejection controller for Single-Input-Single-Output (SISO) systems is presented in this paper. Sinusoidal disturbance rejection problems exist in industry applications such as velocity ripples in a CNC milling machine. The controller is first developed based on the Internal Model Principle (IMP) and the polezero placement technique, then a Gain Scheduled (GS) robust Two-Degree-of-Freedom (2DOF) regulator is constructed to eliminate the sinusoidal disturbances with known frequencies and to achieve a desirable tracking response simultaneously, but without estimating the amplitude and the phase values of the sinusoidal disturbances. Using the small gain theorem, the system stability radius is obtained for n slow time varying sinusoidal disturbances. Finally, the proposed controller is applied to eliminate the torque and velocity ripples in the Alternating Current (AC) Permanent Magnet (PM) motor control systems.
New approach to standing phase angle reduction for power system restoration

The paper describes a methodology for the reduction of standing phase angle (SPA) difference between two buses during restoration operations of a power system. These angles may occur across a tie line, between two systems or between two connected subsystems within a system which may causes significant delay in power system restoration. They must be within SPA limits before an attempt is made to close breakers to firm up the bulk power transmission system. To arrive at the desired SPA difference between two buses, the modified contribution at generation/load buses have been evaluated based on sensitivity factors. This methodology acts as a direct help to reduce excessive SPA difference between two buses to an acceptable limit, which otherwise requires regulation of various generation levels on a trial and error basis.
SHOW AND TELL: ACCESSING AND COMMUNICATING IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE THROUGH ARTEFACTS

This paper contributes to the current discourse on the role of artefacts in facilitating and triggering interaction among people. The discussion will focus on artefacts used as part of an interview method developed in order to discover knowledge that was observed but absent from both project reports and other documentation within multidisciplinary collaborative research projects, located within the field of Interaction Design. Using artefacts in an interview context enabled participants to reveal insights that were, in turn, participatory and human-centred. Thus the method was effective and appropriate in illuminating knowledge situated in interaction. This ethnomethodological tool enabled participants to reflexively externalize their understanding of the complex interactions that occur within projects, encouraging participation, interaction, visualization, reflection and communication through the use of tools aimed at capturing and illuminating the lived experiences of human engagement. These interviews were conducted with a selection of participants, chosen because they were researchers, working together within a cooperative research centre. Keywords: best practices, consultancy, critical systems, theory, user-centered design (UCD)
Evaluation of Retrocommissioning Persistence in Large Commercial Buildings

Synopsis Commercial Building Retrocommissioning activity has increased in recent years. This paper discusses LBNL’s recently conducted study of 8 participants in the Sacramento Municipal Utility District Retrocommissioning program. We evaluated the persistence of energy savings and measure implementation, in an effort to identify and understand factors that can improve the longevity of retrocommissioning benefits. The LBNL analysis included a whole-building and measure status analysis, incorporating elements of previous work by Texas A&M University and Portland Energy Conservation Inc. Included in the energy analysis were whole building calculated energy savings and consideration of effects from the 2001 energy crisis. The measure persistence analysis examined each recommended measure and it’s current operational status. Results showed a 59% implementation rate of recommended measures. Some process findings were: • Building engineers will tweak a measure that didn’t work, instead of reverting to the preretrocommissioning settings • A majority of the implementation costs were absorbed into regular operation and maintenance budgets • The most frequently reported down side was the large time demands on the building engineering staff. However, all respondents thought it was worth the price. • All the sites said that retrocommissioning is beneficial to their operations, due to ongoing training and continuous improvement of system specifications • Approximately 65% of the peak retrocommissioning savings persisted beyond four years About the Author(s) Norman Bourassa is a Senior Research Associate in the Commercial Building Systems Group at LBNL. He has a BA in Architecture from UC Berkeley and an Electronics Engineering Technology degree from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton, Canada. He has worked in energy engineering consulting for four years and energy efficiency research the last five years.
Simulation of CIS speech signal processing strategy based on electrical stimulating model of cochlear implant

During the operating course of Cochlear implant, the speech signal processing strategy converts original speech signal into dim current signal. And then this signal will be transmitted into the embedded electrode to stimulate the remnant auditory nerve to restore the audition of patient. It could be shown that the speech processing strategy is the key part to realize the performance of cochlear implant, but its evaluation method for validity is always lacking. In this paper, the electrical stimulating model of cochlear implant is established at first, and then the acoustic simulation of Continuous Interleaved Sampling (CIS) strategy could be finished on this model. The synthesizing signal simulates the speech signal which could be heard by the deaf with cochlear implant. Therefore, the identification ability of CIS strategy could be estimated by delivering this synthesizing signal to normal audition people. Further more, some detailed analyses for every step of this acoustic simulation could be considered in order to improve the performance and parameters selection of CIS strategy. This work will be helpful for the deaf to enhance their perception and understanding during the speech identification course.
Product Innovation Decision Support Based on On-line Patent Database

This research proposes a model of decision support in product innovation, especially during idea generation phase. The proposed model uses two types of knowledge: tacit knowledge which is gathered from expert opinions and explicit knowledge which is gathered from on-line patent database. Cathecin (green tea) is used for the case study in this research. The proposed model is based on combination of data mining model and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This model represents the data mining process from on-line patent database and then analyzes them as a resource for product innovation during product’s idea generation. This process allows generating product mapping and technology mapping. After the patent analysis, some product and process alternatives can be generated. Selection process for the best alternative uses AHP model. The AHP model used in this research is modified from Chiu (2003) AHP model in patent valuation. This model supports to select the best alternative for catechin’s product.
Development of Theoretical Models for Jet-Induced Effects on V/STOL Aircraft

Successful design and development of V/STOL aircraft requires an understanding and accurate prediction of aircraft forces and moments caused by jet-induced phenomena. Several computerized analytic procedures have been developed using potential flow theoretical solutions to model the entrainment and displacement effects of a propulsion system efflux. The various flow regimes and theoretical models will be described for out-of-ground effect and in-ground effect, where multijet interactions with the ground plane cause significantly increased entrainment and fountain forces. These jet models are coupled with a panel method for calculating the aerodynamic forces and moments. Excellent agreement between calculated and model test data is displayed.
Precision motion control system for ultra-precision semiconductor and electronic components manufacturing

In this paper, the development of a motion control system for ultra-precision semiconductor and electronic components manufacturing is presented. The control system is generally applicable, but it is developed with a particular focus on direct drive servo systems based on linear motors. The overall control system is comprehensive, comprising of various selected control and instrumentation components, integrated within a configuration of hardware architecture centred around a dSPACE DS1004 DSP processor board. These components include a precision composite controller (comprising of feedforward and feedback control), a disturbance observer, an adaptive notch filter, and a geometrical error compensator. The hardware architecture, software development platform, user interface, and all constituent control components will be elaborated on in the paper.
Estimating phase error using a Hilbert transform‐based time‐domain technique

Measuring phase noise in oscillators is crucial in communication systems, vibration analysis, and frequency synthesizers. Traditionally, this measurement is done in frequency domain by estimating the ratio of the power density at an offset frequency from the carrier to the power of the carrier signal. This approach is hardware intensive and dependent on the the offset frequency, for which there exists no standard. Here, we propose an alternative method to quantify phase noise but in the time domain in the form of a root‐mean‐square true phase angle deviation. This is done using a self‐created reference signal and by applying the Hilbert transform to generate a complex analytic signal from the real time‐domain data sequence. This enables the computation of instantaneous metrics such as phase noise. Simulations and experimental results are provided to validate the proposed technique. In addition, its relationship to the origin of phase noise is mathematically explained.
Inferential Reasoning of Secondary School Mathematics Teachers on the Chi-Square Statistic

Statistics education has investigated how to promote formal inferential reasoning from informal inferential reasoning. Nevertheless, there is still a need for proposals that explore and progressively develop inferential reasoning of students and teachers. Concerning this, the objective of this article is to characterize the inferential reasoning that secondary school mathematics teachers show in the practices that they develop to solve problems regarding the Chi-square statistic. To achieve this, we use theoretical and methodological notions introduced by the onto-semiotic approach of mathematics knowledge and instruction. In particular, we have taken a theoretical proposal of levels of inferential reasoning for the Chi-square statistic. Based on the results, the main conclusion was that the proposal above effectively predicted the teachers’ practices, allowing us to distinguish characteristic elements of the levels of inferential reasoning.
DECLARATION OF THESIS / UNDERGRADUATE PROJECT PAPER AND COPYRIGHT

NASOM Parent’s Support System – Diagnosis Module is a tool that has similarity to Decision Support System (DSS). This system is introduced to a portal of our UTM’s master student, Puan Aida in order as a suggestion to perform medical monitoring by using this tool. This project is a combination of 3 systems that consists “NASOM Parent’s Support System – Information System Module”, “NASOM Parent’s Support System – Diagnosis Module” and also “NASOM Parent’s Support System – Monitoring Module”. “NASOM Parent’s Support System – Diagnosis Module” is a web based as a purpose to help the users mainly parents to diagnose the probability of the child to be autism. This system is developed using Evolution Prototype methodology. The software’s used in developing this system are consists of ASP.NET which is used as the main programming language and also MSSQL as to manage the system’s database. Besides, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is used in order to produce an interactive and user friendly web based system. By developing this project, hopefully the system can smooth the process of obtaining diagnose result for the autism children.
TOWARDS PREPARATION OF DESIGN SPECTRA FOR SERBIAN NATIONAL ANNEX TO EUROCODE 8 - PART II: USAGE OF THE UHS APPROACH INSTEAD OF NORMALIZED SPECTRAL SHAPES SCALED BY A SINGLE PSHA PARAMETER

Eurocode 8 spectra are scaled by the peak ground acceleration values that are defined for the given site through a probabilistic seismic hazard analyses (PSHA). However, spectra that are created by combining the empirical shapes with the single PSHA-defined scaling factor will not represent the so-called Uniform Hazard Spectra (UHS). Moreover, the very shape (Type 1 or Type 2) of the Eurocode 8 elastic spectrum is selected with respect to the magnitude of the earthquakes "that will contribute most to the seismic hazard defined for the purpose of probabilistic hazard assessment…". Such definition is somewhat obscure since these "most contributing" earthquakes are, even at the same site and for the same probability i.e. for the same "return period", different (in a general case) for different vibration periods, while the whole Eurocode 8 spectrum is scaled by using only the PSHA estimate of the peak ground acceleration. In this Paper we present an illustrative example of the Uniform Hazard Spectra for the city of Belgrade and compare the obtained UHS spectra, as well as the scenario empirical spectra scaled for different earthquake parameters, to the corresponding Eurocode 8 spectra, further pointing out the intrinsic ambiguities in the current EC8 suggestions for creation of design spectra.