Copula-Based Zero-Inflated Count Time Series Models

Count time series data are observed in several applied disciplines such as in environmental science, biostatistics, economics, public health, and finance. In some cases, a specific count, say zero, may occur more often than usual. Additionally, serial dependence might be found among these counts if they are recorded over time. Overlooking the frequent occurrence of zeros and the serial dependence could lead to false inference. In this dissertation, we propose two classes of copula-based time series models for zero-inflated counts with the presence of covariates. Zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP), zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB), and zero-inflated Conway-Maxwell-Poisson (ZICMP) distributed marginals of the counts will be considered. For the first class, the joint distribution is modeled under Gaussian copula with autoregression moving average (ARMA) errors. Relationship between the autocorrelation function of the zero-inflated counts and the errors is studied. Sequential sampling likelihood inference is performed. To evaluate the proposed method, simulated and real-life data examples are provided and studied. For the second class, Markov zero-inflated count time series models based on a joint distribution on consecutive observations are proposed. The joint distribution function of the consecutive observations is constructed through copula functions.First or second order Markov chains are considered with the univariate margins of ZIP, ZINB, or ZICMP distributions. Under the Markov models, bivariate copula functions such as the bivariate Gaussian, Frank, and Gumbel are chosen to construct a bivariate distribution of two consecutive observations. Moreover, the trivariate Gaussian and max-infinitely divisible copula functions are considered to build the joint distribution of three consecutive observations. Likelihood based inference is performed, score functions are derived, and asymptotic properties are studied. Model diagnostic and prediction are presented. To evaluate the proposed method, simulated and real-life data examples are studied

The Role of Guaranty in Subsequent Ownership- دور الضمان في كسب الملكية تبعاً

The researcher explained the role of guaranty in the subsequent ownership in four topics; the first focuses on jurisprudents discussions about the possibility of accepting the principle of ownership as a result of guaranty, while the 2nd he indicates the rules (jurisprudential & legal) required for ownership resulting from guaranty. In the 3rd topic the researcher focused on the conditions required for such ownership, and in the 4th defines ownership resulting from guaranty, supported by Islamic jurisprudents and positive laws. The research was ended by the researcher\u27s conclusions and recommendations

Proximate, caffeine and tannin analyses in some brands of tea consumed in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria

The determination of proximate, caffeine and tannin contents of five different (China, Kenya, India, Srilanka and Mambilla) tea leaves samples sold in Kano markets was conducted. The moisture content was generally high in all the tea samples and ranged from 5.6% in Mambila to 7.5% in India samples. Ash content was relatively low and ranged between 4.90% in Srilanka to 7.20% in Mambila and Kenya samples respectively. Crude fibre ranged from 14.00% in China to 18.82% in Srilanka samples, while ether extract content was within the range of 9.30% to 10.60% with the highest value found in Mambila sample and the least value in Kenya sample. Total nitrogen contents were low when compared with other workers’ results and ranged from 0.88% in Kenya to 1.75% in Mambila and Srilanka samples respectively. Caffeine and tannin contents were found to be 1.4% in Kenya to 2.80% in China, 6.00% in Mambilla to 7.80% in India samples respectively. Keywords: Proximate, Analysis, Caffeine, Tannin, Tea, Kan

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Analyzed Through the Lens of a Cultural Materialism

Morrison\u27s novel The Bluest Eye follows a young black woman as she grapples with the conflicting pressures of the black beauty ideal and the reality of violence in the black community. Morrison shows that even the most well-intentioned people may damage one another in the story when they are bound by poverty and social disgrace. Morrison argues that people\u27s desire to use violence is a misperception. According to them, negative expressions of love lead to distortion, which in turn causes agony

Analysis of some metals in some brands of tea sold in Kano, Nigeria

Tea leaves can be a source of mineral components and trace elements as well as some undesirable substances due to exposure to the environment. In this study, Mg, Fe, Ca, Zn, Mn, Cu and Pb were analyzed by Atomic Absorption spectrophotometer (AAS), K and Na were also determined by flame photometer. Among the metals analyzed, K was the most abundant, ranging from 30.00mg/dm3 in china sample to 34.60 mg/dm3 in Srilanka sample, followed by Mg with 9.03 mg/dm3 in India sample to 9.21 mg/dm3 in Srilanka sample. Ca, Mn, Fe, Zn, Na and Cu were also found in reasonable amounts. Fortunately, toxic heavy metal (Pb) had the lowest concentration in all the tea samples with concentration ranging from 0.04 mg/dm3 in India and Srilanka samples to 0.09 mg/dm3 in China sample. Keywords: Essential metals, Trace metals, Tea, Kan

Student housing a resilient housing rental market: case of federal polytechnic neighbourhood Bauchi, Nigeria

In the last three decades globally higher institutions (HIs) have been experiencing an unprecedented upsurge in student population and student enrolment in His generally outstrip the HIs student housing. In many countries of the world like Nigeria, HIs are obviously incapacitated in accommodating the growing student population which compelled numerous students to overflow into their HIs’ neighbourhood seeking for alternative housing accommodation in the private housing rental market. Indeed the scenario of HIs student's housing shortfalls and increasing students housing demand evolved the interest of many people in a student housing rental market. This is because it has been uncovered that business in student housing rental is lucrative and guaranteeing business that ensured profit for a long term. This paper, therefore, explores the nature and landscape of student housing rental in Nigeria where the business is immature then drawn the conclusion

Challenges of Students Housing Provision in Malaysia

The world population has been growing tremendously, which surged up the demand and enrolment in educational institutions to unimaginable level globally. Similarly, Malaysia has witnessed tremendous growth in higher education both in the order and establishment of new higher education institutions (HEIs) to match up with the demand. However, there is no commensurate increase in the student housing facilities to match up with the growing enrolment and demand; hence, accommodate a certain proportion of the total students. The paper explored qualitative methodology data from in-depth expert interviews of selected public and private universities in Malaysia; discussed the problems of HEIs student housing provision to four identified themes: student enrolment, government policy, funding and land issues as what exacerbated the issues. Therefore, challenges for student housing provision are enormous; hence HEIs and Government cannot adequately respond and satisfy the demand unless private housing developers actively involved otherwise problems of student housing provision will continue to persist

Performance analysis of multicore processors using multi-scaling techniques

Integrating more cores per chip enables more programs to run simultaneously, and more easily switch from one program to another, and the system performance will be improved significantly. However, this current trend of central processing unit (CPU) performance cannot be maintained since the budget of power per chip has not risen while the consumption of power per core has slowly reduced. Generally, the processor’s maximum performance is proportional to the product of the number of their cores and the frequency they are running at. However, this is usually limited by constraints of power. In this study, first, the voltage/frequency adjustment of the running cores has been analyzed for several programs to improve the processor’s performance within the constraint of power. Second, the impact of dynamically scaling the number of running cores is summarized for additional performance improvements of the active programs and applications. Finally, it has been verified that scaling the number of the running cores and their voltage/frequency simultaneously can improve the processor’s performance for a higher power dissipation or under power constraints. The performance analysis and improvements are obtained in a real-time simulation on a Linux operating system using a GEM5 simulator. Results indicated that performance improvement was attained at 59.98%, 33.33%, and 66.65% for the three scenarios, respectively

THE EXPRESSION PATTERN OF DEATH ASSOCIATED PROTEIN KINASE1 IN NORMAL DORSAL ROOT GANGLION NEURONS AND FOLLOWING PERIPHERAL NERVE INJURY

Death-associated protein kinase1 (DAPK1) is a calcium/calmodulin (Ca2+/CaM) regulated serine/threonine kinase. An increasing body of evidence supports the significance of DAPK1 protein in cancer and CNS diseases. The role of DAPK in peripheral nerve regeneration and neuropathic pain remains completely unexplored. The aim of this study is to investigate the expression pattern of DAPK1 along with key proand anti-apoptotic cell signaling molecules (p53, Bax, Akt, ERK5, p38) and to verify the possibilities of DAPK1-NMDA NR2B relationship in dorsal root ganglion neurons (DRG) after 2 hours, 7 days and 14 days following a sciatic nerve injury. Gene expression analysis and immunohistochemistry were used to assess the effects of nerve injury. ATF3 was used as a neuronal injury marker. The results showed that DAPK1 mRNA was expressed and translated to functional protein in normal DRG neurons. Soon after a sciatic nerve injury (2 hours), DAPK1 was significantly up-regulated (p\u3c0.05, 2.2 fold) in the injured L4 and L5 DRG compared with the contralateral uninjured side. However, 7 days after axotomy a profound decrease was observed in the DAPK1 level, with a further reduction that reached its minimum level at 14 days postoperatively. In addition, 7 days after injury, most of the DAPK1 positive injured neurons (76.11%) were ATF3 positive, while after 14 days DAPK1 immunoreactivity significantly decreased (53.89%) in injured ATF3 positive neurons. Interestingly, DAPK1, p53 and Bax exhibited a similar expression pattern in axotomized lumbar DRG. The results also revealed that a sciatic nerve injury had no effects on the gene expression of ERK5, p38 and Akt at every time point. Moreover, NMDA NR2B mRNA expression increased after 7 days and continued to up-regulate significantly until 14 days postoperatively (p\u3c0.05, 3.6 fold). In contrast, our immunofluorescence results showed a decrease in the protein level in DRG neurons during this time period; but a strong positive NMDA NR2B immunoreactivety appeared in the satellite cells that surround the injured large-sized neurons in L4 and L5 DRG neurons. In addition, immunofluorescence double labelling revealed that DAPK1 and NMDA NR2B are co-localized in normal and injured DRG neurons. In conclusion, the down-regulations of DAPK1 following sciatic nerve injury, along with other vital pro-apoptotic players promoting neuronal survival might shed light on the mechanisms of peripheral nerve regeneration. The results also suggest that NMDA NR2B might modulate neuropathic pain through satellite cells, and not through neurons, 7 and 14 days after peripheral nerve injury

The Expression Pattern of Death Associated Protein Kinase1 in Normal Dorsal Root Ganglion Neurons and Following Peripheral Nerve Injury

Death-associated protein kinase 1 (DAPK1) is a calcium/calmodulin (Ca2+/CaM) regulated serine/threonine kinase. An increasing body of evidence supports the significance of DAPK 1 protein in cancer and CNS diseases. The role of DAPK in peripheral nerve regeneration and neuropathic pain remains completely unexplored. The aim of this study is to investigate the expression pattern of DAPK1 along with key pro-and anti-apoptotic cell signaling molecules (p53, Bax, Akt, ERK5, p38) and to verify the possibilities of DAPKI1-NMDA NR2B relationship in dorsal root ganglion neurons (DRG) after 2 hours, 7 days and 14 days following a sciatic nerve injury. Gene expression analysis and immunohistochemistry were used to assess the effects of nerve injury. ATF3 was used as a neuronal injury marker. The results showed that DAPK1 mRNA was expressed and translated to functional protein in normal DRG neurons. Soon after a sciatic nerve injury (2 hours), DAPK1 was significantly up-regulated (p\u3c0.05, 2.2 fold) in the injured L4 and L5 DRG compared with the contralateral uninjured side. However, 7days after axotomy a profound decrease was observed in the DAPK1 level, with a further reduction that reached its minimum level at 14 days postoperatively. In addition, 7 days after injury, most of the DAPK1 positive injured neurons (76.11%) were ATF3 positive, while after 14 days DAPK1 immunoreactivity significantly decreased (53.89%) in injured ATF3 positive neurons. Interestingly, DAPK1, p53 and Bax exhibited a similar expression pattern in axotomized lumbar DRG. The results also revealed that a sciatic nerve injury had no effects on the gene expression of ERK5, P38 and AKT at every time point. Moreover, NMDA NR2B mRNA expression increased after 7 days and continued to up-regulate significantly until 14 days postoperatively (p\u3c0.05,3.6 fold). In contrast, our immunofluorescence results showed a decrease in the protein level in DRG neurons during this time period; but a strong positive NMDA NR2B immunoreactivity appeared in the satellite cells that surround the injured large-sized neurons in L4 and L5 DRG neurons. In addition, immunofluorescence double labelling revealed that DAPK1 and NMDA NR2B are co-localized in normal and injured DRG neurons. In conclusion, the down-regulations of DAPK1 following sciatic nerve injury, along with other vital pro-apoptotic players promoting neuronal survival might shed light on the mechanisms of peripheral nerve regeneration. The results also suggest that NMDA NR2B might modulate neuropathic pain through satellite cells, and not through neurons, 7 and 14 days after peripheral nerve injury