Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knowledge Management in Globally Distributed Agile Projects -- Lesson Learned

Knowledge management (KM) is essential for success in any software project, but especially in global software development where team members are separated by time and space. Software organizations are managing knowledge in various ways to increase transparency and improve software team performance. One way to classify these strategies is proposed by Earl who defined seven knowledge management schools. The objective of this research is to study knowledge creation and sharing practices in a number of distributed agile projects, map these practices to the knowledge management strategies and determine which strategies are most common, which are applied only locally and which are applied globally. This is done by conducting a series of semi-structured qualitative interviews over a period of time span during May, 2012-June, 2013. Our results suggest that knowledge sharing across remote locations in distributed agile projects heavily relies on knowledge codification, i.e. Technocratic KM strategies, even when the same knowledge is shared tacitly within the same location, i.e. Through behavioral KM strategies.
Seed Yield of Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) in relation to Growth and Developmental Aspects

Growth parameters such as leaf area (LA), total dry mass (TDM) production, crop growth rate (CGR), relative growth rate (RGR), and net assimilation rate (NAR) were compared in six varieties of mungbean under subtropical condition (24°8′ N 90°0′ E) to identify limiting growth characters for the efficient application of physiology breeding for higher yields. Results revealed that a relatively smaller portion of TDM was produced before flower initiation and the bulk of it after anthesis. The maximum CGR was observed during pod filling stage in all the varieties due to maximum leaf area (LA) development at this stage. Two plant characters such as LA and CGR contributed to the higher TDM production. Results indicated that high yielding mungbean varieties should possess larger LA, higher TDM production ability, superior CGR at all growth stages, and high relative growth rate and net assimilation rate at vegetative stage which would result in superior yield components.
The Dynamics of Capital Structure in Transition Economies

This paper uses a dynamic unrestricted capital structure model to examine the determinants of the private companies' target financial leverage and the speed of adjustment to it in two transition economies, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. We explicitly model the adjustment of companies' leverage to a target leverage, and this target leverage is itself explained by a set of factors. The panel data methodology combines cross-section and time-series information. The results indicate that the Bulgarian corporate credit markets were less supply -constrained than those of the Czech Republic during the period under investigation. Bulgarian␣companies adjusted much faster to the target leverage than Czech firms. The speed of␣adjustment related positively to the distance between target and observed ratio for Bulgarian companies while the relationship was neutral for Czech companies. The conservative policies of Czech banks and the exposure control were likely responsible for the slower adjustment among the larger companies while the opposite were true for Bulgarian banks and companies.
Trips of the Tongue: Language Tourism in Barcelona

espanolEste articulo da cuenta de la situacion del turismo idiomatico en Barcelona (Espana) a raiz de un proyecto de investigacion realizado en CETT-UB Campus de Turismo, Hoteleria y Gastronomia. Se identificaron los proveedores de turismo idiomatico que operan en Barcelona y los servicios que ofrecen, se examino el perfil del turista idiomatico, se estudio como afecta el alojamiento a las relaciones entre los turistas idiomaticos y la comunidad anfitriona, y se analizo la influencia de los turistas idiomaticos en los miembros de la comunidad con los que interactuan. Para lograr dichos objetivos se diseno una investigacion exploratoria con un enfoque cualitativo basado en entrevistas en profundidad a residentes locales y proveedores de turismo idiomatico. Los resultados obtenidos evidencian que Barcelona tiene una variada oferta de turismo idiomatico, proporcionada por intermediarios de intercambios academicos, agencias de turismo idiomatico, academias de idiomas e instituciones de educacion superior. La opcion de alojamiento preferida por el turista idiomatico suele ser el apartamento compartido para poder disfrutar de una mayor independencia en vez de alojarse con familias anfitrionas, hecho que le permitiria integrarse mejor y aprender mas espanol. Su principal motivacion al elegir Barcelona como destino academico es la propia ciudad y sus atractivos. EnglishThis article reports on inbound language tourism in Barcelona (Spain) as a result of a research project conducted at CETT-UB School of Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy. The language tourism providers operating in Barcelona were identified, the services they offer were pinpointed, the language tourists’ profile was examined, the effect of accommodation on the relationship between language tourists and the host community was studied, and the influence of language tourists in the local community members they interacted with was analysed. In order to achieve these objectives, an exploratory research was designed with a qualitative approach mainly based on in-depth interviews with local residents and language tourism providers. According to the main outcomes, Barcelona has a varied language tourism offer provided by third party exchange providers, language tourism agencies, language schools and higher education institutions. Language tourists’ favourite accommodation option is usually shared apartments so as to be more independent rather than staying with host families, which would allow them to integrate better and learn more Spanish. Their main motivation for choosing Barcelona as their academic destination is the city itself and its attractions.
Space‐based diagnosis of surface ozone sensitivity to anthropogenic emissions

We present a novel capability in satellite remote sensing with implications for air pollution control strategy. We show that the ratio of formaldehyde columns to tropospheric nitrogen dioxide columns is an indicator of the relative sensitivity of surface ozone to emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx ≡ NO + NO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The diagnosis from these space‐based observations is highly consistent with current understanding of surface ozone chemistry based on in situ observations. The satellite‐derived ratios indicate that surface ozone is more sensitive to emissions of NOx than of VOCs throughout most continental regions of the Northern Hemisphere during summer. Exceptions include Los Angeles and industrial areas of Germany. A seasonal transition occurs in the fall when surface ozone becomes less sensitive to NOx and more sensitive to VOCs.
Tunnel-field-effect-transistor based gas-sensor: Introducing gas detection with a quantum-mechanical transducer

A gas-sensor based on tunnel-field-effect-transistor (TFET) is proposed that leverages the unique current injection mechanism in the form of quantum-mechanical band-to-band tunneling to achieve substantially improved performance compared to conventional metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistors (MOSFETs) for detection of gas species under ambient conditions. While nonlocal phonon-assisted tunneling model is used for detailed device simulations, in order to provide better physical insights, analytical formula for sensitivity is derived for both metal as well as organic conducting polymer based sensing elements. Analytical derivations are also presented for capturing the effects of temperature on sensor performance. Combining the developed analytical and numerical models, intricate properties of the sensor such as gate bias dependence of sensitivity, relationship between the required work-function modulation and subthreshold swing, counter-intuitive increase in threshold voltage for MOSFETs and reduction in tunneling probability for TFETs with temperature are explained. It is shown that TFET gas-sensors can not only lead to more than 10 000× increase in sensitivity but also provide design flexibility and immunity against screening of work-function modulation through non-specific gases as well as ensure stable operation under temperature variations.
Investigation of the protective effect of erdosteine against cyclosporine-induced injury in rat liver with histological and biochemical methods.

BACKGROUND/AIM In the present study, the protective effect of erdosteine against cyclosporine-induced injury in rat liver was investigated with histological and biochemical methods. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty-two Wistar albino male rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: control (n = 8), cyclosporine (n = 8, 20 mg kg(-1) day(-1) i.p.), cyclosporine + erdosteine (n = 8, erdosteine 12 mg kg(-1) day(-1) orally), and erdosteine (n = 8). At the end of day 12, liver tissues were removed for histological and biochemical analysis. After liver tissues were fixed in 10% buffered neutral formalin, routine histological processes were applied and tissue sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin, periodic acid-Schiff, and elastic fiber stain methods. One hundred lobules of liver were examined for each group and evaluated statistically. The levels of malondialdehyde and glutathione peroxidase, as well as the activities of superoxide dismutase, were determined. RESULTS The cyclosporine group showed significant histopathological changes compared to the control. In the cyclosporine + erdosteine group, histopathological changes of hepatic damage were markedly reduced. Histological findings were supported by biochemical results. CONCLUSION Erdosteine could attenuate cyclosporine-induced liver injury.
X-Ray Halo around the Spiral Galaxy NGC 4631 Observed with Suzaku

Suzaku observation of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4631 confirmed its X-ray halo extending out to about 10 kpc from the galactic disk. The XIS spectra yielded the temperature and metal abundance for the disk and the halo regions. The observed abundance pattern for O, Ne, Mg, Si and Fe is consistent with the metal yield from type II supernovae, with an O mass of about 1E6 Msun contained in the halo. These features imply that metal-rich gas produced by type II supernova is brought into the halo region very effectively, most likely through a galactic wind. Temperature and metal abundance may be affected by charge exchange and dust. An upper limit for the hard X-ray flux was obtained, corresponding to a magnetic field higher than 0.5 uG.
A methodology for analyzing SAGE libraries for cancer profiling

Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE) has proven to be an important alternative to microarray techniques for global profiling of mRNA populations. We have developed preprocessing methodologies to address problems in analyzing SAGE data due to noise caused by sequencing error, normalization methodologies to account for libraries sampled at different depths, and missing tag imputation methodologies to aid in the analysis of poorly sampled SAGE libraries. We have also used subspace selection using the Wilcoxon rank sum test to exclude tags that have similar expression levels regardless of source. Using these methodologies we have clustered, using the OPTICS algorithm, 88 SAGE libraries derived from cancerous and normal tissues as well as cell line material. Our results produced eight dense clusters representing ovarian cancer cell line, brain cancer cell line, brain cancer bulk tissue, prostate tissue, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer cell line, normal brain, and normal breast bulk tissue. The ovarian cancer and brain cancer cell lines clustered closely together, leading to a further investigation on possible associations between these two cancer types. We also investigated the utility of gene expression data in the classification between normal and cancerous tissues. Our results indicate that brain and breast cancer libraries have strong identities allowing robust discrimination from their normal counterparts. However, the SAGE expression data provide poor predictive accuracy in discriminating between prostate and ovarian cancers and their respective normal tissues.
Predictable Interrupt Management for Real Time Kernels over conventional PC Hardware

In this paper we analyze the traditional model of interrupt management and its incapacity to incorporate reliability and the temporal predictability demanded on real-time systems. As a result of this analysis, we propose a model that integrates interrupts and tasks handling. We make a schedulability analysis to evaluate and distinguish the circumstances under which this integrated model improves the traditional model. The design of a flexible and portable kernel interrupt subsystem for this integrated model is presented. In addition, we present the rationale for the implementation of our design over conventional PC interrupt hardware and the analysis of its overhead. Finally, experimental results are conducted to demonstrate the deterministic behavior of our integrated model and to quantify its overhead.
Chameleon or Phoenix: The Metamorphosis of TAFE.

This paper examines the metamorphosis of technical and further education (TAFE) by tracing the genealogy of TAFE institutes in Victoria and analysing the changing size, structure and organisation of the technical system in Victoria. On the basis of this analysis, the nature of tradition and identity in TAFE is examined in an attempt to understand the forces which have shaped and redefined TAFE as a tertiary education sector up to the present day. Against the background of the dissolution of the binary system of higher education in Australia, and in the light of TAFE’s history and current policy trends and developments, future prospects for TAFE are then considered. It is argued that a new set of institutional discourses and practices are reshaping TAFE and higher education in the transition to a post-technocratic settlement. The paper speculates on the potential re-emergence of a binary system of higher education and training comprising TAFE institutes and universities. In conclusion, it argues that the traditions which to date have threatened TAFE’s survival as a distinct sector of education and training may, in fact, be the source of its salvation in a radically restructured tertiary education environment.
Randomized byzantine generals

We present a randomized solution for the Byzantine Generals Problems. The solution works in the synchronous as well as the asynchronous case and produces Byzantine Agreement within a fixed small expected number of computational rounds, independent of the number n of processes and the bound t on the number of faulty processes. The solution uses A. Shamir's method for sharing secrets. It specializes to produce a simple solution for the Distributed Commit problem.
Facilitative effect of repetitive presentation of one stimulus on cortical responses to other stimuli in macaque monkeys – a possible neural mechanism for mismatch negativity

The event‐related potential ‘mismatch negativity’ (MMN) is an indicator of a perceiver's ability to detect deviations in sensory signal streams. MMN and its homologue in animals, mismatch activity (MMA), are differential neural responses to a repeatedly presented stimulus and a subsequent deviant stimulus (oddball). Because neural mechanisms underlying MMN and MMA remain unclear, there is a controversy as to whether MMN and MMA arise solely from stimulus‐specific adaptation (SSA), in which the response to a stimulus cumulatively attenuates with its repetitive presentation. To address this issue, we used electrocorticography and the auditory roving‐oddball paradigm in two awake macaque monkeys. We examined the effect of stimulus repetition number on MMA and on responses to repeated stimuli and oddballs across the cerebral cortex in the time–frequency domain. As the repetition number increased, MMA spread across the temporal, frontal and parietal cortices, and each electrode yielded a larger MMA. Surprisingly, this increment in MMA largely depended on response augmentation to the oddball rather than on SSA to the repeated stimulus. Following sufficient repetition, the oddball evoked a spectral power increment in some electrodes on the frontal cortex that had shown no power increase to the stimuli with less or no preceding repetition. We thereby revealed that repetitive presentation of one stimulus not only leads to SSA but also facilitates the cortical response to oddballs involving a wide range of cortical regions. This facilitative effect might underlie the generation of MMN‐like scalp potentials in macaques that potentially shares similar neural mechanisms with MMN in humans.
Front Propagation in Stochastic Neural Fields

We analyze the effects of extrinsic multiplicative noise on front propagation in a scalar neural field with excitatory connections. Using a separation of time scales, we represent the fluctuating front in terms of a diffusive-like displacement (wandering) of the front from its uniformly translating position at long time scales, and fluctuations in the front profile around its instantaneous position at short time scales. One major result of our analysis is a comparison between freely propagating fronts and fronts locked to an externally moving stimulus. We show that the latter are much more robust to noise, since the stochastic wandering of the mean front profile is described by an Ornstein--Uhlenbeck process rather than a Wiener process, so that the variance in front position saturates in the long time limit rather than increasing linearly with time. Finally, we consider a stochastic neural field that supports a pulled front in the deterministic limit, and show that the wandering of such a front is now su.
Multiwavelength study of a young open cluster NGC 7419

Using new UBVRI Hα CCD photometric observations and the archival infrared and X-ray data, we have carried out a multiwavelength study of a Perseus arm young open star cluster NGC 7419. An age of 22.5 ±3.0 Myr and a distance of 3230 +330 -430 pc are derived for the cluster. Our photometric data indicate a higher value of colour excess ratio E(U - B)/E(B - V) than the normal one. There is an evidence for mass segregation in this dynamically relaxed cluster and in the range 1.4-8.6 M ⊙ , the mass function slope is in agreement with the Salpeter value. Excess emissions in near-infrared and Ha support the existence of a young (≤2 Myr) stellar population of Herbig Ae/Be stars (≥3.0 M ⊙ ) indicating a second episode of star formation in the cluster region. Using XMM-Newton observations, we found several X-ray sources in the cluster region but none of the Herbig Ae/Be stars is detected in X-rays. We compare the distribution of upper limits for Herbig Ae/Be stars with the X-ray distribution functions of the T Tauri and the Herbig Ae/Be stars from previous studies, and found that the X-ray emission level of these Herbig Ae/Be stars is not more than L X ∼ 5.2 x 10 30 erg s -1 , which is not significantly higher than for the T Tauri stars. Therefore, X-ray emission from Herbig Ae/Be stars could be the result of either unresolved companion stars or a process similar to T Tauri stars. We report an extended X-ray emission from the cluster region NGC 7419, with a total X-ray luminosity estimate of ∼1.8 x 10 31 erg s -1 arcmin -2 . If the extended emission is due to unresolved emission from the point sources then we estimate ∼288 T Tauri stars in the cluster region each having X-ray luminosity ∼1.0 x 10 30 erg s -1 . Investigation of dust attenuation and 12 CO emission map of a square degree region around the cluster indicates the presence of a foreground dust cloud which is most likely associated with the local arm star-forming region (Sh2-154). This cloud harbours uniformly distributed pre-main-sequence stars (0.1-2.0 M ⊙ ), with no obvious trend of their distribution with either (H - K) excess or A V . This suggests that the star formation in this cloud depend mostly upon the primordial fragmentation.
Adaptive Fixation in Two-Locus Models of Stabilizing Selection and Genetic Drift

The relationship between quantitative genetics and population genetics has been studied for nearly a century, almost since the existence of these two disciplines. Here we ask to what extent quantitative genetic models in which selection is assumed to operate on a polygenic trait predict adaptive fixations that may lead to footprints in the genome (selective sweeps). We study two-locus models of stabilizing selection (with and without genetic drift) by simulations and analytically. For symmetric viability selection we find that ∼16% of the trajectories may lead to fixation if the initial allele frequencies are sampled from the neutral site-frequency spectrum and the effect sizes are uniformly distributed. However, if the population is preadapted when it undergoes an environmental change (i.e., sits in one of the equilibria of the model), the fixation probability decreases dramatically. In other two-locus models with general viabilities or an optimum shift, the proportion of adaptive fixations may increase to >24%. Similarly, genetic drift leads to a higher probability of fixation. The predictions of alternative quantitative genetics models, initial conditions, and effect-size distributions are also discussed.
Environmental Light and Its Relationship with Electromagnetic Resonances of Biomolecular Interactions, as Predicted by the Resonant Recognition Model

The meaning and influence of light to biomolecular interactions, and consequently to health, has been analyzed using the Resonant Recognition Model (RRM). The RRM proposes that biological processes/interactions are based on electromagnetic resonances between interacting biomolecules at specific electromagnetic frequencies within the infra-red, visible and ultra-violet frequency ranges, where each interaction can be identified by the certain frequency critical for resonant activation of specific biological activities of proteins and DNA. We found that: (1) the various biological interactions could be grouped according to their resonant frequency into super families of these functions, enabling simpler analyses of these interactions and consequently analyses of influence of electromagnetic frequencies to health; (2) the RRM spectrum of all analyzed biological functions/interactions is the same as the spectrum of the sun light on the Earth, which is in accordance with fact that life is sustained by the sun light; (3) the water is transparent to RRM frequencies, enabling proteins and DNA to interact without loss of energy; (4) the spectrum of some artificial sources of light, as opposed to the sun light, do not cover the whole RRM spectrum, causing concerns for disturbance to some biological functions and consequently we speculate that it can influence health.
Model-based rendezvous calibration of mobile sensor networks for monitoring air quality

Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) hold the potential to constitute a real game changer for our understanding of urban air pollution, through a significant augmentation of spatial resolution in measurement. However, temporal drift, cross-sensitivity and effects caused by varying environmental conditions (e.g., temperature) in low-cost chemical sensors (typically used in mobile WSNs) pose a tough challenge for reliable calibration. Based on state-of-the-art rendezvous calibration methods, we propose a novel model-based method for automatically estimating the baseline and gain characteristics of low-cost chemical sensors taking temporal drift and temperature dependencies of the sensors into account. The performance of our algorithm is evaluated using data gathered by our long-term mobile sensor network deployment, developed within the Nano-Tera.ch OpenSense II project1 in Lausanne, Switzerland. We show that, in a realistic context of sparse and irregular rendezvous events, our method consistently improves rendezvous calibration performance for single-hop online calibration.