Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of a 'Theological' Web Interface on Trust in the Context of Electronic Commerce

Researchers and academics from diverse disciplines have highlighted the role of ‘trust’ for establishing and strengthening existing relationships between individuals and organisations in the commercial and the social context. Various models have been proposed which aim to identify both the antecedents and outcomes of trust displayed towards e-commerce Web sites. Increased trust is generally shown to increase positive user attitude, which in turn is believed to increase the intention to buy. Studies have shown the antecedents of trust include variables such as the perceived reputation and size of the vendor organisation. The current paper investigates the role of trust on e-consumers from a cultural perspective. Religious sub-cultures have been targeted as the main study area for this paper’s research investigation. Participants recruited from Christian, Muslim and other faiths were asked to interact with online bookstores that identified with a Christian, Muslim or Neutral orientation. Neutral Web sites were those sites classified as devoid of any religious marketing, branding and logos. Trust and attitudes towards the Web sites were measured and this data was used to test the hypothesis that same-religion sites would be found more trustworthy and appealing than other religion or neutral sites. This hypothesis was partially supported, but only for the Muslim participants. It was found that the Muslim group expressed significantly more trust in the Muslim site compared to the Christian site. They also expressed significantly more positive attitudes towards the Muslim online bookstore than the other two sites. The implications of these results for theories of web based trust and attitude are discussed along with the practical implications of the findings.
Color by Numbers - Quantifying the Quality of Color Reproduction

Quantifying the perceptual difference between original and reproduced (and inevitably modified) color images is currently a key research challenge in the field of color imaging. Such information can be extremely valuable for instance in the development of new equipment and algorithms for color reproduction. While in many research areas it is common practice to obtain quantitative quality information by the use of perceptual tests, in which the judgments of several human observers are being collected and carefully analyzed statistically, this approach has serious limitations for practical use, in particular because of the time consumption. Motivated by this, and aided by the ever increasing available knowledge about the mechanisms of the human visual system, the quest for perceptual color image quality metrics that can adequately predict human quality judgments of complex images, has been on for several decades. However, unfortunately, the Holy Grail is yet to be found. The current paper outlines the state of the art of this field, including benchmarking of existing metrics, presents recent research, and proposes promising areas for further work. Aspects that are covered in particular include new models and metrics for color image quality, and new frameworks for using the metrics to improve color image representation and reproduction algorithms.
What's right with the open question argument

Ethics . [is] partly analysis of what’s meant by ‘good’, ‘ought’, ‘right’, ‘wrong’, ‘valuable’, etc. And if certain analyses of these are right, then other ethical propositions, ones which aren’t analytic, wouldn’t be philosophical at all, but belong to psychology, sociology, and the theory of evolution.
Moment properties of multivariate infinitely divisible laws and criteria for self-decomposability

Ramachandran (1969, Theorem 8) has shown that for any univariate infinitely divisible distribution and any positive real number $\alpha$, an absolute moment of order $\alpha$ relative to the distribution exists (as a finite number) if and only if this is so for a certain truncated version of the corresponding L$\acute{\rm e}$vy measure. A generalized version of this result in the case of multivariate infinitely divisible distributions, involving the concept of g-moments, is given by Sato (1999, Theorem 25.3). We extend Ramachandran's theorem to the multivariate case, keeping in mind the immediate requirements under appropriate assumptions of cumulant studies of the distributions referred to; the format of Sato's theorem just referred to obviously varies from ours and seems to be having a different agenda. Also, appealing to a further criterion based on the L$\acute{\rm e}$vy measure, we identify in a certain class of multivariate infinitely divisible distributions the distributions that are self-decomposable; this throws new light on structural aspects of certain multivariate distributions such as the multivariate generalized hyperbolic distributions studied by Barndorff-Nielsen (1977) and others. Various points of relevance to the study are also addressed through specific examples.
Genome-Wide Analysis and Characterization of Aux/IAA Family Genes in Brassica rapa

Auxins are the key players in plant growth development involving leaf formation, phototropism, root, fruit and embryo development. Auxin/Indole-3-Acetic Acid (Aux/IAA) are early auxin response genes noted as transcriptional repressors in plant auxin signaling. However, many studies focus on Aux/ARF gene families and much less is known about the Aux/IAA gene family in Brassica rapa (B. rapa). Here we performed a comprehensive genome-wide analysis and identified 55 Aux/IAA genes in B. rapa using four conserved motifs of Aux/IAA family (PF02309). Chromosomal mapping of the B. rapa Aux/IAA (BrIAA) genes facilitated understanding cluster rearrangement of the crucifer building blocks in the genome. Phylogenetic analysis of BrIAA with Arabidopsis thaliana, Oryza sativa and Zea mays identified 51 sister pairs including 15 same species (BrIAA—BrIAA) and 36 cross species (BrIAA—AtIAA) IAA genes. Among the 55 BrIAA genes, expression of 43 and 45 genes were verified using Genebank B. rapa ESTs and in home developed microarray data from mature leaves of Chiifu and RcBr lines. Despite their huge morphological difference, tissue specific expression analysis of BrIAA genes between the parental lines Chiifu and RcBr showed that the genes followed a similar pattern of expression during leaf development and a different pattern during bud, flower and siliqua development stages. The response of the BrIAA genes to abiotic and auxin stress at different time intervals revealed their involvement in stress response. Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms between IAA genes of reference genome Chiifu and RcBr were focused and identified. Our study examines the scope of conservation and divergence of Aux/IAA genes and their structures in B. rapa. Analyzing the expression and structural variation between two parental lines will significantly contribute to functional genomics of Brassica crops and we belive our study would provide a foundation in understanding the Aux/IAA genes in B. rapa.
Food viscosity as determinant for adaptive growth responses in rat intestine: long-term feeding of different hydroxyethyl celluloses

Carbohydrate gelling agents can be regarded as being representative for the soluble and viscous fractions of dietary fibre. Their dietary concentration affects the consistency of the ingested food as well as the dilution of nutrients and energy. By feeding hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) differing in molecular mass, and thus in its viscosity properties, only the consistency of the diet was modified. Three HEC (of low (LV), medium (MV) and high viscosity (HV)) were employed in a 6-week feeding study with female rats to evaluate the effect of the viscosity on adaptive responses of intestinal growth variables. Each of the HEC was added in three increasing concentrations (8, 16, and 32 %, w/w) to a fibre-free control diet to yield nine test groups besides a fibre-free and an additional, fibre-rich, cereal-based control group. Except for the highest concentration of the high viscosity product (32 % HV-HEC), the dilution of the energy density of the diet was almost completely compensated by an increased food intake. With the same exception, energy utilisation was not impaired and, therefore, body-weight gains in the test groups were not significantly different from that in the control. Most other changes, e.g. increases in small intestinal length, mucosal DNA content, caecal and colonic weight, not only depended on the dietary concentration but also on the viscosity of HEC in a manner that either increasing the viscosity at a given dietary concentration or increasing the dietary concentration at a given viscosity led to the same results. These findings clearly prove the important role of the viscosity of the lumen content, as a mere physico-chemical factor, in determining adaptative growth responses in the intestinal tract of rats.
Cultural Worldview and Preference for Childhood Vaccination Policy

In the face of the reemerging threat of preventable diseases and the simultaneous vaccine risk controversy, what explains variations in Americans’ policy preferences regarding childhood vaccinations? Using original data from a recent nationwide Internet survey of 1,213 American adults, this research seeks to explain differing public opinions on childhood vaccination policies and related issues of governance. As Mary Douglas and Aaron Wildavsky’s grid-group cultural theory of policy preference formation suggests, cultural biases have a significant impact on the formation of preferences toward various vaccination policies. Hierarchs are in support of mandatory vaccination, oppose religious and philosophical exemption, and believe the government should preside over vaccinationrelated decisions. Fatalists strike a bold contrast in their opposition to mandatory vaccination policy and support for religious and philosophical exemptions and the role of parents in deciding on vaccinations. Falling between hierarchs and fatalists, egalitarian support for vaccinations is stronger than individualists‘.
Impairment of serum albumin antioxidant properties in obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome

Antioxidant counteraction of oxidative stress has been poorly explored in obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Serum albumin is a major antioxidant agent and structural modifications induced by glucose or free radicals impair its antioxidant properties. The aim of the present study was to compare antioxidant capacities and structural changes of albumin in nonobese OSA patients and healthy volunteers. Albumin structural changes were studied by quenching of fluorescence in the presence of acrylamide. Albumin thiols and fructosamines, reflecting oxidation- and glycation-induced changes in serum albumin, respectively, were assessed. Albumin structural changes were demonstrated by a significant decrease in quenching of fluorescence in OSA patients. Oxidation, resulting in a significant decrease in thiol groups (3.7±0.7 versus 2.3±0.4 μmol·g−1 protein), and glycation, associated with a significant increase in fructosamines (226.6±27 versus 286±44.4 μmol·L−1), were found when comparing healthy volunteers with OSA patients. There was a significant relationship between both parameters and sleep apnoea severity. After continuous positive airway pressure intervention, albumin thiol groups were reassessed in seven of the 16 OSA patients and increased significantly from 2.25±0.39 to 2.79±0.31 µmol·g−1 protein. Obstructive sleep apnoea patients demonstrated a reduction in serum albumin antioxidant properties that may aggravate oxidative stress and, thus, contribute to cardiovascular and metabolic morbidities.
Image Approximation by Variable Knot Bicubic Splines

This paper presents a degree of freedom or information content analysis of images in the context of digital image processing. As such it represents an attempt to quantify the number of truly independent samples one gathers with imaging devices. The degrees of freedom of a sampled image itself are developed as an approximation problem. Here, bicubic splines with variable knots are employed in an attempt to answer the question as to what extent images are finitely representable in the context of digital sensors and computers. Relatively simple algorithms for good knot placement are given and result in spline approximations that achieve significant parameter reductions at acceptable error levels. The knots themselves are shown to be useful as an indicator of image activity and have potential as an image segmentation device, as well as easy implementation in CCD signal processing and focal plane smart sensor arrays. Both mathematical and experimental results are presented.
Ionization Balance for Optically Thin Plasmas: Rate Coefficients for all Atoms and Ions of the Elements H to Ni and implication for the calculated X-ray spectrum

We present in this paper new and updated calculations of the ionization equilibrium for all the elements from H to Ni. We collected for these elements all the data available in the literature for the ionization and radiative plus dielectronic recombination rates. In particular, the dielectronic rates have been fitted with a single formula and the related coefficients are tabulated. Our results are compared with previous works.
Small Claims in the County Courts in England and Wales: The Bargain Basement of Civil Justice?

One: Introduction and Background: The Development of Small Claims in England and Wales Two: Background to the Study: The County Court Files Three: The District Judge's Role at Small Claims Hearings Four: Litigants' Perceptions of Small Claims Five: The Enforcement of Small Claims Judgments Six: Conclusion Bibliography Index
Coffee Markets: New Paradigms in Global Supply and Demand

More than 50 nations, almost all in the developing world, produce and export coffee. A number of them are facing considerable difficulties because of the dramatic decline in the price of coffee which has fallen to its lowest levels in 30 years, and to 100 year lows if adjusted for inflation, as a result of worldwide oversupply. Some of these countries are dependent on coffee exports for a significant portion of their international trade and export income as indicated in the preliminary tables. The destabilizing effect of the price crisis has sparked concern in some of these countries that have experienced bank failures, public protests, and dramatic falls in export revenues. Between 17 and 20 million families are directly involved in coffee production. Evidence of considerable human hardships in many producing regions confirms coffee's importance as a primary-and sometimes only-source of cash income for many farmers (IDB, USAID, World Bank 2002; Oxfam 2002). Most of the world's coffee is produced by smallholders utilizing just a few hectares of land. In the past year, many reports have confirmed the heavy toll on farmers that have had to sell below cost or even give up their coffee farms because current prices do not even cover the most basic costs of harvesting and transport to market, and estimate economic losses for small coffee farmers at US$4.5 billion per year. The losses can be measured in even more profound ways. In many rural areas, the annual coffee income means the ability to pay for children's schooling, purchase basic necessities such as clothing and medicines, and settle debts.
Selection of ThAr lines for wavelength calibration of echelle spectra and implications for variations in the fine‐structure constant

Echelle spectrographs currently provide some of the most precise and detailed spectra in astronomy, the interpretation of which sometimes depends on the wavelength calibration accuracy. In some applications, such as constraining cosmological variations in the fundamental constants from quasar absorption lines, the wavelength calibration is crucial. Here we detail an algorithm for selecting thorium-argon (ThAr) emission lines for wavelength calibration which incorporates the properties of both a new laboratory wavelength list and the spectrograph of interest. We apply the algorithm to the Very Large Telescope Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) and demonstrate a factor of ≥3 improvement in the wavelength calibration residuals (i.e. random errors) alone. It is also found that UVES spectra calibrated using a previous, widely distributed line-list contain systematic ±30-75 ms -1 distortions of the wavelength scale over both short and long wavelength ranges. These distortions have important implications for current UVES constraints on cosmological variations in the fine-structure constant. The induced systematic errors are most severe for Mg/FeII quasar absorbers in the redshift range 1.2 ≤ z abs ≤ 2.3, with individual absorbers studied by recent authors containing systematic errors up to four times larger than quoted statistical errors.
Analysis of alternative ductile fiber-reinforced polymer reinforcing bar concepts

Steel-reinforced concrete structural components are often associated with significant maintenance costs as a result of reinforcement corrosion. To mitigate this problem, fiber-reinforced polymer bars have been used in place of traditional steel-reinforcement for some applications. The non-ductile response of typical fiber-reinforced polymer bars is a concern, however. To overcome this problem, hybrid ductile fiber-reinforced polymer bars have been developed for use in concrete flexural members with resulting ductility indices similar to sections reinforced with steel. In this study, five different hybrid ductile fiber-reinforced polymer bar concepts are analyzed and compared in terms of ductility, stiffness, and relative cost. Of primary interest is the effect that the number of materials used in bar construction has on performance. Reinforced concrete beam and bridge deck applications are considered for analysis. It was found that all hybrid ductile fiber-reinforced polymer-reinforced flexural members czonsidered could meet code-specified strength and ductility requirements for steel-reinforced sections, although service load deflections were approximately twice that of steel-reinforced sections of the same depth. In general, ductility increased, and overall material cost decreased, as the bar material layers increased from 2 to 4. The four-material continuous fiber bar approach was found to be most promising, with high ductility as well as relatively low cost.
Approximated Robust Principal Component Analysis for Improved General Scene Background Subtraction

The research reported in this paper addresses the fundamental task of separation of locally moving or deforming image areas from a static or globally moving background. It builds on the latest developments in the field of robust principal component analysis, specifically, the recently reported practical solutions for the long-standing problem of recovering the low-rank and sparse parts of a large matrix made up of the sum of these two components. This article addresses a few critical issues including: embedding global motion parameters in the matrix decomposition model, i.e., estimation of global motion parameters simultaneously with the foreground/background separation task, considering matrix block-sparsity rather than generic matrix sparsity as natural feature in video processing applications, attenuating background ghosting effects when foreground is subtracted, and more critically providing an extremely efficient algorithm to solve the low-rank/sparse matrix decomposition task. The first aspect is important for background/foreground separation in generic video sequences where the background usually obeys global displacements originated by the camera motion in the capturing process. The second aspect exploits the fact that in video processing applications the sparse matrix has a very particular structure, where the non-zero matrix entries are not randomly distributed but they build small blocks within the sparse matrix. The next feature of the proposed approach addresses removal of ghosting effects originated from foreground silhouettes and the lack of information in the occluded background regions of the image. Finally, the proposed model also tackles algorithmic complexity by introducing an extremely efficient "SVD-free" technique that can be applied in most background/foreground separation tasks for conventional video processing.
When Is Good News Bad and Vice Versa? The Fortune Rankings of America's Most Admired Companies

We use increases and decreases in the ranking scores of Fortune's Most Admired Companies to test the proposition that media shocks can increase (decrease) the value of a manager's reputational capital and, thus, enhance (diminish) his power to extract corporate resources for private benefit at the expense of shareholders. Consistent with the proposition increases (decreases) in scores are associated with stock price decreases (increases). And, CEOs whose firms experience increases (reductions) in scores experience increases (reductions) in compensation and in job tenure, and their firms undertake more (fewer) acquisitions and the acquisitions are less (more) value increasing.
Bacterial metabolism and growth efficiency in lakes: The importance of phosphorus availability

We investigated bacterial responses to variations in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nutrient availability by a comparative analysis of bacterial metabolism in lakes ranging from oligotrophic to eutrophic. Bacterial growth, respiration, and growth efficiency were quantified in lake water dilution cultures performed in 20 lakes located in eastern Quebec, Canada, which varied with respect to both DOC and nutrient concentrations. Intrinsic growth rates of the bacteria ranged from 0.1 to 1.4 d−, bacterial cell‐specific respiration rates ranged from 0.4 to 7.2 fg C cell−1 h−1, and growth efficiencies ranged from 6.7% to 51.6%. These variations were unrelated to bulk DOC concentrations. Instead, growth rate and efficiency were positively related to total phosphorus concentrations. Specific respiration rate, on the other hand, decreased with increasing phosphorus concentrations, and the magnitude of respiration, on a per‐cell basis, strongly influenced observed growth efficiencies. In a series of substrate enrichment experiments, additions of glucose alone failed to stimulate a response in growth rate, mean cell biovolume, or the potential biomass yield in dilution cultures, but all responded positively to phosphorus additions. Our results show that bacterial metabolism and the fate of DOC input to lake microbial communities are strongly dependent on phosphorus availability, rather than total carbon availability. Extreme oligotrophy appears to place high respiratory demands on the bacterioplankton, resulting in very low bacterial growth efficiencies and consequently greater DOC flow to CO2 than to biomass available for transfer to higher trophic levels.