Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Framework for the Study of Customer Interface Design for Mobile Commerce

The rapid growth of mobile telephony has fueled the expansion of the mobile Internet as a foundation for mobile commerce. Proponents claim that mobile commerce will surpass electronic commerce in growth and scope, but there is as yet no commonly accepted framework for the study of interface design for mobile commerce. Using Rayport and Jaworski's 7C's--the seven design elements of a customer interface (context, content, community, customization, communication, connection, and commerce) --as a reference framework, interfaces for mobile commerce and electronic commerce are compared. Two new elements (2M's) are identified: mobile setting and mobile device constraints. These 2M's substantially affect the design of each of the 7C's. Therefore, the 2M's and 7C's are proposed as a new framework for mobile commerce interfaces. Based on this, previous research is analyzed and suggestions for future research are generated.
Equity Crowdfunding: A New Phenomena

Crowdfunding has recently become available for entrepreneurs. Most academic studies analyse data from rewards-based (pre-selling) campaigns. In contrast, in this paper we analyse 636 campaigns, encompassing 17,188 investors and 64,831 investments between 2012 and 2015, from one of the leading European equity crowdfunding platforms. We provide descriptive statistics and carry out cross-campaign regression analysis. The descriptive statistics address its size, growth and geographic distributions in the UK. The regressions analyse which factors are associated with the probability of a successful campaign. We find some similarities and some interesting dissimilarities when comparing the descriptive statistics and regression results to research on rewards-based crowding. The data show that equity crowdfunding will likely pose great challenges to VC and business angel financiers in the near future. We discuss some research challenges and opportunities with these kind of data.
Evaluation of Virus Inactivation by Formaldehyde to Enhance Biosafety of Diagnostic Electron Microscopy

Formaldehyde (FA) fixation of infectious samples is a well-established protocol in diagnostic electron microscopy of viruses. However, published experimental data that demonstrate virus inactivation by these fixation procedures are lacking. Usually, fixation is performed immediately before the sample preparation for microscopy. The fixation procedure should transform viruses in a non–infectious but nonetheless structurally intact form in order to allow a proper diagnosis based on morphology. FA provides an essential advantage in comparison to other disinfectants, because it preserves the ultrastructure of biological material without interfering significantly with the preparation (i.e., the negative staining) and the detection of viruses. To examine the efficiency of FA inactivation, we used Vaccinia virus, Human adenovirus and Murine norovirus as models and treated them with FA under various conditions. Critical parameters for the inactivation efficiency were the temperature, the duration of the FA treatment, and the resistance of the virus in question. Our results show that FA inactivation at low temperature (4 °C) bears a high risk of incomplete inactivation. Higher temperatures (25 °C) are more efficient, although they still require rather long incubation times to fully inactivate a complex and highly robust virus like Vaccinia. A protocol, which applied 2% buffered FA for 60 min and a temperature–shift from 25 to 37 °C after 30 min was efficient for the complete inactivation of all test viruses, and therefore has the potential to improve both biosafety and speed of diagnostic electron microscopy.
On Equatorial Waves and El Niño. II: Effects of Air-Sea Thermal Coupling

Abstract Dynamics readjustment of a stratified ocean model to wind perturbations leads to variations in sea surface temperature (SST) related to the early phases of the observed interannual warming of the tropical Pacific known as El Nino. The role that the atmosphere plays in determining the extent and strength of the SST warming is examined through numerical experiments with varying parameterizations for the atmospheric thermal response to SST anomalies. A prior specification of the atmospheric temperature (even as a function of space and time) amounts to assuming infinite heat capacity for the atmosphere. A zero-heat capacity atmospheric model is constructed, in which the surface air temperature is balanced between the SST and a radiative equilibrium temperature. In the latter model, SST perturbations are damped through radiative relaxation from the atmosphere, rather than through direct cooling to the atmosphere. This greatly increases the lifetime of SST anomalies and increases their areal extent. Th.
Spectral and Spatial Classification of High Resolution Urban Satellites Images using Haralick features and SVM with SAM and EMD distance Metrics

classification of remotely sensed images knows a large progress taking into consideration the availability of images with different resolutions as well as the abundance of classification"s algorithms. Support Vector Machines (SVMs) are a group of supervised classification algorithms that have been recently used in the remote sensing field, a number of works have shown promising results by the fusion of spatial and spectral information using SVM. For this purpose, we propose a methodology allowing to combine these two information. The SVM classification was conducted using a combination of multi-spectral features and Haralick texture features as data source. We have used homogeneity, contrast, correlation, entropy and local homogeneity, which were the best texture features to improve the classification algorithm. Two kernels have been considered, the RBF kernel based on Euclidean minimum distance (EMD) and a RBF kernel based on the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM). The proposed approach was tested on common scenes of urban imagery. Results showed, especially with the use of Haralick texture features, that SVMs using RBF kernel based on EMD outperform the SVMs with RBF kernel based on SAM in term of the global accuracy and Kappa coefficeint. The experimental results indicate a mean accuracy value of 93.406% for EMD kernel and 92.896% for SAM kernel which is very promising.
A new end-to-end probing and analysis method for estimating bandwidth bottlenecks

We present a network friendly bandwidth measurement method, TOPP, that is based on active probing and includes analysis by segmented regression. This method can estimate two complementing available bandwidth metrics in addition to the link bandwidth of the congested link. Contrary to traditional packet pair estimates of the bottleneck link bandwidth, our estimate is not limited by the rate at which we can inject probe packets into the network. We also show that our method is able to detect bottlenecks that are invisible to methods such as the C-probe. Further more, we describe scenarios where our analysis method is able to calculate bandwidth estimates for several congested hops based on a single end-to-end probe session.
Fragile online relationship: a first look at unfollow dynamics in twitter

We analyze the dynamics of the behavior known as 'unfollow' in Twitter. We collected daily snapshots of the online relationships of 1.2 million Korean-speaking users for 51 days as well as all of their tweets. We found that Twitter users frequently unfollow. We then discover the major factors, including the reciprocity of the relationships, the duration of a relationship, the followees' informativeness, and the overlap of the relationships, which affect the decision to unfollow. We conduct interview with 22 Korean respondents to supplement the quantitative results. They unfollowed those who left many tweets within a short time, created tweets about uninteresting topics, or tweeted about the mundane details of their lives. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first systematic study of the unfollow behavior in Twitter.
The Relative Importance of Socioeconomic and Environmental Variables in Explaining Land Change in Bolivia, 2001–2010

This study assesses the relationship between trends in land change from 2001 to 2010 and socioeconomic and environmental variables in Bolivia at multiple spatial scales using a nonparametric, tree-based modeling approach. It also explores the theoretical dimensions surrounding the debate over the relative importance of socioeconomic and environmental variables in explaining land change. Results from the land change analysis show several hotspots of dynamic change. The majority of woody vegetation loss occurred in the eastern lowlands of Santa Cruz, Beni, and Pando and was attributable to the expansion of industrial agriculture. Gains in woody vegetation took place in the drylands of Santa Cruz and Beni savanna, and these changes were attributed to shifting patterns in precipitation and fire rather than human-induced change. Other hotspots of woody vegetation gain were attributed to abandonment of agriculture and herbaceous lands in the intermontane valleys of the southern Andes. Regression analyses showed that population and other demographic variables were poor predictors of land change. There is a clear relationship, however, between changes in woody and agriculture/herbaceous vegetation and environmental variables such as precipitation, temperature, and elevation. Municipalities with adequate precipitation and moderate temperature tended to show increases in agriculture and herbaceous vegetation and woody vegetation declines. Woody vegetation tended to increase in municipalities at higher elevations. This study also shows that explanations of only wealth or population as the main drivers of land change undervalue the role that natural features, like topography and precipitation, play in limiting or permitting certain land-use decisions.
Comparison of scaling parameters from spatial and temporal distributions of cloud properties

The most common method to evaluate the quality of cloud parameter retrievals from satellite data is comparison with time series of ground-based measurements. For highly variable cloud parameters, such as liquid water path (LWP), however, a direct comparison of spatial and temporal distributions has limited value. It is questionable which period in the time series is representative of an area in the satellite image. A necessary but not sufficient boundary condition for statistical analysis is that the variability of both subsets is similar. In this paper we study the variability in terms of scaling properties of both spatial distributions and timeseries of LWP and focus on the relation between them. The time series are obtained from ground-based microwave radiometer measurements at 1 Hz. The spatial distributions are derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer 0.6 μm radiances. It is shown that the scaling properties of both distributions are similar for a stratocumulus field, which exhibits scale invariance, and for a cumulus field for which scales of preference were identified. A double logarithmic representation was appropriate to obtain the spectral exponent. A log-linear representation was appropriate to identify a scale of preference. In the cumulus case it was possible to calculate a feasible conversion factor to map variability in time to variability in space. This enables an estimation of the spatial variability at very high resolutions.
Creating a False Memory in the Hippocampus

Can You Trust Your Memory? Being highly imaginative animals, humans constantly recall past experiences. These internally generated stimuli sometimes get associated with concurrent external stimuli, which can lead to the formation of false memories. Ramirez et al. (p. 387; see the cover) identified a population of cells in the dentate gyrus of the mouse hippocampus that encoded a particular context and were able to generate a false memory and study its neural and behavioral interactions with true memories. Optogenetic reactivation of memory engram–bearing cells was not only sufficient for the behavioral recall of that memory, but could also serve as a conditioned stimulus for the formation of an associative memory. Associations can be artificially created through reactivation of memory engrams in mouse dentate gyrus granule cells. Memories can be unreliable. We created a false memory in mice by optogenetically manipulating memory engram–bearing cells in the hippocampus. Dentate gyrus (DG) or CA1 neurons activated by exposure to a particular context were labeled with channelrhodopsin-2. These neurons were later optically reactivated during fear conditioning in a different context. The DG experimental group showed increased freezing in the original context, in which a foot shock was never delivered. The recall of this false memory was context-specific, activated similar downstream regions engaged during natural fear memory recall, and was also capable of driving an active fear response. Our data demonstrate that it is possible to generate an internally represented and behaviorally expressed fear memory via artificial means.
Is Neck Circumference an Indicator for Metabolic Complication of Childhood Obesity?

BACKGROUND: The possible role of neck circumference (NC) for screening childhood obesity and its complication is not well characterized. AIM: To assess NC and to explore its increase as risk factor with metabolic syndrome (MS) variables. METHODS: Cross sectional case-control study included 50 obese children (BMI ≥95th percentile) and 50 healthy (BMI 15th-‹85th percentile). All were subjected to clinical examination, measuring blood pressure (BP), body weight, height, NC, waist (WC) and hip (HC). , fasting blood glucose, insulin and lipid profile. RESULTS: MS was detected among 52% of obese participants, but not among controls (0%). Clinical parameters and most of the laboratory values were higher in subjects with MS than in non-metabolic subjects, with statistical significance only in blood pressure and triglycerides. Among obese without MS, NC showed significantly positive correlations with age, weight, height, WC, HC and negative with LDL. While among Obese with MS, NC showed significantly positive correlations with age, weight, height, BMI-SDS, WC, HC and DBP. CONCLUSION: NC can be considered as a good indicator and predictor for obesity, especially central obesity. However, NC has no relation with lipid profile or fasting blood sugar.
Understanding environmental pollution concepts: a case study using school students in Argentina and Puerto Rico

This paper explores concepts about air, water and soil pollution that students of grades 7-9 have in Argentina and Puerto Rico. A structured questionnaire was used in the investigation. A quantitative analysis was carried out to characterise the occurrence and frequency of conceptual errors, and to analyse their decrease with an increase in the educational level of the students. The results showed how students perceived abstract and local problems regarding pollution, and the differences owing to their cultural environments. Finally, the results seemed to support the hypothesis about the importance of cognitive stages and their relation with stages of development and evolution with age.
Capacity-Aware Backpressure Traffic Signal Control

The control of a network of signalized intersections is considered. Previous work demonstrates that the so-called backpressure control provides stability guarantees, assuming infinite queues capacities. In this paper, we highlight the failing current of backpressure control under finite capacities by identifying sources of nonwork conservation and congestion propagation. We propose the use of a normalized pressure which guarantees work conservation and mitigates congestion propagation, while ensuring fairness at low traffic densities, and recovering original backpressure as capacities grow to infinity. This capacity-aware backpressure control enables improving performance as congestion increases, as indicated by simulation results, and keeps the key benefits of backpressure: the ability to be distributed over intersections and O(1) complexity.
Papillary lesions of the breast at percutaneous core-needle biopsy.

PURPOSE To retrospectively review the imaging and histologic findings in patients in whom a benign papillary lesion was diagnosed at core-needle breast biopsy. MATERIALS AND METHODS This retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board at each institution; patient consent was not required. The study was HIPAA compliant. The authors reviewed the findings from 42 patients (age range, 26-76 years; mean age, 54.3 years) with 43 benign papillary lesions diagnosed at core-needle biopsy. Thirty-six (84%) of the 43 lesions were surgically excised, and seven (16%) were followed up with long-term imaging. The authors assessed the radiographic findings, the histologic findings at core-needle biopsy, and the findings at subsequent surgical excision or imaging follow-up. Statistical analysis was performed on a per-patient basis and included the Blyth-Still-Casella procedure to construct exact 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and the Fisher exact test. RESULTS At core-needle biopsy, lesions were diagnosed as papilloma (n = 29), sclerosing papilloma (n = 8), and benign papillary lesions not otherwise specified (n = 6). For the 36 lesions that were surgically excised, histologic follow-up showed no residual lesion in 10, intraductal papilloma in 14, intraductal papillomatosis in two, papilloma with adjacent foci of atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) in eight, and well-differentiated papillary ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in two. Mammographic follow-up in the remaining seven lesions revealed stable calcifications in five (at 28-55 months) and no residual lesion in two (at 26-29 months). In nine of the 42 patients (21%), the diagnosis was upgraded to either ADH or DCIS (exact two-sided 95% CI = 11.4%, 36.4%). CONCLUSION The results strongly suggest that papillary lesions diagnosed as benign at core-needle biopsy should be surgically excised because a substantial number of lesions were upgraded to ADH and DCIS at excision.
Localization of metabotropic glutamate receptors mGluR1α and mGluR2/3 in the cat retina

The distribution of metabotropic glutamate receptors 1α (mGluR1α) and mGluR2/3 in the cat retina was studied through the use of preembedding immunocytochemistry for light and electron microscopy. Staining for mGluR1α in the outer plexiform layer was seen in numerous punctate structures that were identified as rod spherules. Cone pedicles remained unlabeled. A number of amacrine and ganglion cell somata also were stained with processes ramifying throughout the inner plexiform layer. These processes were postsynaptic to cone bipolar cells in both sublaminae, where they comprised one but not both of the postsynaptic elements at dyad contacts. Immunostaining for mGluR2/3 was observed in horizontal cells as well as in numerous amacrine and displaced amacrine cells. Labeled amacrine processes were postsynaptic to cone bipolar cells in both sublaminae but, similar to mGluR1α, comprised only one of the postsynaptic elements. Staining for mGluR2/3 also was seen in amacrine processes postsynaptic to rod bipolar terminals; these processes were identified as belonging to type A17 amacrine cells. The distribution patterns indicate that both mGluR1α and mGluR2/3 are positioned for postsynaptic function, whereas mGluR1α also may contribute to the presynaptic regulation of glutamate release from rod photoreceptors. J. Comp. Neurol. 407:427–437, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Wastewater Treatment Using Fibrist and Saprist Peat: A Comparative Study

Two different peat types (fibrist and saprist) were compared to examine their respective wastewater treatment capacity in peat beds under different hydraulic loadings (1.8, 1.2, 0.9, and 0.6 m3/m2 d) and pollutant loadings (dependent on influent quality). The comparative study was carried out on a pilot scale using urban wastewater which had undergone preliminary treatment. The systems were observed to retain a higher quantity of suspended solids when the load was higher, regardless of the hydraulic loading and the type of peat employed. System performance with respect to BOD was similar to that observed for COD, and it was noted that the capacity to retain organic matter decreased when the hydraulic loading or pollutant loading was increased. This effect was observed in both peats but to different degrees, being lower in the case of saprist peat. The results indicate that it would be necessary to work with low hydraulic loadings in order to comply with legislative requirements on effluent. Peat beds are therefore suitable for implementation in small population centers, where the system's efficiency partly depends on the type of peat employed. In view of the system's performance with respect to suspended solids, this technology may be considered a good primary treatment, and could be usefully combined with other processes aimed at eliminating dissolved organic matter.
Chlorofluorocarbons as tracers of landfill leachate in surface and groundwater

The widespread use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as refrigerants, aerosols and foam insulation gases has led to their ubiquitous presence in modern landfills. Landfill leachates may have concentrations of CFC11, CFC12 and CFC113 thousands of times higher than in uncontaminated surface and groundwaters. Such great disparity offers a means of using CFCs as tracers of environmental contamination by landfill leachate. The threshold at which diluted leachate can be detected is around 0.1–1%, compared with 10–50% for conventional indicators such as COD, Cl− or NH4+. A single, systematic survey may establish the extent and pattern of a leachate plume, whereas conventional indicators must rely on monitoring continued over many years to establish trends rising above background. This paper presents results from just such a survey conducted at a landfill site in Yorkshire, England. There were clear impacts on surface water courses and shallow groundwater, whereas an upward hydraulic gradient protected deeper groundwater beneath the site. Selective degradation of CFC11 was observed in groundwaters.
Computed tomography‐enhanced anatomy course using enterprise visualization

Rapid changes in medical knowledge are forcing continuous adaptation of the basic science courses in medical schools. This article discusses a three‐year experience developing a new Computed Tomography (CT)‐based anatomy curriculum at the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, including describing the motivations and reasoning for the new curriculum, the CT‐based learning system itself, practical examples of visual dissections, and student assessments of the new curriculum. At the heart of this new curriculum is the emphasis on studying anatomy by navigating inside the bodies of various living individuals utilizing a CT viewer. To assess the students’ experience with the new CT‐based learning method, an anonymous questionnaire was administered at the end of the course for three consecutive academic years: 2008/2009, 2009/2010, 2010/2011. Based upon the results, modifications were made to the curriculum in the summers of 2009 and 2010. Results showed that: (1) during these three years the number of students extensively using the CT system quadrupled (from 11% to 46%); (2) students' satisfaction from radiologists involvement increased by 150%; and (3) student appreciation of the CT‐based learning method significantly increased (from 13% to 68%). It was concluded that discouraging results (mainly negative feedback from students) during the first years and a priori opposition from the teaching staff should not weaken efforts to develop new teaching methods in the field of anatomy. Incorporating a new curriculum requires time and patience. Student and staff satisfaction, along with utilization of the new system, will increase with the improvement of impeding factors. Anat Sci Educ 6: 332–341. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.