Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Social Structure of Entrepreneurial Activity: Geographic Concentration of Footwear Production in the United States, 1940–19891

Nearly all industries exhibit geographic concentration. Most theories of the location of industry explain the persistence of these production centers as the result of economic efficiency. This article argues instead that heterogeneity in entrepreneurial opportunities, rather than differential performance, maintains geographic concentration. Entrepreneurs need exposure to existing organizations in the industry to acquire tacit knowledge, obtain important social ties, and build self‐confidence. Thus, the current geographic distribution of production places important constraints on entrepreneurial activity. Due to these constraints, new foundings tend to reify the existing geographic distribution of production. Empirical evidence from the shoe industry supports this thesis.
Improving Mentoring for Beginning Alternatively Certified Teachers: Is Functional Feedback a Viable Means?.

Despite a plethora of studies that describe the characteristics of effective mentors and the qualities of effecting mentoring initiatives, the research does not examine the nature of written feedback provided to beginning alternatively certified teachers. In addition, there is a gap in the literature that identifies the most useful type of feedback that enhances instructional practice as part of the mentoring process. This qualitative study examined written feedback provided to 20 beginning alternatively certified teachers. The findings support the use of functional feedback for mentoring and suggest that alternatively certified teachers perceived functional feedback as more useful.
Directly measured currents and estimated transport pathways of Atlantic Water between 59.5°N and the Iceland–Faroes–Scotland Ridge

Using vessel-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler data from four different routes between Scotland, Iceland and Greenland, we map out the mean flow of water in the top 400 m of the northeastern North Atlantic. The poleward transport east of the Reykjanes Ridge (RR) decreases from ~8.5 to 10 Sv (1 Sverdrup=106 m3 s−1) at 59.5°N to 61°N to 6 Sv crossing the Iceland–Faroes–Scotland Ridge. The two longest ~1200 km transport integrals have 1.4–0.94 Sv uncertainty, respectively. The overall decrease in transport can in large measure be accounted for by a ~1.5 Sv flow across the RR into the Irminger Sea north of 59.5°N and by a ~0.5 Sv overflow of dense water along the Iceland–Faroes Ridge. A remaining 0.5 Sv flux divergence is at the edge of detectability, but if real could be accounted for through wintertime convection to >400 m and densification of upper ocean water. The topography of the Iceland Basin and the banks west of Scotland play a fundamental role in controlling flow pathways towards and past Iceland, the Faroes and Scotland. Most water flows north unimpeded through the Iceland Basin, some in the centre of the basin along the Maury Channel, and some along Hatton Bank, turning east along the northern slopes of George Bligh Bank, Lousy Bank and Bill Bailey's Bank, whereupon the flow splits with ~3 Sv turning northwest towards the Iceland–Faroes Ridge and the remainder continuing east towards and north of the Wyville-Thomson Ridge (WTR) to the Scotland slope thereby increasing the Slope Current transport from ~1.5 Sv south of the WTR to 3.5 Sv in the Faroes–Shetland Channel.
PAC Reinforcement Learning With an Imperfect Model

Reinforcement learning (RL) methods have proved to be successful in many simulated environments. The common approaches, however, are often too sample intensive to be applied directly in the real world. A promising approach to addressing this issue is to train an RL agent in a simulator and transfer the solution to the real environment. When a high-fidelity simulator is available we would expect significant reduction in the amount of real trajectories needed for learning. In this work we aim at better understanding the theoretical nature of this approach. We start with a perhaps surprising result that, even if the approximate model (e.g., a simulator) only differs from the real environment in a single state-action pair (but which one is unknown), such a model could be information-theoretically useless and the sample complexity (in terms of real trajectories) still scales with the total number of states in the worst case. We investigate the hard instances and come up with natural conditions that avoid the pathological situations. We then propose two conceptually simple algorithms that enjoy polynomial sample complexity guarantees with no dependence on the size of the state-action space, and prove some foundational results to provide insights into this important problem.
A case study for traffic signal control system evaluation based on artificial transportation systems

This paper proposes a novel method to evaluate Traffic Signal Control System(TSCS) based on Artificial Transportation Systems(ATS). Using this method, we can generate travel demand based on individual's activities and construct artificial traffic scenarios using basic rules. While interacting with ATS, TSCS can be evaluated by observing and analyzing the traffic status that emerged. The cost of the evaluation is decreased as artificial traffic environment can be constructed in the laboratory to substitute real environment and the evaluation can be carried out before the installation on site. Furthermore, as reasonable travel demand can be generated based on individual's activities, the reliability of evaluation results can be guaranteed. Finally, the effectiveness of this method is verified by experiments.
Clustering instability of focused swimmers

One of the hallmarks of active matter is its rich nonlinear dynamics and instabilities. Recent numerical simulations of phototactic algae showed that a thin jet of swimmers, obtained from hydrodynamic focusing inside a Poiseuille flow, was unstable to longitudinal perturbations with swimmers dynamically clustering (Jibuti L. et al., Phys. Rev. E, 90, (2014) 063019). As a simple starting point to understand these instabilities, we consider in this paper an initially homogeneous one-dimensional line of aligned swimmers moving along the same direction, and characterise its instability using both a continuum framework and a discrete approach. In both cases, we show that hydrodynamic interactions between the swimmers lead to instabilities in density for which we compute the growth rate analytically. Lines of pusher-type swimmers are predicted to remain stable while lines of pullers (such as flagellated algae) are predicted to always be unstable.
Cloning and Characterization of a Flavonol Synthase Gene From Litchi chinensis and Its Variation Among Litchi Cultivars With Different Fruit Maturation Periods

Litchi (Litchi chinensis) is an important subtropical fruit tree with high commercial value. However, the short and centralized fruit maturation period of litchi cultivars represents a bottleneck for litchi production. Therefore, the development of novel cultivars with extremely early fruit maturation period is critical. Previously, we showed that the genotypes of extremely early-maturing (EEM), early-maturing (EM), and middle-to-late-maturing (MLM) cultivars at a specific locus SNP51 (substitution type C/T) were consistent with their respective genetic background at the whole-genome level; a homozygous C/C genotype at SNP51 systematically differentiated EEM cultivars from others. The litchi gene on which SNP51 was located was annotated as flavonol synthase (FLS), which catalyzes the formation of flavonols. Here, we further elucidate the variation of the FLS gene from L. chinensis (LcFLS) among EEM, EM, and MLM cultivars. EEM cultivars with a homozygous C/C genotype at SNP51 all contained the same 2,199-bp sequence of the LcFLS gene. For MLM cultivars with a homozygous T/T genotype at SNP51, the sequence lengths of the LcFLS gene were 2,202–2,222 bp. EM cultivars with heterozygous C/T genotypes at SNP51 contained two different alleles of the LcFLS gene: a 2,199-bp sequence identical to that in EEM cultivars and a 2,205-bp sequence identical to that in MLM cultivar ‘Heiye. ’ Moreover, the coding regions of LcFLS genes of other MLM cultivars were almost identical to that of ‘Heiye. ’ Therefore, the LcFLS gene coding region may be used as a source of diagnostic SNP markers to discriminate or identify genotypes with the EEM trait. The expression pattern of the LcFLS gene and accumulation pattern of flavonol from EEM, EM, and MLM cultivars were analyzed and compared using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for mature leaves, flower buds, and fruits, 15, 30, 45, and 60 days after anthesis. Flavonol content and LcFLS gene expression levels were positively correlated in all three cultivars: both decreased from the EEM to MLM cultivars, with moderate levels in the EM cultivars. LcFLS gene function could be further analyzed to elucidate its correlation with phenotype variation among litchi cultivars with different fruit maturation periods.
Proximate Composition and Fatty Acid Content of Commercially Important Fish Species from Ethiopian Lakes: A Review

Fish is an important source of long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC n-3 PUFA) and also a good source of protein. Ethiopian lakes harbor a rich fish biodiversity which vary in their nutrient composition. This review will examine published data on the proximate and fatty acid content of six fish species from various Ethiopian Lakes. The fish species include the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) , African sharp tooth catfish (Clarias gariepinus) , Nile perch (Lates niloticus) , Barbs (Barbus sp.) , Redbelly tilapia (Tilapia zillii) and Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) . Species were selected based on their current commercial importance as well as their potential for nutrition. The content of protein, fat, moisture and ash ranged from 13.30 to 18.50%, 0.40 to 2.45%, 77.24 to 80.80% and 0.81 to 1.20%, respectively. The fatty acid content of the fish ranged from 6.42 to 25.01 mg.g -1 dry weight (DW) for saturated fatty acids (SFA), 2.02 to 24.62 mg.g -1 DW for monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and 7.88 to 24.12 mg.g -1 DW for PUFA. Among the SFA, palmitic acid was the main fatty acid while oleic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were the main MUFA and PUFA respectively. The highest content of eicosapentaenoic acid (4.74 mg.g -1 DW) was found in Barbs from Lake Langeno while the highest docosapentaenoic acid (3.99 mg.g -1 DW), DHA (11.53 mg.g -1 DW) and total n-3 PUFA (20.61 mg.g -1 DW) were found in Nile tilapia from Lake Haiq. The n-3/n-6 ratios ranged from 1.39 to 5.86 mg.g -1 DW, with the highest ratio coming from Nile tilapia collected from Lake Haiq and the lowest from Redbelly tilapia from Lake Ziway. In conclusion, all the species collected from different Lakes of Ethiopia may be beneficial to human health. However, Nile tilapia from Lake Haiq and Barbs from Lake Langeno are the best for consumption due to higher levels of LC n-3 PUFA.
AUTECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CENTAUREA HERMANNII F. HERM AN ENDEMIC SPECIES FROM TURKEY

EROGLU, H. K. , I. I. OZYIGIT, V. ALTAY and C. YARCI, 2014. Autecological characteristics of Centaurea hermannii F. Herm an endemic species from Turkey. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., Supplement 1: 183–187 This study was performed on Centaurea hermannii F. Herm to acquire information about some characteristics (bioclimatic, edaphic, topographic, biotic etc.) of its habitat and distribution in Istanbul-Turkey. Plant and soil samples were collected
Smart vest for posture monitoring in rehabilitation exercises

Rehabilitation at home has many advantages, both in terms of increased efficiency of health service and comfort for the patient. The monitoring of any human physiological parameters in home environment has the primary need to be non-invasive for the patient and at the same time motivating. This paper describes a wearable system for monitoring physiological posture during rehabilitation exercises to the spine in patients with mild scoliosis. The system can measure the posture of the subject through a sensorized T-shirt, which uses an inductive sensor. This article reports the conceptual framework and the description of the first fabricated device. The preliminary experimental results are reported and compared with the results obtained via an optical system that measures the position of markers over the patient's back. The instrumented T-shirt, integrated with an appropriate conditioning and transmission electronics, could be used as a remote support tool and as a feedback system for the identification of the patient's correct posture.
EFFECT OF PUBLIC SPACE ON KNOWLEDGE SHARING

This study investigates the role of the public space in the development of knowledge sharing among the residents of Cyberjaya (science city) Malaysia. Thus, Cyberjaya Malaysia was selected as the study area based on its concept as a technological city that footholds on knowledge sharing towards it knowledge based development. The study adopted validated measuring tools and developed a theoretical framework that link public space utilization with the knowledge sharing determinant factors. Survey questionnaires were administered on the residents in the study area and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to validate the research framework. The finding indicated that public space utilization demonstrated significant influence on knowledge sharing. (Kayode Oloruntoba, Mohd Hisyam Rasidi, Ismail Said. EFFECT OF PUBLIC SPACE ON KNOWLEDGE SHARING. Life Sci J 2013;10(3):721-729). (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com 106
Natural abiotic factors more than anthropogenic perturbation shape the invasion of Eastern Mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki)

Eastern Mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) is an invasive and globally widespread species that is considered highly tolerant. We used species distribution models (SDMs) to assess factors, including the role of anthropogenic perturbation, that mediate its invasion on a regional scale. A better understanding of the important large-scale factors may help us identify future areas of concern and potential avenues for control. We built SDMs from presence records and randomly selected pseudo-absences of mosquitofish on a 10- × 10-km grid. We used 10 modeling techniques implemented in the biomod2 software and ensemble forecasts. Final models contained 12 environmental predictors, including natural environmental factors (elevation, slope, topographic index, precipitation, accumulated flow, temperature mean and range) and anthropogenic perturbation indicators (population density, urban and agricultural land uses, number of local and upstream dams). Elevation, temperature, and accumulated flow most strongly influenced mosquitofish distribution, and mosquitofish were found more frequently in downstream, warmer waters. Anthropogenic features, except the number of upstream dams, were poorer predictors of mosquitofish presence than were natural environmental factors. The best models suggested that mosquitofish are more likely to occur in areas with more dams upstream, but removing this predictor did not strongly affect model results. Restoration efforts or modifications to anthropogenic features appear unlikely to alter mosquitofish distribution patterns, highlighting the importance of preventing introductions to new areas. Mosquitofish have been extensively documented in the Iberian Peninsula, but consensus methods suggest many additional suitable areas from which records were not found. Thus, this highly invasive species is or may become much more widely distributed than current observations in the region.
Mantras and Myths

Critiques about the development in mixed-methods research (MMR) by some of its protagonists mention the following: ignorance of earlier developments, too much focus on designs rather than issues, more a metaphor than a mode of research, the belief in paradigms, and too much focus on methods instead of theoretical and methodological issues. Myths and mantras in the MMR literature are discussed here. For overcoming the limitations of MMR becoming evident in these critiques, myths, and mantras, triangulation is discussed. A revitalization of this concept in recent formulations (triangulation 3.0; systematic triangulation of perspectives) outlines triangulation as a framework of a critical and reflexive MMR.
Mitochondrial dysfunction and Parkinson disease: a Parkin–AMPK alliance in neuroprotection

Although a subject of intense research, the etiology of Parkinson disease (PD) remains poorly understood. However, a wide range of studies conducted over the past few decades have collectively implicated aberrant mitochondrial homeostasis as a key contributor to the development of PD. Particularly strong support for this came from the recent demonstration that parkin, a familial PD‐linked gene, is a critical regulator of mitochondrial quality control. Indeed, Parkin appears to be involved in all stages of the mitochondrial life cycle (i.e., from biogenesis to its exit from the cell (via mitophagy). Interestingly, the role of Parkin in the biogenesis and clearance of mitochondria is akin to that performed by the energy sensor AMP‐activated protein kinase (AMPK), suggesting that the two proteins might act in a functionally converging manner to maintain the quality of cellular mitochondria. In this review, we discuss the contribution of mitochondrial dysfunction to PD pathogenesis and the role of Parkin and AMPK in preserving neuronal mitochondrial homeostasis. Alongside this, we will also articulate our thoughts on the potential alliance between Parkin and AMPK in offering neuroprotection through their ability to maintain energy balance in the brain.
Spatial Distribution of the Particulate Organic Ligand in the South Pacific Ocean Surface Waters

Strong organic ligand in oceanic Particulate Matter (PM), as determined from amount of thorium adsorption onto PM in 0.1 M HCl, was measured for surface waters of mid-latitude region (ca. 32.5°S) in the South Pacific Ocean. The Particulate Organic Ligand (POL) concentrations in surface waters of the South Pacific, ranging from 2.6 to 13.3 nM, showed a longitudinal variation with low concentrations in the South Pacific subtropical gyre (180°-100°W) and high in the eastern South Pacific. The POL concentrations in the South Pacific surface waters increased with increasing nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) and chlorophyll concentration, which means that POL in surface waters is closely related to biological activity in the ocean; the high POL occurs in highly productivity region, whereas the low POL appears in the oligotrophic ocean. This is a first basin-scale measurement of POL in surface waters of the South Pacific. POL is a useful tool for better understanding of biological activity, particle dynamics and trace metal cycling in surface layer, if we have more detail knowledge on chemical and biogeochemical properties of POL, as do factors controlling spatial and temporal variability.
Heart Rate Variability as a Tool for Predicting Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Patients with Obesity

Reduced heart rate variability (HRV) is present in obesity indicating predisposition to chronic degenerative diseases such as cardiovascular. The aim of this study was to assess the weight loss effect after Roux-en-Y gastric by-pass surgery (RYGB) on HRV. We studied thirteen (13) women with grade III obesity in pre and post-operative periods of bariatric surgery. Heart rate was monitored beat-to-beat at rest in the supine position for 30 min analyzing: median R-R interval, standard deviation for normal R-R intervals (SDNN), square root of the mean of the sum of the squares of the successive differences between adjacent normal R-R intervals (RMSSD), the number of pairs of successive normal-tonormal beat intervals that differed by 50 ms pNN50), low frequency (LF) spectral indices (Lmean), ShanEn (Shannon Entropy), Apen (approximate entropy), Sample Entropy (SampEn), short and long-term fractal exponents of the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and SD1/SD2 (standard deviation). Recordings were made by the PolarTM RS800CXTM device. The statistical analysis was obtained by paired Student's t-test (p≤0.05 SPSS 17.0). Patients with obesity in pre-operative period presented reduced values of SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50, LF, SD1, SD2 and Lmean indexes compared with post-operative period (p<0.05). These results suggest that weight loss after RYGB improves HRV and hence, cardiac autonomic modulation. However, whether improvement in autonomic function independently reduces cardiovascular morbidity, mortality warrants additional investigation involving larger samples.
3D printing for soft robotics – a review

Abstract Soft robots have received an increasing attention due to their advantages of high flexibility and safety for human operators but the fabrication is a challenge. Recently, 3D printing has been used as a key technology to fabricate soft robots because of high quality and printing multiple materials at the same time. Functional soft materials are particularly well suited for soft robotics due to a wide range of stimulants and sensitive demonstration of large deformations, high motion complexities and varied multi-functionalities. This review comprises a detailed survey of 3D printing in soft robotics. The development of key 3D printing technologies and new materials along with composites for soft robotic applications is investigated. A brief summary of 3D-printed soft devices suitable for medical to industrial applications is also included. The growing research on both 3D printing and soft robotics needs a summary of the major reported studies and the authors believe that this review article serves the purpose.
Combining Deduplication and Delta Compression to Achieve Low-Overhead Data Reduction on Backup Datasets

Data reduction has become increasingly important in storage systems due to the explosive growth of digital data in the world that has ushered in the big data era. In this paper, we present DARE, a Deduplication-Aware Resemblance detection and Elimination scheme for compressing backup datasets that effectively combines data deduplication and delta compression to achieve high data reduction efficiency at low overhead. The main idea behind DARE is to employ a scheme, call Duplicate-Adjacency based Resemblance Detection (DupAdj), by considering any two data chunks to be similar (i.e., candidates for delta compression) if their respective adjacent data chunks are found to be duplicate in a deduplication system, and then further enhance the resemblance detection efficiency by an improved super-feature approach. Our experimental results based on real-world and synthetic backup datasets show that DARE achieves an additional data reduction by a factor of more than 2 (2X) on top of deduplication with very low overhead while nearly doubling the data restore performance of deduplication-only systems by supplementing delta compression to deduplication.
Working Paper No . E 2008 / 18 Inflation , Investment and Growth : a Banking Approach

Output growth, investment and the real interest rate are all found empirically to be negatively a¤ected by ination. But a seeming puzzle arises of opposite Tobin-like ination e¤ects because theory indicates a negative Tobin e¤ect when investment falls and a positive Tobin e¤ect when the real interest rate rises. We de ne inations Tobin e¤ect more speci cally in terms of the e¤ect on the capital to e¤ective labor ratio and resolve the puzzle by showing the simultaneous occurrence of all three negative ination e¤ects, on growth, investment and real interest rates, in a model calibrated to postwar US data. Here, investment along with consumption are exchanged for within a monetary endogenous growth economy with human capital and a decentralized credit-producing sector. JEL: C23, E44, O16, O42