Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of intangible resources and competitive strategies on the export performance of small and medium sized enterprises

This paper provides an explanation for export process and perceived export performance of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) from Resource-Based View (RBV) which is an important, emerging theory of firm heterogeneity. Following the philosophy of RBV, the author has developed a research model explaining how SMEs improve their Perceived Export Performance (PER) via the integrated application of firms’ Intangible Resources (IR) and Competitive Export Strategies (CES) where both IR and CES are assumed to be most effective means of improving PER. To explore their effects on PER, a mail survey was conducted with 1415 companies from Metal, Textile, Chemical and Furniture industry from Turkey. And 271 responses have been received for further analysis. Regression and Correlation analysis were used to test the hypotheses and to reach the final relationship equation. The results indicated that there is a positive relationship between all IR, CES and PER. We found that combination of IR and CES make more contribution than individual IR and CES on PER. Also our results showed that combination of competitive export strategies makes more contribution than individual strategies on export performance. Additionally, it is found that the effect of IR makes more contribution than CES on PER. In the final model equation the biggest contributions on PER comes from “Export Committed Experience” and “Export Customer Orientation” variables. And the contribution of "Quality Focus" comes out to be nagative in the final equation. This paper has important contributions to the literature as it brings an additional step for the theory development on the export process of SMEs. Additionally it is very helpful for the SMEs which are looking for better export results; they should pay particular attention on developing these intangible resources to reach desired export performance. Also, the results will provide useful hints for government export offices, which are encouraging their SMEs to involve in international business. © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the 10 International Strategic Management Conference
Souvenirs to Forget

In consumer research, the relationship between memory work and forgetting remains largely unexplored, and the “forgetful” role that souvenirs can play in remembering is misunderstood, even denigrated. The present study explores the connections between memory work, forgetting, and material culture. Drawing on contemporary material culture studies, it offers a reflection on the memory practices of New Yorkers in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Based on ethnographic research conducted in New York City, it provides evidence that remembering and forgetting can coexist and interconnect in complex ways. Uncovering the mechanics of forgetting in memory practices with souvenirs, it takes the research on memory and material culture beyond the semiotic analysis of signs and symbols, and shows that souvenirs can play a fundamental role in the process of obliterating and/or compartmentalizing aspects of past experiences. Although it may be true that New Yorkers—especially those who personally experienced 9/11—have no need of souvenirs to remember, many of them have memory practices that involve using souvenirs to forget.
Using Intelligent Agents in e-Learning

In this paper, we emphasize the role of agents in the development of e-learning systems. We make a first step towards a learner's centric approach. We present a Content Preparation and Flexible Delivery System. We show how agents can help in facilitating the design of appropriate educational material and its delivery in a personalized way. The agents monitor the learner's feedback and reactions to the presented learning object in order to ensure that the material with the level of difficulty which suits the learner's ability is presented instead. Experiments were performed on two courses over two terms, where learners employed both the Traditional Teaching Methods and the Content Preparation and Flexible Delivery System. The results showed that, using the proposed, yielded an improvement in average students grades between 8.52% to 11.1% in comparison with the traditional system. Furthermore, we propose that agents can help improve collaboration in the e-learning environment and foster argumentation and dialogue among the learners and/or the tutors.
Real-time video over wireless ad-hoc networks

In this paper we investigate important issue for real-time video over wireless ad-hoc networks on different layers. Many error control methods for this approach use multiple streams and multipath routing. Thus the new proactive, link-state routing protocol have been developed, where the protocol finds the available route in the network and also it will not cause any interruption in the video traffic between the source and the destination. The open source MPEG-4 is also implemented to get the efficient video quality for the picture.
Bayesian Model Comparison Favors Quantum Over Standard Decision Theory Account of Dynamic Inconsistency

Many paradoxical findings in decision-making that have resisted explanations by standard decision theories have accumulated over the past 50 years. Recent advances based on quantum probability theory have successfully accounted for many of these puzzling findings. Critics, however, claim that quantum probability theory is less constrained than standard probability theory, and hence quantum models only fit better because they are more complex than standard decision models. In this article, for the first time, a Bayesian method was used to quantitatively compare the 2 types of decision models, which is a method that evaluates models with respect to accuracy, parsimony, and robustness. A large experiment was used to compare the best-known models of each type, matching in their numbers of parameters, but possibly differing in the complexity of their functional forms. Surprisingly, the Bayesian model comparison overwhelmingly favored the quantum model, indicating that its success is due to its robust ability to make accurate predictions rather than accidental fits afforded by increased complexity.
Large-scale Distributed Dependent Nonparametric Trees

Practical applications of Bayesian nonparametric (BNP) models have been limited, due to their high computational complexity and poor scaling on large data. In this paper, we consider dependent nonparametric trees (DNTs), a powerful infinite model that captures time-evolving hierarchies, and develop a large-scale distributed training system. Our major contributions include: (1) an effective memoized variational inference for DNTs, with a novel birth-merge strategy for exploring the unbounded tree space; (2) a model-parallel scheme for concurrent tree growing/pruning and efficient model alignment, through conflict-free model partitioning and lightweight synchronization; (3) a data-parallel scheme for variational parameter updates that allows distributed processing of massive data. Using 64 cores in 36 hours, our system learns a 10K-node DNT topic model on 8M documents that captures both high-frequency and longtail topics. Our data and model scales are orders-of-magnitude larger than recent results on the hierarchical Dirichlet process, and the near-linear scalability indicates great potential for even bigger problem sizes.
Viral Suppressors of RNA Silencing Hinder Exogenous and Endogenous Small RNA Pathways in Drosophila

Background In plants and insects, RNA interference (RNAi) is the main responder against viruses and shapes the basis of antiviral immunity. Viruses counter this defense by expressing viral suppressors of RNAi (VSRs). While VSRs in Drosophila melanogaster were shown to inhibit RNAi through different modes of action, whether they act on other silencing pathways remained unexplored. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we show that expression of various plant and insect VSRs in transgenic flies does not perturb the Drosophila microRNA (miRNA) pathway; but in contrast, inhibits antiviral RNAi and the RNA silencing response triggered by inverted repeat transcripts, and injection of dsRNA or siRNA. Strikingly, these VSRs also suppressed transposon silencing by endogenous siRNAs (endo-siRNAs). Conclusions/Significance Our findings identify VSRs as tools to unravel small RNA pathways in insects and suggest a cosuppression of antiviral RNAi and endo-siRNA silencing by viruses during fly infections.
Early childhood care and education in Jamaica. Stakeholders’ perceptions of global influences on a local space

ABSTRACT This qualitative study aims to contribute to the dearth of literature pertaining to the impact of globalisation on education in Jamaica. Focussing on the early childhood level, it outlines the perceptions of stakeholders regarding the trajectory of sector development and highlights how they have had to accommodate their practices. Teachers, parents, principals and leaders in the early childhood field were interviewed. Two questions guided the research: (1) What are stakeholders’ perceptions about external factors/entities influence on Jamaica’s early childhood sector? (2) How have stakeholders’ practices been influenced by these external factors/entities? Thematic analysis highlighted diverse perspectives from the participants. Some accepted the involvement on external agencies while others felt this was not in the best interest of the education sector. It is strongly recommended that countries, such as Jamaica, need to consider the support of external entities and the stipulations that come with this support, within a ‘culturally relevant framework’.
Neuroticism Delays Detection of Facial Expressions

The rapid detection of emotional signals from facial expressions is fundamental for human social interaction. The personality factor of neuroticism modulates the processing of various types of emotional facial expressions; however, its effect on the detection of emotional facial expressions remains unclear. In this study, participants with high- and low-neuroticism scores performed a visual search task to detect normal expressions of anger and happiness, and their anti-expressions within a crowd of neutral expressions. Anti-expressions contained an amount of visual changes equivalent to those found in normal expressions compared to neutral expressions, but they were usually recognized as neutral expressions. Subjective emotional ratings in response to each facial expression stimulus were also obtained. Participants with high-neuroticism showed an overall delay in the detection of target facial expressions compared to participants with low-neuroticism. Additionally, the high-neuroticism group showed higher levels of arousal to facial expressions compared to the low-neuroticism group. These data suggest that neuroticism modulates the detection of emotional facial expressions in healthy participants; high levels of neuroticism delay overall detection of facial expressions and enhance emotional arousal in response to facial expressions.
The formation of the double neutron star pulsar J0737 − 3039

We find that the orbital period (2.4 h), eccentricity (0.09), dipole magnetic field strength (6.9 x 10 9 G) and spin period (22 ms) of the new highly relativistic double neutron star system PSR J0737 - 3039 can all be consistently explained if this system originated from a close helium star plus neutron star (HeS-NS) binary in which at the onset of the evolution the helium star had a mass in the range 4.0-6.5 M ○. and an orbital period in the range 0.1-0.2 d. Such systems are the post-common-envelope remnants of wide Be/X-ray binaries (orbital period ∼100 to 1000 d) which consist of a normal hydrogen-rich star with a mass in the range 10-20 M ○. and a neutron star. The close HeS-NS progenitor system went through a phase of mass transfer by Roche-lobe overflow at a high rate lasting a few times 10 4 yr; assuming Eddington-limited disc accretion on to the neutron star, this star was spun up to its present rapid spin rate. At the moment of the second supernova explosion the He star had a mass in the range 2.3-3.3 M ○. , and in order to obtain the present orbital parameters of PSR J0737 - 3039 a kick velocity in the range 70-230 km s -1 must have been imparted to the second neutron star at its birth.
Parallel Operation of Full Power Converters in Permanent-Magnet Direct-Drive Wind Power Generation System

Parallel operation is an effective way to improve the capacity of full power converter in permanent-magnet direct-drive wind power generation system. But it causes the zero-sequence circulating-current (ZSCC), which brings current discrepancy, current waveform distortion, power losses, and electromagnetic interference (EMI), etc. The paper proposes a new topology of full power converters which are composed of n full power converters. The n converters have the same structures and are in parallel with each other. Besides, the average models of the system are analyzed and the fundamental mechanism of ZSCC generation is given. Based on the above analysis, the control strategy of the system is designed. The simulation and experiment results of two parallel full power converters show the feasibility of the proposed theory and control scheme.
Multi-Pulse Pulse-Position-Modulation Signaling for Optical Communication with Direct Detection

Am odification of the traditional pulse-position modulation (PPM) scheme typically employed on the optical direct-detection channel is proposed that allows for significantly improved information throughput and bandwidth advantage. The scheme sends a multitude (K )o fpulses per symbol interval and as such provides a signal constellation whose size, for a given number of pulse slots (M), varies as M K (for large M) rather than linearly with M ,a si sthe case for conventional PPM. Maximu mp erformance improvement is obtained for deep-space optical communications applications, where narrow high-peak-power transmitted pulses offer significant advantages in terms of detection probabilities and background suppression capabilities at the receiver.
Marriage and Advance Consent to Sex: A Feminist Judgment in R v JA

This paper is a feminist judgment in R v JA (Supreme Court of Canada 2011), a spousal sexual assault case involving the issue of whether parties can consent in advance to sexual activity that will occur while they are asleep or unconscious. The Supreme Court’s ruling in JA has generated critique and debate amongst feminist and law and sexuality scholars that pits women's equality and security interests against their affirmative sexual autonomy. Using the methodology of a feminist judgment, I endeavour to analyze whether it is possible to adopt an approach to advance consent that protects or at least balances all of these interests. My particular focus is the spousal context, where courts have often interpreted the sexual assault provisions of the Criminal Code to the detriment of women’s sexual integrity and equality, yet where arguments about affirmative sexual autonomy have also predominated. Taking a harm-based approach to criminality that considers both negative and positive sexual autonomy, the judgment concludes that advance consent should not be considered valid without certain legal safeguards being put into place. Este articulo es una sentencia feminista de R v JA (Tribunal Supremo de Canada 2011), un caso de agresion sexual conyugal que implica la cuestion de si las partes pueden consentir de antemano una actividad sexual que ocurrira mientras estan dormidos o inconscientes. El fallo de la Corte Suprema en JA ha generado criticas y debates entre feministas e investigadores en derecho y sexualidad, que enfrentan los intereses de igualdad y seguridad de la mujer con su autonomia sexual afirmativa. Utilizando la metodologia de un juicio feminista, se intenta analizar si es posible adoptar un enfoque de consentimiento anticipado que proteja, o al menos equilibre, todos estos intereses. El enfoque particular es el contexto conyugal, donde los tribunales han interpretado a menudo las disposiciones sobre el asalto sexual del Codigo Penal en detrimento de la integridad sexual y la igualdad de las mujeres, incluso tambien donde tambien han predominado los argumentos sobre la autonomia sexual positiva. A partir de un acercamiento a la criminalidad basado en el dano, que considera la autonomia sexual negativa y positiva, la sentencia concluye que el consentimiento previo no debe ser considerado valido sin que se pongan en practica ciertas garantias legales. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN : https://ssrn.com/abstract=2891024
A functional, behavioral, and model-based investigation of human visual memory

Author(s): Huffman, Derek | Advisor(s): Stark, Craig EL | Abstract: Our ability to remember the events of our lives relies upon the formation of associations among the “what”, “where”, and “when” components of the event. Decades of research have focused on elucidating the contributions of subregions of the medial temporal lobe to memory for events. The results of this work converged on the notion that it would be fruitful to investigate the representation of information within subregions of the medial temporal lobe. Specifically, there is consensus that the hippocampus sits at the apex of a cortical circuit, which gives it unparalleled access to all aspects of event processing. In contrast, subregions of the adjacent medial temporal lobe cortex—namely, perirhinal and parahippocampal cortex—are hypothesized to be involved in the representation of object (“what”) and contextual (“where”) aspects of events, respectively. Recent studies have suggested that retrosplenial cortex, a region that has been largely absent from memory models, is also necessary for memory for events and that it is functionally related to parahippocampal cortex.In four functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments, we investigated the hypothesis that parahippocampal cortex and retrosplenial cortex are preferentially involved in the representation of contextual information and that perirhinal cortex is preferentially involved in the representation of object information. Overall, the results of our experiments support our hypothesis; however, our results are incompatible with a simple functional dissociation between these regions. Furthermore, our results provide evidence for the influence of low-level stimulus features in the representation of contexual information, suggesting that future research should aim to further investigate invariant context representation.In a behavioral and model-based experiment, we investigated how memory changes as a result of healthy aging. Previous research has suggested that healthy aging is accompanied by an impaired ability to form stimulus-stimulus associations (e.g., “what-where”) with a relative sparing of familiarity for the “what” component of events. An alternative, but not mutually exclusive, hypothesis is that healthy aging is accompanied by an impaired ability to encode stimulus features. Our results support the latter hypothesis, thus providing an alternative framework for the investigation of cognitive aging.
The C-Terminal Domain of Nrf1 Negatively Regulates the Full-Length CNC-bZIP Factor and Its Shorter Isoform LCR-F1/Nrf1β; Both Are Also Inhibited by the Small Dominant-Negative Nrf1γ/δ Isoforms that Down-Regulate ARE-Battery Gene Expression

The C-terminal domain (CTD, aa 686–741) of nuclear factor-erythroid 2 p45-related factor 1 (Nrf1) shares 53% amino acid sequence identity with the equivalent Neh3 domain of Nrf2, a homologous transcription factor. The Neh3 positively regulates Nrf2, but whether the Neh3-like (Neh3L) CTD of Nrf1 has a similar role in regulating Nrf1-target gene expression is unknown. Herein, we report that CTD negatively regulates the full-length Nrf1 (i.e. 120-kDa glycoprotein and 95-kDa deglycoprotein) and its shorter isoform LCR-F1/Nrf1β (55-kDa). Attachment of its CTD-adjoining 112-aa to the C-terminus of Nrf2 yields the chimaeric Nrf2-C112Nrf1 factor with a markedly decreased activity. Live-cell imaging of GFP-CTD reveals that the extra-nuclear portion of the fusion protein is allowed to associate with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane through the amphipathic Neh3L region of Nrf1 and its basic c-tail. Thus removal of either the entire CTD or the essential Neh3L portion within CTD from Nrf1, LCR-F1/Nrf1β and Nrf2-C112Nrf1, results in an increase in their transcriptional ability to regulate antioxidant response element (ARE)-driven reporter genes. Further examinations unravel that two smaller isoforms, 36-kDa Nrf1γ and 25-kDa Nrf1δ, act as dominant-negative inhibitors to compete against Nrf1, LCR-F1/Nrf1β and Nrf2. Relative to Nrf1, LCR-F1/Nrf1β is a weak activator, that is positively regulated by its Asn/Ser/Thr-rich (NST) domain and acidic domain 2 (AD2). Like AD1 of Nrf1, both AD2 and NST domain of LCR-F1/Nrf1β fused within two different chimaeric contexts to yield Gal4D:Nrf1β607 and Nrf1β:C270Nrf2, positively regulate their transactivation activity of cognate Gal4- and Nrf2-target reporter genes. More importantly, differential expression of endogenous ARE-battery genes is attributable to up-regulation by Nrf1 and LCR-F1/Nrf1β and down-regulation by Nrf1γ and Nrf1δ.
Tooth loss and associated factors in patients with coagulopathies in the State of Paraíba, Brazil

Background The most common and best known hereditary coagulopathies are hemophilia A and B followed by von Willebrand Disease. Objective This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of tooth loss and investigate its association with demographic and socioeconomic data, as well as to discuss self-reported oral morbidity and use of health services by patients with coagulopathies treated in blood centers in Paraíba, Brazil. Methods This was a quantitative cross-sectional epidemiological survey. Data was collected in the period from October 2011 to July 2012 by clinical examination and by assessing interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire. The findings were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics with the level of significance (α) being set at 10%. Results One hundred and six, predominantly male (88.8%), patients with coagulopathies were evaluated. The ages ranged from one to 59 years. Most patients were of mixed race (61.3%), most reported family incomes between R$ 501.00 and R$ 1500.00 (49.1%), and most had not completed elementary school (37.1%). Hemophilia A was found in 76.4% of the cases. The prevalence of dental caries among individuals was 50.0% predominantly in the 13- to 19-year-old age range (66.7%). As regards to tooth loss, teeth were missing in 35.1% of the study participants. Conclusion Tooth loss is high in this population. Males with severe hemophilia A, those who use fluoride and have a good or very good perception about their last dental appointment have a reduced chance of losing their teeth.