Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
WSN Based Thermal Modeling: A New Indoor Energy Efficient Solution

Abstract In this paper, we proposed to use the Efficient Indoor Thermal Time Constant (EITTC) to characterize the indoor thermal response in old buildings. Accordingly, a low cost, energy-efficient, wide-applicable indoor thermal modeling solution is developed by combining Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Experiments on both prototype and building room showed consistent results that the combination of WSN and ANN can provide accurate indoor thermal models. A linear approximation of these models makes it possible to estimate the EITTC of building room. Statistical computations confirmed these estimations by showing a strong correlation between the model’s predicted EITTC and measured data. Thus the indoor thermal response under different indoor/outdoor conditions can be characterized. Finally, a model based adaptive heating Start/Shut control method is proposed and tested, with which, direct energy saving is achieved.
Exposure to online hate material and social trust among Finnish youth

Purpose – Trust is one of the key elements in social interaction; however, few studies have analyzed how the proliferation of new information and communication technologies influences trust. The authors examine how exposure to hate material in the internet correlates with Finnish youths’ particularized and generalized trust toward people who have varying significance in different contexts of life. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to provide new information about current online culture and its potentially negative characteristics. Design/methodology/approach – Using data collected in the spring of 2013 among Finnish Facebook users (n=723) ages 15-18, the authors measure the participants’ trust in their family, close friends, other acquaintances, work or school colleagues, neighbors, people in general, as well as people only met online. Findings – Witnessing negative images and writings reduces both particularized and generalized trust. The negative effect is greater for particularized trust than general.
Risk aversion and brand loyalty: the mediating role of brand trust and brand affect

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the customer's risk aversion and its relationship with brand loyalty and to test empirically whether this relationship is mediated by brand trust and brand affect.Design/methodology/approach – A randomly selected sample of Austrian mobile phone users was drawn. Their risk aversion, two forms of loyalty (attitudinal and repurchase loyalty), brand trust and brand affect have been measured with existing and tested scales. The hypothesized model has been tested using PLS (Partial least squares). Findings – Customer's risk aversion is significantly related to the two forms of loyalty (attitudinal loyalty and brand loyalty). When brand affect and brand trust are introduced into the model, the previously highly significant relationship between domain‐specific risk aversion and attitudinal loyalty becomes insignificant and the risk aversion‐repurchase relationship becomes much weaker, while risk aversion strongly influences brand trust and .
Evaluation of drug release kinetics and physico-chemical characteristics of metronidazole floating beads based on calcium silicate and gas-forming agents

In the present investigation metronidazole-loaded alginate beads consisting of calcium silicate as a porous carrier or NaHCO3 as a gas-forming agent were prepared for local eradication of Helicobacter Pylori. Gelation method was used for preparation of conventional sodium alginate beads. Drug entrapment efficiency, drug loading, floating properties, drug release, crystallinity and release kinetic as well as morphology of the prepared beads were assessed. The silicate based beads showed slower release pattern, compared to the gas-forming beads due to network structure strengthening effect of the calcium silicate. Furthermore, the gas-forming-based beads had shorter initial buoyancy lag time, owing to the fact that the NaHCO3 produced larger pores than those of silicate treated ones. Drug entrapment efficiency ranged between 61.7 and 93.1% for the prepared formulations. The maximum value of drug loading for gas-forming and silicate-based beads were 66.64% and 34.97%, respectively. Kinetically, release pattern of metronidazole in simulated gastric fluid from the beads fitted best to Reciprocal powered time, Weibull and log-probability models with the respect overall mean percentage error values of 4.50, 5.30 and 7.76. By and large, these systems can float in the gastric condition and control the drug release from the beads.
Evaluating the Wisdom of Strangers: The Perceived Credibility of Online Consumer Reviews on Yelp

This study examined the effects of review valence, the reviewer profile, and the receiver's familiarity with the platform (user/nonuser) on the perceived credibility of a review on Yelp.com and on the receiver's attitude toward the reviewed object. The results demonstrated a difference in cue-taking between users and nonusers. For users, there was an interaction effect of 2 profile cues (number of friends and number of reviews) on competence. Users interpreted the cues in combination, whereas non-users were not influenced by them. The friends? ×? reviews? ×? platform familiarity interaction indirectly affected attitude through competence. Further, review valence was positively associated with perceived credibility and attitude. The findings support and extend the social information processing theory and cue combination literature.
Asymmetric knowledge transfer in R&D alliances

This study examines the influence of firm and partnership characteristics on asymmetric knowledge transfer in R&D alliances ? the situation of imbalanced interorganizational learning in interfirm partnerships. Past literature on interfirm learning has either discussed cumulative knowledge flows in alliances, while ignoring their potential uneven distribution, or considered factors improving knowledge inflows while overlooking their effects on outflows. Yet, we argue that alliance partners are more concerned about the ratio of knowledge inflows to outflows. Perceiving an R&D alliance as a simultaneous collaboration and learning competition, managers aim to maximize inflows while minimizing outflows. We argue that differences in firm characteristics, technological resources, and alliance experience between two alliance partners influence one? s capability to learn more from its partner firm than vice versa. In addition, these effects will be stronger if an alliance involves the creation of a joint venture. We test our hypotheses on a dataset of 989 R&D alliances formed by North-American manufacturing firms between 1985 and 2000. The results indicate that a higher technological diversity and more slack resources increase net learning benefits while a larger relative firm size has an opposite effect. However, this effect reverses when an alliance is structured as a joint venture.
THE SERVICES QUALITY LEVEL ASSESSESMENT IN THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY WITH SERVQUAL METHOD APPLYING

Contemporary universities services quality level concerns mainly the education efficiency evaluation that results from the learning outcomes realization and innovative features of the teaching programs that differ universities offers. Technical universities attention is focused on ministerial requirements fulfillment which are strictly concentrated on the students skills obtaining in the relation to the employers’ market. The university services quality analysis ignores common expectations of students and candidates for students related to the technical or functional quality, such as university facilities and administrative workers empathy. The aim of this study is to identify the expectations of both students and candidates for studies at technical universities, what allows to identify university services quality level and areas needs improvement in terms of not only the educational services but also technical university facilities. Results show significant importance of the all examined service quality aspects in the context of expectations of candidates and students’ perception. Research findings allow not only to identify the technical university services quality, but also to support the university development within the scientific research process assistance.
Effectiveness of Internal Control Systems of Listed Firms in Ghana

Purpose – This study examines the effectiveness of internal control systems of listed firms in Ghana. The recent (especially international) financial reporting scandals have caused regulators to place a lot of attention on internal control systems as a mechanism that could help improve the quality of financial reporting. Design/methodology/approach – The study examined annual reports of a sample of 33 firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. In measuring the level of internal control effectiveness, 23 items relating to internal control categorised under control environment, information and communication, risk assessment, control activities and monitoring were operationalised and the effectiveness score was determined based on the items. Findings – Overall internal control system showed an average level of effectiveness in this study, which implied an overall low level of effectiveness. Of the five categories assessed under internal control system, control environment showed a higher level of effectiveness. Originality/value – The study makes a contribution to the academic research activities relating to internal controls in Ghana. Limitations – Inherent in the measurement process is an element of estimation error as a result of the use of subjective judgement for some items operationalised in assessing internal control effectiveness.
Buyer-Seller Negotiations around the Pacific Rim: Differences in Fundamental Exchange Processes

The determinants of buyer-seller negotiations in four cultures are investigated in a laboratory simulation. One hundred thirty-eight American, 54 Chinese, 42 Japanese, and 38 Korean business people participated in a two-person, buyer-seller, intracultural negotiation simulation. In negotiations between Americans, the use of more problem-solving bargaining strategies positively influenced negotiation outcomes. In negotiations between Chinese, more competitive strategies led to better results. In Japanese and Korean negotiations, buyers achieved higher economic rewards than sellers. In all four cultures, bargainers were more satisfied with negotiation outcomes when partners were rated more attractive.
Standard Operating Procedures for Standalone Hotels

Indian hospitality industry is a major service sector in India which includes tourism, food service and hotels. It is also the fastest growing industry not only in India but also in the world. The hotel industry is a mature industry marked by intense competition owing to its growing demand. Under this backdrop the stand alone hotels has to sustain and grow amidst of big hotel chains both nationally and internationally. Hence the standalone hotels has to follow a standard set of processes which ensures quality system as it provides the employees of the hotel the required information to do the job properly, and facilitate in maintaining the quality consistently and also assure integrity of the end result or service in order to compete and survive in the market. These standards may be set by developing and implementing a well written Standard Operating Procedures for all the hotel operations. Thus the paper tries to bring out a well developed Standard Operating Procedures which help the standalone hotels to maintain quality and accuracy in their operations which stands as the backbone of the hotels in mainstreaming their services and increase guest experience.
Formation of xanthine and the use of purine metabolites as a nitrogen source in Arabidopsis plants

In our recent paper in Plant J1, we described the remobilization of purine metabolites during natural and dark induced senescence in wild type and Atxdh1 mutant lines impaired in xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH), a pivotal enzyme in the purine catabolism pathway. In the light of these observations and additional evidence shown here, we discuss the probable pathways leading to xanthine synthesis in Arabidopsis plants during senescence and the role that purine metabolites play as an ongoing source of nitrogen in plant growth. Addendum to: Brychkova G, Alikulov Z, Fluhr R, Sagi M. A critical role for ureides in dark and senescence-induced purine remobilization is unmasked in the Atxdh1 Arabidopsis mutant. Plant J 2008; 54:496–509.
The international search for ethics norms: which consumer behaviors do consumers consider (un)acceptable?

Purpose – Businesses cannot rely on their customers to always do the right thing. To help researchers and service providers better understand the dark (and light) side of customer behavior, this study aims to aggregate and investigate perceptions of consumer ethics from young consumers on five continents. The study seeks to present a profile of consumer behavioral norms, how ethical inclinations have evolved over time, and country differences.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from ten countries across five continents between 1997 and 2007. A self‐administered questionnaire containing 14 consumer scenarios asked respondents to rate acceptability of questionable consumer actions.Findings – Overall, consumers found four of the 14 questionable consumer actions acceptable. Illegal activities were mostly viewed as unethical, while some legal actions that were against company policy were viewed less harshly. Differences across continents emerged, with Europeans being the least critical, while Asi.
Marketing health‐enhancing foods: implications from the dairy sector

Purpose – To assess the potential for development in the agri‐food sector by investigating: consumer awareness of health‐enhancing foods; key influences on their perceptions of and attitudes towards these foods; their relevant purchasing behaviour in the context of the Northern Irish dairy products market. To develop recommendations for future segmentation and positioning strategies for health‐enhancing dairy foods.Design/methodology/approach – Northern Ireland is a geographically discrete area of the United Kingdom, which relies heavily on the agri‐food industry in general, and the dairy sector in particular. A consumer questionnaire was adapted from previous studies. After two pilot studies with 30 and 50 consumers, 600 were administered face‐to‐face to a quota sample of male and female shoppers in six key supermarkets across Northern Ireland. Results were collated and analysed by SPSS. Descriptive parametric and non‐parametric statistics re‐reported in findings.Findings – There is potential for the agr.
Examining retail on shelf availability: promotional impact and a call for research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an investigation into the causes of promotional on‐shelf‐availability (on‐shelf‐availability) shortfalls in retailing.Design/methodology/approach – The research follows a multiple‐case study research design involving seven major retailers and four multinational food manufacturers operating in the UK. The data collection took the form of semi‐structured interviews with 110 practitioners across 24 sites. Observations and documentation were used as supporting evidence.Findings – Improving promotional on‐shelf‐availability presents retailers and manufacturers with a complex set of inter‐connected problems distributed across the supply chain. This research identified 32 causes affecting on‐shelf‐availability, grouped into eight themes, six of which are generic (forecasting, collaboration, replenishment, IT, distribution and production), and two which are specific to promotions (timescales and promotional process). This classification provides practitioners with.
A Convolutional Neural Network-Based 3D Semantic Labeling Method for ALS Point Clouds

3D semantic labeling is a fundamental task in airborne laser scanning (ALS) point clouds processing. The complexity of observed scenes and the irregularity of point distributions make this task quite challenging. Existing methods rely on a large number of features for the LiDAR points and the interaction of neighboring points, but cannot exploit the potential of them. In this paper, a convolutional neural network (CNN) based method that extracts the high-level representation of features is used. A point-based feature image-generation method is proposed that transforms the 3D neighborhood features of a point into a 2D image. First, for each point in the ALS data, the local geometric features, global geometric features and full-waveform features of its neighboring points within a window are extracted and transformed into an image. Then, the feature images are treated as the input of a CNN model for a 3D semantic labeling task. Finally, to allow performance comparisons with existing approaches, we evaluate our framework on the publicly available datasets provided by the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Working Groups II/4 (ISPRS WG II/4) benchmark tests on 3D labeling. The experiment results achieve 82.3% overall accuracy, which is the best among all considered methods.
Predicting Corporate Governance Ratings

In this paper we use six governance variables to predict the ISS’s indexes values. Using a sample of 392 UK companies, the results indicate that governance variables can predict the ISS’s governance rates with a higher degree of accuracy and significance. This suggests that corporate governance indexes actually measure what they claim to measure: corporate governance. Moreover, these results suggest that corporate governance indexes’ values are predictable in an out of sample context. So, those wishing to invest in companies with “good” corporate governance can do so by using our ordered probit model applied on observable proxies for corporate governance.
Phosphatidylinositol 4-Kinase III Beta Is Essential for Replication of Human Rhinovirus and Its Inhibition Causes a Lethal Phenotype In Vivo

ABSTRACT Human rhinovirus (HRV) is the predominant cause of the common cold, but more importantly, infection may have serious repercussions in asthmatics and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) patients. A cell-based antiviral screen against HRV was performed with a subset of our proprietary compound collection, and an aminothiazole series with pan-HRV species and enteroviral activity was identified. The series was found to act at the level of replication in the HRV infectious cycle. In vitro selection and sequencing of aminothiazole series-resistant HRV variants revealed a single-nucleotide mutation leading to the amino acid change I42V in the essential HRV 3A protein. This same mutation has been previously implicated in resistance to enviroxime, a former clinical-stage antipicornavirus agent. Enviroxime-like compounds have recently been shown to target the lipid kinase phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase III beta (PI4KIIIβ). A good correlation between PI4KIIIβ activity and HRV antiviral potency was found when analyzing the data over 80 compounds of the aminothiazole series, covering a 750-fold potency range. The mechanism of action through PI4KIIIβ inhibition was further demonstrated by small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown of PI4KB, which reduced HRV replication and also increased the potency of the PI4KIIIβ inhibitors. Inhibitors from two different structural classes with promising pharmacokinetic profiles and with very good selectivity for PI4KIIIβ were used to dissociate compound-related toxicity from target-related toxicity. Mortality was seen in all dosing groups of mice treated with either compound, therefore suggesting that short-term inhibition of PI4KIIIβ is deleterious.
The incidence of ABO, Kell and Rh system blood groups in general population of Qazvin, Iran

Introduction: ABO antigens and the glycoproteins constituting the blood groups such as Kell and Rh systems are the mostly focused blood groups in transfusion medicine. Their importance is tightly associated with the presence of natural isoantibodies, their protein structure, and immunogenicity. The aim of our study was to assess the distribution of major Rh and Kell antigens and the most probable genotype in a normal population of Qazvin city, Iran. Materials and methods: This study was done on 1000 healthy people who were candidates for getting driver’s license. The blood samples were tested for Kell, ABO and major Rh antigens by standard tube agglutination method. Results: Out of 1000 samples studied, the prevalence of RhD was 86.6%. The incidence of other Rh antigens i.e. C, E, c and e was 73%, 29.8%, 72.1%, and 95.9% respectively. The most common phenotype in the samples was DCce and the least one was shown to be CcEe. Kell antigen frequency was 8.2%. On the other hand, 91.8% of people were indicated to be negative for the Kell antigen. Conclusion: Taken together, the amount of the individuals negative for the Kell and Rh system are adequate to provide new policies for identification of these antigens for both blood donors and recipients.
THE EFFECT OF MAGNESIUM SULFATE IN TREATMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL OLEANDER (NERIUM OLEANDER) POISONING IN SHEEP

The purpose of this study was evaluation of magnesium sulfate effect in treatment of acute oleander intoxication in sheep. Eleven young native sheep randomly divided into 2 groups, 6 sheep being allocated to the treatment group and 5 served as controls. Sheep of both groups were dosed with a lethal dose of 110mg/kg body weight of dried oleander leaves. In sheep of treatment group, following development of ventricular arrhythmias, magnesium sulfate was slowly administered intravenously with dose rate of 100mg/kg body weight. Clinical signs of toxicosis were developed within 30 -40 minutes after dosing of the plant. Serial electrocardiography revealed various abnormalities and arrhythmias of cardiac rhythm in sheep of control group. Animals of control group died within 4.5 to 12 hours (median 8.5 hours) after receiving the toxic material. Administration of magnesium sulfate in sheep of treatment group suppressed ventricular arrhythmias to benign ones or normal sinus rhythm but its effect was transient and persisted for 3 to 3.5 hours. Second injection of magnesium had same effect but there was no considerable therapeutic effect after third injection of the drug. Sheep of treatment group died within 18 to 34 hours (median 24.5 hours) after receiving the oleander. Statistical analysis revealed a highly significant difference in survival time between the control and the treatment groups (p<0.004). The results suggested that magnesium sulfate can be used as a complementary therapeutic agent for treatment of acute oleander toxicosis in farm animals.