Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Continuous Deployment for Android Applications

Software development companies need to react quickly to customer requirements due to fast-changing and unpredictable markets. The methodology of continuously deploying software allows companies to shorten the feedback loop and the development cycles. However, there is little empirical data on the adoption of continuous deployment in industry. In order to fill this gap, this study investigates the challenges, risks and the information need to successfully adopt to continuous deployment for mobile applications that lack automated testing. Thus, the objective is find out if the introduction automated acceptance tests can be considered enough for continuously deploying software. An action research was conducted in collaboration with an Android team in a small software development company located in Gothenburg. Few applications were considered but the implementation was done for a small application which is not in active development. The study involved finding a solution for continuous deployment, configuring continuous deployment and implementing acceptance tests. Moreover, processes and tools were introduced to support the adoption of continuous deployment. The application studied was successfully deployed automatically. The developers were confident to continue deploying the application automatically with the implemented automated acceptance tests if automated tests would be added along with new features. However for a bigger, more business critical applications they felt that there was a need for including manual testing in the process. The case company, the team, and the application are small. Further, the application under study is not in active development. Thus, the generalization of the results is limited. The tools and methods introduced increase the productivity of the developers and show that continuous deployment can be implemented successfully by introducing automated acceptance tests in a context as the one the study was performed in.
SOYBEAN SEED COAT CHARACTERISTICS AND ITS QUALITY LOSSES DURING INCUBATOR AGING AND STORAGE

Deterioration of soybean seed quality has been associated with permeable seed coat. The objective of these studies were to (1) determine the role that seed coat characteristics play in soybean seed deterioration during incubator aging and storage, and (2) to relate resistance to incubator aging with resistance to storage. Eight small-seeded soybean genotypes with different characteristics of seed coats were grown in research plots at Agriculture Faculty, Bengkulu University on November 2000. For experiment I, pods were hand harvested at physiological maturity and subjected to incubator aging and non-aging as a control. For experiment II, seeds were hand harvested at R8 maturation and stored for 4 months at a room temperature and 75% RH in Agronomy Laboratory. After treated with aging of pod and ambient storage, each genotype from each replicate was subjected to seed quality evaluation. Incubator aging and ambient storage of soybean seeds lowered seed germination and increased electrolyte conductivity values. Most genotypes with slow imbibition rate of seed coat were resistant to incubator aging and ambient storage and had higher seed quality than those with rapid imbibition of seed coat. Among slow imbiber genotypes, seeds of Merapi and Kalitur were more resistant to aging treatment than B3770 and B-3618. Seed coat permeability, which was inversely related to seed coat lignin content (r = - 0. 96 P<0.001) was correlated with seed germination (r = -0.77 P<0.05) and with electrolyte conductivity (r =0.75 P<0.05). A weak correlation was observed between seed coat permeability with AAG due to extreme seed deterioration of nearly all genotypes during accelerated aging of incubator aged seeds. The black-seeded genotypes were more resistant to aging than yellow-seeded genotypes. Seed coat lignin content was highly correlated with seed germination (r = -0.77 P<0.05) and with electrolyte conductivity (r =0.77 P<0.05). Positive correlations were observed between seed quality indicators following incubator aging and ambient storage. The coefficient correlation between seed germination following incubator aging and seed germination following 4 months of ambient storage was 0.85 (P<0.05) and between elctrical conductivity following incubator aging and electrical conductivity following 4 months of ambient storage was 0.73 (P<0.05). This indicates that most genotypes resistant to incubator aging were also resistant to seed deterioration in storage and vice versa.
Preconditioning of Human Adipose-derived Stromal/Stem Cells: Evaluation of Short-term Preincubation Regimens to Enhance their Regenerative Potential

Objective: Stem cell-based therapy seems to be a promising option to support regeneration after organ failure and tissue injury. The transplantation of MSCs requires cells with a maximum regenerative capacity. Therefore, the research on new strategies to improve the release of regenerative factors of MSCs is urgently needed. Methods: Human adipose-derived stromal/stem cells (ASC) were isolated from lipoaspirates, characterized, and cultured. Cells were either cultured under standard conditions or preconditioned by incubation in a hypoxic environment (0.5% O2) or in normoxia in the presence of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) or recombinant human epidermal growth factor (EGF) for 48 hours. First, seven selected regeneration promoting factors were evaluated by qPCR analysis. Afterwards the secretome of ASCs was estimated using a commercially available protein array for 507 proteins. Results: PCR analysis showed a differential induction of ASCs` gene expression by the three pretreatments. Whereas ASCs in hypoxia showed a significant mRNA induction of VEGF, FGF-7, and IGF-II, the other pretreatments induced no significant change in VEGF expression. The gene expression of HB-EGF and M-CSF was significantly induced in hypoxia and by incubation with TNFα, but not EGF. Angiopoietin-like 1 mRNA was not significantly induced by all three preconditioning regimens. Evaluation by the protein array revealed that from the 507 proteins investigated 21.9% were found to be more than five-fold increased after incubation in hypoxia (111 of 507 proteins). Preincubation with EGF resulted in an upregulation of 32.3% (164/507), whereas TNFα upregulated 28.8% of all proteins evaluated (146/507). Conclusion: The findings indicate that all three preconditioning regimens induced a wide variety of proteins. However, short-term pretreatment with EGF induced the highest quantity of proteins, and, therefore, appears to be the best preconditioning regime for cell therapeutic approaches.
Information technology as a facilitator of suppliers’ collaborative communication, network governance and relationship longevity in supply chains

There is an increasing awareness about the paramount importance of information technology within business in the context of large businesses. However, research about the investigation of the role of information technology resources in fostering collaborative communication, network governance and relationship longevity in the small and medium enterprise sector has remained scant. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the influence of information technology on collaborative communication, network governance and relationship longevity in Zimbabwe’s SME sector. Five research hypotheses were posited and sample data from 162 small and medium enterprise suppliers were collected and used to empirically test the hypotheses. The results of this study showed that information technology resources positively influenced small and medium enterprise suppliers’ collaborative communication, network governance and consequential relationship longevity with their buyers in a significant way. Overall, the current study findings provided tentative support to the proposition that information technology resources, collaborative communication and network governance should be recognised as significant antecedents for improved relationship longevity between suppliers and their buyers in the SME setting. Therefore, managers in the small and medium enterprise sector and small and medium enterprise owners need to pay attention to both collaborative communication and network governance in order to optimise information technology resource impact on their relationship longevity with their business counterparts. Limitations and future research directions were also indicated.
The Enigmatic Impact of Corporate Social Responsibilities on the Economic Performance of Brazilian Companies

The financial implication of the adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices is still an obscure field of study, because studies suggest controversial results. Thus, this research aimed to examine the relationship CSR and economic performance of the companies of corporate sustainability index (ISE) of mercantile and futures exchange of Sao Paulo stock exchange (BM&FBOVESPA). The amount of companies allowing online access to their responses of the ISE questionnaire determined the sample of this research. Thus, for the study period from 2011 to 2012, it has been possible to access the responses of 12 companies, composing the overall sample of this research. The results of the regression analysis allow to statistically assert that for the sample used, environmental performance (EP) contributes to improving economic performance, measured by all financial metrics used: return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), and net profit (NP). Statistically, it is only possible to say that social performance (SP) contributes to improving NP. In terms of market metrics, none of the null hypothesis was rejected, i.e., in any cases, it has been possible to affirm, on a statistical base, that SP and EP contribute to improving the market value (MV) and systematic risk. Thus, it is understood that the stakeholder theory has potential to explain the Brazilian situation regarding the aspects of CSR and financial ones under the accounting and the shareholder theory explains this relation, when viewed with the aid of market measurements.
Sequential Cross-Border Mergers in Models of Oligopoly

Anti-competitive mergers may be held up when outside firms respond pro-competitively. I examine the profitability of cross-border mergers by embedding a class of oligopoly models-where mergers are anti-competitive and actions are strategic substitutes-in a sequential merger game, cast in a two-country setting. I find that cross-border mergers: (i) are held up only when 'international differences' are minimal; (ii) happen in clusters, not in isolation; and (iii) can be interdependent. I illustrate with two standard oligopolies. The 'bumpiness' of the world suggests that the hold-up problem is less pervasive in an open-economy context. Copyright (c) The London School of Economics and Political Science 2008.
An AlgaSORB Column for the Quantitative Sorption of Arsenic(III) from Water Samples

This study examines a new Scytonema-based biosorbent (AlgaSORB-scy) using column chromatography for the biosorption of total inorganic arsenic [As(III) and As(V)] from aquatic samples. The AlgaSORB-scy was prepared by immobilizing a cyanobacterial biofilm (Scytonema-dimethyl-formamide slurry) over a polymer-modified silica gel and then characterized for stability and sorption/elution conditions under dynamic equilibrations followed by differential pulse polarographic detection. The sorbent exhibited a 100% affinity for As(III) in a multi-elemental solution [in the absence of As(V)] at pH 6.9 and a flow rate of 1 mL min -1 giving rise to a preconcentration factor as high as 44-fold. The interference caused by As(V) in the sorption of As(III) on AlgaSORB-scy necessitated the pre-reduction of As(V) into As(III) by sodium sulfite. The biosorbent was found to be suitable for total arsenic enrichment in the form of As(III) species and demonstrated a better endurance with a recyclability of up to 59 cycles of sorption-elution. The polymeric spacer between the cyanobacterial biofilm and the silica gel enabled the biofilm monolayer to be held firmly onto a solid support and be accessible for quantitative arsenic uptake without encountering any problems of interfacial overlapping, re-adsorption, or matrix effects in the drinking water supplied.
Could pension system make us happier?

This paper analyzes the effect of public pension system on lifespan and happiness level using optimal longevity model. This paper found the following. Public pension system can make life expectancy longer, however, the extension of lifespan caused by the public pension, not by own decision, cannot make happiness level higher. Under the government budget constraint, the public pension system cannot make the happiness level higher comparing to private savings. This paper concludes that the compulsory public pension system should be reconsidered because it does not contribute to well-being but raises various problems like aging population and income inequality.
APPROXIMATION OF FELLER PROCESSES BY MARKOV CHAINS WITH LÉVY INCREMENTS

We consider Feller processes whose generators have the test functions as an operator core. In this case, the generator is a pseudo differential operator with negative definite symbol q(x, ξ). If |q(x, ξ)| < c(1 + |ξ|2), the corresponding Feller process can be approximated by Markov chains whose steps are increments of Levy processes. This approximation can easily be used for a simulation of the sample path of a Feller process. Further, we provide conditions in terms of the symbol for the transition operators of the Markov chains to be Feller. This gives rise to a sequence of Feller processes approximating the given Feller process.
Efficacy of rice duck farming on boosting the productivity of rice [Oryza sativa (L.) sub species Japonica] in NEPZ, India

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2016 at three different places i.e., in the blocks A, B and C of SHIATS Model Organic Farm (SMOF), which comes jointly under Department of Agronomy (NAI) and MSCNE, Faculty of Agriculture, SHUATS and two villages named Pahal kapula and Kadiyan, Allahabad (U.P.). The experiment was conducted to study Efficacy of rice duck farming on boosting the grain yield of rice [Oryza sativa (L.) sub species japonica] in NEPZ, INDIA. Effect of two different integration (R1: Rice-Duck system R2: Rice (Control plot), effect of two production system (S1: Organic Production System S2: Conventional Production System) and effect of two different planting method (M1: Machine transplanted M2: Hand transplanted) was laid out in RBD with 8 treatment and 3 replications. The results revealed that there was significant and highest dry weight (14.95 g hill) and harvest index (40.45%) was observed in T3 (RDS + CPS + Machine transplanted) and same treatment recorded higher grain yield (4.00 t ha) through non-significant which was found to be 95% higher compared with the lowest grain yield (2.05 t ha) recorded in treatment T5 (Control + OPS + Machine transplanted).
Adoption of Environmental Management Standards by farmers: An empirical application to ISO 14001

This paper examines empirically what factors contribute to voluntary adoption of the ISO 14001 environmental management system by farmers. The adoption model incorporates the expected profitability of implementing the standard and investigates the impact of prior knowledge on the probability of adopting, by jointly considering two information measures: a “reported information” indicator and an “estimated knowledge” score. A Probit regression is applied to 2000 original survey data on French farmers. The analysis suggests that while the expected profitability of implementing the standard is a significant determinant of adoption intentions, real and perceived prior knowledge plays a strong and potentially counterintuitive role.
RADIUM DISTRIBUTION IN SOILS, ANALYSED WITH SEQUENTIAL EXTRACTION, AND ITS EFFECT ON RADON EMANATION

The radium distribution of the soil is one important parameter governing radon emanation. The present study’s main objective is to investigate radium distribution in different Swedish soils, using chemical selective sequential extraction, and to compare the outcome with the radon emanation of the sampled soil types. Investigated samples were unconsolidated sediments (till, sand and clay) from the Stockholm area. In the developed selective sequential extraction procedure, ammonium chloride and hydrochloric acid were used to extract an exchangeable and an oxide-bound fraction from grain-size separated samples. The soil residues were digested after extractions. Radium-226, uranium, iron, manganese, calcium and barium were analysed from the extractant solutions and the digested samples. Radon emanation was measured on unleached samples. In pedogenic soil phases concentrations of all elements, as well as Rn emanation, increased with decreasing grain size and increasing specific surface area. Radium was very well correlated with Ca and Ba, implicating an association between these elements in the sampled soils. A major portion of the Ra was bound on the surfaces of grains. Radium in oxide bound phase was the primary source of emanating radon, although exchangeable radium was also important. Radium in the oxide bound was very well correlated with iron, which indicates that this Ra was adsorbed to or co-precipitated with iron oxides. However, since iron in soils can be well correlated with organic matter, it can not be ruled out that this Ra was partly associated with organic matter that was leached in the same extraction. Radium bound in the crystal lattice of minerals did not seem to contribute to the radon emanation. The sequential extraction method for characterising radium distribution is promising. With the sequential extraction method, it is possible to identify in which soil phase radium resides, and to gain information about the complicated soil system that controls the emanation of radon.
Examining Text Coherence in Graduate Students of English Argumentative Writing: Case Study

This study aims at examining the writing skills of a group of Indonesian graduate students of English. A particular attention has been focused on the coherence of their production of argumentative texts. Employing a discourse analytical case study, three texts written by three Master’s degree students of the English language education at a local university in Central Java, Indonesia, were analyzed. Coherence and cohesion is inextricable in which both are crucial in academic writing as to achieve a makes-sense text. Therefore, it is an urgent need to look at the writing competency of students as they are at graduate level, majoring in the English language education. The texts produced by the students were scrutinized through the lens of micro- and macro-level coherence (Thornburry, 2005). From this theory, cohesion is involved in micro level coherence. The findings indicate that the students show a bit weakness on achieving coherent texts due to lack of optimization of cohesive devices especially conjunctions to create interconnectedness of the whole sentences in the texts.
Relationship Between Education and GDP Growth: A Bi-variate Causality Analysis for Greece

The aim of the paper is to investigate the long-run and the short-run relationship between human capital and economic growth in Greece over the period 1961-2006. The article uses bi-variate causality analysis, to study dynamics, by employing different methods of estimation. Specifically, the empirical results suggests that there is a positive relationship between education and GDPC and that Tertiary Education should be considered as exogenous variable, which implies that education contributed to economic growth in Greece during the estimation period.
Prelaunch forecasting of new automobiles

This paper develops and applies a prelaunch model and measurement system to the marketing planning of a new automobile. The analysis addresses active search by consumers, dealer visits, word-of-mouth communication, magazine reviews, and production constraints---issues that are important in understanding consumer response to durable goods. We address these issues with a detailed consumer flow model which monitors and projects key consumer transitions in response to marketing actions. A test-vs.-control consumer clinic provides data which, with judgment and previous experience, are used to "calibrate" the model to fit the sales history of the control car. We illustrate how the model evolved to meet management needs and provided suggestions on advertising, dealer training, and consumer incentives. Comparison of the model's predictions to actual sales data suggests reasonable accuracy when an implemented strategy matches the planned strategy.
RECYCLING OF NUTRIENTS WITH APPLICATION OF ORGANIC WASTE IN DEGRADED PASTURE

The utilization of organic wastes represents an alternative to recover degraded pasture. The experiment aimed to assess the changes caused by the provision of different organic waste (poultry litter, turkey litter and pig manure) in a medium-textured Oxisol in Brazilian Savanna under degraded pasture. It was applied different doses of waste compared to the use of mineral fertilizers and organic mineral and evaluated the effect on soil parameters (pH, organic matter, phosphorus and potassium) and leaf of Brachiariadecumbens (crude protein, phosphorus and dry mass production). It was observed that application of organic waste did not increase the level of soil organic matter and pH in the surface layer, and the application of turkey litter caused acidification at depths of 0.20-0.40 m and 0.40-0.60 m. There was an increase in P and K in the soil with the application of poultry litter and swine manure. All organic wastes increased the productivity of dry matter and crude protein and phosphorus. The recycling of nutrients via the application of organic waste allows efficiency of most parameters similar to those observed with the use of mineral sources, contributing to improving the nutritional status of soil-plantsystem.