Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Innovation practice and its performance implications in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector: a resource‐based view

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector make a significant contribution to economic growth, yet most of the research into innovation management in the manufacturing sector has focused on large organizations. This article, however, identifies innovation drivers and their performance implications in manufacturing SMEs. Its study gathered survey data from a sample of 600 Australian SMEs and found that SMEs are similar to large firms with respect to the way that innovation strategy and formal structure are the key drivers of their performance, but do not appear to utilize innovation culture in a strategic and structured manner. This study therefore concludes that SMEs' performance is likely to improve as they increase the degree to which they mirror large manufacturing firms with respect to formal strategy and structure, and to which they recognize that innovation culture and strategy are closely aligned throughout the innovation process. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Study of the growth of ultrathin films of NiO on Cu(111)

We have studied the early stages of growth of the layers formed by Ni evaporation in an oxygen atmosphere at room temperature on a Cu(111) single crystal. The layers have been analysed by XPS and x-ray absorption spectroscopy as a function of the deposition time. A background analysis of the XPS spectra has also been performed. We have found a Stranski-Krastanov way of growth, i.e. the formation of a metallic Ni monolayer followed by the formation of defective NiO islands. Further deposition leads to the formation of stoichiometric NiO.
Validation of CA-Markov for Simulation of Land Use and Cover Change in the Langat Basin, Malaysia

Validity of CA-Markov in land use and cover change simulation was investigated at the Langat Basin, Selangor, Malaysia. CA-Markov validation was performed using validation metrics, allocation disagreement, quantity disagreement, and figure of merit in a three-dimensional space. The figure of merit, quantity error, and allocation error for total landscape simulation using the 1990-1997 calibration data were 5.62%, 3.53%, and 6.13%, respectively. CA-Markov showed a poor performance for land use and cover change simulation due to uncertainties in the source data, the model, and future land use and cover change processes in the study area.
Interleukin-6 blockade raises LDL via reduced catabolism rather than via increased synthesis: a cytokine-specific mechanism for cholesterol changes in rheumatoid arthritis

Objectives Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have reduced serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), which increases following therapeutic IL-6 blockade. We aimed to define the metabolic pathways underlying these lipid changes. Methods In the KALIBRA study, lipoprotein kinetic studies were performed on 11 patients with severe active RA at baseline and following three intravenous infusions of the IL-6R blocker tocilizumab. The primary outcome measure was the fractional catabolic rate (FCR) of LDL. Results Serum total cholesterol (4.8 vs 5.7 mmol/L, p=0.003), LDL-c (2.9 vs 3.4 mmol/L, p=0.014) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (1.23 vs 1.52 mmol/L, p=0.006) increased following tocilizumab therapy. The LDL FCR fell from a state of hypercatabolism to a value approximating that of the normal population (0.53 vs 0.27 pools/day, p=0.006). Changes in FCR correlated tightly with changes in serum LDL-c and C-reactive protein but not Clinical Disease Activity Index. Conclusions Patients with RA have low serum LDL-c due to hypercatabolism of LDL particles. IL-6 blockade normalises this catabolism in a manner associating with the acute phase response (and thus hepatic IL-6 signalling) but not with RA disease activity as measured clinically. We demonstrate that IL-6 is one of the key drivers of inflammation-driven dyslipidaemia.
Maximum Gain of a Lossy Antenna

An upper bound on the achievable gain of a lossy antenna is derived. This limit depends on the antenna size and a newly defined “loss merit factor,” which is shown to be a measure of the antenna material loss. The derived limit extends the well-known upper limit on the ratio of antenna directivity to its quality factor to the lossy antennas. Optimal antenna current distribution for the maximum gain is found, and the radiation pattern and antenna efficiency are also presented.
Population dynamics of the invasive fish, Gambusia affinis, in irrigation impoundments in the Sundays River Valley, Eastern Cape, South Africa

The alien invasive Gambusia affinis is one of the most widely introduced fish species on the planet, and has established in freshwater ecosystems across South Africa. The invasion ecology and, in particular, the population dynamics of the species in this country are, however, poorly understood. In this study the relative abundance and population dynamics of G. affinis were quantified in 5 interconnected irrigation impoundments within the Sundays River Valley, Eastern Cape. Four fish surveys were conducted from early summer (February 2012) to early winter (June 2012). Repeated-measures ANOVA analyses on the catch per unit effort (CPUE) of G. affinis between sampling events and dams revealed significant differences in population dynamics among dams, although an overall trend of rapid increase followed by plateau in summer, with a rapid decline in winter was seen in most dams. A general linear model assessing the role of biotic and abiotic factors on G. affinis CPUE found that water temperature and the presence of the native fish Glossogobius callidus had significant effects on the CPUE of G. affinis. While winter drops in temperature are likely to have caused mortality in G. affinis populations, and may act as the primary regulator of G. affinis establishment success in South African impoundments, the negative effect of G. callidus densities on G. affinis suggests competitive or predator-prey interactions with the native species. Keywords: Mosquitofish, population growth rate, invasive success, establishment
The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference: A Postmortem

This short piece analyzes the background and content of the Copenhagen Accord on climate change, which was agreed to last December by leaders of roughly 25 countries, including all of the world's major economies. Although the Copenhagen Accord is a political rather than a legal instrument and has been criticized by some as inadequate or worse, it represents a potentially significant breakthrough. On one side, developed countries agreed to put significant new funds on the table for climate change mitigation and adaptation, both for the short and medium terms, and committed to implement national economy-wide emissions targets for the post -2012 period, which will be internationally listed. On the other side, developing countries agreed for the first time to reflect their national mitigation actions in an international instrument and to subject their actions to some form of international review. The failure of the conference as a whole to adopt the Accord leaves its future uncertain. But if the participating states actually carry through on what they negotiated in Copenhagen, the "bottom up" architecture of the Accord could help encourage and reinforce national actions. In any event, as the most that world leaders could accept through direct negotiations under an intense international spotlight, the Copenhagen Accord may well represent the high-water mark of the climate change regime for some time to come.
Case Study of Tertiary Students‟ Experiences Using Edmodo in Language Learning

The past decade has seen the rapid development of technology in online learning. Its development has led many researchers to investigate the use of Web 2.0, where learning is present not only in the four-walls of the classroom. This paper, therefore, reports on students‟ experiences using a Web 2.0 tool, namely Edmodo. In particular, the study aims at identifying their perceptions of using the platform in language learning and their views on the possibility of using it to supplement face-to-face discussions in English language classes. The study involved 24 samples who undergone focus group interview as the method of collecting data. In general, results of the study revealed mixed reviews, where some students agreed with the use of Edmodo while others expressed negative opinions towards its use. In addition, two broad themes emerged from analysis of the data. These findings have significant implications in that the teacher, in the first place, needs to be equipped with the knowledge of using the platform to benefit the students. Nevertheless, this research extends our knowledge for the understanding of how to integrate Web 2.0 technologies in language classes.
Compact broadband amplified spontaneous emission in Tm^3+-doped tungsten tellurite glass double-cladding single-mode fiber

We reported the ~2 μm amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) performance of highly Tm3+-doped (3.76 × 1020 ions/cm3) tungsten tellurite single-mode fibers. The double-cladding fiber was pumped by a commercial 792 nm laser diode without any reflectors. Broadband ASE spectra with the bandwidth (FWHM) varying from ~45 nm to ~140 nm were achieved in a fiber length of 34 cm. The maximum output power was ~34 mW, with a slope efficiency of 4.8%. The ASE beam quality factor (M2) was 1.8. The dependence of output power, ASE mean wavelength, and bandwidth on the launched pump power and fiber length were discussed in detail.
Investment and Inequality in Africa: Which Financial Channels are Good for the Poor?

This paper examines how domestic, foreign, private and public investments affect income-inequality through financial intermediary dynamics. With the exception of financial allocation efficiency, financial channels of depth and activity are good for the poor as they diminish estimated household income-inequality. Financial size does not have a significant income-redistributive effect. Financial efficiency has a disequalizing effect, implying policies designed to improve the allocation of mobilized funds only benefit the rich to the detriment of the poor. The use of financial and investment dimensions previously missing in the literature provide new insights into the finance-inequality nexus. Policy implications are discussed.
Heritability estimation in high dimensional sparse linear mixed models

Motivated by applications in genetic fields, we propose to estimate the heritability in high-dimensional sparse linear mixed models. The heritability determines how the variance is shared between the different random components of a linear mixed model. The main novelty of our approach is to consider that the random effects can be sparse, that is may contain null components, but we do not know either their proportion or their positions. The estimator that we consider is strongly inspired by the one proposed by Pirinen, Donnelly and Spencer (2013), and is based on a maximum likelihood approach. We also study the theoretical properties of our estimator, namely we establish that our estimator of the heritability is root n-consistent when both the number of observations n and the number of random effects N tend to infinity under mild assumptions. We also prove that our estimator of the heritability satisfies a central limit theorem which gives as a byproduct a confidence interval for the heritability. Some Monte-Carlo experiments are also conducted in order to show the finite sample performances of our estimator.
Global P wave tomography of Earth's lowermost mantle from partition modeling

Determining the scale‐length, magnitude, and distribution of heterogeneity in the lowermost mantle is crucial to understanding whole mantle dynamics, and yet it remains a much debated and ongoing challenge in geophysics. Common shortcomings of current seismically derived lowermost mantle models are incomplete raypath coverage, arbitrary model parameterization, inaccurate uncertainty estimates, and an ad hoc definition of the misfit function in the optimization framework. In response, we present a new approach to global tomography. Apart from improving the existing raypath coverage using only high‐quality cross‐correlated waveforms, the problem is addressed within a Bayesian framework where explicit regularization of model parameters is not required. We obtain high‐resolution images, complete with uncertainty estimates, of the lowermost mantle P wave velocity structure using a hand‐picked data set of PKPab‐df, PKPbc‐df, and PcP‐P differential travel times. Most importantly, our results demonstrate that the root mean square of the P wave velocity variations in the lowermost mantle is approximately 0.87%, which is 3 times larger than previous global‐scale estimates.
Deposited in DRO : 09 February 2016 Version of attached le : Accepted Version Peer-review status of attached le : Peer-reviewed Citation for published item :

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Mutual Illumination Correction for Compositing and Material Editing

This work introduces a new approach to material editing and to mutual illumination correction in edited or composited scenes. Lambertian reflectance values from a static reference set are transfered across a dynamic sequence using non-parametric statistics. Both original and edited reflectance values are transfered from the reference set. Dividing out the original reflectance from the dynamic sequence gives an illumination-shading map. This illumination-shading map is corrected for the changes in mutual illumination caused by the material edit and composite before being combined with the edited reflectance values giving the material edited and mutual illumination corrected result. The correction is made by splitting the illumination-shading map into direct and mutual illumination components and replacing the mutual illumination component. Results show that given reflectance values for a surface mutual illumination can be detected and modified giving a greater degree of photorealism to composites and material edits.
Prevalence of Ixodid Ticks on Bovine in Soddo Zuria Districts, Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia

The study was conducted from November, 2013 to March, 2014 in Soddo zuria woreda, Wolaita zone, with objective of identifying major ixodidae species and determining their prevalence. Adult ticks were collected from seven main body regions of 638 cattle which were under extensive management system. Out of the total of 638 cattle examined, 418 (65.5%) were found to be infested by one or more tick species. About 3261 adult ticks were collected from the animal body parts and identified to genera and species level. Five tick species of three genera (Amblyomma, Rhipicephalus (formerly Boophilus) and Rhipicephalus) were identified. The relative prevalence of each species was Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) decolaratus (41%), Amblyomma variegatum (23%), Rhipicephalus evertsi-evertsi (16.99%), A. cohaerence (14.01%) and A. lepidium (5%). The risk factor like age, breed and body condition of cattle showed significant association with the infestation rate but there was no association with sex of the cattle. The prevalence of tick infestation in poor body condition (70.2%), medium body condition (63.6%) and good body condition (51%) was found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05) among the three groups of body conditions. The prevalence of tick infestation was found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05) among the three breeds, with highest prevalence local breeds (71%) than both cross (55.2%) and exotic breeds (59%). The result indicated that the favorable predilection sites of Amblyomma species are more on ventral body and perineum. R. (B.) decolaratus preferred dewlap, udder/scrotum, belly, leg/tail, head and perineum. R. eversti-evertsi had a strong predilection sites for perineum, dewlap, udder/scrotum and ears. The sex ratio of all tick species identified during this study periods was skewed towards male except for R. (B.) decolaratus).
Potential mechanism for response of El Niño-Southern Oscillation variability to change in land surface energy budget

[1] El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability was found to be sensitive to the land surface energy budget from a comparison of two integrations of the coupled general circulation model of Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, a control simulation in which global soil wetness in the three layers is predicted, and a sensitivity experiment in which deep soil moisture is specified. In contrast to the control experiment, in which the net land surface energy flux is zero, the sensitivity experiment leads to land becoming a unphysical and unexpected net energy sink. However, the comparison points toward a physically realizable mechanism by which ENSO can be influenced by changes in land surface properties. The net energy sink causes cooling tropical land surface. The cooling over tropical land is connected with the mean state changes of the coupled system, including a shift in the land/sea partitioning of precipitation toward the oceans, a more westerly wind stress over the tropical Pacific, and a more El Nino-like mean state of the tropical Pacific with a weaker east-west temperature contrast. Meanwhile, sea surface temperature (SST) variance decreases in the central and eastern tropical Pacific, and the ENSO becomes less energetic. A series of diagnostic simulations using an intermediate coupled model tests the impact of the simulated mean state and atmospheric noise changes on the ENSO variability. It is demonstrated that the mean state change plays a key role in determining the ENSO variance change. The mean state change in the sensitivity experiment causes a reduction in the sensitivity of ENSO SST variability to surface wind stress, and is consistent with a decrease in ENSO SST variance.
Successful treatment with ibrutinib of intractable thrombocytopenia associated with recurrent chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by lymphocytosis with mild progression, although some CLL patients develop fatal cytopenia. This report describes a 69-year-old Japanese man with CD8 CD19 CLL presenting with severe thrombocytopenia. Because he showed extreme resistance to various conventional regimens, we administered a novel agent, ibrutinib. Besides a striking reduction in CLL cells, thrombocytes rapidly recovered within 1 to 2 weeks after treatment. This report suggests that ibrutinib may be clinically useful for such patients. Additionally, as CD8 is rarely expressed in BCLL cells, it is crucial to accumulate such cases for further evaluations.
Prandial insulin: is inhaled enough?

The low proportion of patients achieving glycemic targets is well documented for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Postprandial glucose levels are often not monitored but contribute significantly to total glycemic burden. Prandial rapid‐acting insulin analogues were introduced to address some of these problems but still do not provide a physiologic insulin replacement. Inhaled prandial insulins have been developed to free patients from multiple mealtime injections and make intensive insulin regimens more acceptable. Several inhaled formulations of prandial insulin are in development but differ significantly with respect to inhaler characteristics and pharmacokinetic profiles. This brief review summarizes the properties of the new prandial inhaled insulins and discusses how postprandial glycemic control is dependent not only on the insulin dose, but also on the pharmacokinetic characteristics of insulin delivery. There is no antihyperglycemic agent with a glucose‐lowering effect superior to that of insulin; new prandial products that improve coordination between insulin availability and meal absorption and are more acceptable to patients may increase the proportion of diabetic patients achieving and maintaining glycemic targets. Drug Dev Res 69:138–142, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Birth Order and the Academic and Social Success of College Students

The purpose of the study of Birth Order and the Academic and Social Success of College Students was to examine the relationship between birth order and the academic and social experiences that students have during their college years. An ideal college experience involves students being actively engaged in what they are learning and having positive social interactions and support networks. Unfortunately, the college experiences of many students fall short of these expectations and they struggle to continue their pursuit of higher education. Depression has become a serious concern on college campuses. Understanding the birth orders that may create challenges in achieving academic or social success could reduce the number of college students having negative college experiences. This study utilized an anonymous and voluntary survey where Syracuse University students were asked to evaluate their own personalities and college experiences as well as answer demographic questions such as age, gender, order of birth in family, and the genders and order of birth for their siblings. This study broke birth order down into two components: sibling role and gender role. Sibling role was defined as the role a person assumes as an older sibling, a younger sibling, neither, or both. Gender role was defined as the role a person assumes as a brother or sister in relation to other siblings, if any. Both sibling role and gender role were explored to determine if they influenced academic and social success. The results of the survey were statistically analyzed using SPSS to determine how birth order may affect academic and social success in college. There were 505 responses to the survey from undergraduate students at Syracuse University. It was found that only-borns and middle-borns who have the same gender as all of their siblings held the lowest scores for academic and social success. It was also found that these two populations were least likely to view their birth orders favorably. These findings were then used to discuss potential challenges facing these college students and to explore how social workers can use this study about birth order to address these problems. Knowledge and understanding of birth order and its effects may help social workers address unmet needs or disadvantages that children may be experiencing as a result of their sibling and gender roles. Having a better understanding of the relationship between birth order and academic and social success can help social workers address unmet needs of children in order to give them the tools to enjoy positive college experiences.