Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spreading Factor Allocation Method Adaptive to Changing Environments for LoRaWAN Based on Thermodynamical Genetic Algorithm

LoRaWAN has become a major research target in low-power and wide-area (LPWA) communication because of its ease of development and the possibility of building self-managed networks. In LoRaWAN, the data rate of a node can be dynamically controlled by the gateway through changing the spreading factor of nodes, and this control can be performed according to the network conditions. However, it is difficult to immediately grasp the individual states of a large number of nodes, calculate the optimal data rate, and assign the appropriate spreading factor to the nodes due to the low communication speed of LoRaWAN compared to conventional wireless networks. In this paper, we propose a spreading factor allocation method for LoRaWAN that simultaneously improves the data arrival rate and network lifetime by using the thermodynamical genetic algorithm. Through computer simulation, we show that our proposed method assigns an appropriate spreading factor to each node, which achieves a higher data arrival rate and prolongs the network lifetime.
RHODODENDRON MICRANTHUM RmMDH GENE ENCODING MALIC DEHYDROGENASE CONFERS TOLERANCE TO ABIOTIC STRESS IN TRANSGENIC NICOTIANA TABACUM

Malic dehydrogenases (MDHs) have vital functions in the development of plants. In this study, the full-length coding sequence of RmMDH (GenBank ID: JQ412742) was isolated from Rhododendron micranthum Turcz. RmMDH had a 999-bp open reading frame (ORF), which was responsible for encoding a protein that contained 332 amino acid residues, its theoretical isoelectric point was 6.40 and its predicted molecular mass was 35.61 kDa. RmMDH was predicted to localize to the chloroplast. Real-time RT-PCR analyses showed that the transcript levels of RmMDH in Rh. Micranthum differed among tissues (highest levels in the flowers, lowest levels in the roots) and developmental stages (highest transcript levels in flowers at the full-bloom stage, and in leaves in October). RmMDH was introduced into tobacco, and its integration into the genome was confirmed by PCR and Southern blot analyses. Compared with wild-type tobacco, transgenic plants showed smaller leaves, shorter height, lower malondialdehyde contents, and higher proline contents. Transgenic plants showed stronger tolerance to NaCl, NaHCO 3 , polyethylene glycol, and aluminum stresses relative to wild-type tobacco. Our results show that RmMDH dramatically affects plant growth and is involved in abiotic stress resistance. These results lay the foundation for the genetic improvement of Rh. micranthum .
11 Oculomotor and Visuo-Vestibular Function in Parkinson ’ s Disease

In this chapter we will describe how Parkinson ’ s disease (PD) a ﬀ ects patients ’ eye movements, both bedside and laboratory, preceded by brief review of the anatomo-physiological substrate of eye movements. We will provide a practical summary of how to use the eye movement examination to aid the di ﬀ erential diagnosis of the parkinsonian syn-dromes, in particular idiopathic PD from multiple system atrophy (MSA), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and corticobasal syndrome (CBS). A sub-section will describe how deep brain stimulation (DBS) also in ﬂ uences eye movements in PD.
Is there a “euro effect” on trade? New evidence using gravity equations with panel cointegration techniques

In this paper we present new evidence on the effect of the euro on trade. We use a data set containing all bilateral combinations in a panel of 26 OECD countries covering the period 1967-2008. We estimate the equation using two sets of variables: first, one defined as it is standard in the gravity equation literature, and a second one built according to the criticisms stated by Baldwin and Taglioni (2006). Moreover, from a methodological point of view, we implement a new generation of tests that allow solving some of the problems derived from the non-stationary nature of the data (GDP, trade). To this aim we apply panel tests that account for the presence of cross-section dependence as well as discontinuities in the non-stationary panel data. We test for cointegration between the variables using panel cointegration tests, especially the ones proposed by Banerjee and Carrión-i-Silvestre (2010). We also efficiently estimate the long-run relationships using the continously updated estimators proposed in Bai et al. (2009). Our results challenge earlier estimates using standard panel data techniques and are in line with those of Bun and Klaassen (2007). We argue that, after controlling for cross-section dependence and deterministic trends and breaks in trade integration, the euro appears to generate far lower trade effects than predicted in previous studies.
Emergency Physician's Dilemma in Antibiotic Prescribing

Infectious diseases are common presentations in emergency departments. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment are essential to protect the health of the patient, staff and the community. However, diagnosis is not always easy as symptoms and signs can be nonspecific, especially in the elderly. As a result, empirical antibiotic treatment is frequently started in emergency departments before the bacteriological result is available, or even before taking any bacterial culture. This is understandable and necessary if the severity of the condition (e.g. sepsis, meningitis, immunodeficiency) or the contagiousness of the suspected pathogens demands immediate action. Appropriate initial antibiotic therapy has been shown to be an important independent determinant of patient su r v iva l . 3 On the o ther hand , s tud ie s have demonstrated that antibiotics are commonly prescribed for minor 'self-limiting' diseases such as upper respiratory tract infections (URTI). This concurs with the article by Lee in this issue on "antibiotic prescribing for patients with upper respiratory tract infections by emergency physicians in a Singapore tertiary hospital". Although there are some evidence that antibiotics are not effective in relieving symptoms Editorial Hong Kong Journal of Emergency Medicine
Peripheral Nonlymphoid Tissues Memory T Cells Newly Recruited to Cutting Edge: Local Recall Responses by

Infection results in the formation of a circulating effector memory T cell population able to enter peripheral tissues either in the steady state or in response to local-ized infection. As a consequence, recall is thought to re-sult from a phased response first involving those T cells already at the site of infection followed by the infiltration of memory cells from the wider circulation. We have recently reported that tissue-resident T cells can undergo stimulation and proliferation in response to local infection. In this study, we examine the proliferation of memory T cells newly recruited from the circulation. Our results show that although recruitment of circulating memory cells is nonspecific in nature, there is preferential proliferation of specific T cells within infected tissues. Thus, expansion represents a means of local Ag-specific enrichment of T cells recruited from a circulating memory pool of mixed specificities. The Journal of Immunology, 2008, 181: 5837–5841. Local virus-specific proliferation of infiltrating memory T cells
ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF OUTSOURCING ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: A CASE OF VODAFONE GHANA

: The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of outsourcing on the organizational performance of Vodafone Ghana. Both leading (quality of service and knowledge development) and lagging (financial) indicators of performance were selected to obtain a balanced view of the firm. The quantitative approach to research was chosen with a descriptive research design. The research revealed a moderately positive relationship between outsourcing and quality of service. Similar results were obtained between outsourcing and knowledge development. The study however found no significant relationship between outsourcing and financial performance. This paper finally advises the case study organization to take corrective action against undesirable outcomes of the relationship between outsourcing and financial performance, which is key. It also recommends that management –should as a measure to mitigate the risk of outsourcing–, undertake a thorough check on all potential vendors and ensure their expertise and resources are sufficient to deliver customer-centric services. The paper further suggests that Vodafone Ghana should invest considerably in the development of intellectual skills and capabilities of its workforce in order to improve on the positive knowledge development effect outsourcing has on the firm.
Pre-proof Corporate social responsibility , product market perception , and firm value

We examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) is used to signal product quality and whether CSR affects firm value through its positive effect on product market perception. Using a proprietary database, we find that visible CSR, such as environmental and community involvement, positively impacts product market perception, particularly for standardized goods and in competitive industries, and that this impact is more pronounced for product quality attributes. Furthermore, we find that CSR indirectly increases firm value through an improvement in product market perception. We conclude that product market perception is a channel through which CSR creates firm value.
PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION ON PROCESSING TREATMENTS OF CHLOROPLAST-RICH FRACTION (CRF) FROM SWEET POTATO HAULM

Modernization of agro-food sector through the application of innovation and technologies is one of the new directions envisioned from the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry (MOA). This involves food-based plant being grown as a buffer for better profit returns. In every harvest of sweet potato ’s root ( Ipomoea batatas L.), the rest of the plant parts (stems, leaves, and stalks) which is collectively called “haulm” will be leaved behind on the field. Haulm is a potential source of chloroplasts that contain high nutrients and phytochemicals. In the present study, proximate analysis, water activity and colour analysis of chloroplast-rich fraction (CRF) from sweet potato haulm treated with conventional pasteurisation (CP), steam pasteurisation (SP) and water blanching (WB) were performed. The different treatments on sweet potato haulm significantly affect the crude fat and ash content in the CRF with values ranged between 1.99-3.86% and 12.82-13.67%, respectively. There was no significant difference measured in water activity for all treated CRF. Total colour difference between CRF from CP and SP was the lowest ( ΔE 2.88) while total colour difference between CRF from CP and WB, and CRF from SP and WB were higher with values of ΔE 8.93 and 7.31, respectively. Hence, the colour difference was easily distinguish with naked eye for CRF from WB compared to CRF from CP and SP. This study offers a sustainable source of nutrients, and alternative usage of agriculture waste in the circular economy by upcycling the essential nutrients in the haulm. conventional pasteurisation (CP), steam pasteurisation (SP) and water blanching (WB) of dried CRF. Colour analysis showed significant difference in dried CRF treated with WB compared to SP and CP samples. Further study on determination of antioxidant activity, bioaccessibility of the dried CRF must be conducted. This agriculture solid waste can be a potential source of essential nutrients which can be utilised as an alternative ingredients in the food/feed industries.
: Neural Surface Description for Camera Pose Refinement

In the previous experiments, we showed FQN-based direct alignment results when the initial camera pose is far away from the ground truth query pose (wide-baseline). While this setup exhibits the power of Feature Query Networks for camera pose refinement, it is a significantly harder camera pose initialization to recover from and thus makes comparison to state-of-the-art localization methods difficult. In this section, we report results for small-baseline direct alignment on Cambridge Landmarks [5]. To do so, we first perform hierarchical localization (similar to HLoc [9]) on the top-50 nearest neighbours, and estimate the initial camera pose using PnP+RANSAC as done in Sec. 5.3. Then, we perform both standard and FQNbased direct alignment, and report the results in Tab. 1. We report the performance of other state-of-the-art methods including ActiveSearch [12], HLoc [9] (which uses SuperPoint [3] keypoints and matches them with SuperGlue [10]), DSAC* [1], HACNet [6], SANet [14] and PixLoc [11]. DSAC* results are from the RGB+3D setting. The train and test folds are identical for all methods in our experiments. Note that PixLoc is also a direct alignment method which uses learned scene-agnostic features tailored for camera pose refinement. Overall we find that in a small-baseline setting, the FQNbased direct alignment brings consistent improvements over standard direct alignment when trained on MobileNetv2 [8],
ZooNova Occasional Papers in Zoology THE REAL WORLD STRUCTURE OF BIODIVERSITY ILLUSTRATED BY THE BIOGEOGRAPHY AND SYSTEMATICS OF SOME PLANTS, LIZARDS, BIRDS, AND DRAGONFLIES

Examples are drawn from regional animal and plant distributions to show how distributions of taxa are spatially correlated with tectonic structures of the Earth. Spatial correlations of distributions with Earth's tectonics are illustrated for the Jurassic Lebombo-Mwenetzi monocline, the plate boundary between Indo-Australia and the Pacific, and the East Pacific Rise. These examples illustrate how biodiversity has a coherent spatial and phylogenetic structure that is not confined to the biological composition of organisms alone. This tectonic relationship is evidence for the global structure of biodiversity being directly derived from the geography of ancestral distributions in the Mesozoic, and shows how some distributional boundaries have remained geographically stable for tens of millions of years. The spatial and tectonic correlations show that biodiversity is phylogeny and biogeography that, together with their correlation with global tectonics, makes biodiversity an empirical evolutionary reality.
How Do Minimum Wages Affect Wage Rigidity? Evidence from French Micro Data  

We document new empirical findings on the effects of minimum wages on wage rigidity using quarterly micro wage data matched with sectoral minimum wages. We first estimate a micro empirical model of wage rigidity taking into account minimum wage dynamics. We then use a simulation method to investigate implications of lumpy micro wage adjustment for aggregate wages. Both national and sectoral minimum wages have a large effect on the timing and on the size of wage adjustments. At the aggregate level, minimum wages contribute to amplify, by a factor of 1.7, the response of wages to past inflation. Ignoring minimum wages leads to underestimate the speed of aggregate wage adjustment by about one year. The elasticities of wages with respect to past inflation, the national minimum wage and sectoral minimum wages are respectively 0.42, 0.17 and 0.16. Finally, there are significant spillover effects of the national minimum wage on higher wages transiting through sectoral minimum wages. JEL codes: E24, E52, J31, J50
Interpreting Ground Deformation and Microgravity Changes in the Travale-Radicondoli Geothermal Field (Italy)

Since 1973, when industrial exploitation of the Travale-Radicondoli geothermal field started, ground vertical movements have been monitored by means of precise topographic levelling. Up-to-date methods have also been applied (EDM, and GPS). The elevation changes, detected so far are rather modest and show a regular temporal trend, so that it is possible to make a precise determination and interpretation of the subsidence that has occurred. Right in the small central area of the field, which has been the most productive for many years, the maximum subsidence rate exceeds 1 cm per year. This can be interpreted as the result of pressure depletion related to poorly connected reservoirs located at different depths. These reservoirs have different rates of pressure stabilisation depending on their exploitation history. Since 1979, micro-gravity changes have also been monitored by a network of permanent bases that coincide with selected topographic benchmarks used for subsidence monitoring. The gravity changes, corrected for elevation change effects, are very small and show flat trends. This allows us to make some interesting evaluations in terms of mass balance and is encouraging as regards the sustainability of geothermal production in time. The on-going monitoring results indicate that the effects on the environment are negligible,
PSYCHO-SPATIAL OF URBAN TRANSFORMATION: THE CASE OF AYAZMA - BEZIRGANBAHCE IN ISTANBUL

Throughout history, urban space has undergone significant changes. From urban space to housing, the urban transformation has revealed important effects. In recent years, the issue of urban transformation has been frequently discussed with its social, psychological and economic aspects. In this study, it is aimed to examine the psycho-spatial reflections of urban transformation on the user. Houses designed for users who are placed in different regions as a result of large-scale transformations are designed by ignoring the intangible needs and habits of the user. As a result, users experience the problem of adaptation to the places they are placed in. In this case, two different attitudes are exhibited. Users try to continue to maintain their old habits in spite of the changing space, or they intervene in the space to make the space fit for their habits. In this sense, the experiences of Ayazma and Bezirganbahce Houses are examined and user opinions are evaluated through qualitative research. In this context, semi-structured interviews are conducted with the participants (n=8) that resident in Bezirganbahce Houses to measure the satisfaction. This method enables the asking of additional questions with which the subject could be deeply analyzed depending on the course of the interview. The results obtained were analyzed by thematic analysis method. Results basicly show that residents try to pursue their cultural habits through changing the primary or given functions of the spaces they are settled in. Urban transformation may lead to socio-psychological problems. The pace of urban transformation and failure to take into account the user culture and needs resulted in psycho-spatial processes not to function properly. It is important to examine the cultural and individual needs of the users in the large-scale urban interventions to be carried out in the next years and to take into account the findings of the investigations conducted in the implementation phase.
Pacific whiteleg shrimp ( Litopenaeus vannamei ) behaviour, oxygen consumption and sediment oxygen demand at different sediment redox potential

Understanding the shrimp behaviour, shrimp oxygen consumption, and sediment oxygen demand in a culture tank could contribute to the improvement of Litopenaeus vannamei culture. The objective of the study was to evaluate the influence of sediment redox potential on the white shrimp behaviour. Shrimp with an average body weight of 7.27 ± 1.20 g were distributed in tanks containing substrate at different redox potential (+100, -106, and -210 mV). Subsequently, the vertical distribution of the shrimp was observed directly at 1 h intervals. We found that the sediment redox potential did not affect the behaviour of the shrimp and the percentage of shrimp that stayed on the bottom ranged from 72 to 81%. Shrimp oxygen consumption (OC) rate was 0.33±0.06 g O 2 kg -1 h -1 . The levels of sediment oxygen demand (SOD) in the treatment tanks were 7.78±1.67 mg O 2 m -2 h -1 , 12.22±0.96 mg O 2 m -2 h -1 and 27.22±0.96 mg O 2 m -2 h -1 for the RP+100 mV, RP-106 mV and RP-210 mV, respectively.
The Role of Anthropomorphic Visual Cues in Human Interactions with Conversational Agents

With the increase of anthropomorphic conversational agents across several domains, research on the effects of anthropo-morphism in conversational agents is also on the rise. However, prior studies present conﬂicting results and little is currently understood about how anthropomorphism can inﬂu-ence end user perception of conversational agents. This work-in-progress paper attempts to contribute towards ﬁlling this gap by analysing whether anthropomorphic visual cues used in conversational agents have an effect on the trust and satisfaction of users. We carried out a between-subjects experiment to this end, where the use of emojis and a proﬁle image of four different levels of anthropomorphism were manipulated in a conversational agent based on Telegram. A total of 120 participants had a conversation with the agent and re-ported their experience. Based on our ﬁndings, we conclude that individual visual cues as well as a combination of them did not have any signiﬁcant effects on the trust and satisfaction of users, and discuss future directions of research.
Research Online Research Online Parents' inferences about other parents' motives for food choices for Parents' inferences about other parents' motives for food choices for children: a pilot study children: a pilot study

Abstract The traditional approach to improving children’s diets has been to educate parents about the importance of healthy food choices. However, it is recognized that knowledge does not necessarily lead to improved food choices. This study used an indirect measure to investigate the underlying reasons for parents’ decisions about their children’s diets. We found a significant difference in parents’ perceptions of a hypothetical mother on items that related directly to food choices. It appears from these results that parents do indeed make value judgments about the food choices that mothers make for their children. Our results suggest that indirect question techniques, such as those used in these studies, may be useful in determining the underlying reasons for parents’ food choices for their children. Abstract The traditional approach to improving children’s diets has been to educate parents about the importance of healthy food choices. However, it is recognized that knowledge does not necessarily lead to improved food choices. This study used an indirect measure to investigate the underlying reasons for parents’ decisions about their children’s diets. We found a significant difference in parents’ perceptions of a hypothetical mother on items that related directly to food choices. It appears from these results that parents do indeed make value judgments about the food choices that mothers make for their children. Our results suggest that indirect question techniques, such as those used in these studies, may be useful in determining the underlying reasons for parents’ food choices for their children.