Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A system dynamics approach for assessing SMEs' competitiveness

The analysis of the interconnectedness between resources and capabilities, and the way businesses use them as competitive weapons is a central element of the strategic management literature. Finding the appropriate configuration of competitive pillars is particularly relevant for resource-constrained small businesses. Drawing on the resource-based view and the configuration theory, this study evaluates the effect of both competitiveness and the configuration of the competitiveness system on performance. ,An index methodology based on the configuration theory was used to compute the competitiveness index on a unique sample of 625 Hungarian small- and medium-sized firms. The study hypotheses were tested via regression analysis. ,Results show that the impact of competitiveness-enhancing strategies is conditional on the configuration of the system of competencies. Low-competitive businesses benefit more from investments in the weakest competitive pillar, while strategies oriented to improve more than one competitive pillar yield higher competitiveness improvements among high-competitive businesses. Our findings also indicate that competitiveness positively impacts performance, and that the exploitation of competitive strengths leads to superior results among high-competitive businesses. ,By employing an index methodology, our analysis contributes to unveil how competitiveness impact business performance. The proposed analysis has value for scholars and strategy makers by showing how the configuration of the business' competitive system—in terms of competitive strengths and weaknesses—conditions the generally positive impact of competitiveness enhancing actions linked to the acquisition or development of resources and capabilities.
Innate immunity in Arabidopsis: molecular mechanisms of hopA1 and avrRps4- specific disease resistance signaling pathways

Plants have evolved several layers of predetermined defenses, collectively called the innate immune system. Because of its effectiveness effector-triggered immunity (ETI) is a highly valuable agronomic trait. However, ETI has the potential to be highly deleterious to the host and needs to be tightly controlled. To understand the molecular basis for ETI, I used genetic approaches. Using a loss of resistance screen, I cloned the hopA1-specific RPS6 (Resistance to Pseudomonas syringae 6) resistance gene which is a member of TIR (TollInterleukin-1 Receptor)-NBS (Nucleotide Binding Site)-LRR (Leucine-Rich Repeat) class of resistance proteins. Using a gain of resistance screen, we cloned SRFR1 (Suppressor of RPS4-RLD), which reactivates avrRps4and hopA1-triggered immunity and encodes a pioneer TPR (Tetratricopeptide Repeat) protein conserved between plants and animals. Based on the genetic, molecular, biochemical, and phylogenic evidence, we propose that SRFR1 functions in a transcriptional repressor complex that balances plant immunity and
Genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in tetraploid species of cotton

Twelve G. hirsutum genotypes and 14 G. barbadense genotypes were studied for genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance for seed cotton yield, halo length, ginning outturn, lint index, seed index, bolls per plant and boll weight. In G. hirsutum cotton, LRA 5166 and TKH 4–3 were superior for seed cotton yield, MCU 5, MCU 9 and MCU 11 were superior for halo length and RKR 4145 and HLS 321729 were superior for ginning outtum. In G. barbadense cotton, BCS 9–95 and TCB 87-6 were superior for seed cotton yield; IMS 0721, IMS 2722 and Suvin were superior for halo length and TCB 87-6, BCS 23-18-7 and RBS 85 were superior for ginning outturn. These genotypes could be exploited by inter-varietal hybridization within the species (pedigree breeding) for evolving a superior variety or by interspecies hybridization hetween the species (heterosis breeding) for developing a superior interspecific hybrid combining high yield and good fibre quality.
Induced mutational studies in M1 generation of pigeon pea

Effect of EMS and SA and gamma rays on seeds of two pigeonpea varieties Amol (BDN-708) and Vaishali (BSMR- 853) was studied. The different parameters studied in M1 generation were seed germination percentage, seedling height, chlorophyll deficient sectors, leaf morphological changes, pollen sterility and survival of plants at maturity. The different types of chlorophyll chimeras observed were yellow, light green, yellowish green and dull green. All these chimeras were found to be affecting the leaflets totally, partially and at the margins. The maximum pollen sterility (10.87%) was observed at 0.020% SA in variety BSMR 853. The survival of plants at maturity showed a gradual decrease with increasing concentration/dose of mutagenic treatments.
A Power-law Preconditioning Approach for Accelerating the Convergence Rate of Steady and Unsteady Incompressible Turbulent Flows

In the present study, for the first time, the locally power-law preconditioning method for analyzing steady and unsteady incompressible turbulent flows around airfoils in high Reynolds numbers is utilized. In this method, the governing equations are modified by altering the time derivatives terms. The governing equations are discretized by the numerical method derived from the cell-centered Jameson’s finite volume algorithm. In addition, for solving the unsteady flows, an implicit dual-time procedure and for simulating the turbulent flows, Baldwin and Lomax algebraic model have been employed. The computations are presented for steady and unsteady turbulent flows around NACA0012 and ONERA-A airfoils at various angles of attack and Reynolds number. Results presented in the paper focus on the velocity, pressure and eddy viscosity profiles, distribution of pressure coefficient, lift and drag coefficients and the effect of the power-law preconditioning method on the convergence rate. The numerical solution indicates an acceptable accuracy with the aid of the power-law preconditioning method in both steady and unsteady turbulent flows for high Reynolds numbers. Moreover, using the power-law preconditioning method improves the convergence speed significantly and reduces the iteration number of solution steps and central processing unit time simultaneously in both steady and unsteady flows. Review History: Received: 27 July 2017 Revised: 5 November 2017 Accepted: 28 November 2017 Available Online: 2 December 2017
RegionSparse: Leveraging Sparse Coding and Object Localization to Counter Adversarial Attacks

Although deep neural networks have demonstrated exceptional performance in substantial computer vision tasks, they can be easily confused by carefully generated adversarial examples. Via a novel technique we call activation visualization, the particular characteristics of adversarial examples are analyzed in this paper. Observing that the dominant features of adversarial examples are distributed over a high-dimensional space, we propose a defense framework named RegionSparse that projects the images into a low-dimensional space to remove the influence of the adversarial perturbations on the performance of deep neural networks. In RegionSparse, after training a robust global dictionary, the region where pixels are highly related to classification is firstly located by an object localization mechanism, then the sparse coding is performed on the located object region, together with a perturbation suppression for the remaining region. Extensive experiments on ImageNet dataset for gray-box, black-box, and transferred attacks are performed and the results show that RegionSparse can eliminate up to 90% attacks delivered by strong attacks including Momentum Iterative Fast Gradient Sign Method and Carlini-Wagner’s L2 attack.
Thermal, structural, and mechanical effects of nanofibrillated cellulose in polylactic acid filaments for additive manufacturing

As the additive manufacturing process gains worldwide importance, the need for bio-based materials, especially for in-home polymeric use, also increases. This work aims to develop a composite of polylactic acid (PLA) and nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) as a sustainable approach to reinforce the currently commercially available PLA. The studied materials were composites with 5 and 10% NFC that were blended and extruded. Mechanical, structural, and thermal characterization was made before its use for 3D printing. It was found that the inclusion of 10% NFC increased the modulus of elasticity in the filaments from 2.92 to 3.36 GPa. However, a small decrease in tensile strength was observed from 55.7 to 50.8 MPa, which was possibly due to the formation of NFC aggregates in the matrix. This work shows the potential of using PLA mixed with NFC for additive manufacturing.
Influence of ABO Blood Group on Fibrinogen Levels and Platelet Count in Apparently Healthy Nigerian Subjects

Citation: Okeke CO, Iloka VC (2020) Influence of ABO Blood Group on Fibrinogen Levels and Platelet Count in Apparently Healthy Nigerian Subjects. Int J Blood Res Disord 7:054. doi.org/10.23937/24695696/1410054 Accepted: July 23, 2020: Published: July 25, 2020 Copyright: © 2020 Okeke CO, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Equilibrium and optimal urban systems with heterogeneous land ∗ – Working title ( work in progress ) –

Not all land is equally attractive to develop cities. We modify the canonical urban model to allow for heterogeneous production amenities and a continuum of sites. We find, first, that there are decreasing returns to the system of cities and to individual cities at the optimal allocation. This differs markedly from the canonical model with homogeneous land where cities have the efficient scale and there are constant returns to the system of cities. Second, heterogeneity in developable land prevents land developers from achieving the first best allocation because land heterogeneity relaxes competition forces. Finally, a particularly harmful form of nimby-ism arises in the equilibrium with local governments.
Heart rate fragmentation gives novel insights into non-autonomic mechanisms governing beat-to-beat control of the heart’s rhythm

Objectives To demonstrate how heart rate fragmentation gives novel insights into non-autonomic mechanisms of beat-to-beat variability in cycle length, and predicts survival of cardiology clinic patients, over and above traditional clinical risk factors and measures of heart rate variability. Approach: We studied 2893 patients seen by cardiologists with clinical data including 24-hour Holter monitoring. Novel measures of heart rate fragmentation alongside canonical time and frequency domain measures of heart rate variability, as well as an existing local dynamics score were calculated. A proportional hazards model was utilized to relate the results to survival. Main results: The novel heart rate fragmentation measures were validated and characterized with respect to the effects of age, ectopy and atrial fibrillation. Correlations between parameters were determined. Critically, heart rate fragmentation results could not be accounted for by undersampling respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Increased heart rate fragmentation was associated with poorer survival (p ≪ 0.01 in the univariate model). In multivariable analyses, increased heart rate fragmentation and more abnormal local dynamics (p 0.045), along with increased clinical risk factors (age (p ≪ 0.01), tobacco use (p ≪ 0.01) and history of heart failure (p 0.019)) and lower low- to high-frequency ratio (p 0.022) were all independent predictors of 2-year mortality. Significance: Analysis of continuous ECG data with heart rate fragmentation indices yields information regarding non-autonomic control of beat-to-beat variability in cycle length that is independent of and additive to established parameters for investigating heart rate variability, and predicts mortality in concert with measures of local dynamics, frequency content of heart rate, and clinical risk factors.
Integrating allelopathy, plant population and use of herbicides for weed control of six rice genotypes

Two field experiments were carried out in the experimental farm of Rice Research and only achieved the lowest values in weeds fresh and dry weights (g.m -2 ) but also recorded the high yield and its attribute in the two seasons. Transplanting spaces varied in biomass, the closer space recorded the significantly lower weed character which subsequent gave higher grain yield. The full dose of penoxsulam 24%sc (35 ml.fed -1 ) ranked as the best weed control treatment in reducing all weed characters and increasing rice yield followed by herbicidal application at half dose as compared to weedy check that recorded the highest weeds traits and the lowest rice yield
Predicting Recurrence in Endometrial Cancer Based on a Combination of Classical Parameters and Immunohistochemical Markers

Objective The aim of this study was to establish a nomogram to predict the recurrence of endometrial cancer (EC) by immunohistochemical markers and clinicopathological parameters and to evaluate the discriminative power of this model. Methods The data of 473 patients with stages I–III endometrial cancer who had received primary surgical treatment between October 2013 and May 2018 were randomly split into two sets: a training cohort and a validation cohort at a predefined ratio of 7:3. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis of screening prognostic factors were performed in the training cohort (n=332) to develop a nomogram model for EC-recurrence prediction, which was further evaluated in the validation cohort (n=141). Results Univariate analysis found that FIGO stage, histological type, histological grade, myometrial invasion, cervical stromal invasion, postoperative adjuvant treatment, and four immunohistochemical markers (Ki67, ER, PR, and p53) were associated with recurrence in EC. Multivariate analysis showed that FIGO stage, histological type, ER, and p53 were superior parameters to generate the nomogram model for recurrence prediction in EC. Recurrence-free survival was better predicted by the proposed nomogram, with a C-index value of 0.79 (95% CI 0.66–0.92) in the validation cohort. Conclusion This nomogram model involving immunohistochemical markers can better predict recurrence in FIGO stages I–III EC.
Online Experimentation during COVID-19 Secondary School Closures: Teaching Methods and Student Perceptions

The COVID-19 lockout situation affected people all over the world. Despite all of the disadvantages, this situation offered new experiences and perspectives and pushed education advances forward as never before. Something that seemed to be unreal became a worldwide reality within a few days. Instructors of all subjects at all educational levels moved to a virtual environment instantly. Higher education institutions, universities, and colleges seemed to be fairly prepared for this situation. Unfortunately, primary and secondary schools, especially in eastern and central Europe, never considered distance education as a valuable alternative before, so they did not have software, hardware, and staff prepared for such a situation. Moreover, students’ expectations and dilemmas concerning e-learning were not investigated earlier in the context of obligatory subject education. Moving to the virtual environment was particularly challenging for teachers, who wanted to transfer real class experiences into online lessons since chemistry is based on problems, observations, evidence, and experiments. Often, teachers claimed that they could be more efficient if they had knowledge, skills, and proper equipment to run classes online. This paper presents experiences of secondary chemistry teachers from Slovakia, participants in the IT Academy Project, who earlier, within the framework of the project, were equipped with the necessary skills and tools to run virtual classes, supported with data logging experiments. In this communication, the teachers’ efforts using online experimental practices are described, as well as reflections by their students about the experiences.
Multimorbidity and mortality in Ontario, Canada: A population-based retrospective cohort study

Objective: To examine the relationship between multimorbidity and mortality, and whether relationship varied by material deprivation/rural location and by age. Methods: Retrospective population-based cohort study conducted using 2013–14 data from previously created cohort of Ontario, Canada residents classified according to whether or not they had multimorbidity, defined as having 3+ of 17 chronic conditions. Adjusted rate ratios were calculated to compare mortality rates for those with and without multimorbidity, comparing rates by material deprivation/rural location, and by age group. Results: There were 13,581,191 people in the cohort ages 0 to 105 years; 15.2% had multimorbidity. Median length of observation was 365 days. Adjusted mortality rate ratios did not vary by material deprivation/rural location; overall adjusted mortality rate ratio was 2.41 (95% CI 2.37–2.45). Adjusted mortality rate ratios varied by age with ratios decreasing as age increased. Overall rate ratio was 14.7 (95% CI 14.48–14.91). Children (0–17 years) had highest ratio, 40.06 (95% CI 26.21–61.22). Youngest adult age group (18–24 years) had rate ratio of 9.96 (95% CI 7.18–13.84); oldest age group (80+ years) had rate ratio of 1.97 (95% CI 1.94–2.04). Conclusion: Compared to people without multimorbidity, multimorbidity conferred higher risk of death in this study at all age groups. Risk was greater in early and middle adulthood than in older ages. Results reinforce the fact multimorbidity is not just a problem of aging, and multimorbidity leads not only to poorer health and higher health care utilization, but also to a higher risk of death at a younger age.
Potato Yield and Tuber Quality Did Not Respond to Phosphorus Fertilization of Soils Testing High in Phosphorus Content

Phosphorus (P) fertilization studies were conducted on four commercial farms and at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Hastings Research and Education Center in Hastings. All sites were in the potato (Solanum tuberosum) production area of northeastern Florida. Preplant Mehlich-1 soil test P was very low at one commercial site and very high at the other four sites. The yield of marketable size A tubers, the desired tuber category, did not respond to P fertilization from 0 to 66 lb/acre (74.0 kg·ha–1) of P at any site. The average yield across all sites was 324 cwt/acre [16.2 ton/acre (36.3 t·ha–1)]. Leaf-P concentration at midseason did not respond to P fertilization. Leaf-P concentration averaged 0.38%, which was sufficient for potato. Potato tuber specific gravity averaged 1.075 and responded slightly to P fertilization only at one site.
Assessing the Immunomodulatory Activity of Ethanol Extract of Sambucus javanica Berries and Leaves in Chloramphenicol-Induced Aplastic Anemia Mouse Model

Aplastic anemia, life-threatened disease, is a hematologic disorder characterised by bone marrow hypoplasia. Multiple modalities such as bone marrow transplantation and immunosuppression treatment have been proposed to ameliorate this entity, however it remains ineffective. Sambucus, a group of herb plants, possesses a broad spectrum of medicinal properties such as antioxidant, insulin-like activity, anticancer and antiviral. However, the study about its activity toward aplastic anemia incidence is based on limited data. Thus, the research aim of this study was to evaluate the immunomodulatory activities of Sambucus javanica in chloramphenicol-induced anemia aplastic mouse model. In this present study, BALB/c mice were administrated with chloramphenicol (CMP) to induce aplastic anemia then followed by S. javanica extracts treatment. Additionally, cellular and molecular aspects were evaluated by flow cytometry and Hematoxylin-Eosin staining. Further analysis showed that S. javanica extracts could promote the population number of regulatory T-cells and naive cytotoxic T-cells. Moreover, those extract also reduced the inflammation and necrotic incidence in CMP-induced mouse aplastic anemia model. Together, these results suggest that S. javanica has therapeutically effect to aplastic anemia by altering the immune system as an immunomodulatory agent.
Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma: progress, treatment and expectations

Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma (PSC) is a unique, highly invasive pulmonary malignancy with a poor prognosis, representing 0.1–0.4% of all malignant lung tumors. Because of its highly aggressive character and propensity for frequent metastasis, PSC shows low response rates to traditional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and neoadjuvant therapy. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in gene sequencing, targeted therapies, and immunotherapies. One of the most promising treatment approaches is the selection of mono-targeted or multi-targeted drugs according to tumor gene-mutation sites, such as epidermal growth factor receptor or vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (EGFR/VEGFR2), anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), and others. Another approach is the activation of therapeutic anti-tumor immunity via pathways including programmed cell-death protein-1/programmed cell-death ligand-1 (PD-1/PD-L1), which has been used in individual cases. In this review, we will introduce the clinicopathologic features, molecular typing, and traditional treatments. We will also review the biological characteristics and the latest therapies for PSC. These novel therapies show promise in the management of PSC, and the outcomes of investigative trials will hopefully reveal a variety of treatment options for patients with PSC.
X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy study of low energy CF+ ion interactions with silicon

Surface modifications of silicon by exposure to a mass‐separated, reactive ion beam of CF+ were studied by x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The effects of ion kinetic energy were characterized in terms of the various surface chemical states induced by the bombardment. The results showed that with an ion kinetic energy of 2 eV, which was much lower than the C–F bond energy of about 5 eV, molecular adsorption took place. At a bombardment energy of 10 eV, dissociative chemisorption was observed but the reaction was confined to the top surface with disproportionation of CF as the main route and little fluorination of silicon. With an ion energy of 100 eV, the atomic fragments generated by the CF dissociation possessed enough energy to penetrate below the silicon surface. It was found that silicon carbide and fluorosilyl species comprised the modified surface region and that fluorine atoms were situated closer to the surface than the carbon atoms of the carbide. Fluorocarbon species were minor surface reactio.