Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Necessity of Public and Private Interest Harmonisation in Public Service for the Aims of Sustainable Development of the State

The aim of this article is to analyse the essence of the harmonisation of public and private interests in the public service. The necessity of the harmonisation of public and private interests in the public service is based on the following features: civil service reliability and implementation of its purpose in order to guarantee the public interest; clear, binding standards of conduct applicable to all persons employed in the public service, regardless of their duties and career development nature; aim to prevent the emergence and spread of corruption in the public service; constitutional requirements for the implementation of public service. The article reveals that there are two key elements of a conflict of interest: 1) official duties that ensure the implementation of a public interest; 2) private interest which may negatively affect the performance of official duties. It follows that if a conflict of interest in the public service is not resolved or addressed properly, sooner or later it turns into corruption, and cause significant damage to the state itself. It is therefore very important timely identification, removal and management of the conflict of interest.
Socio-demographic correlates of late treatment initiation in a cohort of patients starting antiretroviral treatment in Mali, West Africa

Abstract The objective of this study was to investigate factors correlated with late treatment initiation in a cohort of patients starting treatment in Mali, West Africa, while focusing on the role of sex/gender. This study consisted of a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a prospective, observational cohort of patients initiating antiretroviral treatment in Mali. Patient data were analyzed with a gender perspective to examine factors correlated with late treatment initiation, defined as having a CD4 count below 100 cells/µl. Aday and Andersen's conceptual framework of access to medical care was used to classify baseline participant characteristics associated with late treatment initiation. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the modifying effect of sex/gender. Results show that 39% of patients initiated treatment late; significantly more of these were men than women. Sex/gender, marital status, and education were associated with late treatment initiation. Unmarried men and uneducated women were significantly more likely to initiate treatment late. Programs need to target unmarried men while being cognizant that uneducated women are arriving late as well.
Throughput analysis of a slotted Aloha-based network with energy harvesting nodes

In this paper, we evaluate the effect of energy constraints on the performance of a simple network comprised of wireless nodes with energy harvesting capability. In this scenario, wireless nodes contend with each other based on slotted Aloha protocol in order to transmit a packet. Packet transmission occurs provided that enough energy exists in the energy buffer. We propose an analytical model based on a closed queueing network (QN) to include details of data and energy buffers as well as random access MAC protocol. We show how energy limitation affects the MAC design parameters, e.g., contention window size, in order to optimize the performance of the network. Moreover, we evaluate the effect of energy constraints on maximum stable throughput, stability region, and packet drop rate. We also validate our analytical model by simulation.
Audio-Visual Object Extraction using Graph Cuts

We propose a novel method to automatically extract the audio-visual objects that are present in a scene. First, the synchrony between related events in audio and video channels is exploited to identify the possible locations of the sound sources. Video regions presenting a high coherence with the soundtrack are automatically labelled as being part of the audio-visual object. Next, a graph cut segmentation procedure is used to extract the entire object. The proposed segmentation approach includes a novel term that keeps together pixels in regions with high audio- visual synchrony. When longer sequences are analyzed, video signals are divided into groups of frames which are processed sequentially and propagate the information about the source characteristics forward in time. Results show that our method is able to discriminate between audio-visual sources and distracting moving objects and to adapt within a short time delay when sources pass from active to inactive and vice versa.
On-Line Path Generation and Tracking for High-Speed Wheeled Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract : In this work we proposed two semi-analytic methods to generate minimum and near-minimum time velocity profiles for a vehicle along a specified path. Initially we adopt a point mass parameterization of the vehicle with specified acceleration limits. In generating the optimal velocity profile, several undesirable cases, where loss of controllability occurs, and which have been neglected in the literature, are dealt with in this work. A receding horizon implementation is also proposed for the on-line implementation of the velocity optimizer. Robustness of the receding horizon algorithm is guaranteed by the use of an adaptive scheme that determines the planning and execution horizons. Application to a Formula 1 (F1) circuit with a comparison between the infinite and finite receding horizon schemes provides a validation of the proposed methodology. We also provide extensions from the point mass to a half-car model to recover the missing attitude (yaw) information. The acceleration limits (GG-diagram) of the half-car model is determined by the available tire friction forces in the front and rear axles. We present three extensions of the point mass methodology to the half-car model. In the first extension we directly implement the optimal control strategy of the point mass case to the half-car model. In the second extension the optimal control strategy of the point mass case is interrupted by a stabilizing control logic when the vehicle slip angle increases beyond a certain value and the yaw dynamics tend to instability. Finally, in the third approach we enforce the additional constraint that the vehicle tracks the path with zero slip angle and determine the acceptable acceleration limits subject to the new constraint.
Determinants of small business Performance in Punjab Pakistan: A Pilot Study

The main purpose of this study is to examine and explore quantitatively a small sample of data on the factors of small business performance in Punjab, Pakistan. The current research employed a self-administrative questionnaire approach to collect 29 usable questionnaires from small firms in Punjab, Pakistan, stratified random sampling method was used to collection data. In the current study the proposed model consists of five elements that are used as a determinants of small firm performance in Punjab, Pakistan. However, expert’s opinion and comments were requested to ascertain the language and structure of the instrument to evaluate the measurement model and the assessment of the model quality, internal consistency reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity of the instruments. Based on the feedback of experts, final changes were made and also data of small sample was analyzed using Smart-PLS. Results of the pilot test confirmed that there is no issue of reliability and validity of the instruments adapted in the pilot study.
LTV policy as a macroprudential tool: The case of residential mortgage loans in Asia

Credit creation in the housing market has been a key source of systemic financial risk, and therefore is at the center of the debate on macroprudential policies. The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is a widely-used macroprudential tool aimed at moderating mortgage loan creation, and its effectiveness needs to be estimated empirically. This paper is unique in that it analyzes the effect of LTV on mortgage lending, the direct channel of influence, using a large sample of banks in ten Asian countries. It uses estimation techniques to deal with the large presence of outliers in the data. Robust to outlier estimations show that countries with LTV polices have expanded residential mortgage loans by 6.7% per year while non-LTV countries have expanded by 14.6%, which suggests LTV policies have been effective.
International Marketing Strategy Planning Market Entry Implementation

Thank you very much for downloading international marketing strategy planning market entry implementation. As you may know, people have search hundreds times for their chosen readings like this international marketing strategy planning market entry implementation, but end up in malicious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some infectious virus inside their computer.
Love Internet, love online content: Predicting Internet affinity with information gratification and social gratifications

Purpose – This study aims to examine how information and social gratifications sought by Internet users affect their affinity for the Internet or for particular types of online content.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was administered in Singapore to collect data. A correlation analysis, a paired‐sample t test, and hierarchical regression analyses are conducted to address the research questions and hypotheses.Findings – Affinity for the Internet and affinity for particular types of online content are correlated and distinct. Both relate positively to social gratifications. The passive social gratification of Internet access and the active pursuit of interactions exert similar impact on both types of affinity. Information affects neither after social gratifications are controlled.Practical implications – Constant access to online contacts or quality online interaction may facilitate social gratifications, thereby boosting user affinity for the Internet or for particular types of online content. Onlin.
Building and Analyzing of Enterprise Network: A Case Study on China Automobile Supply Network

Social business moves beyond linear, process-driven organizations to create new, dynamic, networked businesses that focus on customer value. Enterprise network EN is used to support social business by maximizing current and future opportunities and facilitate network-enabled processes, which can lead to value co-creation. EN is a multi-level hypergraph model with enterprises, employees, products and other related entities. In this paper the authors refine the EN model and present the foundation of EN to support social businesses. Then they introduce a case study on China automobile supply network CASN. For the similarity with social networks, they verify power-law and small world theories in EN with statistical results on this data set. These theories are fitful in EN, but some new characteristics exist. The structure of EN consists of star-shaped clusters and the authors extract ego networks taking suppliers and manufacturers as the ego respectively. With the structure and distribution features of EN, they present the enterprise business similarity analysis method based on common-neighbors. And they also introduce the tentative work to detect Dunbar circles in EN. To analyze the data in a more intuitional and effective way, the authors use some data visualization tools to process the data in EN.
Fisher Effect: Evidence From Money Market in Malaysia

The Fisher Effect, proposed by Fisher (1930), has been the subject of many empirical researches in various countries. In Malaysia, previous empirical studies on Fisher Effect have focused the relationship on stock and bond market, leaving the money market with no or very few studies. The Malaysian money market has gained importance and interests as it shows rapid growth in volume transaction. This paper aims at investigating the validity of Fisher Effect on Malaysian money market. The time series between 2000 to 2012 is chosen as the study duration. Three variables were targeted in this study, they are, inflation Rate (INF), 3-months treasury bills rate (MTB) and interbank rate (IBR). To study the relationship, this paper employs Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test that is capable of testing for the existence of a long-run relationship between the variables irrespective of whether the time series are I(0) or I(1). The estimation results indicate the presence of long run cointegration among the variables. Overall the study provides evidence on the Fisher Effect in Malaysia.
Radio Resource Management in a Heterogeneous Wireless Access Medium

In recent years, there has been a rapid evolution and deployment of wireless networks. In populated areas, high-rate data access is enabled anywhere and anytime with the pervasive wireless infrastructure such as the fourth-generation (4G) cellular systems, IEEE 802.11-based wireless local area networks (WLANs), and IEEE 802.16-based wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs). In such a heterogeneous wireless access medium, multi-radio devices become a trend for users to conveniently explore various services offered by different wireless systems. This thesis presents radio resource management mechanisms, for bandwidth allocation, call admission control (CAC), and mobile terminal (MT) energy management, that can efficiently exploit the available resources in the heterogeneous wireless medium and enhance the user perceived quality-of-service (QoS). Almost all existing studies on heterogeneous networking are limited to the traditional centralized infrastructure, which is inflexible in dealing with practical scenarios, especially when different networks are operated by different service providers. In addition, in most current wireless networks, mobile users are simply viewed as service recipients in network operation, with passive transceivers completely or partially under the control of base stations or access points. In this thesis, we present efficient decentralized bandwidth allocation and CAC mechanisms that can support single-network and multi-homing calls. The decentralized architecture gives an active role to the MT in the resource management operation. Specifically, an MT with single-network call can select the best wireless network available at its location, while an MT with multi-homing call can determine a required bandwidth share from each network to satisfy its total required bandwidth. The proposed mechanisms rely on cooperative networking and offer a desirable flexibility between performance measures (in terms of the allocated bandwidth per call and the call blocking probability), and between the performance and the implementation complexity.
The Impact of E-Satisfaction and Confidence Aspects on Web Site Loyalty in Terms of Online Shopping in Tourism: A Study on Domestic Tourists in Turkey

The objective of this study is to determine the e-satisfaction of local tourists in terms of on-line tourism and manifest its impact on overall satisfaction and furthermore, to establish the affiliation between satisfaction, trust and loyalty. The study population is comprised of local tourists accommodated in hotels who have purchased holidays in Antalya over the internet. A survey measuring e-satisfaction, trust and loyalty has been used as a data collection tool and data has been obtained from 348 participants in total. Descriptive analyses such as percentage, frequency were used to analyze the obtained data and statistical tests such as Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and reliability analysis were applied. Furthermore, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the association of e-satisfaction, trust and loyalty. The study results reveal that there is a positive association between e-satisfaction with trust and loyalty while trust and loyalty have a strong and positive association. In addition the e-satisfaction scales developed by Szymanski and Hise (2000), Mohamed and Moradi (2011) and Chung and Shin (2008) were ascertained in 6 dimensions. These dimensions are convenience, site design, service quality, security, product selection and informativeness to total 6 dimensions. Keywords: E-Satisfaction, Loyalty, Trust, Online Shopping, Tourism, Turkey
Recruiting and maintaining SME involvement when designing voluntary inter-organisational IS

This research investigates government experiences maintaining small and medium enterprise (SME) involvement when designing voluntary inter-organisational information systems (VIOIS). It proposes a novel combination of stakeholder management and diffusion of innovation perspectives to help governments identify industry-specific change agents, communication channels and VIOIS design approaches leading to effective SME involvement.
Palliative Care Service Needs of Motor Neuron Disease Patients

Loss of speech, swallowing, respiratory, and limb functions incidence over time in various countries in Europe and North America from the 1950sto 1980s (2). There is considerable variation in the reported incidence of MND worldwide, ranging from 0.5 per 100,000 in Hong Kong (5) to 8.5 per 100,000 in Varmland, Sweden (6). There is also ethnic variation. For example, Maori and Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans have markedly lower incidence of MND than European New Zealanders and Englishspeaking South Africans (7). Evidence of clustering has been reported in, for example, discrete populations in the western Pacific region. Current data suggest both environmental and genetic etiological factors (8). MND is likely to be an acquired condition, with one or more exogenous environmental causes (2). Cumulative intrauterine and lifetime exposure to neurotoxic and genotoxic substances and activities (including electromagnetic fields from radio-frequency and microwave radiation) have been hypothesized as causal agents (9), but little evidence supports these theories. Although of low prevalence, the progressively severe disability and dependency of MND sufferers necessitates giving special consideration to providing them with appropriate health services. The aim of this study was to review literature on the palliative care service needs of MND patients. Palliative care is defined as "an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with lifethreatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identifica-
Best Practices in Community Garden Management to Address Participation, Water Access, and Outreach

As community gardens expand across the U.S., Extension professionals can support them not only in horticultural education but also in planning and organization. Knowledge of community garden management is helpful in this regard. Existing research focuses on outcomes and criteria for successful gardens, but is less clear about how community gardens work. We use ethnographic methods to examine community garden management in New Jersey. Spatial and social contexts shape key issues such as water access, participation, and horticultural techniques. Extension professionals can more effectively support community gardens by tailoring their advice to these contexts.
Image inpainting using cubic spline-based edge reconstruction

In this paper an image inpainting approach based on the construction of a composite curve for the restoration of the edges of objects in an image using the concepts of parametric and geometric continuity is presented. It is shown that this approach allows to restore the curved edges in damaged image by interpolating the boundaries of objects by cubic splines. A tensor analysis is used for classification of texture and non texture regions. After edge restoration stage, a texture restoration based on exemplar based method is carried out. It finds the best matching patch from another source region and copies it into the damaged region. For non texture regions a Telea method is applied.
Evaluation of a New Commercial TaqMan PCR Assay for Direct Detection of the Clostridium difficile Toxin B Gene in Clinical Stool Specimens

ABSTRACT The ProGastro Cd assay (Prodesse, Inc., Waukesha, WI) is a new commercial TaqMan PCR assay that detects tcdB. The ProGastro Cd assay was compared to the Wampole Clostridium difficile toxin B test (TOX-B test; TechLab, Blacksburg, VA), a cell culture cytotoxicity neutralization assay (CCCNA), and to anaerobic toxigenic bacterial culture, as the “gold standard,” for 285 clinical stool specimens. Assays were independently performed according to manufacturers' directions. A 1.0-ml sample was removed from the stool specimen, of which 20 μl was used for extraction on the NucliSENS easyMAG platform (bioMérieux, Inc., Durham, NC) for the Prodesse ProGastro Cd assay and 200 μl of the stool filtrate was used for the TOX-B CCCNA. Anaerobic toxigenic culture was done by heating an additional 1.0 ml of the stool sample to 80°C for 10 min before inoculation onto modified cycloserine, cefoxitin, and fructose agar with horse blood (Remel, Lenexa, KS) and into a prereduced chopped meat glucose broth (BBL, BD Diagnostics, Sparks, MD). The prevalence of toxin-producing strains of C. difficile was 15.7% (n = 44) as determined by anaerobic toxigenic culture. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of the Prodesse ProGastro Cd assay compared to the TOX-B test were 83.3%, 95.6%, 69.4%, and 98%, respectively. Compared to toxigenic culture, the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of the Prodesse ProGastro Cd assay were 77.3%, 99.2%, 94.4%, and 95.9%, respectively, and those of the TOX-B test were 63.6%, 99.2%, 93.3%, and 93.6%, respectively. Although no statistical difference (Fisher's exact test) was detected (P = 0.242) between the sensitivities of the Prodesse ProGastro Cd assay and a standard CCCNA compared to anaerobic culture for the detection of toxigenic C. difficile, the Prodesse ProGastro Cd assay did detect more toxigenic C. difficile isolates than the CCCNA.
Interaction of the Nuclear Matrix-associated Region (MAR)-Binding Proteins, SATB1 and CDP/Cux, with a MAR Element (L2a) in an Upstream Regulatory Region of the Mouse CD8a Gene*

Matrix-associated regions (MARs), AT-rich DNA segments that have an affinity for the nuclear matrix, have been shown to play a role in transcriptional regulation of eukaryotic genes. The present study demonstrates that a DNA element, called L2a, which has been implicated in the transcriptional regulation of the mouseCD8a gene encoding an important T cell coreceptor, is a MAR. Moreover, the identities of two nuclear proteins, L2a-P1 and L2a-P2, previously shown to bind to the L2a element, have been determined. The L2a-P1 protein found to be present in all CD8-positive T cell lines tested is SATB1, a known MAR-binding protein. The widely expressed L2a-P2 protein is CDP/Cux, a MAR-binding protein that has been associated with repression of gene transcription. Interaction of both proteins with the L2a element was studied using the missing nucleoside approach, DNase I footprinting, and electrophoretic mobility shift assays with wild type and mutant L2a elements. The data suggest that CDP/Cux bound to the L2a element is displaced by binding of SATB1 and the accompanying conformational change in the DNA lying between the primary binding sites of SATB1 and CDP/Cux. We suggest that displacement of CDP/Cux by SATB1 favors transcription of theCD8a gene, possibly by enhancing or altering its association with the nuclear matrix.