Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular systematics and patterns of morphological evolution in the Centropagidae (Copepoda: Calanoida) of Argentina

Recent studies have shown the value of complementing standard taxonomy with genetic analyses to reveal cryptic diversity and to aid in the understanding of patterns of evolution. We surveyed variation in the COI mitochondrial gene in members of the three genera of centropagid copepods from the inland waters in Argentina. In general, we found a close association between molecular and morphological systematics in this group. Similar to findings for marine calanoids, genetic distances within Boeckella species were modest ( 11%). Parabroteas is currently monotypic, although we detected cryptic genetic diversity, with two lineages showing 5.5% divergence. In contrast, Karukinka was not a valid genus, apparently representing an interesting and atavistic offshoot of B. poppei, a result reinforcing the value of considering both morphological and molecular evidence. Moreover, we used combined genetic and morphological information, analysed with maximum likelihood methods, to evaluate the common assumption that evolution tends to proceed via the loss of structures in crustaceans. Although analysis of other taxa and character types is required to evaluate fully the reduction hypothesis, our results suggest that structures may be gained readily as well as lost. © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 90, 279–292.
Bayesian non-parametrics for multi-modal segmentation

Segmentation is a fundamental and core problem in computer vision research which has applications in many tasks, such as object recognition, content-based image retrieval, and semantic labelling. To partition the data into groups coherent in one or more characteristics such as semantic classes, is often a first step towards understanding the content of data. As information in the real world is generally perceived in multiple modalities, segmentation performed on multi-modal data for extracting the latent structure usually encounters a challenge: how to combine features from multiple modalities and resolve accidental ambiguities. This thesis tackles three main axes of multi-modal segmentation problems: video segmentation and object discovery, activity segmentation and discovery, and segmentation in 3D data. For the first two axes, we introduce non-parametric Bayesian approaches for segmenting multi-modal data collections, including groups of videos and context sensor streams. The proposed method shows benefits on: integrating multiple features and data dependencies in a probabilistic formulation, inferring the number of clusters from data and hierarchical semantic partitions, as well as resolving ambiguities by joint segmentation across videos or streams. The third axis focuses on the robust use of 3D information for various applications, as 3D perception provides richer geometric structure and holistic observation of the visual scene. The studies covered in this thesis for utilizing various types of 3D data include: 3D object segmentation based on Kinect depth sensing improved by cross-modal stereo, matching 3D CAD models to objects on 2D image plane by exploiting the differentiability of the HOG descriptor, segmenting stereo videos based on adaptive ensemble models, and fusing 2D object detectors with 3D context information for an augmented reality application scenario.
An Effective Non-rigid Image Registration Method Based on Active Demons Algorithm

In order to solve the problem the homogeneous coefficient of the classic active demons algorithm can not take into account large deformation and small deformation at the same time, this paper presents a non-rigid registration algorithm based on active demons algorithm. The proposed algorithm introduces a new parameter called balance coefficient to the active demons algorithm, which will adjust the driving force combined with homogeneous coefficient. Not only the large deformation and the small deformation can be taken into account at the same time, but also the mutual restraint problem of the convergence speed and the registration accuracy can be eased in a certain extent. In order to further improve the registration accuracy and the convergence speed, and avoid falling into local extreme value, a coarse-to-fine multi-resolution strategy is introduced into the registration process. Experiments on checkboard test images, natural images and medical images demonstrate that the proposed method is faster and more accurate, and the registration accuracy is close to the latest TV-L1 optical flow image registration algorithm, which solves the problems of the active demons algorithm.
Interpretive Perspectives on the Acceptance of an Electronic Prescription System

Abstract Understanding the factors that contribute to the acceptance and use of information systems is a central concern in the field of information systems. A good understanding of these factors goes a long way in developing an effective design and implementation plan. This article describes and analyses the implementation of an electronic prescription system (EPS) for general practitioners in the Netherlands. The objective of this system is to promote cost effectiveness, consistency and quality of therapies and drug prescriptions by general practitioners. The case demonstrates pitfalls, which come up during the implementation of such a system, and shows which factors may play a role in the decision of potential users to accept or reject information systems. Different issues arise from this case. One is that users seem to differ from non-users in terms of perceptions and interpretations about not only the features of the system but also features of the system’s environment. The paper uses the evidence of the case by suggesting to extend the technology acceptance model (TAM) with relevant contextual factors. The conclusions include implications for researchers and practitioners.
Identifying patients with depression in the primary care setting: a more efficient method.

OBJECTIVE To determine if there is a core subset of depressive symptoms that could be used to efficiently diagnose depression after administering the 2-item PRIME-MD a screening questionnaire for depression. METHODS One thousand patients selected randomly and by convenience from 4 primary care clinics were assessed by PRIME-MD and completed a questionnaire measuring the following validation variables: functional status and well-being, disability days, somatic symptoms, depression severity, suicidal thoughts, health care utilization, and the physician-patient relationship. RESULTS Four symptoms (sleep disturbance, anhedonia, low self-esteem, and decreased appetite) accounted for virtually all the depression symptom-related variance in functional status and well-being, with 8.3% of patients having 2 of these symptoms and 8.2% having 3 or 4 of these symptoms. There was excellent agreement between diagnosis based on core symptoms and major depression (K= 0.77; overall accuracy rate, 94%). There were significant differences (P<.001) among patients with negative depression screen, 0 to 1, 2, and 3 to 4 core symptoms with scores on each of the validation variables getting progressively worse in these 4 groups. A cutoff point of 2 core symptoms identified all but 3 patients with major depression and an additional 5% of the entire sample without major depression who were significantly (P<.05) worse than patients without depression on each of the validation variables. CONCLUSION A strategy that includes the use of a 2-item depression screener followed by the evaluation of 4 core depressive symptoms is an efficient and effective way of identifying and classifying primary care patients with depression in need of clinical attention.
Impact of Nationality on Employees' Perception towards Human Resource Management Policies

Globalisation has led to opening up avenues when it comes to business opportunities. Multinational Organizations nowadays tend to have a presence in various nations and also have a tendency to employ a diverse work force. Therefore the HR department has had to make a lot of changes in the way their organizations work culture is developed since they have to incorporate the views and culture of employees from diverse backgrounds. It is important to understand their views and to determine how the HRM policies affect them. This study delves into the concept of employee perceptions on various HRM policies from the perspective of one’s nationality. A cross sectional survey and quantitative survey methodology was adopted for this study. The study determines that if individuals perceive certain practices in a positive light, then there’s a very good chance that they will consider the rest of the HR practices with the same positive outlook and vice versa.
Adaptive neural control for an uncertain robotic manipulator with joint space constraints

ABSTRACT In this paper, adaptive neural tracking control is proposed for a robotic manipulator with uncertainties in both manipulator dynamics and joint actuator dynamics. The manipulator joints are subject to inequality constraints, i.e., the joint angles are required to remain in some compact sets. Integral barrier Lyapunov functionals (iBLFs) are employed to address the joint space constraints directly without performing an additional mapping to the error space. Neural networks (NNs) are utilised to compensate for the unknown robot dynamics and external force. Adapting parameters are developed to estimate the unknown bounds on NN approximations. By the Lyapunov synthesis, the proposed control can guarantee the semi-global uniform ultimate boundedness of the closed-loop system, and the practical tracking of joint reference trajectory is achieved without the violation of predefined joint space constraints. Simulation results are given to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.
The Use of Influence Strategies in Interfirm Relationships in Industrial Product Channels

The authors seek to extend theory and empirical findings on interfirm influence strategies by examining their use in channel relationships between suppliers and distributors of industrial products. Research hypotheses are developed, centering on the reciprocal use of noncoercive and coercive influence strategies by the supplier and the distributor in the channel dyad and on the interrelationships of these strategies with the interfirm power, latent conflict, manifest conflict, and conflict resolution constructs. Data from a national survey of industrial distributors are used in testing the research hypotheses, which are generally supported by the empirical results.
Sukuk Bond: The Global Islamic Financial Instrument

Global financial markets are volatile right now and will remain so for the next 2-years. Equity markets are shaky. Investors risk appetite is suddenly moving to commodities. Bond market is precarious as Sovereign debt risk goes high. Global economy is slowly moving into recession which will be either U or W-Shaped. Recovery figures are questionable and are creating doubts among investors. So, where are we heading towards? As we navigate through treacherous times, Islamic financial market provides a new hope without speculation and exploitation of resources. The emergence of Sukuk Islamic Bond in the financial markets heralds a new era which can provide much needed financial stability and mitigation of risk in these arduous times. With advent of Sukuk in the financial world, the market players have got a new option to invest into this asset which hold considerable value and benefit for all. This bond promises to all investors an equitable return which is justifiable and above all safe for the strategic investment purpose.
Examining New York City Hospitals’ Nonuse of Medical Volunteers in Disasters

ABSTRACT Objective To describe hospitals’ perceptions of the New York City Medical Reserve Corps (NYC MRC); clarify administrative, legal, and clinical obstacles to the use of NYC MRC volunteers; and identify possible strategies to overcome these barriers. Methods We administered an informational questionnaire to 33 NYC hospitals and conducted 2 facilitated discussion groups comprising 62 hospital representatives. Results The most commonly reported hospital barriers to the use of MRC volunteers were concerns about the clinical competence of the volunteers, their lack of familiarity with medical technology used clinically in a hospital setting, and the potential for institutional liability. Conclusions Although the NYC MRC has the potential to assist the health care system in the event of a disaster, NYC hospitals will need clarification of the clinical and legal issues involved in the use of MRC volunteers for patient care. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:391–395)
Power Allocation for Cognitive Energy Harvesting and Smart Power Grid Coexisting System

Cognitive radio (CR) lifts efficiency of information resource. As one way of utilizing the renewable energy resources, energy harvesting makes use of energy from the environment. Due to intermitted feature of the renewable energy, the power grid needs to be integrated to regulate the harvested energy supply of the system. Thus, the transmit power of the second user (SU), including the power from both the renewable energy and the power grid is often subject to a peak power constraint to control the interference level of the SU to the primary user (PU). The combination of these three types of emerging communication machineries renders great challenge to provide exact optimal power allocation solution with rapid computation. To the best knowledge of the authors, no such kind of solutions were reported in the open literature. In this paper, our recently proposed geometric water-filling with peak power constraints (GWFPP) and recursion machinery are applied and exploited to solve the throughput maximization problems, making the power grid smart. The proposed algorithms are precisely defined. They provide the exact optimal solution with efficient finite computation. Their optimality is strictly proved. Numerical examples and computational complexity analysis are presented to illustrate the procedures and demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithms.
An Analysis of Cluster Agglomeration Effects: Based on Hotel Industry

The flexible agglomeration of hotels can not only reduce transaction cost among clusters,but also motivate them to learn from each other,thus exerting resource sharing.The agglomeration phenomenon can facilitate hotels' innovation and improve cluster competitiveness.This paper analyzes the hotel cluster competitiveness from the perspective of hotel agglomeration effect,product advantage,demand advantage,regional brand advantage and so on.
Customer-perceived value in business-to-business relationships: A study of software customers

Abstract Despite the importance of relationships in business-to-business (B2B) contexts, there is limited research as to what customers expect and value from relationships in industrial contexts. This study, therefore, seeks to understand customer-perceived value better by investigating actual and prospective customers in the software industry. A two-level analysis of customer perspectives on relationship attributes was conducted. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted with customers of a micro software firm. Insights from these interviews were then used to inform the second stage of the study, an online survey using Adaptive Conjoint Analysis, to identify the relative significance of these attributes. A total of 256 industrial buyers completed the survey. A new Customer Relationship Attributes Model (CRAM) is presented which encapsulates major attributes that current and prospective customers consider when entering into a relationship with their software supplier. The CRAM identifies five product-related attributes (price, functionality, bilingual capability, location, and software quality), and seven service-related attributes (communication, understanding of the customer, trust, relationship, service, professionalism, and employee expertise).
Inter-body channel model for UWB communications

The RF transmission between two human bodies was characterized and a channel model developed for UWB communications. From this study, it was found that the path loss is greatly dependent on the position of the transmit and receive antennas on the body as well as the relative orientation of the human bodies. The change in the radiation patterns of the antennas due to the presence of the human body affects the path loss. As compared to the free space path loss, the path loss when the antennas were mounted on the body can be reduced for certain body orientations. The chest-to-chest configuration generally demonstrates a lower path loss and a higher path loss exponent compared to the chest-waist and waist-to-waist configurations. The improvement in the path loss is the most significant for the waist-waist configuration due when the antennas are mounted 5 mm away from the human body due to the reduced blockage by the arm. Also, the path loss is greater when the upper UWB band is considered as compared to the lower and entire UWB bands.
DPP-4 inhibition attenuates cardiac dysfunction and adverse remodeling following myocardial infarction in rats with experimental diabetes.

AIMS Following myocardial infarction (MI), individuals with diabetes have a two-fold increase in the risk of heart failure, due in part to excessive loss of cardiac microvasculature. Endothelial integrity and restitution are mediated in part by stromal cell-derived factor-1α (SDF-1α), a chemokine that is elaborated by ischemic tissue but rapidly degraded by dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4). Accordingly, we hypothesized that inhibiting this enzyme may confer benefit following myocardial infarction in the diabetic setting beyond its effect on glycemia. METHODS AND RESULTS Fischer F344 rats with streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetes were randomized to receive vehicle or the DPP-4 inhibitor, sitagliptin (300 mg/kg/day). Two weeks later, animals underwent experimental MI, induced by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. Cardiac function was assessed by conductance catheterization and echocardiography along with cardiac structure 4 weeks post-MI. Following MI, untreated diabetic rats developed both systolic and diastolic cardiac dysfunction, in association with endothelial cell loss, fibrosis, and myocyte hypertrophy. Without affecting plasma glucose, sitagliptin treatment led to an improvement in passive left ventricular compliance, increased endothelial cell density, reduced myocyte hypertrophy, and a reduction in the abundance of collagen 1 (all P < 0.05). Systolic function was unchanged. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that DPP-4 inhibition attenuates several, but not all, aspects of cardiac dysfunction and adverse remodeling in the post-MI setting.
Information theory methods in communication complexity

We use tools and techniques from information theory to study communication complexity problems in the one-way and simultaneous communication models. Our results include: (1) a tight characterization of multi-party one-way communication complexity for product distributions in terms of VC-dimension and shatter coefficients; (2) an equivalence of multi-party one-way and simultaneous communication models for product distributions; (3) a suite of lower bounds for specific functions in the simultaneous communication model, most notably an optimal lower bound for the multi-party set disjointness problem of Alon et al. (1999) and for the generalized addressing function problem of Babai et al. (1996) for arbitrary groups. Methodologically, our main contribution is rendering communication complexity problems in the framework of information theory. This allows us access to the powerful calculus of information theory and the use of fundamental principles such as Fano's inequality and the maximum likelihood estimate principle.
The Impact of Age on the Reservation Wage: The Role of Employment Efficacy and Work Intention

This study explores the relationship between age and reservation wage. The authors investigate whether individuals’ attitudes toward employment, that is, their “employment efficacy” and “work intention,” mediate this relationship. The authors examine this in the Belgian labor market, where substantial differences exist between blue-collar workers, white-collar workers, and civil servants regarding payment systems, employment protection, and pension benefits. Path analysis on a sample of 22,796 Belgian workers aged 18 to 60 years reveals a reverse U-shaped relationship between age and the reservation wage via employment efficacy and a U-shaped relationship via work intention. In addition, study analyses also show a direct relationship between age and the reservation wage. The effects vary with employment status. The authors discuss implications for theory, practice, and future research.
Exacerbation of sleep-apnoea related nocturnal blood-pressure fluctuations in hypertensive subjects

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) induces marked haemodynamic fluctuations during sleep that might be deleterious to the cardiovascular system. The influence of daytime blood pressure (BP) levels and aging on short-term BP variability during sleep in OSAS patients was investigated. Twenty-nine subjects with newly-diagnosed untreated OSAS were categorised into three groups: normotensive subjects aged <50 yrs (n=10); subjects aged <50 yrs with untreated hypertension (n=8); and normotensive subjects aged >50 yrs (n=11). Beat-by-beat BP was recorded with a Finapres device during polysomnography. The average values±sd of apnoea-related BP elevations and the values of the frequency distribution of all BP variations during sleep were assessed to estimate short-term BP variability. Apnoea-related systolic (or diastolic) BP elevations were significantly greater in hypertensives than in normotensives aged <50 yrs (50.3±4.88 versus 30.7±2.14 mmHg, p<0.001), as was the sd of systolic (or diastolic) BP variations during sleep (I9.6±2.22 versus 11.1±0.73, p<0.001). Short-term BP variability was not significantly increased in normotensive elderly patients. To conclude, the results suggested that systemic hypertension is associated with a greater exacerbation of short-term variability during sleep in obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome patients.
Equilibrium studies of ethidium--polynucleotide interactions.

We report equilibrium dialysis studies of the binding of ethidium to a variety of double-helical synthetic polynucleotides containing A.U (or T) and I.C base pairs. The results are interpreted in terms of the neighbor exclusion model of drug binding, with allowance both for cooperativity of binding and for a structural switch of the helix to a different form which binds the drug more effectively. Both DNA and the alternating copolymers examined [poly[d(A-T)] and poly[d(I-C)]] showed high affinity (10(4)--10(5) M-1) in 1 M salt. Homopolynucleotides showed a more complicated pattern of affinities: poly(rA). poly(rU), poly(rA). poly(dT), and poly(dA). poly(rU) showed high affinity, whereas poly(dA). poly(dT), poly(rI). poly(rC), and poly(dI). poly(dC) showed low affinity (less than or equal to 10(3) M-1). The neighbor exclusion range was inferred to be two base pairs for DNA or B family helices and three for RNA or A family helices. Generally, polynucleotides showed some cooperativity in their ethidium binding. The data reveal a switch of poly[d(I-C)] to a form able to bind ethidium more effectively.
Genomic Characterization of Ralstonia solanacearum Phage φRSB1, a T7-Like Wide-Host-Range Phage

ABSTRACT φRSΒ1 is a wide-host-range, T7-like bacteriophage that infects and efficiently lyses the phytopathogenic bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum. The φRSB1 genome comprises 43,079 bp of double-stranded DNA (61.7% G+C) with 325-bp terminal repeats and contains 47 open reading frames. Strong activity of tandem early promoters and wide specificity of phage promoters of φRSB1 were demonstrated.