Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
South African Consumers’ Views and Responses to Sales Promotions

Abstract The decrease in the effectiveness of traditional advertising media to create brand differentiation andchanges in consumers’ buying behaviour has resulted in greater attention being paid to sales promotion. However, there has been limited prior research on sales promotions - from an emerging consumer perspective. Consequently, the present study seeks to acquire insight into the perceived value and response towards sales promotions - by conducting a survey amongst a sample of 600 South African consumers. The results have revealed that utilitarian benefits are regarded as being relatively less important than thehedonic benefits enjoyed. Within the utilitarian dimension, the value offered is regarded as most important; while value expression is considered to bemore important within the hedonic dimension. Consumers prefer to be offered sales promotions in the following categories: food/groceries, personal care products/toiletries, and alcoholic beverages. Traditional advertising media, outdoor advertising and mall-media advertising are still preferred as communication methods for sales promotions, rather than online-media and social media. A significant proportion of the respondents believe that sales promotions frequently influence their decision-making. Different sales-promotion techniques are associated with specific buying behaviours. Stockpiling is associated with bonus offerings; while brand switching is associated with coupons, free samples and point-of-sale displays. Product trials seem to be most associated with point-of-sale displays and free samples. The empirical results provide insights into the development of sales-promotion strategies to successfully enhance consumers’ perceived value, and to induce a positive response.
Strain mapping accuracy improvement using super‐resolution techniques

Super‐resolution (SR) software‐based techniques aim at generating a final image by combining several noisy frames with lower resolution from the same scene. A comparative study on high‐resolution high‐angle annular dark field images of InAs/GaAs QDs has been carried out in order to evaluate the performance of the SR technique. The obtained SR images present enhanced resolution and higher signal‐to‐noise (SNR) ratio and sharpness regarding the experimental images. In addition, SR is also applied in the field of strain analysis using digital image processing applications such as geometrical phase analysis and peak pairs analysis. The precision of the strain mappings can be improved when SR methodologies are applied to experimental images.
Measurement of Human and Mouse Interleukin‐12

This unit describes functional assays for measurement of bioactive IL‐12 and ELISAs for measurement of IL‐12 protein. The functional assays are based on the ability of IL‐12 to stimulate proliferation of PHA‐activated T lymphoblasts (“PHA blasts”). The ELISAs are technically simpler to perform than the functional assays, but cannot distinguish bioactive from inactive cytokine.
Signaling Robot Trustworthiness: Effects of Behavioral Cues as Warnings

By making use of existing social behavioral cues, domestic robots can express their uncertainty about their actions. Ideally, when ar obot can warn that am istake is likely, humans can take preemptive actions to ensure the successful completion of the robot's task. In the present research we show that a robot employing behavioral cues predic- tive of making mistakes is judged as more reliable and understandable than robots that do not use these cues predictively, and is trusted on par with a robot that does not employ behavioral cues. 1I ntroduction Domestic robots will face tasks in widely varying circumstances, ranging from an empty house to, for instance, a children's party. In certain situations a robot's functioning may require additional attention from those present. Minor inter- ventions by humans might enable robots to carry out their task successfully. Therefore, a domestic robot may benefit from sending out warning signals when unexpected circumstances aris eo r am istake becomes likely. Current domestic robots already employ warning signals. However, an im- portant drawback is that such signals are mostly usedaftera malfunction has occurred. Ideally, a robot would send online, proactive communication about uncertainty levels so that its owner can take preemptive action. Although such mistake-detection systems do not exist presently, it is possible to explore the feasibility of such systems by manipulating a robot's warning signals and the likelihood of mistakes following them in an experimental setting. Robots can communicate uncertainty about their actions in many di! erent ways. In this project, in which we borrow ideas from social psychology, we use nonverbal behavioral cues that occur naturally in human interaction. The ad- vantage of employing existing behavioral cues to express uncertainty is that they are easily interpretable. Such attributes can influence a robots trustworthiness
Fairness in multi-agent systems

Abstract Multi-agent systems are complex systems in which multiple autonomous entities, called agents, cooperate in order to achieve a common or personal goal. These entities may be computer software, robots, and also humans. In fact, many multi-agent systems are intended to operate in cooperation with or as a service for humans. Typically, multi-agent systems are designed assuming perfectly rational, self-interested agents, according to the principles of classical game theory. Recently, such strong assumptions have been relaxed in various ways. One such way is explicitly including principles derived from human behavior. For instance, research in the field of behavioral economics shows that humans are not purely self-interested. In addition, they strongly care about fairness. Therefore, multi-agent systems that fail to take fairness into account, may not be sufficiently aligned with human expectations and may not reach intended goals. In this paper, we present an overview of work in the area of fairness in multi-agent systems. More precisely, we first look at the classical agent model, that is, rational decision making. We then provide an outline of descriptive models of fairness, that is, models that explain how and why humans reach fair decisions. Then, we look at prescriptive, computational models for achieving fairness in adaptive multi-agent systems. We show that results obtained by these models are compatible with experimental and analytical results obtained in the field of behavioral economics.
Expression of Genes Associated with Retinoid Metabolism in the Trout Ovarian Follicle1

Abstract In vertebrates producing oviparous eggs, retinoids and their precursor molecules need to be deposited in oocytes during vitellogenesis. While most studies focus on the transport of retinoids and carotenoids formed outside the fish ovary and their deposition within the developing oocyte, recent investigations in mammalian species suggest the ovary is an important site for retinoid and carotenoid metabolism. Therefore, we investigated the expression of six genes (bcmo1, bcdo2, rbp1, lrat, rbp4, and stra6) associated with retinoids and carotenoids in juvenile and adult trout ovaries. Except for bcdo2, these genes were expressed in the ovary. Expression of stra6 was detected in the ovary but not in the liver. Gene expression levels of bcmo1 and stra6 were significantly higher in juvenile ovaries, in contrast to those of rbp1, rbp4, and lrat, which were similar in all tested ovarian stages. The mean values of the relative mRNA levels of the tested genes differed between the ovary and the liver. Gene transcripts of rbp4 and bcmo1 were identified by in situ hybridization in the theca layer, and all five genes were expressed in the granulosa, stromal cells, and only the early vitellogenic oocyte. The occurrence of retinol-binding protein in the theca and granulosa cells and within oocytes at all developmental stages was revealed by immunocytochemistry. These results indicate that ovarian cells express genes putatively associated with cleavage of beta-carotene, storage and mobilization of retinyl-esters, and of retinol-binding protein synthesis, suggesting a novel pathway for providing retinoids and carotenoids to developing fish ovarian follicles.
Development of temporary subtropical wetlands induces higher gas production

Temporary wetlands are short-term alternative ecosystems formed by flooding for irrigation of areas used for rice farming. The goal of this study is to describe the development cycle of rice fields as temporary wetlands in southern Brazil, evaluating how this process affect the gas production (CH4 and CO2) in soil with difference % carbon and organic matter content. Two areas adjacent to Lake Mangueira in southern Brazil were used during a rice-farming cycle. One area had soil containing 1.1% carbon and 2.4% organic matter, and the second area had soil with 2.4% carbon and 4.4% organic matter. The mean rates of gas production were 0.04 ± 0.02 mg CH4 m−2 d−1 and 1.18 ± 0.30 mg CO2 m−2 d−1 in the soil area with the lower carbon content, and 0.02 ± 0.03 mg CH4 m−2 d−1 and 1.38 ± 0.41 mg CO2 m−2 d−1 in the soil area with higher carbon content. Our results showed that mean rates of CO2 production were higher than those of CH4 in both areas. No statistically significant difference was observed for production of CH4 considering different periods and sites. For carbon dioxide (CO2), however, a Two-Way ANOVA showed statistically significant difference (p = 0.05) considering sampling time, but no difference between areas. The results obtained suggest that the carbon and organic matter contents in the soil of irrigated rice cultivation areas may have been used in different ways by soil microorganisms, leading to variations in CH4 and CO2 production.
Relative risk of HIV infection among young men and women in a South African township

The prevalence of HIV infection in Africa is substantially higher among young women than it is among young men. Biological explanations of this difference have been presented but there has been little exploration of social factors. In this paper we use data from Carletonville, South Africa to explore various social explanations for greater female infection rates. This paper reports on data from a random sample of 507 people between 13 and 24 years old. Subjects were tested for HIV, as well as other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and answered a behavioural questionnaire. The age-prevalence of HIV infection differs between men and women with considerably higher rates of increase with age among young women. The age of sexual debut did not differ significantly between men and women (15.9 and 16.3 years, respectively) and below the age of 20 years there was no difference in the number or distribution of the number of sexual partners reported by men or women. The risk of infection per partnership was substantially higher among women than among men. Women have sexual partners who are, on average, about five years older than they are with some variation with age. Scaling the age-prevalence curve for men by the age of their sexual partners gives a curve whose shape is indistinguishable from that for women but is about 30% lower for men than for women. In terms of social explanations for HIV rates among women, the data indicates that this difference can be explained by the relative age of sexual partners, but not by other factors explored. In addressing the epidemic among young women it will be essential to deal with the social factors that lead young women to select their partners from older-age cohorts and that shape their sexual networking patterns.
Transcriptional similarity in couples reveals the impact of shared environment and lifestyle on gene regulation through modified cytosines

Gene expression is a complex and quantitative trait that is influenced by both genetic and non-genetic regulators including environmental factors. Evaluating the contribution of environment to gene expression regulation and identifying which genes are more likely to be influenced by environmental factors are important for understanding human complex traits. We hypothesize that by living together as couples, there can be commonly co-regulated genes that may reflect the shared living environment (e.g., diet, indoor air pollutants, behavioral lifestyle). The lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) derived from unrelated couples of African ancestry (YRI, Yoruba people from Ibadan, Nigeria) from the International HapMap Project provided a unique model for us to characterize gene expression pattern in couples by comparing gene expression levels between husbands and wives. Strikingly, 778 genes were found to show much smaller variances in couples than random pairs of individuals at a false discovery rate (FDR) of 5%. Since genetic variation between unrelated family members in a general population is expected to be the same assuming a random-mating society, non-genetic factors (e.g., epigenetic systems) are more likely to be the mediators for the observed transcriptional similarity in couples. We thus evaluated the contribution of modified cytosines to those genes showing transcriptional similarity in couples as well as the relationships these CpG sites with other gene regulatory elements, such as transcription factor binding sites (TFBS). Our findings suggested that transcriptional similarity in couples likely reflected shared common environment partially mediated through cytosine modifications.
Parents' perception of dimensions of quality K-12 schools in Bangkok, Thailand

The objective of this study was to enrich the literature of perceptions of quality schools derived from the findings of key stakeholders identified as parents. Data was gathered through qualitative methods using interviews and focus groups with Thai parents in Bangkok. The findings present the six most important dimensions of a quality school: trained and qualified teachers, strong academics, co-curricular activities, discipline and moral values, infrastructure and facilities and safe, nurturing and warm environment. The findings add to the ever-growing literature on school quality around the world. The implications are discussed in terms of their implications for school administrators and policy makers.
Simulation-based inference for plan monitoring

The dynamic execution of plans in uncertain domains requires the ability to infer likely current and future world states from past observations. We cast this task as inference on Dynamic Belief Networks (DBNs) but the resulting networks are difficult to solve with exact methods. We investigate and extend simulation algorithms for approximate inference on Bayesian networks and propose a new algorithm, called Rewind/Replay, for generating a set of simulations weighted by their likelihood given past observations. We validate our algorithm on a DBN containing thousands of variables, which models the spread of wildfire.
Home–school partnership and the construction of deviance: being and becoming the Goldfish family

Partnership between home and school is a key aspect of current educational policy. At the level of policy of the notion of partnership is constructed unproblematically as smooth consensus, but this may not be the way it plays out in school where deeply rooted assumptions surrounding parenthood – and in particular motherhood – may pertain. This paper is concerned with home–school relations and the way in which schools construct deviance and attribute stigma. It is an analysis of a narrative written by a parent of a child diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It explores Jenny's narrative concerning the events surrounding the diagnosis, in particular the part played by the school in this process, and the descent of a family from normality into madness. The paper begins with the attribution of deviance, the development of stigma and the birth of the Goldfish family. It then goes on to present three Hogarthian scenes documenting the family's progress, and examines the peculiar convergence of social pressures which result in madness, before drawing some conclusions concerning the construction of deviance and the role of the school in this.
Integrity of perforant path fibers and the frequency of action potential independent excitatory and inhibitory synaptic events in dentate gyrus granule cells

Whole‐cell voltage clamp recordings in 400 μm thick hippocampal slices revealed discrete excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic currents which persisted at synapses on granule cells following abolition of action potentials with 1 μM tetrodotoxin (TTX). The conductances associated with excitatory amino acid and GABAA receptor mediated events had mean peaks of 200 and 800 pS, and decayed monoexponentially with time constants of 5.6 and 5.3 ms. At a holding potential close to the normal resting membrane potential of granule cells (−80 to −90 mV), the frequency of glutamate/aspartate mediated spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents (sEPSCs) was decresed from 2.04 Hz in slices cut parallel to the plane of the perforant path to 0.87 Hz in slices cut in a plane that disrupted the distal perforant path fibres, suggesting that presynaptic integrity influences the rate of action potential independent neurotransmitter release. The orientation of the slicing had no effect on the frequency of spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSCs).
The EarlyBird System for Real-time Detection of Unknown Worms

Network worms are a major threat to the security of today’s Internet-connected hosts and networks. The combination of unmitigated connectivity and widespread software homogeneity allows worms to exploit tremendous parallelism in propagation. Modern worms spread so quickly that no human-mediated reaction to the outbreak of a new worm can hope to prevent a widespread epidemic. In this paper we propose an automated method for detecting new worms based on traffic characteristics common to most of them: highly repetitive packet content, an increasing population of sources generating infections and an increasing number of destinations being targeted. Our method generates content signatures for the worm without any human intervention. Preliminary results on a small network show promising results: we have identified three confirmed worms with a low percentage of false positives. This gives us reason to believe that our method could form the core of an effective network-level worm detection and countermeasure system capable of substantially slowing down the spread of new worms.
Multifractal Measures for Tissue Image Classification and Retrieval

Multifractal analysis has recently found applications in the field of automatic classification and content based retreival of tissue and cell images. The classification accuracy in such methods largely depends on the invariant characteristics of the spectra computed for a chosen intensity measure. It is therefore necessary to carry out a detailed analysis of suitable measures and the invariance of the resulting spectra. This paper discusses some key implementation aspects of multifractal based classification techniques, gives a comparative analysis of different types of intensity measures, and presents experimental results showing the corresponding inter-class and intra-class variations in the multifractal spectra.
Patent Breadth , Patent Life , and the Pace of Technological Progress

In active investment climates where firms sequentially improve each other’s products, a patent can terminate either because it expires or because a noninfringing innovation displaces its product in the market. We define the length of time until one of these happens as the effective patent life, and show how it depends on patent breadth. We distinguish lagging breadth, which protects against imitation, from leading breadth, which protects against new improved products. We compare two types of patent policy with leading breadth: (1) patents are finite but very broad, so that the effective life of a patent coincides with its statutory life, and (2) patents are long but narrow, so that the effective life of a patent ends when a better product replaces it. The former policy improves the diffusion of new products, but the latter has lower R&D costs.
Evaluation of outcome and prognostic factors in 739 patients with uterine cervix carcinoma: a single institution experience

Aim of the study The aim of this retrospective chart review was to determine the long-term outcomes and identify prognostic factors that impact the survival of patients with cervical cancer. Material and methods A retrospective chart review of 739 patients with International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage I–IV cervical cancer treated with surgery, radiation or chemoradiation was performed. Patient charts were evaluated in terms of demographics, clinical outcomes, and survival. Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were calculated with the Kaplan-Meier method, and differences in survival were compared with the log-rank test. Multivariate analysis was performed with a Cox proportional hazards model to determine the estimated hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for each prognostic factor. Results The Cox proportional hazards model demonstrated that pelvic nodal metastasis (p = 0.018), parametrial invasion (p = 0.015), and presence of disease in the surgical margin (p = 0.011) were all independent prognostic factors for OS. The 5-year OS rate of patients with negative pelvic lymph nodes was 67.1%, which was higher than the rate for those with positive nodes at 49.0% (p < 0.05). The 5-year OS rate was 54.3% for patients with metastasis to the parametrium, 79.2% with a cancer-free parametrium, 60.9% with a cancer-positive surgical margin, 85.4% with a cancer-negative surgical margin, and 64.3% with a 1–3 mm close surgical margin (p < 0.05). Conclusions Assessing pelvic lymph nodes, the parametrium, and surgical margins is important for survival and may aid in better identifying patients who would derive greater benefits from receiving adjuvant therapies and more aggressive treatments.
Induction and Utilization of an ATM Signaling Pathway by Polyomavirus

ABSTRACT Progression from G1 to S is essential for polyomavirus DNA replication and depends on the interaction of large T with the retinoblastoma gene product pRb. This virus-induced replication pathway is accompanied by p53 activation resembling a DNA damage response (12). We sought to determine whether this pathway depends in part on activation of the ATM (ataxia telangiectasia mutated) kinase and whether the virus gains advantages from this pathway beyond that of entry into S. We show that polyomavirus infection activates the S- and G2-phase checkpoints in primary as well as established mouse cells. Infected cells undergo a prolonged S phase compared to uninfected serum-stimulated cells and show no evidence of a G2→M transition before lytic death ensues. Infection is accompanied by increases in ATM activity in vitro and in the level of ATM-S1981-P in vivo. The incubation of infected cells with caffeine, a known ATM inhibitor, did not block entry into S but reduced the rate of viral compared to cellular DNA synthesis. Importantly, caffeine lowered the yields of viral DNA an average of 3- to 6-fold and those of infectious virus by as much as 10-fold. Virus yields were 10-fold lower in ATM −/− p53−/− than in ATM+/+ p53−/− mouse embryo fibroblasts, indicating a p53-independent role of ATM in productive infection. Replacement of the normal SMC1 (structural maintenance of chromosomes, or cohesin) protein, a critical ATM substrate in the DNA repair pathway, with its phosphorylation mutant SMC1S957AS966A also lowered virus yields by roughly 90%. We suggest that polyomavirus activates and utilizes a component(s) of an ATM pathway of DNA repair to prolong S phase and aid its own replication.