Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consumers’ country‐of‐origin (COO) perceptions of imported products in a homogenous less‐developed country

In recent years, consumers worldwide have been having increased access to a wide variety of products and services from other countries. Furthermore, with advances in satellite communication, travel, television outreach and Internet access as well as increased education, consumers all over the world are becoming more aware of the products/services available throughout the world. As a result, the significance of products’ county‐of‐origin images in influencing consumer behavior is increasing rapidly. An understanding of the role of COO images for imported products as against domestic ones would aid in the formulation of better marketing plans, strategies and policies by companies of both domestic and international origin. The purpose of this empirical research study is to examine Bangladeshi consumers’ quality perceptions of products outsourced from nine foreign countries from where the country sources most of its product needs and compare them with their perceptions of domestic products. Study findings indicated that Bangladeshi consumers overwhelmingly preferred western made products, though there were differences in their perceptions across product classes as well as degree of suitability of sourcing countries.
Measuring the effectiveness of allocation algorithms by means of simulation modelling

The allocation of stock to stores is one of the most important processes in the management of a retail chain. In the clothing industry, allocation decisions include, amongst other, the determination of the number of each size (for example small, medium and large) to send to each store. A case study of this problem in Pep Stores Ltd. (PEP), a major retailer in South Africa, is considered. In PEP, products are ordered from factories about seven months before they are available in the stores. They are then shipped to the distribution centra, after which they are distributed per road to the stores. Before the products are ordered, preliminary allocation decisions are made. Once the stock arrives at the distribution centra, decisions about the allocation of products and sizes to the stores are finalised. Allocation decisions are adjusted throughout the season as more recent sales data become available. In this thesis, simulation models are developed to compare four allocation methods in terms of total expected sales, shortages and surpluses. The algorithms include PEP’s current algorithm, an existing algorithm that minimises the expected number of weeks that shortages and surpluses occur at stores, a new algorithm with the objective to maximise expected sales, and a relaxation of the new algorithm. The simulation models are developed according to two modelling approaches. Each approach is applied to Summer and Winter products, resulting in four simulation models. The two simulation approaches deliver similar results for both Summer and Winter products, namely that all four allocation methods are approximately equally effective. iii Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za
Assessing Resource Environments to Target Prevention Interventions in Community Chronic Disease Control

The recent emphasis in public health and medicine on the environmental determinants of chronic illness has created the need for a more comprehensive way to assess barriers and facilitators of healthy living. This paper reports on the approach taken by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded project whose goal is to reduce disparities in diabetes and cardiovascular disease in Los Angeles' African American communities. Findings from this community-based participatory research project suggest that while location is an important variable in evaluating nutritional and physical activity resources, quality and price considerations are at least as useful. We argue that every community or neighborhood is located within a resource environment for medical care, recreation, food, and other health-promoting or health-compromising goods and services that affect the lives and health of its residents.
Towards Providing Lightweight Access to Legacy Applications as Cloud-Based Services

Software as a Service solutions are available for certain business applications. However, many companies still rely on complex legacy applications for business-critical tasks. They cannot easily be accessed via the Internet and integrated into service-oriented landscapes. Re-programming or adaption of these legacy applications is both time-consuming and expensive. Remote access does not allow deep integration with other services and relies on proprietary software. We therefore propose the generic black-box approach REFLECTION (Refurbishing legacy applications) to dynamically rebuild the user interface of applications using native Web technologies. Users can thereby access these applications on-demand as cloud-based services. We also discuss usage scenarios, design and architecture considerations, as well as technical challenges.
Ontology based spatial clustering framework for implicit knowledge discovery

Increasing availability of geo-spatial data, enabled by improvement of technologies in the field of spatial data collection, provides unprecedented opportunities in knowledge creation and distribution. Beside the integration of distributed spatial data, available in Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs), proper processing of data is crucial for knowledge discovery. This work proposes an ontology based spatial knowledge discovery framework based on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards. Data processing in geo-spatial domain is done using spatial clustering algorithm. It is implemented as the web processing service of this framework. Prediction of urban house price is taken as the case study.
Ising nematic quantum critical point in a metal: a Monte Carlo study

The Ising nematic quantum critical point (QCP) associated with the zero temperature transition from a symmetric to a nematic {\it metal} is an exemplar of metallic quantum criticality. We have carried out a minus sign-free quantum Monte Carlo study of this QCP for a two dimensional lattice model with sizes up to $24\times 24$ sites. The system remains non-superconducting down to the lowest accessible temperatures. The results exhibit critical scaling behavior over the accessible ranges of temperature, (imaginary) time, and distance. This scaling behavior has remarkable similarities with recently measured properties of the Fe-based superconductors proximate to their putative nematic QCP.
Influences on compliance with standard precautions among operating room nurses.

BACKGROUND Occupational exposures of health care workers occur because of inconsistent compliance with standard precautions. The purpose of this study was to develop national estimates of compliance with standard precautions and occupational exposure reporting among operating room nurses (specifically, scrub nurses) in Australia and to assess variables that influence compliance. METHODS A descriptive correlation design was used to investigate relationships between variables and compliance, using a theoretical framework, the Health Belief Model, to give meaning to the variables. Data collection was done through mail-out surveys to members of the Australian College of Operating Room Nurses. RESULTS This article reports the results of compliance with the following 2 specific self-protective behaviors: double-gloving and wearing adequate eye protection. Mean compliance rates were 55.6% with always double-gloving during surgical procedures and 92% with always wearing adequate eye protection. In addition, the variable that had the most influence on compliance was the perception of barriers to compliance, specifically, that adhering to standard precautions interfered with duties. CONCLUSION These results have implications for the development of multifaceted perioperative infection control programs, including strategies for prevention, education, and policy development, to improve practices aimed at reducing occupational exposures among this high-risk group.
3.11. Reproductive and Developmental Toxicity

Reproductive toxicity refers to the adverse effects of a substance on any aspect of the reproductive cycle, including the impairment of reproductive function, and the induction of adverse effects in the embryo, such as growth retardation, malformations, and death. All these events and interactions are controlled to a large extent by the body’s endocrine system. Due to the complexity of the mammalian reproductive cycle, it is not possible to model the whole cycle in one in vitro system, in order to detect the effects of a chemical on mammalian reproduction. However, the cycle can be broken down into biological components that can be studied individually or in combination. This has the enormous advantage that the target cell/tissue/organ of an agent can be identified. In certain areas of reproductive toxicity testing, a number of useful and promising in vitro models are already available, which now need to be converted into individual tests with predictive power for safety testing. However, it should be clear that most of the single tests cannot be a replacement, since only in combination with other tests will detailed hazard identification be possible. The individual tests can then be used as building blocks to compose a tiered testing strategy. It should be noted that, until now, most attention has been devoted to developing and validating assays on some components of reproductive toxicology, and in particular, the organogenesis of the embryo, reflecting concerns about teratogenic chemicals, and the interaction of chemicals with steroid receptors, in order to detect endocrine disruptors. In these areas, the building blocks for a testing strategy exist and have been implemented in several laboratories. Other areas (for example, fertility, implantation, and placental and fetal toxicity) have received less attention. A number of the existing in vitro models need to be further developed and their protocols must be optimised before their relevance and reliability can be judged. Nevertheless, we must take care not to be too reductionist in our approach. Many of the processes that need to be modelled (for example gametogenesis) are dependent on cell–cell interactions, as well as on paracrine and endocrine signalling. It is not clear whether cultures of gametes would be useful in the absence of Sertoli cells, or that Sertoli/germ cell cultures would be useful in the absence of endocrine factors. These are questions that need to be explored and answered, if truly predictive models of reproduction are to be created. It should be noted that, unfortunately, many of the well-developed tests rely on tissues derived from intact mammals. This includes the micromass, whole-embryo culture, sliced testis, and ovarian follicle culture methods. In addition, the forthcoming revision of EU Directive 86/609/EEC on the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes, may mean that the protection of embryos and fetuses may be increased, which would have consequences, for example, for whole-embryo culture methods.
Leaning from multinational companies through hiring: An empirical investigation

Labor mobility is mechanism for transfer the technology and innovation from multinational firms (MNEs) to non-multinational firms (non-MNEs). In this paper, we use a unique employer-employee data set in Sweden to provide individual-firm match dataset. Using the special research framework, we provide empirical evidence that hiring workers from MNEs can lead to knowledge spillover to non-MNEs and convert to innovation, even after controlling the region, industry and year effect, individuals’ and firms’ characteristics. We find hiring workers from a domestic MNEs generates stronger spillover effects compare to foreign MNEs and higher-educated workers are better able to transfer the knowledge.
The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics

Phylogenetic methods have revolutionised evolutionary biology and have recently been applied to studies of linguistic and cultural evolution. However, the basic comparative data on the languages of the world required for these analyses is often widely dispersed in hard to obtain sources. Here we outline how our Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database (ABVD) helps remedy this situation by collating wordlists from over 500 languages into one web-accessible database. We describe the technology underlying the ABVD and discuss the benefits that an evolutionary bioinformatic approach can provide. These include facilitating computational comparative linguistic research, answering questions about human prehistory, enabling syntheses with genetic data, and safe-guarding fragile linguistic information.
Nonlinear nitrous oxide (N2O) response to nitrogen fertilizer in on‐farm corn crops of the US Midwest

Row‐crop agriculture is a major source of nitrous oxide (N2O) globally, and results from recent field experiments suggest that significant decreases in N2O emissions may be possible by decreasing nitrogen (N) fertilizer inputs without affecting economic return from grain yield. We tested this hypothesis on five commercially farmed fields in Michigan, USA planted with corn in 2007 and 2008. Six rates of N fertilizer (0–225 kg N ha−1) were broadcast and incorporated before planting, as per local practice. Across all sites and years, increases in N2O flux were best described by a nonlinear, exponentially increasing response to increasing N rate. N2O emission factors per unit of N applied ranged from 0.6% to 1.5% and increased with increasing N application across all sites and years, especially at N rates above those required for maximum crop yield. At the two N fertilizer rates above those recommended for maximum economic return (135 kg N ha−1), average N2O fluxes were 43% (18 g N2O–N ha−1 day−1) and 115% (26 g N2O–N ha−1 day−1) higher than were fluxes at the recommended rate, respectively. The maximum return to nitrogen rate of 154 kg N ha−1 yielded an average 8.3 Mg grain ha−1. Our study shows the potential to lower agricultural N2O fluxes within a range of N fertilization that does not affect economic return from grain yield.
Superior thermal conductivity of carbon nanoscroll based thermal interface materials

As the electronic industry moves toward higher power consumption, integrated functions and minimized geometry, one of the important challenges is the dramatically increasing power density. Thus, efficient thermal management has become a critical requirement for the design of modern electronic packages. A promising approach for this challenge is to find a high performance thermal interface materials (TIMs) made of a material with extremely high thermal conductivity. In this work, an innovative carbon-based nanomaterial, carbon nanoscroll (CNS) will be presented to yield extremely high thermal conductivity and have great potential as the component of TIMs in electronic packages. A CNS can be regarded as a monolayer graphene rolling up in a spiral form with a structure similar to a multi-walled carbon nanotube (CNT). Unlike the closed CNTs, CNS is topologically open-ended, like a Swiss roll. Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, the thermal conductivity of CNSs is investigated to be comparable to graphene, i.e. 3000- 5000 Wm-1K-1. Various factors that impact the thermal transport behavior of CNSs are investigated extensively. The MD simulation results show that the thermal conductivity of CNS is sensitive to the number of CNS walls, temperature, defects and functionalization. When the number of walls increases from 1 to 3, the thermal conductivity of CNSs is reduced by ~8.9%. With environmental temperature rising from 300 K to 400K, the thermal conductivity of CNSs decreases by ~16.5%. When the CNSs have single vacancy defects or functionalized hydrogen, their thermal conductivity decreases gradually with the higher densities of defects or functionalization. The results reveal that the vertical aligned CNSs can be superior to vertical aligned CNTs in serving as the thermal interface materials in electronic packages, due to their higher thermal conductivity. CNSs can also be used as superior thermally conductive fillers in polymeric TIMs. Using effective medium theory, the thermal conductivity of polymeric TIMs composited of epoxy resin matrix and CNS fillers is calculated. It is found that polymeric TIMs with epoxy resin matrix and 10% volume fraction of CNS fillers yield an effective thermal conductivity of ~79 Wm-1K-1, which is one magnitude higher than the commonly used TIMs in current electronic packaging industry. The present work reveals new insights about the extremely high thermal conductivity of CNS and its great potential in improving the thermal management of electronic packages.
The Example of Multivariate Discriminate Analysis in Credit Risk Evaluation of Enterprise

This paper analysis the financial ratios of companies with multi-statistics, Selects seven finance ratios to measure the company's financial performance. With which to construct four-level discrimination functions to measure credit risk of enterprises. According to being tested with review and cross-validation, These models are applied valuable, So these models can be applied to analyzing credit risk of enterprises for bank or other financial institutions. Which is a powerful exploration to credit risk quantitative evaluation of our country.
Preparation of the FhuA (TonA) receptor protein from cell envelopes of an overproducing strain of Escherichia coli K-12

A rapid and simple method for purification of the FhuA receptor protein from cell envelopes of a FhuA-overproducing strain of Escherichia coli K-12 was developed. The overproduction of FhuA was programmed by the thermoamplifiable plasmid pHK232, which carried the fhuACD genes of pLC19-19 of the Clarke and Carbon collection. At low temperature (27 degrees C), pHK232 specified the overproduction of FhuA to levels comparable to those of major outer membrane proteins OmpF, OmpC, and OmpA. The amount of these proteins in the outer membrane was reduced along with overproduction of FhuA. Upon runaway replication of pHK232 at 37 degrees C, the precursor of the FhuA protein, proFhuA, was also accumulated in the cell envelope in amounts similar to FhuA. For extraction of the FhuA protein, crude cell envelopes were washed with 2% Triton X-100-6 M urea to remove less tightly bound proteins. Then FhuA but not proFhuA was solubilized by treating Triton X-100-urea-washed membranes with 1% octylglucoside-1 mM EDTA. This procedure yielded FhuA protein free from other membrane proteins. The amount of lipopolysaccharide and phospholipids was low and ranged from 5 to 15% and 10 to 25% of the weight of the FhuA protein, respectively. As shown by direct inactivation and by competition assays, the isolated FhuA protein retained receptor activity for ferrichrome, albomycin, colicin M, and phages T5 and T1.
Short‐ and long‐term greenhouse gas and radiative forcing impacts of changing water management in Asian rice paddies

Fertilized rice paddy soils emit methane while flooded, emit nitrous oxide during flooding and draining transitions, and can be a source or sink of carbon dioxide. Changing water management of rice paddies can affect net emissions of all three of these greenhouse gases. We used denitrification–decomposition (DNDC), a process‐based biogeochemistry model, to evaluate the annual emissions of CH4, N2O, and CO2 for continuously flooded, single‐, double‐, and triple‐cropped rice (three baseline scenarios), and in further simulations, the change in emissions with changing water management to midseason draining of the paddies, and to alternating crops of midseason drained rice and upland crops (two alternatives for each baseline scenario). We used a set of first‐order atmospheric models to track the atmospheric burden of each gas over 500 years. We evaluated the dynamics of the radiative forcing due to the changes in emissions of CH4, N2O, and CO2 (alternative minus baseline), and compared these with standard calculations of CO2‐equivalent emissions using global warming potentials (GWPs). All alternative scenarios had lower CH4 emissions and higher N2O emissions than their corresponding baseline cases, and all but one sequestered carbon in the soil more slowly. Because of differences in emissions, in radiative forcing per molecule, and in atmospheric time constants (lifetimes), the relative radiative impacts of CH4, N2O, and CO2 varied over the 500‐year simulations. In three of the six cases, the initial change in radiative forcing was dominated by reduced CH4 emissions (i.e. a cooling for the first few decades); in five of the six cases, the long‐term radiative forcing was dominated by increased N2O emissions (i.e. a warming over several centuries). The overall complexity of the radiative forcing response to changing water management could not easily be captured with conventional GWP calculations.
Cytological effects of pesticides. VI. Effect of the insecticide "Rogor" on the mitosis of Vicia faba and Gossypium barbadense.

The insecticide o, o-dimethyl-N-methyl carbamidomethyl-dithiophosphate mar keted under the name "Rogor" proved to be effective in controlling pests of : pea and beans (Sobol and Kozachenko 1964); berry crops (Tolstova 1964); mulberry trees (Kurdyukov 1963, Kurdyukov et al. 1964); apple trees (Shabanova et al. 1962); and cotton (Fadigas and Filho 1961 and Kumar et al. 1966). It seemed of interest to study the effect of "Rogor" on mitosis. The effect of "Rogor" on the mitosis of Vicia faba and Gossypium barbadense is discussed in the present study.
Security analysis of a homomorphic signature scheme for network coding

Recently, Liu and Wang proposed a homomorphic signature scheme for network coding, which was claimed to resist against pollution attacks. However, we show that in Liu and Wang's scheme, after several generations, the adversary is able to launch a successful forgery attack with a high probability. Therefore, Liu and Wang's scheme is not secure. After analyzing the cause of the attack, an improved scheme is given, which can combat against the proposed attack in an efficient way. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
2D mapping and vertex finding method for path planning in autonomous obstacle avoidance robotic system

This work proposes a method for continuous navigation and path planning to avoid obstacles for both indoor and outdoor application. The navigating robot creates 2D map of the traversed area. To avoid collision with obstacles, the robot uses range measurement sensors. The Robot autonomously moves around the unexplored environment safely, detects obstacles through radar vision, collects data, transmits data through wireless module to host computer where the host computer detects suitable path for traversal and navigates the robot from a remote location. Simultaneously, the host computer constructs a 2D map and planes navigation from the field robots collected data.
Dynamic Liquidity Preferences of Mutual Funds

This paper examines the relation between expected market volatility and open-end mutual funds’ liquidity preferences. Using a large panel of actively managed U.S. equity mutual funds, I show that mutual fund managers hold more cash and tilt their holdings more heavily towards liquid stocks during periods when expected market volatility is high. Cross-sectional tests suggest that the dynamic preferences for liquidity are driven by concerns over investor withdrawals during volatile times. Furthermore, I find evidence that this type of dynamic behavior leads to higher fund returns.