Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tooth wear in captive rhinoceroses (Diceros, Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium: Perissodactyla) differs from that of free-ranging conspecifics

Tooth wear can affect body condition, reproductive success and life expectancy. Poor dental health is frequently reported in the zoo literature, and abrasion-dominated tooth wear, which is typical for grazers, has been reported in captive browsing ruminants. The aim of this study was to test if a similar effect is evident in captive rhinoceros species. Dental casts of maxillary cheek teeth of museum specimens of captive black (Diceros bicornis; browser), greater one-horned (Rhinoceros unicornis; intermediate feeder) and white rhinoceroses (Ceratotherium simum; grazer) were analysed using the recently developed extended mesowear method for rhinoceroses. Captive D. bicornis exhibited significantly more abrasion-dominated tooth wear than their free-ranging conspecifics ( p<0.001), whereas captive C. simum exhibited significantly less abrasion-dominated tooth wear, particularly in the posterior cusp of the second molar (p=0.005). In R. unicornis, fewer differences were exhibited between free-ranging and captive animals, but tooth wear was highly variable in this species. In both free-ranging and captive D. bicornis, anterior cusps were significantly more abrasiondominated than posterior cusps (p<0.05), which indicates morphological differences between cusps that may represent functional adaptations. By contrast, tooth wear gradients between free-ranging and captive animals differed, which indicates ingesta-specific influences responsible for inter-tooth wear differ ences. Captive D. bicornis exhibited more homogenous tooth wear than their free-ranging conspecifics, which may be caused by an increase in the absolute dietary abrasiveness and a decrease in relative environmental abrasiveness compared to their freeranging conspecifics. The opposite occurred in C. simum. The results of this study suggest that diets fed to captive browsers are too abrasive, which could result in the premature loss of tooth functionality, leading to reduced food acquisition and processing ability and, consequently, malnourishment.
Development of millimeter-wave devices based on liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate

Millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) technology is a promising solution to meet ever-increasing demand in wireless data transmission capacity thanks to the availability of large bandwidths at mm-Wave frequencies, where the choice of dielectric materials is one of important issues because the high water absorption at mm-Wave frequencies restricts remarkably the choice. Liquid crystal polymer (LCP) is one of materials available for mm-Wave applications and is able to provide cost-effective solution. In this paper, features of LCP will be introduced for applications at V-band (60GHz) and E-band (70GHz, 80GHz) in terms of dielectric constant, feasible structure, process and reliability. Some LCP-based devices such as transmission line, mode transition between different transmission-lines, antenna and filter will be reviewed. It is demonstrated that LCP-based devices actually have shown good performance and LCP is especially suitable for consumer applications that require high reliability and cost-effectiveness.
Who’s to blame or praise?:performance attribution challenges in outsourced service provision in supply chains

Purpose The aim of this paper is to understand the antecedents and effects of performance attribution challenges arising in the provision of business-to-business (B2B) services in supply chains. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on three in-depth case studies of logistics service providers (LSPs) offering supply chain solutions to their clients in Sweden. The analysis of performance attribution challenges and their antecedents and effects is based on 38 semi-structured interviews and review of 43 documents, including contracts and performance monitoring records. Findings Three key antecedents of performance attribution challenges are stressed. Two of these, the inseparability and contestability of service inputs, are closely related to the notion of service co-production. The third antecedent is the limited provider capability in performance data collection and analysis. Performance attribution challenges may result in provider aversion to performance-related risk and have a harmful effect on client relationships, for example, in terms of provider perceptions of opportunism and unfair allocation of gains. These effects can be mitigated through contracting, interventions in performance measurement system design and deployment of relational mechanisms. Research limitations/implications The paper extends the service management literature that emphasises on service co-production by suggesting that inputs of the client firm and its supply chain partners may not only vary in quality but also can be inseparable from provider inputs and highly contestable. It also empirically demonstrates how performance attribution challenges and their antecedents and effects manifest themselves in B2B service provision, as opposed to supply chain settings where the main user of logistics services is the consumer. Practical implications LSP managers should contract for performance based on high-quality and incontestable external inputs they rely upon. Contractual specifications (performance indicators and related incentives) should explicate and consider the inputs required by clients and their supply chain partners to minimise their contestability. Originality/value The study proposes an empirically based framework of the antecedents and effects of performance attribution challenges, an issue that has received scant attention in logistics outsourcing research and the business services literature more broadly.
Competition between L ! evy jumps and continuous drift

Motivated by certain birth–death processes with strongly "uctuating birth rates, we consider a level-crossing problem for a random process being a superposition of a continuous drift to the left and jumps to the right. The lengths of the corresponding jumps follow a one-sided extreme L! evy-law of index ! We concentrate on the case 0¡ ! ¡ 1 and discuss the probability of crossing a left boundary (“extinction”). We show that this probability decays exponentially as a function of the initial distance to the boundary. Such behavior is universal for all ! ¡ 1 and is exempli#ed by an exact solution for the special case ! = 2 . The splitting probabilities are also discussed. c © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 05.40. +j; 02.50. −r
Simple but Efficient Antenna Selection for MISO-OFDM Systems

Simple but efficient antenna selection schemes are proposed for the downlink of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) transmission with multiple transmit antennas over frequency selective fading channels, where transmit antennas are selected at the mobile terminal and the base station is informed of the selected antennas through feedback channel. To obtain the optimal antenna selection, channel frequency responses are required and performances have to be evaluated at all the subcarriers. To reduce the computational complexity at mobile terminal, time-domain channels are utilized for antenna selection in place of channel frequency responses. Our scheme does not guarantee the optimal antenna selection but is shown by numerical simulations to yield reasonable selections. Moreover, by using a specially designed pilot OFDM preamble, an antenna selection without channel estimation is developed. Efficiencies of our suboptimal antenna selections with less computational complexities are verified by numerical simulations.
A pilot study of a school‐based prevention and early intervention program to reduce oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) or conduct disorder (CD) occurs when children's disruptive and antisocial behaviours start to interfere with their academic, emotional and/or social development. Recently, there has been a considerable investment to implement national school‐based early intervention programs to help prevent the onset of ODD/CD.
RAIM and Complementary Kalman Filtering for GNSS Reliability Enhancement

Abtract - The objective of this research is to improve reliability and positioning accuracy of a mobile, standalone GNSS receiver in personal positioning. We propose a novel algorithm that fuses carrier information with code phase measurements and uses the additional security feature of receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) and fault detection and exclusion (FDE) in order to detect and exclude erroneous measurements. The weighted least squares (WLS) method completed with RAIM/FDE is used to compute the GPS position and velocity estimates from pseudorange and delta range measurements. These estimates are combined in a complementary Kalman filter (CKF), which gives the velocity smoothed position estimate. The performance of the algorithm has been verified with pedestrian navigation tests; measurements for the tested algorithms were obtained using a SiRF Star II GPS receiver. Accuracy of the obtained position solutions was compared with a DGPS position solution, recorded using Thales MobileMappers. As the measure of accuracy, we used the horizontal distance of the standalone position solution from the DGPS track, i.e. the cross track error (CTE). The maximum and mean CTE values of 51.8 m and 6.3 m, respectively, were obtained with least squares (LS) position solution. With WLS and RAIM/FDE processed position, the maximum and mean errors were 25.2 m and 3.5 m. Applying CKF on WLS and RAIM/FDE processed position and velocity the values were 8.4 m and 3.1 m. Applying CKF on WLS and RAIM/FDE processed position and WLS velocity the values were 7.7 m and 2.8 m. Thus, adding the CKF to the WLS + RAIM/FDE processing reduces both the maximum and mean errors; the CKF has the largest effect on the maximum errors. Reports of this type of CKF for fusing GPS carrier and code phase information, with the additional security feature by RAIM/FDE, do not exist in the open literature.
Performance measurement practices and employee productivity in the insurance firms in Kenya

This study sought to shed light on the performance measurement practices practiced by insurance firms in Kenya, to establish the level of employee productivity in these firms and if there is a relationship between performance measurement practices on employee productivity in Kenya and sought to achieve three objectives. These were to “determine the extent of adoption of performance measurement practices by insurance firms in Kenya, to establish the level of employee productivity of insurance firms in Kenya and to determine relationship between performance measurement practices and employee productivity of insurance firms in Kenya. ”Primary data was collected by the use of questionnaires distributed amongst 30 insurance firms in Kenya. Data collected was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. SPSS (17) and Microsoft excel software packages were used to conduct the analysis. Results indicate that most insurance firms used the Balanced Scorecard performance measurement model and the strength of the relationship between employee productivity and each of the performance measurement practises reported was moderate. Current study, though with some limitations in term of response and scope of study has served the purpose of initiating researching on performance measurement in the insurance industry, which can be used as a basis for further study and benefit to the management of organizations in the service industry. The study recommended Further research can be carried out to firms in other service sectors to establish the performance measurement practices used and if they influence the productivity of the employees. This would enable managers to focus on the issues that positively influence both individual and organizational performance.
Use of Multipath with MPLS and MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP)

Many MPLS implementations have supported multipath techniques, and many MPLS deployments have used multipath techniques, particularly in very high-bandwidth applications, such as provider IP/MPLS core networks. MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) has strongly discouraged the use of multipath techniques. Some degradation of MPLS-TP Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) performance cannot be avoided when operating over many types of multipath implementations. Using MPLS Entropy Labels (RFC 6790), MPLS Label Switched Paths (LSPs) can be carried over multipath links while also providing a fully MPLS-TP-compliant server layer for MPLS-TP LSPs. This document describes the means of supporting MPLS as a server layer for MPLS-TP. The use of MPLS-TP LSPs as a server layer for MPLS LSPs is also discussed.
Efficient approximate adaptive coding

We describe a mechanism for approximate adaptive coding that makes use of deferred probability update to obtain good throughput rates with no buffering of symbols from the input message. Our proposed mechanism makes use of a novel code calculation process that allows an approximate code for a message of m symbols to be calculated in O(log m) time, improving upon previous methods. We also give analysis that bounds both the total computation time required to encode a message using the approximate code and the inefficiency of the resulting codeword set. Finally, experimental results are given that highlight the role the new method might play in a practical compression system. The current work builds upon two earlier papers. We previously described a mechanism for efficiently calculating a minimum-redundancy code for an alphabet in which there are many symbols with the same frequency of occurrence. We impose a modest amount of additional discipline upon the input frequencies, and show how the calculation of codewords can be performed in time and space logarithmic in the length of the message. The second area we have previously examined is the process of manipulating a code to actually perform compression. We examined mechanisms for encoding and decoding a prefix code that avoid any need for explicit enumeration of the source codewords. This means that we are free to change the source codewords at will during a message without incurring the additional cost of completely recalculating an n entry codebook.
The use of ultrasound‐guided regional anaesthetic techniques in neonates and young infants

Optimal pain therapy during the perioperative period or at the neonatal intensive care unit and subsequent reduced use of opioids and various sedative drugs is an important factor for patients care. The use of various regional anaesthetic techniques in experienced hands provides excellent pain relief and has the potency to reduce the requirement for perioperative mechanical ventilation. Most of regional anaesthesia techniques are applicable also in neonates and young infants and can be used in an effective and safe manner. Ultrasound guidance should be used for all regional anaesthetic techniques to increase efficacy and safety. The spectrum of indications for ultrasound‐guided regional anaesthesia in babies and infants are surgery, selective pain therapy and sympathicolysis. This review reflects an expert‐based description of the most recent developments in ultrasound‐guided regional anaesthetic techniques in babies and infants.
Projectin PEVK domain, splicing variants and domain structure in basal and derived insects

The third elastic filament of striated muscles consists of giant proteins: titin (in vertebrates) and kettin/projectin (in insects). In all three proteins, elasticity is at least partly associated with the so‐called PEVK domain. The projectin PEVK domains of diverse insects are highly divergent compared with an otherwise conserved protein organization. We present the characterization of the PEVK domain in two dragonflies and in human lice. A conserved segment at the end of the PEVK, the NH2‐terminal conserved segment‐1 (NTCS‐1), may serve as an anchor point for projectin to either myosin or actin, providing a mechanical link. The analysis of alternative splicing variants identifies the shortest PEVK isoform as the predominant form in the flight muscles of several insects, possibly contributing to myofibrillar stiffness.
NOTES ON VIRAL MARKETING

• VM – alternative to mass marketing. More generally, direct marketing (DM) – mines available market data to determine customers worth targeting. – customer’s value – instrinsic value vs. network value. – it’s possible: IV < marketing cost, and IV + NV >> MC. – ignoring NV of customer’s misses out on a huge opportunity. • hotmail and ICQ instant messenger largely benefited from VM (i.e., network effect). • VM thesis: customer’s buying decision – driven by desirability of product (for customer) + effect of “neighbors”. • Question: Do we have evidence supporting such a belief? • Answer: movie/song recommendation systems provide indirect evidence. • our plan: initially, consider models based on Markov random fields, proposed by Domingos and Richardson [1]; then consider various optimization problems based on a more tractable probabilistic model of influence and of influence propagation [3]. • Problem is NP-complete in general. Under many circumstances, exhibits a nice property called sub-modularity (in addition to monotonicity). We are able to exploit this to devise simple greedy approximations.
Impact of waist circumference versus adiponectin level on subclinical atherosclerosis

Abstract. Holewijn S, den Heijer M, van Tits LJ, Swinkels DW, Stalenhoef AFH, de Graaf J (Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands). Impact of waist circumference versus adiponectin level on subclinical atherosclerosis. A cross‐sectional analysis in a sample from the general population. J Intern Med 2010; 267:588–598.
Land Use/Cover Change in Mining Areas Using Multi-source Remotely Sensed Imagery

This paper assessed the advantages of monitoring and analyzing Land Use/Cover Change (LUCC) in mining areas via multi-source remotely sensed data. Comparing with the traditional and object-oriented classification methods, the support vector machine classifier is used to land cover classification based on Landsat TM/ETM+ and ASTER data. The landscape pattern indices on patch/class and landscape metrics are chosen to analyze and assess LUCC in mining areas and the land cover changes are derived. Finally, a framework of integrating multi-source and multi-temporal RS information for LUCC in mining areas is proposed.
Stability and Clinical Outcome after Reconstruction of Complete Triangular Fibrocartilage Disruption

Abstract Purpose Patients with symptomatic instability of the distal radioulnar joint (DRUJ) after traumatic complete disruption of the triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFC) are best treated by anatomic reconstruction of the TFC. Postoperative clinical results from the literature are known but the improvement of DRUJ instability remains still challenging to quantify. We recently published a reliable and validated method to measure the instability of the DRUJ. This sonographic method was used to quantify the pre- and postoperative instability in correlation with clinical outcome in patients with complete TFC disruption. Methods 11 patients with complete disruption of the TFC resulting in symptomatic instability of the DRUJ underwent open reconstruction of the TFC. The instability was measured with sonography preoperatively and one year postoperatively including the Patient-Rated Wrist Evaluation score (PRWE Score). Results By subjective measurement, 9 patients showed comparable stability to the contralateral side. By objective measurements, DRUJ stability was completely restored in 6 patients. Seven patients had a very good and good clinical outcome. The dorsovolar shift (preoperative mean 5.2mm, min 2.4, max 7.1; postoperative 3.6mm, min 1.2, max 6.2) was significantly decreased (p < 0.05) and was postoperatively not different to the contralateral healthy side (p > 0.1). PRWE score in the 1 year follow up was 13.8. Three patients remained with significant pain, sonographically two of them were still more lax and one tighter compared to the contralateral side. Conclusions The sonographic measurement technique allows evaluation of the stability pre- and postoperatively and does not always correlate with the qualitative clinical assessment. The described operation technique is effective for treatment of irreplaceable TFC ruptures and significantly improves the DRUJ stability and wrist function one year after surgery, which could be quantified objectively by ultrasound.
Isolation of a thyroid hormone-responsive gene by immunoprecipitation of thyroid hormone receptor-DNA complexes

Thyroid hormone (T3) receptor (TR) is a ligand-dependent transcription factor that acts through specific binding sites in the promoter region of target genes. In order to identify new genes that are regulated by T3, we used anti-TR antiserum to immunoprecipitate TR-DNA complexes from GH4 cell nuclei that had previously been treated with a restriction enzyme. Screening of the immunopurified, cloned DNA for TR binding sites by electrophoretic mobility shift assay yielded 53 positive clones. A subset of these clones was specifically immunoprecipitated with anti-TR antiserum and may therefore represent biologically significant binding sites. One of these clones, clone 122, was characterized in detail. It includes sequences highly related to the NICER long terminal repeat-like element and contains three TR binding sites as determined by DNase I footprinting. Two of the clone 122 TR binding sites are located upstream of the TATA box, and one is located downstream. The TR binding site downstream from the promoter was necessary and sufficient to confer T3-dependent regulation in transient transfection experiments. Expression of a reporter construct under the control of the clone 122 promoter region was activated by TR in the absence of ligand and returned to basal levels after T3 addition. Clone 122 sequences hybridize to at least two different mRNAs of approximately 6 and 10 kb from GH4 cells. The levels of both of these mRNAs increased upon removal of T3. Our studies suggest that specific immunoprecipitation of chromatin allows identification of binding sites and target genes for transcription factors.
Multi-Dimensional Effects of International Trade: The Experience of Chinese Manufacturers

This paper evaluates the e ect of importing and exporting on firm-level productivity and intermediate input prices for Chinese manufacturing firms. Using a rich data set from Chinese manufacturers from 2000 to 2006, we find that international trade a ects firms through two channels: productivity growth and intermediate input prices. Both importing and exporting tend to increase firm productivity; in contrast, while export leads to higher input prices, importing firms enjoy lower input prices (presumably due to the expanded choice of inputs). We consistently estimate production functions in the presence of unobserved input price dispersion when firms may sell to both domestic and foreign markets. This allows us to jointly recover firm-level productivity and input prices for each firm. We use these values to investigate the sources of gains from international trade at the firm level. We also find that firms with higher productivity and lower input prices are more likely to export and import, and tend to export and import more.
Capital Market Efficiency: Evidence from Pakistan

The paper provides evidence on the weak form of efficiency in Pakistani stock market. The predictability of stock prices using historical data is tested by employing unit root test, runs test and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) on twenty companies from the Karachi stock exchange. It was concluded that the capital market is inefficient in the weak form.