Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Positive Mathematical Programming Approaches - Recent Developments in Literature and Applied Modelling

This paper reviews and discusses the more recent literature and application of Positive Mathematical Programming in the context of agricultural supply models. Specifically, advances in the empirical foundation of parameter specifications as well as the economic rationalisation of PMP models – both criticized in earlier reviews – are investigated. Moreover, the paper provides an overview on a larger set of models with regular/repeated policy application that apply variants of PMP. Results show that most applications today avoid arbitrary parameter specifications and rely on exogenous information on supply responses to calibrate model parameters. However, only few approaches use multiple observations to estimate parameters, which is likely due to the still considerable technical challenges associated with it. Equally, we found only limited reflection on the behavioral or technological assumptions that could rationalise the PMP model structure while still keeping the model’s advantages.
A radio and infrared exploration around Cygnus X-3

Aims. To investigate the possible hot spot nature of two previously detected radio sources in the vicinity of the Cygnus X-3 microquasar. Methods. We present the results of a radio and near infrared exploration of the several arc-minute field around the well known galactic relativistic jet source Cygnus X-3 using the Very Large Array and the Calar Alto 3.5 m telescope. Results. The data on which this paper is based do not support the hot spot hypothesis. Instead, our new observations suggest that these sources are most likely background or foreground objects. None of them appears to be even barely extended, as would be expected if they were part of a bow shock structure. Our near infrared observations also include a search for extended emission in the Bracket γ (2.166 μ m) and H 2 (2.122 μ m) lines as possible tracers of shocked gas in the Cygnus X-3 surroundings. The results were similarly negative and the corresponding upper limits are reported.
Case Study Method: Key Issues, Key Texts

Introduction PART ONE: INTRINSIC CASE STUDY AND GENERALIZABILITY The Case Study Method in Social Inquiry - Robert E Stake The Only Generalization Is - Yvonna S Lincoln and Egon G Guba There Is No Generalization Generalizability and the Single Case Study - Robert Donmoyer Increasing the Generalizability of Case Study Research - Janet Ward Schofield Case Study and Generalization - Roger Gomm, Martyn Hammersley and Peter Foster PART TWO: CASE STUDY AND THEORY Case Study and Theory in Political Science - Harry Eckstein Case Study and Situational Analysis - J Clyde Mitchell The Logical Structure of Analytic Induction - W S Robinson The Quest for Universals in Sociological Research - Ralph H Turner Small N's and Big Conclusions - Stanley Lieberson An Examination of the Reasoning in Comparative Studies Based on a Small Number of Cases Cases, Causes, Conjunctures, Stories, Imagery - Howard S Becker Case Study and Theory - Martyn Hammersley, Roger Gomm and Peter Foster
Pain Relief and Opioid Requirements in the First 24 Hours after Surgery in Patients Taking Buprenorphine and Methadone Opioid Substitution Therapy

The number of patients in buprenorphine opioid substitution therapy (BOST) or methadone opioid substitution therapy (MOST) programs is increasing. If these patients require surgery, it is generally agreed that methadone should be continued perioperatively. While some also recommend that buprenorphine is continued, concerns that it may limit the analgesic effectiveness of full mu-opioid agonists have led others to suggest that it should cease before surgery. However, no good evidence exists for either course of action. Therefore, we undertook a retrospective cohort study comparing pain relief and opioid requirements in the first 24 hours after surgery in 22 BOST and 29 MOST patients prescribed patient-controlled analgesia. There were no significant differences in pain scores (rest and movement), incidence of nausea or vomiting requiring treatment, or sedation between the BOST and MOST patient groups overall, or between those patients within each of these groups who had and had not received their methadone or buprenorphine the day after surgery. There were also no significant differences in patient-controlled analgesia requirements between BOST and MOST patient groups overall, or between patients who did or did not receive MOST on the day after surgery. BOST patients who were not given their usual buprenorphine the day after surgery used significantly more patient-controlled analgesia opioid (P=0.02) compared with those who had received their dose. These results confirm that continuation of buprenorphine perioperatively is appropriate.
The structure of periodontal tissues formed following guided tissue regeneration therapy of intra-bony defects in the monkey.

OBJECTIVE To describe the periodontal tissues formed following guided tissue regeneration (GTR) therapy of intra-bony defects (IBD). METHODS Eight adult Macaca fascicularis monkeys were used. Proximal IBD were created at the mandibular second pre-molars and second molars. After 3 months, GTR surgery was performed. The animals were euthanized at 6 months and 2 years after surgery. Block biopsies were harvested, and prepared for histological analysis. RESULTS At 6 months the defect had healed with new cementum (NC), periodontal ligament (PDL) and bone. The NC seemed to be firmly anchored to the dentin. Supra-crestally, the NC consisted of a 10 microm thick layer of acellular extrinsic fibre cementum (AEFC). Sub-crestally, the NC was considerably thicker and consisted of an inner layer of AEFC and an outer thicker layer of cellular mixed fibre cementum (CMFC). The extrinsic fibre density amounted to about 10 fibres per 100 microm. The PDL was wider than the pristine PDL and widened in coronal direction. After 2 years of healing, the thickness of the NC in the sub-crestal compartment had increased by about 20 microm and the fibre density had increased by about 50%. CONCLUSION After 2 years of healing the structure of the regenerated tissues resembled that of pristine periodontal tissues.
Decoding Intention at Sensorimotor Timescales

The ability to decode an individual's intentions in real time has long been a ‘holy grail’ of research on human volition. For example, a reliable method could be used to improve scientific study of voluntary action by allowing external probe stimuli to be delivered at different moments during development of intention and action. Several Brain Computer Interface applications have used motor imagery of repetitive actions to achieve this goal. These systems are relatively successful, but only if the intention is sustained over a period of several seconds; much longer than the timescales identified in psychophysiological studies for normal preparation for voluntary action. We have used a combination of sensorimotor rhythms and motor imagery training to decode intentions in a single-trial cued-response paradigm similar to those used in human and non-human primate motor control research. Decoding accuracy of over 0.83 was achieved with twelve participants. With this approach, we could decode intentions to move the left or right hand at sub-second timescales, both for instructed choices instructed by an external stimulus and for free choices generated intentionally by the participant. The implications for volition are considered.
Making It Real: Promoting Novice Teachers' Critical Perspectives on Educational Issues through Structured Debates

There is a sense of ambivalence with regard to the place of the knowledge of the foundations of education in the makeup of an effective teacher in today’s lexicon of the term. The reason for the marginalization of the field often points to the perspective that the discourse that comprises the scope of educational foundations is too abstract to provide guidance to the everyday concerns of practitioners. In this interpretive and self-exploratory study, the author triangulated a) literature on the place of educational foundations of education in teacher education, b) description of a critical issues course that used structured debate to promote novice teachers’ critical perspectives on educational issues, and c) interpretive analysis of 21 preservice teachers’ reflections on implemented debates to answer the questions that guided the study. The questions were 1. ) What is the place of the study of the foundations of education in the preparation of teachers for the 21st century? 2. ) Did the use of structured debate provoke novice teachers’ critical perspectives on educational issues? The findings of the study showed that the use of structured debate elicited critical insight into the meaning and nature of educational issues from most of the participating novice teachers. The conclusion from the study supported the idea that the ability to exercise critical perspectives on educational policy and practice issues is a quintessential element that separates self-renewing and ever-maturing educators from teaching technicians.
Identification of Maize Breeding Markers through Investigations of Proteins Associated with Aflatoxin-Resistance

The goal of a collaborative research project between International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria and ARS-Southern Regional Research Center (SRRC) in New Orleans is to develop maize inbred lines with resistance against aflatoxin contamination by Aspergillus flavus. A second goal is to identify gene markers in these lines to facilitate their use in U.S. breeding and African national programs. To accomplish this, comparative proteomics of near-isogenic lines varying in aflatoxin accumulation is being employed to identify kernel resistance "associated proteins with (RAPs). A number of RAPs have been identified and several. further characterized through physiological and biochemical investigations conducted to determine a potential role in resistance and, therefore, fitness as breeding markers. Three RAPs, a trypsin inhibitor, pathogenesis-related protein and glyoxalase I were investigated as well, using RNAi gene silencing and plant transformation. Results of proteome and characterization studies are discussed.
PP is as Hard as the Polynomial-Time Hierarchy

In this paper, two interesting complexity classes, PP and $ \oplus {\text{P}}$, are compared with PH, the polynomial-time hierarchy. It is shown that every set in PH is polynomial-time Turing reducible to a set in PP, and PH is included in ${\text{BP}} \cdot \oplus {\text{P}}$. As a consequence of the results, it follows that ${\text{PP}} \subseteq {\text{PH}}$ (or $\oplus {\text{P}} \subseteq {\text{PH}}$) implies a collapse of PH. A stronger result is also shown: every set in PP(PH) is polynomial-time Turing reducible to a set in PP.
Design and stability of indirect adaptive control for nonlinear system

Structures are developed for the control and estimation parts of the indirect adaptive scheme which are more appropriate for time-varying plants. In contrast to the usual pointwise schemes, the new controller structure can meet the control need. In addition, for successful estimation, the overall plant is not restricted to varying slowly with time. The new estimator and control law are combined using the certainty equivalence principle to develop an indirect adaptive control scheme meeting the control objective for plants with time-varying parameters whose fast varying parts are of known form and unknown parts are slow in the mean. The stability of closed-loop system was proved, and the convergence of the state vector to a residual set around the equilibrium, whose size can be set by the choice of several design constants is demonstrated by the simulation results.
Efficient topology construction from triangle soup

Triangular mesh is one of the most popular shape representations in computer graphics and the CAD/CAM/ CAE area. In this paper we present a memory and time efficient topology construction algorithm from triangle soup, which is a set of triangles without connectivity information. The proposed algorithm consists of the following steps: (1) vertex merging, (2) internal edge linking, (3) multi-disk vertex splitting, and (4) boundary gap stitching. Typical triangle soup comes in the form of an STL file, and topology construction work encounters non-manifold cases for various causes, which should be converted to 2-manifold models for many downstream processes such as rapid prototyping and tool path generation. The proposed algorithm uses a light-weight vertex-based data structure (adapted from a 'corner table' structure), and does not need to construct a full non-manifold topology information. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is shown by empirical tests on practical examples.
What /r/ Sounds Like in Kansai Japanese: A Phonetic Investigation of Liquid Variation in Unscripted Discourse

Unlike Canadian English which has two liquid consonant phonemes, /ɹ, l/ (as in right and light), Japanese is said to have a single liquid phoneme whose realization varies widely both among speakers and within the speech of individuals. Although variants of the /r/ sound in Japanese have been described as flaps, laterals, and weak plosives, research that has sought to quantitatively describe this phonetic variation has not yet been carried out. The aim of this thesis is to provide such quantification based on 1,535 instances of /r/ spoken by four individuals whose near-natural, unscripted conversations had been recorded as part of a larger corpus of unscripted Japanese maintained by Dr. Nick Campbell of Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), Kyoto, Japan.
Applying Effective Dynamic Frequency Scaling Method in Contactless Smart Card

A creative dynamic frequency scaling method in contactless smart card is presented for the first time. A low power magnetic field detection circuit, a simple load detection circuit, the quick load comparator and the simple clock switch scheme in the method are also presented. The test result shows that the longest communication distance is improved from 6 to 8 cm compared to the same contactless smart card (CSC) chip using the fixed frequency divided by 4 and the transaction time is saved by 18% in average, compared to the same CSC chip using the fixed frequency divided by 8.
Understanding IT Governance Success And Its Impact: Results From An Interview Study

Owing to the increasing regulatory pressure and the need for aligned IT decisions, governance of IT has become important for both academia and practice. However, knowledge that integrates the determinants and consequences of IT governance success remains scarce. Although some studies investigate single aspects of IT governance success and its impact, none of these combine these factors into a comprehensive and integrated model. To address this gap, our research aims at understanding what factors influence and result from successful IT governance, and at determining how they can be translated into a model to explain IT governance success and its impact. Therefore, we conducted 28 interviews in 19 companies across different industries. Based on the analysis, we present a model that helps understanding what factors make IT governance successful and how IT governance contributes to an IT organization’s success and, eventually, unfolds to the overall organization. Thus, it allows organizational decision-makers to develop an effective IT governance implementation and to explain the implications of successful IT governance.
Modeling and design of the LLC resonant converter used in solar array simulator

An LLC resonant converter has been used to provide the electrical characteristics of solar arrays. In this paper, its small signal model is derived based on the extended describing function concept. The corresponding frequency response can be easily obtained from IsSpice simulation of the equivalent circuit model. Furthermore, a closed-loop compensation controller is designed according to the derived small-signal model. The experimental measurements have really proved that the stable and fast transient response can be achieved in the system. The system output voltage and current can be adjusted simultaneously to match the electrical characteristics of photovoltaic output.
Ordered Tomlinson-Harashima precoding in multiuser MIMO relay system

In this paper, we discuss a multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay system with direct link based on ordered Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (THP). THP with fairness-guaranteed power loading is applied with both zero-forcing (ZF) and minimum mean square error (MMSE) criteria. The direct and relay links are combined to obtain the diversity gain. The maximum ratio combining (MRC) weights are derived. Applying the modified V-BLAST ordering algorithm to choose the best order of interference pre-elimination, the proposed scheme can improve the average bit error ratio (BER) performance.
On the measurement of microwave vegetation properties: some guidelines for a protocol

In support of algorithm development for the multiangle interferometric synthetic L-band radiometer on the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity sensor (SMOS) and for possible synergistic approaches with higher frequency microwave radiometers such as the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (C-band), an inventory has been made of polarization, angular, and frequency dependencies of vegetation optical depth and single-scattering albedo. Both parameters form the basis of a zero-order radiative transfer model, which is often used for inverse modeling of microwave observations from space. The inventory is based on experimental data published in the literature. Underlying models have been reviewed because data comparison is impossible without due consideration of the theoretical background. In general, it can be concluded that both single-scattering albedo and optical depth are angular, polarization, and frequency dependent. This dependence, however, depends on the canopy type and structure. Angular dependence implies that the cosine correction for the slant path through the canopy is no longer valid. Knowledge of these dependencies, therefore, is important for processing multiangle observations such as those anticipated for the planned SMOS and for possible synergistic approaches with C-band observations. Because of the existing variety of methods and procedures found in the literature, some guidelines for a protocol for field experiments are proposed in order to facilitate intercomparison of experimental results and proper incorporation of the parameters in zero-order transfer models.
Validation of the Thai SCOPA-sleep scale for assessment of sleep and sleepiness in patients with Parkinson's disease.

OBJECTIVE To validate the Thai version of the Scale for Outcomes in Parkinson 's disease-Sleep Scale (SCOPA-Sleep scale)for assessment of nighttime sleep problems (NSP) and daytime sleepiness (DS). MATERIAL AND METHOD A Thai version of SCOPA-Sleep scale has been developed with the permission of the originator. Fifty-one patients with Parkinson's disease were asked to complete the Thai SCOPA-Sleep scale (consisting of NSP and DS sections), plus the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). A second group of twenty patients completed the Thai SCOPA-Sleep scale, twice, two weeks apart. The reliability and validity were subsequently analyzed. RESULTS The Thai SCOPA-Sleep scale showed a Cronbach 's alpha coefficient of 0.87 and 0.74 for SCOPA-NSP and SCOPA-DS, respectively with no significant difference between initial and follow-up scores. The content validity of SCOPA-NSP and SCOPA-DS were 0.9 and 0.9, respectively. There was a strong correlation between the Thai SCOPA-NSP and PSQI as well as the Thai SCOPA-DS and ESS (p < 0.01 and p < 0.01, respectively). CONCLUSION The Thai SCOPA-Sleep scale is a reliable, valid instrument for assessing NSP and DS
Thinning akamai

Global-scale Content Distribution Networks (CDNs), such as Akamai, distribute thousands of servers worldwide providing a highly reliable service to their customers. Not only has reliability been one of the main design goals for such systems - they are engineered to operate under severe and constantly changing number of server failures occurring at all times. Consequently, in addition to being resilient to component or network outages, CDNs are inherently considered resilient to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks as well. In this paper, we focus on Akamai's (audio and video) streaming service and demonstrate that the current system design is highly vulnerable to intentional service degradations. We show that (i) the discrepancy among streaming flows' lifetimes and DNS redirection timescales, (ii) the lack of isolation among customers and services, (e.g., video on demand vs. live streaming), (iii) a highly transparent system design, (iv) a strong bias in the stream popularity, and (v) minimal clients' tolerance for low-quality viewing experiences, are all factors that make intentional service degradations highly feasible. We demonstrate that it is possible to impact arbitrary customers' streams in arbitrary network regions: not only by targeting appropriate points at the streaming network's edge, but by effectively provoking resource bottlenecks at a much higher level in Akamai's multicast hierarchy. We provide countermeasures to help avoid such vulnerabilities and discuss how lessons learned from this research could be applied to improve DoS-resiliency of large-scale distributed and networked systems in general.
A constrained frequent pattern mining system for handling aggregate constraints

Frequent pattern mining searches data for sets of items that are frequently co-occurring together. Most of algorithms find all the frequent patterns. However, there are many real-life situations in which users is interested in only some small portions of the entire collection of frequent patterns. To mine patterns that satisfy the user aggregate constraints in the form of agg(X.attr)θconst, properties of constraints are exploited. When agg is sum, the mining can be complicated. Existing mining systems or algorithms usually make assumptions about the value or range of X.attr and/or const. In this paper, we propose a frequent pattern mining system that avoids making these assumptions and that effectively handles the sum constraints as well as other aggregate constraints.
The relationship between DNA adduct formation by benzo [ a ] pyrene and expression of its activation enzyme cytochrome P 450 1 A 1 in rat

Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) is a human carcinogen requiring metabolic activation prior to reaction with DNA. Cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A1 is the most important hepatic and intestinal enzyme in both BaP activation and detoxification. CYP1A2 is also capable of oxidizing BaP, but to a lesser extent. The induction of CYP1A1/2 by BaP and/or β-naphthoflavone in liver and small intestine of rats was investigated. Both BaP and β-naphthoflavone induced CYP1A expression and increased enzyme activities in both organs. Moreover, the induction of CYP1A enzyme activities resulted in an increase in formation of BaP-DNA adducts detected by Ppostlabeling in rat liver and in the distal part of small intestine in vivo. The increases in CYP1A enzyme activity were also associated with bioactivation of BaP and elevated BaPDNA adduct levels in ex vivo incubations of microsomes of both organs with DNA and BaP. These findings indicate the stimulation effects of both compounds on BaP-induced carcinogenesis.
An image analysis‐based approach for automated counting of cancer cell nuclei in tissue sections

Semiquantitative evaluation and manual cell counting are the commonly used procedures to assess positive staining of molecular markers in tissue sections. Manual counting is also a laborious task in which consistent objectivity is difficult to achieve. Recently, image analysis has been explored, but the studies reported were limited to histological images acquired at high magnification and containing uniformly stained cells.