Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A decision tool for supplier selection that takes into account power and performance

Companies select their suppliers to provide required performance while being successful partners. An important aspect of collaboration is the power relationship between the company and its suppliers. Although the significance of power in supplier selection is acknowledged, published work rarely includes assessment of power. An empirical study on selecting suppliers for new product developments in a major European diesel engine manufacturing company, supported by three smaller studies with electronic engineering companies, frames overall questions regarding the importance of incorporating power into supplier selection and how this might be achieved. This research proposes an approach that assesses both performance and power and integrates the assessment results by modelling the relative effects of power and performance. It positions the suppliers into six scenarios (ideal, satisfying, tolerable, unfavourable, risky and tough) which depict to what extent a supplier is ‘suitable’ to work with. A reverse analysis reviews the relationship when several suppliers appear suitable. An assessment method is developed incorporating both subjective and objective data for qualitative and quantitative criteria. It combines two decision making methods, AHP and TOPSIS, with triangular fuzzy numbers. Multiple judgements from several decision makers are synthesised. This method is adapted for performance assessment of single, group and cross-group suppliers. Weights are calculated for the criteria, and combined with calculations of supplier performance against each criterion to provide an overall assessment and supplier profile. Power is quantified against a set of power determinants and power relations (supplier dominance, buyer dominance and balanced) are determined. The effects of supplier perceptions (objective, optimistic and pessimistic) are estimated in the calculation. The proposed approach involves complex calculations and a prototype software tool is developed with graphical interfaces. The tool includes performance criteria and power determinants collected from literature and allows users to define new ones. Application to an agriculture case enables the sustainable performance of suppliers (farmers) to be evaluated and compared.
Adaptive dual cluster heads collaborative target tracking in wireless sensor networks

Dynamic clustering is an effective approach in target tracking. However, the energy consumption of cluster head is relatively high, and the failure of cluster head will lead to target loss. In this paper, we proposed a new cluster with two heads which can track the targets collaboratively based on improved extended Kalman filter with a changeable sampling period. An auxiliary cluster head, selected according to the principles of maximum residual energy and shortest distance, is used to predict the target trajectory using improved EKF. The targets are tracked collaboratively by the cluster head and auxiliary head with a lightweight fault-tolerant mechanism. An adaptive sampling algorithm is designed based on average velocity estimation to change the sampling period, and the target loss probability and energy consumption are reduced significantly. The protocol is tested extensively and compared to other existing methods. The results clearly indicate the benefits of our algorithm in terms of the tracking accuracy, energy consumption and target loss probability.
The effect of cholesteryl ester transfer protein -629C->A promoter polymorphism on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol is dependent on serum triglycerides.

CONTEXT The -629C-->A cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) promoter polymorphism is a determinant of HDL cholesterol (HDL-C). The effect of the closely linked CETP TaqIB polymorphism on HDL-C has been suggested to be modified by obesity and hyperinsulinemia. OBJECTIVE Because the CETP-mediated cholesteryl ester transfer out of HDL is stimulated by high triglycerides, we hypothesized that triglycerides modify the effect of the CETP -629C-->A promoter polymorphism on HDL-C. DESIGN In 7083 nondiabetic subjects of the PREVEND population, the -629C-->A promoter polymorphism, HDL-C, serum triglycerides, waist circumference, and insulin resistance (HOMA(ir)) were determined. Serum apolipoprotein A-I was available in 6948 subjects. The TaqIB polymorphism was also assessed. SETTING The study is set in the general community. RESULTS HDL-C and serum apolipoprotein A-I were on average 0.14 mmol/liter and 0.05 g/liter higher in -629AA (22.9%) compared to -629CC (26.8%) homozygotes (P < 0.001 for both). This genotype effect on HDL-C was on average 0.15 mmol/liter in the lowest triglyceride tertile but only 0.08 mmol/liter in the highest tertile (P < 0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that HDL-C was determined by the CETP promoter variant (P < 0.001), gender (P < 0.001), triglycerides (P < 0.001), and interactions between triglycerides and genotype (P < 0.05), between triglycerides and gender (P < 0.05), and between genotype and gender (P < 0.05), independently from waist, HOMA(ir), alcohol use, age, and use of lipid-lowering drugs. The TaqIB polymorphism also interacted with triglycerides on HDL-C. The -629C-->A promoter polymorphism did not interact with obesity and HOMA(ir) on HDL-C. CONCLUSIONS The HDL-C-raising effect of the CETP -629A allele is diminished with higher triglycerides, which may be explained by a predominant effect of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins over circulating CETP itself on cholesteryl ester transfer out of HDL with rising triglycerides.
A Homotopy for Solving Large, Sparse and Structured Fixed Point Problems

We consider here the problem of solving a system of n nonlinear equations in n variables, when n is large, but the underlying mapping has a sparse Jacobian, and is also structured. We present a homotopy, having a variable dimension feature, whose implementation in a PL algorithm effectively exploits the sparsity of the Jacobian and separability of the mapping. The implementation given here uses the Cholesky factorization and is thus stable. An application to a large system is also discussed.
Economic Contributions of Jima Ganati Farmers’ Cooperative Union to Farmers: The Case of Maize Producer Farmers

This article investigates the impact evaluation of Jima Ganati farmers’ cooperative union intervention in economic activities which is measured in terms of income and productivity as the best means to improve the living standard of farmers’ household. For this, cross-sectional data were collected from 280 households purposively selected from five kebeles consisting of 204 member farmers and 76 non-member farmers. The analytical procedure has involved two stages: in the first stage, descriptive analyses were used to detect existence of difference in various outcome indicators between member farmers and non-member farmers. In the second stage, I applied a semi-parametric impact evaluation method of propensity score matching with some matching algorithms to estimate the impact of the intervention on various impact indicators. Combined use of these alternative estimation techniques has enabled us to arrive at consistent results. Our results show that member farmers scored statistically significant higher maize crop income test score than non-member farmers and they are also identified with statistically significant higher total productivity. Although the crop income and productivity test scores show significant changes, some constraints were identifiedin the economic contributions of the cooperative union to farmersand theseinclude: high turnover of the union mangers, lack of skill in cooperative development, rent seeking behavior of the cooperative leaders, lack oftransparency, Accordingly, a number of recommendations are suggested.
Diffusion du CO2 dans le mésophylle des plantes à métabolisme C3

L'activite photosynthetique foliaire est fonction de la disponibilite en CO2 au niveau de la Rubisco dans le chloroplaste. La disponibilite en CO2 est determinee par une serie de limitations au transfert du CO2 entre l'air ambiant et les sites enzymatiques de la Rubisco, qui sont a l'origine d'un gradient de concentration. La limitation a la diffusion du CO2 dans le mesophylle, d'abord dans le reseau des espaces gazeux intercellulaires puis dans la cellule, contribue de maniere tres significative a ce gradient. Cette limitation est quantifiee sous la forme d'une conductance au transfert du CO2 : la conductance interne (gi). Ce travail de these a ete consacre a l'etude de la diffusion du CO2 dans le mesophylle des plantes ayant un metabolisme photosynthetique de type C3. Nous avons tout d'abord ameliore l'estimation de gi grâce une methode d'analyse simultanee des echanges gazeux et de la fluorescence chlorophyllienne. Nous avons ensuite analyse les deux composantes determinant gi : la limitation dans les espaces gazeux intercellulaires du mesophylle, et la limitation en phase liquide cellulaire. Nous montrons, grâce a une approche originale d'estimation de gi dans une atmosphere a base d'helium, chez le peuplier, le rosier, le chene vert et le laurier rose, que la totalite de gi est determinee par la limitation en phase liquide cellulaire. Enfin, nous avons etudie la variabilite interspecifique et phenotypique de gi. Nous confirmons l'existence d'une correlation entre gi et l'assimilation maximale pour les differentes especes etudiees (especes citees ci-dessus, et chez le noyer et le lamier), et nous montrons que la presumee distinction entre ligneux presentant une faible gi et herbacees presentant une forte gi n'est pas pertinente. Nous montrons egalement que chez le noyer, une reponse de gi accompagne l'acclimatation foliaire a l'environnement lumineux, et proposons une parametrisation de gi pour modeliser la photosynthese.
Investigation of Ambiguity based Sentiment Analysis for Product Recommendation on E-Commerce Portal

: Rapid growth of internet and their relevant applications make it a backbone of routine life. Hectic schedules and busy routine life make it impractical to visit and purchase product personally. E-commerce based shopping portals are trying to fulfil this gap and helping users to save their time and money. Recommendation system are playing crucial role in this dimension because they help users for easy selection and reduce shopping time. Different studies are under going in dimension of product recommendation for e-commerce portals and improve recommendation process with minimum shopping time and find that most of the recommendation systems only work on product selection frequency and user rating. User’s previous purchasing record and other user’s sentiments about product can play significant role to make trust on particular product during online shopping. A survey has been done in this dimension on different relevant work to explore the gap area in conventional system and possibilities of solution to overcome the same. This paper provides a survey report on need of opinion mining with respect to e-commerce portals and shopping websites.
MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS OF THE COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION IN THE ERA OF SHARING ECONOMY

The aim of this study was to analyze the motivational factors of collaborative consumption in the era of the sharing economy, as a part of consumers’ behavior by online media platforms. Collaborative consumption is about people’s willingness to share and to collaborate to meet certain needs. The study used the qualitative method with interviews for the data’s collection. The context of the study was using consumers who had experience of using Airbnb, Go-Jek, and selling their product via online media. Twenty-four respondents were obtained for the interviews. The length of each interview was approximately 1.5 hours. The analysis of this shifting consumption across its different facets provided an analysis of the motivational aspect of sharing resources, and the change in consumer consumption patterns. The motivational research examined the underlying reasons for consumers to act, and to undertake collaborative consumption; home sharing and selling second-hand goods were analyzed from the perspectives of their economic aspects, utility reasons, social orientation, emotional aspects, ecological aspects and personal values.
Relevance criteria for e-commerce: a crowdsourcing-based experimental analysis

We discuss the concept of relevance criteria in the context of e-Commerce search. A vast body of research literature describes the beyond-topical criteria used to determine the relevance of the document to the need. We argue that in an e-Commerce scenario there are some differences, and novel and different criteria can be used to determine relevance. We experimentally validate this hypothesis by means of Amazon Mechanical Turk using a crowdsourcing approach.
OPTIMUM SITING AND SIZING OF ACTIVE POWER LINE CONDITIONERS IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM USING DIFFERENTIAL ALGORITHM

Active Power Line Conditioners (APLCs) are considered the most efficient device for mitigation of power system harmonics. In this paper, a problem of allocation and sizing of multiple active power-line conditioners (APLCs) in distorted power distribution systems is handled with novel formulation. The utilized objective function comprises two main factors such as reduction of total harmonic distortion and the total cost of APLCs. The formulated problem is solved by four different optimization techniques GA, PSO, Hybrid GA-PSO and DE. To evaluate the competence of the proposed formulation, the IEEE 18bus and 69 bus distorted distribution test systems are employed and investigated with various number of APLCs placement. These cases are based on the discrete and limited size for APLCs, requiring the optimization method to solve the constrained and discrete nonlinear problems. Therefore, all the evolutionary algorithms used utilize an integer optimizer. Simulation results confirmed the capability and effectiveness of the proposed formulation and DE algorithm works well in the allocation and sizing of multiple APLCs in a test power system compared with other heuristic algorithms.
Female aggression predicts mode of paternity acquisition in a social lizard

Individual differences in behaviour are ubiquitous in nature. Despite the likely role of selection in maintaining these differences, there are few demonstrations of their fitness consequences in wild populations and, consequently, the mechanisms that link behavioural variation to variation in fitness are poorly understood. Specifically, the consequences of consistent individual differences in behaviour for the evolution of social and mating strategies have rarely been considered. We examined the functional links between variation in female aggression and her social and mating strategies in a wild population of the social lizard Egernia whitii. We show that female Egernia exhibit temporally consistent aggressive phenotypes, which are unrelated to body size, territory size or social density. A female's aggressive phenotype, however, has strong links to her mode of paternity acquisition (within- versus extra-pair paternity), with more aggressive females having more offspring sired by extra-pair males than less aggressive females. We discuss the potential mechanisms by which female aggression could underpin mating strategies, such as the pursuit/acceptance of extra-pair copulations. We propose that a deeper understanding of the evolution and maintenance of social and mating systems may result from an explicit focus on individual-level female behavioural phenotypes and their relationship with key reproductive strategies.
Inspection of aeronautical mechanical parts with a pan-tilt-zoom camera: an approach guided by the computer-aided design model

Abstract. We focus on quality control of mechanical parts in aeronautical context using a single pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera and a computer-aided design (CAD) model of the mechanical part. We use the CAD model to create a theoretical image of the element to be checked, which is further matched with the sensed image of the element to be inspected, using a graph theory–based approach. The matching is carried out in two stages. First, the two images are used to create two attributed graphs representing the primitives (ellipses and line segments) in the images. In the second stage, the graphs are matched using a similarity function built from the primitive parameters. The similarity scores of the matching are injected in the edges of a bipartite graph. A best-match-search procedure in the bipartite graph guarantees the uniqueness of the match solution. The method achieves promising performance in tests with synthetic data including missing elements, displaced elements, size changes, and combinations of these cases. The results open good prospects for using the method with realistic data.
E-Cigarette Marketing On Social Networking Sites

ABSTRACT This study examined exposure to three types of e-cigarette marketing—sponsored advertisements, brand pages, and user-created groups—on social networking sites and their influence on health-related outcomes. Results (N = 1,016) indicated that e-cigarette users who joined user-created groups had significantly more negative attitudes toward quitting and lower behavioral control, intention to quit, and self-efficacy than those who were exposed to sponsored advertisements or who followed brand pages. Exposure to two or more types of marketing had an additive effect on health-related outcomes. Social identification, attention to social comparison, and subjective norms also moderated between exposure to e-cigarette marketing and key dependent measures.
Characterization of a post‐translational modification of Campylobacter flagellin: identification of a sero‐specific glycosyl moiety

The flagellins of Campylobacter spp. differ antigenically. In variants of C. coli strain VC167, two antigenic flagellin types determined by sero‐specific antibodies have been described (termed T1 and T2). Post‐translational modification has been suggested to be responsible for T1 and T2 epitopes, and, using mild periodate treatment and biotin hydrazide labelling, flagellin from both VC167‐T1 and T2 were shown to be glycosylated. Glycosylation was also shown to be present on other Campylobacter flagellins. The ability to label all Campylobacter flagellins examined with the lectin LFA demonstrated the presence of a terminal sialic acid moiety. Furthermore, mild periodate treatment of the flagellins of VC167 eliminated reactivity with T1 and T2 specific antibodies LAH1 and LAH2, respectively, and LFA could also compete with LAH1 and LAH2 antibodies for binding to their respective flagellins. These data implicate terminal sialic acid as part of the LAH strain‐specific epitopes. However, using mutants in genes affecting LAH serorecognition of flagellin it was demonstrated that sialic acid alone is not the LAH epitope. Rather, the epitope(s) is complex, probably involving multiple glycosyl and/or amino acid residues.
Neuropsychological deficits in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 clade C-seropositive adults from South India

Most studies of cognitive functioning in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-seropositive (HIV-1+) subjects have been done in the United States and Europe, where clade B infections predominate. However, in other parts of the world such as South India, where clade C HIV is most common, the prevalence of HIV-1 is increasing. Standardized neuropsychological tests were used to assess cognitive functioning in a sample of 119 adults infected with clade C HIV-1 who were not on antiretroviral medications. The subjects did not have neurological or psychiatric illness and were functioning adequately. Neuropsychological test performance was compared with gender-, age-, and education-matched normative data derived from a sample of 540 healthy volunteers and a matched cohort of 126 healthy, HIV-1-seronegative individuals. Among the seropositive subjects, 60.5% had mild to moderate cognitive deficits characterized by deficits in the domains of fluency, working memory, and learning and memory. None of the subjects had severe cognitive deficits. The HIV-1+ sample was classified into groups according to the level of immune suppression as defined by CD4 count (<200, 201–499, and >500 cells/mm3) and viral load (<5000, 5001–30,000, 30,001–99,999, 100,000–1,000,000, and >1,000,001 copies). Although the most immunosuppressed group (CD4 count <200 cells/mm3 or viral load >1,000,001 copies) was small, their rate of impairment in visual working memory was greater when compared to groups with better immune functioning. Mild to moderate cognitive deficits can be identified on standardized neuropsychological tests in clade C-infected HIV-1+ adults who do not have any clinically identifiable functional impairment. The prevalence of cognitive deficits is similar to that reported in antiretroviral treatment-naïve individuals infected with clade B virus in the western world.
A global water cycle reanalysis (2003-2012) merging satellite gravimetry and altimetry observations with a hydrological multi-model ensemble

We present a global water cycle reanalysis that merges water balance estimates derived from the Gravity Re- covery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission, satellite water level altimetry and off-line estimates from sev- eral hydrological models. Error estimates for the sequential data assimilation scheme were derived from available uncer- tainty information and the triple collocation technique. Er- rors in four GRACE storage products were estimated to be 11-12 mm over land areas, while errors in monthly storage changes derived from five global hydrological models were estimated to be 17-28 mm. Prior and posterior water storage estimates were evaluated against independent observations of river water level and discharge, snow water storage and glacier mass loss. Data assimilation improved or maintained agreement overall, although results varied regionally. Un- certainties were greatest in regions where glacier mass loss and subsurface storage decline are both plausible but poorly constrained. We calculated a global water budget for 2003- 2012. The main changes were a net loss of polar ice caps ( 342 Gt yr 1 ) and mountain glaciers ( 230 Gt yr 1 ), with an additional decrease in seasonal snowpack ( 18 Gt yr 1 ). Storage increased due to new impoundments (+16 Gt yr 1 ), but this was compensated by decreases in other surface wa- ter bodies ( 10 Gt yr 1 ). If the effect of groundwater de- pletion ( 92 Gt yr 1 ) is considered separately, subsurface water storage increased by +202 Gt yr 1 due particularly
Glycosyl compositions and structural characteristics of the potential immuno-adjuvant active saponins in the Quillaja saponaria Molina extract quil A.

Fifty saponin components of Quil A, a commercially available extract from the bark of the South American tree Quillaja saponaria Molina, were partially structurally characterised. The molecular weights were determined by fast-atom bombardment mass spectrometry. The glycosyl and elemental composition of all the saponins was determined by applying our recently developed method, monomer mapping, consisting of a computer program and accurate mass measurements. Support for the presumed identity of the aglycone, i.e. quillaic acid, was found in the accurate mass determination, 1H NMR measurement and chemical reactions. The saponin composition of Quil A was shown to consist of pairs. Within the 3-O bound glycosyl moiety of a pair there was a structural difference: a pentose and rhamnose were interchanged. Structural differences between different pairs were located in the 28-O bound glycosyl moiety. A structural element, unknown to date and of which the elemental composition was deduced to be C8H12O5, was found in the 28-O bound glycosyl moiety of several saponins.