Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating Barriers to Adoption of Biological Control Technology by Vegetables and Fruit Trees' Growers in Some Governorates of Jordan

Biological control (BC) is an ecological approach that provides environmentally harmonious and safe alternative method for pests’ suppression. Biologically based technology is not always easily adopted by the growers. However, extent and level of BC adoption in Jordan is still largely unknown. Therefore, this paper aimed at analyzing factors affecting BC adoption among vegetables and fruit trees’ growers in Jordan. For this purpose, Jordanian growers were questioned about their social aspects, types of pests encountered, and BC knowledge, practices, barriers, needs and resources by conducting a survey of growers in some Jordanian governorates during 2014. Results revealed that almost 56% of respondents have never heard about BC or not sure what BC is? and none of the respondents were regularly used BC. The majority (70%) of growers had low level of attitude towards BC and did not monitor (natural enemies) NEs. Almost 76% did not depend on NEs to control pests, and 59% did not do any thing to conserve NEs. The major barriers and needs to start adopting BC were thoroughly discussed, and the most BC agents found in respondents’ farms were well documented. The majority of the respondents (66%) stated that BC is neither required nor recommended by Ministry of Agriculture, and 83% of those respondings had not been involved in BC training program. Almost 47% of the respondents would like to change to adopt BC in their farms. There was a positive correlation between growers’ education level and each of familiarity with BC, involving in BC training, willingness to change to BC and level of attitude towards BC. Age was negatively correlated with level of attitude towards BC. In conclusion, the findings of this study might contribute to ongoing efforts to promote BC adoption in Jordan in order to provide healthy living conditions.
The Localist and the Distributed Models of Connectionism

Connectionism is the theory that sees brain in terms of neural or parallel distributed processing networks of interconnected units. The present paper reviewed the basic assumptions of connectionism and two main types of connectionist models were explained; the localist model and the distributed model. The drawbacks of the localist connectionism were mentioned. Properties of distributed connectionist networks were delineated. In the end, general problems with connectionist models were discussed. It was mentioned that the major drawback of connectionism that would cast doubt on the usefulness of a connectionist approach was that this approach had its basis on the sciences of math and physics, while the brains of human beings, or language learners, are biological entities. This seems to mar the usefulness of this approach to language learning, since it can be hardly assumed that the mathematical principles can be extended to biological ones. Language learners, language teachers as well as neurologists and psychologists may find the discussions of the present study useful in the process of language acquisition.
Alternative Partnership Models For Water Governance: A Case Study In Armenia

Since the 1980s, the governments in developed and developing countries have transferred from the public to alternative arrangements of public service provision with engagement of the private sector. The purpose of this paper is to examine the transition to public-private partnership models in the water sector in Armenia as a part of a process of the infrastructure industry reforms. In particular, it specifies the shifts in the water governance system, evolution, frameworks and performance of water utilities in provision of municipal water services under public-private partnership models. The paper shows that publicprivate partnerships in the water sector are going deeper and wider. Large scale privatization was introduced within a relatively brief time: in a decade reaching up to 63 percent of the population, which records the third highest level in Europe. To do it in politically acceptable way, case-by-case rather than rapid mass privatization approach was adopted. At this stage, there is a dominance of international private operators though with partial participation of local partner companies. Finally, the study reveals that transition to public-private partnerships had a positive impact on the sustainability performance of water utilities. Armenian utilities also succeed in performing quite well internationally. ���������� transition, public service provision, water governance, infrasructure reforms, privatization process, utility performance, sustainability, Armenia.
Research on the Patent Innovation Performance of University–Industry Collaboration Based on Complex Network Analysis

ABSTRACT Purpose: In order to explore the multiplicative interaction between clustering and reach, as well as their effect on members’ knowledge production and patent value, the authors researched university–industry collaboration networks in the emerging interdisciplinary field at a corporate level. Methodology: The authors based their research on a platform of nano-biopharmaceuticals complex network analysis. Furthermore, they built a network to analyze the influence of small-world properties, as well as the impact of the largest component on the patent value of innovation activities at a corporate level. In this article, the authors conduct an empirical investigation of university–industry patent innovation collaboration in the nano-biopharmaceutical field and propose that their research be considered as new evidence in addition to the previously published literature in this field. Given the pre-existing high skew of patent values in relation to registered patents, they used weighted patent value in the measurement of university–industry innovation performance, rather than simple patent counts. Results: The results show that small-world structures have a parabolical influence on patent innovation performance at corporate level. Findings: The findings go beyond previous research results and can contribute to policy formulation and relevant entrepreneurial decisions in the establishment of university–industry collaboration.
Varicella-zoster virus open reading frame 4 protein is functionally distinct from and does not complement its herpes simplex virus type 1 homolog, ICP27

Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) open reading frame 4 (ORF4) encodes a putative immediate-early protein which is homologous to herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) ICP27 on the basis of gene location and similarity in amino acid sequence. In transient expression assays, however, ORF4 and ICP27 exhibit different properties. ICP27 alone has little activity on target plasmids, but it acts as a transactivator or a transrepressor in the presence of other HSV-1 transactivators. In contrast, ORF4 directly transactivates plasmids containing homologous or heterologous promoters and has no apparent transrepressing activity. To further illuminate the functional similarities and differences between ORF4 and ICP27, Vero cell lines which express ORF4 under the inducible metallothionein promoter were constructed. Cell lines expressing functionally active ORF4 protein upregulated the expression of transfected VZV target plasmids but were unable to efficiently complement HSV-1 ICP27 mutants. These results indicate that, despite structural similarities, VZV ORF4 and HSV-1 ICP27 behave differently in transient expression assays and may play different roles in virus replication.
Strategic Patenting and the Tragedy of Anticommons: A Closer Look at Firms’ Patenting Behavior

Prior research postulates an inconclusive causal effect of fragmentation of property rights on firms’ patenting behavior. On one hand, studies that emanate from concepts such as “patent thickets” and “the tragedy of anticommons” suggest that a dense overlapping set of fragmented property rights can result in technological stagnation and, hence, in a decline in firms’ patenting rate. On the other hand, research derived from such notions as “strategic patenting” argues that firms facing a fragmented external technology market will engage in patent proliferation strategies. In this paper, I develop an integrated theoretical model that captures the main features of both arguments. Indeed, the model posits that firms are more likely to engage in patent proliferation strategies when their technologies draw on patents assigned to a disperse set of outside entities. However, as the overlapping claims of these external right holders increase, the expected infringement costs associated with a patent proliferation strategy may exceed its benefits. The model is empirically tested using panel data of patenting behavior of public firms in the semiconductors industry from 1980 to 1999. The empirical results support the model predictions.
Flexible statistical multipath and shadowing model for land mobile satellite navigation

A statistical wideband land mobile channel model adapted for requirements of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) simulations is proposed. The model considers is flexible with respect to different limitations of the hardware and software simulation platforms. The channel incorporates a tap delay line model combining well-known statistical approaches with other empirical/experimental observations from physical-statistical studies. This solution allows flexibility in the evaluation of multipath and shadowing in GNSS receivers.
Tax Education: Current Views And Preferences Of South African Employers

Various reasons caused the demand for tax practitioners to increase, creating a need for specialised tax education and training. Since the tax profession is not currently regulated in South Africa, educators receive little input from employers on their expectations regarding formal tax qualifications. This causes uncertainty as to whether or not employers are satisfied with tax education in South Africa. This article reports on the current and preferred composition of tax departments, considering South African employees’ qualifications. The article also highlights employers’ current views and preferences regarding theoretical knowledge and practical skills included in these qualifications. Any agreements between the employees’ current views and preferences are indicated. Data was gathered by using questionnaires and the population on which it was tested comprised partners of the tax departments of certain financial consulting firms. The results show that there is not a fundamental difference between the current and preferred composition of tax departments. There is also evidence that employers’ preferences regarding theoretical knowledge and practical skills differ from their current views. It is therefore recommended that tax education in South Africa is regulated to ensure that employers can provide input on the curricula included in tax qualifications.
On the Performance Drivers of U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities

With the alarming federal deficit and persistent execution of expansionary monetary policy, inflation risk has become a serious concern for U.S. financial market participants. Many investors are confronted with a choice between Nominal Treasuries and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPs) in making asset allocation decisions. Using monthly data on the Barclays Capital U.S. TIPs Index and Nominal Treasury Index from March 1997 to November 2008, this paper examines the comparative performances of TIPs and Nominal Treasuries as two asset classes, and uses a structural vector autoregressive (VAR) model to examine the key drivers underlying the return performance on each asset class. Empirical results show that the returns on TIPs and Treasuries are both negatively driven by the changes in the level and term spread of interest rates, but their responses to the change in the quality spread (as measured by the BAA and AAA corporate bond yield spread) and the inflation rate are completely different. A higher quality spread tends to drive up the Treasury return but drive down the TIPs return. A higher inflation rate tends to drive down the return on Nominal Treasuries but has little impact on the TIPs return. Treasuries tend to outperform TIPs during periods dominated by increasing concern for credit and liquidity risks, but TIPs tend to outperform Treasuries during highly inflationary environments.
VISUALIZATION OF CONCANAVALIN A-BINDING SITES WITH SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY

Plant lectins, because they bind to specific carbohydrate moieties, can be used to investigate the glyco-components of the cell surface. When considering the distribution, number, or mobility of lectin-binding sites, a distinction must be made between a natural distribution and a redistribution induced by binding with multivalent ligands (2, 4, 5, 8, 14, 15). In some cell types the induced redistribution results in the phenomenon of "capping. " Taylor et al. (14), on the basis of immunofluorescent studies, introduced the term capping to refer to the progressive movement and clumping of receptor-ligand complexes (e.g. binding site-lectin complexes) to form an aggregate of these com-
Multi-scale modeling and simulation of complex systems: Opportunities and challenges

ABSTRACT Healthcare, like other industries, large corporations, and institutions, is a complex system composed of many diverse interacting components. Frequently, to improve performance of a system, to move into new markets, or to expand capability or capacity, healthcare decision makers face opportunities or mandates to implement innovations (new technology, processes, and services). Successful implementation of these innovations involves seamless integration with the policy, economic, social, and technological dynamics associated with the complex system. These dynamics are frequently difficult for decision makers to observe and understand. Consequently, they take on risk from lack of insight into how best to implement the innovation and how their system-of-interest will ultimately perform. This research defines a modeling and simulation framework that provides decision makers with prospective insight into the likely performance to expect once an innovation is implemented in a complex system. We describe the need for such a framework when modeling complex systems, and we discuss suitable simulation paradigms and the challenges related to implementing these simulations. We focus on a specific example in the healthcare field to demonstrate the framework's application and utility in understanding how an innovation, once fielded, will actually affect the larger complex system to which it belongs.
Adaptive and Secure Load-Balancing Routing Protocol for Service-Oriented Wireless Sensor Networks

Service-oriented architectures for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been proposed to provide an integrated platform, where new applications can be rapidly developed through flexible service composition. In WSNs, the existing multipath routing schemes have demonstrated the effectiveness of traffic distribution over multipaths to fulfill the quality of service requirements of applications. However, the failure of links might significantly affect the transmission performance, scalability, reliability, and security of WSNs. Thus, by considering the reliability, congestion control, and security for multipath, it is desirable to design a reliable and service-driven routing scheme to provide efficient and failure-tolerant routing scheme. In this paper, an evaluation metric, path vacant ratio, is proposed to evaluate and then find a set of link-disjoint paths from all available paths. A congestion control and load-balancing algorithm that can adaptively adjust the load over multipaths is proposed. A threshold sharing algorithm is applied to split the packets into multiple segments that will be delivered via multipaths to the destination depending on the path vacant ratio. Simulations demonstrate the performance of the adaptive and secure load-balance routing scheme.
Socially Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practices in the Indian Seed Sector: A Case Study

Reputational risks because of child labor allegations drove Syngenta to forge for-profit and not-for-profit sector alliances with the Fair Labor Association, which was directed toward raising social standards in its Indian hybrid vegetable seed supply chain. This case study, informed by expert interviews and complementary document analysis, gives an account of various sustainable supply chain management (SCM) practices implemented by Syngenta and its partners in this pilot project. By being located in one specific industry and world region, this study contributes a piece of evidence to the neglected issue of how to include the social dimension of sustainability into SCM.
POSITIVE AFFECT MODULATES ACTIVITY IN THE VISUAL CORTEX TO IMAGES OF HIGH CALORIE FOODS

Activity within the visual cortex can be influenced by the emotional salience of a stimulus, but it is not clear whether such cortical activity is modulated by the affective status of the individual. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the relationship between affect ratings on the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and activity within the occipital cortex of 13 normal-weight women while viewing images of high calorie and low calorie foods. Regression analyses revealed that when participants viewed high calorie foods, Positive Affect correlated significantly with activity within the lingual gyrus and calcarine cortex, whereas Negative Affect was unrelated to visual cortex activity. In contrast, during presentations of low calorie foods, affect ratings, regardless of valence, were unrelated to occipital cortex activity. These findings suggest a mechanism whereby positive affective state may affect the early stages of sensory processing, possibly influencing subsequent perceptual experience of a stimulus.
A Scoping Review of Behavioral Weight Management Interventions in Overweight/Obese African American Females

African American females are adversely affected by overweight and obesity and accompanying physical, psychosocial, and economic consequences. Behavioral weight management interventions are less effective in addressing the needs of overweight and obese African American females. The objective of this scoping review was to explore weight management research in this population to identify key concepts, gaps in the literature, and implications for future research. Analyses revealed a broad array in purpose, theoretical frameworks, settings, study designs, interventions, intervention strategies, and outcome variables, making comparison difficult. Many of the articles included in this review did not provide a rich description of methods, which hinder their use in the development of future studies. Consistent application of a combined theory may address the gaps identified in this review by providing a reliable method for assessing needs, developing interventions, and evaluating the effectiveness and fidelity of behavioral weight management interventions in overweight and obese African American females.
Beijing residential electricity consumption analysis

Residential electricity consumption has the most potential for rapidly increasing in future electrical markets. This paper analyzes the current residential electricity use in Beijing. An econometric approach was then used to analyze future residential electrical use as an electrical system planning tool. The natural gas price correlated well with residential electricity use with a small cross elasticity coefficient and the summer temperature also greatly influenced residential electricity use. The results were used to develop suggestions for the electrical power industry to anticipate future electrical demand. For example, gasfired air conditioners can reduce electrical demand and variable pricing can reduce the difference between electrical demand peaks and valleys. 
A 79 GHz sub-harmonic mixer design using a 1 um InP DHBT technology

This paper presents a 79 GHz sub-harmonic mixer (SHM) design based on a self-developed 1 um InP DHBT process. In this design, a low frequency local oscillator (LO) input signal at 39.5 GHz is doubled to W-band and a radio frequency (RF) signal ranging from 80 GHz to 86 GHz is down-converted to the intermediate frequency (IF) band with a best conversion gain around 1 dB at 83 GHz. As the knowledge of authors, it is the first attempt to implement an InP DHBT based SHM with a LO doubler in W-band. Due to lacking of available RF sources, the testing is realized with one port of an output power fixed Vector Network Analyzer enhanced by a frequency up-conversion module.
Multinational Corporations, Social Responsibility and Conflict

t is not a coincidence that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were part of the same attack. In an increasingly global economy, these pillars of business and government are now tied together as the symbol of a growing link between the public and the private sector. The attacks are evidence of a rising perception that globalization creates poverty and inequality, which in turn create the motive for much violence. In response, the private sector is becoming more public-minded, while the public sector is becoming more business-minded. The events of September 11, 2001, the demise of Enron and a worsening recession clearly demonstrated that good corporate governance at home and abroad, promoting economic inclusiveness and community goodwill, are important elements of international security. This interweaving of roles calls for new partnerships between business and government, in which sharing skills and expertise can be valuable in promoting regional and global stability. The security operations normally associated with peacekeeping are uniquely governmental responsibilities, which corporate actors actively avoid. Conflict is endemic to failed states, where I
The applications of mobile wireless communication on the inventory process for large-scale market

Most of shopping Malls used wickers to understand the storage effectively. Through wickers enter the product numbers; finish collecting product amount to handle the storage effectively and exactly. This way not only could make down storage but also could understand product on list of storage situation. It could use information from collecting to analyze benefit or lose for a section There are many kinds of products in shopping mall. Checking is not easy in it, therefore, nowadays shopping mall use stock management for using pens and papers or information collect machines to check product numbers, and then sending information to information system to save and antithesis, it's not to promote efficiency and accuracy. So, if we could use wireless network to process manage and check for products. We believe that it should be promote products manage effectively
An empirical study of the antecedents and consequences of brand engagement

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a model of brand engagement. More specifically, the aim is to evaluate both antecedents and consequences of brand engagement, from a management perspective. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative survey of 403 firms is undertaken to test the model. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to estimate the parameters of the model. Findings – A reliable and valid measure of brand engagement is established. The SEM model works well, in terms of goodness of fit indices. The results demonstrate that there are major brand performance benefits (consequences) of brand engagement. Additionally, and important for the practical implications, the results show that brand orientation is a major antecedent to brand engagement. Research limitations/implications – The study needs to be replicated in other countries, with scope to add other explanatory variables for influencing brand engagement. The results have considerable practical benefits f.