Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of supplier competition in the product life cycle

iii Preface . iv Management Summary . v Table of contents . 1 List of tables . 3 List of figures . 4 1 Research Plan . 5 1.1 Project Background . 5 1.2 Problem definition and research question . 6 1.3 Research Approach . 7 1.3.1 Overall framework . 7 1.3.2 Literature Review . 8 1.3.3 Interviews . 9 1.3. 4 Case Studies . 9 1.4 Report structure . 10 2 Project Environment . 11 2.1 Royal Philips Electronics N.V. 11 2.2 Philips Medical Systems . 12 2.2.1 Company description . 12 2.2.2 Business environment . 12 2.3 PMS Purchasing Department . 15 2.4 Conclusions . 16 3 Theoretical background . 17 3.1 Definitions . 17 3.1.1 Sourcing . 17 3.1.2 Sourcing strategies . 18 3.1.3 Product life cycle (PLC) . 18 3.1.4 Usage of PLC.21 3.1. 5 Conclusion . 21 3.2 Role of sourcing strategies in product life cycle . 22 3.2.1 Development stage . 24 3.2.2 Introduction stage . 25 3.2.3 Growth stage . 25 3.2.4 Maturity stage . 26 3.2. 5 Decline stage.27 3.2. 6 Conclusion . 27 3.3 Conclusions and reflection . 28 Ingrid van der Burg Master Thesis 2 4 Supplier competition framework . 30 4.1 Input for the supplier competition framework . 30 4.1.1 Definition of supplier competition . 30 4.1.2 Forms of supplier competition . 34 4.1.3 Dependences of supplier competition . 35 4.2 Methods for supplier competition.39 4.2.1 Request for x . 39 4.2.2 E-auction . 39 4.2.3 Design-in workshop . 40 4.2.4 Threat . 41 4.2. 5 Realization of supplier competition framework.42 4.3 Conclusions . 43 5 Supplier competition and PLC at PMS Purchasing Department . 44 5.1 Supplier competition at PMS Purchasing Department . 44 5.1.1 The supplier competition in the supplier selection process . 44 5.1.2 Application of methods for supplier competition at PMS . 47 5.1.3 Current use of PLC at PMS . 48 5.2 Case studies . 49 5.2.1 Methodology . 49 5.2.2 Within case analysis . 53 5.2.3 Cross-case analysis . 57 5.3 How to apply supplier competition per stage of the PLC? 58 5.3.1 Development stage . 58 5.3.2 Introduction stage . 59 5.3.3 Growth stage . 60 5.3. 4 Maturity stage . 60 5.3. 5 Decline stage.60 5.3. 6 Conditions to apply supplier competition . 61 5.4 Conclusions . 65 6 Conclusions and recommendations . 67 6.1 Theoretical background on the role of sourcing strategies in the PLC.68 6.2 Theoretical background on the role of supplier competition in the PLC . 68 6.3 Application of supplier competition at Purchasing department . 68 6.4 Recommendations .
Deployment of weighted guided filtering scheme to enhance digital video quality

Weighted guided image filter (WGIF) can be used to avoid halo artifacts and to increase filtering. In this technique, WGIF is put forth for capturing high quality videos which are digital. This method integrating edge-aware weighted into an existing guided image filter (GIF) [14]. Local and Global smoothing filters are a uniqueness of this approach, i.e. its complexity is 0 (N) and avoids halo artifacts. WGIF used in enhancement of image and image haze removal.
Inhibition of fatty acid amide hydrolase unmasks CB1 receptor and TRPV1 channel‐mediated modulation of glutamatergic synaptic transmission in midbrain periaqueductal grey

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE While arachidonyl ethanolamine (anandamide) produces pharmacological effects mediated by cannabinoid CB1 receptors, it is also an agonist at the transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) ion channel. This study examined the cellular actions of anandamide in the midbrain periaqueductal grey (PAG), a region implicated in the analgesic actions of cannabinoids, and which expresses both CB1 receptors and TRPV1.
A novel tunable wide-band FSS with varactors

A novel tunable frequency selective surface is presented in this paper. The FSS is composed of two stacked metallic layers. By loading different capacitance or inductance, resonant frequency can be easily changed. The simulation results show that when the capacitance is loaded, the resonant frequency can be decreased from 5.8 GHz to 4.7 GHz when the capacitance is increased from 0.1pf to 0.3pf. When the inductance is loaded, the resonant frequency will be decreased from 8.9GHz to 8.3GHz when the inductance is increased from 2nH to 4nH. Resonant frequency can be optimized easily by changing the loaded varactors. A parametric analysis of the novel FSS is undertaken in HFSS simulation software.
Real-Time Fire Detection for Video-Surveillance Applications Using a Combination of Experts Based on Color, Shape, and Motion

In this paper, we propose a method that is able to detect fires by analyzing videos acquired by surveillance cameras. Two main novelties have been introduced. First, complementary information, based on color, shape variation, and motion analysis, is combined by a multiexpert system. The main advantage deriving from this approach lies in the fact that the overall performance of the system significantly increases with a relatively small effort made by the designer. Second, a novel descriptor based on a bag-of-words approach has been proposed for representing motion. The proposed method has been tested on a very large dataset of fire videos acquired both in real environments and from the web. The obtained results confirm a consistent reduction in the number of false positives, without paying in terms of accuracy or renouncing the possibility to run the system on embedded platforms.
DEVELOPING INFORMATION TECH NO LOGY STRATEGY FOR BUSINESS VA LUE

Developing information technology (IT) strategy that supports and is supported by business strategy is critical for generating business value in today’s organizations. In the face of rapidly changing business conditions and continuously evolving IT, however, organizations have yet to learn how to develop an effective IT strategy. To explore and understand the issue, we conducted a research using focus group methodology. The results from our research suggest that there are five critical success factors that organizations must consider. The research also identifies five practices and the challenges faced while developing an effective IT strategy.
Acquiring Method for Agents' Actions using Pheromone Communication between Agents

We have known that an algorithm of Ant Colony System (ACS) and Max-Min Ant System (MM-AS) based on ACS are one of powerful meta-heuristics algorithms and some researchers have reported their effectiveness of some applications using then. On the other hand, we have known that the algorithms have some problems when we employed them in multi-agent system and we have proposed a new method which is improved MM-AS. This paper describes some results of evaluation experiments with agents implemented our proposed method. In these experiments, we have used seven maps and scenarios for RoboCup Rescue Simulation system (RCRS). To confirm the effectiveness of our method, we have considered agents’ action for fire-fighting in simulation and their improvements of scores.
Cognitive functioning in persons with lower limb amputations: a review

Purpose: To review the literature on cognitive functioning in persons with lower limb amputations. Method: A search of the MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Web of Science databases was carried out. Results: Thirty papers were found that met the inclusion criteria. The studies were characterised by heterogeneity of design, methodological quality, sample characteristics, assessment of cognitive functioning, and outcomes examined. The research published to date suggests that cognitive impairment is more prevalent among persons with lower limb amputations than in the general population, and is linked with a number of important outcomes in this patient group, including mobility, prosthesis use, and maintenance of independence following amputation. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of assessing the cognitive abilities of persons with lower limb amputations. An understanding of the cognitive profile of these patients could assist rehabilitation teams in determining their suitability for prosthetic or wheelchair rehabilitation, ascertaining appropriate and realistic goals for rehabilitation, and tailoring rehabilitation programmes to patients’ strengths so that maximal mobility and independence is achieved. Implications for Rehabilitation Cognitive impairment appears to be more prevalent among persons with lower limb amputations than in the general population. Cognitive impairment is negatively associated with mobility, prosthesis use, and maintenance of independence following amputation. Cognitive screening prior to rehabilitation could assist in determining patients’ suitability for prosthetic or wheelchair use, ascertaining appropriate goals, and tailoring rehabilitation to patients’ strengths so as to optimise their mobility and independence.
Own labels choice criteria and perceived characteristics in Greece and Scotland: factors influencing the willingness to buy

The growth of own label brands of products offered by supermarket chains is changing the “rules of the game” when managing fast moving consumer good products. A lot is written on the development of these brands and the consumers' behaviour in regions where their use is widely spread, but not in other markets. This paper compared the importance of choice criteria when purchasing own label and national brands and the perceived characteristics of the products carrying store and manufacturer brands in two regions of the European Union where the development of own label brands is at a different stage, Greece and Scotland. The results indicate that own label and manufacturer brands have an overall different positioning; Greeks are less familiar with own label products and assess them somewhat differently than the Scots, while several own label related attributes may be good predictors of the loyalty to the supermarket.
The participatory technique of “Technology Probes”: a case study in Burkina Faso

This paper describes a project introducing a group of young adults from Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso, to the potential uses of Internet services, discovering how these services would impact and possibly change different aspects of their daily lives. Resisting a top-down or technology driven approach, the team adopted a participatory design approach in order to create a more meaningful training course. Technology Probes were introduced in order to understand to what extent freely available Internet service would fit into the local context and what new services and technologies could be generated in accordance to that.
A Path to Value Creation for Foreign Entrepreneurs

Research summary: Firms founded by foreign entrepreneurs constitute an influential and growing part of the world economy. Yet, the existing research has given little consideration to the strategies of foreign entrepreneurs beyond their decisions to start a firm. In this article, we address this gap by examining how foreign entrepreneurs may bring value to their firms as firm managers. We argue that foreign owner-managers may benefit their firms by having access to home-country resources. We demonstrate that, compared to hired local managers, foreign owner-managers reduce firms' operating costs by disproportionately hiring home-country labor when this labor is more cost-efficient. This effect is larger for labor-intensive industries and for entrepreneurs from less wealthy countries. Managerial summary: Foreign entrepreneurs represent an important part of the world economy. Yet, we know little of how foreign entrepreneurs manage their firms. In this article, we examine whether foreign entrepreneurs and domestic managers hire different employees. We find that when foreign entrepreneurs manage their firms personally, they hire a larger number of foreign workers, and such workers are cheaper and more productive than the local labor. Conversely, domestic managers tend to hire local employees, despite their higher relative wages. Foreign owner-managers are particularly valuable in labor-intensive industries and when their home-country labor is inexpensive. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Relay Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks : A Survey

A sensor network is a network of low-powered, energy-constrained nodes equipped with sensor(s) and wireless communication devices that are intended to sense some physical phenomena from the area of deployment. Recent technological advances in the field of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) have made the development of multi-functional sensor nodes technically and economically feasible. The sensor nodes in a sensor network are usually resource constrained, which means they have limited energy, limited processing and memory capability as well as limited transmission range. Sensor nodes are expected to operate in an unattended manner with the help of lightweight batteries, which cannot be replaced or recharged. Therefore, the life of a sensor network is usually defined by the time interval between which a certain amount of critical nodes run out of their battery power. A great deal of research have focused on the energy conservation in sensor networks so that the lifetime of the network is maximized. A major factor for the power consumption in a sensor node is due to the its transmit electronics, which increases with the increment of (1) the amount of data to be transmitted and (2) the distance between the transmitter and the receiver. In the past few years, many researches have proposed various schemes for minimizing such power consumption in sensor networks. One of them is to introduce some special nodes, known as relay nodes, in sensor networks. The idea is to take some burden from the sensor nodes by the relay nodes. The deployment of relay nodes in sensor networks has been proposed for maximizing the network lifetime, energy-efficient data gathering, load-balanced data gathering as well as making the network fault tolerant. This paper has focused on the literature that has proposed the use of relay nodes in sensor networks.
Gravity gradiometer integrated inertial navigation

In high precision inertial navigation, gravity field modeling error becomes a limiting factor. Granted that high precision accelerometers are used, airborne gravity gradiometry can be employed in a self-contained way to accurately estimate the gravity field on the fly and eliminate the gravity field modeling error. The local acceleration of gravity will be estimated using the onboard accelerometer measurements, provided that the acceleration measurements are very accurate, as is the case in high precision INS using cold atom interferometry-based accelerometers. An autonomous free-inertial gravity gradiometer integrated aircraft navigation system is promulgated. The accurate mapping of the gravity field along the aircraft's flight path is an added benefit.
The Influence of Purchase Quantity and Display Format on Consumer Preference for Variety

The authors propose that what consumers buy can be systematically influenced by how much they buy. They hypothesize that, as the number of items purchased in a category on a shopping occasion increases, a consumer is more likely to select product variants (e.g. yogurt flavors) that s/he does not usually purchase. They used yogurt scanner data to support this hypothesis. This study also revealed that consumers were more likely to select their regular brands when purchasing more containers of yogurt on a given occasion. A laboratory experiment showed that this reflects the combined impact of purchase quantity and product-display format (i.e., the by-brand display of yogurt in supermarkets) on consumer choice. Copyright 1992 by the University of Chicago.
Sat-based speedpath debugging using waveforms

A major concern in the design of high performance VLSI circuits is speedpath debugging. This is due to the fact that timing variations induced by process variations and environmental effects are increasing as the size of VLSI circuits is shrinking. In this paper, a speedpath debugging approach based on Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) is proposed. The approach takes waveforms of the signals of a circuit into account. Waveforms and their propagation are encoded using SAT. Also, timing variation models for slowdown and speedup of each gate are incorporated into the model. The whole timing variation is controlled by a unit called variation control. Having an Erroneous Trace (ET) due to timing variation, our debug engine automatically finds potential failing speedpaths. The experimental results on ISCAS benchmarks show efficiency and diagnosis accuracy of our approach. The approach can also localize potential failing speedpaths for the multiplier circuit c6288 that has a large number of paths.
Identification of the SNARE complex mediating the exocytosis of NMDA receptors

Significance NMDA receptors are ionotropic glutamate receptors and crucial for excitatory synaptic transmissions in the brain. We studied the regulation of the exocytosis of NMDA receptors by directly visualizing their exocytic events in rat hippocampal neurons by using total internal reflection florescence microscopy (TIRFM). We characterized the constitutive exocytic events of NMDA receptors and identified the Rab proteins involved in the exocytosis. Moreover, combining the TIRFM and immunocytochemistry methods, we found that the SNAP25–VAMP1–syntaxin4 complex mediated the constitutive exocytosis of NMDA receptor and maintained the expression of NMDA receptors at both extrasynaptic and synaptic surfaces. These results suggest that the SNAP25–VAMP1–syntaxin4 complex is important for neural functions by mediating the delivery of NMDA receptors to the plasma membrane. In the central nervous system, NMDA receptors mediate excitatory neurotransmissions and play important roles in synaptic plasticity. The regulation of NMDA receptor trafficking is critical for neural functions in the brain. Here, we directly visualized individual exocytic events of NMDA receptors in rat hippocampal neurons by total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM). We found that the constitutive exocytosis of NMDA receptors included both de novo exocytic and recycling events, which were regulated by different Rab proteins. We also identified the SNAP25–VAMP1–syntaxin4 complex mediating the constitutive exocytosis of NMDA receptors. Transient knockdown of each component of the SNARE complex interfered with surface delivery of NMDA receptors to both extrasynaptic and synaptic membranes. Our study uncovers the postsynaptic function of the SNAP25–VAMP1–syntaxin4 complex in mediating the constitutive exocytosis of NMDA receptors, suggesting that this SNARE complex is involved in excitatory synaptic transmission.
Optimal investment taxes and efficient market provision of liquidity in the Diamond-Dybvig model

We study taxation as an alternative to intermediation in a Diamond-Dybvig economy with a private ex post retrade market and with private ex ante investment. The possibility of private investment imposes an additional constraint on the social planner beyond resource feasibility and incentive compatibility. With this constraint, the simple asset market equilibrium is efficient. If access to private investment is costly, i.e., the private return on the illiquid investment is smaller than the publicly observable return on illiquid investment, then an asset market equilibrium is efficient with investment taxes. An optimal tax system consists of a proportional subsidy to liquid investment and a proportional tax on illiquid investment. In either case, efficiency is attained without intermediation.
Portability vs Asset Price and Contribution Risk: A Continuous-Time Expected Utility Comparisons of DB and DC Pension Plans

This paper compares two diff erent types of private retirement plans from the perspective of a representative benefi ciary: De fined Benefi t (DB) and Defi ned Contribution (DC) plan. One of the key di fferences is that DB plans carry portability risks, whereas DC plans bear asset and contribution risk. We model these diff erences explicitly in this paper and compare these two plans in a utility based framework. Our numerical analysis focuses on determining the critical job switching intensity which makes the bene ficiary indi fferent between the DB and DC plan.
Cross-protection by B subunit-whole cell cholera vaccine against diarrhea associated with heat-labile toxin-producing enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli: results of a large-scale field trial.

The B subunit (BS) of cholera toxin and that of the heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) are antigenically similar. We therefore assessed whether a combined cholera toxin BS/whole-cell (BS-WC) oral vaccine against cholera conferred cross-protection against LT-producing ETEC (LT-ETEC) diarrhea in a randomized, double-blind field trial among rural Bangladeshi children and women. The 24,770 persons who ingested two or more doses of BS-WC vaccine were compared with 24,842 controls who took two or more doses of killed whole-cell (WC) oral cholera vaccine. Sixty-seven percent fewer episodes of LT-ETEC diarrhea were noted in the BS-WC group than in the WC group during short-term (three-month) follow-up (P less than .01), but no reduction was evident during the ensuing nine months. Short-term protection was particularly notable against LT-ETEC diarrhea causing life-threatening dehydration (protective efficacy, 86%; P less than .05).
Female Entrepreneurship, Access to Credit, and Firms’ Performance in Senegal

Despite an increase in the share of female-owned existing and new start-up firms in Senegal, there is still a wide belief that female entrepreneurs are discriminated against in the credit market. This paper empirically investigates such gender-based discrimination, and the extent to which it might be translated into lower efficiency. Using firm-level data and a methodological approach that consists of the data envelopment analysis, an endogenous switching regression and a propensity score matching, the paper finds no evidence to support the common wisdom that women are discriminated in the credit market. In addition, to the extent that they benefit from credit, female reap equal returns from the funds, efficiency-wise. These results do not however call for the abandonment of gender-biased public policies aiming at promoting access to credit and entrepreneurship, but suggest they be grounded on more robust footings such as managers’ education, firms’ ownership, sectorial activities with respect to capital intensity, and geographical locations.
Imaging Circulating Monocytic Cells Fusing to Endothelial Cells in Acutely Injured and Regenerating Capillaries

Abstract The present studies focus on monocytic circulating cells (CCs) interacting with the endothelial cells of pulmonary capillaries in acute lung injury. The CCs are further defined into sub-sets based on their structural profiles, i.e. CC1–3. They are shown to move into close apposition to adjacent capillary endothelium and to fuse to endothelial plasmalemmal membranes. Similarly, CCs are seen to fuse to the endothelial cells of regenerating capillaries after injury. Immunogold labeling studies demonstrate that CCs express a mediator promoting endothelial cell migration, proliferation and stability, i.e. VEGF, further supporting the potential of a paracrine interaction between the fusing cells, while the expression of CXCR4 by CCs, and of SDF-1α by adjacent endothelial cells, demonstrates a mechanism for retention of these cells at the capillary surface. Myeloid VEGF-R2+CD11b+ precursors and PDGF-Rβ+ expressing cells are identified within the CC population. The findings establish that, by fusing to endothelial cells, the monocytic CC population studied has the potential to promote capillary surface stability/integrity through a paracrine mechanism.