Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling and validation of a planar flexible manipulator

The modeling and validation problem of a laboratory planar flexible manipulator with a link in composite material has been considered. The goal of the paper is to obtain a model useful for the synthesis of feedback control laws. A mathematical linear model, based on the Hamilton principle, is complemented with a nonlinear friction model. Suitable experiments are designed in order to identify the parameters of the model that cannot be measured or analytically computed. Once the single components of the model have been identified, the whole model has been validated with open- and closed-loop experiments. The closed loop validation has been performed using two control strategies. The first one is a single input (position error) single output (motor torque) controller synthesized in the frequency domain and the second one is a multi input (position error and link deflection) single output (motor torque) controller based on a Linear Quadratic (LQ) optimal control law complemented with an observer and an integral action.
Role of oxidative damage in toxicity of particulates

Abstract Particulates are small particles of solid or liquid suspended in liquid or air. In vitro studies show that particles generate reactive oxygen species, deplete endogenous antioxidants, alter mitochondrial function and produce oxidative damage to lipids and DNA. Surface area, reactivity and chemical composition play important roles in the oxidative potential of particulates. Studies in animal models indicate that particles from combustion processes (generated by combustion of wood or diesel oil), silicate, titanium dioxide and nanoparticles (C60 fullerenes and carbon nanotubes) produce elevated levels of lipid peroxidation products and oxidatively damaged DNA. Biomonitoring studies in humans have shown associations between exposure to air pollution and wood smoke particulates and oxidative damage to DNA, deoxynucleotides and lipids measured in leukocytes, plasma, urine and/or exhaled breath. The results indicate that oxidative stress and elevated levels of oxidatively altered biomolecules are important intermediate endpoints that may be useful markers in hazard characterization of particulates.
Strategic rationale for responding to extra‐jurisdictional regulation: Evidence from firm adoption of renewable power in the US

It is well documented that firms respond to regulations in their home jurisdictions. We present hypotheses that firms also respond to regulations in jurisdictions where they do not operate. We examine renewable-power provision in the U.S. electric utility sector between 2001 and 2006, and find that firms adopt more renewable-power generation when their peers (i.e., firms in the same regulatory jurisdiction) face greater renewable-power standards in other jurisdictions. The underlying mechanism is that forward-looking firms assess when extrajurisdictional regulations foreshadow regulatory changes where they operate. Our analyses support this mechanism versus plausible alternatives. We demonstrate firms acting strategically to respond to extrajurisdictional regulations and show that the central conduit motivating this response is the extrajurisdictional footprint of firms operating in the same jurisdiction as a focal firm.
Developing student’s historical consciousness by understanding the indonesian history and the historical thinking

This research to analyze the relationship between understanding Indonesian history and the historical thinking with student’s historical consciousness. The Ex-postfacto is the type of this research with correlational research design. The population of this research was Senior High School Students in Jember. Random sampling technique was used as a method to take the sample. The instruments used were documents and questionnaire. The analysis data was conducted by using correlation analysis and multiple linear regressions. The result showed that there is a positive relationship as well as the improving significantly between understanding the Indonesian history and the students’ historical thinking with students’ historical consciousness, with 5% of significance and 60,1 of its contributions. It showed that the understanding the Indonesian history and students’ historcial thinking is able to improve the students’ historical consciousness
Limited Literacy and Psychiatric Disorders Among Users of an Urban Safety-Net Hospital's Mental Health Outpatient Clinic

Little is known about the relationship between mental illness and literacy despite both being prevalent problems. We examine whether literacy varies by psychiatric diagnoses. Interviews and chart reviews (N = 100) were conducted in a behavioral health outpatient clinic. The relationships among sociodemographics, rapid estimate of adult literacy in medicine, measures of verbal and visual intellectual abilities, and psychiatric diagnoses were examined. The mean rapid estimate of adult literacy in medicine score was 55.9 which is equivalent to below an eighth grade literacy level. Psychotic disorder (p = 0.03) was associated with limited literacy, and substance abuse (p = 0.003) and PTSD (p = 0.07) were associated with higher literacy in bivariate analyses. These diagnoses were further examined in multivariate models. Limitations include the small sample size and the over-representation of people with high levels of education. Increasing our understanding of the relationships between health literacy and psychiatric disorders will help inform the development of appropriate psychiatric care and better outcomes.
The governmentality approach to the business of sustainable tourism: Bhutan’s tourism governance, policy and planning

Bhutan’s unique ‘controlled tourism’ model is based on the principals of Gross National Happiness (GNH). GNH offers an alternative indicator to a nation’s developmental outcomes. The traditional development indicator of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures only economic outputs of nations. The GNH measurement indicators include: 1. Conservation and preservation of the natural environment; 2. Cultivation and promotion of culture; 3. Good governance, and 4. Sustainable and equitable socio-economic development. The GNH Tourism Model has a minimum tariff system, that promotes the notion of ‘high value, low volume’ catering to limited, high-end tourists. The aim of the paper is to examine Bhutan’s tourism governance that focuses on the business of sustainable tourism. Using Foucault’s theory of ‘governmentality’ (Foucault & Senellart, 2008), the purpose is to highlight the shifts in policy directions of the ‘controlled tourism’ model from ‘high value, low volume’ to ‘high value, low impact’ (Tourism Council of Bhutan, 2009), that reflects a push for economic growth and increase in tourist numbers that is incongruent with the holistic GNH philosophy. A grounded theory methodology (Glaser & Strauss, 1973, Strauss & Corbin, 1990), applying a social constructivism approach (Charmaz, 2000), through interviews provide empirical data from 36 tourism stakeholders. Two key findings indicate the unwelcomed tourist increases because firstly, the existing infrastructure cannot cope with the increases, and second, the lure of economic development compromises the GNH philosophy. The paper offers tourism scholarship through critical discourse of the GNH Tourism Model for the greater ‘common good’ (Etzioni, 2004), and how this translates into a holistic model in the business of sustainable tourism. A limitation of the study is the population size and the urban representation. Further research is recommended on the impacts of increasing tourist numbers in rural Bhutan.
HyCUBE: A CGRA with reconfigurable single-cycle multi-hop interconnect

CGRAs are promising as accelerators due to their improved energy-efficiency compared to FPGAs. Existing CGRAs support reconfigurability for operations, but not communications because of the static neighbor-to-neighbor interconnect, leading to both performance loss and increased complexity of the compiler. In this paper, we introduce HyCUBE, a novel CGRA architecture with a reconfigurable interconnect providing single-cycle communications between distant FUs, resulting in a new formulation of the application mapping problem that leads to the design of an efficient compiler. HyCUBE achieves 1.5× and 3× better performance-per-watt compared to a CGRA with standard NoC and a CGRA with neighbor-to-neighbor connectivity, respectively.
An Economic Approach to the Regulation of Direct Marketing

Public complaints about the volume of direct marketing received have generated debate about whether direct marketing in certain communications media should be regulated or even banned. A microeconomic approach is used to analyze the benefits and costs to receivers of direct marketing, and especially the negative externality imposed on non-buyers who must spend time and effort on processing advertising messages. The analysis shows that it is important to understand the technical characteristics of each medium, particularly the relative costs of sending and receiving messages, along with other economic and technical factors, before determining whether to regulate direct marketing over that medium. This economic framework is then applied to both the traditional media of postal mail and wireline telephony, and the newer electronic and portable media of email, instant messaging, and mobile telephony. The strengths and weaknesses of the different types of solutions available are also considered.
Developing a Parasocial Relationship with Hotel Brands on Facebook: Will Millennials Differ from GenXers?

iii Acknowledgement . iv List of Tables . ix List of Figures . x Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 Problem Statement . 5 Purpose of the Study . 7 Significance of the Study . 9 Delimitations . 10 Definition of Key Term . 11 Organization of the Study . 13 Chapter 2: Literature Review . 14 Social Media, Social Network Sites, and Facebook. 15 Social Media . 15 Social Network Site (SNS) . 17 Facebook and Facebook Marketing . 19 Marketing Implications. 24 Existing Studies on Consumer-Brand Relationship and Engagement . 27 Theoretical Framework: Parasocial Relationship Theory . 35 Antecedents of Parasocial Relationship . 42 Perceived Interactivity . 42 Perceived Self-Disclosure . 46 Perceived Utilitarian and Hedonic Benefits . 49 Perceived information overload . 53 Consequences of Consumer’s Parasocial Brand Relationship . 58 Online Consumer Brand Engagement . 58 Brand Loyalty . 63 Generational Differences and Proposed Model . 66 Generational Differences . 66 Hypothesized Model . 69 viii Chapter 3: Research Design and Metholodgy . 72 Research Design . 72 Sampling Plan . 72 Survey Instrument . 73 Pilot Study and Data Collection . 77 Summary . 84 Chapter 4: Results . 85 Respondent Characteristics . 85 Socio-demographics of Respondents . 85 Facebook Usage Frequency and Hotel Brands . 87 Generational Comparison on Their Characteristics . 88 Measurement Model . 90 Original Measurement Model . 90 Modified Measurement Model . 94 The Structural Model . 96 Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion . 101 Review of Study Findings . 101 Theoretical Contributions . 106 Practical Contributions . 109 Limitations and Future Research. 111 Appendix A . 114 Appendix B . 120 Appendix C . 122 Appendix D . 124 Appendix E . 131 References . 132 Curriculum Vita . 156
The ventral hippocampus, but not the dorsal hippocampus is critical for learned approach‐avoidance decision making

The resolution of an approach‐avoidance conflict induced by ambivalent information involves the appraisal of the incentive value of the outcomes and associated stimuli to orchestrate an appropriate behavioral response. Much research has been directed at delineating the neural circuitry underlying approach motivation and avoidance motivation separately. Very little research, however, has examined the neural substrates engaged at the point of decision making when opposing incentive motivations are experienced simultaneously. We hereby examine the role of the dorsal and ventral hippocampus (HPC) in a novel approach‐avoidance decision making paradigm, revisiting a once popular theory of HPC function, which posited the HPC to be the driving force of a behavioral inhibition system that is activated in situations of imminent threat. Rats received pre‐training excitotoxic lesions of the dorsal or ventral HPC, and were trained to associate different non‐spatial cues with appetitive, aversive and neutral outcomes in three separate arms of the radial maze. On the final day of testing, a state of approach‐avoidance conflict was induced by simultaneously presenting two cues of opposite valences, and comparing the time the rats spent interacting with the superimposed ‘conflict’ cue, and the neutral cue. The ventral HPC‐lesioned group showed significant preference for the conflict cue over the neutral cue, compared to the dorsal HPC‐lesioned, and control groups. Thus, we provide evidence that the ventral, but not dorsal HPC, is a crucial component of the neural circuitry concerned with exerting inhibitory control over approach tendencies under circumstances in which motivational conflict is experienced. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Analyzing Effect of Using Information Technology and Entrepreneurial Orientation on Organizational Performance in Manufacturing Pharmaceutical Firms

The main purpose of this study is to Analysis of the effects of applying information technology and entrepreneurial orientation on organizational performance. This study is practice in term of goal and is descriptive – survey in term of methodology. The statistical population of this study is manufacturing companies, Alborz drug, Sobhana drug and Sobhana oncology that include 848 employees. In order to determine sample size, Table used and 260 employees selected as sample members by random sampling method. The questionnaire was used to gather data. The Validity (content, convergent, divergent) and Reliability (Loadings factors, composite reliability coefficient, Cronbach's alpha coefficient) of questionnaires showed that measurement tools have very good reliability and validity. In order to analyze data and conclude results, SMART-PLS used. The results of this study indicate that information technologies influence entrepreneurial orientation, also entrepreneurial orientation and information technology variables have meaningful effects on organizational performance. Also the results indicate that information technologies consider as moderating variable that increase effect of entrepreneurial orientation on organizational performance. On the other hand, results showed that entrepreneurial orientation has Mediator role in the impact of information technology on organizational performance.
Bifurcation Analysis in a Digitally Controlled H-Bridge Grid-Connected Inverter

The bifurcation behavior of a digitally controlled H-bridge grid-connected inverter is studied in this paper. The discrete-time model of this time-varying system is derived for inherent time delay in a digitally controlled system. Theoretical analyses indicate that only Hopf bifurcation can take place when the system loses its stability. The analytical expression of oscillation frequency is also derived in this paper. Moreover, the stability and instability boundaries for all switching cycles within a line cycle are described by analytical expressions. Finally, the theoretical results are verified by numerical simulations, circuit simulations and experimental measurements. These aforementioned conclusions provide an insight into the design process of the inverter system in terms of stability behavior and instability phenomenon.
Spin correlations in the 2D Heisenberg antiferromagnet Sr2CuO2Cl2: Neutron scattering, Monte Carlo simulation, and theory.

We report a neutron scattering study of the spin correlations in the model 2D, [ital S]=1/2, square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnetic Sr[sub 2]CuO[sub 2]Cl[sub 2]. The spin correlation lengths obtained agree quantitatively with values deduced from Monte Carlo simulations over a wide range of temperature. The combined data, which cover the length scale from 1 to 200 lattice constants, are predicted accurately with no adjustable parameters by renormalized classical theory for the quantum nonlinear sigma model.
Plant Population Dynamics, Pollinator Foraging, and the Selection of Self‐Fertilization

Many flowering plants rely on pollinators, self‐fertilization, or both for reproduction. We model the consequences of these features for plant population dynamics and mating system evolution. Our mating systems–based population dynamics model includes an Allee effect. This often leads to an extinction threshold, defined as a density below which population densities decrease. Reliance on generalist pollinators who primarily visit higher density plant species increases the extinction threshold, whereas autonomous modes of selfing decrease and can eliminate the threshold. Generalist pollinators visiting higher density plant species coupled with autonomous selfing may introduce an effect where populations decreasing in density below the extinction threshold may nonetheless persist through selfing. The extinction threshold and selfing at low density result in populations where individuals adopting a single reproductive strategy exhibit mating systems that depend on population density. The ecological and evolutionary analyses provide a mechanism where prior selfing evolves even though inbreeding depression is greater than one‐half. Simultaneous consideration of ecological and evolutionary dynamics confirms unusual features (e.g., evolution into extinction or abrupt increases in population density) implicit in our separate consideration of ecological and evolutionary scenarios. Our analysis has consequences for understanding pollen limitation, reproductive assurance, and the evolution of mating systems.
Interactive Extraction of 3 D Trees from Medical Images Supporting Gaming and Crowdsourcing

Analysis of vascular and airway trees of circulatory and respiratory systems is important for a wide range of clinical applications. Automatic segmentation of these tree-like structures from 3D image data remains challenging due to complex branching patterns, geometrical diversity, and pathology. Existing automated techniques are sensitive to parameters setting, may leak into nearby structures, or miss true bifurcating branches; while interactive methods for segmenting vascular trees are hard to design and use, making them impractical to extend to 3D and to vascular trees with many branches (e.g., tens or hundreds). We propose SwifTree, an interactive software to facilitate this tree extraction task while exploring crowdsourcing and gamification. Our experiments demonstrate that: (i) aggregating the results of multiple SwifTree crowdsourced sessions can achieve more accurate segmentation; (ii) using the proposed game-mode can reduce time needed to achieve a pre-set tree segmentation accuracy; and (iii) SwifTree outperforms automatic segmentation methods especially with respect to noise robustness.
“Country of Origin” as Brand Element

During the past 40 years, the country-of-origin (CoO) effect, or the impact that cognitive, affective, and normative associations with a particular country have on product evaluations and purchase intentions, has been one of the most heavily researched areas in international marketing. At the same time, CoO research has been strongly criticized with some researchers questioning whether a CoO effect even exists. This article first provides a conceptual background to CoO effects, followed by a summary of key findings focusing in particular on CoO as brand element. Finally, recent criticism on the relevance of CoO research is discussed and its implications for future study on this topic are evaluated. Keywords: country of origin; country image; country brand equity; country personality; multi-cue studies; product ethnicity; brand equity; global branding; relevance; country knowledge; brand-origin recognition accuracy
Do High and Volatile Levels of Public Investment Suggest Misconduct? The Role of Institutional Quality

This paper investigates the impact of institutional quality on public investment levels over the period 1984-2008. Moreover, it studies how the volatility of public investment and the quality of infrastructure are affected by institutional quality, and explores the contribution of other critical factors. The findings suggest an inverse relationship between public investment levels and institutional quality, supporting the idea that governments use public investment as a vehicle for rent-seeking or to compensate for the fall in private investment due to the poor business environment. In addition, aid flows, revenues and abundance of natural resources contribute positively to the level of capital spending. The author also finds that high volatility of public investment is associated with a lower quality of governance. An increase in revenues is associated with a reduction in the volatility of capital spending, suggesting that proper macroeconomic management smoothes the investment cycle. Finally, the paper provides some tentative evidence of a positive relationship between institutional quality and the quality of infrastructure.
Dimerization of tear lysozyme on hydrophilic contact lens polymers.

PURPOSE Following the solubilization of protein from patient worn soft contact lenses and subsequent analysis via SDS-PAGE, an unidentified 30 kDa protein deposit was commonly observed. The mysterious deposit was found to accumulate on a variety of soft contact lens material. METHODS Acuvue, Cibasoft, Excelens and Newvue soft contact lenses were worn by three asymptomatic patients using both daily-wear and extended wear regimens. To characterize the unknown deposit, human tear samples and lens eluted protein were subjected to SDS-PAGE, immunoblotting, enzymatic assays and protein sequencing. RESULTS Results show that the 30 kDa protein deposit is the homologous dimer of tear lysozyme. Polymerized lysozyme was found on each of the three lens materials within one h of wear. However, the dimer was not present in the normal tear film. CONCLUSIONS Therefore, this dimerization phenomenon is the result of an aggregation and interaction of lysozyme with various soft contact lens polymers.
Conceptualization of Trust, Commitment, and Understanding the Relationships Between Trust, Commitment, and Willingness to Try Internet Banking Services

This paper examines trust and commitment, their antecedents and consequences in the context of Internet banking based on data collected from a survey of 500Singaporeundergraduates. Following the establishment of a conceptual model that links trust and commitment to willingness to try Internet banking, the empirical findings show that higher levels of trust and commitment are significantly associated with greater willingness to try Internet banking. The paper also investigates security, ethics, privacy, openness, speed of response, quality of information, regulatory control, technology advancement and reputation as determinants of trust. Security, regulatory control, technology advancement and reputation are found to be significant determinants of trust. This study concludes with a discussion on the implications of the findings for Internet banks.