Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relative absorptive capacity as a booster of innovation in an automotive cluster

This study aims to address the relevance of the mediating role of the relative absorptive capacity (ACAP-R) in the relation between absorptive capacity and innovation, contributing to a better understanding of innovation in a business network. Participants’ firms in this study are part of the supply network of an automotive cluster. ,The study is developed in 225 companies that are part of the supply network of an automotive cluster in Mexico. A survey was applied to key firm informants who had been involved on processes of innovation, quality or continuous improvement. During data analysis, structural equation modeling was implemented with the support of SmartPLS 3.0 to understand the mediation role of relative absorptive capacity as a novel insight of innovation in a Mexican cluster. ,The results demonstrate the partial mediator role of the ACAP-R among the absorptive capacities and the level of innovation of the companies that make up the network studied. The findings represent an approach to the understanding of one of the key dynamic capacities in the innovation process and, thus, to the competitiveness of organizations, which has scarcely been studied from the perspective of business networks. ,The limitations of the research focus on the fact that the source of information in the surveys comes, in most cases, from the opinion of a key informant per unit surveyed, which is why there is a certain margin of subjectivity that could be reduced if there is more than one source of information in the same organization. It is also considered important that the information offered by the suppliers could be complemented by the opinion of clients. This would provide a more complete view of the circularity of information involved in inter-organizational exchanges. ,The findings provide useful insights not only in terms of understanding the link between absorptive capacity and innovation, but also how to improve levels of innovation through knowledge exchanges that occur during the participation of suppliers and customers in a business network. Firms with high levels of ACAP are more likely to recognize the opportunity to benefit from external knowledge and to participate intensely in collaborative efforts. That is, technological similarity or similar knowledge base between source or recipient firms impacts their innovation.
Prior information and bias in sequential estimation

Abstract : This article applies discrete sequential filtering to estimation of an unknown vector x imbedded in nonstationary uncorrelated noise, when observations depend linearly on x in a time-varying manner. Such a situation occurs in trajectory determination close to the earth. We solve the recursive filter equations to obtain the n-th estimate of x, xn, and its convariance matrix Pn, in terms of the observations (zi, i=1, ., n) and initial values xo, Po. These expressions illustrate how the a priori information can introduce bias into the sequential estimates.
Investigating Spectral Distortion of Local Volcano Infrasound by Nonlinear Propagation at Sakurajima Volcano, Japan

Sound waves generated by erupting volcanoes can be used to infer important source dynamics, yet acoustic source‐time functions may be distorted during propagation, even at local recording distances ( < 15 km). The resulting uncertainty in source estimates can be reduced by improving constraints on propagation effects. We aim to quantify potential distortions caused by wave steepening during nonlinear propagation, with the aim of improving the accuracy of volcano‐acoustic source predictions. We hypothesize that wave steepening causes spectral energy transfer away from the dominant source frequency. To test this, we apply a previously developed single‐point, frequency domain, quadspectral density‐based nonlinearity indicator to 30 acoustic signals from Vulcanian explosion events at Sakurajima Volcano, Japan, in an 8‐day data set collected by five infrasound stations in 2013 with 2.3‐ to 6.2‐km range. We model these results with a 2‐D axisymmetric finite‐difference method that includes rigid topography, wind, and nonlinear propagation. Simulation results with flat ground indicate that wave steepening causes up to ∼ 2 dB (1% of source level) of cumulative upward spectral energy transfer for Sakurajima amplitudes. Correction for nonlinear propagation may therefore provide a valuable second‐order improvement in accuracy for source parameter estimates. However, simulations with wind and topography introduce variations in the indicator spectra on order of a few decibels. Nonrandom phase relationships generated during propagation or at the source may be misinterpreted as nonlinear spectral energy transfer. The nonlinearity indicator is therefore best suited to small source‐receiver distances (e.g., < 2 km) and volcanoes with simple sources (e.g., gas‐rich strombolian explosions) and topography.
High-throughput screens of PAM-flexible Cas9 variants for gene knock-out and transcriptional modulation

A key limitation of the commonly-used CRISPR enzyme S. pyogenes Cas9 is the strict requirement of an NGG protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM) at the target site, which reduces the number of accessible genomic loci. This constraint can be limiting for genome editing applications that require precise Cas9 positioning. Recently, two Cas9 variants with a relaxed PAM requirement (NG) have been developed (xCas9 and Cas9-NG) but their activity has been measured at only a small number of endogenous sites. Here we devised a high-throughput Cas9 pooled competition screen to compare the performance of both PAM-flexible Cas9 variants and wild-type Cas9 at thousands of genomic loci and across 3 modalities (gene knock-out, transcriptional activation and suppression). We show that PAM flexibility comes at a substantial cost of decreased DNA targeting and cutting. Of the PAM-flexible variants, we found that Cas9-NG outperforms xCas9 regardless of genome engineering modality or PAM. Finally, we combined xCas9 mutations with those of Cas9-NG, creating a stronger transcriptional modulator than existing PAM-flexible Cas9 variants.
Contemporary factors influencing association conference attendance

Abstract Competition amongst conference tourism destinations has intensified. Understanding the factors influencing delegate attendance thus becomes increasingly important. This paper aims to extend the current body of academic knowledge by examining motivators and inhibitors deriving from not only previous academic research but also contemporary industry reports. Delegate expectations relating to new and established factors influencing conference attendance are explored, while motivating and inhibiting factors are ranked in order of importance. Proactive management and organization responses to these factors are proposed. The research findings are important to destination managers in prioritizing the investment of their limited resources aiming to address the higher-importance factors. This allows such destinations to improve in their competitiveness in attracting conference tourism and conference delegates.
Bucking the Trend: Female Labor Market Participation in Kosovo

This paper adds to the limited research conducted on labor markets with low female labor force participation, providing the first multivariate analysis for Kosovo. The determinants of female labor force participation (FLFP) in Kosovo are investigated utilizing an eclectic model, comprising of individual, household, and socio-economic determinants, to analyze data from the Kosovo Labor Force Survey. Both supply and demand factors contribute to the explanation of the low FLFP in Kosovo. The results confirm that: age, marital status, education, labor market demand and the composition of the household are significant determinants of FLFP. These findings indicate the importance of taking a household level approach when analyzing labor force participation in countries with low female force participation.
Kretschmann‐ and Otto‐type surface plasmon resonance waveguide sensors in the terahertz regime

Kretschmann‐ and Otto‐type surface plasmon resonance (SPR) waveguide sensors are numerically investigated at terahertz frequencies. The reflectance of a three‐layer model for the Kretschmann‐type sensor is examined with the Fresnel equation, in order to determine the angle of incidence of the waveguide. Using the frequency‐dependent finite‐difference time‐domain method, the SPR response of the waveguide sensor is investigated for temperature variations. It is found that a high sensitivity of 2.63 × 10−2 THz/K more than three times as large as that of the conventional SPR waveguide sensor is successfully achieved with a sensing length of about half that of the conventional one. The Otto‐type waveguide sensor is also examined and discussed. It is revealed that the sensor provides steep and stable SPR responses, maintaining the sensitivity of the Kretschmann‐type one.
Diversification of narrow-clawed crayfish (Pontastacus leptodactylus Eschscholtz, 1823) populations from different parts of Turkey

The present study was to evaluate diversification of crayfish populations based on length and weight measurements. Crayfish were collected from natural stock with fyke-net at five different populations of Turkey in the lakes Iznik (IL), Egirdir (EL) and Sera (SL) as well as Hirfanli Dam Lake (HD) and Keban Dam Lake (KL) from June to July, 2008. The mean length, weight and hepatopancreas moisture content (HM, %) of the individuals sampled from different regions were found in order from largest to smallest as EL>HD>KL>IL>SL, EL>HD>KL>SL>IL and IL>KL>HD>KL>SL, respectively. In this study the median value of b coefficient, describing growth type from length-weight relationship, of five populations was 3.08, and fifty percent of the values were fell between 2.72 and 3.75. The growth types in these populations were determined as isometric, except in Keban Dam Lake (positive allometric). DFA (Discriminant Function Analysis) showed that there were no significant differences among the populations, meanwhile 53.06 % dissimilarities between populations was driven by length and HP with the contribution of 60.18% and 39.82% (based on SIMPER analysis), respectively. Although results from b coefficients, HM values and DF analysis of populations may reveal that their environmental conditions and growth types were similar in a certain extent, many more data taken from at least one-year sampling period is highly recommended for better understanding on factors that influenced the growth of its crayfish structure.
Late Quaternary Tectonic Activity of the Udine-Buttrio Thrust, Friulian Plain, NE Italy

The NW-SE trending Udine-Buttrio Thrust is a partly blind fault that affects the Friulian plain southeast of Udine in NE Italy. It is part of a wider fault system that accommodates the northward motion of the Adriatic plate. Although seismic reflection data and morphological evidence show that the fault was active during the Quaternary, comparably little is known about its tectonic activity. We used high-resolution digital elevation models to investigate the surface expression of the fault. Measured vertical surface offsets show significant changes along strike with uplift rates varying between 0 and 0.5 mm/yr. We then analyze a topographic scarp near the village of Manzano in more detail. Field mapping and geophysical prospections (Georadar and Electrical Resistivity Tomography) were used to image the subsurface geometry of the fault. We found vertical offsets of 1–3 m in Natisone River terraces younger than 20 ka. The geophysical data allowed the identification of deformation of the fluvial sediments, supporting the idea that the topographic scarp is a tectonic feature and that the terraces have been uplifted systematically over time. Our findings fit the long-term behaviour of the Udine-Buttrio Thrust. We estimate a post-glacial vertical uplift rate of 0.08–0.17 mm/yr recorded by the offset terraces. Our results shed light on the Late Quaternary behaviour of this thrust fault in the complicated regional tectonic setting and inform about its hitherto overlooked possible seismic hazard.
Differences in Lower Limb Muscle Activation and Centre of Pressure Movement Between Expert Workers and Novices in Simulated Maritime Environments

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS Better understanding of lower limb muscle activations and habituation processes has implications for injury prevention. This study examined the influence of repeated exposures to simulated wave motions on lower limb muscle activity. Our findings suggest that, at least while standing, novice maritime workers can quickly adapt their lower extremity muscle activity and, to a lesser extent, their center of pressure movement, so that is similar to expert maritime workers. These decreases in muscle activations with repeated exposures suggest that individuals can adapt rapidly to the motions to decrease muscle fatigue and the risk of falling. Such information should therefore be considered when developing ergonomic interventions for maritime occupations such as ship design and training for new workers. TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: Work in moving environments, such as maritime workplaces, exposes workers to unique neuromuscular control challenges that may increase risk of falls or fatigue-related injury. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if muscle activations differ based on previous experience working in a moving environment and/or with repeated exposure to the same motions. Methods: Twelve individuals with no maritime work experience, and 14 individuals with maritime work experience, were exposed to five 5-minute trials of simulated maritime motion. Electromyography (EMG) was collected bilaterally from several lower-extremity muscles and center of pressure was collected using a pressure mat over the full duration of all of the trials. EMG data were normalized to maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVICS) collected before the trials, and then compared between groups and trials. Results: Muscle activation in both groups significantly increased with motion exposure, however the activation amplitudes were lower in the experienced (346% increase) vs. the novice group (542% increase). With repeated exposure to the five motion trials, muscle activations for all individuals gradually decreased from trial 1 (∼5–15%MVIC) to trial 5 (∼1.5–4.5%MVIC). Conclusions: While all individuals demonstrated adaptations with repeated exposures, those with experience working in maritime environments adopted postural responses that required substantially less activation of the lower limb muscles. This difference may be due, at least in part, to these individuals having adapted postural control strategies to optimize stability. The decrease in muscle activation observed with repeated exposure to the motion profile suggests that individuals can adapt rapidly to the destabilizing nature of the motion profiles, implying that they are learning to adopt more efficient postural control strategies.
Training Deep Networks with Stochastic Gradient Normalized by Layerwise Adaptive Second Moments

We propose NovoGrad, an adaptive stochastic gradient descent method with layer-wise gradient normalization and decoupled weight decay. In our experiments on neural networks for image classification, speech recognition, machine translation, and language modeling, it performs on par or better than well tuned SGD with momentum and Adam or AdamW. Additionally, NovoGrad (1) is robust to the choice of learning rate and weight initialization, (2) works well in a large batch setting, and (3) has two times smaller memory footprint than Adam.
Assessing the effects of agricultural intensification on natural habitats and biodiversity in Southern Amazonia

The ongoing trend toward agricultural intensification in Latin America makes it essential to explore intensification measures in combination with assumptions regarding future socio-economic development and policies to protect biodiversity and natural habitats. Information on the future development of land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) under the combination of various driving factors operating at different spatial scale-levels, e.g., local land-use policy and global demands for agricultural commodities is required. The spatially explicit land-use change model LandSHIFT was applied to calculate a set of high-resolution land-use change scenarios for Southern Amazonia. The time frame of the analysis is 2010 - 2030. The resulting maps were analyzed in combination with spatially explicit maps depicting vertebrate species diversity in order to examine the effect of a loss of natural habitats on species ranges as well as the overall LULCC-induced effect on vertebrate diversity as expressed by the Biodiversity Intactness Index in this region. The results of this study indicate a general decrease in Biodiversity Intactness in all investigated scenarios. However, agricultural intensification combined with diversified environmental protection policies show least impact of LULCC on vertebrate species richness and conservation of natural habitats compared to scenarios with low agricultural intensification or scenarios with less effective conservation policies.
Plunging into a world? A novel approach to undergraduates’ metaphors of reading

Although there is considerable research on and knowledge about students’ conceptualizations of learning or academic practices and skills, the variability of these conceptualizations has been consistently neglected. In the present study, we address this variability in the field of academic reading with the help of a novel approach. Drawing on qualitative metaphor analysis, we report a detailed system of students’ conceptual metaphors of reading. Our specific methodological approach to identify the structure of these conceptual metaphors allows to analyze subjective agency on a lexical as well as grammatical level. The conceptual metaphors we identified by this method are mar­kedly variable, although they create an overall impression of medium to low agency, that is a reader who is only weakly active or potent. Interrater reliability of the coding system was very good. We also report and analyze the frequency of the conceptual metaphors in a sample of 143 texts written by bachelor students.
Keeping Track of Time on Energy Harvesting Systems

Energy-harvesting devices have enabled Internet of Things applications that were impossible before. Power failures are the norm for these battery-less devices, imposing a challenge to maintain a continued notion of time on these energy restricted devices. To address this challenge we introduce a novel time measurement architecture for energy harvesting devices. Compared to existing solutions, our solution not only improves the start-up time but also reduces the required energy to measure a duration of time.
Differences Between Expressive Suppression and Cognitive Reappraisal Between Heart Disease and Generalal Population

Aim: Heart disease and emotional disorders often co-occur, but effective role in dysregulation of heart disease that is often overlooked. Evidence suggests that people with heart disease are more problems in regulating their emotions. The study compared the re-evaluation of cognitive emotion regulation commonly used two strategiesand suppressionbetween heart disease and the general population. Methods: Sixty men (30 with heart complaints and 30 without the condition) were selected by convenience sampling method and they responded to the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross and John) and a demographic questionnaire responded. To analyze the results and descriptive statistics such as frequency tables and inferential statistics, independent T-test was used SPSS software was used. Results: The result shows that heart disease and general population re-evaluation strategies groups (P<0.01). This is not only different from the strategy reassessment, but in different repression, too. (P<0.001). Conclusion: The results showed that heart disease and general population used different strategies to regulate their emotions. The key to finding the heart disease group prefer repression to regulate their emotions. (International Journal of Biomedicine. 2017;7(3):192-195. )
Emotional Intelligence Training for Reducing Illicit Drug Use Potential among Iranian Nurses: A Pilot Study

Background: Somestudiesshowthatalowlevelof emotionalintelligence(EI)isassociatedwithself-destructivebehaviorssuchas deviant behavior or smoking. Objective: The current study aimed at determining the eﬀects of EI on the illicit drug use potential among nurses. Methods: Thecurrentquasi-experimentalstudywasconductedin2015on70hospitalnurses. Sampleswererandomlyselectedand divided into 2 groups (35 nurses in each group). Then, the experimental group subjects attended EI training sessions. Results: Illicitdrugusepotentialintheexperimentalgrouphadsigniﬁcantnegativechangesincomparisonwiththatof thecontrol group (P < 0.001) after the completion of the training sessions. Conclusions: Given the importance of EI to help nurses to avoid risky behaviors, holding training sessions on EI for nurses and nursing students appears necessary.
A NOVEL PATCH ARRAY ANTENNA WITH WIDEBAND AND DUAL SENSE CIRCULAR POLARIZATION CHARACTERISTICS FOR WIMAX & WLAN APPLICATIONS

A wideband patch array antenna with dual sense circular polarization (CP) is investigated in this paper. Four rotated hexagonal patches are sequentially distributed on the upper surface of substrate 1 to form a patch array. In order to widen impedance bandwidth, an annular feeding network with four rectangular branches is designed. At the bottom of the antenna, two orthogonally placed microstrip baluns are introduced to obtain the characteristics of left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) and righthand circular polarization (RHCP). Meanwhile, four coaxial probes, passing through substrate 2 and substrate 3, are used to transmit the feeding signal between microstrip balun and the annual feeding network. The proposed patch array antenna is fabricated for verifying the feature of wideband and dual circular polarizations. The measured results show that the antenna has an impedance bandwidths of 70.2% (1.72–3.58 GHz) with an axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of 61% (1.85–3.48 GHz) and over 6.2 dBi gain at two ports. Moreover, the measured port isolation remains below −15 dB over the entire impedance bandwidth, and the measured radiation patterns with excellent directionality and symmetry at two ports indicate that the proposed antenna can be used for wireless applications.