Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Service innovation through touch-points: the AT-ONE touch-point cards

In this paper we review the area of touch-point innovation in services and specifically describe the development and use of a card-based toolkit developed in the AT-ONE project the AT-ONE touch-point cards. These cards have been developed to assist cross functional teams during the first phases of the new service development (NSD) process. This paper describes the development of the tools, their intended use and their evaluation. The results show that the toolkit assists the innovation process and helps develop team cohesiveness. The card-based approach offers a tangibility that teams find useful, and that offers multiple usage alternatives. Discussion and suggestions for further work are included.
Comparative Study of the Characteristics of Green and Brown Coconut Fibers for the Development of Green Composites

The growing consumption of tender coconut water in Brazil has resulted in a generation of green husk, which in turn has led to pollution, as it takes eight to ten years to degrade. With the objective of finding applications for these fibers, the characterization of their chemical composition, tensile properties, and structural properties is presented in this paper. The density of the green fibers was 1200 kg/m3, and the diameter ranged between 272 μm and 513 μm. The length of the ultimate fibers was 940 μm, while the cell wall thickness and size of lumen were approximately 3.6 μm and 11.8 μm, respectively. The crystallinity index, ultimate tensile strength, Young’s modulus, and elongation of the lignocellulosic fiber were 48%, 114 MPa to 159 MPa, 1.20 GPa to 1.96 GPa, and 41% to 44%, respectively. These results were compared with previously published results of both green and brown coir fibers with the purpose of exploring the addition of value to this abundant agro-industrial residue.
FIRST , THE TELECOMMUTING OR THE RESIDENTIAL RELOCATION ? AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF CAUSALITY 1

Researchers have questioned whether the ability to telecommute is encouraging workers to relocate to more desirable residences farther from work, and in doing so, exacerbate sprawl and increase their net vehicle-miles traveled. The research presented here directly asks, is telecommuting a “friend or foe” of travel-reducing policies? Given that telecommuters tend to have longer commutes than non-telecommuters, is the ability to telecommute prompting workers to move farther away from work? Or rather, does the ability to telecommute allow those who for other reasons have already chosen, or would in any case choose, to live in more distant locations to commute less frequently? These questions are addressed using data collected from more than 200 State of California workers, including current, former, and non-telecommuters. The survey inquired retrospectively about their residential relocations, as well as their telecommuting engagements, over a 10-year period. The results indicate that, as expected, residential moves that are temporally associated with telecommuting episodes tend to increase commute time and length compared to other moves—although the differences are not statistically significant. Analyzing the temporal order of telecommuting engagement and residential relocation, the data show that those who are telecommuting and then move actually tend to relocate closer to their workplace, whereas those who begin telecommuting following a residential relocation tended to have moved much farther from their workplace. Analysis of the stated importance of telecommuting to specific residential relocations did not show a convincing effect toward more distant moves. Thus, the evidence more strongly supports the positive view of telecommuting, that it is ameliorating the negative transportation impacts of moves that occur for other reasons. [
Engaged outreach: using community engagement to facilitate access to higher education for people from low socio‐economic backgrounds

Despite ongoing equity initiatives, there is still a clear discrepancy in regards to access to higher education for potential students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. This paper reports on an action research initiative that has developed a model of engaged outreach as an alternative approach to traditional university outreach. Engaged outreach uses the principles of higher education community engagement to develop stronger relationships between universities and their local communities for the purposes of increasing aspiration and access to higher education. The project was designed using a reflective, collaborative process with local Pacific Island immigrant communities living in an area of high social deprivation in southeast Queensland, Australia. Research progressed in three key stages, which together form the basis of the proposed model of engaged outreach. While it is acknowledged that the success of engaged outreach will depend on its implementation as a long‐term strategy, preliminary results from this pilot project suggest that it demonstrates real potential to address this important but seemingly entrenched issue in Australian higher education.
Effects of Habitat on Clutch Size of Ornate Tree Lizards, Urosaurus ornatus

ABSTRACT. Clutch size is an important determinant of female reproductive success in reptiles. Although female body size explains much variation in clutch size, other important factors include differences in food availability, predation risk, morphology, and demography. Ornate tree lizards, Urosaurus ornatus, display extensive variation in life history traits, including clutch size. Tree lizards primarily use 2 distinct habitat types—trees and rock surfaces—which influence both the performance and morphology of this species and may affect life history traits such as clutch size. As food availability, microclimate, and, potentially, predator escape probabilities differ between these 2 habitats, I predicted that tree- and rockdwelling lizards would allocate resources toward clutch size differently. Clutch size variation was compared among 15 populations of U. ornatus sampled from the different habitat types. Urosaurus ornatus individuals living on trees had significantly larger clutches than those living on rocks, even after including the effects of body size and environment. Two potential mechanisms leading to larger clutches in tree-dwelling lizards are (1) differences in food availability and (2) differences in performance (sprint vs. endurance) requirements for predator escape in the 2 habitats. Inconsistent distribution of habitat type across the phylogenetic tree indicates either many cases of independent evolution in the allocation strategies of these lizards or a consistent phenotypically plastic response to similar environmental challenges in different populations.
Experimental evaluation of actuation systems for a gait-assistive active orthosis using a test bench

The current master thesis takes place in the framework of rehabilitation and reeducation engineering systems. In order to support spinal cord injured subjects in their daily life, a low-cost active knee-ankle-foot orthosis prototype is currently developed within the Biomechanical Engineering Lab of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. In order to fulfil the natural knee requirements and to ensure the safest interaction between the subject and the orthosis, the development of a series elastic actuator knee joint is an active research topic. To experimentally estimate the usefulness of such actuator, a test bench has been constructed in the lab. The test bench consists of the actuator to which loads can be submitted to simulate human gait. A series of sensors are used and calibrated to control the system and have reliable measurements. Investigations of the theoretical dynamic behaviour of the system are done in order to compare with the experimental trials. Tests are used to determine the physical parameters and disturbances influencing the dynamics of the system. It is concluded that friction is highly present and has not to be neglected. From the energetic point of view, a comparison of the mechanical and electrical energy consumption is done between the actuator with and without the elastic element. On the other hand, an electromagnetic clutch is also implemented on the test bench to lock the system for small knee angle variations. This might decrease the comfort of the patient but also decrease the global energy consumption per gait cycle. Lastly, an electro-mechanical simulation tool of the system is implemented enabling offline results and improving the control.
Modelling and simulation of advanced non-linear autopilot designs

This paper presents the simulation in ESL of a nonlinear 6 degree-of-freedom missile model with an advanced, non-linear, multivariable autopilot designed using Rate Actuated Inverse Dynamics (RAID) methods. High performance control of non-linear systems requires the design of advanced, non-linear control systems, such as those used in autopilot design. Traditional linear control system design and analysis techniques are not sufficient for non-linear systems and current non-linear analysis methods are extremely limited. Therefore, the only method available to fully assess the performance of non-linear controller designs is simulation of the non-linear system. For this reason it is an essential part of the analysis and design process of these types of controllers. Non-linear dynamics can be continuous or discontinuous, the aerodynamics of a missile are non-linear but since they are continuous they do not represent a simulation challenge. However, there are multiple sets of discontinuous dynamics present in both the missile control surface model and the autopilot which can lead to multiple discontinuities being reached simultaneously, providing a challenging modeling exercise. The paper demonstrates how this kind of behavior can be successfully modeled and simulated within ESL using a simple switching logic.
In vitro Evaluation of Antioxidant and Antiproliferative Activities of Artemisia nilagirica Extracts

Medicinal plants serve as unlimited source for phytoconstituents that possess potent antioxidant and antiproliferative properties. Artemisia nilagirica L. is a potent medicinal plant widely found in India and has been used to treat human diseases for centuries. The present investigation was conducted to investigate the antioxidant and antiproliferative abilities of different crude extracts of A. nilagirica. A detailed study was performed on the antioxidant activity and antiproliferative activity of the methanol extract of A. nilagirica by in vitro chemical analysis. The chemical composition of extracts, studied in terms of phenolics, total flavonoids, triterpenoids, tannins and alkaloids were also determined. Results suggested that the amounts of different phytoconstituents in extracts vary based on polarity of solvents. The extracts possessed different antioxidant and radical-scavenging activities in different assays. Among the extracts, ethyl acetate and alcohol extracts showed the most potent radical-scavenging activities. Ethyl acetate and alcohol extracts showed cytotoxicity towards eight different human cancer cell lines in vitro with IC50 values ranging between 30.43±0.86 and 982.46±14.40 μg/ml and they were less toxic to normal cell lines. The findings of this study provide evidence that A. nilagirica extracts can be used potentially as ready accessible and valuable bioactive source for isolation of antioxidant and anticancer agents.
Coherent and passive one dimensional quantum memory

We show that the state of a flying qubit may be transferred to a chain of identical, (near) ferromagnetically polarized, but non-interacting, static spin- 1 2 ? > particles in a passive way. During this process the flying qubit is coherently polarized, emerging in the direction of the majority static spins. We conjecture that this process is reversible for any number of flying qubits injected sequentially in an arbitrary superposition state, proving this explicitly for an arbitrary state of one and two flying qubits. We also find a special case in which we are able to prove the conjecture for an arbitrary number of qubits. Our architecture thus has the potential to be exploited as a passive quantum memory to encode the flying qubits without the necessity of resetting between successive encoding operations. We also illustrate that the quantum information may be spread over many static spins in the memory chain, making the mechanism resistant to spin decoherence and other imperfections. We discuss implementing the memory system with trapped bosonic atoms, controlled by a spatial light modulator.
Is China taking away foreign direct investment from other Asian economies?: An analysis of Japanese, US and Korean FDI

This paper applies the dynamic panel model to investigate whether China is crowding- out FDI from other Asian economies. In addition to an analysis of aggregate FDI like prior studies, an investigation is carried out for FDI from three major investors in the region: Japan, the United States and Korea. It order to deal with possible problems of serial correlation and simultaneous causality bias, refined estimation techniques; namely, Arellano Bond and Instrumental Variable estimations were undertaken. We found that the study on aggregate FDI did not produce any evidence on so called crowding- out of FDI by China, which is consistent with other studies. In FDI source country specific analysis, we did not find any “China effect” on Japanese and Korean FDI. However, the analysis of US FDI found that FDI in China had positive impact on FDI to other Asian economies. These findings led us to conclude that the rise of China could be seen as an opportunity rather than threat in attracting FDI for other Asian economies in the region.
The Meaning of Home for Aging Women Living Alone in North Eastern Ontario

The experience and meaning of home for older, community dwelling women, who live alone was investigated. With the older demographic expanding and resources being directed at keeping older adults in their home, an expanded knowledge base is required. Interviews were conducted with seven home dwelling older women. Semi structured questions targeted the meaning of home for the participants. The theme of precariousness dominated the findings, including precariousness of formal and informal care, precariousness of winter and that home is not precarious. The study confirms that home is the preferred location for aging women. Health policy and services should continue to be implemented to accommodate this preference. Future research is needed to confirm the findings with a larger sample, incorporating additional life circumstances and to investigate the impact of factors such as winter weather and financial vulnerability on women’s ability to remain at home as they age.
Investigating the effect of a wave-dependent momentum flux in a process oriented ocean model

New expressions of the drag coefficient were developed using measurements from the Ostergarnsholm site in the Baltic Sea. The drag coefficient was significantly lower in the presence of waves travelling faster than the wind (swell). The expressions were implemented in an oceanographic process-oriented model in a 45-year simulation. Since no wave information was included we did an analysis of the potential impact of swell on an ocean model. Current velocity and surface stress were significantly altered during periods with low wind speed but the temperature and the mixing depth in the ocean were not significantly changed. The implementation of the swell effect in a process oriented ocean model is thus of limited importance. There is, however, an indication that for studies of current velocity it is crucial to have a correct description of the drag coefficient.
Range-Wide Variation in the Ecological Niche and Floral Polymorphism of the Western Mediterranean Geophyte Narcissus dubius Gouan

Premise of research. Comparative studies of variation in the ecology and genetics of natural plant populations located at the limits and in the center of a species range provide fundamental insights into the historical formation of species distribution patterns. Methodology. In this study, we quantify variation in the ecological niche and the expression of a floral polymorphism across the range of the Mediterranean geophyte Narcissus dubius Gouan. An exhaustive data set of known locations was compiled to distinguish groups of geographically central and peripheral populations in both Spain and France. These occur across a double climatic gradient. First, there is a gradient from a hot and dry Mediterranean climatic regime in eastern Spain to a milder Mediterranean climatic regime in southern France (lower maximum temperature and shorter summer drought). Second, there is a shift to a more continental climate in peripheral populations in inland Spain. We also modeled the current climatic niche and produced historical projections of potential glacial refugia for this species. Pivotal results. Peripheral populations showed consistent patterns of ecological niche differences with a less rupicolous ecology, more bare soil, and a higher cover of annual species. The ecological niche was more variable among peripheral populations than among central populations. Peripheral populations showed a repeated pattern of loss of stigma-height polymorphism and floral traits indicative of a reproductive strategy based on within-morph mating (probably selfing to assure seed set). Climate models indicate that contemporary peripheral populations (particularly in Spain) occur in areas that were least likely to have served as glacial refugia. Conclusions. Historical isolation and recolonization may have shaped contemporary patterns of ecological niche and reproductive trait variation among central and peripheral populations.
Arctic sea-ice extent and its effect on the absorbed (net) solar flux at the surface, based on ISCCP-D2 cloud data for 1983–2007

Arctic sea-ice extent and its effect on the absorbed (net) solar flux at the surface, based on ISCCP-D2 cloud data for 1983–2007 C. Matsoukas, N. Hatzianastassiou, A. Fotiadi, K. G. Pavlakis, and I. Vardavas Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, Greece Laboratory of Meteorology, Department of Physics, University of Ioannina, Greece Department of General Applied Science, Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Greece Department of Physics, University of Crete, Greece Received: 4 May 2009 – Accepted: 10 September 2009 – Published: 6 October 2009 Correspondence to: C. Matsoukas (matsoukas@aegean.gr) Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.
Formation of Osteoclast-Like Cells after Electromagnetic Fields Stimulation and Different Periods of Ovariectomy: An In Vitro Rat Bone Marrow Culture Model

Estrogen deficiency leads to increased bone turnover and to a greater increase in bone resorption than bone formation. The predilection for women to acquire osteoporosis and the temporal proximity to menopause implicate estrogen as an important etiologic agent. However, in spite of over 25 years of investigation, the correlation between estrogen deficiency and bone loss is still controversial. To further investigate this connection, the osteoclastogenic capacity and production of associated cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a), interleukin 1-s (IL-1s), and interleukin 6 (IL-6) of rat bone marrow cells were evaluated at different time points after ovariectomy. In addition, pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF) were applied to investigate whether osteoclastogenesis can be affected by electromagnetic fields and to determine the optimal collection time point for cytokines. Female Wistar rats were subjected to bilateral ovariectomy and primary bone marrow cells were harvested at 4, 7, and 14 days after surgery. Recruitment and authentication of osteoclast-like cells were evaluated by reckoning multinuclear, tartrate-resistant-acid phosphatase positive cells on day 10 of culture and by pit formation assay respectively. During the experiments, cytokines like TNF-a, IL-1s, and IL-6 were assayed by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The osteoclastogenesis of the bone marrow cells remained unchanged 4 and 7 days after ovariectomy. Fourteen days after ovariectomy, however, the number of formed osteoclast-like cells was decreased. These results suggest that the withdrawal of estrogen at different time points induces different changes in osteoclastogenesis in rats, which is consistent with the variations of concentrations of TNF-a, IL-1s, and IL-6.
How Can We Predict and Evaluate E-Learning Service Quality?

The rapid development of internet has motivated the educational institutions to provide their services through this electronic channel. With technology revolution, the internet became a critical and an important channel for providing learning services. So, issue of e-learning quality became pivotal and all educational institutions must shift the focus from just providing e-learning to e-learning quality providing. It becomes obvious that providing e-learning quality is essential for surviving in the highly competitive learning environment. To evaluate any e-learning service quality provided by educational institutions, we need tools that can be used to measure e-learning service quality provided by such institutions. This paper will explore the use of multiple discriminant analysis in developing a model to alert educational institutions that provide poor elearning service quality. Results show that four variables (factors) are significant in the model development which is ease of use, security and privacy, reliability and responsiveness. So, the objectives of this article can be summarized as follows:  developing a model to alert educational institutions that provide poor e-learning service quality (Q-Score Model);  detecting which variables (factors) are the best predictors to discriminate between educational institutions that provide good e-learning services and institutions that are poor in providing such service;  setting a cutoff point (cutoff value) to categorize the educational institutions according to the provided quality level of e-learning service (good or poor e-learning service quality).
NEMATODE COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AS INFLUENCED BY LAND USE AND INTENSITY OF CULTIVATION

This study was conducted to determine the effect of land use and intensity of land cultivation on the nematode community structure. The land use types represented in the study sites were natural forest, plantation forest, tea, coffee, napier grass, agroforestry, fallow and annual crop cultivation dominated by maize intercropped with beans. Nematode diversity and abundance decreased with intensity of land cultivation, with the natural forest being regarded as the benchmark. The decrease in nematode diversity was assessed using Shannon, Simpson and species richness indices and was used to reflect the underlying changes in physical, chemical and biological properties of soil environment. The highest maturity indices for free-living and plant parasitic index were recorded in the natural forest and intensively cultivated land under annual crops (maize/beans), respectively. Plant parasitic nematodes were predominant in soils that were under agricultural production while saprofagic nematodes dominated the forested land as exemplified by the ratios of free-living to plant parasitic which were, 5.18 and 0.54 in the natural forest and annual crop production systems respectively. Changes in the nematode community structure, as exhibited by diversity indices, may be a reflection of real differences in the soil characteristics and changes in ecosystem functions.